Author: Rock Hackshaw

Kendall Stewart, Kevin Parker and Nick Perry are all elected officials in Brooklyn. They are all black democrats. NYC council member Kendall Stewart (45th district) was born on a tiny Caribbean island called Union. I am told that he grew up in both St. Vincent and Trinidad; he is a podiatrist by profession. As far as I know, state senator Kevin Parker was born in the district he represents (21st Senatorial) in East Flatbush/Midwood; he is a college lecturer by profession. State assembly member Nick Perry was born in Jamaica, West Indies; prior to getting elected he worked for the state in some type of civil service capacity (if memory serves me right). I believe that he is a graduate of Brooklyn College (B.A.); he is the eldest of these three electeds. They are all political animals. At different times they have been allied politically; next year they will be fighting like cats and dogs.

A few months aback, when I first wrote about the vacancy in the 40th city council district, I had never in my wildest imaginations expected so much drama to a simple special election; but drama we had, and maybe the best is yet to come. No sense rehashing all the funky stuff of the past few months, but let me bring some of you up to date as to where we are, with just three days to the election (part two).

About 48 hours ago, a federal judge put candidate Wellington Sharpe back on the ballot, after he was removed by the NYC Board of Elections, which had upheld a challenge on Sharpe’s petitions from the Mathieu Eugene camp. Then yesterday, an appellate court held that despite the fact that Eugene had created the present vacancy in this district- by failing to take up his duly elected post- he should be still placed on the ballot, since his deceptive behavior didn’t reach the level of a felony. They arrived at this position despite the fact that the law is clear: once you create a vacancy, you cannot run for said office. The law is also clear that failing to swear in to office meant that “you” created the vacancy. So on Tuesday (4-24-07), there will be a special election in Brooklyn again, with Mathieu Eugene, Wellington Sharpe and Harry Schiffman as the candidates. So much for the law, its variations and violations; and on we go, and on we go, and we go on………

When I did an article a few months ago about the possibility of a black borough president in Brooklyn’s near future, it was because I had observed a trend in Brooklyn’s politics over the past five years, whereby blacks and Hispanics were winning borough-wide races for civil and supreme courts, on a regular basis. It started in 2002, when both Delores Thomas and Margarita Lopez-Torres won county-wide races in the same year; something unfathomable to many an old-timer in Brooklyn. Then Chandrya Simpson did it the following year, and it was repeated subsequently in 2004, 2005 and 2006, with blacks and Hispanics making it look mundane, if not simple.

In two years time, Marty Markowitz, the current Brooklyn Borough President will be term-limited out of office; this throws up a vacancy, and it also offers a historic opportunity for a female, or a black, or a Hispanic-or a person other than someone male and Caucasian-to ascend to this office. So, in this the year of Barack Obama (2007), no black candidate has officially declared for the race as yet, but some have made very public statements of their intentions. This group includes the cerebral Chris Owens, Jamaican-born Assemblyman Nick Perry and the controversial NYC councilman Charles Barron. It has also been brought to my attention that over the years State Senator Velmanette Montgomery has openly admitted an interest in this race. Some folks are saying that she is definitely running this time around. Other blacks whose names have been bandied around for this race from time to time, include State Senator John Sampson, Assemblywoman Annette Robinson, NYC council-woman Tish James and Assemblyman Darryl Towns, however, for various reasons, all four seem not inclined to pursue this particular race at present- albeit that could change over the next year or so.

Won’t it be ironic if there is no special election on April 24th in the 40th city council district? After all, many have accused Mathieu Eugene of wasting government money, with his refusal to be confirmed in a seat that he had won-given all his shenanigans after the election. Well, based on the buzz in the trenches, all the candidates that filed for the re-run were weak in their signatures. The speculation is rife that Eugene is in the driver’s seat and that he may well knock every opponent off the ballot. Won’t that be something?

When petitions were submitted, five candidates filed. They were namely; Mathieu Eugene (black/Haitian-American male), Wellington Sharpe (black Jamaican born male), Harry Schiffman (white/Jewish/male), Marie Gina Faustin (black Haitian-American female) and Darly Brutus (black Haitian-American male). Three of these ran first time around (Eugene/actual winner then, Sharpe and Schiffman); so it was a bit surprising to many, that the runner up in the last race (Jennifer James) didn’t show up in the re-run, given that Sharpe (3rd) and Schiffman (4th) did. Sensibly, the nine other also-rans stayed away from this race; thank God.

