Author: Rock Hackshaw

On Brooklyn streets -on the other side of town- black folks have a saying: “God don’t like ugly”. This statement is often invoked, when the perception is that someone has done -or is doing- such egregious wrong(s), that eventually the powers that be, will catch up to them. And the belief is that when this happens, the wrath of God will descend heavily on the recalcitrant(s). Look, if in reality it does go down like this, then keep your eyes on the 56th AD folks: it is possible that strange things are about to take place. 

I have already written columns on what’s been happening this year, to candidates challenging the county machines in both Brooklyn and Queens. I have even bemoaned the fact that the mainstream media seems to be paying very little attention, to the attempts to undermine and subvert democracy in both boroughs. Maybe it is because this crap has been going on for so damn long, that to the fourth estate there is no longer a responsibility to highlight this stuff anymore. 

Rhoda Jacobs was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 1978. Four years later the lines of her district were changed up a bit and it obviously became a minority-majority district. This meant that more than half the residents were non-white. This was when the demographics of Flatbush were changing with each passing day, as Caribbean-Americans moved in to these areas like nobody’s business. 

That year (1982) she beat back the first of many spirited challenges by blacks who have run against her. The opponent was a Trinidad-born attorney named Anthony Agard. He was the first of three men born on that island to challenge Ms. Jacobs. They have all lost. Ten years later the demographics changed even more as piece of the district was carved out to create the 58th AD (Nick Perry). In 2002 it changed yet again but only slightly. The district is now over 85% non-white. About half the residents were born in the Caribbean. Strangely enough there is a significant Hispanic population here (about 15%) that hardly votes. 

You all know that incumbent state senator Kevin Parker (21SD) is in the fight of his political life, as he tries to fend off challenges from council members Stewart and Felder in what is turning out to be a relatively quiet race so far (surprisingly). Parker is being tested again because he doesn’t how to not make enemies; while Stewart is testing whether or not the fallout from the legal woes of two of his staffers is politically fatal. Felder is just testing the waters; trying to turn a single hit in 2001 into a double in 2008. He is looking to steal second base so to speak. In baseball terms: he is running both fast and hard. 

Okay; so Congressman Ed Towns may fire me from the present campaign after he reads this column; that’s not my intent, but I have always been one to call a spade a spade and at this stage of my life I don’t see that changing. In the 40th Assembly District both Congressman Ed Towns and New York City councilmember Charles Barron have done someone wrong. And it didn’t start with this year’s race. The person wronged is Kenneth S. Evans. 

Does this mean that I no longer support Ed Towns for re-election: hell no. Towns is the superior candidate this year; and it isn’t even close. That’s the main reason why I accepted his offer to join his campaign this year. From my qualified position, he is the better candidate: period. Kevin Powell is not ready. Plus; during these fiscal hard times do you really want a rookie in Congress? Ed Towns has brought home billions of dollars for Brooklyn over the years; he will continue to do so: Powell is not the answer.

In the 40th Assembly District in Brooklyn they are searching for a replacement to former assemblywoman (and also former district leader/female) Diane Gordon. The last time we looked Diane got 2 to 6 years in prison, for attempted bribery and other things. And right now there are six candidates in the upcoming democratic primary vying to replace her. They are namely (with odds); Earl Williams (the male district leader/ 2to1), Inez Barron (the wife of councilmember Charles Barron/3to1), Kenneth (Ken) S. Evans (the former head of the NY Urban League/6to1), Nathan Bradley (the former chief of staff for Diane Gordon/10 to1), Winchester Keys (the former chief of staff to the former assembly member Ed Griffiths/15 to1), and a newcomer named Donizetta Brown (who remains somewhat of a mystery up to this point/50to1). 

For years, some Brooklyn loudmouths on the left of the political spectrum have been using Congressman Ed Towns as a whipping boy of sorts; despite the fact that Ed Towns voted against the Iraq invasion and all subsequent wasteful defense spending. He has also gotten a 100% voting scorecard from groups like the National Abortion Rights Action League and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, so you would think that some lefties would be pleased at his recent ratings; but I guess not, since I don’t see those left-wing endorsements coming in for Towns.

We saw the lefties jump all over young ivy leaguer Barry Ford -when he twice challenged Towns a few years ago- embracing him like he was the prodigal son; and although in 2006 they were reluctant to support Charles Barron, “Chuckie B” still did surprisingly well in pockets of Brooklyn’s 10th congressional district where lefties reside (go look at the results). Now this year Kevin Powell shows up to challenge Towns, and lefties are surprisingly silent; I wonder why. 

Yesterday morning Ms. Cenceria Edwards woke up to find human excrement at her door. It is another in a long chain of events, which have unfolded since Ms. Edwards started collecting signatures, for a petition to run against Assemblywoman Annette Robinson -in Brooklyn’s 56th Assembly District (Bedford-Stuyvesant). Not only did the shit stink and smell up the place, it also made another psychological impact on her two kids (daughters); again. It has been an emotional roller-coaster for the Edwards family since June folks. This is traumatic. 

This is so unfair; and all because one brave lady chose to run for the state assembly. Look people; seats are not owned by any clan or kin; not in Bed-Stuy nor in Bed-Room. It’s a democracy (at least that’s what they tell you in ivy-league universities). So why the heck is all this being allowed to go down?  

When I write my some of my columns many folks get angry, but most times all I am trying to do is highlight the trials and tribulations of innocent challengers to the political status quo, while listing the affronts to democracy which take place everyday, and which gets more pronounced during primary (silly) season. Maybe someone needs to go to the federal court under the Ricco statutes, and show that the New York City county organizations are no different to the friggin Mafia. The way they try to keep people off the ballot is nothing short of criminal. 

In Queens (34th AD) Marlene Tapper challenged Ronald Reagan’s elder brother Ivan Lafayette. Word on the street was that residency issues were involved with the incumbent. Maybe someone got wind of whatever Ms.Tapper was cooking up, so they got Lafayette to resign and take some job with the current administration. Ms.Tapper was then shafted because the Queens county political machine did a substitution. I am told that they have put up a former garbage-collector as their candidate now. He was put up over the objections of Lafayette’s faithful and loyal female Chief of Staff (COS), who had worked with him for more than 20 years. It looks like she was good enough to be COS, but not good enough to handle the reigns of the district. Or maybe the garbage man had been collecting dirt on the organization for enough years, to turn the dirt into gold. 

I don’t know why my friend Michael Bouldin from the Daily Gotham website/blog, chose to lock down his comment section, after an out of the ordinary column entitled “The tormented egos of blogdom”, on 8th June, 2008. Too many lattes in the in the dog days of June, I guess. Or could it be that sitting in the sun too long -in some overly pretentious Park Slope sidewalk café- shifts your thinking cap somewhat?  Well, for whatever the reason, the bourgeois Bouldin isn’t exactly known for shying away from lively threads, so it was -to say the least- a bit surprising, to see him immediately close up shop; and after hanging me out there to dry like that. But I have been thinking about that column ever since, because it raised for me the spectre of MB agonizing over the central question here: why the fuck do I blog?