AOC's Terrible Endorsements!

The Small Business Congress  

E-mail  savenycjobs@gmail.com                Website:  Savenycjobs.org

Media Advisory               Contact: Steven Barrison

For Immediate release       Barrisons@aol.com  savenycjobs@gmail.com

June 8, 2021                                         212-750-5560

Immigrant Small Business Advocates Angered by AOC Endorsements. 

AOC Endorsements A Grave Insult to Desperate Immigrant 

Family Owned Businesses and

To All True Progressives.

 Dateline NYC June 8, 2021:  The city’s last true immigrant small business advocate, Sung Soo Kim*, is deeply disheartened by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsement of Maya Wiley for Mayor and Councilman Brad Lander for Comptroller.  He fears both are a potential danger to the future of immigrant families.

Kim fears either’s election would mean the end of any hope to save our city’s immigrant family owned businesses. Contrary to NYC lawmakers using the purposely misleading term of “minority small businesses,” usually followed with “women owned businesses,” to reference small businesses, while, the majority owners of NYC small businesses are in fact multi generational immigrant family owned (64-68%). 

For accuracy, black owned businesses are less than 3% in NYC with the majority being immigrant owners from the Caribbean islands. The majority of women owners are from immigrant families.  Why the deception?

The reason is a massive dishonest campaign to cover-up the injustices, abuses and true dire state of our immigrant owned and run businesses produced by a handful of unethical ambitious lawmakers.  Corrupt lawmakers who have conspired and colluded with the real estate lobby to rig the system for over a decade to deny economic justice to our immigrant owners, which has made their now extreme crisis worse.  These lobby crony lawmakers are our Democratic leadership at City Hall.  Their betrayal of our immigrant families has resulted in the most anti immigrant business environment in the entire Nation, one that has been destroying immigrant’s American Dream in record numbers. 

Why is this relevant to AOC’s endorsements? Because both her endorsements are directly connected to  people who played a major role is denying economic justice, rights and a real lifeline of survival for our immigrant family owners.  AOC with her social progressive platform can profess a profound ignorance of basic economics.  But while she was working in a small business in NYC during this hyper real estate speculation period, she cannot claim willful ignorance of the dire crisis all businesses faced when their leases expire and the owners having no rights.

She must have walked by many empty stores on her main street where once thriving businesses were.  AOC could likely name a dozen businesses she patronized that were forced to close due only to having no rights while landlords demanding insane rent increases or unfair lease terms, and that was BEFORE COVID.  Why didn’t AOC ever wonder who at City Hall was responsible for allowing this unjust and insane economic policy to happen and then deny a real lifeline to the victims?  

Nevertheless, here she is, AOC is endorsing one (Brad Lander) who played a key role in throwing immigrant owners under the bus for his own political ambitions. She is endorsing another (Maya Wiley) whose policy director (Lena Alridi) also played a key role in stopping a vote on the only real lifeline to save immigrant businesses and went further to collaborate with Lander to then substitute a landlord’s bill to kill the Jobs Survival Act and end any hope to save our immigrant businesses and jobs. 

Does AOC want her followers to believe she carefully screened her endorsement’s backgrounds to assure they were true progressives who would fight for progressive legislation needed to change a corrupt government and save the victims of unchecked greed?  The truth is her endorsements of Brad Lander and Maya Wiley, if helped get elected, would continue the policies of the big New York real estate lobby that were destroying the “backbone of our economy, our immigrant family businesses and jobs” for a long time.

Her endorsement of Brad Lander for Comptroller is an insult to every informed immigrant family, good government, and to true progressive values. CM Brad Lander gives new meaning to the word “hypocrite”.  I have direct eye witness and a thorough investigation of Lander’s shameful record of disrespecting, discriminating against and betraying our city’s hard working immigrant families.  The despicable betrayal of democracy and of our immigrant community is far too long to go into detail now, but these links* show the truth of this progressive fraud and the damage to our economy as well as the suffering to many immigrant families he has caused by his abandoning progressive values and his abuse of his office. https://www.savenycjobs.com/part-v

https://www.savenycjobs.com/brad-lander-leads-rigging

 

A disgraceful record of lack of integrity and betrayal.

The key to unlocking this fraud’s true blind ambition lies with an independent study of immigrant owned businesses* and his testimony at a hearing on finding a real solution to our small business crisis.

   *https://www.savenycjobs.com/latin-chamber-study 

In April 2009, the largest study of Hispanic businesses showed conclusively a crisis existed for businesses. A crisis caused by years of unchecked real estate speculation on Main Streets forcing the rents to insane levels. A crisis immigrant owners could never hope to survive without government intervention to give them rights when their leases expired.

