With fiercely independent Democratic district leader Geoffrey Davis set to run on his newly created Love Yourself Party line and political gadfly Guillermo Philpotts in a position to spoil the Kings County Democratic Organization preferred candidate, the race to succeed Karim Camara in the 43rd Assembly District seat is turning into a real special election.
That after sources told KCP that Kings County Democratic Party Chair Frank Seddio with the backing of Borough President Eric Adams, Sen. Jesse Hamilton and Camara is poised to back female district leader Shirley Patterson as their choice to get the Democratic line in the May 5 special election.
But according to veteran Brooklyn election attorney Aaron Maslow these aforementioned Democratic Party kingmakers won’t be able to make Patterson the Party’s pick because Philpotts who has run in just about every local election since 1976, including against former Borough Preseident and then State Senator Marty Markowitz, controls the county committee members within the 43rd Assembly district.
“You have an unusual situation. Under special elections laws, Frank Seddio is supposed to call a meeting of the assembly district county committee members plus the two district leaders who then decide who runs on the party line,” said Maslow, adding that under this scenario, Philpotts is in position to get the Democratic Party nod because he controls the vote.
Neither Patterson, Davis, Hamilton or any others involved with 43rd Assembly District constituents bothered to include county committee members on their nominating petitions in recent elections, while Philpot put nine committee members on his petition.
Philpotts could not be reached for comment, but if his past inclinations to run hold up, he’ll probably want the Democratic Party line.
Maslow said these bylaws date back to the time when political clubhouses had large memberships and controlled political patronage jobs. At that time there was no problem filling out district county committee members, but these positions are now often overlooked in nominating petitions because it involves the time-consuming task of knocking door-to-door in specific election districts (ED), he said
While Philpotts may control who gets the Democratic Party nod, and even if the organization figures a way to give Patterson the nod, it may not matter in the special election because Davis remains extremely popular in the district. This is evidenced by the fact that he trounced Adams, Hamilton and Camara’s preferred candidate in last year’s district leader race , Moses (Musa) Moore, by some 1,200 votes.
Davis, like his brother the late City Councilman James Davis, is independent of any organizational political machine, and is already off and running to gather signatures on his newly created Love Yourself line, named after the Lover Yourself Stop The Violence Foundation he started with and is now named for his late brother.
“This race is not about party lines. It’s about identifying the candidate personally and being able to weigh the what he or she has actually done in the community,” said Davis. “Our nature has been to always represent the people with tangible outcomes, be it for better housing, stopping violence, GED programs or aggressively pushing that the community should have a voice in all aspects of the community.”
Count Maslow among those that feel Davis is the person to beat in the special election.
“In a special election you have very low voter turnout and the more you are known in the district, the more likely people will vote for you, and Geoffrey has very high voter recognition. That’s why he’ll probably win,” said Maslow. “Shirley Patterson hasn’t run and I don’t think people know who she is as opposed to Geoffrey Davis.
