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Democrats Hope for State Senate Win In Conservative Brooklyn


golden-gounardes-debate

NEW YORK — Democrats should technically be able to win the 22nd State Senate District of Brooklyn that stretches from Bay Ridge to Marine Park, because of a voter registration advantage.

But people will tell you that the district is actually very conservative — likely explaining how former NYPD officer Martin Golden, a member of the Republican majority with an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association, has kept his seat since 2002.

This year, Golden is facing probably his strongest challenge in recent memory from Andrew Gounardes, an attorney for Citizens Committee for New York and a former staffer to City Councilman Vincent Gentile (whom Golden beat for his Senate seat).

Because of their voter registration advantage throughout the city, Democrats currently control all but three state Senate seats in the five boroughs. A win in the 22nd district could help them eke out a majority in the Senate or, at the very least, further establish their grip on New York City.

Golden, however, says Gounardes won’t be able to deliver for voters.  “I applaud his decision to run because he wants to make a change,” said Golden, who was recently endorsed by Citizens Union, the good government group and sister organization of Gotham Gazette.

“But he won’t be in the majority, he won’t be in leadership, he won’t be in management,” Golden said of Gounardes. “What matters to New Yorkers are jobs and economic development and the Republican conference has been successful in working with the governor to achieve some major legislative accomplishments.”

But Gounardes says he has all the qualification he needs because he plans on listening to the people of his district. He paints Golden as out-of-touch with the values of a new generation, and he says the district is changing as younger people move in.

“The changing demographics matter. We are attracting more minorities to Bay Ridge who have no prior attachments to Golden,” says Gounardes.

A recent debate at St. Philip's Episcopal Church served to showcase the candidates’ styles — Golden the older statesman, a bit crusty; Gounardes youthful and excitable. They traded barbs in a debate that featured booing, hooting and hissing from the crowd that seemed already firmly decided in their vote.

Gounardes estimates that he and his campaign have knocked on tens of thousands of doors across the district as well as greeted untold numbers of commuters at subway stops most mornings.

Golden, meanwhile, said he wasn’t taking any chances. “Don’t make any mistake, this is an overwhelmingly Democratic city. No matter what happens Obama is going to do better than Romney, so you will see me at the train station every morning knocking on doors,” Golden said.  “We have thousands of signs up, our office is full of people working the phones.”

Gounardes’ says his challenge is to connect Golden to the votes he has taken in Albany. “We have a state Senator who votes with upstate and Long Island Republicans 99.8 percent of the time and against Brooklyn,” Gounardes told the audience at the church.

“He’s an aggressive young man, but he doesn’t bring what he needs to to get things done,” Golden told Gotham Gazette. “His message has fallen on deaf ears and he is not going to be in management.”

Gounardes has also attacked Golden for missing a vote on microstamping — a technology that would stamp bullets fired by automatic handguns so that it would make it easier for police to trace bullets back to the guns that fired them. The technology is a favorite cause of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among the premier patrons of Senate Republicans.

“Microstamping is a great idea,” said Golden, “but it needs to be a national law to be effective. Illegal guns aren’t made in New York. They come in from other states.”

Golden initially claimed he had a phone call that made him miss the vote. He has refused to tell interviewers what was so pressing.

“I don’t think the phone call had much to do with anything,” Golden told Liz Benjamin in 2010.  “Had I have been on the floor, I would have voted ‘no.’”

Golden has pushed legislation that would increase penalties for those who use guns in crimes but has been steadfast in his opposition to gun control legislation. When asked at the debate earlier this month whether he would support an assault weapons ban during the debate, Golden informed the audience member, “We already have a ban on assault weapons here in New York state.”

He went on to insist that Senate Republicans have put forward numerous proposals to crack down on illegal weapons but Assembly Democrats have refused to vote for them. All of the proposals had to do with increasing penalties for criminals who use guns in the commission of a crime.  

“In 1991, we had 2,600 gun deaths,” Golden said.  “This year it is going to be 500. That is still too many and we gotta do something. The only thing you can do is prosecute the bad guys and put them where they belong.”

This summer, under attack by Gounardes for his absence on the microstamping vote, Golden introduced a piece of legislation that would punish all gang members for community guns. "Gangs are a major problem in our courts and in our community and this is a way of going after those gang members,” Golden said at the time the bill was announced.

Gounardes has also focused on Golden’s voting record on women’s issues. When asked by Gounardes during the debate if he supported giving rape victims emergency contraception Golden seemed to agree, but Gounardes retorted, “Marty, you voted against that bill three times in Albany.”

