This coming Tuesday, September 12 is Primary Day , and those of you who are registered as Democrats face an important choice that day. For the first time in decades, our district will be electing a new Congressperson. The person who wins next Tuesday is 99+% sure to be that Representative, and will likely retain that office for many years to come. So it is important for us all to consider the candidates carefully and to choose well.

As many of you already know, I have been working as a volunteer for Chris Owens. Knowing him for the last couple of years, I've had the chance to become familiar with him and his stands on the issues, and I am sure that he is clearly our best choice. He is smart, honest, forthright, and deeply committed to fighting for our community, our country and progressive values. He was an early opponent of the war in Iraq, is focussed on cleaning up the mess that the Republicans have made of our country, and is the only candidate who stands opposed to the current Atlantic Yards development plan for downtown Brooklyn. I urge you all to vote for him.

That is why I invite you to attend theCandidate's Forum at Beth Elohim Temple, 8th Avenue and Garfield Place, tomorrow night, Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 7 pm. All four candidates will participate, and Chris is his own best spokesman.

However, many of you are no doubt aware that the New York Times has endorsed one of Mr. Owens' opponents, David Yassky. If you are like me, you have trusted and acted upon the Times' endorsements in the past. And you 're probably wondering why, if Chris is so wonderful, didn't they endorse him instead?

David Yassky's father is a wealthy and successful real-estate developer, and so, understandably, Mr. Yassky has many connections in that field. His campaign has been lavishly funded by large donations from real-estate developers, so lavishly, in fact, that he has more money than all the other candidates combined. Those donors include Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner, who wants to build the Atlantic Yards in spite of widespread community objection to the proposal as it stands.

What does the Times have to do with all this? They have a business relationship with Forest City Ratner, which they scrupulously mention in every article they publish about the Atlantic Yards project. But somehow, it never gets mentioned in any of their coverage of this Congressional race. Sad to say, the Times seems to have allowed this relationship to cloud what should have been a dispassionate assessment of all the candidates' strengths and weaknesses. They have endorsed the best candidate for their business partner, but not necessarily the best one for the rest of us.

The editorial's mention of Mr. Yassky's accomplishments in the area of "affordable housing and jobs creation" in fact refers to a program called BUILD, which was intended as Mr. Ratner's contribution to the community in return for the right to build the Atlantic Yards; however, as soon as the program had been hammered out, Mr. Yassky used his position on the City Council to get Forest City Ratner a tax abatement for $3 million, exactly the amount he had been required to contribute to the program. In the end, BUILD was financed by the taxpayers of the city, but the Times doesn't mention that.

Their lack of real enthusiasm for Mr. Yassky may be noted in the language of the endorsement itself. The best word they could come up with for him was "opportunist"; does that sound like a compliment to you?

In fact, he is an opportunist. How else could you describe someone who entered the contest at the last practical moment, after making sure that he would be the only white candidate in a crowded field of African-Americans, stating publicly, "I'm the white guy in this race"? Someone who realized he'd soon be term-limited out of his City Council seat and looked around for another job, no matter that he'd never lived in the district he proposed to serve? Someone who was happy to finance his campaign with out-of-district donations from business interests he has served in the past, and will mostly likely continue to serve?

In contrast, they described Chris' weaknesses as the lack of a base and of passion. This is so weirdly off-base it's possible to think the writer has never met Chris or heard him speak. Whatever his other merits and faults, two of his greatest strengths are his passion, and the deeply committed and extensive community support it wins him.

I haven't mentioned the remaining two candidates, Carl Andrews and Yvette Clarke. Ms. Clarke's candidacy has been marred by the disclosure of several lies that she has told during the course of the campaign, including claiming endorsements she had not received, a college degree she has not earned, and income she failed to declare on a candidates' disclosure form. Mr. Andrews has spent his entire political career in close association with the corrupt Brooklyn Democratic regular organization, and has been a protégé of the disgraced and jailed Clarence Norman. It seems likely that indictments against Mr. Andrews himself may be forthcoming in the next few months. Neither of these candidates meets even a minimum standard of probity to merit your consideration, in my opinion.

Still, you should always decide for yourself. That's why I urge you to attend the Candidate's Forum at Beth Elohim Temple, 8th Avenue and Garfield Place, tomorrow night, Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 7 pm. I have confidence that when it's over, you'll agree with me that