Contrary to popular misconception, Orthodox Jews are not the only voting bloc in Council District 44. This one seems to be breaking toward for the Republican.

I guess they weren’t won over by the Joe Lazar Jingle (mp3).

This did not stop State Supreme Court from tossing Judge’s name of the ballot for the March 23 special election. As reported by YourNabe.com, the Board of Elections had ruled 786 of Judge’s 1,221 petitioning signatures to be valid – just above the 765 threshold for a spot on the ballot. But the David Greenfield campaign took the matter to court, which threw out another 36 signatures. Judge is the second candidate thrown from the ballot, following the removal of Avraham Shlomo Tischler.

BK Southie awaits word from the Judge team regarding the next steps for the campaign.

Photo: Brian Hedden

(From left: David Greenfield, Jonathan Judge, Joe Lazar, Avraham Shlomo Tischler. Photo credit: Brian Hedden)

The Jewish Press organized a debate last week with the participation of four of the candidates running for the empty 44th City Council seat (click here for their coverage). The Orthodox news site Vos Iz Neias had video produced of the entire two-hour function (their analysis is here). All 12 video clips are reposted below.

And of course, I was there as both a resident of the 44th, and as the South Brooklyn blogger!

One of the participating candidates – Avraham Shlomo Tischler – has already been dropped from the ballot, following successful challenges to the meager number of signatures on Tischler’s petitions.

The Daily News portrayed the 18-year-old Touro College student as the truth-to-power candidate, as some sort of modern-day David striking fear into the Goliath campaigns of David Greenfield and Joe Lazar. It’s stories like this that make it hard for me to take the Daily News seriously.

Tischler’s performance at the debate was beyond dismal – he definitively demonstrated that he was not, in any way, even remotely qualified for the job of City Councilman. He even said at one point, “I will have a well-trained staff that I know will guide me through each and every step of the way… I will learn becoming a Councilman the right and proper way” (video clip 4 below the fold, 6:05). Actually, he said that a lot. As if voters were somehow looking for an intern to fill the vacancy in the 44th.

As for the grown-ups in the room…

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Reminder: The Jewish Press is organizing a debate between the candidates for Council District 44 (Simcha Felder’s old seat) this Wednesday, February 24th. Those candidates are (at last count) David Greenfield, Joseph Lazar, and Jonathan Judge. The debate will start at 7pm, and will be held at the Borough Park YMHA, located at 4910 14th Avenue.

The New York City Community Boards – the 50 member panels forming the hyper-local level of city government – are accepting applications until Monday, February 22. For nearly half a century, the Boards have served as a go-to resource for residents who need help from the city government, and they also serve an advisory role to city decision-making including land use, zoning, and project funding. Though many of their functions have recently been duplicated by the launch of the citywide 311 system, advocates around the city continue to laud local community boards for their personal, human service and their role as the first line of community advocacy – while the 311 system is mired in criticism.

Last week, Sheepshead Bites teamed up with BK Southie to pick the mind of Theresa Scavo, the Chairperson of Board 15 (Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach, and Manhattan Beach). We discussed the importance of the Boards to the communities they serve, the benefits of community service, and where Boards need to be strengthened. Scavo has been a member of Community Board 15 since the 1990s, and has been the Chair since 2006, a run she described as “sometimes weird but always rewarding.”

If you don’t know what Community Boards are, or you’re interested in getting involved in your community’s future, this interview is the place to start.

Read more »

The special election to replace Simcha Felder – the outgoing Council Member from the 44th District – will be Tuesday, March 23. The Jewish Press will hold a debate between the four candidates – David Greenfield, Joseph Lazar, Jonathan Judge, and Nachman Caller – on February 24 at the Borough Park YMHA. Greenfield and Lazar are already piling on their celebrity endorsements from the likes of Ed Koch (Greenfield) and Bill de Blasio (Lazar).

Candidates previously considered to have an interest in running are Ezra Friedlander, Moishe Oiring, Pinny Ringel, and Brooklyn Civil Court judge Noach Dear.

Greenfield and Judge were both spotted pressing the flesh at the 18th Avenue N-train station in the past eight days.

Four new potential candidates have emerged in the race to replace outgoing Councilman Simcha Felder in the 44th District. Confirmed candidates David Greenfield and Joseph Lazar, and rumored candidate Noach Dear may be joined by Ezra Friedlander (second-generation Borough Park native and the CEO of a government affairs-oriented PR firm), Pinny Ringel (a 13th Avenue businessman), Moishe Oiring (a former aide to Borough President Markowitz), and Jonathan Judge (president of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club).

Felder’s resignation is to be made official on January 31, at which time Mayor Bloomberg will set a date for the special election.

UPDATE [Jan-21-2010]: Add Seymour Lachman, author of the Albany exposee Three Men In A Room, as a potential candidate for this seat.

