This weekend my family took the long haul to Wellington Sharpe's house for the BBQ fundraiser for Rock Hackshaw for City Council. And it was well worth the haul.

The party was, in the words of my son, Jacob, "an EXCELLENT party."

Rock Hackshaw is running for the 40th City Council district (Kensington, Prospect-Lefferts, Ditmas Park; parts of Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush). Many of us know Rock from his blogging on Room 8 and (occasionally) Daily Gotham. I first met him in person (after some time sparring online) when Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes had a blogger event and Rock showed up and, in typical Rock fashion, bluntly challenged the DA on political corruption in Brooklyn. Watching Rock and Hynes go at it was quite entertaining.

What impresses me most about Rock is he is probably the most up front, honest guy you will meet. He seldom if ever equivocates or ducks a question. In a sea of rather weasel-like NYC politicians, that kind of honesty is refreshing.

I had a sense I wanted to attend at least one event for Rock and my instincts were right. It took some doing because the ever-declining subway system was working worse than usual, even for a weekend. Took us about twice as long as it should have to make it out to Sharpe's place thanks to the MTA. We got there well after it was scheduled to begin, but of course it was running even later than us. Usually with Jacob in tow we are good only for about 90 minutes to 2 hours. We stayed a good 3 hours and could have stayed longer if it wasn't already past Jacob's bedtime.

Having attended and even hosted fundraisers for a wide range of candidates before, I have to say this was among the most enjoyable. Good music, great people and amazing food. Several BBQs going at once with fish, chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers. I saw them slapping a wonderful looking sauce on the fish and knew that was going to be delicious. I am not a big fish eater, but I had two pieces of that. The chicken was great too. Jacob was thrilled with a hot dog, whole ear of corn on the cob, and a huge piece of strawberry short cake that he systematically worked his way through.

The event had two purposes: to raise money for Rock's campaign and to serve as Rock's official and personal endorsement of Norman Siegel for Public Advocate. Rock has previously endorsed Norman Siegel on Room 8. To quote from Rock's diary:

It seems like only one contender here was always serious about this position: Norman Siegel. Of the others, this appears to be a last minute calculation only after certain ducks never lined up right...

Today, I am endorsing Norman Siegel for this race. And you have my campaign manager (Mariya Yudkevich) to thank for this one. You see, a few weeks ago I was leaning towards Bill diBlasio in order to do a very trite “Brooklyn thing”. My manager made me walk back on that one. It gave me time to think this race through. And I have come up with the person who has really been our public advocate all his adult life; the one candidate in this race who focuses ONLY on this job: Norman Siegel.

Norman and Rock expressed their admiration for eachother's integrity and determination and their mutual doggedness in fighting the good fight. The crowd was quite taken by Norman Siegel (they already seemed to know and be fond of Rock). Meanwhile Norman expressed how impressed he was with Rock's platform, recently posted on Room 8 (Hey Rock...what are we? Chopped liver? Post it on DG as well). Norman pointed out that very few City Council candidates even have a platform, let alone one so comprehensive and well thought out. He also expressed something that has also impressed me about Rock: his willingness to admit uncertainty on difficult issues and to listen and consider both sides. Too often this has been seen as triangulation, but sometimes it is genuine deliberation, which I think is extremely important in leaders. I don't agree with every plank in Rock's platform (and I suspect neither does Norm), but it is well considered and our city would benefit if it is brought to the table in our city council. Don't take my word for it, read it yourself. I don't want more trained lackeys of Bloomberg. I want some Council members with balls and and brains, and Rock certainly has those.

Jacob had a great (or as he says, EXCELLENT) time. He flirted with women, made friends with other kids, and ate lots of great food. I suspect Jacob would love hanging out with Wellington, Rock and their friends again if the MTA's decline doesn't make it impossible to cross the proverbial tracks again. I won't for the moment discuss my position on the Public Advocates race (that will be discussed in considerable detail within I week, I suspect). But I want to reiterate my endorsement of Rock Hackshaw. Despite our disagreement on some issues, I trust Rock to do the right thing when push comes to shove, even on issues where we don't fully agree.