This piece is meant to be part two of the column I just recently posted, charting the current state of Brooklyn’s Democratic Party organization. It is also meant to be the sequel to the piece I posted earlier this year, chronicling the races for Democratic Party District leader (AKA State Committee) in my home 52nd AD.
It would be regarded by me as a great favor if you went back and read those pieces first before embarking upon this one.
As I noted a few months ago, Democratic County Leader Vito Lopez had decided to punish, Jo Anne Simon, the local Female District Leader in my home AD, the 52nd, by running a candidate against her.
Usually, except during wartime, the County Organization routinely supports the re-election of all incumbent District Leaders, even those not on the best terms with the County Leader.
But Vito Lopez is a political organizer of the first rank, a leader steeped in history, whose genius is an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that is in the hearts of those who stand in his way.
Vito looked at Jo Anne Simon and her club and saw weakness. They’d had no district-wide primaries since the turn of the century, and then only from a pathetic loser. In the two Council races last year, Simon won her home turf without a majority. John Heyer ran third in his part of the AD. Their former State Senator, Marty Connor, had lost their turf twice in a row by landslide proportions, while their last local judicial candidate, Devin Cohen, had in this liberal turf, barely beaten a right winger who’d written the amicus brief against gay marriage and had given ten of thousands of dollars to the likes of the Conservative Party and Al D’Amato.
Vito smelled weakness.
Further, Simon had committed two crimes; she had expressed her opinions, not merely in closed leader meetings (which was bad enough), but in public and to the Press as well.
Further, she had exercised her right to run for public office when the County Leader had a different candidate, his chief of Staff, Steve Levin.
Levin won and proceeded to run his Chief of Staff, Hope Reichbach, against Simon.
Further, Lopez is running a young lawyer and former political operative named Steve Williamson for the Male Leadership.
After years of tilting at windmills with some limited, but very important successes, Simon’s Co-Leader, Alan Fleishman, was getting a chill in his podiatrical area.
Fearing a repeat performance of the Simon/Levin Council race, where five candidates for a newly opened seat ended up splitting the left/liberal/reform vote, allowing Levin to win with a mere 30%, Simon and Assemblywoman Joan Millman begged and otherwise encouraged Fleishman to run again.
Wearily, Fleishman agreed. But it was too late.
Several candidates had emerged, and two, white shoe lawyer Jesse Strauss, and former Congressional candidate and School Board member Chris Owens, sensed Fleishman’s lack of enthusiasm had not abated. They each began a nasty game of chicken, implying they were running regardless.
Strauss insisted “I've looked at this from many angles and ..there are more than enough votes for a reform candidate to win in a three way race.” He even told me he had the stats, and the stats were that. “About 20% of the voters will vote for whoever the “machine” tells them to (its a shame, but that’s the reality).” Jesse opined “There are more than enough votes for a reform candidate to win in a three way.”
Having watched such Paglossian gasbaggery deliver Steve Levin the council seat, I was dubious.
I thought, and still think, he conjured those figures up by pulling them out of his ass.
Jesse promised to send me a spread sheet.
But, someone must have told him that I had a rather keen understanding of voter targeting and election result analysis, as well as a acute sense of smell for when BS was involved.
Shortly after giving Jesse my email, he wrote back, “Sorry Gate, i've changed my press strategy and won't be sending you anything now.”
I let him know he’d never convince me he and Owens weren’t playing a suicide death game if he didn’t share his supposed stats, and Jesse responded “Thanks for being engaged.”
I’m not making this up; that is really the way Jesse Strauss talks.
I’ve yet to receive the spreadsheet.
I also talked with Chris Owens at his initiation. He asked me if I thought Fleishman was the strongest possible candidate, and I responded.
“The strongest possible candidate is the one who gets a head to head against Williamson. Otherwise, it’s Levin v. Simon and company redux.”
In the end Fleishman dropped out, but the game of chicken continued.
The problem was there was only one candidate playing.
Owens, who’d been at least as culpable as Strauss in threatening to divide the “reform” vote had now come to his senses, and was trying to avoid a three-way race, crying out loud about the need to avoid splitting the vote.
Strauss meanwhile was quoting his unseen spreadsheet, preaching the Gospel According to Pangloss, in which everything is for the best in this the best of all possible Assembly Districts.
