STICKER SHOCK FOR DEBLASIO In the last days of her race against City Councilman Bill deBlasio, "Green-No to War" candidate Gloria Mattera of Park Slope e-mailed us, "We noticed that the taxpayers have decided to reclaim the garbage cans on 5th Ave by taping over deBlasio's name."

Uh, Gloria, isn't that vandalism?

"No one on (my) campaign committee condones such actions," Mattera responded, dropping the smugness we inferred from her previous comment.

The councilman allocated discretionary funds to pay for the extra-large cans, on which the Department of Sanitation painted, "Sponsored by Councilmember Bill deBlasio." Special solvents were promptly used to remove the vandals' super-adhesive stickers, which had replaced the councilman's name with "Brooklyn taxpayers."

Unfortunately, no such urgency has been shown in removing yellow "Bush lies, who dies?" stickers slapped all over public property in the same neighborhood by the Manhattan-based organization United for Peace and Justice, which apparently is only interested in justice for the crimes of others, not its own. Incidentally, Mattera declared herself "very pleased" with the 18.5 percent of the vote she received on November 4 against deBlasio, up from the 10 percent she garnered in 2001.

FIDLER ON GEOFFREY DAVIS Councilman Lew Fidler's bid to become Council speaker in 2005 was set back by Geoffrey Davis's lopsided defeat by Tish James, since Fidler backed Davis. But Fidler told us his support for Davis "wasn't about being the speaker." Rather, he was keeping a commitment he made to the Davis family days after Councilman James Davis, Geoffrey's brother, was murdered on July 23.

"I always keep my commitments," Fidler said. "I think Tish James will respect that and I think we'll have a good relationship going forward." Fidler acknowledged that Geoffrey Davis's candidacy was doomed nearly from the outset, when news of Davis's checkered past surfaced and he evaded the issue rather than confront it. "It imploded from the beginning," Fidler said. "It affected his ability to raise money … It gave people an excuse to walk away from him."

The councilman said someone suggested Davis should have done what Geraldine Ferraro did when whispers of mob ties nearly derailed her vice presidential candidacy: appear before the media and declare, "I will stand here and I will answer every question you have." Davis also could have quieted questions about his parental devotion by having his 22-year-old daughter tell the public what she tells people in private: that her father has taken care of her since he was 18 years old. But Davis didn't want her exposed to the same questions from the media that he'd been unable to escape.

One Davis supporter told us another of his problems was an aversion to the telephone. "He rarely made calls to people to either ask for contributions or for endorsements, which is a must for anyone seeking to win elections," the source e-mailed us.

Davis even got out-worked in Bed-Stuy, where his brother had run strongly. Councilman Al Vann and Assemblywoman Annette Robinson both campaigned for Tish James in the neighborhood. In another James Davis stronghold, the Crown Heights PAC put up Tish James posters in English and Yiddish. "Poof-Geoffrey's base was gone," our source revealed.

The Davis campaign had administrative problems, too. It failed to get matching funds in September because it rushed its paperwork to the Campaign Finance Board when it needed one more check to qualify. "From that point on we were underfunded, and the other side smelled blood," wrote the Davis supporter.

High-profile consultant Hank Sheinkopf ditched Davis and wouldn't even give the campaign's phone number to people who called him for it, our source claimed. Word hit the streets that Davis would lose, and expected endorsements from Rep. Charlie Rangel, other elected officials, and several unions did not come through. It all added up to Tish James becoming the first third-party candidate to win in New York City since 1977, when Vincent Riccio and Henry Stern nabbed at-large Council seats (which no longer exist) on the Conservative and Liberal lines, respectively.

ARENA DOUBLE-TALK City officials are claiming that taxpayer money to be given to Bruce Ratner if he buys the Nets and builds an arena at Atlantic and 4th avenues is not really a public subsidy. Rather, it's front money in anticipation of the extra sales-tax revenue the arena would bring the city. "What we're going to use is those extra taxes that would not have existed otherwise to pay for our contribution," Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff told reporters. This is double-speak of the worst order. A subsidy is a subsidy.