Upon the release of the study’s findings, then Chairman of the Small Business Committee David Yassky in public proclaimed, “that is what is at stake if we lose our small businesses we lose the jobs … ….. the one thing we cannot do in the face of this Crisis is nothing”.*

*  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiLyhVe6jDQ

Brad Lander read this study and agreed with all the progressives “you cannot do nothing in the face of a crisis.” Brad Lander would testify at the hearing on what he thought the government should do.  June 29, 2009 a hearing was held to find a solution to our city’s small business crisis. 

I testified at this hearing and listened carefully to all the testimony given. I especially liked what I heard from Brad Lander who also had an opinion on what government should do to stop the closings of businesses.  As well as predicting what would happen to small businesses if they did nothing.  

At the June 29, 2009 hearing he testified supporting the Small  Business Jobs Survival Act.  Lander, “I believe that one (solution Jobs Survival Act) being proposed here today of a fair lease renewal process comes out high up at the top (to preserve small businesses) and I strongly support it. As you know, the challenges facing small business have grown from a problem to a real crisis in the city. But you're still seeing a stunning number of places where when a lease renewal comes up, what people are being forced to do is absurd.  If we don’t do something about it soon we're going to lose them more and more and more. The City's Department of Small Business Services, as we've heard, have many fine programs, but the evidence is before our eyes, they just aren't working to save mom and pop businesses in our neighborhoods. So something new and serious is needed. I just think the evidence is there before us if we let the free market reign, we know without any additional regulation what it's going to continue to give us. In two years, three years, five years, we'll be back here with fewer of the small businesses that make our neighborhood great, with fewer of the jobs that we have here today. So let's put in place this one very reasonable additional regulation.”

I waited and shook Brad Lander’s hand after his testimony. Not only because of his support for our bill but because of what he said about making a priority to stopping the illegal extortion of immigrant owners.  Earlier in the testimony, then CM John Liu called out the SBS for ignoring the study’s findings that 31% of immigrant owners had been demanded to pay cash in order to remain in business, and SBS did not even care.   Brad Lander was aware of this shameful act against helpless immigrant owners and gave his objections.

Brad Lander made the strongest statement on the illegal extortion of immigrant owners by calling for an investigation of the extortion:  

BRAD LANDER: “I might just add one thing that was very clear from the testimony and the conversation earlier is the need for some enhanced investigation.  I don’t know who it is here that needs to step in and investigate, whether it's the IRS, whether it's the state attorney general, whether it's a city investigative agency. There are clearly things going on ….the survey that was done is obviously one great step, but having a government agency in is critical.”

Brad Lander’s reply to my thanking him on behalf of immigrant owners being extorted was, “it is the right thing to do, landlords robbing these owners must be investigated and stopped.”

After the hearing if AOC were to have endorsed Brad Lander then as a true progressive, I would be the first in line to agree with her.  But not today, not after Lander used his office and influence to keep the status quo for landlords and stop any law giving rights to immigrant owners when their leases expired. Rights needed to have a fighting chance to negotiate fair leases and make a reasonable profit for their hard work. Rights needed to stop the illegal extortion and short leases of sometimes month to month or one year. 

 When Lander left that hearing, that was his last words or acts to help small businesses in a true meaningful way. He would never again even mention addressing the illegal extortion of immigrant business owners!! His testimony was disingenuous like every time a media event happens to highlight a closed business and he appears crying crocodile tears and gives a “let’s save our businesses speech.”  While the majority of time as the Council’s deputy in charge of policy, he would collude with the fat cats, who would later donate to his campaign, to keep the status quo and never even attempt to find a true solution to save a single business or job. The SOLUTION he so eloquently testified to in 2009, supporting and ending the crisis, he will never mention!  Despicable! Lander was always pledging to do something, but never meaning it.  Lander a true phony, a pretend progressive in campaigning only. 

How progressive is a lawmaker who knows immigrant owners are targeted for extortion of their life’s savings and that is acceptable. Why is it acceptable to AOC to support a candidate who knowingly does nothing to stop this shameful act against immigrant owners? Worse, who willingly joins in the rigging at City Hall to stop any vote on the only real solution to save the immigrant businesses and stop the extortion and other landlord abuses against immigrant owners? In no major city in the world would the routine extortion of cash from owners in order to remain in business be tolerated. Yet, under Lander’s leadership as Council’s deputy in charge of policy, this deplorable act is allowed to occur unabated.

Once Brad Lander gained a leadership role in the Council he never once called for a vote on the Jobs Survival Act or any law giving actual rights to immigrant family businesses.  Former Chair Yassky’s statement, “the one thing we cannot do in the face of this Crisis is nothing”, is exactly the opposite of what Brad Lander did under his leadership, nothing to save even one business or job. By Lander maintaining the real estate lobbies’ policy of protecting the landlord’s wealth, our small business crisis grew out of control to every main street in NYC.  Under his watch as policy director a severe crisis became worse and yet, not once did he call for an honest hearing to find a solution to stop the closings. Brad Lander played a major role in rigging the system to protect big real estate and thus is responsible for helping to create our city’s empty store blight.

