I have voted Republican. Once, I think. Just once. I have voted Green. Once...maybe twice.
The vast majority of the time I vote, donate, agitate and work for the Democratic Party with varying degrees of pride, enthusiasm and, occasionally, holding my nose.
The Democratic Party Machine in Brooklyn, led by Vito Lopez, pretty much makes you hold your nose because there is always a stench of sleaze around them. There are debates as to whether they are an improvement over the previous incarnation of the Brooklyn Machine, the one whose former head is now deservedly in jail. Well, if you have to debate whether they are better than someone who is jailed for corruption, you know you are in trouble.
The Democratic Party Machine in Brooklyn and a whole gaggle of party hacks (a term I almost never use, but is precisely correct here) including Vito Lopez, Dominic Recchia, Dov Hikind, Marty Markowitz and a few others, have taken a step [1] that is making many Brooklyn progressives and reformers, many of Brooklyn's gay rights advocates, and many just plain sane people considering doing something they never would normally do: support a Republican. This gaggle of political hacks has decided that it would be more convenient for them if a sleazy, homophobic man who is known for having an anger management problem and who has never practiced law were made a judge of the 5th Civil Court in Brooklyn (Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Sunset Park, a sliver of Park Slope, and Parkville). They have decided they want Noach Dear to be a judge even though this man is deemed unqualified by the NY Bar Assn, has never practiced law and has a past of homophobic and racist actions, not to mention outright fraud leading to fines.
This is the man Marty Markowitz, Vito Lopez, Dominic Recchia and Dov Hikind (and others) want to be a new judge of the 5th Civil Court. And it has already lost Marty Markowitz in particular much of his LGBT supporters [2], and has led to a general warning going out [3] to those hacks that endorsed Dear in the primary (against a very qualified but little known Democrat, Karen Yellen) that they are on notice and that their endorsement of an unqualified sleaze will haunt them. The first chance people will have to hold one of the Noach Dear Democrats accountable for their endorsement of an unqualified sleaze will be opposing Dominic Recchia [4] in his primary challenge of Steve Harrison [5] for the NY-13 Congressional race.
Noach Dear's Republican opponent, Jim McCall, is conservative, but is unquestionably qualified and a reasonable man with a "judicial temperament," a term often thrown around though rarely defined other than to say "Noach Dear ain't got it."
To endorse a very conservative but very qualified Republican or a very conservative, blatantly unqualified Democrat hack who is backed by sleazy hacks?
Our Brooklyn leaders have really sunk low if this is the choice they have given us.
Do I endorse McCall? People have been asking me this for weeks, with some of the most unlikely people urging me to do just that. Let me lay my dilemma before you before giving an unsatisfactory answer.
If I were an Independent, or if I were simply thinking like a reformer, I would UNDOUBETEDLY endorse Jim McCall over Noach Dear, a man whose main view of a courtroom should be as a defendant. Judicial reform in Brooklyn means, above all else, that we get honest, qualified judges to serve us. Noach Dear CLEARLY does not fit the bill, but Jim McCall does. From a strictly reform point of view, Jim McCall is the right choice. Perhaps I should stop there, but there are things that prevent me from doing that. I am not an Independent. I am a Democrat. More than that, I am on the board of Independent Neighborhood Democrats and I am an elected member of the Kings County Democratic Committee, meaning that I represent a two-block by two-block chunk of Brooklyn within the Democratic Party. I criticize Vito Lopez for his past support of Pataki, D'Amato and Bloomberg. I criticize Dominic Recchia and Marty Markowitz for their past support of Bloomberg. Even though my "leadership" within the Democratic Party is pretty minimal, I would still feel it was wrong of me to criticize them while endorsing McCall myself. I can parse the situation to forgive myself, but I won't. I will pull back from the outright endorsement of Jim McCall I might do if reform of the judiciary in Brooklyn were my only concern.
But I am also a progressive. And in that sense I consider BOTH Dear AND McCall a poor choice because both are regressives with socially conservative ideas. As a progressive I cannot endorse either McCall OR Dear.
But I also consider not voting to be a poor choice. I criticize those who don't vote as abdicating their responsibility and much of their right to complain. Put up or shut up: vote and be active or accept what those who do foist upon you, good or bad.
So I fall back on a half-measure. For those who do not feel bound as I do by any leadership role, no matter how small, in the Democratic Party or their progressive ideology, consider McCall. He deserves your consideration even if you, like me, decide you cannot support him.
If, however, you find the choice offered to you by the hacks of the Vito Lopez machine unacceptable, I urge you to consider a write in vote for Karen Yellen, the QUALIFIED and progressive Democrat who could have won the primary if more of us had gotten off our asses earlier and paid attention to the race during the primary. That is my unsatisfactory solution: write in Karen Yellen, who already has 10 years experience as a Civil Court judge.
How do you write in? Here's what I did sometime back when I felt I was faced with similar dilemmas thanks to the likes of Marty Markowitz and others:
Begin voting as usual (pull the big lever to the right, etc). For all positions you want to vote for normally, just flip levers as usual. For positions you want to write in, look at the LOWER RIGHT HAND SIDE of the machine for a silver lever marked "Release lever." Flip that and leave it flipped. This releases little numbered sliding doors along the LEFT HAND SIDE of the machine. Find the numbered sliding door that corresponds to the number of the office you want to vote for and slide open the door. There will be a tiny slip of paper behind the door. Do not remove the paper, simply take a pencil (there should be one to your left in a little cup on the machine) and write the name of who you want to vote for (Karen Yellen). When you are done writing, simply close the little door. That's it. When you have flipped all levers and written in all write-in names, leave the silver release lever filpped (do not flip it back) and pull the big lever back to the left as usual.
I know some who will be disappointed that I advocate a write in for Yellen rather than a vote for McCall. But that is what I feel I have to do. Honestly, Yellen is the right person for the job and really deserves to be serving the 5th Civil Court. So, to all youse in Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Sunset Park, a sliver of Park Slope, and Parkville, write in Yellen...and do NOT vote for Noach Dear because he is about as unqualified to serve you on the 5th Civil Court as anyone can be.
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