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WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2007. By John F. Bailey. September 6, 2007 UPDATED 1 A.M. EDT, September 7, 2007 UPDATED 8:31 AM. EDT, UPDATED 3:08 PM EDT: Incumbent Councilman Arnold Bernstein called this week’s “WPDCC” newsletter mailing to select Democratic voters from the Democratic City Committee as being “slanderous” and an “attack on my good name” Thursday afternoon. He issued a challenge to Democratic rivals Benjamin Boykin, Milagros Lecuona and Dennis Power to debate him at the Women’s Club Friday, September 14 at 8 P.M. As of 11:30 Thursday evening, Mr. Power refused to debate, Ms. Lecuona has said it depends on what her colleagues decide, and Mr. Boykin has not returned two phone calls from WPCNR asking the question. Candyce Corcoran the other candidate in the primary said she was willing to debate anyone, anytime, anywhere.
As of late Thursday evening, Liz Shollenberger, the Chair of the Democratic City Committee when asked if her three nominees had accepted the challenge to debate Mr. Bernstein, told WPCNR “Not to my knowledge. It would be news to me if they did.”
Tony Russo right, introduces Councilman Arnold Bernstein at a News Conference Thursday afternoon, holding in his right hand the WPDCC Newsletter mailed this week by the Democratic City Committee that Mr. Bernstein says slanders him and attacks his good name.
Dennis Power flatly refused to debate Mr. Bernstein and Ms. Lecuona said she would have to see what the rest of the team was doing, but did not rule out debating Mr. Bernstein. Mr. Boykin as of 3 P.M. Friday afternoon had not returned WPCNR’s call to see if he would debate.
Candyce Corcoran the other candidate in the September 18 Primary scrum said she had been told by Journal News reporter Keith Eddings that all three: Boykin, Lecuona and Power has agreed to debate last night at 6:40 PM. At that time, Corcoran said she would debate. This afternoon Corcoran told WPCNR, “I’m ready to debate anyone, anytime, anywhere. I know the issues and I’m ready to let residents know what I am thinking. I have nothing to hide.I do not need a team to confer with for what comes out of my mouth.”
Mr. Power told WPCNR he was not interested in debating Mr. Bernstein because “he (Bernstein) has had more than enough time to explain his votes, and frankly I am not interested.” Power also said he approved of the WPDCC mailing piece that was sent out attacking Mr. Bernsteins’ record. Power said “I’m not interested. I never heard anything from Arnie Bernstein (about the debate invitation.)
Power Approves Mailing
Asked if he approved of the way the WPDC C piece attacked Mr. Bernstein’s record, when many of Bernstein’s votes were in line with Mr. Boykin’s votes and the rest of the council, Power said, “I do approve of the WPDCC letter the committee sent out. He had four years to explain his votes,” and that Bernstein was far out of touch with the rest of the Democratic Party. Power also said more than 80 people voted for the nominees and that selection of Mr. Boykin, Ms. Lecuona and himself was “overwhelming” by the District Leaders.
Lecuona defers to colleagues.
Ms. Lecuona speaking to WPCNR this evening said she had first heard of the debate challenge while at a meeting, and did not rule out participating. She said she would have to cancel a prior engagement to participate and see what her other nominees were doing. “It’s more like a team thing. I have to see what the others have to say.”
When informed Mr. Power had flat-out refused the debate challenge, Lecuona said. “I just heard about it briefly. I assume this was caused by the mailing that went out.”
Asked if she approved of the mailing, Lecuona said, “ To tell you the truth I don’t think that’s the right question. This was sent by Liz Shollenberger, and when I look at it it looks like cuts of the Journal News. So it seems like what they are writing here it’s based on some articles in the paper. But, you know, John, I don’t like to talk about other people. I want to keep my campaign focused on what I can bring to the table. If that’s what you to ask me then we can continue talking. But what other people say, I am not interested in that.”
WPCNR asked if the committee showed the mailer to Ms. Lecuona before they sent it out, that Lecuona, by her reaction, seemed a little offended by it. Lecuona said, “As I just told, if you want to talk about my campaign, then we’ll talk about my campaign. If you want to talk about what Liz Shollenberger does or what Arnie Bernstein does, that’s what they do. That’s not the type of person I am. If you want to talk about the things I can bring to the table, then we can talk. If Liz did this, that’s not my style (to comment on what other people do).”
