A few months aback, when I first wrote about the vacancy in the 40th city council district, I had never in my wildest imaginations expected so much drama to a simple special election; but drama we had, and maybe the best is yet to come. No sense rehashing all the funky stuff of the past few months, but let me bring some of you up to date as to where we are, with just three days to the election (part two).

About 48 hours ago, a federal judge put candidate Wellington Sharpe back on the ballot, after he was removed by the NYC Board of Elections, who had upheld a challenge on Sharpe’s petitions from the Mathieu Eugene camp. Then yesterday, an appellate court held that despite the fact that Eugene had created the present vacancy in this district- by failing to take up his duly elected post- he should be still placed on the ballot, since his deceptive behavior didn’t reach the level of a felony. They arrived at this position despite the fact that the law is clear: once you create a vacancy, you cannot run for said office. The law is also clear that failing to swear in to office meant that “you” created the vacancy. So on Tuesday (4-24-07), there will be a special election in Brooklyn again, with Mathieu Eugene, Wellington Sharpe and Harry Schiffman as the candidates. So much for the law, its variations and violations; and on we go, and on we go, and we go on.

Straight from the Top Clarke herself this letter prepares us for the second and hopefully final special election in the 40th City Council District.

It goes a little something like this:

"A word about Dr. Mathieu Eugene's Campaign for City Council

April 24 Vote

We are coming down to the final days of this campaign, and thankfully, we are very encouraged by the responses of the people to Dr. Eugene and to the campaign as a whole.

It is important that we do as we did last time - that is, each of our supporters reaches out to 10 friends, family and colleagues, persuading them of the importance of combining our strength in this common purpose. We will send a message again, that we are here, and we shall not be denied. We are focused and will not be distracted from our goal of making this a better place for our children to live in.

I ask you not to get distracted or fooled by those who know nothing about our community and mean us no good, but want to use us to get to places and then forget us.

Watch out for deliberate lies and efforts to discourage and prevent you from voting!

As a special election, even non-Democrats can vote. We know that there are a few of them out there, so please reach out to them to join in this historic moment."

Won’t it be ironic if there is no special election on April 24th in the 40th city council district? After all, many have accused Mathieu Eugene of wasting government money, with his refusal to be confirmed in a seat that he had won-given all his shenanigans after the election. Well, based on the buzz in the trenches, all the candidates that filed for the re-run were weak in their signatures. The speculation is rife that Eugene is in the driver’s seat and that he may well knock every opponent off the ballot. Won’t that be something?

When petitions were submitted, five candidates filed. They were namely; Mathieu Eugene (black/Haitian-American male), Wellington Sharpe (black Jamaican born male), Harry Schiffman (white/Jewish), Marie Gina Faustin (black Haitian-American female) and Darly Brutus (black Haitian-American male). Three of these ran first time around (Eugene/actual winner then, Sharpe and Schiffman); so it was a bit surprising to many, that the runner up in the last race (Jennifer James) didn’t show up in the re-run, given that Sharpe (3rd) and Schiffman (4th) did. Sensibly, the nine other also-rans stayed away from this race; thank God.

What is known is that there were discussions amongst various candidates who ran, with the intention of coming up with one alternative candidate to Eugene; these talks however seem to have been fruitless. At one point it was rumored that both Jennifer James and Leithland Tulloch were willing to endorse Sharpe, but these endorsements have apparently been rescinded up to the time of this writing. Of some of the other candidates who ran first time around: both Jesse Hamilton and Karlene Gordon are said to be endorsing Eugene in this upcoming race. Zenobia McNally is rumored to be pointing towards a September challenge for the winner of this re-run, and Ambassador Joel Toney is said to be mulling retirement from politics. Mo Ravzi is said to be interested in another run for some office somewhere down the road; while Jennifer James is said to be mulling over either a September challenge for this seat, or a run for congress next year. If she challenges Yvette Clarke, she will get lots of support out there folks. Gerry Hopkins is missing in action at the moment; Chris Owens still won’t run for this seat and yours truly refuses to be a draftee/lol.

Stonewall Dems email over announcing that the winner of yesterday's special election in Staen Island is Matt Titone. Titone will take the seat of the late John Lavelle, representing the North Shore of the borough.

The New York Times:

In a special election yesterday, Staten Islanders elected the borough’s first openly gay official by selecting Matthew Titone to a State Assembly seat on the island’s north shore...

The Staten Island race in the 61st Assembly District drew a great deal of attention because of Mr. Titone and his two rivals. The Independence Party candidate, Kelvin Alexander, would have been the borough’s first black assemblyman had he prevailed. And Rose Margarella, the Republican candidate, would have been the first of her party to be elected from this heavily Democratic district in recent history.

With 100 percent of the votes counted, Mr. Titone received 2,888 votes, Ms. Margarella 1,846 and Mr. Alexander 1,122, according to unofficial figures from the New York City Board of Elections.

The question that should be asked, however, is whether Titone will actually represent his constituents, or become yet another faceless vote drone in the Assembly.

As the Sean Bell case moves forward, some may think it could not get more politically motivated. However it will. This year, DA Richard Brown is running for re-election in September. This makes this case the possible legacy of District Attorney Brown.

DA Brown has been dealing in the legal world for over 50 years, and as much work as he has done to better the system, he may be known as the guy who worked the Sean Bell case. How will this change the work on the campaign trail this summer?

At every stop along the trail, his years of work or the many convictions he garnered will mean nothing. One question, one topic will be at the tip of the voters tongue.

