As the race for the open 44th City Council seat between Democrat Kalman Yeger and “Our Neighborhood” party candidate Yoni Hikind heats up, several interesting side battles and story lines are also coming into play.
Among these is the continuing battle for political control of the frum (yiddish for pious) Jewish Orthodox and Hasidim community of the Borough Park area between longtime Assemblyman Dov Hikind and City Councilman David Greenfield.
Greenfield hand-picked Yeger to replace him on the Democratic Party line after stepping down from the council to head the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council). He was able to do this because he timed his announcement after the deadline to hand in Democratic Party petitions for the Sept. 12 primary passed. Thus election law allowed him to pick Yeger through the Committee on Vacancies, which he controlled.
Dov Hikind last year pulled a similar stunt. As a former longtime Democratic district leader, a non-paid position, he stepped down from that position last year after the petitioning deadline period had passed, allowing him to hand-pick young David Schwartz, then 22, as the only Hasidic person in Brooklyn politics to hold a Democratic District Leadership position.
Enter Yoni Hikind, Dov Hikind’s son, who interestingly was not hand-picked by his father to run against Yeger. Yoni, like many in political families, has his father’s blessing to run, but is very much his own man.
That said, both Schwartz and Sharon Fuchs, the female Democratic District Leader, come through Dov Hikind, and as such, are long close to Yoni Hikind. Both are very involved in helping his campaign, which also means they are going against the Democratic Party’s candidate, which is Yeger.
To some in Democratic Party circles this is seen as an extreme act of disloyalty, but according to Frank Carrone, chief counsel to the Kings County Democratic Party, and a close friend of Kings County Party Democratic Chair Frank Seddio, it is neither the first time such a thing has happened nor is it not understandable.
“I don’t think that [Fuchs and Schwartz’ support for Yoni Hikind] suggests anything more than they are more comfortable and have a personal relationship with their candidate. People are free to support who they are free to support, and I’m sure they feel they are doing what’s best for the district, but we’re comfortable with our candidate Kalman Yeger as the Democratic nominee to replace David Greenfield. We’re the Democratic Party and we support the Democrats running for office. Kalman has the line and we’re fully behind him,” said Carrone.
Fuchs said, “I’m the [Democratic] district leader and I’m supporting Yoni Hikind. I think he would make a great city councilman and that’s all I have to say.”
Schwartz responded that it is common practice for staunch Democrats in Brooklyn, when the routine process of nominating candidates is short-circuited, to form and run on third-party lines.
“Our Public Advocate with impeccable Democratic credentials, Tish James, won her council seat through a third-party, as did our Councilman David Greenfield. Hence, I’m following good tradition with helping forming a third-party to give district residents a say in who will be their next Councilman,” said Schwartz.