Asked about Bernstein’s charge she had a conflict of interest being on the County Planning Board, Lecuona said, “I am aware of that. As a matter of fact on the time I’ve been on the planning board, there’s another person who became councilwoman in New Rochelle, and she was in the same position, and she resigned. The President and the Chair (Shollenberger) are aware of that.”
Bernstein charges selection of nominees was not fair.
Bernstein in his news conference charged that the selection of the Democratic slate was by public show of hands vote for the first time, so that District Leaders had to reveal who they were.
Bernstein alleged this procedure was not fair because, he charged district leaders who serve on the whim of the party leadership, faced the possibility of being replaced since party leaders would see who was going against the slate and who was for it. WPCNR observed this in progress and notes that each District Leader was called on individually to voice their preference, and recorded by district. The vote previously had been by secret ballot.
Bernstein chided the mailing piece for calling him “a rubber stamp for development” with the Mayor, when the committee endorsed Mr. Boykin whose voting record, Bernstein said was almost identical to his.
Mr. Bernstein said the mailing piece’s charge that he opposed the county senior housing proposed on the post office site was an “out and out lie” that he was actually in favor of it if the 85 Court Street shelter could be moved.
On the same subject, Bernstein also took issue with the mailing piece characterization that he was “demonizing the homeless,” by joining in a call for the shelter to be relocated. Bernstein said he did so because the 85 Court Street shelter (since closed, August 5) was near six schools and a library and “because I didn’t think the basement of an office building was sufficient to meet the needs of these struggling and needy people.”
Chides Rivals for Conflicts of Interest.
Bernstein also attacked the Democratic City Committee leader for accusing him of “being beholden to special interest groups,” charging that two of the nominees have “clear conflicts of interests serving on the Council; one candidate who was given a high salaried position by the County Executive as a political pay back for running a losing campaign for Mayor and another who has no legislative experience, but is a member of the County Planning Board.”
Dennis Power ran for Mayor in 2005 and after losing that election to Mayor Delfino, was hired as an Assistant to the County Executive reporting to Sal Carrera, in the Department of Economic Development. Power still is employed by the county, having been shifted to the Department of Environmental Facilities. Ms. Lecuona is a member of the County Planning Board. Mr. Power was cleared of any conflict of interest in this matter.
Bernstein Poll Encouraging: Appel
Jonathan Appel, the Treasurer for the Bernstein primary campaign, said that, “I think what’s turning in Arnie’s favor are far in agreement with Arnie’s position. It’s just certain fringe special interests, tiny groups that have taken over the party.”
Noting a contingent of firefighters joining the news conference, WPCNR asked if the Bernstein campaign had commitments from groups to help. Appel said, “We’ve got the endorsement of the PBA, the central labor body, the endorsement of the communications workers, and we hope all unions will put their power behind the get out the vote along with us.”
WPCNR asked what Bernstein’s polling conducted two weeks ago had shown, and if Bernstein would have withdrawn had his numbers been down. (Bernstein had the opportunity to attempt to place himself on the November general citywide election ballot as an independent, but chose not to.)
Appel reported, “I would never expected the numbers to have been different than they were. As you find in most things, the people who are satisfied usually stay quiet.”
Asked if he had polled the 4,000 or so core voters with a record of voting in the Democratic primary, Appel said, “The core voters who show up in the primaries are a lot less than 4,000. Most Democratic primaries, you usually get 2,200 at the most, and we’ve hit pretty much every one of them plus a lot of other registered Democrats in the city.”
WPCNR asked what the numbers show. “I hate to give a number, because I honestly don’t remember.”
WPCNR parried, “because you’re on the winning side?”
Appel said, “Of course. In a primary we have five people running for three positions. You don’t need 50% to win, because the votes are split. I’m confident that in the end, Arnie is going to have a lot more votes than anyone else.”
Asked who was in the most trouble, Appel said he really didn’t know, Asked to handicap it, Appel said, “Arnie comes in number 1, Ben (Boykin) number 2, Dennis (Power) 3, Milagros (Lequona) 4, Candyce (Corcoran) 5. That’s off the top of my head right now. The poll didn’t show support for any other candidates. We don’t care about that.” Appel said the poll did not give a choice poll, asking just if they supported Mr. Bernstein.
