Joy and I had been lagging a bit in our petitioning efforts since I had been out of town for a conference. We had, with an IND friend, petitioned to qualify for County Committee (our petitions included Assemblywoman Joan Millman and our district leaders as well), and did a little petitioning for Chris Owens. But given the amount I nag people about petitioning, I can't say I had lived up to my nagging.

This last weekend, though, we got together with a DFNYC/CBID friend and carried petitions for Bill Batson and Chris Owens, my two favorite local candidates this year.

On one day we opted to petition in enemy territory. Noticing David Yassky's campaign HQ was empty at the time, we decided to do some petitioning along that block of Flatbush. Somehow it felt right getting signitures for Chris right in front of David's HQ. I have to say the response was pretty good.

But we didn't want to be obnoxious, so once Yassky's people started arriving, we moved on...to Ratner land.

We petitioned in front of Pathmark. Response was okay but not great. The most interesting response, though, was from Ratner's employees. We were infomed (politely) that we couldn't petition there. Maybe they didn't like my DDDB T-shirt. When I told them that city law allows me to petition in a public place I was informed that Ratner owned the whole area (this was on the sidewalk along Atlantic Ave) and that he was the "biggest guy around." When I said he wasn't above the law, the employee wanted to argue, though reluctantly admitted that the law might apply to Ratner. Finally I told him that I didn't want a problem so I would check with the police. He backed off and called his supervisor...who said I was within my rights to petition along Atlantic Avenue. The Ratner employee was very polite and apologized, but it was very typical that there seemed doubt that the law applied to Ratner. Let's face it, Bloomberg and Pataki have exempted him from so many State and Local laws that it is no wonder Ratner and his people might view him as being above the law.

Joy and I petitioned some more for Bill and Chris in Prospect Heights the next day. I know most people perfer petitioning in a crowded area, but we actually found petitioning along streets like Sterling were much more productive. It took us no time to beat our previous day's number of signitures. We found the response very interesting. With only one or two exceptions, black residents were VERY enthusiastic, saying they knew Major and Chris Owens and loved them and thanking us for petitioning. About half of white residents were similarly enthusiastic about Chris, but the other half were hostile to him and complained about Major Owens never doing anything. When I petition I don't argue, so I didn't point out that Major isn't running. But it is interesting that race really does seem to matter. Or, at least, the attitudes towards both Major Owens and Chris are split partly along racial lines. Those whites who were enthusiastic about Chris were those who struck me as most liberal, not surprisingly.

Sterling was prime petitioning territory for Chris. But St. John's Place was a bit more strange. That is where we ran into the crazies. We first ran into a Caribbean man who had some very odd theories. His basic point was dead on: that blacks in America still have no voice and, in fact, most people in general are kept powerless by those who have money. I disagreed with his reaction to this powerlessness: that it isn't worth doing anything political. The basis for his theories were odd in the extreme. He had an odd mix of racial and anti-Semetic stereotypes, often having to do with ideas of penis size and loose America women. But his feeling of powerlessness I think reveals real problems in our society.

The other crazy also had a good basic point though based on odd ideas. His main point was that Chris is failing to convey to the voters any actual record of accompllishment. Chris needs to show he has DONE stuff for the community. Knowing Chris, I thought this was unfair, but when I looked over the Chris Owens campaign literature I had to give out, I had to agree that there were good ideas but no presentation of Chris' accomplishments for the community. Clarke and Yassky tout their accomplishments to the point of gross exaggeration. Chris needs to counter this, is this guy's point. Is he right? It almost doesn't matter. What matters is the perception among voters. Chris ideally needs to get out there and convince voters that he can deliver for them. He may well be doing this, but his campaign literature may not be conveying it enough.

Finally, very few people had heard of Bill Batson. I was discussing this with other activists and our view is that Bill could win this race with some ease if he gets out and meets people. Hakeem, his main rival, does not have a warm personality. Whatever his strong points, Hakeem's demeanor is off-putting. So he would not benefit as much from getting out and knocking on doors and meeting people. But Bill would. Bill Batson will win if he gets out and meets the district. I will say that the few people who had heard of Bill had a very positive impression. Which only re-enforces my view that Bill needs to be out on the street more.

Petitioning is winding down, though there is still about a week left. Next stop...the primary!

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