THE DISH ON TISH From the "Huh?" Department, The New York Times wrote in a masthead editorial that Letitia "Tish" James had run against the Democratic machine to win her City Council seat on November 4. While James was on the Working Families Party line versus Geoffrey Davis on the Democratic line, Davis had no help from the machine.

Democratic county leader Clarence Norman formally backed the Democrat, but material support from Norman and the party was slim to nonexistent-which should be no surprise, since Norman was an enemy of Davis's brother, the late Councilman James Davis, and is an ally of Assemblyman Roger Green, who employed Tish James as his chief of staff.

In fact, Norman-connected people flooded the streets for Tish James on election day. Even Norman's father got into the act, supplying 10 cars and drivers for James's campaign from his church, sources said. Norman didn't direct the show, but he sure didn't cancel it. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Davis's fundraising committee got nary a penny from Norman. Davis's most generous contributors were Roy Hastick Jr., president of the Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce, who gave $800, former State Senate candidate Wellington Sharpe ($500), and Councilman Lew Fidler ($250).

By contrast, Tish James's backers were a veritable who's who of Democratic power brokers-David Dinkins, Alan Hevesi, Bill Lynch, labor unions, and local elected officials. Her campaign had all the trappings of a machine operation.

Lynch donated a whopping $2,500 to James's campaign. Other contributors included Rep. Major Owens ($500), his son Chris Owens ($1,000), connected Court Street attorney Lou Rosenthal ($500), Queens Borough President Helen Marshall ($500), Councilwoman Gale Brewer ($250), State Senator Ada Smith ($250), political consultant Norman Adler ($250), Assemblywoman Annette Robinson ($125), Democratic district leader Freddie Hamilton ($100), State Senator Ruth Hassell Thompson ($100), Kings County Public Administrator Earl Johnson ($100), former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger ($100), State Senator Velmanette Montgomery ($100), State Senator Kevin Parker ($100), and Assemblywoman Adele Cohen ($100).

James ended up with about $150,000 to spend, Davis just $48,000. With her massive financial advantage, James flooded the 35th Council District with literature. One resident told us it seemed like he got 30 mailings from James and only one or two from Davis (and none from Republican Tony Herbert, who finished third).

Other allies of James don't show up on her list of contributors or endorsers: Assemblyman Dov Hikind and Councilman Bill deBlasio. But make no mistake-both helped get her elected. Three days before the election, Hikind put James on his radio show, which has a strong audience in the Crown Heights end of the 35th Council District. Hikind was doing a favor for two of his allies: deBlasio (who expects James's vote in the election of the City Council speaker in 2005) and Chanina Sperlin, director of the Crown Heights Political Action Committee. Sperlin endorsed James, whose campaign committee in turn paid Sperlin's PAC $4,500 for electioneering.

Look for more rewards in the future, because James got well more than $4,500 worth of help in Crown Heights, where dozens of volunteers supplied by Sperlin, deBlasio, and others spent weeks putting up posters, handing out literature, and going door-to-door for James. Sperlin's PAC also put out a letter asking Crown Heights folks not to waste their vote on Conservative candidate Abe Wasserman, the only neighborhood resident and Hasidic Jew in the race.

Geoffrey Davis, the Democratic nominee, had no such help. Putting aside the difference in qualifications between Davis and James, it's no mystery why James garnered 76 percent of the vote to Davis's 19 percent. Writing this, we are reminded of the improbability of James Davis's victory over Tish James in 2001, achieved with no support from the political establishment. Geoffrey Davis says he'll run for office again in the future, but don't look for a triumph like his brother's to be repeated any time soon.

NETWORKING WITH NORMAN Former City Council candidate Tony Herbert didn't appreciate the implication (aired in this column) that Councilwoman Tish James once helped get him a job with State Senator Marty Connor. Herbert, who lost to James on November 4 in the race to represent Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights, fleshed out the story for us-providing a textbook example of how power brokers like Assemblyman Clarence Norman use taxpayer-funded jobs to advance their political interests.