Under Lander’s watch NYC Courts issued warrens to evict on average 470 businesses each month for 10 years.  An estimated 1,300 businesses closed each month in NYC creating the empty store blight. Brad Lander did nothing but collude to cover up this anti small business environment and crisis destroying our small businesses.

*https://www.savenycjobs.com/nyc-court-evictions-

As the council’s policy man, Lander could not feel good about the city’s empty stores on every block during an economic boom. Exactly what he predicted in his very own testimony in 2009 was happening under his watch! Yet, he did nothing! Can you be anymore two faced than that?

Yet, AOC thinks it’s a good idea to put Brad Lander, who is policy chief and oversees the largest small business destruction in America, in charge of the City’s pension funds and has investigative powers.  Really!  Every city in America has small businesses that were prospering under a ten year economic growth. While in NYC only the landlords were prospering while long established small businesses were closing in record numbers.  Brad Lander played a key role to deny them rights and a real lifeline to survive. Why would AOC think this lawmaker with a shameful failed record is worth endorsing? Did AOC or her staff or advisors bother to investigate truth, facts, of the real Bogus Brad?

Lander continues rigging for lobby!

Because of the empty store blight, a hearing was finally given to the Jobs Survival Act in Oct 2018.  Would Lander step up to testify like he did at the last hearing and call for support of the progressive legislation the Jobs Survival Act? No, instead Lander would remain silent to the greatest anti immigrant and sham hearing ever held at City Hall. The entire hearing was turned over to the real estate lobby to orchestrate a total charade to deny economic justice to desperate immigrant owners. This sham hearing had only one purpose, to stop a vote on the only real lifeline to save our small businesses. This disgraceful hearing could never have taken place without the knowledge and full support of the Council’s deputy policy chief, Brad Lander and another impostor Speaker Johnson.

Lander then to continue the scheme like a good charlatan he promotes a substitute bill to kill Jobs Survival Act and all hope for immigrant owners to survive!

The final betrayal of our immigrant family owners by  Brad Lander came in late 2019. At the 2018 hearing, Speaker Johnson pledged to amend the Jobs Survival Act to exclude any protections to Fortune 500 type big businesses, and then move it to a vote.  This should have required changing the language of one paragraph concerning the scope of the bill.  With the Jobs Survival Act having 29 sponsors and a growing crisis citywide this simple task, which was not opposed, should have taken a few hours at most, and a quick easy passage at the next Council session. 

Speaker Johnson had no intentions of keeping his word and amending the Jobs Survival Act.  The real estate lobby’s strategy was to stall a vote on the bill, and let it expire Dec 31, 2021.    

The key player for this despicable anti democracy agenda was CM Brad Lander. If there was any doubts about whom Brad Lander really served, that was put to rest with his appalling rigging in plain sight.

No effort was made to move Speaker Johnson along to amend the Jobs Survival Act. The reason was simple, the real estate lobby had a team working in secret behind closed doors. There was no rational reason to not support the Jobs Survival Act and give small business owners the rights needed to survive. Therefore, the lobby must create a substitute bill and have City Hall leadership lie and  tout it as a viable bill to save small businesses. Brad Lander was not a sponsor of the Jobs Survival Act but would eagerly promote a new bill influenced by the real estate lobby to substitute for the Jobs Survival Act.  His new bill, was a violation of the Councils own rules of never having similar bills with the same intent. 

Councilman Brad Lander became the first NYC lawmaker in 30 years to issue a petition to Save Small Businesses, and not mean it. CM Lander in championing a new bill, Commercial Rent Stabilization, claiming it will save small businesses by putting a cap on commercial rent. It is a knowingly false claim and he knew his bill would not save a single business or even one job. Why would you secretly promote a real estate created bill that you know is grossly inferior to the Jobs Survival Act? What happened to his 2009 testimony on the Jobs Survival Act, “ at the top (to preserve small businesses) and I strongly support it.?”

Kim, “ In the long 30 year battle over our bill, never once has two bills been in play at the same time. Now policy chief Lander thinks it is a good idea to introduce another bill, one that keeps the status quo for landlords.  How does a new bill appear after 14 months from a hearing on the Jobs Survival Act, without collusion with the real estate lobby?  Yet 14 months after the hearing, with the Speaker repeatedly claiming to be “tweaking and fine tuning” the Jobs Survival Act, the bill he pledged to “move to a vote”, no changes were made. 

Instead, those same proposed changes (eliminate big business coverage) now appear in a new bill, which gives the tenants no rights whatsoever!  This is called Rigging the system at City Hall. With a growing small business crisis now out of control citywide, CM Lander should be ashamed of using his office to create a policy that in reality is the real estate lobby’s policy to stop any law from giving any rights to small business owners when their leases expire.  CM Lander’s actions are despicable and do not fool any small business owner with his lobby created bill that was created with only one goal, to stop a vote on the only real solution: Jobs Survival Act.   No honest progressive should trust him. But one does, AOC. 