Golden said at the debate that he voted against the equal pay bill because "it was flawed."

Women’s issues have become a touchpoint in the race after the press learned of an event Golden sponsored on etiquette for women. An advertisement for the event said it would help women learn about “handshakes, posture and feminine deportment.” Golden’s website said women who attended would learn to "sit, stand and walk like a model" and "walk up and down a stair elegantly.”

Gounardes poured it on and Golden cancelled the event. “This just goes to show that Marty Golden just doesn’t get it — either that or he lives in a cave and thinks 'Leave It to Beaver' is a new reality show,” Gounardes staffer Chris McCreight said in a statement at the time.

Golden’s spokesman defended the event until it was cancelled.

Perhaps the most tangible issue for Golden in this race is the reaction labor groups have had to his decision to cross a Communication Workers of America picket line last year.

Metal Lathers & Reinforcing Ironworkers Local 46 president John Skinner said in a statement, "When I heard that, I hoped we would have an opponent we could all support. Fortunately, we found that candidate in Andrew Gounardes. I trust he would never cross our picket line."

Golden said he crossed the picket line because he had to get work done for his constituents — and that  it was the only way to do so. “I crossed a Verizon picket line because my phone had fallen in water. I crossed the line and exchanged the phone. I was out of communication,” he said.

Gounardes has also won major endorsements from the AFL CIO, the IBEW Local 3 and the 32 BJ SEIU, which could all turn out to be a lot of boots on the ground working to turnout votes.

But Golden still has the backing of many trades, including the police and fire unions. He says he is unconcerned about the groups that have backed Gounardes. “I’ve got about 99 percent of the unions,” Golden said. “I’ve got police, fire, 1199, most trade unions. You name it, I got it.”

Despite the number of fronts Gounardes is fighting on, the race may be out of his reach, since he has only about $155,000 in campaign funds to Golden’s $455,000. Senate Democrats are still in debt from their losses in 2010 and have been unable to bolster their candidate.

Meanwhile, Golden enjoys hefty support from Senate Republicans, individual donors as well as a number of business PACs. “We are gonna win this probably with 65 percent of the vote,” Golden said. “We are probably going to raise $300,000 at a fundraiser tonight and we have $400,000 in the bank.”

Gounardes said the race would come down to one issue: accountability. “This is about introducing Marty Golden to the voters,” he said. “Why vote against fair pay, emergency contraception, MTA budgets, school budgets? My job is to tell women he voted against the fair pay act, to tell union members he crossed the picket line. So many people think he is a Democrat but he votes as a conservative.”

As the debate at St. Philip's church wound down, supporters of Gounardes and Golden supporters converged on the front exit, forced to be next to each other after an hour or so of booing, haranguing and hissing at each other about their chosen candidate.

____

Image of Golden and Gounardes, at debate in Brooklyn, provided by the Gounardes campaign.

Showdown at Howard Beach


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NEW YORK — It was a showdown at Howard Beach last night between the two candidates vying for the 15th State Senate District seat.

The debate between Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Addabbo and his Republican challenger, Councilman Erich Ulrich, was mainly substantive, but it had its quirks, too. The packed crowd at Our Lady of Grace parish was a mix of partisans and people who seemed legitimately torn that the two were challenging each other.

Each candidate was given the chance by moderators to defend themselves against negative mailers as well as to condemn mailers sent out by outside groups that attacked both men.

Addabbo defended himself against an attack made by an outside group saying, "I don't love parrots more than kids." Addabbo explained that he had introduced a bill in Albany about parrots at the request of a constituent but that he has two kids who he loves both. Both men decried the negative mailers that have flooded the district from PACS and said they wished they didn't exist.

During the lightning round, both men were asked to describe the other's campaign in one word. "Negative," Addabbo said. Ulrich paused and, with much gravitas, replied, "Dishonest."

Ulrich called the Democrats' control of the Senate in 2008 to 2010 an "abomination." Addabbo attacked Senate Majority leader Sen. Dean Skelos, saying Skelos did not have the people's interests in mind.

"You aren't running against Dean Skelos, you are running against me," Ulrich replied.

Ulrich insisted that he would be independent of the Senate Republicans and be able to deliver for his district, despite the majority's focus on upstate and Long Island issues saying, "They need me. I don't need them."

Read our previous story on the race between Addabbo and Ulrich: Rival Candidates in State Senate Race Say They Won't Toe Party Lines

However, Ulrich has taken $10,000 from Skelos and $234,700 from the Senate Republican Campaign Committee and $250,000 from the New York State Republican Party.

