This is another symptom of the growing culture of corruption surrounding State Senator Martin Golden, because there is a real problem about the Brooklyn Conservative Party leadership getting involved in internal Republican Party Politics
Maybe, it was because in the beginning of 2014, L R-P talked about running against Marty Golden in the 2014 Republican Primary — But what Kassar doesn't get — that's still INTERNAL Brooklyn Republican politics
As usual, Kassar is switching hats faster than an old novelty juggling act on the Ed Sullivan Show. While ACTING IN HIS ROLE as a columnist for the Home Reporter, Common Sense Jerry Kassar took a nasty turn and veered straight into the GOP’s internal politics in the wheel house district, the 46th AD, taking a personal swipe at its Female State Committee Person, Lucretia Regina-Potter. Even though the offending paragraph was physically buried in a feature that was oddly named for some of its content, “...Remembering the Heroes” ( See “Common Sense: Remember the Heroes” by Jerry Kassar, 9/16/14, Home Reporter/ Spectator [http://www.homereporternews.com/opinion/common-sense-remember-the-heroes/article_95f80a76-3d00-11e4-9654-ebe074073492.html]). Here’s what Kassar had to say, “On the Republican side, Stamatis Lilikakis easily defeated perennial candidate Lucretia Regina-Potter in the 46th Assembly District. I guess, considering that Regina-Potter is the Republican district leader, Republicans will consider Lilikakis’s victory a sign that she has lost the support of the rank-and-file party members in the district.”
Seriously, Mr Kassar, I mean SERIOUSLY !
KASSAR TRIES TO CONVERT LUCRETIA POTTER’S MORAL VICTORY INTO A RHETORICAL DEFEAT
This blog previously reported the results of the 2014 Republican Primary in the 46th AD ( See this blog’s September 10, 2014 post, “Brooklyn GOP Primary Results Reflect ... Nothing !” below). The succinct report of the vote was this: "The New York Times reports that Stamatis Lilikakis with 540 votes (58.5%) defeated Lucretia Regina-Potter with 383 votes (41.5%)". Compare that to the result in the 2012 Republican Primary in the 46th AD, when Thomas McCarthy defeated Ms. Potter with 890 votes to Potter’s 367; that was a better than 2-to-1 win of 71% to 29%; or even the 2010 primary in the 49th AD between Peter Cipriano and Potter, won by Cipriano 59% to 41%. First, Lucretia Regina-Potter did better in the 2014 Republican primary for the assembly than she ever did before in a GOP Primary for the Assembly — Lucretia did significantly better this year than she did she did two years ago against Tom McCarthy. It is noteworthy that Lucretia Regina-Potter came back in 2011 and 2013 to win the GOP post of Female Leader, first in the old 49th AD, then in the new 46th AD, by very significant margins for that GOP office. So not only is Kassar's whack at Potter gratuitous, when he snipes, "...she has lost the support of the rank-and-file party members in the district...." he is just plain WRONG.
Through all of the last five years Kassar's boss, Marty Golden, opposed Lucretia Regina-Potter at every turn, openly supporting Ms. Potter’s opponents in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 — that’s FIVE STRAIGHT YEARS and FIVE STRAIGHT ELECTIONS..... It’s no wonder that when there had been talk about running a GOP candidate against Marty Golden in 2014, Lucretia Regina-Potter told many in the Brooklyn GOP that she hadn’t ruled out running against her nemesis, Mr. Golden. Eventually, the Brooklyn GOP couldn't agree on a single candidate to oppose Golden, and the weak-kneed passive-aggressive counselors of the Brooklyn GOP won the day for not running anybody against the increasingly unpopular GOP incumbent.
What Kassar failed to mention in his most recent column, or ever as far as I know, is that in 2014 L R-P ran a minimalist campaign against Steve Lilikakis, while Kassar’s side, or rather, Marty Golden’s side, ran a full-scale campaign with multiple mailings, including one that FEATURED Kassar’s boss on his other hat day job, STATE SENATOR MARTIN GOLDEN, including a week-long robo-call bombardment, again featuring a couple of calls from STATE SENATOR MARTIN GOLDEN. However, unlike two years earlier, the Golden-oriented campaign did not achieve a 2-to-1 success. In fact, Potter’s vote went up both in total votes and by percentage.
GOLDEN AGAINST REPUBLICANS — REPUBLICANS AGAINST GOLDEN...
Golden has been at war with the Republican establishment for more than two years now. He has been losing ground inside the party for that whole period. Nonetheless, Golden keeps listening to his cadre of “insiders,” including people like Kassar, Liam McCabe and Mike Long who aren’t even Republicans.
