NAKED LESBIAN AD MOVED: Having decided to request the removal of a fleshy bus-shelter ad for the lesbian television
drama “The L Word” in Bay Ridge, State Senator Marty Golden faced
the agonizing choice so often confronting politicians: whether to ask privately or to trumpet it to the media.
After mulling it over for perhaps three or four seconds, Golden took the latter course, which of course resulted in
huge publicity for himself but also for the advertisement and the hit series, which airs on Showtime.
However, he did get the ad moved, so the children of Bay
Ridge are safe again from the devastating psychological consequences of seeing photographs of nude women (not including private
parts).
Incidentally, Gary Parker, president of the gay club Lambda Independent
Democrats, charged in a statement, “If the ad were for UPN’s America’s Next Top Model, I am sure he would
have no objection. The senator’s real objection is to the content of the show, which depicts lesbian characters.”
Golden denied that, saying he’s opposed heterosexual public lewdness as well.
He added that his next letter would be to the Bare Naked Ladies requesting the band change its name to the Adequately
Clothed Females.
***
A CURIOUS ARGUMENT: On March 3, when Supreme Court Judge Martin Marcus
refused to dismiss indictments against Assemblyman Clarence Norman and Brooklyn
Democratic Party executive director Jeff Feldman for allegedly strong-arming two
Civil Court candidates, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes said,
“It supports our allegation that to become a judge in Brooklyn you have to play Norman’s dirty game.”
Only one problem with that argument: both candidates who played “Norman’s dirty game” lost the election.
In that year, 2002, machine-backed Karen Yellen and Marcia Sikowitz were topped by Margarita Lopez Torres and Dolores Thomas.
***
HYNES SHUNS HIGH ROAD: Most political observers consider Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes the frontrunner in his bid for reelection, which makes it curious that he continually bashes his opponents.
The usual advice for favorites is to take the high road or just ignore challengers.
In a recent appearance on NY1, Hynes said challenger Mark Peters had been
“a second- or third-level functionary” in the attorney general’s office.
Peters told us the next day, “I’m proud of the work I did as Eliot Spitzer’s chief government corruption
prosecutor. I think it indicates just how out of touch the D.A. is with the criminal prosecution world that he would confuse
the chief of one of the most sophisticated government corruption prosecution organizations in the state with a functionary.”
Hynes also lobbed a grenade toward challenger Sandra Roper even though
an indictment against her had just been dismissed. Roper issued a release saying the D.A. “continued to beat the carcass
of a case pronounced dead in a court of law.”
***
RATNER DEAL’S NO STUNT: Councilwoman Tish James called the Atlantic
Yards development agreement just reached between Bruce Ratner and the city and
state “a PR stunt to convince the public that the arena and skyscraper complex is a done deal.”
Critics hope the MTA will sell air rights to the site to somebody besides Ratner. Don’t count on it. Ratner’s
so-called PR stunt promises his project $200 million in public funding, making the air rights more valuable to him than to
other potential bidders. That’s a nice head start if the MTA indeed solicits offers.
Project opponents continue to bash the subsidies, predicting they’ll be even higher than forecast, but the New York Post editorial page on March 7 called them “a perfectly legitimate
use of public funds” because they’ll pay for new streets and environmental clean-up.
***
FELDMAN COMES FULL CIRCLE: It’s been a while since Dan Feldman,
the former Brooklyn assemblyman, worked in the private sector. But after 30 and a half years, he’s going back.
Upon graduating from Columbia College and Harvard Law School, Feldman joined a law firm and specialized in securities
litigation. He left in 1974 to become executive assistant to Liz Holtzman, then
a member of Congress representing Brooklyn. From 1977 to 1980 he was counsel to two Assembly committees and then was elected
to the Assembly representing Sheepshead Bay and Midwood in 1980.
In 1989, he ran for Brooklyn district attorney, attempting to succeed Holtzman, who left to become city comptroller.
Feldman lost, but kept his Assembly seat.
