Last night was the second of three endorsement meetings being held by the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats. I was working late, so I am relying on my wife's observations and the questionnaires the candidate had to fill out to be considered for a CBID endorsement (these are excellent resources and can be found at the CBID website for anyone who wants more info on the candidates) as well as my own previous experience with the some of the candidates. I urge everyone to check out these questionnaires.  read more »

Next to the 39th City Council district, the 33rd district is also among the most closely contested races in the city. I personally know all the candidates in the 39th. In the 33rd I know some very well, have met another, and with one, Isaac Abraham, have only heard him speak, not actually met him. I want to discuss this race based on my own experiences with the candidates. This race is a critical one in the fight against corruption in Brooklyn, as outlined in the Village Voice. Brooklyn Party Boss Vito Lopez is trying hard to take this seat and reformers are divided. Here's what the Village Voice has to say about this race:

Power Plays by Party Boss Vito Lopez

The Lord of Brooklyn, a Democratic powerbroker who is flexing his
political muscles these days like a gym rat pumping the free weights

By Tom Robbins - September 01, 2009 - The Village Voice

Say this for Vito Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic powerbroker who is
flexing his political muscles these days like a gym rat pumping the
free weights: He is not one to let a few silly scandals knock him off  read more »

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 »

Hubris is arrogance so great it offends the gods. When some kid suddenly appears on the political scene in Brooklyn and anoints himself king of the reform movement, and declares himself the "top of the pack" in a crowded City Council race where no one even knows his name, THAT is hubris. It also is political suicide.

I think it is about time I admit I was probably wrong about Doug Biviano when I described him, when he first appeared on the reform scene in Brooklyn, as an up and coming guy who many of us would be proudly supporting in later years...just not this year when he came on the scene too late with too little to offer an already crowded field. Now I am seeing him as a self-important brat who may never have anything to offer progressive and reform politics unless he gets his act together and stop pretending he knows everything.  read more »

Someone sent me an earlier version of a smear being done by City Council candidate Doug Biviano, but I chose to ignore it. I don't like jumping on people at the first chance. I like to give them a chance. In Doug Biviano's case I particularly wanted to give him a chance because I had met him and he seemed a genuinely decent person, if rather inexperienced. But now Biviano is making a habit of outright lies in his long-shot (to put it mildly) for the City Council. This time it is in a mailing I received today where he is trying to paint ALL his opponents as pawns of corrupt Party Boss Vito Lopez. And this is just plain bullshit.  read more »