Nick Perry

Here are the highlights from yesterday’s press conference where a number of gay activists from Brooklyn criticized Republican State Senator Marty Golden for joining a lawsuit to block state agencies from recognizing same-sex marriages performed outside New York.

At the event, activist held signs calling Golden a “bigot,” and accused him of “homophobia,” primarily for signing onto this lawsuit.

They also announced a plan to put pressure on six legislators from Brooklyn -- Dov Hikind, Nick Perry, Steve Cymbrowitz, William Colton, Peter Abbate, and Annette Robinson -- who voted against same-sex marriage last year. (Two legislators, Alec Brook-Kransy and Carim Camara, abstained.)

As the clip above seems to show, those six legislators won’t get hit with the kind of rhetoric that Golden got hit with (although activist Allen Roskoff tries.)

Before Marty Markowitz gave his State of the Borough last night in Brooklyn, his deputy borough president, Yvonne Graham, gave her own address, which sounds a lot like a kick-off stump speech for her much-discussed, but undeclared, bid to succeed Markowitz.
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Ben's got more poll numbers from the 11th.

Yvette Clark - 29% Carl Andrews - 17% Chris Owens - 14% David Yassky - 9% Nick Perry - 8% Undecided - 21%

Can Yassky really be this weak? If so, it kind of makes all the Voting Rights arguments seem weirdly beside the point.

And if not, what are these polls missing?

-- Josh Benson

A week or so ago we made cautious mention of two internal polls done in the 11th district race in Brooklyn. Over the weekend, someone was kind enough to share a copy of one of them with us.

The poll, paid for by 1199, was done by Kiley & Company and studied 500 Democratic primary voters in the district between May 14-17. It's dated -- taken prior to Nick Perry's withdrawl from the race -- but the cross-tabs reveal a couple of noteworthy trends in the demographically mixed district.

One question about the issues that concerned voters most revealed a sharp racial divide, with 45% of white voters reponding that the war in Iraq concerns them most, against just 16% of black voters. (The top issue among black voters in this district, at 19%, was education.)

And when the poll asked for second choices among the candidates, Clarke emerged as the top alternate for supporters of Andrews, Perry and Owens -- though not for Yassky voters.

Detailed results, for whoever's interested, can be found here.

—Nicole Brydson

The field of candidates in the complicated congressional race in the 11th district race may soon undergo a subtle shift: Nick Perry, who dropped out of the race, is rumored to be on the verge of endorsing the only remaining Carribean-American candidate, Yvette Clarke.

Asked about the possible development just moments ago, a Clarke aide would only say that "people will find out soon enough."

Frank Shea, an aide to Perry, was no more forthcoming: "No official announcement has been made," he said.

We're not sure how significant the endorsement would be, although it could potentially serve to unify the significant block of Carribean-American voters behind one candidate for the first time.

Rock, any thoughts?

—Nicole Brydson

Like my media colleagues who find themselves engaged in existential debate about blogs, I'm still working out what the proper role for us is. It often seems we can make better use of your time by offering new information and not just rubbernecking at news pile-ups elsewhere.

However, the mere act of referring can serve a useful function, particularly if it's to an otherwise miss-able source.

Hence, we give you Rock Hackshaw, the guy I mistakenly overlooked yesterday, who has some new analysis about the race for Major Owens' seat.

Essentially, he thinks that the withdrawal of Nick Perry - and more precisely, the reduction of the number of black candidates in the contest by one - makes Yvette Clarke an instant, heavy favorite over David Yassky, Chris Owens and Carl Andrews.

Now, I know we had at least one commentator yesterday tell us that Perry's absence wouldn't mean a thing.

Who's right?

Nick Perry has dropped out of the race for the 11th Congressional District.

We never had much sense for what Perry was all about. Honestly, the most we read about him was last week's article in the Crain's Insider, via No Land Grab, that he had signed on to the Brennan Bill in favor of downsizing Atlantic Yards, and then, apparently under pressure from ACORN, reversed his position.

The field is narrowing, but, with four candidates still standing, there is still a ways to go.

-Matthew Schuerman

From the looks of the attack website StopYassky.com it seems pretty clear that opposition to David Yassky in the race for Major Owens' congressional seat is intense.

Some of it is about development, or more specifically, Yassky's financial support from prominent developers.

But underlying it all is the complicated and fraught issue of race - the fact that he is a white candidate running a Voting Rights district whose seat has been filled since 1968 by Shirley Chisholm and Major Owens.

The Crain's Insider reported this week that three of the five candidates - Carl Andrews, Yvette Clarke and Nick Perry - met earlier this month to work out a deal to consolidate their campaigns.

And Jonathan Hicks just reported that Perry is dropping out.

I have no idea if the idea of a white candidate taking over the historically black district will be enough of a motivating factor for any of the other candidates to subsume their personal interests and drop out.

Does anyone know if we're going to see any further consolidations here?

CLARIFICATION: This item should have been clearer. The description of the opposition to Yassky as "intense" refers to the fact that someone has gone to the trouble of establishing an attack website (and even an attack blog) and that someone else -- Nick Perry -- has chosen to drop out of the race, presumably as part of a concerted movement to keep Yassky from winning.

We don't pretend to know how much any of it matters, or whether these determined Yassky foes are at all representative of broader sentiment in the community.

If anyone would care to elaborate on who's behind the StopYassky stuff and what it really means, please have at it in the comments section.

Also, it appears that Room Eight had the Perry story first. Sorry, Rock.

I'll be linking Room Eight as I do any other site that covers city politics, but here's a quick round-up of the first few days. EnWhySeaWonk offers an illustrated report card on the candidates for Attorney General's aptitude at filling out required forms.

Looking at Brooklyn's congressional races, Gatemouth curses Charles Barron, while Rock Hackshaw reports that Nick Perry is still in the race in Brooklyn's 11th.

Yoda doesn't think the arguments for the Jets stadium are holding up too well in retrospect, and Lead Dog sniffs around the New Yankee Stadium deal. Jerry Skurnik suggests the Post forgot its cop-funeral crusade pretty fast. Robert Hornak wishes Republicans would start talking about school choice. And Backroomie does some City Council math.

National Journal notes that David Yassky had the best fourth-quarter fundraising of any Democrat running for Congress, and it looks like only one of his rivals in Brooklyn's 11th District, Carl Andrews, has broken six digits.

Here's cash on hand:

Yassky: $503,783 Andrews: $191,427 (with $50,000 of debt) Nick Perry: $84,652 Yvette Clark: $71,853 (with $64,000 of debt) Chris Owens: $59,595 (with $28,325 of debt)

Nick Perry (real first name: Noah!) and Tracy Boyland don't seem to have fourth-quarter filings; they're both below $20,000 as of last September.

And why should Yassky -- who's hardly trying to narrow the field of African-American candidates -- be so set on huge, early fundraising? Despite denials from his staff, rumors that Bill de Blasio might get into the race are still circulating.

UPDATE: I inadvertently ommitted Chris Ownes from the list. He filed with $12,956 on hand and $28,325 in debt. UPDATE 2: Nick Perry's filing is now online, and above.

To: New York VotersFrom: Dictators, Inc.

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