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September 5, 2010
In race for State Committee in the 52nd: Jo Anne Simon (finally) takes gloves off; also, Lopez candidate gains as Owens, Strauss vie for reform votes
Atlantic Yards Report
This is a look at races for Female and Male District leaders in the 52nd Assembly District, with a short mention of the the Female District Leader race in the 57th Assembly District.
A year after it really mattered, Jo Anne Simon has directly gone after the candidate endorsed by Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Vito Lopez.
This time it's for re-election to her unpaid position as State Committeewoman, or Female District Leader (Democratic) for the 52nd Assembly District (represented by Joan Millman). The vote will be during the primary election on September 14.
Like a couple of other races, it is essentially (as the Brooklyn Paper described) a referendum on Lopez, the political powerhouse, who, among other things, ensured that a new law toughening subsidies for affordable housing would not apply to Atlantic Yards. (The developer's argument was that the project was planned under the assumption 421-a subsidies would be available.)
And unlike the race for Male District Leader, in which the presence of two reformers should help the Lopez candidate, this one's one-on-one.
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Reichbach's running mate, Williamson, also worked on Levin's campaign. He was set to challenge incumbent Alan Fleishman, a Lopez foe.
But Fleishman has since withdrawn, which has set up an interesting situation. Simon's mailer says that Jesse Strauss has "taken Fleishman's place on the ballot," which isn't quite true.
Strauss, a CB2 member and a member of the executive committee of the Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND), has been endorsed, as has Simon, by Joan Millman and the IND.
Chris Owens, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006 and has a long history of activism challenging Atlantic Yards (among other things), got endorsements from the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (of which he was once president) and the Lambda Independent Democrats.
In such obscure races on a primary day with no major race to bring voters to the polls--the biggest statewide contest is the Attorney General primary--the candidates understandably want most to get voters out in the first place.
But without IRV, Strauss and Owens should be doing their best to remind reform-minded voters not merely that they are reformers, but that only one of them has the best chance to beat the candidate favored by Lopez and Markowitz.
(By the way, the race for Female District Leader in the 57th Assembly District is getting rather tabloid, at least according to The Local.)
Posted by steve at September 5, 2010 11:10 AM