Since Marty Golden still has a 2014 general election in from of him, it seems clear that is where the GOP’s first line of defense against his 2015 intra-party attacks needs to form. The time has come for an open “Republicans against Golden and for Kemmerer” campaign. It’s name needs to look exactly that — primarily, AGAINST GOLDEN — secondarily, FOR KEMMERER, only because he is the only candidate now running against Marty Golden.
Potter got creamed.
ReplyDeleteDo you know how to read results or is it the moral victory of the voters saying get lost thar appeals to your loser mentality
RESPONSE: THE "THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUICK REACTION" EDITION
ReplyDeleteTHE NUMBERS SHOW THAT EVERY DAY AND IN EVERY WAY LUCRETIA GETS BETTER AND BETTER
Thank you for your input. Three straight years of an all-out Marty Golden push against L R-P in the 46th AD and Golden's side keeps losing ground,
Kassar is a useless leader.....loves off of Republicans.....and runs a party of maybe 4 or 5 people.
ReplyDeleteHe is a waste of life and needs to go.....
You know, Mr. Massey, you are about a day late and a dollar short on the matter of Lucretia Regina Potter's campaign. Where were all of the reform-minded local Republicans during the August campaign season when some grassroots phone banking and door knocking would have been helpful to her? Here the Brooklyn GOP has in Lucretia Regina Potter one of its best centrist pro-life Republicans who actually cares about education, families, and community issues, yet no one came out to do the vineyard work needed to get her the win.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Jamie Kemmerer, it is important to note that Zephyr Teachout who supports Kemmerer is an anti-corruption scholar and politician. It is telling (as you've previously mentioned) that she has chosen to pro-actively speak out for the necessity of defeating Senator Martin Golden. Zephyr is not supporting Jamie Kemmerer's candidacy blindly because he is a Democrat. (Recall she has expressly stated she will not be endorsing Andrew Cuomo anytime soon). Rather, Zephyr sees this particular race as an important one in cleaning up corruption.
Speaking of corruption, do you think that G for Gerard/J for Jerry Kassar was paid by Joe Hynes to offer political advice or did he just do it because they were pals(the way Barry Kamins did so - out of fraternal kinship)? And if he was paid by Joe Hynes is that a conflicts issue or is it simply a days' pay for a days' hard work kind of thing? Do you have any thoughts on that or no opinion like that owner of Rick's Café Americain and you take no stand?
At the risk of you coming back with your shillelagh in hand shouting its not related, a quick story: My friend yesterday had her door bell rung by someone and it wasn't those folks with the Awake magazine evangelizing. When she opened it there was Jamie Kemmerer himself asking for her vote. That is a politician who cares - ringing door bells himself. Do you think Marty Golden has ever done that?
RESPONSE: THE "RICK BLAINE WAS NO GOP REPUBLICAN" EDITION
ReplyDeleteRICK WAS VERY OPINIONATED, BUT KEPT MOST OF HIS REAL OPINIONS TO HIMSELF
The Rick, who quickly sold his place to the owner of the Blue Parrot, Ferrari, was an American mobster who sold guns to the Republicans in Spain for a pretty penny.... Do you think it's an accident that the Paris sequence has the song "Perfidia" playing in the background; and do you think its only referent is Ilsa ?
In any case, it's my opinion that Marty Golden has pressed a few doorbells along the way -- even I smetimes did that.
A franc for your thoughts [on Kassar/Hynes]. I'm willing to be overcharged.
ReplyDeleteI must say, I have not always gotten along with Lucretia, but having gotten to know her well over the last year, she is a hard working, intelligent and conscientious woman who believes in the GOP and fights hard for what she believes.
ReplyDeleteShe doesnt deserve the nasty comments that are being made about her.
Golden on the other hand is a snake in the grass who needs to go.....
RESPONSE: TO ANONYMOUS...3:33"
ReplyDeleteTHE "WHAT WAS A FRANC WORTH WHEN THEY MADE 'CASABLANCA'?" EDITION
Above "Anonymous... at 12:20 PM" said "Kassar... loves off of Republicans..." I'm sure he meant "lives" (unless, well... who knows). If Mr. K lives off Republicans, why would things have been any different with Hynes ?
At least one of the BSIs is certain that more "Asset forfeiture" money was passed out than what has been reported as going to Larry (Small Fish) Morrish.
Larry "Small Fish" Morrish has been absent during Marty Golden events.
ReplyDeleteAmazing what a Grand jury Subpoena will do to Morrish community outreach.
