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Progressive Grassroot Rising in Brooklyn Email Print

By mole333
07/16/2006 01:04:17 PM EST

One of the true battlegrounds that Progressives should be focusing on is Brooklyn. But I often feel that the grassroots have been awfully lazy in Brooklyn. In 2005 I was briefly mistaken for a troll because of a piece I wrote expressing considerable frustration at progressives for dropping the ball, at least in NYC. You see, I am heavily involved in local politics, often getting to meet candidates one-on-one, and I find that contrary to the impression many have regarding the Democratic Party, we have some of the best candidates you can imagine. Problem is, they don't get past the primaries because big money and political machines oppose them, and the grassroots tends to be a bit lazy.

But I am finding evidence that in 2006, the Brooklyn Grassroots are doing fine. My one fear is that 2006 will be the year of hard work for Brooklyn progressives and yet they will still lose to the local political machine and to the candidates that get huge piles of money from big business.

Lamont in CT and Tester in MT show what a good netroots/blogsphere effort can do. What we need in NYC is something much like that effort, though it doesn't have to be on as large a scale. But we need the blogsphere to help our local progressives beat the big money and the local and state machines. If we can't get progressives elected in NYC, how can we expect to get progressives elected elsewhere?

And Brooklyn really does produce some really kick ass candidates! These are the people that represent the progressive movement in almost every way, and yet we are having problems electing them even in NYC because big money interests (particularly wealthy and well-connected developers) and the local machine oppose them.

What would you say, for example, to a candidate who was among Howard Dean's first public supporters, is the only African-American male ever to sit on the board of NARAL PAC in New York State, is a solid supporter of impeachment and marriage equality and a solid opponent of the war in Iraq and the unPatriot Act? What would you say to a candidate who has been endorsed by Representatives Dennis Kucinich, John Conyers, Maxine Waters, and Bernie Sanders? How about a candidate who has been endorsed by Democracy for New York City (DFNYC), New Democratic Majority (NDM), Democratic Progressive Action Caucus (DPAC), Kings County Organization of the Green Party (yes...even Greens!), ImpeachPAC.org, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Inc. and Americans for Democratic Action PAC? The candidate who fits this bill is Chris Owens, running for Congress in Brooklyn. In a very racially divided district, Chris is the only candidate to draw a substantial amount of his support from both black and white voters. Chris is so solidly progressive that Democracy for NYC endorsed him with a record 96% of the vote. Chris Owens is in many ways the ideal progressive candidate. He appeals to blacks and whites in a racially charged year in Brooklyn, and he appeals to both Democrats and Greens. We need this guy!!!

I am happy to say that, even if funds are tight, the grassroots in Brooklyn have been coming out in force for Chris. Owens is running a grassroots campaign with an all-volunteer petitioning effort. His opponants are spending far more money and have hired staff to help petition. In fact, I have seen his opponant David Yassky's huge paid army of volunteers petitioning all through the district. Yassky's almost exclusively white, clean-cut, paid army was a sharp contrast to the unpaid, diverse volunteers petitioning for Chris.

Based on last year's poor showing by the Brooklyn grassroots, I had a secret fear that Chris was making a mistake relying on the grassroots for petitioning. Well I am happy to say that this year, the Brooklyn grassroots delivered 13,500 signatures for Chris, more than 10 times the required number.

I have no doubt that Chris' opponents will make a good showing from their petitioning efforts. But they had to pay staff to do it. Chris' signatures are an indication of the enthusiasm people have for his candidacy.

But will it be enough to win? He is still up against three tough opponents, one backed by the local machine and another who plans to spend $1 million in this race. The grassroots progressives are going all out for Chris. If we win, it will show just what we can do.

The one area where the grassroots have failed Chris to a large extent, and we can't be too surprised at this, is fundraising. Chris will almost certainly be outspent by all his opponents. Will money win or will the grassroots win? We'll see. And, of course, a little cash from the netroots wouldn't hurt at all!

Also in Brooklyn is another kick ass progressive candidate relying on the local grassroots. He is perhaps the only person running for office I have ever met who strikes me as BOTH qualified for the job AND very definitely NOT a politician. Bill Batson, running for Assembly in Brooklyn, is a progressive community activist and artist (his thank you note for donations is a post card of his art) whose main involvement in recent years has been serving on a community board working for fire safety, investigation of a huge increase of suspicious fires in Brooklyn, and working to get a community based development plan favored over the plan of a corrupt and greedy developer who is a buddy of our Republican governor. Bill Batson has also worked closely with Norm Siegel, the great local Civil Rights lawyer and former head of the NY Civil Liberties Union. Batson has also worked for the NY Civil Liberties Union. Bill Batson is one of us, not a politician. As such, he comes off as a no bullshit regular guy who has been recruited by several diverse elements of the community to run. Among his many community activities are arson vigils. These are essentially community watch efforts to help prevent the fires that are burning down core areas of Brooklyn and have killed several people. Because Batson is such a political outsider, having been focused on community and civil rights issues, he is heavily opposed by the local machine and by wealthy developers. He is depending on us to help him out.

Electing Chris Owens and Bill Batson would be HUGE victories for progressives in NYC. In fact it would be something of a a coming of age for progressives in Brooklyn. Your help can really make the difference in overcoming the corrupt machine and big money politics that dominate NYC.

Help if you can. We have a hard, but worthy battle.


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Progressive Grassroot Rising in Brooklyn | 2 comments (2 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Chris beat Yassky (none / 1)
I just read on David Yassky's website that he only filed 8,000 signatures. If you juxtapose that too Chris 13,500 and take into the fact Yassky paid people and Chris didn't, the petitioning phase of the campaign was a big win for Chris. I think this shows that the Owens camp has some real momentum and his campaign is starting to kick into high gear.

by insideman on 07/15/2006 02:09:20 PM EST

Excellent! (none / 0)
Number of signatures on petitions is not a great measure of a candidate's chances, but in a case where a grassroots candidate with as shoestring budget and an all-volunteer force soundly out petitions a candidate who is spending a million dollars on his campaign and hired a huge army of paid petitioners, it is big news.

I should note that although I have seen Yassky with an almost all-white staff, others have seen some minority staff as well. Maybe he targets his staff to particular neighborhoods?

Read the Progressive Democrat

by mole333 on 07/15/2006 05:16:12 PM EST

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Progressive Grassroot Rising in Brooklyn | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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