Abe George is viewed by many as a new age liberal and to others as an old style libertarian, and to still others as part of the routine mix of Democrats running for Brooklyn DA; nonetheless Abe had hoped to drop in on the Bay Ridge Conservatives at play at the Dyker Golf Club last night just to show he's a good sport.
The word is that Democrat Charles Hynes has the Wilson-Pakula for the Conservative line locked up again for 2013, because he's tight with fellow Bay Ridgeite and Breezy Point neighbor Mike Long (even though ML says that closeness to Vito Lopez is a big No-No, that only seems to apply to people like Domenic Recchia). That's not news since Hynes has had the Conservative and the Republican lines since the year Gimmel. In spite of all that, one of the people close to the Abe George campaign is also friends with Brooklyn Conservative party activist Liam McCabe, who promised that Abe would be more than welcome at his recently renamed Brooklyn South Conservative Club's function last night.
Things changed very quickly and a bunch of Orthodox Rabbis wanted some face time with Mr. George, the most "outsider" of the Brooklyn DA candidates and his equally "outsider" inside guy --- so that jumbled the evening's plans and made the drop-in to the McCabe's Conservative Party affair at the golf course virtually impossible because of other commitments.
Mr. George still tipped his hat in Bay Ridge though, speaking to about fifty Bay Ridge Democrats at their gathering to hear speakers on gun control in the backroom of the Bridgeview Diner. Even though Abe George was well received, the big news was what was going on elsewhere in the room when Abe George was making his presentation. His opponent Kenneth Thompson, who was also scheduled to speak to the Bay Ridge Dems made a beeline to Abe George's guy at the back of the room --- he gave him the "I've heard so much about you.... we need to talk...." routine.
Abe George's "outsider" inside-man was surprised and Abe George was surprised> --- Why is it I am the only one not surprised ? Didn't that moment at the back of the room have to come sooner or later in this campaign ? Ken Thompson's quickstep at the Bridgeview only showed that it would be sooner.
The Thompson and George campaigns will soon have about a million dollars --- spending that kind of cash in a M.A.D. (Mutually assured destruction) primary campaign doesn't make sense except to the incumbent who will be running to get the same voters he's had all along to vote for him again --- for years that's included openly running with the Republicans' and Conservatives' endorsements.
3 comments:
Mysterious inside and outside people, and other people in back rooms. What is this?
Except for David Boies' very large contribution, there is nothing mysterious about the Abe George campaign that I can see or have heard about. And as far as that contribution goes, there is nothing mysterious about a Democrat candidate taking a large donation from a big deal Democrat donor. The mystery remains why did David Boies decided to come in so heavy for Mr. George on the basis of a cold solicitation (Abe George has already answered questions about it in a TV interview).
About all the other stuff, I've heard most of the names associated with the Abe George campaign, and, excluding paid consultants, they are all Democrat activists who are "outsiders" to the current or recently past Kings County Democrat regimes, or even any large organized faction in Brooklyn. A couple, by now probably a few, were insider activists once upon a time and they know where some of the bodies are buried and where there might be some loose coconuts or low-hanging fruit --- they make calls and arrange meetings with wider and wider circles of Democrats not happy with "County" or the "organized opposition to County" and their candidates for DA -- Joe Hynes and Ken Thompson.
As for what was described above, everybody involved knows about it that includes George, Thompson, the Bay Ridge Dems who might have seen what was happening and the inside guys/gals who also took part. Nothing was secret about it, it was done at the back of a wide open and fairly crowded room.
The Conservative thing was based upon an open invitation and it was widely covered by the press (see other posts on this blog about it). If he were lucky, Abe George might have been introduced, that's about it. Besides, it never came off.
The Rabbi thing was a Rabbi thing. Everybody knows how they go.
Until I hear or see something else, all of that it was anything but mysterious.
The Boies money was sent in by Morgenthau.
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