Candidate Calls Gottlieb’s Bid A Ruse
A fourth Democrat has jumped into the race for the party’s nomination for the new Sixth Congressional District seat in central Queens-and one of the previously announced candidates is crying foul.
Jeff Gottlieb-a Queens historian and employee of the New York City Board of Elections who previously served as an aide to various elected officials in the borough-officially threw his hat into the ring with a statement issued by his campaign on Tuesday, Apr. 10. It was previously reported by the political news blog “City & State” that he entered the race unofficially over the weekend.
The 70-year-old Gottlieb said in his statement that he “will run an aggressive and spirited campaign,” touting his years of “political and civic involvement.” He previously served on the staffs of numerous elected officials including former City Council Member Morton Povman, former Assemblyman Alan Hevesi, former Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin and State Sen. Joseph Addabbo.
“I am entering this race to be a true voice of the people,” Gottlieb said. “As an active member of the Jewish community, I strongly believe that the announced candidates do not represent the interest of many of the voters-especially the moderate voters. … I know this race represents an uphill battle, but I couldn’t sit on the sidelines while my community is being overlooked.”
Gottlieb joins Assemblyman Rory Lancman, Assemblywoman Grace Meng and City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley in the June 26 Democratic Primary for the newlydesigned Sixth Congressional District, which covers areas of Queens as far west as Ridgewood and as far east as Douglaston.
In particular, Lancman was displeased with Gottlieb’s entry into the race. In a press release issued on Monday, Apr. 9, the campaign accused the Queens County Democratic Party of “injecting a fraudulent candidate into the race … to deceive Jewish voters and siphon votes away from Lancman,” who is Jewish. The county party had endorsed Meng.
The Lancman campaign further stated that Gottlieb “had previously been collecting [sic] signatures for” Meng. As of Monday, the campaign also charged that Gottlieb “has not opened a FEC (Federal Election Commission) account, does not have a website, does not have any endorsements, is not a sitting public official [and] waited until the last moment to begin collecting signa- tures” to qualify for the primary ballot (Gottlieb has since launched a website).
“The county organization is panicked by the strength of my candidacy,” Lancman said in the press release, “but cynically fleecing Jewish voters with a sham candidacy by a long-time party hack is particularly appalling. Voters will rightfully see through this charade, and the party insiders responsible for this hatchet job should be ashamed of their attempt to deny the Jewish community a fair and legitimate election.”
Gottlieb responded to the accusations in the statement issued by his campaign on Tuesday: “I am saddened that Assemblyman Lancman has decided to issue vicious political attacks upon learning of my candidacy. … Why does he proclaim he should be the only Jewish candidate to seek this office? I will show that my record, my philosophy and my values better represent not only the Jewish voters of this district, but a majority of voters ….”
Offering a similar view was Eric Yun, a spokesperson for Crowley’s campaign, who told the Times Newsweekly that “anyone who wants to run should be able to do so in the democratic process.”
Michael Tobman, a spokesperson for Meng’s campaign, offered no official comment to the New York Observer’s political blog “Politicker,” but was quoted as saying that “Lancman earlier pressed strongly for the support of the Queens County Democratic Organization, the same collection of accomplished elected officials and activists he’s now denouncing based on theory and conjecture.”
City & State reported on Tuesday that Tobman “confirmed” that Michael Nussbaum-a consultant to the Meng campaign and associate publisher of the Queens Tribune- previously suggested that Matthew Silverstein, a state committeeman for the Democratic Party who is of Jewish descent, enter the Congressional race. Silverstein ultimately declined to pursue a Congressional bid.
“Matt Silverstein had a conversation with Mike [Nussbaum], after Matt explained he was considering running for a different seat against an incumbent,” Tobman was quoted in the City & State report. “Mike Nussbaum replied that [Silverstein] would have an easier time running for Congress than he would against an entrenched incumbent.” The latter comment, Tobman claimed, was delivered “tongue-in-cheek.”
On the Capitol New York news website, Queens Democratic Party Executive Secretary Michael Reich was quoted on Monday as stating that Lancman is “lying, because he has no proof of it and he’s making a bald statement without any support behind it.”
“I don’t know where Rory is getting this,” Reich told Capital New York. “He obviously made it up because it didn’t happen. I don’t believe I had a conversation with Jeff Gottlieb since sometime last year-probably September, maybe sometime before that. So it just did not happen. I haven’t spoken to him. I haven’t spoken to anyone surrounding him or anything of that. That Democratic Party does not do this.”
The new Sixth Congressional District seat covers Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Elmhurst, Kew Gardens and a host of communities in northeastern and north-central Queens.
Registered Democratic voters in the new Sixth Congressional District will choose between Crowley, Gottlieb, Lancman and Meng in the June 26 primary, with the winner moving on to face the presumptive Republican nominee, City Council Member Daniel Halloran of Bayside, in the November general election.
On Gottlieb’s entry into the race and Lancman’s objections to it, Steven Stites, a spokesperson for the Halloran campaign, told Politicker that “If true, it’s racial and ethnic politics at its ugliest. … Jewish New Yorkers have another reason to be repulsed by the Democratic Party.”
For voting information, visit www.vote.nyc.ny.us or call 1-212- VOTE-NYC.