Asked if he thought the other Democrats would show up at the date, Appel said, “It would be hard for them not to show up. How else do they defend all the lies they put in that piece.”
Asked what was next in the final 12 days before the primary on September 18,Appel said, “We’e going to continue the campaign the same way we have. We’ll get our mailings out, we’ll have our ads out, and we will do a full effort to get out the vote and have Arnie win this primary by a very large margin.”
Asked if he was going to have phone banks, Appel said “We have phone banks being set up, and phone banks that are ongoing, and having more phone banks right before the primary.”
Bernstein conference about to begin: To the right, holding pad, is Keith Eddings, reporter for The Journal News, covering the news conference. Appel, is slightly behind Mr. Eddings.
Appel said different members of his team would be handling the phone banks, “different members of our team, a very large campaign team, a lot people putting in a lot of effort to help Arnie.”
Appel said he estimated that Mr. Power and Mr. Boykin together had given $5,000 to $6,000 to the Democratic City Committee, but pointed out that Mr. Power and Mr. Boykin to his knowledge had not filed statements on contributions and expenses which are due Friday September 7. (In the first edition of this article, WPCNR had reported that Appel and Boykin had given $5,000 to $6,000 each, and WPCNR hereby corrects this misunderstanding.)
Democrats check on effects of their mailing by phone Thursday night.
Tonight the Democratic City Committee was polling democratic voters asking them to vote for the Democratic slate and referring the voters to the WPDCC newsletter Bernstein was criticizing today “because it had a lot of good information in it.”
As of 11:00 P.M. Councilman Benjamin Boykin had not returned WPCNR calls asking if he would accept the debate challenge.
For the record here is the text of Mr. Bernstein’s address today:
I have always believed that government should be dedicated to helping people pursue their goals and aspirations in a safe and just society. I believe that the political process should be open and fair to all who want to offer their services to the greater community. I also believe that the political process should be about the issues and not about mudslinging and personal attacks. That is why I am a Democrat and why I have dedicated my public career to the Democratic Party.
Unfortunately, sometimes the leadership of our party losses sight of their ideals when they become more concerned with taking and keeping power than they are for the people they represent. When this happens, they will do anything to win, including manipulating the nominating process and attacking those who do not follow their orders like good soldiers.
I have run a positive primary campaign based on my experience and record, but I will not stand by while party bosses slander my good name, control our party and the democratic process.
In this publication, the Democratic City Committee Chair states that the election process was open and fair. If that is true, why were the balloting rules for the election process changed this year from anonymous ballots to public voice votes? Was it to ensure that the members of the city committee were intimidated into voting the way the party bosses wanted or risk their positions in the party?
She asserts that I did not receive the nomination because I am a rubber stamp for development and the Mayor. Strange, the Committee endorsed Ben Boykin whose voting record on development in our city is practically identical to mine. In fact, considering his tenure on the Council, he has voted in favor of far more development than I have.
She accuses me of demonizing the homeless because I called on the County to find a more appropriate place to shelter the hardcore homeless not in our downtown near 6 schools and our library. And because I didn’t think the basement of an office building was sufficient to meet the needs of these struggling and needy people.
She accuses me of opposing the creation of senior and assisted living units on the old Post Office site. This is an out and out lie. I did support the creation of the units, but would not vote in favor of a project that put senior and assisted living units near hardcore homeless shelter. Would you want to place your parent one half block from such a facility? I would not and do not think the overwhelming majority of our citizens would as well. I specifically told our party at a city committee meeting when asked about this what my reasons were and that I would support such a project once the Homeless shelter issue had been resolved.
Worst of all, she accuses me of being beholden to special interest groups. I find this offensive, especially since she and members of the nominating committee endorsed two candidates who have clear conflicts of interests serving on the Council; one candidate who was given a high salaried position by the County Executive as a political pay back for running a losing campaign for Mayor and another who has no legislative experience, but is a member of the County Planning Board.
In closing,I must repeat that I will not stand by while the White Plains Democratic Party is controlled by a few politically connected individuals. I will not stand by while the Democratic City Committee slanders my good name. That is why I am running in this Primary and that is why today I am challenging the Committee’s endorsed candidates to a debate on the assertions made in this reprehensible piece and any other issues they care to discuss.
Thank you all for coming. Let’s fight to take our party back and PUT THE PEOPLE FIRST
Debate to be held Friday September 14th 8pm at the Womans Club