Silverstein bows out of council race

From the Queens Courier:

Matthew Silverstein, one the five candidates running in the District 19 Democratic primary race to defeat the incumbent councilmember, Dan Halloran, announce he is dropping out of the race.

In a statement, Silverstein confirmed he will be ending his campaign for City Council after going through one of the most difficult years of his life last year with his mother passing away in December.

“My Mom was an amazing woman who wanted me to continue fighting for the issues I care about. However, after consulting with my friends and family, I have decided to suspend my campaign,” said Silverstein.

Although he will no longer be running, Silverstein hopes to find a candidate in the race who represents his ideals and could work together with him to put “this city back on the right path.”

Meanwhile, it appears that Mr. Graziano has lined up quite a list of civic & community supporters.

Paul Vallone enters District19 Dem primary

From Bayside Patch:

Paul Vallone said he intends to challenge Councilman Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone, for his seat this fall.

Vallone, who is the son of former Council Speaker Peter Vallone and brother of Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., previously ran in the Democratic primary for the seat in 2009.

“I’m building on what we started four years ago,” said Vallone, an attorney who lives in Flushing. “In 2009, it was more of a getting to know you kind of thing. We’ve worked our butts off in the community to bring this campaign to fruition.”

Matthew Silverstein, a Democratic state committeeman, is the only other contender who has announced a bid in this fall’s primary for the seat.

Other names who have been mentioned as contenders are former state Assemblyman John Duane and Austin Shaffran, who is an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Vallone said his family has inspired him to jump into the race.

“I’ve had my father as a role model,” he said. “I’ve seen how when you’re a strong local representative, you can go to City Hall and bring back to the district.”

Vallone said he will run on many of the same issues on which he focused in his 2009 bid.

Since Halloran and Vallone are buddies, dontcha think something must be up?

Silverstein to run against Halloran

From the Daily News:

Matthew Silverstein, a two-year Democratic State Committeeman for the 26th AD, is holding a kickoff party tonight as he considers running for City Council in the 19th District. That seat is currently held by Republican Dan Halloran, who's running for Congress in the new NY-6.

"While walking about the district, talking to constituents, I have heard the many concerns about our great city. They range from the future of our school system, tax equity for our Co-Op and Condo owners, protecting senior citizens, finding jobs for New Yorkers, or helping our returning Veterans re-integrate into society, [and] people seem to feel that New York City is on the wrong track," he writes in an email. "The people of the 19th Council District deserve better, and together we can make a difference."

They're "hack-ing" away in NY-6

From City and State:

A spokesman for Assemblywoman Grace Meng’s congressional campaign confirmed this morning that its main campaign consultant, Michael Nussbaum, urged a Jewish state committeeman in Queens to run for the same congressional seat as Meng.

The Meng spokesman, Michael Tobman, confirmed that Nussbaum had suggested to Matthew Silverstein that he join the then three-way Democratic primary in northeast Queens, but insisted that the suggestion was not serious. Silverstein ultimately passed on running for the seat.

The revelation comes as a new candidate, 70-year old Board of Elections employee Jeff Gottlieb, has jumped into the NY-6 race. Lancman’s campaign issued a statement yesterday condemning Gottlieb’s candidacy as a ploy by the Queens Democratic Party to split the Jewish vote in the district. Lancman, who is Jewish, asserts that Gottlieb, who is also Jewish, was only tapped to run for Congress after Silverstein decided to take a pass.

The Meng campaign’s admission came after three sources had told City & State of the conversation between Nussbaum and Silverstein. The sources characterized the meeting as an effort by Nussbaum, who runs the Queens political consulting firm Multi-Media, to place a Jewish candidate in the congressional race in order to split the Jewish vote in the four-way primary.

Silverstein told Lancman himself about the conversation with Nussbaum in some detail at a Community Board 7 meeting last evening, two sources said.

But Tobman insists that Nussbaum’s intention was not to siphon off votes from Lancman.

From the NY Observer:

“Today, the Meng campaign has been caught red-handed in one of the most malicious schemes any of us have ever seen: an outrageous ploy to deceive Jewish voters with a fraudulent candidate designed to manipulate the electoral process in her favor,” Mr. Lancman’s campaign manager Mark Benoit said in a statement. “Based on today’s revelations, Grace Meng owes the voters an apology for concocting this sham, and Grace Meng should fire her main campaign operative Michael Nussbaum for his role in perpetrating this fraud.”

