Last week I reported on an event I was alerted to by two sources where Brad Lander was caught at a pro-Bloomberg event alongside Brad's homophobic ally Dov Hikind and Bush supporter Rudy Giuliani. Brad was literally on film sitting next to Giuliani. This was an event widely reported to include racist remarks aimed at Thompson and an observer of the event wrote into the Boro Park news paper Hamodia describing racist comments made after the event (as well as considerable dissatisfaction among Hasids about Bloomberg).  read more »

WFP and six local candidates, including Bill de Blasio (candidate for Public Advocate, ironically enough), Brad Lander, Daniel Dromm, et. al. broke campaign finance laws. That is a simple fact. WFP, and SOME (by no means all...John Liu for example did not participate) of their endorsed candidates played a little money scheme that allowed them to escape campaign finance laws that are designed to keep elections a tad cleaner and more transparent. They violated these laws, in effect using opaque and shady schemes to boost their effectiveness illegally.

Those are the facts and I personally think WFP needs to be held accountable for their violations...as do the candidates that participated.

Now some right wing nut cases (who I won't do the dignity of linking to) are picking up on this legitimate scandal and using it to show their attacks on ACORN (which WFP grew out of and is still connected with) were legit.  read more »

One of the hottest contested races in the September 15th primary is who will be the next City Council representative for the 39th district (Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Columbia Street, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Boro Park). I thought it was worth reviewing the candidates, all of whom I know fairly well, and all of whom I have heard speak and done some research on. Keep in mind I come into this as a supporter of Josh Skaller for this seat. So I save my endorsed candidate for last.  read more »

Tucked in the middle of two predominantly liberal districts in Brooklyn (the 33rd and 39th City Council districts) there are pockets of conservativism. Mostly when people think of these districts they think of the battle between the reformers and the machine candidates. In the 33rd the frontrunners are reformer Jo Anne Simon vs. Vito Lopez machine hack Steve Levin. In the 39th the frontrunners are reformer Josh Skaller vs. Working Families Party machine hack (to the extent of being caught up in the big WFP scandal this year) Brad Lander. But in each of these districts the machine candidates are also locked in another struggle: the attempt to take conservative votes from the sole conservative candidate in the district.  read more »

I have referred in the past to the problems Brad Lander may have among progressives due to his close connection with known homophobe and Holocaust denier (denial of anyone but Jews being killed in the Holocaust, that is) Dov Hikind. While campaigning for Brad's main rival, Josh Skaller, I have encountered several people who say, "Brad Lander is that guy with Dov Hikind. I can't vote for him!" But now it seems the Brad/Dov relationship may well be getting criticism from the other side as well. A reader passed along two letters from the Jewish Press:

Hikind And Lander (I)

Given The Jewish Press's continuing complaints about President Obama, I found last week's short report of Assemblyman Dov Hikind's endorsement of Brad Lander for New York City Council dripping with unintended irony.  read more »