Owens proposed that the winner of the votes at two or more of the districts three reform clubs stay in the race, and the loser drop out. Strauss, with some justice, thought this was a formula fixed in advance for his defeat (As expected, Owens won two out of the three clubs).
However, though a candidate with as well developed a “skill-set” as Strauss was surely capable of producing a fairer alternative. Jesse could have made a counter-proposal, but instead, Jesse’s response to the threat of a Lopez victory was essentially “Don’t Worry, be Happy.”
The problem with Jesse’s theory of the race was that, even had there been stats backing it up, the facts on the ground weren’t paying attention to the statistics.
Hope Reichbach and Steve Williamson were Vito Lopez’s candidates, and they were loyal to Vito Lopez, but that loyalty did not extend as far as ever mentioning that fact. Instead of running like a pair of hacks, they are running as attractive young community involved reformers.
“Hope and Stephen believe this job is…about independence, substantive leadership, progressive thinking…”
Well, let’s at least give them points for creative thinking, or if not them, let’s give those points to Vito.
Williamson’s public credentials are pretty scant. His most notable political activity was managing the council campaign of Paul Bader, the unpleasant husband (for now) of Nydia Velazquez, one of Vito’s biggest enemies. One suspects that a summer with Bader converted Williamson into a staunch supporter of Lopez. Williamson’s community credential did not seem to extend beyond his home block.
In fairness, Strauss couldn’t say much more. His sole community activity had been getting himself a coveted appointment to a Community Board, which is a pretty neat accomplishment for someone who never did anything else in his community. Strauss’ best subject in Law School was obviously contracts, and in this case, the contract came from David Yassky, who Strauss resembles in his conviction that he is so gifted that it would be a public service for the community to endow him with a title.
And like Yassky, Jesse’s talked lofty thoughts and may even had meant them, but he was willing to do whatever it took to win. Jesse has become the personal choice of the Buddy Scotto real estate-industrial complex, and therefore, the de facto candidate of those who want to stop the Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal.
In the two blocks between my house and Smith Street, there are two houses on my side of the street which for a year sported “Stop the Superfund” posters in their windows.
I’ve seen the owners of both of these houses going door to door with Strauss.
Naturally, Strauss doesn’t go around publicizing this outside the Buddy Zone, “We target our use of Buddy, because a lot of people don’t like him.“
Meanwhile, back in the Vito Zone. If Steve Williamson seemed merely to be a handsome face to put on a poster, who had happened to live in both of the District’s two largest non-NYCHA housing developments, Hope Reichbach, by contrast, was the real deal. Smart, pretty, charming, seemingly sincere and earnest.
And with damned good lefty credentials.
Reichbach‘s dad, Gustin, was an old lefty who’d been lawyer for Abbie Hoffman and the Fugs, among others, before becoming a judge the way almost all movement lefties became judges in Kings County: by being personally sponsored by Vito Lopez.
I know this fact drives local progressives crazy, since it fucks with their worldview, but it happens to be correct.
Hope herself attained some measure of fame for suing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld while she was still in high school.
You go girl.
Hope has been knocking on doors like no tomorrow, and she is winning votes.
People like Hope Reichbach. People respect Jo Anne Simon. I’m not sure “respect” drives more vote than “like” in a low turnout election, especially when your opposition has a better pull operation.
And an operation it is. Vito’s used his credentials as Chair of the Assembly Housing Committee to rally every NYCHA Tenant Assn president, and leaders among loft tenants (to the extent they still exist here). He’s delivered Marty Markowitz (development skeptics please take note). He’s worked the Courthouses and he used every other connection he and Levin can muster. He’s even asked Reichbach and Williamson to add a few friends of their own (hey, that’s why they were chosen).
Vito’s even delivered a Scotto (Buddy’s son Mark); Buddy is obviously hedging his bets.
Tension seems to be running high in “reform” ranks. Simon ran a piece of literature which criticized Reichbach for being a “Recent College Graduate.”
It’s obvious that Simon has not been out campaigning enough, because if she was knocking on doors, she might have noticed the extraordinary number of 25 year old in the district.
Perhaps even more extraordinary was the joint Simon/Strauss piece which lists 14 endorsements, ten of which have asterisks saying they were only for Simon and not Strauss.
Strauss has been telling people that Jo Anne has not been doing herself any favors. In fact, he told it to me.
