GOP SEEKS NEW IDENTITY Brooklyn Republican officials have known for quite some time that to make headway in a heavily Democratic borough, they must distinguish themselves from the image of Republicans created by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, Pat Buchanan, and other far-right ideologues. But knowing it and doing it are two different things. "Our problem is that we have allowed ourselves to be painted with the same brush as George W. Bush and the religious right," one Brooklyn Republican explained. "That certainly is not who we are, but we can't even get anyone to listen. That's our own fault. Our chickens-three decades of wasteful internecine rivalries-have come home to roost."

The reference was to various internal feuds over the years, which in retrospect seem petty given the scraps over which party leaders were fighting-rather than trying to win over voters. "When we sit down with neighbors and explain our views, we sound like practical, New Democrats," our source reported. "When they find out that we are Republicans, we become demons from hell and the discussion is over. It's just that simple."

ANDREWS LAMENTS BAD PRESS State Senator Carl Andrews still stews over implications in the Daily News over two years ago that he enriched himself through Democratic county leader Clarence Norman, his close friend. "Between 1993 and 1998, campaign consultant Carl Andrews received $101,000 from candidates Mr. Norman endorsed," the paper once wrote. That's true, said Andrews, but it omits that he took unpaid leaves from his regular jobs to work for those campaigns, giving up as much salary as he gained.

We should note that Andrews might have owed some of his regular jobs to Norman, such as the $80,000 gig he had working for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who was endorsed by Norman. Still, it would have been fair to report that he took unpaid leave from Spitzer when he worked for Hillary Clinton's campaign at the same salary. "None of the newspaper reports" mentioned that, Andrews said.

And what about the auction business he established that was positioned to be handed work by Surrogate Judge Mike Feinberg, who was elected in 1996 largely because of Norman? Andrews, who made $38,000 working for Feinberg's campaign, said he didn't take in much more than he spent to become an auctioneer, through which he earned $125 per property sold. "There is the potential to make a lot of money," Andrews said. "Did I make a lot of money? No."

WIGGLE ROOM FOR WEINER? Rep. Anthony Weiner has a problem. He'd like to be mayor, but he can't use money is his congressional fundraising account to run for city office. At least, he's not supposed to. So eyebrows were raised when Weiner began airing commercials on Manhattan cable TV supposedly to help him get reelected to a district in Brooklyn and Queens.

Furthermore, Weiner's ad had no obvious connection to his current race against nominal opponent Gerard Cronin, a Queens Republican. Instead, the spot bashed Bloomberg for supporting President Bush despite Bush allegedly shortchanging New York in education and anti-terrorism funding. Bloomberg flak Ed Skyler promptly took the offensive, referring to Weiner's past promotion of the SPACE Act, which called for $4 million for NASA to track large objects that might hit the Earth. "Two-Strike Tony should stick to press releases lauding his funding of intergalactic asteroid research," Skyler said.

Bloomberg's spokesman knocked Weiner for "his self-aggrandizing pursuit of publicity and his naked ambition to be mayor." The mayor himself said Weiner may be violating campaign finance rules. Weiner, who was raised in Park Slope but now lives in Forest Hills, maintains he's in compliance with the law. He'll likely have to make that argument in a more formal setting when the city's Campaign Finance Board argues that the commercial is part of Weiner's mayoral campaign.

RUSSIAN REVULSION Dislike of Russian immigrants is alive and well in southern Brooklyn. Our fairly harmless item about Russian-born Republican Alex Kaplan's race against Assemblywoman Adele Cohen brought some angry e-mail from one anonymous reader, a Cohen supporter who mistakenly thought we predicted a Kaplan victory. (In fact, we labeled him the underdog.)

Apart from many baseless accusations, the e-mail did contain material suitable for a short quiz for our readers: Find the contradiction in these two sentences: "The only devisive (sic) forces in Brighton Beach and in Coney Island are the Russians because they want to take over everything. I am American-born and I respect all people." OK, that was too easy.

The author seemed particularly unhappy with Russians' apparent disinclination to support non-Russian candidates. "Russians will not vote for any non-Russian. That is un-American," the writer declared. Well, quite a few Russians voted for Susan Lasher in 2002 in her race against Cohen. Lasher is not Russian. But somehow she's managed to become much more liked in the Russian community than Cohen. Lasher proved it is possible for a non-Russian to attract Russian support. What we don't know is if any candidate in Brighton Beach and Coney Island can attract a majority of Russian and non-Russian support.

One Cohen backer who was willing to speak for attribution, Paul Podhaizer, an officer of Cohen's Shorefront Democratic Club, said that efforts to welcome Russians into the fold have not been reciprocated. "We've reached out to them and given them everything that's coming to them. But I don't think it's worked the other way," he said. Cohen, Councilman Domenic Recchia, and Rep. Jerry Nadler have all hired Russian-speaking staff members, Podhaizer said. But all he hears from the Russians are complaints that they've been dissuaded or prevented from voting.

"The Russians in our community have not been disenfranchised," Podhaizer said, noting that on the contrary, he's seen elderly Russians escorted into the voting booth by campaign workers, who are legally obligated to stay at least 100 feet from the booths. He said one man from his building, Brightwater Towers, tried to vote three times using different names.

He said Russians registered as Republicans, upon being turned away from the booths during a Democratic primary election, have been known to assert, "This is a free country. We have the right to vote!" Said Podhaizer, "They're on a mission. They want to put their own people in. It's understandable. But they've got to do it the right way." If they did, we get the feeling Podhaizer would accept it. "I feel the Russians have done a lot for our area," he said.

