TOWNS MUDDIES THE WATER Rep. Ed Towns just posted an article on GothamGazette touting his role in the renewal of federal funding to protect New York's watershed. But don't look for the Sierra Club to name Towns its Man of the Year. Last summer, 180 members of the House of Representatives signed a letter calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to issue new regulations to keep mercury out of America's waters. Actually, 181 members signed it, including six of New York's nine Republicans and all 19 of its Democrats, but one later erased his name. Ed Towns.

Why did he do it? We asked some of Towns's people, but they either didn't know or didn't reply. We have a theory, though.

Stronger regulations to control mercury are opposed by the energy industry, which doesn't want to reduce the power plant emissions that poison our waters. Towns gets a lot of campaign money from the energy industry-$27,365 from energy PACs in the current two-year cycle. You do the math.

This kind of thing has happened before with Towns. In November 2003, after receiving $17,000 from energy PACs, he voted for a controversial bill that gave the energy industry $23 billion in tax breaks. Every other Democrat in the tri-state area voted against the bill, which was slammed by environmentalists and derided by The New York Times as "a pork-barrel bonanza of special favors likely to cost twice the advertised price of $31 billion."

A Senate filibuster killed the bill, but in June 2004 House Republican leaders brought it up again. Half of the tri-state area's 18 Republicans voted against it, as did every Democrat in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Except one. Ed Towns.

BRENNAN CAMPAIGNS, BUT NOT AGAINST OPPONENT Assemblyman Jim Brennan is actively campaigning, but not against his opponent on November 2. Brennan is devoting his energies to the 2005 race for city comptroller, but a month after candidacies were declared for the Assembly, the Democratic incumbent appeared to have no idea someone was running against him this fall. When we mentioned "your opponent" to Brennan in August, he raised an eyebrow and said-quite genuinely it seemed-"My opponent?"

That would be Lawrence Littlefield, the Independence Party candidate, who was actually in the back of the room as Brennan spoke. If Brennan hadn't heard of Littlefield then, he probably has by now, assuming the 10,000 fliers Littlefield has handed out have made any impact. A Windsor Terrace resident like Brennan, Littlefield is a policy wonk. He knows he can't win the race, but believes every vote he gets will move Albany a little closer toward reform.

Littlefield said Brennan doesn't push for reform even though he serves in "one of the worst state governments in the country." "He can't vote no. He's allowed himself to be silenced," Littlefield said. "I could at least vote no…Since I wouldn't be beholden to anyone, I could at least point out that what is, is."

Brennan is actually more outspoken than most legislators. "The process is awful. There's no question about it," Brennan said. "The legislative leaders have too much power." Brennan added, "I would love to see a lot of the process changed, to have a more democratic process."

But Littlefield is looking for action from Albany, not just talk. Littlefield has deluged us with policy analyses that, while potentially valid, are much too lengthy to be conveyed in this column-or, for that matter, on campaign fliers. Littlefield told us he had a heck of a time putting together a double-sided handout since it had nowhere near enough room for all he wanted to say. But nonetheless, we will try to offer some snippets before the November 2 election. Don't hyperventilate while you wait.

COULD CURTIS CLAIM LACHMAN'S SEAT? Republican leaders talk optimistically about Al Curtis's chances to win the State Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Seymour Lachman. Curtis said the party is going all out to help him beat the Democratic primary winner, unlike in 2002 when Lachman trounced Curtis with nearly 65 percent of the vote. "Joe Bruno has said my race is his top race. He has contributed substantially to my campaign," Curtis told us, referring to the Senate majority leader, who's hosted fundraisers and provided technical support and manpower.

But when we asked the 45-year-old Curtis last summer about enrollment figures for Democrats and Republicans in the Brooklyn-Staten Island district, he hesitated, warning of their lopsidedness. "The 23rd Senatorial District is 22 percent Republican by registration," he gulped. Actually, it's even less: 15 percent Republican, according to Board of Elections data. Democrats make up 61 percent, blanks (voters with no party affiliation) comprise 18 percent, and minor parties the remaining 6 percent. It helps Curtis that he doesn't face an incumbent, but it hurts that his opponent, Democrat Diane Savino, is spending and campaigning more than Lachman did in 2002.

Another plus for Curtis is that he has the Conservative Party line, on which Lachman collected 4 percent of the total vote last time. Will race be a factor? "I don't think it will," said Curtis, who is black. "I think I will be elected on the merits of what I've done." Curtis has been a CUNY board of trustees member, youth services commissioner under Rudy Giuliani, and president and C.E.O. of the United Nations Development Corporation.

But we're obliged to mention that many black voters are Democrats who don't trust black Republicans, and that no black Republican has ever been elected to the State Senate-or possibly to any New York state or city office. (Let us know if you remember any.) Could this be why Curtis's literature in Coney Island doesn't say he's a Republican? "He's deliberately trying to mislead people," charged Savino.

Curtis gave several reasons for not identifying himself as a Republican on his literature. "I have a lot of lines," he said (three, including the Independence Party line). "How I design and print my palm cards is entirely up to me and I chose to do it without them." Told that the Democrats in the race said he was hiding his registration, Curtis said, "What are they afraid of? The people know that I'm a Republican."

But Cole Ettman, who lost the Democratic primary, said residents who've seen Curtis's posters are shocked to learn he's a Republican. Curtis is walking a fine line. Advertising his Republicanism in Democratic strongholds like Coney Island could cost him votes. Yet a premise of his campaign is that he'd be a member of the Republican Senate majority and thus could allocate more money to the district and push through legislation in his own name. "I'm the only candidate in this race who could get a bill passed, who can deliver an economic package to the community," said Curtis. "Most

Democrats are nice people but all they can do is deliver proclamations…I could actually sponsor and pass a bill." But getting a bill passed in the Senate is meaningless if it doesn't get through the Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats. Also, a Senate Democrat can give his own bill a chance to pass by allowing a Republican to stamp his name on it.