Two key players, bad actors, who rigged the system against immigrant families. 

I went into great detail exposing this fake progressive Brad Lander because he did not discriminate against and betray our immigrant small business owners by himself. The real estate lobby put together an "A Team" of unethical cronies and opportunist to protect their profits. A major player responsible for colluding with the real estate lobby to deny economic justice to immigrant owners and who joined with Lander in promoting this fake substitute bill was Lena Afridi, policy director for Maya Wiley.  AOC manages to endorse candidates with a proven record of discrimination against immigrant family owners. This true display of ignorance or plain outright hypocrisy is on its own shameful. This is too critical at this point in time for NYC small businesses not to call out.

I will not go into the fine details showing which side Ms. Afridi is on. Read these links to give facts which show why I am alarmed Ms. Afridi could gain a position to influence small business economic policy. It would be the end of any hope for immigrant businesses to save their American Dream.

 

https://www.savenycjobs.com/afridi-betrayal-part-i

 

https://www.savenycjobs.com/lena-afridi-shameful-testimony

 

https://www.savenycjobs.com/commercial-rent-control-bill

 

My warning to all New York voters, do not trust AOC's endorsement of candidates, Brad Lander or Maya Wiley. Shame on CM Lander for losing his moral compass and betraying every desperate small business owner.  Shame on him for discriminating against helpless immigrant families struggling to survive. 

Shame of Maya Wiley for not doing her homework and having an anti immigrant policy director formulate her small business policy.   

 

 

 Sung Soo Kim, recognized as the city’s leading small business authority and advocate for over 3 decades. The “Godfather of immigrant businesses”  is the founder of the oldest small business service center in NYC, the Korean American Small Business Service Center, and was Chairman of the Mayor’s First Small Business Advisory Board, appointed by Mayors Dinkins and Giuliani. He is co-founder of Small Business Congress and sole creator of the Small Business Bill of Rights.  He has spent every working day for 34 years addressing the problems of immigrant small business owners. At its peak, Kim had 17,000 immigrant business owners he served under 8 Asian business associations.  He never took a salary from the government as Chairman of the Small Business Advisory Board nor in consulting on numerous regulations. He turned down offers to run a BID in Queens and turned down government funding for his business service center.  In 34 years he has personally negotiated and re-negotiated an estimated 50,000-55,000 commercial lease for his Asian members. He has gone to court weekly for 34 years to fight for his members in court. He personally consulted in the drafting of the original version of the Small Business Jobs Survival Act and every version introduced by eight prime sponsors. He organized 11 public hearings over 3 decades on the Jobs Survival Act.

Dems don't want de Blasio's help

From the NY Post:

Thanks, but no thanks.

That’s the message some Democrats running in competitive state Senate districts have quietly delivered to Mayor Bill de Blasio, who started a federal political committee in part to help their campaigns.

Politico-New York surveyed 15 Democrats facing stiff competition from Republicans this November and found the majority of them wouldn’t accept de Blasio’s money.

“The further you get from Park Slope, the less popular Bill de Blasio gets,” said one senior Democratic strategist. “His support would be counterproductive.”

Como resurfaces like turd that won't stay flushed

Former City Councilman Anthony Como, who served a whopping 5 months in office back in 2008, has resurfaced. He is trying to inject himself into the District 30 City Council race. Why? It appears to be sour grapes.

He started back in September, whining to the Queens Tribune:

“I was extremely upset and disenchanted when [Robert Holden] got the Conservative [Party] endorsement. When something like that happens, you know there is something behind the scenes going on,” Como said.

Oh no, Anthony is disenchanted! Well, Holden collected signatures to get on that line after the party agreed to back him - just like as Anthony did when he ran for City Council on the Conservative line. Como is not a registered Conservative but a Republican. Then he stepped it up by authoring this letter with this included:

On this November’s ballot, the Republican candidate will be an erstwhile longstanding Democrat who is little more than a pawn for party bosses.

I think Liz Crowley and every other candidate with Machine backing are the bigger pawns for party bosses, dontcha think? Hilarious. He is so upset that a registered Republican didn't get the party's nod that he endorsed Liz Crowley - who claims her opponent is really a Republican - because that makes perfect sense. Como lives in Merrick, LI now, by the way (Amy Fisher country).

Finally, he's giving quotes like this to the Queens Chronicle:

“It’s embarrassing. I don’t know what it is going to take for our party leaders to stop perpetrating these scams on the voters.”

So let's recall how Mr. Como tried to scam voters when he put out a palm card claiming that the Catholic Church endorsed him.

Let's also remember that Mr. Como had committed to run for City Council to try to reclaim his seat back in 2009, but was more than happy to step aside for a backroom deal patronage job.

