The Endorsement Game Major Owens is bringing in the heavy artillery for his battle against Councilmember Una Clarke, staging a slew of endorsements from mere humans like Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to techno pols like ET3 Robot, the four-foot mascot of a youth program Owens inspired. Owens also announced support from Comptroller Alan Hevesi and Assemblymember Dov Hikind. In addition, at a press conference on the steps of City Hall, Owens received the endorsements of Martin Luther King III, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and union, clergy and community leaders.

Just hours before Owens gathered his supporters, Clarke held her own press conference on the steps of City Hall to receive the endorsement of Public Advocate Mark Green.

Greens Charge Corruption The Green Party has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court alleging corruption against the Board of Elections. The suit was filed in an effort to get Green candidates listed on the voting machines. Currently, Green candidates are listed on paper ballots only. The suit alleges that the Board is relegating Greens to paper status in retaliation for Green Party challenges to the petitions of Leonard Wertheim, a Board of Elections employee. Wertheim, who was running as a Republican against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, was tossed off the ballot for fraud. The Green Party candidate against Silver is Ray Dowd.

Craig Seeman, state chair of the Green Party, said that Wertheim was running only to siphon off the anti-Silver votes from Dowd. Seeman said that a good showing by Dowd could be an embarrassment for Silver, and that the Board of Elections was trying to hold Dowd back by keeping the Green candidate off the machines.

Naomi Campbell, a spokesperson for the Board of Elections, could not comment on impending litigation. She also could not discuss the status of Wertheim. Seeman said that the suit may actually benefit all city voters. "One of the things that might come out of this is encouraging the Board of Elections to dump these antiquated machines," he said. All of the state's 57 counties outside New York City have listed the Green Party on their voting machines, a right the party won in 1998.

Heads Up The Barry Ford campaign accused Rep. Ed Towns of ducking debates, saying that the congressman is afraid of confronting his challenger. Towns missed a debate on New York 1 last week, and he sent a surrogate, Councilmember Ken Fisher, to debate Ford in Brooklyn Heights this week. Because Towns missed the New York 1 taping, Ford got 15 minutes all to himself. "As a political consultant, if I were advising Ed Towns, I'd advise him to duck the debates also," said Lincoln Mitchell, a consultant to the Ford campaign.

"He's not ducking him," said Karen Johnson, Towns' chief of staff. Johnson said that Towns sent Fisher as a surrogate because he had to be in Washington. "The possible veto override on the estate tax is coming up and the president needs every possible vote," said Johnson. "So they're in session full blast. How can you ask him to miss votes when Barry uses the vote thing as one of his anti-Towns things?"

Ford has been constantly pointing out that Towns has missed more than 1,200 votes during his career. "Ed Towns seems to let a lot of things come in the way of important votes in the past-another missed vote for Ed Towns in just a drop in the bucket," said Mitchell. Mitchell said there was another debate in the works for Bedford-Stuyvesant, but Johnson said she had not heard of it. However, she added that Towns would love to debate Ford given the proper scheduling.

"Mr. Ford has distorted, lied and completely misled the people of the congressional district about his record. (Towns) is dying to go after him," she said. On another note, Mitchell said that Ford has received the endorsement of former Mayor David Dinkins, which the campaign believes will help rally voters in the black community.

You Go Girl A group of female elected officials has formed Brooklyn Women for Hillary, a club designed to galvanize support for Clinton among the borough's women. The group is headed by Deputy Borough President Jeannette Gadson, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and District Leader Elizabeth Rose Daly. The group will target young women, hoping to educate them as to why they should vote for Clinton. Their major issues include gun control, education, health care, abortion rights, federal funds for Brooklyn and economic policy.

Borough Politics Archive
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