Council Candidate Steve Levin: Bored by Nydia, Unenthused by Reform

Though the Optimist used his post yesterday to sneak over the Pulaski Bridge from his home in Greenpoint and weigh in on Queens politics, rest assured, dear readers, that doesn't mean he has stopped paying attention to the important affairs of his own community.

Quite to the contrary, the Optimist has been keeping careful watch on the Council race to succeed David Yassky. That's why David Michaelson's account of this weekend's Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) Annual Dinner was of particular interest to him.

The following is an excerpt from Michaelson's (a.k.a. Mole333) account of the event, in which he describes Council candidate Steve Levin's reaction to our Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez's speech about the excitment of the new Obama Administration. If you've never heard Levin's name, you may have nonetheless seen him joined at the hip to his boss Vito Lopez. Personally, every time I see Levin, who is in his late 20s, he strikes me as a person who has sacrificed his youth to the cold, calculating cynicism of old age. I'll let you decide for yourself. Here's Mole:

An interesting side note was that Steve Levin, Vito Lopez's candidate for the 33rd City Council district (where I have endorsed Jo Anne Simon) was in attendence. I was across the room from him during Nydia's speech on helping small businesses and on the thrill of being a Democat with Obama as President. I was struck at how bored and unenthusiastic he seemed on these subjects. I had heard that, despite being Vito Lopez's pick for the seat, he was a nice, decent guy. Yet there he was looking like a teenager someone had dragged to a political event, bored and surly. He would pointedly not clap or clap sarcastically while everyone else was enthusiastically applauding Nydia and Obama. What was up with him?

Then I realized. It was the fact that he WAS Vito Lopez's kid, and Vito Lopez HATES Nydia Velazquez. You'd think Levin would prefer, at a reform Democrat event like CBID's dinner, to show he is NOT so intimately linked to the corrupt Vito Lopez, but instead he chose to emphasize that Vito's petty grudges are his petty grudges.

Either that or he just had indigestion. But the impression he made was not a good one at a moment when the rest of the crowd was quite enthusiastic as progressives and as Democrats.

35 Brooklyn Democratic County Committee Members Say NO to Extending Term Limits

An Open Letter from 35 Members of the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee to the New York City Council Opposing the Extension of Term Limits

cc: Mayor Mike Bloomberg
Council Speaker Christine Quinn
Ronald Lauder


Dear Council Members:

What if President Bush had decided to amend the Constitution so that he could run for a third term? Surely, since 47 out of 51 of you are Democrats, this notion must be pretty frightening. Yet it is this concern that best sums up why we oppose the proposal before you to extend term limits.

Whether term limits are good for New York City is not an issue we care to argue. In the past 15 years, the voters of our City have twice decided that philosophical debate for themselves. In fact, it is as a result of their decision that most of you owe your current jobs. But now that you are on the verge of having to relinquish your power to a new generation of leaders, many of you are having second thoughts.

Surely, you can’t expect voters to interpret your motivations to extend term limits as anything but a self-serving power grab. Every dictator in world history faced with term limits has argued at the last minute of their reign that the political climate is so serious the people must keep them in power or else fear ruin. Well, New York City didn’t buckle when Mayor Giuliani tried to stay in office after 9/11. Now, we ask you to show the same courage and stand up to Mayor Bloomberg.

The people of New York need your help as City Council Members to protect our vote. The major newspapers, so many of our elected officials, and even Ron Lauder, once the foremost champion of term limits, have all abandoned us or cut backroom deals. You’re the last hope of the little guy. If you really think that New Yorkers want this change, then put Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal back on the ballot for referendum and let us decide.

We 35 members of the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee ran for office to be the voice of our neighbors and our communities. We thought you ran for office for the same reason. Here’s your chance to prove us right.

Sincerely,

Llewellyn Armstrong, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Alice Backer, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Martin J. Bernstein, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Evan Burr, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Vallie Copeland, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Craig Czarnecki, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Christopher Diamond, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Esteban Duran, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Ellen Enders, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Hal Friedman, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Sabrina Gates, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
David Greenson, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Jen Halbert, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
MacGregor Harp, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Jamila Jabulani, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Cyril Joseph, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Steven Juskowicz, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Glenn T. Kelly, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Cheryl Krauss, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Jeff S. Merritt, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
David Michaelson, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Gilford T. Monrose, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Ethan Nichtern, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Chris Owens, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Morgan Pehme, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Colin Phillips, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Mireyda Reyes, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Sam Ritchie, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Joy Romanski, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Bill Salzman, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Josh Skaller, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Eva Talmadge, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Kelly L. Thompson, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Theodore Wright, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
James Zika, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member

"Farce": A Review of Last Night's Brooklyn Democratic County Committee Meeting

Last night, 181 Members of the Kings County Democratic County Committee huddled in an auditorium at St. Francis College in downtown Brooklyn to participate in the theatre of the absurd.