Millman, Strauss and Simon also did not help themselves by running anti-gay marriage Council candidate John Heyer as one of their judicial delegates. Unexpectedly, Lopez nominated his own slate, thereby putting Heyer’s name on the ballot. Except in a small sector of Carroll Gardens, having Heyer’s name on one’s palm cards will not be an asset, although, so far, no one in any race has exploited this fact
The one break the anti-Lopez forces have sustained is that there is an Assembly race.
Last year, Simon lost the Council race not merely because of a split left/liberal/reform vote, but because of the vicious attacks she suffered from that corner of the world .Chief among those leveling the attacks was one Douglas Biviano, a Kucinich loving building superintendent and PTA activist, who‘d otherwise never attended a civic meeting.
Biviano, unbounded by any political or community history whatsoever, just made up those attacks as he went along. With the bottom-feeding, hate slinging offal prepared for him by his consultant, Gary Tilzer, Biviano became the most effective means of tearing down Simon. The role of Biviano might seem minimal given his depressing vote total (sixth out of seven), but it is rare that the most effective dispenser of such a vile brew gets himself elected while in the process of destroying another.
And now, Biviano was running against Joan Millman.
For Simon, Strauss and Owens, this was good news. The highly organized Lopez was very effective in pulling his vote, but preferred everyone else stay home. Lopez wanted an election by invitation only. Millman’s presence expanded the guest list
Lopez sent an army down to the Board of Elections to examine Biviano’s petitions. He called Millman’s election lawyer and told him, he thought he could take Biviano out. The lawyer said he’d get back to Lopez. When he did, it was no go.
“Whaddya want?” said the lawyer, “she’s a reformer.”
Lopez exploded. “Put her on the phone, I want to here her say it”
Perhaps Millman did it (or rather, did not do it) for motives pure. Alternatively, perhaps she was afraid of looking bad if she pursued the challenge and Lopez turned out to be wrong. Perhaps she thought she was being played for a sucker.
Or perhaps she wanted to help her team.
Millman having a race means turnout will be somewhat juiced and voters coming out for Millman will see her name on club palm cards for both Owens and Strauss (and maybe Lopez’s team as well). Owens also hopes his superior name recognition will draw some impulse votes from supporters of both Assembly candidates.
But Biviano’s campaign has been lame and drawn limited attention. His big issue is that Millman, a retired teacher, in a manner similar to ten of thousands of other retired civil servants, draws both her teacher’s pension and the salary she earns at her post-retirement job. This is despicable effort by Biviano to confuse voters into thinking that Milllman is one of those legislators engaged in the repugnant practice of drawing both a pension for their service in the legislature, and their salary for such service, at the same time.
If Biviano thinks what Millman’s doing is wrong, then he should ask the thousands of retired cops, firemen and teachers who do the same thing to stop doing it as well.
He would do so if he had any integrity. He obviously does not.
Or maybe, he’s just too stupid to see the difference. This is not implausible.
Other than that, Biviano attacks Millman for the election law (the one she refuses to utilize to throw him off the ballot), even though he cannot name any specific provisions of that law he would like to change.
With the unexpected strength of the Lopez team, Strauss has now woken up and smelled the coffee, saying Hope’s campaigning is not only getting her votes, but is also helping Williamson get votes as well, and that no candidate in the race for Male Leader is going to break 40 percent.
In other words, despite Jesse’s mythical spreadsheet, the regulars are breaking 20%.
Strauss’ spreadsheet has become toilet paper, and the “reformers” are getting wiped with it. Williamson can win. If he does, then both Strauss and Owens are at fault, but it seems hard not to ascribe Strauss far more blame for his blithe indifference to the destruction he was sewing.
I would bet a quarter Simon pulls it out, but I’d not bet the rent money.
I like Hope Reichbach, I might even vote for her for something someday. But not in this race.
The Brooklyn Democrat’s Executive Committee needs at least a few members to raise questions and fusses, to keep the boys honest, and to, when necessary, raise a public stink when private ones don’t work.
This is what this District wants and expects from its District Leader. Jo Anne Simon can say honestly she has fulfilled that role and will continue to do so. The best Hope Reichbach can do on that score is to put out misleading literature which implies she will do the same.
But Hope Reichbach won’t do the same; at least not under this County Leader, and we should assume that this County Leader will remain such for the foreseeable future.
Moreover, if there is a leadership fight, we already know where Hope will be, no matter what the at the time circumstances may justify.
