Yesterday, I had occasion to be walking up Flatbush Ave. and went right past the storefront headquarters of the Yassky campaign. I looked in the window from a distance and could see it was bustling with activity, maps on the walls, computers, all the things you'd expect to see at a campaign hq. But there was one thing I didn't see that I found quite interesting-- white people. Yes, I stared straight in the window of Yassky HQ and must have seen six or eight people walking around doing things, all of whom were african american.

In short it was just the sort of image that you'd think Yassky would want to be portraying given the racial rhetoric of the campaign. But the whole thing was too convenient-- Yassky has this storefront on Flatbush Ave. with big windows so anyone passing by can look in. I had to wonder how many of those people were being paid to sit in the storefront, to be seen from the streets, stuffing envelopes, and if he was specifically paying black people to do that, so he can convey to passersby that he has more biracial support than he likely does. Is Yassky that calculating? I mean at Chris Owens HQ, you can't even look in the windows from the street because there are signs in the windows. You'd have to go in to see who was there. But at Yassky the windows are big, devoid of signage, and you can see into the office from clear across the street. It made me wonder...

Does anyone know what the other guys got?

I just found out that David Yassky only got 8,000 signatures. Compared to Chris' 13000+, which was done by volunteers not like Mr. Yassky’s paid mercenaries proves his grassroots campaign is coming together. Chris seems to have gained some great momentum in the district.

The petitioning for the primary may be done, but we in the Green party have just begun. Because we don't have ballot status (something we hope to change with Malachy McCourt as our candidate for Governor this year), we need to get 3750 valid signatures to get Chris Owens on the ballot in November as a Green.

Why is this important, you ask? Well, what happens if Yassky squeaks our a plurality win in September? The WFP has stayed neutral, and so Novemeber could mean a two-way race between Owens and Yassky, and I think we all know who would win that race.

So if you haven't already signed a petition for Owens, keep your eyes out for Green party folks on the streets and at events, and help us out!

On David Yassky's website Yassky has a story that says David Yassky submits 8,000 signatures, and I know your facts are correct about Chris's 13500. So Chris beat Yassky without one paid petitioner.

In all fairness, only 1,250 signatures are required for new york state congressional races, so both candidates had many thousands more than needed. If Yassky was paying for his petitions, he'd have been wasting money to pay for more than the eight thousand he got. Was he supposed to pay for 16,000 signatures when he only needed 1,250 just so he could "beat" Chris Owens?

Chris's petition drive was great, but I'm more concerned about fundraising and he's been seriously lagging way behind Yassky (and the other candidates for that matter). It would have been better if each signator had given money at the same time.

In a low turnout election, as this one will be, it doesn't take the most passionate supporters, it takes the most effective GOTV (get out the
vote) operation, and that takes money. Lots of money. We learned this the hard way last year in Norman Siegel's campaign for Public Advocate. Norman had the progressives all over the city in his corner, and way more people passionate about the candidate and energized working for his campaign than Betsy Gotbaum. Norman collected more signatures than Betsy did I believe, all collected by volunteers, and we petitioned all over the city, and if you judged by enthusiasm, you'd have thought he'd win by a mile. Didn't happen that way. On election day, Gotbaum had the money and organization to do GOTV, to get her people to the polls, and she won easily. I see the same enthusiam for Chris among progressives that I saw for Norman last year. Norman lost. Badly. So lets not go jumping up and down over succesful petition drives, there's a lot of work to do for Chris to win. We already know Yassky will have the money to do effective GOTV on election day, we don't know yet what Chris is going to be able to do because unlike Yassky, Chris still needs to raise a lot more money.

1) If the Owens number is real, it's great by any measure, but still I'd be curious what percentage from each candidate is door to door as opposed to street. Certainly much of IND, BID, and southern Brooklyn for Yassky is door to door, as is CBID and possibly 57th (Batson) for Chris and 43rd, 57th and other Central Brooklyn clubs for Andrews. If I had to guess, I'd say Chris has a higher percentage of street than anyone but Yvette, with Andrews having the most door to door. Clubs which qualify County Committee generally have the most door to door signatures, which by their nature are of the best quality for qualifying candidates, with the fewest out of district; by contrast, most street signaures have a high percenatge of crap (of course, this is less true in a statewide race, where nobody is out of district, but even there street sigs generally have a higher percentage of non-Dems).

2) The one bad thing about the election law reform which eliminated the requirement to state the number of signatures is that it allows everyone to lie to the press and public.

3) The Green Party should not be so sanguine; WFP nominated a placeholder who will likely be nominated for Supreme Court in the fall allowing them to substitute either Andrews or Clarke depending upon who looks stronger. As long as Bertha Lewis lives and breathes they won't substitute Owens. Thus, in the event of a Yassky victory in the primary, any Green Party effort on behalf of Owens in the general will just help to ensure Yassky's election, unless the idea is solely to draw white from Yassky to benefit the real black candidate.

how do you know all yassky petitioners were paid?

Here's an item from today's New York Sun, that backs up what I was saying about the campaign finances:

"Incidentally, here's an item from today's New York Sun about CD 11 campaign finances:
(source: http://www.nysun.com/article/36117?page_no=4)

"In the race to replace Rep. Major Owens of Brooklyn, who is retiring, a City Council member, David Yassky, has more money than his three opponents in the Democratic primary, combined. Since January, Mr. Yassky has raised $371,290 and has a total of $858,497 left in his campaign account. A state senator, Carl Andrews, has $295,754 in his congressional campaign account; a City Council member, Yvette Clarke, has $81,793, and Christopher Owens, the congressman's son, has $45,940."

This speaks volumes about the true state of the race, and why I'm so worried about Chris's campaign. What is likely to happen is that come election day, the two candidates with the the biggest GOTV efforts will be Yassky and Andrews. Yassky has far and away the most money, and Andrews has a chunk of money and more importantly Elliot Spitzer's endorsement. When voters go to the polls that day, they will no doubt be handed cards by Spitzer's people that have Elliot Spitzer's smiling face, and the slate of candidates he is backing underneath. Many voters who have no interest in the CD 11 race, may well pull the lever for Andrews simply because he's Elliot's guy and they came to the polls to vote for Elliot.

So I'm not getting my hopes up for Chris based on strong petitioning efforts.