Move over Samuel Beckett, Vito Lopez in the hizzy.

Despite my unflappable optimism, I can't say I was surprised at how the night went. Though this was the first time I had attended the notorious affair, I had been warned in advance as to how these performances go. Basically, a bunch of elected officials and party loyalists take turns literally reading from a script to dutifully enact whatever agenda Vito Lopez has decided upon, and then call the meeting to a close as quickly as possible, so that its members don't get a headache from too much democracy all in one night.

Except for a few hiccups, that's precisely how last night played out. Taking every opportunity to eschew debate and neutralize dissent, the officials cast by Vito to read the script handed out to them earlier in the day did so as quickly as possible and then exited stage left.

The only people in the chorus who seemed to have missed the director's notes were Councilman Charles Barron, political blogger David Michaelson (a.k.a. mole333) and his wife Joy Romanski (corresponding secretary of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats), and the 50+ newly elected members of the County Committee from the New Kings Democrats political club.

Charles Barron, who incidentally is a far better actor than any of the extras sent by Central Casting to play Vito's goons, began his sparkling performance by challenging the largely ceremonial adoption of the Committee's rules on the grounds that he had not been given a chance to review them in advance. The fact that someone dared to disrupt the show early on palpably unnerved the crowd, which suddenly had to confront the possibility that the airy musical they had come to see had been surreptitiously replaced by the complete works of Ibsen.

Councilman Lewis Fidler, playing a toned-down version of Councilman Lewis Fidler, took it upon himself to calm the crowd, arguing that were the County Committee not to adopt the rules that the meeting would not be officially convened (bad), the Kings County Democratic Party would not be a legally sanctioned body and thus incapable of appointing judges (very bad), and that the globe would go flying off its axis and plunge into the sun (maybe not so bad if McCain gets elected).

A few eventful scenes later, Charles Barron again took the stage and delivered the evening's only noteworthy monologue. Unfortunately, I couldn't scribble it down fast enough in my program, but it began: "This is ridiculous! I've never been to a more scripted meeting in my whole life! This is insulting!" His eloquent soliloquy was saluted with scattered enthusiastic applause and then promptly dismissed as a rant.

The rest of the evening's sound and fury was left to the members of the New Kings Democrats, who tried their best in the role of "Reformers", but were overshadowed by Vito Lopez and the 670 Proxies. Every time the night's Chairman State Senator Marty Connor would call a vote on any proposal not in the script, if the yeas and the nays sounded even (NKD's members made up a vocal third of the audience), Connor would dispense with the pageantry and remind the crowd that there was a superstar with 670 votes to his name waiting in the wings ready to make a surprise cameo at any time. Since this one man was worth over three times the value of those in attendance (despite all the electeds there), Connor's forthright observation always settled the issue conclusively.

Speaking of Connor, this reviewer would be remiss in not acknowledging that he was genuinely moved by the veteran's performance as "Broken Man in Twilight". Now I can't claim to have seen Connor in his heyday, but as last night's Richard III, he brought an unexpected candor to the proceedings. He appeared not as a grand Senator, but as a mere man in need of a horse, beset with the anguish that comes when the realization that he will never again be king.

As for the rest of the ensemble, Vito Lopez was captivating, but unbelievable, in the role of "The Gentle Giant" (seriously, that guy is towering).

Assemblywoman Annette Robinson and District Leader Olanike Alabi were disappointing as "The Early Adjourners". For those critics who will allege that the New Kings Democrats didn't accomplish anything last night, I would point to the bit parts read by this duo as the reason NKD didn't get more of a chance to shine. By ushering the show to a close before any new business could be proposed, Robinson and Alabi cheated a good portion of the audience out of the cost of admission. I was particularly dispirited by Alabi's role. Usually, one of the only truly progressive District Leaders, she could have made something of her part, but instead preferred to mail it in. I know she could have done better.