Kassar is an evil old man who needs to go....and Golden needs to go as well....
ReplyDeleteUPDATE & BACKFILL: THE “MARTY GOLDEN - BIG GOVERNMENT” EDITION
ReplyDeleteTAKE A LOOK AT STATE SENATOR GOLDEN’S WEB PAGE — IT’S JUST ONE BIG GOVERNMENT THING AFTER ANOTHER — EVEN A BIT ABOUT “GROWING THE FUTURE” — BUT NOT A SINGLE WORD ABOUT CONTROLLING SPENDING OR SHRINKING GOVERNMENT
Virtually everything appearing on Marty Golden’s “Official” web page screams bloated government and showcases Golden’s emaciated ideas.
It doesn't matter whether Marty wants to look like he’s doling out tax money in the form of “Relief Checks” to families with children; or wearing his shiny chairman’s hat for the New York State Senate Committee on Science, Technology, Incubation, & Entrepreneurship doing his big-government best to pump up a more than a hundred billion dollar computer games industry; Marty wants to get the full credit and bang for your buck, which already has been taken away from you directly in taxes or indirectly by budgetary gimmicks.
I don’t know about Marty Golden’s family when he was being raised, but “relief checks” were not something to brag about when I was a kid. — It just shows how times and Conservative-Republican politicians, at least ones like Golden, have changed.
As for Golden’s tin pot position as Chairman of the New York State Senate Committee on Science, Technology, Incubation, & Entrepreneurship, it conducted a “ROUNDTABLE ON GROWING THE FUTURE” — Imagine that “growing the future” — Who makes this stuff up ?
Here’s what Marty thinks sounds impressive to computer technology leaders: “Gaming has a footprint in the area, but we lag behind California, Texas, and Washington in the number of companies, employees, and contributions to the economy.... The purpose of the roundtable is to collect the facts and ideas from the best in the industry, the university, the government, and the entrepreneurs so that we can create policy and program that will make us the center of the game software universe.” Clearly, Marty still isn't up to speed on this science, technology, incubation and entrepreneurship stuff... but I'm sure he will be... any day now... any day...
Dont rewrite history gale. As I remember things, Lucretia was the major stumbling block behind the Brooklyn GOP selecting Russ Gallo to run against Golden. She openly opposed his potential candidacy while secretly planning to run for assembly. I wonder if she has a deal with Golden. We shall see...
ReplyDelete"But relief checks were not something to brag about when I was a kid."
ReplyDeleteThere's no shame in being on the dole. The only shame is picking up the weekly relief and then spending it in the pub like Malachy McCourt did. But the getting it - no shame at all.
/s/
Angela
RESPONSE: THE "BUT RELIEF CHECKS ARE NOT SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT..." EDITION
ReplyDeleteWhether one is the recipient or the one making the distribution, it in no way denotes or connotes an achievement of any kind when one talks about "relief checks" like Marty Golden or some ventriloquist on Golden's staff did on the Golden web page.
ANOTHER RESPONSE: THE "RE-WRITING OF BROOKLYN GOP HISTORY" EDITION
ReplyDeleteI reiterate, "Lucretia Regina-Potter told many in the Brooklyn GOP that she hadn’t ruled out running against her nemesis, Mr. Golden. Eventually, the Brooklyn GOP couldn't agree on a single candidate to oppose Golden, and the weak-kneed passive-aggressive counselors of the Brooklyn GOP won the day for not running anybody against the increasingly unpopular GOP incumbent."
When "Anonymous ... at 9:53 AM" says "... As I remember things, Lucretia was the major stumbling block behind the Brooklyn GOP selecting Russ Gallo to run against Golden. She openly opposed his potential candidacy while secretly planning to run for assembly. I wonder if she has a deal with Golden. We shall see..." he or she is adding color and depth to the report as I gave it, along with a provocative tag at the end. This is a different nuance being put on my telling of a few moments in the 2014 Brooklyn GOP History, and it's a nuance that doesn't contradict any of what I said.
However, I must add that I doubt that any deal has been made with Marty Golden by Lucretia R-P; not with Golden's mail for Lilikakis or Kassar's knock on LRP in his most recent column.
Lucretia is a snake. She made sure that no viable candidates against Golden would gain any traction in the Brooklyn GOP because Craig Eaton falsely believed that he needed her and her master, Arnaldo (the only Italian left in Brooklyn) Ferrara's permission to run. And they weren't giving it nor were they "looking" for a candidate.