A former Queens Republican councilman is in line to be appointed by Mayor Bloomberg as a $172,311 commissioner at the Housing Authority — considered a prime patronage post — just weeks after the county’s GOP endorsed the mayor’s re-election bid, The Post has learned.

His departure from the race cleared the way for Tom Ognibene to not have to run in a primary that year, yet the joke was on Como, because he never got the job.

Reviewing this guy's history was like a walk down nightmare lane without even getting into the infamous violations on his house.

Cuomo sort of endorses de Blasio

From PIX11:

"The mayor won the Democratic primary. I am a Democrat," Cuomo said while explaining his endorsement. "I support Democrats and I will support Mayor de Blasio in the general (election)."

Anti-establishment pol rages against the Machine by endorsing a Crowley

From the Queens Chronicle:

In his endorsement, announced by the Crowley campaign on Tuesday, Barnwell specifically cited her opposition to last year’s plan to convert the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express into a homeless shelter as a reason for his support.

“For the last eight years, Elizabeth Crowley has been a tireless fighter for our community. She stood with us against the Mayor to oppose the disastrous homeless shelter proposal for the Maspeth Holiday Inn,” Barnwell’s statement reads. “This is the kind of leadership that Elizabeth Crowley brings to the Council, and I’m proud to endorse her re-election and stand with her on the issues that matter to our families.”

The lawmaker had told the Chronicle multiple times since Holden announced his candidacy in April that he didn’t expect to officially support anyone in the race.

And his endorsement of Crowley represents something of a departure from his rhetoric during his successful Democratic primary campaign against then-Assemblywoman Marge Markey last year.

Barnwell was present at nearly every nightly protest for over a month, speaking to the crowd of angry constituents multiple times — even being introduced by Holden on some occasions.

And in at least two of those brief speeches, Barnwell took swipes at Crowley for not attending any of those protests.

“Is Liz Crowley here? Who’s that?” Barnwell asked the crowd on Aug. 19. “The fact is [Crowley, Markey and state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach)] haven’t showed up to give us an update and it’s atrocious.”

“You guys stopped this. The elected officials didn’t stop this,” Barnwell said on Sept. 10, after the city announced it would not convert the entire hotel into a shelter. “They haven’t stood with us. And it’s not the first time they haven’t stood with us.”

The assemblyman defended his past statements in a Tuesday interview with the Chronicle, saying Crowley deserved credit for bringing a lawsuit against the city over the shelter plan.

“She brought a lawsuit and it was dismissed for a lack of standing. So as a legislator, I brought up a bill that would give us standing,” Barnwell said. “How many other politicians have ever brought a lawsuit against Mayor de Blasio?”

Actually, Letitia James has sued de Blasio multiple times and Rory Lancman has as well. And let's not forget that little lawsuit that saved FMCP from having a shopping mall developed inside it.

Now it's been confirmed that Crowley knew about this shelter months before the community did, and she failed to show up at any of the protests that were held, so this Barnwell statement is a bit suspect.

It's more likely that Barnwell is being threatened with a primary challenge and therefore was "forced" to endorse Dizzy Lizzy and acquiesce to having this statement attributed to him which was obviously written by the Crowley camp. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. Only 8 months in and this guy's already crossed over to the Dark Side.

It must really be terrifying to a pol to be faced with the prospect of having to find a real job.

Avella backs Graziano in District 19 City Council primary

On Monday, July 17th, State Senator Tony Avella officially endorsed Paul Graziano in the Democratic primary for the 19th Council District seat, which covers most of northeast Queens including College Point, Whitestone, North Flushing, Auburndale, Bayside, Bay Terrace, Douglaston and Little Neck. It is rare for a sitting elected official to not endorse an incumbent, but Senator Avella is supporting Paul Graziano in this race over machine candidate Paul Vallone.

“As the former councilmember for this district, I know what it takes to effectively represent the people,” Avella said. “Paul Graziano is the right person for the job. I have worked with him closely for over a decade on multiple issues that have had great impact on the neighborhoods of northeast Queens. Paul understands what the people of the district want and need.”

“I am greatly honored to receive the endorsement of Senator Avella,” Paul Graziano said. “We have stood together to successfully fight many proposals and plans that would have negatively impacted our district and also worked closely on passing major legislation and actions that have been incredibly beneficial for northeast Queens, such as contextual rezonings, obtaining landmark status for individual buildings and historic districts and, just last month, stopping the giveaway of 45 acres of public parkland for the development of a megamall in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. More than 95% of the 19th Council District is within the boundaries of Senator Avella’s 11th State Senate District; with both of us representing northeast Queens together, I believe we will be able to do that much more for our neighborhoods.”

For more information, please contact the Graziano campaign at 718-309-7522 or paulgraziano2017@gmail.com.

