Author: Rock Hackshaw

In part one of this column, I told you about residency as a way by which incumbents eliminate challengers. I also told you about the residency challenge of incumbent assembly member Noah (Nick) Perry (58thAD), against his businessman challenger Wellington Sharpe. I will get to that a bit later on. So far this year there have been quite a few casualties going the “residency” route. Let me examine some of them.

In the 55th AD in Brooklyn, Caribbean-American challenger Royston Antoine (Uncle Roy) was eliminated based on residency. In a previous “Grapevine” column of mine, I mentioned that an insurgent was running from an address outside the district; he was the insurgent. Also going down with Uncle Roy was his co-runner (Parker), who was on the ticket as male-leader. Believe me when I tell you that I tried to alert them to the problem and to the ramifications; all to no avail. I also apprised them of their options. When people refuse to take advice in this game, they pay big prices. You can ask Saquan Jones about this. He tried to run in the 43rd AD, but really didn’t understand what was being said to him about the pitfalls. He too was knocked off the ballot (signatures). Hopefully he learned and stays in the mix.

In a matter of days Room Eight will be six months old. All indications are that this was a very successful experiment. We all owe our thanks and praises to Ben Smith and Gur Tsabar, for their foresight and creativity. I appreciate their invitation to be a pioneer blogger here. To say the least, it has been quite interesting. I would like to take some credit for having “guru” Maurice Gumbs use here as a pit stop, on his way to his “Footnotes” wire/blog/periodical. He has sure taken a site that was already flying high to even greater heights. The resident writers here are quite learned and informative; and of course Gatemouth is unique (I will miss you “H”/lol). I have had lots of feedback from people, who sneak on here to browse, peek, spy or pry. I have also gotten feedback from those who aren’t real pleased at some of the things stated here.

The New York Times is a fraudulent newspaper. There; I said it. To me it’s true. The editors are a bunch of scam-artists. Year after year, they project that they are the most liberal of all newspapers in this country; but that’s a lie, and it’s time to expose their hypocrisy. Okay; so there goes my future gig at the Times: whoop-dee-damn-do. I hate hypocrisy. I really do.

Two years ago Assemblyman Clarence Norman (43rdAD) was facing reelection-while at the same time facing indictments in Brooklyn’s courts of about 80 counts-the New York Times sat on their hands. They refused to enthusiastically endorse his competent opponent-attorney Edward A. Roberts. They also took a pass on Roger Green’s race (57thAD)-when an aggressive early stand could have helped prevent that embarrassment. This year, Diane Gordon is in a similar situation, and again the Times refuses to endorse in that race (40th AD). Either of Ms. Gordon’s opponents (Kenneth Evans or Winchester Key) is preferable to her. PERIOD. Ms. Gordon is also being opposed for District Leader/Female (she holds two positions in this district), and even there she should be voted out.

In the race for Brooklyn’s 11th Congressional District, Yvette Clarke is picking up momentum ("Big Mo"- as it is called). She has snagged the endorsement of the powerful  Health Workers (1199) Union. She has also snagged the endorsement of another major trade union: 32BJ.

Added to these endorsements, is another from city-councilmember Darlene Meily. Ms. Clarke – the only woman in the race – has been picking up endorsements left and right of late, and seems to be trying to make up for her lacklustre fundraising.

Most pundits seem to think that she is the frontrunner in this race. 

When I left off on the first part of this column (see Rock Hackshaw’s blogs/Room Eight), I had given you all the story of how Roger Green got his nickname (the Dodger) in 1986.

I also gave a brief history of his subsequent ride downhill. Well, that’s brings us to today, where as of this writing, Roger is still a candidate for Congress in the 10th Congressional District. He is facing both incumbent Ed Towns and insurgent challenger NYC Councilmember Charles Barron.

With four fortnights to the election, Green filed that he had raised around forty thousand dollars, spent all of it plus, owed another twenty thousand or so, and held about four thousand cash on hand. This has led to all kinds of speculation as to why he is even in this race. Everyone knows that to run a credible Assembly race one needs around sixty thousand dollars (and this is a low-ball figure); with that in mind, figure the cost of running a congressional race, where you are tackling about 5 times an Assembly district in size.

Residency requirement rules vary from office to office; there is no one-size-fit-all standard. Rule of thumb is that you move into the district at least one year before the primary; this however doesn’t insulate you from charges of being a “carpetbagger”. Voters usually like to support those who have lengthy connections to the area they seek to represent, and as such incumbents often try to bring the residency of insurgents into play when looking for an edge or a knockout. In the current 11th Congressional race in Brooklyn, David Yassky’s residency has come up for scrutiny within the imbroglio. However, there is another race in Brooklyn where the residency factor may actually be more decisive than the voter’s choices. This race may be won or lost in the courthouse and not in the voting booth.

By now, most of you who read my columns here, probably know a few things about me, and about who I am, who I try to be, and where I come from. Plus, you can always click on my profile here on Room Eight if you are more curious. I was born into politics; my father was a left-wing activist. Somewhere around the mid-point of the 20th century (around 1953/I think), Iran’s democratically elected government was overthrown. The Prime Minister (Mossadegh) was ousted. History widely accepts that the United States was involved through the use of its Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.). The Shah of Iran was then re-installed as head of that country. He was later viewed as an American puppet who ruled with an iron-fist. Even then it was about OIL.

Earlier I outed Leroy G. Comrie for using close to two hundred thousand dollars on his re-election campaign when in actuality he had no opponent; well there are others. I am going to give you a list of the really egregious and odious ones who did the same thing; or those whose opponents were so weak that they didn’t need to spend a dime (collectively). And I mean that both literally and figuratively.

Let’s start with comptroller Bill Thompson, he spent $2,380,985. Can anyone tell me what he spent this money on?

Then Borough Presidents:

Helen Marshall spent $125,381.