CHRIS BRAGG: During a press conference held this afternoon by Brooklyn Republican Senate candidate David Storobin,…Several minutes into the press conference, held in front of the Brighton Beach Jewish Center, Storobin was blasting Fidler for his connections to the “corrupt” Brooklyn Democratic Party. A Fidler supporter…interjected.
BENJAMIN SHAEFFER: I’m a Democrat…Are you calling me corrupt?
STOROBIN SUPPORTER GREGORY WAXMAN: “Hey…You’re a homosexual. Ok?”
BRAGG: At one point, Waxman, who was standing next to me, suggested in a whisper to Shaeffer that physical violence would ensue if he didn’t quit interrogating Storobin.
…In a Q & A afterwards, I asked Storobin about the “homosexual” comment by his supporter. At this point, strangely, Shaeffer began sprinting towards the podium to say that he had accepted Waxman’s apology. But Schaeffer was restrained by a couple of people in attendance – and Storobin answered the question.
STOROBIN: It was a ridiculous comment. It should not have been made…From what I understand, they’ve apologized…He’s not working for my campaign.
BRAGG: Afterwards, Waxman, a Russian immigrant, told me that he knew Storobin because both attend services at the Brighton Beach Jewish Center.
Not long after the press conference, Storobin’s campaign put out a statement about the heckling and the “homosexual” comment.
STOROBIN: Today, for the second time in a row, the Fidler campaign sent a heckler to disrupt my one of my campaign events that was called for the specific purpose of addressing issues in the campaign with members of the press. This is old-school, dirty Brooklyn Democrat machine-style politics, and it should be denounced and immediately discontinued by my opponent’s campaign.
Today’s press event got particularly out of hand when a volunteer made inappropriate and offensive comments to the Fidler campaign heckler. I condemned those inappropriate remarks immediately and the volunteer apologized.
In the future, I hope that Mr. Fidler’s campaign will refrain from sending associates to disrupt press events that are meant to educate the public about important issues in the campaign. Stop with the dirty politics.
BRAGG: Schaeffer told me he’s not actually working for or coordinating with Fidler’s campaign.
Bragg’s article was called “Storobin Event Turns Ugly,” which is kinda like saying “Christopher Street turns Gay.”
Storobin’s statement is hilarious in at least two aspects. The first is his accusing Fidler of sending Schaeffer, based upon circumstantial evidence about as flimsy as the circumstantial evidence that Storobin has ties to Nazis.
It is hilarious because last summer I witnessed an incident where Republican Congressional candidate Bob Turner’s Campaign Manager Bill O’Reilly personally disrupted a press conference held by Turner’s opponent David Weprin, while prominent members of the Brooklyn GOP like Party Law Chair and Storobin cheerleader Gene Berardelli cheered him on.
O’Reilly now works as a spokesman for the GOP State Committee, so obviously Republican outrage over such tactics is profound.
But even more hilarious is Storobin’s talk about “inappropriate and offensive comments” which he “condemned.”
Really.
A visit to Storobin’s Facebook page in December told a different story:
David Storobin: If Torah forbids Jews to vote for Weprin for supporting gay marriage, what about Lew Fidler, who was the #1 front-man for the Gay Lobby in the New York City Council? Torah law forbids you from voting for David Weprin www.thebrooklynpolitics.com
David Storobin: If David Weprin is so opposed for merely voting in favor of gay marriage, just how much opposition will there be against Lew Fidler, City Council's #1 champion of the Gay Lobby?
David Storobin: This is my interview on the Brooklyn TV Channel's "Intersect" show. Also look for me on CBS and NY1 news. Intersect Eps. 33: Marriage Equality – Intersect on blip.tv
GATE COMMENT: In the interview, Storobin compares elected legislators enacting same sex marriage to totalitarianism in North Korea, and as well as under Stalin and the Nazis (BTW, where did the moderator get that haircut?).
Then there were the time when Storobin accused Fidler of siding with Gays instead of Jews: “While I was doing that my opponent was organizing rallies not for the Jewish community but for the gay community,”
According to Politicker Storobin said that Mr. Fidler held rallies for gay groups that netted one $85 million in city funding, and another rally for a different group which netted them $3 million in funding per year.
POLITICKER: Asked in an interview what he was referring to, Mr. Storobin said that he gleaned the information from YouTube and suggested The Politicker search the website for Mr. Fidler’s name. The rallies he is referring to could not be located.
Discount for a moment the fact that Fidler's been a key player in running or assisting Jewish groups, including "Brooklyn College Hillel" and "The Crown Heights Jewish Community Council" since before Storobin was born, and ignore all the funding he's delivered to Jewish agencies for the sort of social services programs Storobin considers wasteful.
As it turns out that the reason that no one could find the videos of the rallies David Storobin accuses Councilman Fidler of holding for the "Gay Community," is that no one was looking for a rally in favor of providing shelter to homeless children.
Mr. Storobin is perfectly within his rights to advocate that children should be allowed to freeze to death on our streets (after all, in the dead of winter, the dead bodies would create only minor sanitation issues), but if that is the way he feels, he should be frank enough to admit it before attacking his opponent for holding the opposite position.
Let me be clear, except for Nazis, “Homosexuals” are practically the only thing the Storobin campaign talks about. One gets the feeling from reading and listening to Storobin that his somewhat nauseating public comments about LGTB people and their supporters are only the tip of the iceberg, and that if one hung out at Storobin’s headquarters, one would get the impression that calling a supporter of Fidler’s a “homosexual” was perfectly OK, because it was exactly what the candidate had done, over and over and over again.
Perhaps it would have been OK if Waxman had instead referred to Schaeffer as a “front-man for the Gay Lobby.”
All Gregory Waxman did was accurately repeat a prime Storobin talking point.
I think Storobin owes Waxman an apology.