Candidates to fill the late John Lavelle’s State Assembly seat, the openly Gay Matt Titone and Kelvin Alexander, a co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care accuse each other’s campaigns of bigotry according to Saturday’s Link Text [1]Staten Island Advance.
Democratic Candidate Titone, who lost to Andrew Lanza in a November State Senate bid, has been challenging Alexander, the Independence Party candidate (But still a member of County Democratic Committee) and Democratic Brooklyn State Senator Eric Adams ‘s chief of staff’s petition signatures. Not signatures for his Independence candidacy, but those for his made up additional line, the Family First Party (Which has nothing to do with the Working Families Party).
Alexander finished a distant fourth at the Staten Island Democratic Committee’s nominating convention, but anticipating that secured the Independence nomination and began petitioning for his made up party line before the convention.
Alexander ridiculously asserted Titone’s challenging of his Family First Party signatures, many of which were allegedly from non-registered voters and people not living in the district marginalizes blacks, while Titone counters that the word “Family†in Kelvin’s party moniker could be a homophobic code word suggesting that Matt being Gay means he’s anti-family.
Even if kicking off the ballot a candidate with a dubious petition, who happens to be black, marginalizes African American voters, removing the Family First line doesn’t disenfranchise them because Alexander is already on the ballot representing the more established Independence Party.
I was supposed to become a County Committee member in June 2006 but somehow was never officially added. I was told the situation will eventually be rectified, but I wasn’t allowed to participate in the nominating convention. If I was there, I would have voted for Alexander in the first round and switched to Titone on subsequent ballots and will continue to support him in the March 27 election. I campaigned with Matt on Saturday night.
61st Assembly District elections are normally Democratic cakewalks. Titone without Alexander siphoning off black and some progressive white support would be expected to win with 65 -70 percent of the vote. Republican Rose Margarella received 28 percent of the vote against Lavelle in November, but should do slightly better because she’s not facing an incumbent. Alexander’s candidacy gives her a shot at upsetting Titone, which is why he shouldn’t run. He particularly shouldn’t do this because he’s a county committee member and shouldn’t be disloyal if he’s part of the local Democratic infrastructure.
For Margarella to win the Republicans must be well organized. A very safe seat could be in jeopardy if Republicans aggressively get out the vote and increase her support to 40 percent (which may not be difficult to do if total turn out is close to the traditionally low levels endemic to special elections.) and Kelvin takes away 20 percent of Matt’s vote.
I have another reason not to a waste a vote on Alexander besides his candidacy giving the Republicans a chance to undeservedly make this a competitive race. At the Staten Island Democratic Association candidate forum, a few days before the county convention, one woman asked the candidates their positions on three litmus test issues, abortion, death penalty and gun control. In Kelvin’s response to the death penalty question, he advocated regular torture, yes torture, as a capital punishment alternative. He didn’t say this facetiously and appeared to have formulated this policy while explaining his death penalty opposition.
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