Not too long ago I took City Council candidate Doug Biviano to task for lying about the record of one of his rivals, suggesting that his inaccurate depiction of her record perhaps stems from the fact that he wasn't even around during the fights he was talking about. Biviano is a brand, spanking newcomer to the fights for reform in Brooklyn and against Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards proposal. Yet he comes out accusing Jo Anne Simon, who has been part of these fights for years and who is endorsed by the strongest reformers and anti-Ratner organizations around, of not standing up on these issues. Biviano basically lied, plain and simple. But, rather than say he was a liar, I suggested his not even being a part of these fights until he suddenly got it in his head to run (I met him when that idea was incubating) was the reason for his inaccuracies.  read more »

I was surprised to find out that even after Michael Tobman managed to badly bungle a Brooklyn judicial race in 2008 (against a friend of mine, I will note) despite a massive money advantage, someone would hire him for a 2009 campaign. Tobman ran a very well funded, sleazy, Karl Rove style campaign on behalf of Roger Adler for a civil court seat and yet lost. The fact is that had Tobman run a cleaner, more mature campaign, he may well have won. But instead he took the nasty route and lost. I can't tell you how many people on primary day told me how turned off they were by the mailers on Adler's behalf that presumably Tobman approved. Dozens of people pointed out to me that Adler's mailers said nothing positive about Adler, merely smear attacks on Cohen. Bottom line is Tobman flubbed it.  read more »