The only thing we don’t know is the answer to the question of when the time comes that Vito again decides to endorse someone other than a Democrat, will Hope violate her fiduciary duty as well? But given she works for Levin, and Levin worked against Councilwoman Diana Reyna even after Reyna won the Democratic nomination last year, I think we can assume what the answer will be.
In addition, Jo Anne Simon has been an outstanding civic activist for decades, pro bono. By contrast, Hope has been a decent civic activist for about a year, for a salary.
There’s just no contest here. Gatemouth endorses Jo Anne Simon for State Committeewoman in the 52nd AD.
In contrast to his running mate, Hope Reichbach, Steve Williamson is not even worthy of a comparison. He has no compelling credentials, no record of activism of any sort, and has not displayed half of Reichbach’s initiative and energy.
I’ve long had my disagreement with Chris Owens, and they are a matter of public record. He is not my sort of Democrat, and I would have preferred a different choice.
But on almost any metric I find Chris Owens a better candidate than Jesse Strauss.
Jesse Strauss has no record of community activism other than doing a big enough favor for David Yassky to get a seat on the Community Board he had not earned. Owens has been involved in every community issue in our area for at least two decades, and served quite capably on the local school board, helping to get to get the ball rolling on the improvements at the Height’s once dismal and now popular PS 8.
Both Owens and Strauss like to opine endlessly about all manner of policy issues far and wide, but also about specific reforms they’d like to make to the procedures of the Party.
More than once, I’ve criticized Owens quite harshly for his proposals, but I will say this; they are grounded in reality and experience. They are based in actual fact. They call things by their proper names. They do not reflect a seeming belief that history began yesterday.
Chris Owens may be wrong; I think he is quite often. But he is wrong about things he understands, and he understands those things in a way that reflects that he gets them. He understands what District Leaders do and has some not totally unrealistic idea of what they should be doing instead. He has some idea of what happens at the table, and that it is a table and not a cloud. Chris Owens will not have a steep learning curve, which is a very good thing when one proposes oneself as a candidate to go swimming in a pool of hungry sharks.
I’ve read Jesse’s Strauss’ ideas as well, and as I‘ve noted before, he not only does not have a clue, but he seems to see this as some sort of virtue. Jesse displays a great interest in propounding ideas both lofty and irrelevant to the position of being a District Leader, but unlike say, Lincoln Restler in the 50th AD, Jesse seems to have a complete and total lack of interest in assimilating the nuts and bolts knowledge one would need to be effective in the job of District Leader.
Then there is a question of actually being at the table. Talking to Strauss, one is reminded of the Kink’s song “Berkeley Mews“:
“I thought you were an intellect,
But now that I reflect, you left me reeling.
You made me drink a toast
And when you finished I was looking at the ceiling.”
The thought of Jesse trying to sell his lofty ideas to the likes of Mike Geller or Joe Bova is enough to make me wet my pants.
Why is this important?
Because issues come up, but most importantly because, as I explained, it is not impossible that a leadership fight may occur. I don’t necessarily expect Chris Owens to be able to talk to Geller or Bova either (though I’m pretty sure he must have dealt with Geller when his father was in Congress), but nearly half of the leaders are African-American and Chris has worked with most of them for years. He knows them and what motivates them.
In negotiations over a leadership, the important question really isn’t who, but how. In exchange for their vote, we should want a District Leader who can extract some concessions on how the Party will be operated. This means building coalitions. When it come to the possibility of being an effective coalition builder, there is no contest between Owens and Strauss; Owens wins hands down.
Finally, there is values. I’m not going to say Chris Owens and I share the same set of values, but we both care about the Democratic Party’s future and agree that Democratic candidates should be chosen by Democrats. Jesse Strauss believes in non-partisan elections, and even operates under the delusion that they would make our party stronger, when the whole idea of the proposal is to weaken parties. Frankly, a person who wants to weaken the Democratic Party is not someone I want as a Party Leader.
In the race for Democratic State Committeeman form the 52nd AD, Gatemouth endorses Chris Owens.
Finally, we come to the Assembly. Joan Millman does not set Albany on fire. She is not a great innovator, nor a passionate crusader. She’s sometimes made some real bad political choices.
However, Millman votes right almost all of the time and she is diligent in her duties, and sensitive to the needs of the community.
In other words, we could theoretically do far worse.
Doug Biviano puts that theory to its proof.
In the Race for Assembly in the 52nd Assembly District, Gatemouth endorses Joan Millman.