KAPLAN CAMPAIGNS ON UNITY Republican candidate Alex Kaplan offers a simple justification for his campaign against Assemblywoman Adele Cohen: "Adele Cohen can never unite this community. Period. End of story," he said. Kaplan added an epilogue, saying, "She has some portion of the Jewish vote and some of the black vote. She can never get the Russian community into the fold."

Whether the Russian community wants to be in the fold is arguable. Surely Cohen has tried. But for the moment, the issue is irrelevant. What counts is that, if recent elections are any indication, few Russians will vote for Cohen on November 2. The question, though, is how many will vote at all. Previous Russian-born candidates have lost largely because of their inability to get Russians to register properly, go to the polls, and correctly operate New York's antiquated voting machines. In this year's Democratic primary, which saw Cohen defeat Odessa native Inna Kaminsky, 800 people entered the booth and emerged without voting for anybody, Kaplan said.

To try to counter the blank-vote phenomenon, the Republican Party will try to fill all the poll inspector positions to which it's entitled, which is half of them. Cohen supporters will fill the Democrats' half. For some bizarre reason, Republican leaders don't think poll workers who owe their jobs to Cohen will go out of their way to help confused, elderly Russians carry out their wish to vote for Kaplan.

The Republicans will also try to have Russian speakers outside poll sites, at least in Brighton Beach. Cohen will likely do better in Bay Ridge, though Kaplan is being helped there by State Senator Marty Golden. But Kaplan, 30, a Trump Village resident, believes Brighton Beach and Coney Island will decide the race. "I think this election is going to live and die in the high-rises," he said.

CYMBROWITZ OPPOSED With calls to "fix Albany" becoming a chorus across the state, we expected that would be a pillar of Republican Arthur Gershfeld's campaign in his race against Sheepshead Bay Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz. But when we talked to Gershfeld, he knew nothing of the "fix Albany" effort. Rather, he's running on a more familiar and traditional campaign issue: crime. "I'm a crime fighter," Gershfeld said.

Well, he was a prosecutor under Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes for three years after attending New York Law School and clerking for a judge. Today, the 30-year-old Gershfeld is a criminal defense attorney.

Cymbrowitz might well ask how someone who represents accused criminals can call himself a crime fighter. Gershfeld answered the question with one of his own: "How many people are accused falsely?" He pointed to a case in which a husband explained a gash on his head by telling police in broken English, "Wife. Bottle. Head. Bleeding."

The cops then arrested the man's 84-year-old wife. It turned out the man was handing bottles to his wife who was placing them on a high shelf when she accidentally dropped one on his head. Unable to explain in English what happened, the elderly woman spent two days in custody.

The police aren't doing a good enough job catching actual criminals, Gershfeld suggested. He said Cymbrowitz should be pushing cops to do more. He recalled finding his own car up on blocks with two tires stolen. "The police arrived but nobody wanted to take any kind of action, even though I gave them a description of a van circling my block," Gershfeld said.

Gershfeld attended P.S. 195, James J. Reynolds, Midwood High School, and Binghamton. He played competitive tennis as a teenager, once achieving a top 10 junior ranking in the region that includes New York state. Like Alex Kaplan, who's running in the adjacent district against Assemblywoman Adele Cohen, Gershfeld was born in Russia, came to Brooklyn at an early age (5), is fluent in English and Russian, and has the Republican and Conservative ballot lines. But he's not given the same shot at winning as Kaplan, who's running against a less popular incumbent in a district more favorable to Russian-speaking candidates. PRegardless of ethnicity, Gershfeld and Kaplan are underdogs because Republicans make up a small percentage of registered voters (15 percent in the 45th, 18 percent in the 46th). Gershfeld hopes his focus on crime will help overcome that. To wit, he recalled thieves' attack on his car. "I don't think they knew if I was a Democrat or a Republican," he said. "They just wanted my tires."

TIDBITS Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes was called to task by the Daily News on October 6 for reproducing his office's seal, address, and phone number on campaign literature. Public officials are supposed to keep their campaigns separate. But Hynes believes it's kosher for his campaign to simulate his office letterhead on mailings. If someone else were to simulate it, no doubt Hynes would call it forgery…

If Brooklyn Surrogate Court Judge Mike Feinberg were removed from his post as a result of an ongoing probe, a countywide race for a new 14-year term would be held in 2005. The court is a den of patronage, so campaign expenditures could surpass $1 million…

The tireless and vengeful would-be candidate Sam Sloan reports that the Department of Investigation is checking out his claim that Republican district leader and Board of Elections higher-up Diane Rudiano represents the 54th Assembly District but is registered to vote in the 55th, which would make her ineligible to serve. Rudiano helped deny East New York's Sloan the Republican line in the 10th Congressional District…

Grammar check: A press release from State Senate hopeful Al Curtis, touting his endorsement by an outfit calling itself New Era Democrats, said the group's goal is to promote candidates who "espies" positions consistent with its own. Hmmm. Maybe "espies" are what you get when "espouse" engages in espionage…

Stealing a page from Nathan's hot-dog eating contest, the recent Atlantic Antic festival had contestants swallow as much cheesecake as they could in a six-minute binge. The winner downed about seven pounds. We cannot imagine a more disgusting promotion. But it will continue as long as papers like this one keep publishing photos of it on the front page.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

Borough Politics Archive

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2000
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1999
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