Council District 2 Update! Vote AGAINST Rosie Mendez!

As a resident of District 2 and a City Council Candidate, I feel it is important to point out some of the schinanigans on the Democrats side. Remember, most of the residents in D2 are Democrats, the party they believe is the democratic party, the better party. The party of freedom and choice. Well, apparently, that is not the case.

The 13 candidates battling for the seat: Michael Beys, Darren Bloch, Joan Brightharp, John Carlino, Manuel S. Cavaco, Claudia Flannagan, Brian Kavanagh, Michael Lopez, Mildred Martinez, Rosie Mendez, Christopher Papajohn, Daniel Peterson, Gur Tsabar

The first to announce candidacy was Councilor Margarita Lopez' Chief of Staff, Rosie Mendez. It's very normal for someone who is part of the current councilor's team to succeed a seat and it was first reported in The Villager.

The second to announce a run was Brian Kavanagh, a former chief of Staff for Councilor Gale Brewer. His announcement was also reported in The Villager.

Slowly, more residents threw their hat in the ring. The wonderful neighborhood minister, Rev. Joan Brightharp (no website) and aide to Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Gur Tsabar, who began to issue Op-Ed Press Releases to promote his candidacy.

Then, the list of candidates began to expand in the Spring of 2005. Darren Bloch jumped into the District 2 race and immediately picked up an endorsement from former Council Speaker, Peter Vallone.

By May, debates featured additional candidates: Mildred Martinez, Michael Lopez and Christopher Papajohn on the Democratic side and the Republican Party through in two of their own with Daniel Peterson and John Carlino. A month later, we saw the addition of Michael Beys, Claudia Flannagan and Manuel S. Cavaco.

On July 5, the most complete debate, with 11 of the 13 candidates attending, was held at the Henry Street Abron's Art Center in Corlear's Hook. It was organized by Grand Street News and featured 12 questions, 9 of which were about affordable housing. I'm guessing that affordable housing is a very important issue with those who already live in apartments and they did a good job skipping a question about crime (12 questions were given to the candidates in advancy). A democrats personal take was also featured in the lower east side publication. New York Newsday also spotlighted the district in their Thursday's Neighborhoods section.

The petition season ended on July 14, and every candidate filed their signatures with the Board of Elections. Then, All hell broke loose. Rosie Mendez and her cronies over at Coalition for a District Alternative [CoDA] challenged all the minority candidates in the Democratic Primary. Ms. Mendez is a female, so she felt the need to knock off the female candidates: Rev. Joan Brightharp, Mildred Martinez and Claudia Flannagan (who, like Ms. Mendez, is gay). She challenged anyone who is hispanic, so on the male side, that included Michael Lopez and Manuel S. Cavaco. Mr. Lopez is also handicapped. She was successful knocking off Mr. Lopez, Mr. Cavaco and Ms. Flannagan to bring the Primary down to 8 candidates. I happened to run into Mr. Lopez at Veselka yesterday and he informed me that Ms. Mendez was successful in her undemocratic attack on her fellow opponents. Fortunately for two of them, Mr. Cavacao & Ms. Flannagan, they are petitioning for Third Party ballot status.

Many of the Democratic candidates, Gur Tsabar, Chris Papajohn, Mildred Martinez & Rev. Joan Brightharp, stood at City Hall and attacked the ruthless actions of CoDA and the Mendez team. Mr. Bloch, Mr. Kavanagh, John Carlino and Daniel Peterson also stand with the democrats in agreement that all who seek office should have a right to be included in the political process.

The Primary for the Democratic Party is still a month away and we could find these actions damaging for Rosie Mendez. Voters may decide to unite behind other candidates and seek to shrink the vote total for Margarita Lopez' successor. If Ms. Mendez is successful winning the Democratic Party line for the November election, alliances may form for the other candidates that will appear in November. Manuel Cavaco has a good shot of winning the Working Families ballot line, Claudia Flannagan could be successful being on the ballot as a Libertarian. John Carlino will have both the Republican and Independence ballot lines. The person who can benefit the most is John Carlino and it would be wise for him to start reaching out to some of the democrats.