As I sit here in limbo pondering my future on the blogs (including Room8/ given that the editors are yet to issue a policy missive), I decided to tackle some issues left outstanding. For example, to the “Draft Rock for the 40th Council seat campaign”, I have to say: thanks, but no thanks. I am not a candidate for this race; neither now (April), nor in September and/or November (primary/general election). I am honored and humbled that some people could think that highly of me to submit my name for a “draft”; but at the present time it would be rather difficult to attempt to undertake a race with this short advance notice. So I will pass.

I must admit though, that something did come out of this “draft” campaign, and that is: I have decided to consider a run for Congress in either 2008 or 2010. I am moved to attempt a true grassroots campaign demonstrating people power; a campaign that will rely more heavily on human involvement than on obscene amounts of cash infusions. Maybe I am naïve, but I still think that this type of effort can be successfully replicated and resurrected. We will see.

The special election to find a replacement for Congresswoman Yvette Clarke in the NYC council, took place three weeks ago (2-20-07), with candidate Mathieu Eugene the indisputable winner. Now we are being told by the winner, that he will not submit documentation proving that he resided in the district by the day of the election, as the law states/requires, as interpreted by the Attorney General. But is Cuomo correct in this interpretation? We are in virgin territory folks.

In my 34 years in NYC politics, I have never seen or heard of the council requiring someone to prove their residency before swearing them into office. I am being told that it has never happened before in the four hundred and fifty-four year history of the council. So why do this now? Well, I will get to that in a minute.

In 1973, when I migrated to New York City from the island of Trinidad, I was lucky enough to have caught the tail end of the civil-rights activism era. Ostensibly, back then, political activism/community involvement in most black areas of the city was something of a norm; ordinary people were much more civic-minded than they are today; parents were much more involved in their PTAs, school boards and police precinct councils. Back then, block associations and tenant associations flourished; there were vibrant members perpetually trying to hold things together within their communities/organizations. That was a time when people routinely attended community planning board meetings and also worked in local political campaigns for no money.

It was a warm summer evening in the year 1991. It was somewhere around seven o’clock. Three or four of us were sitting in the headquarters of the Harriet Tubman political club (Nostrand Ave.and E.New York Ave./ Maple ), which was doubling that year as the campaign office for Maurice Gumbs. The NYC charter had extended the council to 51 members from 36; and the 40th district was created, by slicing out pieces from the districts of Mary Pinkett (deceased), Enoch Williams (retired to Florida where he is now the mayor of a small town), Susan Alter (who was to later run for Public Advocate, on a ticket with republican mayor Rudy Giuliani), and Weiner (East-Flatbush/ and south). Gumbs was facing Una Clarke and Carl Andrews in that race. If memory serves me right, it was the homestretch of that contest.

I love this website (Room8); to me it’s about serious political involvement and education. It’s about finding out what’s going on in NYC politics mainly, but it is also about finding out what’s going on politically-on both national and international stages. It is a rather informative political website. I am proud to have been one of the pioneer contributors to the building of this site.

When the founders Ben Smith and Gur Tsabar invited me to become one of the pioneer bloggers (along with about a dozen others selected), I raised my concern about the anonymous commentors who had a penchant for attacking me on a purely personal level, whenever things got hot in the kitchen so to speak, on other political blogs wherein I openly participated. To build this site, I accepted that anonymous commentors were necessary.

A funny thing happened on the way to part two of this column: it died. Beyond finishing up my post-election analysis with some political gems, I had hoped to bring some nuggets of insight into what has been happening to this district in the past 16 years; but at the last minute I realized that there is a level of futility to all this. Most of the residents-and also most of the voters- of this district are really not interested in any of this. Political issues aren’t really salient to their everyday lives. This is why our inept black-elected officials aren’t held accountable.

Look, I didn’t just come to this realization today; I have been aware of voter apathy and “citizen-civic-irresponsibility” for decades. I am no virgin to politics; I have been involved in politics all my life. Contrary to my detractors, I have been fuelled to political activism, not because of money, glory or power, but because of my roots and also because of my idealism. So instead of sending my editors a column on this past election, I sent them instead one month’s notice. Yes, in one month I will be leaving Room8.