Crowded field for Sanders' seat

Selvena Brooks

From the Daily News:

The District 31 run-off race to fill former City Councilman James Sanders Jr.’s vacated seat is loaded with candidates that have wacky or barely distinguishable party names and connections to current elected officials.

The city Board of Elections announced Wednesday that nine candidates met the Jan. 15 deadline to submit at least 1,350 signatures to have their name on the ballot for the Feb. 19 special election.

With no political primary, the candidates were tasked with inventing their own party and adopted cause.

Selvena Brooks, a former staffer of state Sen. Malcolm Smith, and former Councilman Allan Jennings both alluded to Superstorm Sandy with their party name choices, running under the “Rebuild Now” and “People’s Relief” lines, respectively.

Three of nine party monikers include some form of the word unite, including current Community Board 8 District Manager Marie Adam-Ovide running with the People United ticket.

Community activists Jacques Leandre, Saywalah Kesselly and Earnest Flowers add to an already crowded field. Flowers is a community liaison for Assemblyman William Scarborough, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The early frontrunner appears to be Donovan Richards, Sanders’ former chief of staff. The outgoing councilman has thrown his weight behind his protegé. Richards is running under the Community Unity line.

The overflowing field of candidates is predominantly African American, except for Pesach Osina, a liaison for Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder. One source within Osina’s camp said that his path to victory runs through the prominent Orthodox Jewish enclave in Far Rockaway.

Special election for Council District 31

Donovan Richards

From the Daily News:

Candidates vying for former City Councilman James Sanders Jr.’s vacated District 31 seat is shaping up to be an eclectic cast of characters.

There will be a special run-off election on Feb. 19, open to any candidate who can collect the requisite signatures by mid-month, Mayor Bloomberg announced last week.
Sanders vacated his Council seat to assume his new role in the state Senate after defeating embattled incumbent Shirley Huntley.

The candidates must scramble to collect 1,350 signatures by Jan. 15 and then submit them to the city Board of Elections.

Thus far, former Councilman Alan Jennings and Selvena Brooks have filed their petitions with the board, according to spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez.

Brooks served as the deputy chief of staff to state Sen. Malcolm Smith and most recently worked with the politically active SEIU union.

The early frontrunner appears to be Donovan Richards, Sander’s former chief of staff. The outgoing councilman has thrown his weight behind his protege. Richards has not yet filed his petition with the Board of Elections as of Monday. A handful of other names have been rumored.

Gentlemen, it's time to pay up

From the Times Ledger:

Former Democratic City Councilman Allan Jennings was penalized earlier this month by the city Campaign Finance Board for several violations committed by his campaign during the 2010 special election for the seat left vacant by the late Councilman Thomas White Jr.

After the CFB completed its audit of Jennings’ campaign, he was fined $2,493 for eight violations. He did not respond to a request for comment.

A $1,000 fine was levied against Jennings for failing to accurately report contributions to his campaign and expenditures. Jennings reported he had raised $23,513, about $5,000 of which his bank records could not properly account for. He also failed to submit documentation for more than $6,000 worth of the $24,458 in expenditures he reported to the board.

Other violations included failing to provide periodic bank statements for the entire year of 2011, failing to provide employer information for 25 of 49 contributions of more than $99 and making a $200 cash payment. The limit for cash payments is $100.

Jennings also made a cash withdrawal of $2,458, violating the rule prohibiting candidates from maintaining a petty cash fund of more than $500.

He was also penalized for failing to document a $2,000 loan he received and two $1,000 repayments. Jennings was fined for failing to respond to the board’s requests for records needed for the audit of his campaign.

From the NY Post:

Former Comptroller Bill Thompson -- one of the top contenders in the 2013 race for mayor -- has lost another attempt to quash nearly $600,000 in fines for plastering public property with illegal posters in his 2009 campaign for City Hall.

Sources said the Environmental Control Board has upheld a decision of an administrative law judge rejecting Thompson's argument that his senior campaign aides did all they could to comply with the law.

Thompson's campaign now owes the city $594,375 for 7,925 poster violations.

Allan Jennings sues the Chronicle

From the Daily News:

Former city Councilman Allan Jennings is suing a weekly newspaper in Queens for defamation, saying it helped turn voters against him during last year’s Council race.

Jennings said the Queens Chronicle erred in stating he had once put an advertisement in a Chinese-language newspaper “declaring his love for all Asian women.”