Nine terms of legislating in Albany and racing around to meetings and events in Brooklyn ultimately took its toll,
and Feldman left office to run for the congressional seat being vacated by Chuck Schumer
in 1998. Feldman finished fourth in a tight four-way primary won by Anthony Weiner,
but he didn’t stay down long.
He landed a senior staff job with the incoming state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, in 1999, and for the next six
years directed a number of important investigations.
Next month, Feldman will return to the private sector with the law firm Herrick Feinstein, where he’ll share
the leadership of its government relations department. His co-chair? Liz Holtzman.
***
DELTA CASH FLOWS TO POLS: Delta Funding, which settled a 1999 lawsuit accusing it of predatory lending, has been
donating money to elected officials including Assemblymen Nick Perry and William Boyland Jr., State Senator Kevin Parker, Newsday reported.
Perry received a total of $1,500 in 2003 and 2004, which opponents may mention if he runs for Congress as expected
in 2006. Parker got $250 and Boyland $150 last year.
According to Newsday, the lawsuit alleged Delta made “illegal, discriminatory
and fraudulent high-cost mortgage loans” that victimized low-income homeowners in 20 states, but mostly in New York.
Brooklyn and Queens were particularly hard hit. Some folks lost their homes to foreclosure.
Delta did not admit wrongdoing, but it didn’t pay $20 million just to make nice.
Perry said Delta bought tickets to three of his fundraisers. “I was not as scrupulous as I might have been. Otherwise
I might not have accepted the purchase of those tickets,” he said.
“Delta did a very unspeakable thing to the community,” Perry noted. “I think they are seeking redemption,
to get back into the community as a good corporate business. I think they’re entitled to that chance.”
***
ROPER’S NO DOPE: Sandra Roper has long said her criminal indictment
was retribution for her running against Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes in
2001. Ironically, now the speculation is the indictment’s dismissal was in part a result of her running again this year.
Everywhere Roper campaigned, and every time she was mentioned in the newspaper, it seemed, the indictment-as-political-retribution
story came up. That hurt Hynes and gave Roper something on which to campaign.
This is not to say Hynes asked special prosecutor Maranda Fritz to drop the case. But he couldn’t have been too
sad to see it go away. Chances are, Roper would have been acquitted; in her first trial, which ended in a hung jury, only
three of 12 jurors wanted to convict her, according to Roper.
Another possible reason for the indictment being dismissed was a motion by Roper’s attorney to get tapes of conversations
between Roper and the client she was accused of ripping off. Transcripts had been made of the tapes, but certain parts were
eliminated because they were said to be inaudible.
Roper believed the redacted parts would have proved her side of the story, but Fritz reportedly claimed the tapes were
lost. Even if that were true, a judge would likely not allow undocumented transcripts as evidence.
The prosecutor would then have had little to go on. The case rested largely on the word of the client, Mary Lee Ward,
who has a history of claiming to be ripped off by her attorneys and doesn’t seem to be the most credible of witnesses:
just last week Ward told The Brooklyn Paper she hadn’t agreed to a deal in
which Roper would pay her the nearly $9,000 in disputed fees but not admit guilt. But the special prosecutor said Ward had
signed off on it.
Roper said she returned the money to avoid a civil case and that it had nothing to do with the criminal case being
dropped.
***
TIDBITS: The Park Slope mansion of actress Jennifer Connelly and actor/husband
Paul Bettany was formerly the home of Republican Congressman Francis E. Dorn, who represented Brooklyn from 1952 to 1960 until losing to future governor Hugh Carey, who lived in a mansion a few blocks away.
By the way, the trust that bought the home for Connelly in 2003 got a pretty good deal: $3.7 million (the asking price
had been $5 million; in 1986 the same house sold for $1.2 million). Today in Park Slope, $3.7 million only gets you a nice
row house…
…ACORN chief Bertha Lewis denied a rumor (published here two weeks
ago) that Gloria Waldron, a 17-year member of ACORN’s Brooklyn chapter,
will challenge Councilwoman Yvette Clarke. Lewis said ACORN considers Clarke a
friend.