From Room Eight:

This story, from 2002, and several others I've found in my research, has made me revise my take on Queens hack Jeff Gottlieb's laughable, boss-blessed run for Congress.

For over a decade now, Gottlieb has thrown his hat into the ring for every race for an open seat in Queens, even when the seat was going to disappear, or wasn't really open.

Each time, he made some noise, but ultimately, he always faded when the Party bosses asked him to, knowing he's get his reward if he just waited his turn.

Unfortunately, that reward turned out to be a job at the Board of Elections.

A Queens Activist writes:

“Gottlieb was on the board of Bowne House when the Jacob Titus Bowne collection of historical papers disappeared and the Jamaica Town Records were put on the open market without the knowledge or consent of the membership. Everytime Jeff runs for something, the rumblings about this start and then he drops out and keeps a low profile for awhile. Then the cycle restarts.”

Hmmm...What's this about?

From Queens Politics:

Less than three weeks ago, political insiders were abuzz with different theories on why state Sen. Toby Stavisky’s Chief of Staff, Avi Fink would manage Liz Crowley’s campaign for Congress even after Grace Meng received the County nod.

QueensCrap was the first to point out Fink in the photos after Liz Crowley announced her bid for Assembly underneath the Unisphere.

Examining the pictures, insiders and pundits suggested that since Stavisky had longstanding ties to the County organization, there must have been some behind the scenes agreement to bolster Crowley with Toby’s seasoned staffer.

But those people were mistaken as the deal wasn’t made with Toby, it was made with Fink. Toby was set up to get the short end of the stick.

Over time, word had spread. Fink was unhappy; he wanted to leave Toby’s office and his colleagues were waiting for the right opportunity to give him the chance.

Enter Liz Crowley.

When push comes to shove, Crowley’s longstanding ties to County supersede those of the Stavisky faction, including her son’s Lobbying firm the Parkside Group.

Queens County Democrats were discontented. Toby and Evan have been making the Party look bad for far too long. “The Parkside thugs are not Queens County no matter what they appear to be,” said a party official.

According to an inside source, Fink did not show up to work for twenty-four hours after Crowley’s announcement. He went AWOL and when he returned unannounced, Toby went nuts after Fink admitted he took a job with the Crowley campaign.

In summation, County made Fink an offer he couldn’t refuse: leave Toby now and we’ll get you back on the Hill.

Oh, so county DID set up the Liz Crowley campaign, then? Otherwise, it would have made more sense for Fink to work for Meng. Thanks for clarifying!

Jeff Gottlieb thrown in race to split Jewish vote

From True News for Change NYC:

Former Brian McLaughlin, Alan Hevesi, David Weprin and Morton Povman staffer, Jeff Gottlieb, expected to enter the race for congress in the Meng district according to political consultant Jay Golub. Gottlieb will clearly split the Jewish vote with Lancman making county choice Grace Meng a walk in to win.

Jay Golub, who is a consultant for Jeff Gottlieb's congressional run to split the vote in the 6th, is president of GSP consultants. Golub GSP Consulting was paid $4,500 by the Ragusa faction of the Queens GOP against the Haggerty faction. Steven Graves was running in the 25AD for State Committee as part of the Ragusa faction in 2009. Also working for GSP is Dennis Gallager, who the NYP calls the "Perv pol." Gallagher, who stepped down in 2008 after pleading guilty to sexual-abuse charges stemming from accusations that he raped a woman in his Middle Village office, is listed on a city government database as an “additional lobbyist” with GSP Consulting. Gallagher, a Republican, confirmed that he does consulting work with Golub and that he’s done consulting for Councilman Peter Koo (R-Queens) but said he hasn’t done any work for Republicans in Queens “on a paid basis.” Michael Nussbaum, Meng's campaign consultant, also worked on the 2009 Peter Koo campaign. Golub also worked on the campaign for Issac Sasson. In both the Koo campaign and the Sasson campaign, Nussbaum's Multi Media company did the printing.

And speaking of Gallagher, guess who he was hanging out with on Easter eve?

None other than Council Member and GOP congressional candidate Dan Halloran! Dan was hosting karaoke at a Whitestone pub, and posted photos of the merriment on Facebook.




For some reason, the last photo was mysteriously deleted from the Councilman's page early on Easter Sunday. Too bad for them that I had already seen it and downloaded it.

Queens Dems & Queens GOP: it's just one big embarrassing hack orgy, isn't it?

Which brings us back to Gottlieb:

From City Hall:

He is currently an employee at the Board of Elections, a patronage position. And the Flushing resident has literally has come out of nowhere to run for Congress: He has no federal campaign account, no campaign website and waited several weeks into petitioning into order to begin.