A transcript of the video may be found here.

Vallone really proud of Machine endorsement

From the Times Ledger:

The Queens County Democratic Party has endorsed Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) for the upcoming municipal elections. As the incumbent, Vallone represents northeast Queens, from Flushing to Douglaston, and faces community activist and land use expert Paul Graziano in the Democratic primary.

Vallone received unanimous support from the party and expressed gratitude to the Queens Democratic chairman, U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights), for the standing by him.

“To stand side-by-side with our fellow Queens Democrats and our leader, Congressman Joe Crowley, and receive their unanimous endorsement will always be one of the proudest moments for me and my whole family,” Vallone said. “Representing my district has been the best four years of my life. We have put northeast Queens not only back on the map, but on top of it!”

Getting the nod from the corrupt Queens Machine is one of your proudest moments? That sure tells us a lot about you.

Joe Crowley: "In every way, de Blasio shares Queens values"

Honored to work with Queens County Dem. Committee to ensure NY remains a place that welcomes everybody. Happy to receive their endorsement. pic.twitter.com/j0e4K6GhfP

— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) May 28, 2017

And this is the asinine shit show that Queens politics has become.

Send in the clowns.

Don't bother, they're here.

Friday cannoli cream photo caption contest

Mental note: the best photo ops generally don't involve stuffing one's face with cannolis while looking like a gavone.

Photo from Times Ledger

Trib endorses Bob Friedrich!

Queens Tribune

The Queens Tribune has released its endorsement for the 23rd council Democratic district primary and they bypassed county boy Barry Grodenchik and union favorite Rebecca Lynch and instead endorsed Bob Friedrich. Wonder what happened there.

City Council Watch is also calling it for Friedrich.

No one wants de Blasio's endorsement

From the Observer:

Sidestepping a race where his backing could do more harm than good, Mayor Bill de Blasio said this morning he isn’t planning on endorsing a Democrat to replace Councilman Mark Weprin. The six-way Democratic primary includes one candidate, Rebecca Lynch, who was a top City Hall aide. But Mr. de Blasio, who hired Ms. Lynch last year, said he hasn’t even really thought about the competitive race.

“I haven’t really looked at it. I don’t have a plan at this moment,” Mr. de Blasio told the Observer at an unrelated City Hall press conference. He did not elaborate.

Mr. de Blasio has not been shy about endorsing in local races. He backed former Councilman Vincent Gentile’s congressional bid earlier this year and weighed in on several Democratic primaries for the Assembly and State Senate in 2014.

But the primary for the open eastern Queens seat, which includes the neighborhoods of Bayside, Bellerose, Glen Oaks, Oakland Gardens, Queens Village and Douglaston, is not one where Mr. de Blasio’s endorsement is necessarily welcome. The leafy, suburban district is more moderate in its political bent. Many of the single-family, car-owning homeowners resent Mr. de Blasio’s desire to build cheap, dense housing throughout the city and slow down vehicular traffic. Political observers in the district say his popularity there is low.

Steve Israel endorses Avella

From the Observer:

Congressman Steve Israel, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has endorsed State Senator Tony Avella’s re-election bid, Mr. Avella’s campaign announced today.

Mr. Israel, a Long Island-based congressman who represents a chunk of eastern Queens that overlaps with Mr. Avella’s district, said the Queens Democrat worked closely with him since Mr. Israel recently began representing Queens.

“When Congressional redistricting brought me to Queens, Senator Avella was one of the first elected officials to reach out,” Mr. Israel said in a statement. “He partnered with me on combating airplane noise, fighting for our veterans and standing up for New York’s middle-class families. I’ve seen firsthand his relentless work ethic and dedication to his district. For these reasons, I endorse Tony Avella’s candidacy.”

DeBlasio endorses Avella and Klein

From the Politicker:

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this afternoon that he will endorse State Senators Jeff Klein and Tony Avella’s re-election bids, dealing blows to the two well-known insurgents trying to unseat them.

Mr. de Blasio endorsed the two Independent Democratic Conference members shortly after the labor-backed Working Families Party said they would remain neutral in both races.

“Throughout this past session, Sen. Jeff Klein and Sen. Tony Avella worked tirelessly on behalf of the residents of New York City and helped make progress on issues that had been stalled for far too long,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “With their leadership, we secured a record increase in funding for universal Pre-K, a fair budget for New York City, needed property tax relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, and the changes we need to save lives and improve street safety.”

The endorsement also comes as the IDC, currently governing the State Senate with the Republican Party, agreed to break their ties with the GOP and work with the Democrats after the fall elections. Mr. de Blasio worked behind-the-scenes to broker an agreement between the five-member IDC conference, led by Mr. Klein, and the Democrats.

Mr. de Blasio, a liberal Democrat, believes it’s essential to weaken the GOP in order to enact his agenda, much of which is dependent on Albany and is less popular in many of the upstate and suburban districts that Republican senators represent.