It's worth noting that during her Democratic primary campaign against Cohen, Odessa native Inna Kaminsky was asked during a Courier-Life candidates forum why she wouldn't run as a Republican. Her answer wasn't particularly articulate, but the gist of it was that she felt the Democratic Party represents ordinary people, and she was a candidate of the people. She reacted with befuddled amusement to the question, as if joining the Republican Party was the last thing she'd ever do.

Yet after losing the primary, Kaminsky supported Kaplan, the Republican. Cohen supporters consider that evidence that Kaminsky, like other Russians, is not a loyal Democrat-that she puts her Russian heritage first. By contrast, Cohen backers say Cohen would have endorsed Kaminsky in the general election had Kaminsky won the Democratic primary.

ADAMS WOULD JOIN RACE Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Kenneth Adams looks like a certain candidate for City Council in 2005 should incumbent David Yassky abandon his seat to run for Brooklyn district attorney.

Adams recently held his first fundraiser and told the New York Sun, "It's a small party to get the ball rolling. If David creates this opportunity, I want to be prepared." The 44-year-old added, "If it's an open seat and it's in my neighborhood and it's the City Council, those are the three perfect conditions for me. It's an opportunity I wouldn't want to pass up."

A likely candidate from the northern, Orthodox end of the 33rd Council District is Isaac Abraham, who could win if he monopolized Orthodox support and Adams and others splintered the non-Orthodox vote. Democratic district leader Alan Fleishman and Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the New York Nightlife Association, are also strongly considering running. Fleishman and Zuckerman are Park Slope residents and past presidents, respectively, of Lambda Independent Democrats and Stonewall Democratic Club, prominent gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender political organizations.

Fleishman's co-leader, Boerum Hill resident Jo Anne Simon, is also eying the seat, as is Park Slope's Devin Cohen, president of the Independent Neighborhood Democrats, and attorney Adam Perlmutter, founder of a waterfront group and president of a synagogue in Greenpoint. But if Yassky runs for reelection, none of the above would challenge him.

A ROAD BY ANY OTHER NAME Flatlands reader Joan Mangano wrote a letter to the editor wondering why Beverley Road is misspelled "Beverly" on many street signs. But the two spellings date back decades, as can be seen from any subway map: the Brighton Line station is called "Beverley Road" and the IRT station east of there is "Beverly Road." The original spelling seems to have been Beverley. That's how developer Thomas Benton Ackerson wrote it in his ledger book on May 7, 1901 when he named Beverley Square East and West, according to Ron Schweiger, the Brooklyn borough historian.

At some point, signs were ordered for sections of the street by someone unaware of Ackerson's spelling, so part of the road became Beverly-and it stuck. Incidentally, Avenues A, B, C, D were renamed Albemarle, Beverley, Cortelyou, and Dorchester at the time. Ackerson also got permission to give East 11th to 16th street English names: Stratford, Westminster, Argyle, Rugby, Marlborough, and Buckingham roads, Schweiger noted.

SHAFTED AT SEASIDE At a performance of the Seaside Summer Concert Series, Community Board 13 volunteers helped to seat the audience. When they finished, they found the front-row seats reserved for them had been commandeered. "Next week we're not coming down here," said one. "Let them do it themselves."

TIDBITS Assemblyman Clarence Norman has been Mr. Accessible of late, even to those from whom he had nothing to gain. For example, though he tells all who ask that the state government is doing just swimmingly, he agreed to an interview with Citizens Union, which is championing reform. The organization thus declined to endorse him, writing, "Mr. Norman stated that the State Legislature is not in need of reform, further evidence of his desire to keep in place a dysfunctional legislature and party apparatus. While the current challenger (Republican-Conservative Clarence John) has signaled that he is not running an active campaign for the seat, Citizens Union believes is it time for new leadership in the 43rd Assembly District."

The Brooklyn Public Library's fundraising chief informed big library donors that basketball great Bernard King was being removed as an honoree from the library's November 18 gala because of his recent arrest for spousal abuse. In her message, she added, "It appears that Mr. King has a history of prior incidents like this." Could the library not have known that? We're talking about institution of research, right? King's altercations with women have been well documented by the New York media over the years, and resulted in King withdrawing his nomination to the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority board in the late 1990s…

When attorney Ed Roberts lost the Democratic primary to Assemblyman Clarence Norman, it was no surprise. Roberts has run for City Council (in 1991 versus Susan Alter and in 2001 versus Yvette Clarke), Assembly (versus Rhoda Jacobs in 1992 and 1994), and Civil Court judge (1998). He has lost every time…

The New York Post reported that one of Borough President Marty Markowitz's three chauffeurs earned $79,475 last year, approximately double his base salary, because of heavy overtime. The beep's spokeswoman said another driver missed time with an injury (we're guessing Marty talked his ear off), resulting in extra hours for the other two. The four other borough presidents paid no overtime to their drivers last year, the newspaper reported…

Late in the spring, work crews with jackhammers carved out deep, wide square pits around two sewer manhole covers in the middle of 8th Avenue between Berkeley and Lincoln Place in Park Slope, which had been repaved not long ago. The crews then disappeared without explanation, and there the pits sat for about two months, causing trucks to make a loud crashing sound every time they drove by. We alerted Community Board 6 to the problem, and a week later a paving crew showed up and filled in the pits with new asphalt. Turns out the plan was to replace the manhole covers and fix the seals around them. Not sure if that happened…

After the Democratic primary, the tenant activist who runs RentWars.com posted this message: "Congratulations to Judge Johnny Lee Baynes on winning his primary to a Civil Court post. After many years of presiding over housing court cases (with remarkably few complaints) it is well deserved. However…now that one of the few decent judges is leaving the Housing Court, we are in a state of distress when we ponder the question of which cesspool [Chief Administrative] Judge [Jonathan] Lippman will dredge to spew forth another slimy pro-slumlord replacement judge this time."

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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2000
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