Herbert's story dates to 2001, when he was working for Councilwoman Priscilla Wooten in East New York and eager to get a new job. It was then that James told him, "Why don't you go talk to Clarence because there might be something with Jeannette Gadson." Gadson, supported by Norman, was running for borough president, a race she eventually lost to Marty Markowitz.

So Herbert went to Norman, who told him if he volunteered for Gadson's campaign and she won, there might be a job for him-but there were no guarantees. Herbert couldn't devote that much time and risk getting nothing for it, so he met with Norman cronies Jackie Ward and State Senator Carl Andrews and talked up his connections in the Ingersoll and Whitman housing projects. Their eyes began to light up. They knew Gadson needed big votes in the projects to beat Markowitz and Ken Fisher. "Give us 10 days," Andrews told Herbert. "We might have something for you."

They zeroed in on a job with Connor's reapportionment task force, which would soon be hiring people. Connor was an ally of Norman, but there was one snag: Connor was supporting Markowitz. So Herbert was told to do his thing for Gadson but not mention it to Connor. Which he did, at one point visiting 18 housing developments in one day for Gadson and arranging exclusive speaking engagements and a breakfast for her.

He got the job with Connor. "Tish didn't get me a job," Herbert said. "I talked myself into a job."

Later, Herbert said, James turned against him because he only helped Gadson's campaign and not hers. James lost the City Council race to the late James Davis that year. "Tish got an attitude because I wasn't working her campaign. But those weren't my instructions. My instructions were to work Jeannette Gadson," Herbert claimed. James "went back to try to get them to fire me because I didn't do anything for her campaign," Herbert said. "She was trying to take food out of the mouths of my kids."

James would undoubtedly deny that, but the issue here is the tawdry connection between volunteer campaign work and public jobs-and, secondly, the connection between Tish James and Norman's Democratic machine.

COULD MARGARITA HAVE WON? The Sisyphean effort by Civil Court Judge Margarita Lopez Torres to ascend to Supreme Court figures to continue despite her defeat on the Working Families Party line on November 4. Just over 70,000 votes would have put her ahead of Bernadette Bayne, the eighth-place finisher among eight Democrats vying for eight spots on the bench. Lopez Torres, who got nearly 33,000 votes, was among 10 candidates who fell short: three on the Republican-Conservative lines, five on the WFP line, and two on just the Conservative line.

Roughly speaking, the Republican line was worth about 30,000 votes and the Conservative line 10,000. With those two lines plus the WFP's, Lopez Torres might have won. But she rejected overtures from the Republicans to interview for their nomination, citing her lifelong status as a Democrat, and she apparently never approached the Conservative Party. W

as she trying to leave the door open to a reconciliation with Assemblyman Vito Lopez and the Democratic machine? If so, she might advise her husband, Matthew Chachere, to stop associating with Lopez's enemies. For example, reports got back to Lopez that Chachere was campaigning for Juan Martinez in September's primary against Councilwoman Diana Reyna, Lopez's protégé. Chachere denies having done so, but Lopez's people are sure of one thing: Chachere donated $150 to Martinez's campaign. (Martinez, who was once booted off School Board 14 by the chancellor, lost the election.)

"In any event," Chachere e-mailed us, "my actions and politics are my own, not my wife's; I cannot fathom what relation they bear on her qualifications for judicial office." Well, we can fathom that they affect whether Vito Lopez will drop his opposition to Lopez Torres and pave the way for her elevation to Supreme Court.

BRENNAN MIGHT RUN Assemblyman Jim Brennan announced that he would run for comptroller in 2005 if incumbent Billy Thompson runs for mayor, as he's expected to do. Brennan began telling people of his plans several weeks ago.

Could Brennan be getting tired of serving in the Assembly after 19 years of relative powerlessness? He wouldn't be the first. His predecessor and former boss, Joe Ferris, left office voluntarily even though he could have hung around for many more years, as he sometimes tells people. Ferris now lives in Vermont but frequently returns to Park Slope.