Sheldon Silver endorses Liu

From the Observer:

As John Liu prepares to launch his campaign against State Senator Tony Avella, he can count on the support of one of the most powerful men in Albany.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon offered a full-throated endorsement of Mr. Liu’s bid today as the former comptroller and mayoral contender stood nearby.

“Go, man, go,” Mr. Silver said to Mr. Liu at the State Democratic Party Convention.

Mr. Silver said he thought Mr. Liu, who is set to kick off his bid tomorrow, would be an asset in the state legislature.

“John Liu is a friend of mine for many years. He’s a great public servant and New York State would be greatly benefited by his election,” Mr. Silver told the Observer. “We have the best in John Liu. That’s what I’m about. I want the best man.”

Mr. Silver’s endorsement doesn’t necessarily comes as a surprise. State Senate Democrats are already boosting Mr. Liu’s bid and Mr. Liu is incredibly popular with Asian-Americans, who are a large demographic in Mr. Silver’s Lower East Side district.

For his part, Mr. Liu, whose campaign for mayor last year sunk amid campaign finance allegations, appeared amused and slightly worried by Mr. Silver’s early endorsement.

I'd be worried too, if I was John. Silver is one of the most hated Democrats in the state.

No surprise here: Trib endorsed only Multimedia candidates

From the New York World:

Months after the New York World first highlighted the practice, a pair of Queens community newspapers persisted in handing out endorsements to political candidates who are paying clients of the papers’ affiliated political consulting firm, a review of campaign filings reveals.

In 2013, in competitive primary and general electoral races, all candidates who hired the firm, Multi-Media Advertising, and spent more money than rivals on consulting services and ads in the Queens Tribune and PRESS of Southeast Queens received an endorsement in at least one of the two newspapers.

The endorsements did not disclose the business transactions to readers.

In all, the endorsed candidates and their outside supporters spent a total of more than $268,000 on Multi-Media during the 2013 election cycle. The largest sum came from Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, who paid Multi-Media $135,000 for consulting services, printing and postage for his campaign.

Five days before the primary, the Tribune’s editorial page endorsed Catsimatidis for the Republican mayoral primary: “Catsimatidis is an approachable billionaire,” it raved. “He loves people and he loves this City…he will bring into his administration bright people.” The other candidates on the Republican ballot, Joe Lhota and George McDonald, were not Multi-Media clients.

Catsimatidis was not available for comment.

The Tribune and PRESS of Southeast Queens endorsed candidates in 19 competitive races on the ballot in Queens. In all nine contests in which a Multi-Media client was in the running, the papers’ editorial pages endorsed the candidate who did the most business with Multi-Media and the publications. (If that candidate was defeated in the primary, the Tribune and the PRESS in some cases endorsed for the general election a candidate with smaller or no business ties with the firm.)

Among the Tribune’s endorsements was one for Reshma Saujani in the public advocate primary. Saujani spent $5,400 on ads in the Tribune and PRESS of Southeast Queens. Rival Daniel Squadron had spent $340 to have Multi-Media print his primary ballot petitions, but nothing on advertising with the paper.

When the World reported the connection between the papers and consultancy last year, the newspapers and the political consulting firm were both owned by Tribco LLC. They continue to share the same address in Whitestone, the Tribune’s website, the PRESS’ website, and a recent ad for Multi-Media show.

The Tribune and PRESS’ editor-in-chief, Steven Ferrari, declined to comment when reached over the phone and by email. Their publisher, Michael Nussbaum, who is also Multi-Media’s president, did not respond to an email and a phone call; The New York World visited the office but was told that Nussbaum was not available to meet.

Halloran Endorses Paul Vallone for City Council

This was posted on Facebook 15 minutes ago. Apparently, Mr. Halloran is endorsing his poker buddy Paul Vallone. He feels that "as a kindred spirit" Paul Vallone will be the best person to fill his shoes after he goes away for a long, long time.

Now more than ever!

Crowley takes credit for things she didn't do

Ooooh, I can't wait to hear this!

"When a house is sold in my neighborhood, I no longer worry about a developer tearing it down to build an oversized eyesore. Thanks to Elizabeth's rezoning, we will never have to worry about overdevelopment again."

Is this guy serious? First of all, the rezoning process for Maspeth-Middle Village-Glendale was started in 2004 by community volunteers, 3 years after Elizabeth Crowley initially ran for City Council, lost, and promptly disappeared. While civic groups were going door-to-door collecting building information, Elizabeth Crowley had a no-show job courtesy of Brian McLaughlin. She resurfaced only in 2008 to run for Council again. The ULURP for the rezone started a few months after Elizabeth assumed power in 2009, mainly because Amanda Burden insisted on personally touring the area before giving her seal of approval. Although the rezoning provides more protection from overdevelopment, there still is plenty of it around these neighborhoods. You'll still see 3 or 4-family houses being built in the future where there currently are one-family houses. And a lot of the area was not rezoned because City Planning couldn't decide which zone it fell into or felt the zoning already matched the housing stock.