Second, what's the point of sales tax if the city's not going to keep it?

And third, if a guy opens a bookstore, does the city cut him a check to offset the sales tax from future book sales? We fail to see why big developers should get handouts that nobody else gets. In fairness, arena opponents continue to engage in double-speak as well. They persist in calling the proposed indoor arena a "stadium."

PATRIOT ACT ATTACKED Six of Brooklyn's 15 councilmembers are backing a resolution opposing the federal Patriot Act because it threatens "fundamental rights and liberties." Charles Barron, Al Vann, David Yassky, Yvette Clarke, Diana Reyna, and Bill deBlasio support the non-binding resolution. In total, 29 of the 51 members are behind it, the Daily News reported.

Brooklyn's representatives in Washington also differ on the Patriot Act. Rep. Anthony Weiner boasted last year of his support for it, while Rep. Jerry Nadler contends it was dangerously rewritten by Attorney General John Ashcroft and voted on by House members who hadn't read it.

"We negotiated the bill and reached a very reasonable balance where we gave the government all the tools it needs to apprehend terrorists and protect civil liberties," said Nadler, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. "It passed the judiciary committee 36-0. Over the weekend, the Republican leadership junked the bill…and wrote their own, behind closed doors, from scratch."

Said Nadler, "I'm not going to vote yes on a bill fraught with danger that nobody, including myself, had a chance to read. There was only one copy available for the Democrats and one for the Republicans. It was 250 or 300 pages. It turned out there were a lot of bad things in it, which we found out later." Among them, according to Nadler, was a provision allowing the government to hold people indefinitely without charges or appearing before a judge. "That's un-American," Nadler said.

Weiner stood by his support for the Patriot Act, despite Ashcroft's changes. "I wasn't happy that this carefully crafted compromise that we'd worked in the judiciary committee was thrown out," he said. "We had weeks of hearings and negotiations where the House bill was arrived at." Yet Weiner claimed, "There was very little in the (rewritten) House bill that was new. I preferred the House bill for sure, but the idea that there were novel things that hadn't been anywhere is probably a bit of an exaggeration."

To counter any impression that he votes blindly for the Bush administration's supposed anti-terror platform, Weiner noted that he voted against the Homeland Security bill. "The idea had gotten so bloated and out of control that I thought it was impractical," Weiner said of the new agency. "Secondly, there were blatant bad government provisions (such as) the civil worker rules. And the riders on the bill were outrageous." One rider exempted manufacturers of a vaccine from liability after suspicions arose that it might cause autism.

PESCE PUNKS OUT, WFP SAYS One observer e-mailed us a missive blasting the Working Families Party because "highly regarded" Supreme Court Judge Michael Pesce withdrew from consideration for the WFP's ballot line upon hearing through "back channels" that he'd be found unqualified because of a ruling he'd once made.

We forwarded the complaint (withholding the sender's identity) to the WFP, whose George Albro replied that Pesce "was never told through back channels not to apply or that he would be found unqualified. In fact, he had an interview scheduled on the very day he decided to withdraw his application." Albro added, "It's no surprise that his anti-union, anti-First Amendment, anti-due process, illegal ruling was an issue of concern to some of the WFP affiliates, that it reflected on his qualification to serve, and that he would have to explain this. Also, Pesce was not such a 'highly regarded' jurist. He was the chief administrative judge in Brooklyn Supreme Court during the height of the scandal and was removed by the Office of Court Administration and placed in the Appellate Term."

But Albro noted that Supreme Court Judge Herb Kramer made WFP's Brooklyn slate despite being "anti-defendant when he served in the criminal drug part and anti-tenant in Civil Court." Albro concluded of Pesce, "We can say unequivocally that no one on the [WFP] screening panel ever told him or an intermediary that his ruling would have led to the panel finding him unqualified…Indeed, I think the panel would have almost certainly found Pesce qualified, had he not punked out."

Pesce handily won re-election to a 14-year term on the Democratic and Republican lines.