We took the opportunity to ask Lewis what her position would be on Councilwoman Tish
James’s reelection bid. Lewis wouldn’t say, but she did express hope that the Democratic Party would allow
James to run in its primary election. James left the Democrats in 2003 to join the Working Families Party…
…Rep. Major Owens has scheduled a fundraiser/awards ceremony for
March 18, but that doesn’t mean he’s running again. Owens has debt to repay from his last race, said his son,
Chris Owens, who is running to succeed him.
It will also be a good opportunity for the younger Owens to get cozy with some of the honorees, notably former Congresswoman
Liz Holtzman, past and future City Council candidate Sam Taitt, and Theopia Green, the mother of Assemblyman Roger Green. The cheapest ticket is $150…
…We’ve heard that State Senator Carl Kruger has come to realize
that citywide office is not in the cards for him, so he’s lowered his sights from public advocate to Brooklyn borough
president. He could run for either seat in 2009 without giving up his seat in the state legislature…
…Assemblyman Frank Seddio told this paper’s Gary Buiso that he returned a $2,000 campaign contribution from a developer who wants to build a Home Depot in
Canarsie because it’s his policy not to take money from folks he’s discussing issues with. “I like to think
of myself as an honest broker,” Seddio said.
He then clarified that he wasn’t suggesting politicians without that policy were dishonest, but Seddio had to
know Buiso would report that State Senators Carl Kruger and John Sampson both accepted campaign donations from the same developer.
The Home Depot and other stores would be built on Avenue D at East 89th Street…
…Within hours of Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s announcement at an evening civic association meeting that he would
not support a rail tunnel from New Jersey to Brooklyn, Rep. Jerry Nadler dispatched
a press release excerpting Bloomberg’s past statements endorsing the tunnel. Bloomberg’s reversal was a blow,
but Nadler was lifted by a subsequent Newsday editorial supporting the project
and accusing the mayor of flip-flopping to help his reelection bid…
…Brooklyn district attorney candidate Arnie Kriss charged that incumbent
Joe Hynes should not be trusted to investigate Brooklyn Surrogate Michael Feinberg because Hynes pal Harvey Greenberg is Feinberg’s
attorney and was assigned legal work by Feinberg. “Conflict of interest,” Kriss charged.
Instead, Kriss suggested Eliot Spitzer probe the allegations that Feinberg
awarded excessive fees to attorney Lou Rosenthal. But Kriss failed to mention
Spitzer’s own conflict of interest: Rosenthal donated $7,500 to Spitzer’s 2002 campaign…
…In a recent piece about Park Slope Republican Steve Shaw’s
mayoral campaign, conservative New York Sun
columnist Alicia Colon complained that unopposed candidates can receive public matching funds from the Campaign Finance
Board. That is untrue, according to CFB spokeswoman Andrea Lynn…
…How far has the Gowanus Canal come? Once the arm pit between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, the canal will
soon lend its name to an apartment complex on Carroll Street near the waterway. “Gowanus Village” the developer
will call it. A few years ago it would have been “South Slope Hamlet” or some such absurdity…
…Eric Blackwell, who plans to challenge Councilwoman Tish James this year, says he’s the only person ever elected out of the Fort Greene Houses. He lived there
when he won a seat on School Board 13 in 1993. He’s since left the projects but still resides in Fort Greene. Blackwell
used to publish the Fort Greene News…
…Former candidate Maurice Gumbs, in a column about embattled Brooklyn
Surrogate Michael Feinberg, writes of Brooklyn judges, “In the days of the
Old Testament these rogues would be thrown out the windows of their courtrooms and their carcasses left on the sidewalk for
dogs and vultures to feed upon or to rot in their stinking black robes.”
Fast forward to 2005: Feinberg was suspended with pay, meaning he’ll get a paid vacation nearly a year long while
he fights accusations that he allowed a friend to overcharge the estates of dead Brooklynites by $2 million…
…Our spies tell us that at the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association, Dino Amoroso, a representative of Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes,
suggested eliminating the rule that forbids D.A.’s from making political endorsements during reelection years. Is Hynes
the same D.A. who says he’s trying to get politics out of the judicial system?