Simcha Felder was one of the leading proponents of rewriting the term limits law to allow third terms for the City Council, and now, just a week into that third term, he’s leaving the job to join John Liu’s team in the Comptroller’s office.

The Daily News says: “Thanks for forcing a $350,000 special election.” (Not.)

That special election – for the 44th District representing Borough Park, Midwood, and Bensonhurst – was initially seen by The Jewish Week as a potential three way race between David Greenfield (founder of NYS Teach and the current Director of the Sephardic Community Federation), Joseph Lazar (former regional director the the NYS Office of Mental Health), and Noach Dear (18-year veteran of the pre-term limits Council, and a current judge on the Brooklyn Civil Court). Greenfield and Lazar were already gearing up for a run in 2009 before the term limits law was changed – neither opted to take on Felder, who won his short-lived third term uncontested.

But wait – Vos Iz Neias reports that Dov Hikind, a member of the Assembly and a power broker in the Borough Park Jewish community, has been clear in his opposition to Greenfield (his former chief of staff), and wishes to dissuade either Lazar or Dear from running against him.

Greenfield has already declared that he will run for Felder’s seat, and is seen as the strongest candidate in Council district’s neighborhoods outside of Boro Park. If multiple Boro Park candidates run against Greenfield, this would give Greenfield a leg up in the special election, Hikind said.

Greenfield served as Hikind’s chief of staff from 2001-2004. But political insiders say Greenfield is more independent of the Boro Park political establishment than other potential candidates in the race and represents a threat to Hikind’s influence.

“Dov has a tremendous disdain for the fact that Greenfield does and says whatever he wants,” said one political insider in the neighborhood, who is not affiliated with any campaign.

Neither of the three candidates currently live in the district – they will need to move there before the election date, which is to be set by Mayor Bloomberg.

May 2009: Carl Kruger, State Senator from the gerrymandered district that includes parts of Brighton Beach, Midwood, and Bergen Beach, and poster child for all that is good and wholesome in the New York State Legislature, releases a statement immediately following the passage of the MTA bailout:

Sen. Kruger and his colleagues, Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. and Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr., were early and vocal opponents of the original MTA rescue plan introduced by Richard Ravitch that sought to impose tolls on the East and Harlem River crossings. Their opposition effectively scuttled the toll idea. Sen. Kruger also advocated from the beginning that the public authority should be mandated to undergo an independent forensic audit “rather than continuing to operate in a fiscally irresponsible manner and under the cloak of mystery.” (Carl Kruger / NYS Senate press release, emphasis mine)

December 2009: Carl Kruger – did I mention that he’s the Chairman of the Finance Committee? – regarding the revelation that an accounting error by the fiscally irresponsible and cloaked state government will provide the MTA with $200,000,000 less than promised – potentially triggering MTA Doomsday II as it is combined with a $143,000,000 slash in funding under the emergency budget passed last week:

“Our ability to budget is only as good as our ability to forecast. We were dependent upon data supplied by the Office of Management and Budget with the understanding that it was verified by the MTA’s own fiscal staff.” (NY Observer, via Second Avenue Sagas, empasis mine)

Translation: I am a douchetastic hypocrite whose primary political skill is the ability to project my flaws onto political opponents.

This Tuesday, October 20, from 10am to noon, Congressman Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island & Brooklyn) will hold a town hall on the topic of health care reform at the Shore Hill Community Room (Shore Rd. and 90th Street).

Rep. McMahon held a town hall on Staten Island earlier this month. I know someone that attempted to attend, and was turned away because the auditorium had already been filled. Even among those left outside, according to this anonymous Friend of BK Southie, emotions and tensions were running high.

For those of you that haven’t been keeping score at home, there is a single health care bill in the House that is believed to have, just barely, the support of the 218 Representatives needed to pass the bill. There are six bills in the Senate, five of which have the strong public option that has been at the core of the debate, but the option-less Finance Committee bill is the one that has the most attention and possibly the favor of Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has control over the merging process. There’s no question that the Senate bills have the 51 votes needed to pass outright, but 60 votes are needed to end debate, leaving the bills prone to filibuster if all 40 Republicans are joined by any one Democrat in a procedural vote.

House Leader Nancy Pelosi is said to be looking for more support so that the House bill passes with a comfortable majority… enter Congressman Michael McMahon, one of roughly 20 undecided House Democrats.

Tuesday’s town hall is inexplicably and inexcusably in the middle of the morning. I realize there are plenty of people who can make a midday appointment like that, but I would think such an important and high-profile issue would deserve a prime time slot to accommodate people with day jobs (especially since the Staten Island town hall was in the evening).

I wish I could attend. Mike McMahon is almost my Congressman! And if I moved to the other side of the street, he would be! Funny, that gerrymandering thing. Perhaps another Friend of BK Southie (apparently, one with very flexible hours) can fill me in on the details.

P.S. 26 days between the last post and this one. Oops. Sorry about that, but I gotta go now. I have a kid’s room to paint.