Crowley doesn't send her kids to the Maspeth High School. And I guess she thinks we forgot that she voted against the construction of the school and that a lot of Maspeth moms can't send their kids to the school because Crowley failed to obtain the necessary concessions from the DOE. We didn't.

She's fighting for good schools, but the one she is at apparently has a teacher that can't spell the word "repercussion". Hmm. They must have known she was coming, however, because the words "fallacy" "manic" "recession" and "indict" appear next to her head on the blackboard.

This is the creepiest mailer of the bunch. A woman appears on the cover of the folded mailer. When you open it up...

Crowley appears next to her. (She apparently was photoshopped out of the cover.)

Crowley's office referred a constituent to a social worker who enrolled her in Medicaid. That's a basic function of a council member, not fodder for a mailer.

The Forum endorsed Crowley's opponent, Craig Caruana:

The 30th Council District is facing a laundry list of intimidating issues: A woeful lack of senior housing, overcrowded classrooms, an arts center that aims to serve liquor to thousands of patrons in a residential area inhabited by many older residents and families, and not enough green space.

There is much that needs to happen for the district’s residents, and in order for that to happen there must be an elected official who is not only responsive to constituents’ needs but able to get along with the City Council’s top brass, including the Speaker.

That person is Craig Caruana.

We know that Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley has done some good. She has put money into schools and parks. But she has not done nearly enough. Fairly or not, she couldn’t get along with Council Speaker Christine Quinn – and that has hurt the district financially. She is routinely missing in action when it comes to responding to constituent complaints, and, when asked if she would run for a third term – something she repeatedly slammed Mayor Bloomberg for pushing – she didn’t say no. Additionally, she is supporting the Knockdown Center, despite almost every other elected official and numerous civic groups in the area raising a litany of concerns about the facility’s request to serve alcohol to up to 5,000 people at the site.

We need someone who will listen to, and fight for, the people.

Craig Caruana grew up in Middle Village – he knows this district. An involved civic activist, he is committed to this neighborhood and will fight for his constituents – whether they are Democrats or Republicans.

It’s time to vote in someone who aims to reduce property taxes and bring more resources to area schools. Who will return phone calls and get along with other legislators. Who won’t say, with a wink, sure, I’d love for that to happen – and then never follow through.

Vote Craig Caruana Nov. 5.

For comparison, here are some of his mailers:

Democratic Machine barks an order; good government group complies

From Crain's:

The good-government group Citizens Union canceled its planned endorsement of a Republican challenger in a little-watched City Council race after two Democratic lawmakers complained about his campaign literature, its executive director confirmed.

Citizens Union announced Friday morning that it would not support anyone in the Queens race between incumbent Democratic Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley and a young Republican former television producer, Craig Caruana. The organization had told Mr. Caruana it would endorse him this week. Ms. Crowley, a cousin of powerful Queens Democratic leader Joe Crowley, is heavily favored to win re-election.

In an email to reporters, the good-government group explained that it had backed away from supporting Mr. Caruana upon learning this week of literature mailed to voters by his campaign.

"After the Citizens Union board met yesterday and reviewed the message of the flyer and its consequences, it felt the flyer crossed a line and engaged in inappropriate fear-mongering that unfairly targets immigrants," the group explained.

Not mentioned was that two members of the City Council had called Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey this week to complain about the impending endorsement. Manhattan Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, the co-chair of the council's Progressive Caucus and a candidate for council speaker, brought the matter to Mr. Dadey's attention, he said. Councilman Danny Dromm, a Queens Democrat, also called to register his concern.

First of all, the mailer doesn't target immigrants, it targets people trespassing on American soil. Big difference.

Interesting that 2 council members from outside the district (one from Manhattan) would call Citizens Union about an endorsement and that Citizens Union would listen to them. Citizens Union is not an immigrant rights group, they are supposed to be a good government group. It's never a good thing when the government tells a good government group what to do, and they do it. They have a long history of doing so, however. It's pretty sad.

An actual quote from their director: “Citizens Union has been pleased to work over the past couple of years with reform-minded individuals like Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn.”

Oy vey!

And it's quite interesting that a mailer about a piece of legislation that Citizens Union decided not to take a position on was a dealbreaker for Caruana, yet the many mailers from the real estate PAC, Jobs for New York, on behalf of CD19 candidate Paul Vallone, didn't cause them to bat en eyelash when deciding to endorse Vallone in that race. Outside spending in elections is usually a top 5 concern for good government groups, but for CU, it's of no concern.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure Caruana would have wanted to be on the same endorsement list as Paul Vallone and Melinda Katz, anyway.