He said the statement was made in an Oct. 28, 2010, article about his bid for his former 28th District seat. Ruben Wills won that special election.

“The statement was intended to turn voters against Allan Jennings in his district considering that fact that the majority of the voters are African-American,” according to the lawsuit filed in Queens Supreme Court last week.

The reference dates back to a 2003 article in Newsday that disclosed Jennings — then a member of the Council — had placed advertisements in the World Journal and the Sing Tao Daily.

In those ads, according to the report in Newsday, Jennings thanked the Chinese community for accepting him and expressed his love for his girlfriend, a Chinese folkdancer, while criticizing his estranged Taiwanese wife.

Jennings at it again

From City Hall:

Former Queens Councilman Allan Jennings is still on the hook to New York City taxpayers to the tune of $45,000 for committing an array of campaign finance violations.

But that has not stopped the veteran pol from racking up a number of questionable new expenses in his campaign to unseat Councilman Ruben Wills, even as he racks up support for his uphill campaign.

On May 9, for instance, Jennings tipped a waiter named Pasquale Gattuso $100. Jennings’ filings show no expense for any meals that day, though did pay $350 for “fundraising,” potentially for a catered event.

He also spent $29 that day for a “meeting” at Shipwreck, a South Ozone Park business listed as a tire dealer and auto repair shop, one of five such “meetings” at the dealership.

Jennings has also frequently held “meetings” at gas stations from Queens to New Jersey, racking up charges as high as $75 for a single one.

Not that Jennings is going hungry, charging frequent low-dollar “meetings” to his debit card at various fast food establishments in Queens, from KFC to Cold Stone Creamery to McDonald’s.

Jennings, who did not return phone calls seeking comment, is barred from receiving taxpayer matching funds in the four-way southeast Queens Council race because he has not repaid his $45,000 debt. Still, city rules would not allow Jennings to use even privately raised campaign funds for personal expenses, said New York City Campaign Finance Board spokesman Eric Friedman.

On top of the $45,000 owed to the CFB, Jennings also owes $5,000 from an unpaid fine levied by the City Council over Jennings’ sexual harassment of female City Council employees.

City Council races always attract the best and brightest.

Nicole is in

From the Daily News:

Four years after her fiancé's death on their wedding day, Nicole Paultre Bell is focused on Election Day.

Bell, who typically marks her November by the anniversary of Sean Bell's death in a 51-shot police fusillade, is intent on winning a vacant City Council seat from Queens.

"What happened to me four years ago - I didn't expect that to happen," Bell said in an exclusive interview with the Daily News officially announcing her candidacy.

"This is what life threw my way. It made me realize that there are serious problems out there."

The once-tragic figure says her platform centers on education reform and elderly care - and improving police and community relations.

The inexperienced candidate running to replace the deceased Thomas White Jr. already faces one obstacle: The 26-year-old single mother of two doesn't live in the Jamaica, Queens, district she wants to represent.

Former City Councilman Allan Jennings, one of her opponents in the Nov. 2 special election, was quick to attack Bell's announcement.

"She has name recognition?" snapped Jennings. "So did George Bush. But he couldn't get elected in this district."

The caliber of candidates keeps getting better

From the Daily News:

A Queens City Council candidate took the brawl for City Hall literally on Friday, throwing a punch at a rival in a wild argument over election rules, witnesses said.

The brouhaha broke out at the borough's Board of Elections office, witnesses said.

Ruben Wills - who's running for the 28th Council District seat - took a swing at former City Councilman Allan Jennings, but missed and socked an aide, Jennings said.

Wills, 38, is challenging Jennings' petitions to get on the ballot for the upcoming Democratic primary in September.

"He leaped up and came after me," said Jennings, 42, who held the seat from 2001 to 2005. "He wanted a signature off, and I disagreed."

Jennings campaign worker Frank Perero said he was sitting in front of a computer when Wills' fist hit him and knocked him to the ground.

"All of a sudden, Mr. Wills pops with an angry look on his face, and I find myself on the floor," said Perero. "My back is killing me."

Wills, who told the Daily News he is withdrawing his petition challenge, accused Perero of "buffoonery to act like he was assaulted."

He also accused Jennings of "using the F-word used for homosexuals. He used it 10 or 11 times. He kept going with it."

Wills and Jennings are running against incumbent Thomas White for the seat that represents Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park, Jamaica and Rochdale Village.