We should mention that Brennan can run for comptroller without resigning his Assembly seat. "It's a bit of a longshot, but he's been in the Assembly for what, 20 years?" one observer remarked. "He's probably sick of it."

Brennan, of Windsor Terrace, released a press release saying, "I don't want to be mayor, I don't want to be governor. I have a reputation as an independent-minded legislator, and I'll bring that to the comptroller job. Under my watch, every city agency, every outside contractor, every budget item will be scrutinized."

He might have added, "And every phone call will be returned." The messages we leave at Brennan's office all seem to get lost there.

POLITICAL TIDBITS

• In its editorial endorsing Councilman Vinny Gentile for reelection, The New York Times called his district heavily Republican. Not so. Gentile's campaign told us the 43rd CD's voter base is about 48 percent Democrat and 29 percent Republican. The rest are registered with smaller parties or none at all… One of Gentile's campaign strategies was to associate his Republican opponent, Pat Russo, with unpopular Republican Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who donated the maximum of $2,750 to Russo's campaign. But as it turned out, one Gentile staffer said, "We didn't need to link Russo to the mayor. Russo did a fine job himself by taking the contribution and by bringing him down to the district." Gentile's workers pre-empted the mayor's visit to Bay Ridge by showing up early and handing out fliers publicizing Bloomberg's cash gift to Russo's campaign…
• Councilman Lew Fidler was upset that a mailing by his Republican opponent, Susan Goodstein, blamed him for re-imposing sales tax on clothing. "That was done by Albany, not by the city," Fidler said. "I sponsored and council passed the repeal effective June 1, 2004." Goodstein lost the election… Democratic district leader Mike Geller of Sheepshead Bay's 45th Assembly District seems to be tiring of the internal squabbles among his colleagues. He skipped the last meeting of the Kings County Democratic Executive Committee, at which two East Flatbush factions were to fight over who succeeds Councilman Kendall Stewart as district leader. "A pox on both your houses," said Geller, who gave his proxy to Mark Davidovich and Delia Schack of the 46th A.D…
• As his 2002 race against Hakeem Jeffries heated up, Assemblyman Roger Green suddenly put a press secretary on his payroll. Our impression that Sharon Sanders was hired largely to help Green get reelected was reinforced when we learned that Sanders left Green's office the following April. We called Green's office to see why Sanders had left or if she'd been replaced. No one called back…
• Incidentally, we heard that Green finally got a driver's license. The New York Post previously reported that when Green was getting reimbursed by the state for driving expenses, he had neither a car nor a license, but instead was getting free rides from a prison-services company. An investigation by the Albany district attorney is reportedly wrapping up. An indictment might or might not be brought…
• Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes said at a New York Law School forum that he's convening a second grand jury to hear more evidence from his investigation of Brooklyn judicial elections, Crain's reported. "I have found additional information that will carry us a lot longer than this current jury can sit," Hynes told the paper…
• When Rep. Major Owens retires, look for Councilwoman Yvette Clarke to run for his seat. She could do so without leaving the City Council. Her mother, Una Clarke, ran against Owens a few years ago. Next time it will be their children squaring off, since Major's son Chris Owens will run as well. As may others, such as State Senator Carl Andrews, former City Councilman Steve DiBrienza, and State Senator John Sampson…
• Invitations went out for a party to "honor" Civil Court Judge Loren Baily-Schiffman at a private Brooklyn Heights home on October 26. But the invitations made it clear the purpose was to promote her candidacy for Supreme Court, which she's not allowed to start campaigning for until January, according to the rules that govern what politicking judges may do. One invitation e-mailed to potential supporters included the Flatbush resident's four-page biography. But the event was obviously rushed because the invitations went out just days in advance and the attached C.V. botched the judge's name. "Loren Sally-Schfiffman" it said. (It has the look of a document that was faxed, scanned, and converted to text using optical character recognition software.) Our calls to the judge's chambers and to the Office of Court Administration were not returned.

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