Vallone Whip-Lashed City Council Speaker Peter Vallone is peeved at Councilmember Howard Lasher and the Good Government Democrats because they invited City Comptroller Alan Hevesi to a recent honorary brunch, according to one source. Vallone and Hevesi, of course, are potential mayoral candidates and will have to battle each other in the 2001 primary. The brunch, held on Sunday, April 2, honored former Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jules Polonetsky and Gloria Hacken, a Lasher aide, among others.

Hevesi was invited, but was not an honoree. The Good Government Democrats have a long-standing relationship with Hevesi, whom they backed twice for comptroller. And of course, the Hevesi invite could be construed as a nod in the upcoming mayoral race. "Now the rumor is that Vallone is going to completely cut Lasher off," said the source. But Vallone's office said that the Speaker was not upset with Lasher. "It doesn't really sound likely to me," said Bernice Spitzer, a Vallone spokesperson. "It doesn't sound like Peter." Lasher's office did not return a call seeking comment.

One Down, How Many To Go? Now that he's allocated $10.3 million of his own capital funds to the restoration of the Parade Grounds, Borough President Howard Golden can check one more thing off his "must do" list before he considers stepping down early.

At a recent Borough Hall press conference to announce the Parade Grounds plan, Golden was asked whether fixing the playing fields was one of the things he wanted to take care of before he pondered leaving office early. "Yes it was," he said. When asked whether the Sportsplex was also on his list, he said, "Yes it is." So what else is on the list? "I can't tell you that," he said.

Rumblings that Golden will step down early, triggering a November election for the seat, continue to persist. If he does step down, any interested state legislators will be forced to choose between running for reelection to their current seat and running for the borough presidency.

Hikind Looking To Make Mark On Council Seat The proliferation of so-called "brownstone" candidates lining up to vie for Stephen DiBrienza's Council seat is close to running up into the double digits. In fact, while there are more jobs than applicants in most fields, the same cannot be said of New York City politics, where the effects of the term limits law and the Campaign Finance Board's four-to-one matching funds program have combined to raise a bumper crop of aspirants for the 36 Council seats that will open in 2001.

Given all the brownstoners in the 39th Councilmanic District, the seat is ripe for the picking by a so-called "Orthodox" candidate from the district's Borough Park section. The prime backer of that candidate would be Assemblymember Dov Hikind. Has he considered running a candidate? "How could I not?" he replied. "Borough Park is a rather substantial piece of the district, and with so many people running, a candidate who originates in Borough Park could walk away with the race."

Hikind said that there are also two potential candidates, both of whom are considered brownstoners, who belong to his club, the United New York Democrats, and also warrant his consideration. Those two potential candidates are David Waid, an aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Community Board 6 district manager Craig Hammerman, whose ties with Borough President Howard Golden also give him an entrée into the Orthodox Jewish community. "No decisions have been made," said Hikind. "There's a long way to go. I'm friendly with the two people I mentioned. We'll see."

One source mentioned Sam Stober, a member of Community Board 12, as a possible Hikind candidate. Other potential brownstone candidates include Steve Banks, an attorney with Legal Aid, Jack Carroll, president of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Greg Atkins, chief of staff for Assemblymember Joan Millman, Martin Gerber from the Trial Lawyers Association, Paul Bader, formerly of CB 6 and current fiancée of Rep. Nydia Velazquez, and Dawn Cardi, also a former member of CB 6.

Standing By Their Man The war between Councilmember Una Clarke and Rep. Major Owens continues with a new mailing by a group calling itself Former Clarke Supporters, or FCS. FCS is comprised of Adele Milstein, a 30-year veteran of Brooklyn's reform movement, Charles Monaghan, a former district leader and former president of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, and Francis Byrd, chairman of the Paul Robeson Independent Democrats. All of the aforementioned are, of course, longtime Owens supporters who supported Clarke when, as an Owens protégé, she ran for City Council in the early 1990's.

Their mailing, which comes with no return address, slams Clarke for getting hit with the largest fine in the history of the Campaign Finance Board -- a $100,00 reproach for violating spending limits in her 1997 Council race. In a broader sense, the letter highlights how the old guard reformers have rallied around Owens, despite the fact that his constituent services are widely considered to be horrible. Even Jo Freeman, an Owens constituent and proclaimed Owens supporter, said that his constituent services were terrible. "Not one single letter I wrote to Major Owens has ever been answered-not even acknowledged," she said.

Many people have similar stories about asking Owens for help and not even receiving a reply. And Clarke's campaign has been knocking Owens as an ineffective Congressman, an observation seconded by Lew Fidler, a Clarke ally and district leader in the 41st AD. "I can't think of anything that he's done in and around my district that has had a tangible, positive effect," said Fiddler. "He holds good forums and that's wonderful, but the guy's now 18 years in Congress and if he has any clout I don't know what he uses it for."

But the reformers say that Owens' voting record is near perfect, and that he is way ahead of the curve on issues like gay rights, women's rights and racial harmony. Freeman said that Clarke's constituent services were bad as well, although that was not borne out in conversations with others. Reformers also point to Owens' seniority as an issue. And, they say, Clarke is running a divisive campaign in her attempt to unseat her former mentor. One informed source, who is an Owens constituent and a political insider, noted that despite the manner in which the reformers have sided with Owens, there is some unrest in their camp.

"In this case the reformers really have to make a choice," said the source, who said he will remain neutral in the race. "A lot of them are saying we know Major is bad news but we don't like her (Clarke). I heard someone from CBID say that neither one of them deserves the seat. The reformers are going to stand by him no matter what, but the message needs to be sent that it's unacceptable to run your office this way."

Return To Sender Alan Fleischman, a Brooklyn Democratic activist and a past president of Lambda Independent Democrats, has been flooded with solicitations from none other than Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the Republican National Committee-yet Fleischman has never voted Republican. "At first I was amused, and then I thought, what kind of an operation is the RNC and Mayor Giuliani running?" asked Fleischman. "I'm supporting Hillary Clinton big-time. The notion that I would support Mayor Giuliani in a Senate race is a joke," added Fleischman, who supported David Dinkins in 1989 and 1993.

Fleischman received four letters in recent weeks, most of which slam Clinton as a radical left-winger and tout Giuliani as an effective Republican. The gaffe in mailing ("Is there anyone in the borough who could be more clearly identified as a Democrat than me?" asked Fleischman) parallels one made earlier in the campaign by the Clinton camp, when they sent Republican Councilmember James Oddo an e-mail solicitation at his Council e-mail address.

Strange Bedfellows Although the previously mentioned Assemblymember Dov Hikind has been on the skids with the Conservative Party, there apparently is something they can agree on: Rep. Rick Lazio's potential Senate candidacy. Mayor Giuliani's approval ratings have been dropping in the Jewish community, the shooting of Gideon Busch is not forgotten, polls show that most voters aren't happy with either Giuliani or Hillary Clinton, and Lazio is looking like a tabula rasa.

"He's a very decent, very fine individual," said Hikind. "My wife saw him on television the other night and said, Dov, what a sweetheart." Lazio is also a strong supporter of Israel. Jerry Kassar, chairman of the Brooklyn Conservative Party, said that Hikind's kind words about Lazio do not signify a new rapport between the borough Park Assemblyman and the Brooklyn Conservatives. "None of it is linked," he said. "I think what you've got here is several different factors coming into play and there just happens to be similar interests."

Borough Politics Archive
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