When asked about campaign finance reform, Addabbo touted his work as a councilman reforming NYC's election process. However, he touted his support of casino gaming and his relationship with resorts world throughout the debate. Addabbo has received $10,000 from Genting New York, the force behind the proposed Queens convention center and casino.

Another major difference between the two was displayed when they were asked about The Dream Act. Ulrich said he supported "some version" of the act, while Addabbo said he didn't support it at all because people in his district can't find money to send their kids to college.

Both men also went to town on their differences on gun violence. Ulrich said it was a distortion that he wanted people running around the streets holding "bazookas" and said he felt microstamping was an unproven technology.

"The problem is not with the laws in New York but with the laws in other states," he said, insisting that illegal guns come into the city from states with laxer gun laws.

Addabbo said that he supports gun ownership, but wants an assault rifle ban because no one needs an "AK47" in their closet.

On hydraulic fracturing there were also stark differences. Addabbo painted the gas extraction process as a direct threat to Queens' business. "There have been fatalities," he said. He also joked that he couldn't go to Gino's (a local Italian joint with an excellent caprese salad) if their food was tainted by hydrofracking.

"I'm for clean drinking water, in case you are wondering," Ulrich said, before adding that he thought scientists should be given time to study the process. He also advocated testing the process in an area of New York where there are no major bodies of water.

Last night's debate was co-sponsored by Gotham Gazette's sister organization, Citizens Union, and the Queens Chronicle & The Forum Newsgroup.

____

Addabbo and Ulrich posed for photos with local school children after the debate was finished. The two men are seen here just as the photo shoot ended. Photo by David Howard King.

Regulators Issue No Violations for Bloomberg's 'Secret' Donations


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NEW YORK — Michael Bloomberg's 2009 mayoral campaign worked to conceal $1.2 million in donations made in the days before voters headed to the polls, regulators say.

But the New York City Campaign Finance Board found that while the Bloomberg campaign's actions "contravened the spirit of disclosure," it could find no violation.

The board voted 3-to-1 to close the inquiry into Bloomberg's 2009 mayoral campaign yesterday. The mayor's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

But attorneys for Bloomberg's 2009 campaign said in papers released by the board that the allegations had no basis and should be dismissed.

In a sometimes pointed final report, the board slammed the Bloomberg campaign for taking advantage of a temporary loophole in election law to deliberately avoid public disclosure of the donations made on Oct. 30, and Nov. 2, 2009, to the Independence Party.

The money was intended to fund so-called "ballot security operations," poll-watching that some groups have criticized as potentially leading to disenfranchisement at the voter booth.

There is no evidence the money was ever spent on behalf of the mayor's campaign. John Haggerty, Jr., a Republican political consultant hired to oversee the ballot security initiatives, was convicted of stealing the money and using about $600,000 to buy a home.

In a review of extensive testimony from the criminal trial of Haggerty, the board found that top officials with the Bloomberg campaign were intricately involved in the "negotiations, financing and logistics of Haggerty's ballot security operation" and that they took deliberate actions to avoid having to make public the donations.    

"The record before the board makes clear that [the Bloomberg campaign], with a stated intent to conceal the funding of its $1.1 million ballot security operation by 'do[ing] it on the outside,' moved to deprive the New York City electorate of the benefits of disclosure," the board report states.
 
The board's staff began looking into questions surrounding the donations to the Independence Party in February 2010, with Haggerty's trial generating "voluminous evidence and testimony" relevant to the inquiry, the report said.

The board also received a complaint from Gerald F. Kann, a political activist linked with the Green Party, urging a review of Bloomberg's donations. The board said that while the complaint "raises serious public policy consideration … it does not allege a violation of law upon which the board may grant relief."

However, the board said that it was "troubled" by the ability of Bloomberg to "make and conceal such payments in the first place." The money was donated to a party housekeeping account, which allow for unlimited contributions and few reporting requirements under state law. The board said such accounts are, "at best, hostile to the principles of fair play and transparency."

Richard Davis, an attorney, was the sole member of the city's Campaign Finance Board to vote against the motion to close the inquiry.

“I believe the evidence here warrants a notice of penalty for improper coordination and for making a payment for services designed to benefit the campaign," he said about his decision. "The issue then would be how much, if any, of the money was actually spent for the intended purpose rather than stolen.”

Read the complete report by the board below.

FBD 2012-1


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