While it remains a long shot for upstart Democratic challenger Oliver Rosenberg to beat 24-year incumbent Rep. Jerry Nadler in next Tuesday’s Congressional primary election, the tide does appear to be turning for him in the Orthodox Jewish Borough Park section of the district.
Among those who say they will definitely vote for Rosenberg is longtime Assemblyman and Democratic district leader Dov Hikind.
“It’s a no-brainer that I’m going to vote for Rosenberg and everyone in my family is going to vote for him. One of the major reasons is we don’t forget that Nadler set the tone and played an important role in support for Obama in the Iran deal,” said Hikind.
“We can disagree on most issues, but the Iran deal was a defining piece of legislation and it defined what Jerry Nadler was really all about. In our community, I can’t imagine anyone voting for Nadler.”
Hikind said until a few days ago most people in the Jewish Brooklyn end of the district, which also includes Manhattan’s Upper West Side south to Battery Park, hardly even knew that the primary was coming up. However, Rosenberg this week took out full-page ads in all the Jewish, Yiddish and Hebrew newspapers and has posters out throughout the neighborhood, Hikind said.
“Now people are suddenly saying this is a race. I can’t imagine him (Nadler) losing, but it’s very personal to me and the community needs to send a message to Nadler,” said Hikind.
Meanwhile, a Borough Park political source said there is some very serious campaigning going on in the neighborhood for Rosenberg against Nadler because people really feel betrayed by Nadler’s vote for the Iran deal.
“The only time Jerry Nadler ever shows up in this community is on election week,” the source said.
Borough Park’s feelings of betrayal about Nadler’s support for the Iran deal follows a story earlier today in which KCP reported that legendary Jewish comic Jackie Mason was making robocalls on Rosenberg’s behalf. The robocalls also make reference to Nadler’s support of the Iran deal.
Both Obama and Nadler maintain that the Iran deal, which ended global sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation in return for verifiable proof that Iran was not making nuclear weapons, would make the world safer.
Breaking the story at about the same time was the New York Post, which also reported Obama has endorsed Nadler and cut his own pro-Nadler robocall, a sign Nadler is taking his challenger — the first in 20 years — seriously.