POLITICAL TIDBITS

• Republican district leader Oleg Gutnik notified the city that he intends to sue for false arrest after cops booked him for assault. Gutnik contends he was attacked by a fellow Russian whose car was illegally parked outside Gutnik's Sheepshead Bay condo. His lawsuit seeks $100 million. Gutnik is scheduled to appear December 1 to answer the criminal charges…
• Speaking of lawsuits, The New York Times reported that Manhattan lawyer Ravi Batra, a confidant and former employer of Assemblyman Clarence Norman, once fell off a chair and sued for $80 million. In his suit, Batra demanded the furniture store build him a patio bar and game room with air-hockey and ping-pong tables "to permit activity without injury or waste of travel time." We suggest Batra not waste any more travel time coming to Brooklyn, where he's been known to sit in on private meetings of Democratic district leaders as Norman's guest. The Times also reported that when Batra lost his job at Pace University in 1986, he filed an unsuccessful discrimination suit. The judge that denied his appeal described Batra's filings as "raving and often incomprehensible." This is the man described by Norman as "a brilliant lawyer." Brilliant enough to hire Norman to "work" in his two-person law firm, anyway. They no longer have a business relationship…
• Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes said at a New York Law School forum that he was 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 was quoted as saying. But the first thing he did was present the same old information he'd given the previous grand jury. This time, he got the indictments he wanted, charging Norman and sidekick Jeff Feldman with shaking down judicial candidates…
• The quote of the week comes from former Assembly candidate Hakeem Jeffries, referring to Democratic district leader Francis Byrd, who was appointed in September to succeed the late James Davis: "Someone needs to stand against Francis Byrd. He wasn't elected. He was selected in a deal with the corrupt county organization as a replacement of one of his sworn enemies…Someone should test his electability." Byrd represents Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights. He might be challenged by Jeffries himself in 2004…
• Correction: Senator Chuck Schumer's former press secretary Brad Tusk did not work for Rep. Jerry Nadler, as we reported previously. That was Brad Korn, who's now with Continuum Health Partners but still reads this column. Incidentally, Tusk's hiring as a deputy governor in Illinois didn't go over too well in that parochial state, where folks resent a 29-year-old New York lawyer being picked over more experienced in-state people. "Hiring Tusk as deputy governor is like hiring an office clerk to run the war against Iraq," wrote one Illinois political columnist…
• Two more 2001 City Council candidates from Brooklyn were fined by the Campaign Finance Board. Jean Vernet, who lost to Yvette Clarke, took a $10,764 hit, while Sidique Wai, who lost to the late James Davis, was fined $8,147. Vernet, a Haitian activist who has a master's degree from business school, didn't bother to respond to an audit of his campaign finances. Neither did Wai, a public policy analyst…

HAVE SIGN, WILL TRAVEL Councilman Vinny Gentile's people were surprised to see former Assembly candidate Joel Garson standing outside Starbucks on 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge with a big campaign sign for Republican Pat Russo, who lost to Gentile on November 4. Not only is Garson a Democrat, but his haunts are Sheepshead Bay and Gerritsen Beach, far from Gentile's district.

Putting aside the question of why Garson was holding a sign on a street corner, a task generally reserved for low-level campaign workers, why was he helping Russo at all? Consider that Republican State Senator Marty Golden was backing Russo, and when Golden was running against Gentile in 2002, Golden was endorsed by Lori Garson, who's married to Supreme Court Judge Mike Garson, who is Joel Garson's brother.

So that's two favors the Garsons have done for Golden. How is the senator going to repay them? He already has, by putting Doreen Greenwood on his staff. Greenwood is Joel Garson's wife. Greenwood ran against Councilman Lew Fidler for an open seat in 2001. This year, the Garsons-who are ostensibly Democrats-supported Republican Susan Goodstein's unsuccessful campaign against Fidler.

In fact, Goodstein's campaign was run out of Lori Garson's Democratic club. Doreen and Joel Garson also donated $450 to Goodstein.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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