Results tagged “yvetteclarke”

After the NY Times story revealed how NYC votes for Barack Obama appear to have been undercounted for the unofficial (yet official enough to be sent to the AP and other news outlets) results on primary night, State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem spoke out. Perkins, who supports Obama, told the Post

: "Every election has problems, but in this case, all the problems seem to have been his," said state Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Harlem). "He got all the zeroes and undercounting.

Continue reading "Pol: NYC's Unofficial Count of Primary Votes Contributed to Clinton's "False Momentum""

The family of late Detective Dillon Stewart was joined by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and other city officials in the dedication of a Prospect Park playground in Stewart's honor. The Parade Ground Playground, at the corner of Caton Avenue and Parade Place, near East 16th, was renamed the Dillon Stewart Playground. Stewart was killed on November 28, 2005, when he and his partner stopped a car for a traffic violation. Someone...

It took two elections, an investigation without much resolution, hundreds of thousands of city dollars and an apartment in Brooklyn's 40th District for Mathieu Eugene to become the first Haitian to serve in NYC's City Council. Eugene had been elected in a February special election after 40th District City Council member Yvette Clarke headed to Congress, but questions about his residency (he actively said he didn't live in the district, but then later claimed he had an apartment) became heated.

One of the most bizarre City Council elections will be taking place tomorrow. Brooklyn's 40th District gets its second special election to fill the City Council seat vacated by Yvette Clarke, who was elected to Congress. The first special election took place in February, with Mathieu "The Haitian Sensation" Eugene, the Clarke-endorsed candidate, winning handily.

Just after the victory of Mathieu Eugene’s 10-candidate run for Brooklyn’s 40th Council District on Tuesday, questions regarding his residency in the Flatbush district have now put his official claim to the seat on hold. Elected candidates must reside in the electing district during the time of the election, but not necessarily during the time of filing for nomination. There’s the rub. So today at City Hall, the expectations and celebrations of a political newcomer were met with a big halt as Dr. Eugene announced that he will not be sworn in until he has established residency.

Yesterday, the special election held for a City Council seat in Brooklyn's 40th District brought some history: Dr. Mathieu Eugene (pictured on the left) became the first Haitian-born member of the City Council - and he has been called the "Haitian Sensation" in the media.

If you live in the 40th District, an area that covers parts of Crown Heights, Flatbush and East Flatbush, you can vote in tomorrow special election to the seat that used to belong to former City Councilwoman - now Congresswoman - Yvette Clarke. And there's another special election for a City Council seat in Staten Island as well, so South Shore voters, head to the polls.

Leaving our local Key Food this morning, for the first time we heard the spare change guy's rendition of "Bad to the Bone" and then we turned to one of our weekend rituals: Reading the The Brooklyn Paper.

Here is part two of our semi-chronological look back at the top stories this past year (here is part one):

MTA executive Gary Dellaverson has had some explaining to do. Last week, when discussing the possibility of a Metro-North strike, the MTA's labor negotiator told Metro, "Negotiation is about compromise," before joking about "putting needles in my Roger Toussaint doll." Oh, dear.

With the primary settling who's running in November, candidates came out swinging. And the best cage match might be the Attorney General's race. The NY Times had this first line:

Kicking off their general-election battle for New York State attorney general yesterday, Andrew M. Cuomo and Jeanine F. Pirro could not have smiled more, sounded nicer, or done a poorer job of concealing their true feelings: they want to shred each other.

In fact, Democrats in NY State spent yesterday calling her Pataki's lackey (not in those words, sadly, more like "royal lieutenant," but "Pataki's lackey" rhymes!). In the gubernatorial race, Republican John Faso said the Wall Street prosecution cases of Attorney General - and frontrunner - Eliot Spitzer were "phony" while Spitzer called Faso a "lobbyist." Really, men, settle down! And Republican candidate for Senate John Spencer challenged Senator Hillary Clinton to a debate; the Post reports her people said she will, but they need to work out details. Details like will this come before or after some swings into the Midwest to raise more money.

City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke won the hotly contested 11th District Congressional primary in Brooklyn yesterday. Clarke got 31% of the vote, with fellow City Council member - and the only white candidate in the four-way race - David Yassky getting 26%, State Senator Carl Andrews with 23% and Chris Owens, Mayor Owens who is retiring the Congressional seat, getting under 20%.

If you're a registered Democrat or Republican, get your primary shoes out. Here's a list of candidates (PDF), but the shortlist of primaries is:

If there's a city parade, you bet it's an opportunity for politicians to get out to press the flesh. And yesterday's West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn was no different, with the primary showdown over the Congressional seat being vacated by Major Owens coming up next week. As it happens, the crowd in the Wyckoff Gardens Houses weren't too happy to hear Mayor Bloomberg and candidate-City Councilman David Yassky announce that $600,000 worth of security cameras would be installed. Someone ended up throwing a frosted doughnut near the Mayor, causing his girlfriend Diana Taylor to take "cover beneath a concrete overhang," as the Times puts it. Which only made the Mayor joke, "Well, just another reason why we need cameras." Newsday reports that another man was loudly murmuring in the back of the crowd, prompting the mayor to say, "If we could have some quiet back there, sir, it would be appreciated, thank you; we can't hear." Of course, the NYPD investigated the tasty treat toss, but came to the conclusion, "Nothing was ascertained with certainty, but there is no indication it was directed at the mayor. It may have just been tossed out the window or dropped."

Oh, City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke. You get a big dose of attention from the NY Times on Wednesday about your run for Major Owen's Congressional Seat, but then it turns out you never graduated from Oberlin, the way your campaign literature in 2004 and 2005 claimed you did. Clarke was a few credits short of a degree, and her aides said that she had finished them up at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. The problem? Oberlin never got those transcripts. Oops! Yesterday, the Daily News had a statement from Clarke about the incident, where she claimed she thought she had "fulfilled the requirements for a bachelor's degree," but then "discovered" that she never actually finished those classes. What? Clarke is 41 - that's not old and no reason to forget taking a class that would give you a college degree.

The heated fight for Major Owens' Congressional seat gets hotter as City Council member Yvette Clarke has landed three important endorsements - two from big unions and the other from Congressman Anthony Weiner. Brooklyn's 11th District covers Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, and Park Slope, and the race has already attracted four would-be candidates (who would likely be elected to the seat in November): City Council members Clarke and David Yassky, State Senator Carl Andrews, and Owens' son, Chris Owens, with Yassky the only white among the three black politicians. Now, with these two endorsements, signs are indicating that Clarke's campaign is getting stronger. And that Weiner is thinking to the 2009 mayoral race by endorsing a black woman with Caribbean roots (her mother is Jamaican). From the NY Times:

When asked if his endorsement was made with the expectation of support in 2009, Mr. Weiner said, “My only thought about 2009 is that Yvette Clarke will be an incumbent member of Congress.”

Continue reading "Controversial Brooklyn Congressional Race Starts to Shape Up"

Gothamist thought the best part of the Post's article was how Brooklyn Councilwoman Yvette Clarke, co-sponsor of the bill, disagreed but "admitted she hasn't frequented bars and clubs as often as she used to since being elected to office." She said, "I think we can all agree that when you're standing in a line there's nothing more serious at that moment than answering that call." City residents are so lucky that we have people on the City Council fighting the good fight for us. See the bill's introduction here. Of course, Gothamist is in support of more women's bathrooms, or at least more stalls in women's bathrooms. The problem is that women's clothes tend to be more complicated - sometimes there's pantyhose involved - and sometimes there are other matters to tend to, but other than that, it seems most women swarm to the mirrors to primp and gossip.