In addition, Queens Democratic sources said that before Gottlieb entered the race, Meng backers attempted to recruit Matt Silverstein, a Democratic state committeeman who is also Jewish, to run for the congressional seat in order to split the Jewish vote.

Northeastern Queens races may become free-for-alls

From City and State:

Former Queens Sen. Frank Padavan is mulling a comeback in the northeast Queens district he narrowly lost to Sen. Tony Avella two years ago, sources said, but Queens Republicans are concerned the newly-redrawn district will not be favorable to a bid. Padavan’s name has risen as Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran has downplayed the idea of challenging Avella. Sources said Republicans are unlikely to do much through redistricting to make the district more conservative, and are largely focused on convincing another Republican councilman, Eric Ulrich, to run against Democratic Sen. Joe Addabbo in eastern Queens.

From City and State:

One race I’ve been following closely is the Democratic primary shaping up to take on colorful northeast Queens Councilman Dan Halloran. He may run for state Senate in 2012 against State Sen. Tony Avella if the redrawn district breaks the right way, though he’s recently thrown cold water on the idea. But assuming that Halloran isn’t a member of the state Senate by 2013, the Democratic primary to take him on could again get pretty messy, in what is a relatively conservative district by New York City standards.

In 2009, the Queens Democratic machine backed community board chair Jerry Iannece, and tried to force Paul Vallone, the brother of Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., to drop out of the race, fearing Iannece and Vallone would split the Italian-American vote – and pave the way for a weaker general election candidate to emerge. Vallone refused to drop out, and that’s exactly what happened: Kevin Kim, a bright, young Korean-American lawyer, won the primary behind a huge turnout by Korean-American community in Flushing, but narrowly lost an extremely ethnically and religiously divisive general election contest to Halloran.

Fast forward to 2013. Kim has moved out of the district. Vallone wants to run again. Iannece is very interested. Matt Silverstein, a young state committeeman who is the former president of the New York State and Queens Young Democrats is already raising money. All of this threatens to again split the vote — and make anointing the strongest general election candidate a difficult task for the Queens Democrats.

Dem rival calls for investigation of Halloran

From City Hall News:

A potential rival to Queens Republican Councilman Dan Halloran wants him investigated for possible ethical and criminal violations for claiming Sanitation Department workers staged a deliberate slowdown during last winter’s New York City blizzard.

Matthew Silverstein, a Queens Democratic state committeeman who lives in Halloran’s district, sent letters two weeks ago to the Department of Investigation, the Queens district attorney’s office and the New York City Council Ethics Committee asking for probes into whether Halloran knowingly reported and circulated false information about the alleged slowdown—a Class A misdemeanor that would carry automatic jail time.

Silverstein also sent a letter to the Grievance Committee for the Queens Judicial District seeking an investigation into whether the councilman violated rules of legal conduct through his use of attorney-client privilege.

Silverstein is the former president of both the Queens and New York State Young Democrats, and is known to be interested in running for City Council against Halloran for in 2013. Any findings of wrongdoing would result in further grist for a Council run. A spokesman for Halloran, Steven Stites, dismissed Silverstein’s letters as political.

Carrozza may be faced with challengers

From City Hall:

...rumors are swirling that some within the party would prefer to see Carrozza take a pass on a re-election bid. Already, a number of potential challengers are lining up to take on the scandal-scarred incumbent.

Democrat Steve Behar, who recently finished a distant fourth in a six-person Democratic primary to replace Council Member Tony Avella, said he is strongly considering running for the Assembly seat whether Carrozza stays in the race or not.

Behar, an attorney, is not closely associated with the Queens Democratic Party and would have few qualms about running a primary against an establishment-backed incumbent.

Meanwhile, political insiders on both sides of the aisle believe that if Carrozza does not run, Michael Sais, the chief of staff for Assembly Member Michael Gianaris, is lined up as the county party’s pick to the replace her. Sais has also worked as a lobbyist for the Parkside Group, the consulting firm typically used by Queens Democratic Party candidates.

Also, Matthew Silverstein, president of the New York State Young Democrats, said that if Carrozza chooses not to run for re-election, he will definitely run for the seat.

Queens Republicans, meanwhile, are coalescing behind Vincent Tabone, executive vice-president of the Queens Republican Party.

Tabone, an attorney who has worked in both the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, said he would also decide whether to run sometime early next year.

Photo from the Daily News