Now many would think I am assuming that if someone runs against Richard Brown this would happen. Trust me: there will be someone and not the type of candidate you expect. It will not be the black candidate who is the voice of the unheard that the Sharptons, Barrons pick or whom other community leaders pick.

Why do I say this?

The voting numbers show it will not work. The community may march, cry, and protest but they do not vote. A case like this, where many are screaming from the rooftops for change, many will not take a moment to go downstairs and turn the lever to vote. I have seen a line at 6 am in the morning at FootLocker for a pair of ugly Jordans, but no one comes out to vote during the walk home from work. So if DA Brown did a half ass job during the investigation or was not impartial, would it matter? If there was a change of venue or some other move that may imply a plan to get the officers off, what would the Black and Latino community do? Two segments on ABC news and on CNN of how we are mad, and then back to regular life. Think about this, all you possible candidates licking your chops and printing out your petitions. Also a friendly reminder to those who want hundreds of meetings to talk about how we need to make a statement and begin to change the system.

The City Board of Elections denied Independence Party candidate to replace the late John Lavelle representing Staten Island’s North Shore in the March 27 Special Election Kelvin Alexander’s bid to place his made up Family First line (Not to be confused with Working Families which supports Democratic opponent Matt Titone ) as an additional line on the ballot. The board ruled that 611 of the petition’s 1616 signatures were invalid, leaving him short of the 1100 he needed for that additional line.

Alexander, a Staten Island Democratic County Committee member, is running on the Independence line and potentially turning a potential easy Democratic win into an opportunity for Republican Rose Margarella because the party chose Titone over him. He is undecided if he’ll fight the ruling with the state Supreme Court.

Alexander has accused any challenge of his fabricated party petition as marginalizing minority voters. I find that a stretch since he’s already on the ballot as a better known party’s candidate.

I also need to clarify that I am supporting Titone in this race. I have donated money to Titone, campaigned with Matt and have a Titone sign on my front lawn. There are some comments on the Link TextStaten Island Advance’s SIlive political forum that take out of context my initial backing of Alexander in the Daily Gotham. Although I would have voted for Alexander in the first round of voting at the County Convention had I been allowed to participate, I would have switched to Titone in subsequent rounds. Also for the SIlivers who read my blog, I was not one of the January Committee additions thought loyal to Olivari. I was told I was added in June 2006 and still haven’t been named to the Committee and thus still can not vote in County matters.

As I sit here in limbo pondering my future on the blogs (including Room8/ given that the editors have yet to issue a policy missive), I decided to tackle some issues left outstanding. For example, to the “Draft Rock for the 40th Council seat campaign”, I have to say: thanks, but no thanks. I am not a candidate for this race; neither now (April), nor in September and/or November (primary/general election). I am honored and humbled that some people could think that highly of me to submit my name for a “draft”; but at the present time it would be rather difficult to attempt to undertake a race with this short advance notice. So I will pass.

I must admit though, that something did come out of this “draft” campaign, and that is: I have decided to consider a run for Congress in either 2008 or 2010. I am moved to attempt a true grassroots campaign demonstrating people power; a campaign that will rely more heavily on human involvement than on obscene amounts of cash infusions. Maybe I am naïve, but I still think that this type of effort can be successfully replicated and resurrected. We will see.

By now near everyone who is regular to this site knows of my long-standing issues with ‘anonymous’ bloggers, who take tremendous liberties with the truth, and who believe that they have carte-blanche to write vicious things meant to smear, slander and character-assassinate; things not meant for constructive critique and debate. Well earlier this week another painful example surfaced to rear its ugly head. Someone, attempting to earn some points in their argument with Daily News columnist Errol Louis, mendaciously raised Errol’s wife as a link to Governor Spitzer. It was a low moment in the history of Room 8. Again, it was someone writing behind the cover of anonymity; a cover I equate with the KKK masks.

Well look who has entered the 40th City Council Race. Assemblyman Jim Brennan. No he is not running but he has made some waves in the race.

This is an email sent out to all the potential candidates in the race:

Assembly member James Brennan (44th AD) is concerned about the short notice that was given for the special election in the 40th CD called last Friday by Mayor Bloomberg.

The State Asssembly is printing a bill to extend petitioning for the special election to fill the vacancy in the 40th Council District. The bill would extend the petition period by one week and cut the number of signatures required by half (to 500).

We wiill keep you informed about this legislation.

Why or how will this affect the race?

Is this move have any relation to him running for City Comptroller?

The special election to find a replacement for Congresswoman Yvette Clarke in the NYC council, took place three weeks ago (2-20-07), with candidate Mathieu Eugene the indisputable winner. Now we are being told by the winner, that he will not submit documentation proving that he resided in the district by the day of the election, as the law states/requires, as interpreted by the Attorney General. But is Cuomo correct in this interpretation? We are in virgin territory folks.

In my 34 years in NYC politics, I have never seen or heard of the council requiring someone to prove their residency before swearing them into office. I am being told that it has never happened before in the four hundred and fifty-four year history of the council. So why do this now? Well, I will get to that in a minute.

Now we are being told that there would be a re-run of this special election. The Board of Elections (BOE) has said that it cannot take place before April 24th, 2007. The Campaign Finance Board (CFB) has even sent out an advisory in expectation of a new election. Exactly what that means is anyone’s guess. Do we go through a new petition phase? Do we run the same candidates (all) over again? Do we allow new candidates (Lord have mercy)? What are the ground rules? It’s becoming the race without end folks. Let’s all say a collective: amen.