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, who 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.  read more »

Straight from the Top Clarke herself this letter prepares us for the second and hopefully final special election in the 40th City Council District.

It goes a little something like this:

"A word about Dr. Mathieu Eugene's Campaign for City Council

April 24 Vote

We are coming down to the final days of this campaign, and thankfully, we are very encouraged by the responses of the people to Dr. Eugene and to the campaign as a whole.

It is important that we do as we did last time - that is, each of our supporters reaches out to 10 friends, family and colleagues, persuading them of the importance of combining our strength in this common purpose. We will send a message again, that we are here, and we shall not be denied. We are focused and will not be distracted from our goal of making this a better place for our children to live in.

I ask you not to get distracted or fooled by those who know nothing about our community and mean us no good, but want to use us to get to places and then forget us.

Watch out for deliberate lies and efforts to discourage and prevent you from voting!

As a special election, even non-Democrats can vote. We know that there are a few of them out there, so please reach out to them to join in this historic moment."  read more »

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), 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.

What is known is that there were discussions amongst various candidates who ran, with the intention of coming up with one alternative candidate to Eugene; these talks however seem to have been fruitless. At one point it was rumored that both Jennifer James and Leithland Tulloch were willing to endorse Sharpe, but these endorsements have apparently been rescinded up to the time of this writing. Of some of the other candidates who ran first time around: both Jesse Hamilton and Karlene Gordon are said to be endorsing Eugene in this upcoming race. Zenobia McNally is rumored to be pointing towards a September challenge for the winner of this re-run, and Ambassador Joel Toney is said to be mulling retirement from politics. Mo Ravzi is said to be interested in another run for some office somewhere down the road; while Jennifer James is said to be mulling over either a September challenge for this seat, or a run for congress next year. If she challenges Yvette Clarke, she will get lots of support out there folks. Gerry Hopkins is missing in action at the moment; Chris Owens still won’t run for this seat and yours truly refuses to be a draftee/lol.  read more »

Stonewall Dems email over announcing that the winner of yesterday's special election in Staen Island is Matt Titone. Titone will take the seat of the late John Lavelle, representing the North Shore of the borough.

The New York Times:

In a special election yesterday, Staten Islanders elected the borough’s first openly gay official by selecting Matthew Titone to a State Assembly seat on the island’s north shore...

The Staten Island race in the 61st Assembly District drew a great deal of attention because of Mr. Titone and his two rivals. The Independence Party candidate, Kelvin Alexander, would have been the borough’s first black assemblyman had he prevailed. And Rose Margarella, the Republican candidate, would have been the first of her party to be elected from this heavily Democratic district in recent history.

With 100 percent of the votes counted, Mr. Titone received 2,888 votes, Ms. Margarella 1,846 and Mr. Alexander 1,122, according to unofficial figures from the New York City Board of Elections.

The question that should be asked, however, is whether Titone will actually represent his constituents, or become yet another faceless vote drone in the Assembly.  read more »