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Kings County Democratic Party, Developers and Corruption
Well, we all know that the current Republican Party takes corruption and cronyism to heights previously unimagined. But the Brooklyn Democratic Party manages to be corrupt almost to a Republican degree.
Clarence Norman, the previous chief of corruption for Brooklyn Dems is now behind bars where he belongs. But many of his allies continue his tradition of corruption. People wonder about Clarence Norman's right hand man, Carl Andrews, and whether he will follow in the footsteps of Norman all the way to jail. So far, Andrews has avoided that fate and now emphasizes his ties to Spitzer more than his ties to Norman.
But Assemblywoman Diane Gordon hasn't been so lucky. I come a bit late to this but Diane Gordon has been caught on videotape demanding that a developer build her a $500,000 house in exchange for using her influence to steer a city-owned vacant lot into his hands.
A few things here. First off, Gordon is doing pretty well here. Often Brooklyn politicians sell out for far less than half a million. On the other hand, where was this house going to be? Half a million is not a lot of money for a home in NYC these days!
But notice that behind the deal was a deal to smooth the path for a developer to get some property outside of normal channels. Here Gordon is doing nothing different than the same old backroom deals that Pataki, Markowitz and Bloomberg do all the time with developers. I don't think Pataki, et. al. are doing it for bribes the way Gordon is, but the cronyism behind Pataki law school pal Ratner getting special consideration on all levels of his development plans isn't really any less disgusting than Gordon's blatant corruption. Giving special treatment to developers is par for the course these days in NYC. Of course getting a personal bribe is particularly blatant. But in the case of David Yassky, he got support from some Ratner allies right before he turned around and proposed putting $3 million of city money into a jobs program that Ratner had promised to fund. Seems like developers are in control here.
Apparently Gordon could have been off the hook had she retired from politics and cooperate with a broader corruption investigation but she backed out of the deal and is running for re-election. This leaves open the question as to who is targeted in that broader investigation? Which former ally of Norman is sweating more these days? Vito Lopez? Carl Andrews? Perhaps time will tell.
Diane Gordon
Diane Gordon was trying to get this house for free or next to nothing, and according to reports, the house wasn't even in her district. It was over the border in Queens. So she was going to have the house put in her mother's name to skirt the residency issues among other things.
So now what we have is an assemblywoman who doesn't want to live in that district anymore, and who tried to use her position's influence to get a free house in Queens. She is caught on videotape blatantly trying to cut the deal. And now whats happening? She's running for re-election!
The Kings County Democratic Party is going to look really bad, Brooklyn Democrats are going to look really bad, if she gets re-elected, and she may well. Because incumbents almost always get re-elected in these races and the news articles point out that she's well connected in the district and known for outstanding get out the vote efforts.
I want to see the Democratic Party officials in Brooklyn, and candidates running for office this year in Brooklyn, come out against her re-election. She should not get re-elected, she should resign. Diane Gordon is/was part of Clarence Norman's machine (she figured prominently at his trial), and is tight with Carl Andrews. I want to see Carl Andrews come out and tell her she should resign and not run for office again unless she wins her trial. Not that this will happen though, the party insiders in Brooklyn take care of their own. Carl Andrews is hard pressed, even when asked, to say a negative thing about Clarence Norman, let alone Diane Gordon.
Good luck!
You'll have the machine back her...unless her betrayal of Clarence Norman in his trial means she is on the outs with the machine. But possibly not since Norman's removal has given the current machine leadership its chance to advance. And the machine is still strong. You will see the usual timid response from reform Democrats whose reach doesn't really affect that area much and who are too busy with infighting over the CD-11 race and protecting Marty Connor from Diamondstone. But the reformers will be looking for weaknesses in the machine where they can because they do want to break the machine's hold. And you will see a possibly more vocal and loud response from progressives, but only if they can be distracted from infighting over the CD-11 race and trying to defeat Marty Connor.
Brooklyn politics...never a dull moment, no matter what EnWhySeaWonk says.