Equally disappointing were "The Electeds". And I mean all of them, except for Charles Barron. Not a single one of them in attendance last night (District Leaders included!), has any chance of being cast in 2009's much-anticipated blockbuster release "Brooklyn's Real Reformers". Of course, their agents and acting coaches will try to convince you otherwise next September, but don't believe the hype.

Last, but not least, The Optimist found himself unexpectedly the central figure in one of the night's only moments of true levity. I attended the meeting not yet knowing of the outcome of the primary race I ran last week to represent my tiny swath of Greenpoint as its Democratic County Committee Member. The good people at NKD took it upon themselves to nominate me for appointment to the committee on their slate of candidates for the 50th Assembly District. When Chairman Connor read the competing slate of candidates, it turned out that in the 93rd Election District Morgan Pehme's opponent on the competing slate was none other than "Morgan Pehme".

I stood up in the meeting, announced that I happened to be "Morgan Pehme", and said that the reason NKD had nominated me was because I did not yet know the outcome of the primary. Chairman Connor smiled and said, "Apparently, you won. Congratulations. Everyone seems to like you." My victory was greeted with perhaps the warmest and only non-controversial round of applause of the night.

I wonder if I'm still going to be as universally well-liked after you read my review of last night's show?

As always, I will remain optimistic.

Josh Skaller Raising Dough to Replace DeBlasio

Renowned progressive blogger mole333 has been plugging hard to raise funds for his friend Josh Skaller's 2009 City Council campaign to replace Bill DeBlasio in the 39th District. Having already hosted a fundraiser at his apartment, mole333 (a.k.a. David Michaelson) is now pushing the next Skaller event, which will be held on January 27th.

Skaller is President of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), one of the borough's most potent political clubs, as well as a board member and field director for Democracy for New York City, the local chapter of the national PAC that grew out of Howard Dean's failed 2004 presidential run. Based on these connections, Skaller should be in the thick of the race for DeBlasio's seat, which covers much of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens, but the field is shaping up to be a dense one.

Already there are two other declared candidates: longtime Community Board 6 district manager and New York City Hall of Famer (not for sports!) Craig Hammerman and Brad Lander, director of the Pratt Center for Community Development and former executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee.

Lander, like Skaller, is new to running for office, but Hammerman ran against DeBlasio in 2001. He'll have to hope to fare better than last time when he finished 6th out of 6 (ouch!) in the Democratic primary. For the record, I think the election results that year went DeBlasio in 1st, then Steven Banks, then you, then your dog, then your dog's brother's third cousin, twice removed, and then Craig Hammerman.

The Optimist doesn't have any word yet on any Hammerman or Lander fundraisers, but if you want to go to Skaller's, here's the nitty-gritty, compliments of mole333:

Host: Wayne Brooks
Location: Wayne's apartment
262 Court Street #2/Butler Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 US
When: Sunday, January 27, 3:00PM
Phone: 347-645-0581

Norman Siegel Fundraiser Recap Part II

Just as exciting for The Optimist as being introduced to the candidate at yesterday's fundraiser for Norman Siegel in Brooklyn Heights was meeting many of the borough's political advocates that The Optimist has admired from afar.

First, there was David Michaelson (a.k.a. mole333), Managing Editor of the national progressive blog Culture Kitchen, whose own blog Mole's Progressive Democrat - which overlaps with his work on the Daily Gotham - was one of The Optimist's chief inspirations when he decided to venture into the blogosphere. Michaelson, who had his cute 3-year-old son Jacob in tow at the event, co-hosted the fundraiser with his wife Joy Romanski, the Corresponding Secretary of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, a political club which meets in Park Slope.

The Optimist was also pleased to make the acquaintance of Ken Diamonstone, who is still considering whether to make another upstart bid to unseat the long-entrenched incumbent for his State Senate seat in the 25th District. Diamonstone, who garnered the endorsement of The New York Times and a host of heavyweights in his 2006 bid, was edged out by Connor in the Democratic primary by a miniscule 59 votes in Brooklyn (although he was trounced in the Manhattan portion of the district by over 2000).

Also in attendance at the event were Charlotte Phillips, Chairperson of Brooklyn for Peace, political activist for Democracy for New York City and rumored Queens City Council candidate Dan Jacoby, and the delightful Olga "Pete" Valentine, an off-and-on resident of the same house on Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights for 80 years.

Last but not least was community leader Marjorie Gersten, who graciously opened her wonderful apartment for the fundraiser. Seeing Gersten's apartment was reason enough to attend her superbly organized event.