Peter Koo victorious in the 20th Council District

With 100% precincts reporting: Peter Koo 50%, Yen Chou 45%, SJ Jung 4%, Evergreen Chou 2%

Does Chou hate Koo for befriending a Jew?

From City Hall News:

Isaac Sasson, a Sephardic Jewish leader who placed a close third in the primary, has crossed party lines and endorsed Koo. In part, the decision appears motivated by events during the primary.

Last spring, Chou sparked controversy when her campaign stated in a Chinese language newspaper that, according to one translation, “voting for Peter Koo in the General Election instead of voting in [the] Democratic Primary Election is equivalent to indirectly giving the throne to the Jews,” appearing to allude to Sasson.

Chou’s campaign manager, Michael Olmeda, attributed the divisive sound of the statement to translation issues between Chinese and English.

But Terence Park, an influential Democratic leader in the Korean-American community, remains unconvinced. He is also supporting Koo.

“I’m a diehard Democrat and I will be for the rest of my life. But this race is between a competent candidate versus an incompetent candidate,” Park said. “Yen Chou is not seen in the community as a good woman—and that is spreading around the Chinese community like wildfire.”

Council District 20 debate video

From BoroPolitics:

The six Democratic candidates running for the seat — John Choe, Yen Chou, S.J. Jung, Constantine Kavadas, Isaac Sasson and James Wu — duked it out during a forum sponsored by TimesLedger Newspapers, part of the Community Newspaper Group, last Thursday.
Michael Bloomberg for Mayor

An otherwise civil discussion on District 20 issues turned ugly when the candidates were asked about the role of ethnic politics in the race, briefly descending into a screaming match between Kavadas and Sasson, who have each been accused of racism during the campaign.

For more about the elections, visit the Queens Campaigner.

District 20 debate turns into Royal Rumble

From the Queens Campaigner:

It was billed as a debate, but it turned into an airing of dirty laundry.

The six Democratic candidates running for the seat of City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) participated in a candidates’ forum in Flushing Monday night, but what started as a cordial discourse on issues affecting District 20 quickly devolved into a fracas replete with allegations of everything from racism to planted questions.

During the course of the forum, held at Korea Village by Terence Park’s Our Political Coalition, candidates Yen Chou and Isaac Sasson were openly called racists, John Choe was criticized for calling the United States imperialist in a 2006 speech, S.J. Jung was accused of living in another state and Constantine Kavadas erupted against forum panelists whom he accused of asking questions planted by opposing campaigns.

Tomorrow night is round 2 at the Flushing Library! Don't miss it!

A challenging time in the 20th Council District

From the Queens Campaigner:

In the race to replace City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), even getting on the ballot is a battle.

With just under two months until the Democratic primary, 46 objections to candidates’ ballot petitions had been filed with the city Elections Board in the race for Liu’s seat — easily the most for any city race in Queens.

According to board records, as of 3 p.m. Monday all six Democrats and the lone Republican registered for the race had at least four challenges filed against them.

Constantine Kavadas received 10 challenges, S.J. Jung and Isaac Sasson each received seven, James Wu received five and John Choe and Yen Chou each received four. Peter Koo, a Republican, received nine challenges.

Jersey boy wants Flushing Council seat

This filing shows that Council District 20 candidate S.J. Jung lived in Bergen, NJ until earlier this year.

So, he's in NJ; Peter Koo lives in Port Washington and has a fake address in downtown Flushing that Evan Stavisky camped out in front of for two months; and Yen Chou lives in Bayside. Bayside Assemblywoman Ann-Margaret Carrozza was caught living in Nassau County and Paul Vallone can't decide whether he's from Astoria or Bayside.

That's what Queens neighborhoods are viewed as by the tweeders: Nice places to make money off of, but they wouldn't want to live there.