ReplyDeleteShe also voted to give the Republican line to democrats running throughout Brooklyn for various offices in 2014. This comes after her and Arnaldo "the hut" made a scene at last year's Brooklyn GOP Judicial Convention because the Executive Committee voted to cross endorse judges who are supposed to be nonpartisan anyway!
Lucretia had the Executive Committee (she is a member and Arnaldo is the Vice Chair!) vote to endorse Marcus Nussbaum over Steve Lilikakis for Assembly in District 46. She then ran for the seat herself and Marcus exited stage left.
She can not be trusted.
She is a loser.
She is Clorinda Annarumo with a deeper voice.
Those are some enlightening views on Lucretia Regina Potter. Not sure what to think of her now. To my knowledge she was the only local Republican from Brooklyn who did not engage or support the Joe Hynes GOP hate tactics that permeated his general election run last year. That in itself made her stand out among the crowd as one above the rest.
ReplyDeleteThere are two or three people who are commenting on this blog (or possibly one wearing three hats, like Kassar) that are probably Democrats with a vendetta against Hynes and Golden. Everything they talk about ends up with the Republican-Conservative campaign for Hynes last year or some of the problems that Hynes might be having now or Hynes connections to Golden and that kind of stuff.
ReplyDeleteIn Brooklyn Hynes led all other Republican-Conservative candidates in 2013. If he would have won, it would have been good for both parties. The Republican and Conservative parties did the right thing, let's leave it at that.
Because only someone with a vendetta would seek to point out Marty Golden's corruption, right? Try again.
ReplyDeleteThe local Republican and to a lesser extent Conservative political leaders and support staff engaged in a three months long hated-filled race-baiting campaign in our county that was reminiscent of Alabama circa 1961. Accept that you did this, recognize it, own it, and perhaps learn from it. But please, do not make excuses for it. The ends never ever justify the means.
The Republican Party did [not} do the right thing. Lets leave it at that.
/s/
BSI Let us now praise Great Men Division
Just listen to yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhat local Republican leaders engaged in a three months long hate filled race baiting campaign?
Reminiscent of what in Alabama circa 1961?
If you dare to answer, this should be good.
"If you dare to answer." Are you baiting me? If so, it is very unbecoming of one such as you. Since you know who I am and I know who you are, we both know exactly what campaign tactics to which I am referring. The only disappointment is what could have been a mistaken support by you back then is now adamantly supported by you even in retrospect.
ReplyDeleteYes, if you are "/s/ BSI Let us now praise Great Men Division", I am baiting you. On the other hand, I don't know who you are and you certainly don't know who I am. So I'll repeat what I wrote before.
ReplyDeleteWhat local Republican leaders engaged in a three months long hate filled race baiting campaign?
Reminiscent of what in Alabama circa 1961?
Alabama circa 1961 is a reference to the so-called Southern Strategy historically employed by Republicans in campaigns. It pits one racial group against another in an effort to divide the community and I gather gain votes. When Joe Hynes "became a Republican" on Oct 4th, 2013 his campaign now run by the local Brooklyn (Bay Ridge to be exact) GOP began to embark on a strategy of inflaming racial tensions in our county between the Black and Jewish communities. Eventually they broadened their base to include appealing to white fear in parts of Brooklyn. It was a level of hatred infused into the campaign that many found stunning and quite disheartening. That is what I meant by Alabama circa 1961. A more contemporaneous analogy would be what the Tea Party did during the 2008 Presidential campaign. But certainly not as sinister as what happened right here in Brooklyn.
ReplyDeleteSo wrong on so many points! In fact everything in the comment above is wrong.
ReplyDeleteIn 1961 Alabama was part of the “Solid South” strongly supporting the Democratic Party, its governor was George Wallace, a segregationist Democrat. The “Southern Strategy” attributed to Kevin P. Phillips, was described in his 1968 book “The Emerging Republican Majority” [note the word “Emerging”]. It couldn’t even be followed by the Republicans in the 1968 campaign due to the Third-Party candidacy of George Wallace. It was specifically talked about as a “Southern Strategy” by Phillips in 1970, but was also meaningless in the 1972 election when Nixon virtually swept the nation in his re-election bid. Similarly, no such strategy was followed by Gerald Ford against the Southerner Jimmy Carter. The South’s abandonment of the Democratic Party happened in the Reagan years, virtually a full twenty years after the “1961 Alabama” remark related to an imagined 1961 GOP “Southern Strategy.” Even then, the Republicans were actually following a “Sun-belt Strategy” a term also coined by Kevin Phillips.
“A more contemporaneous analogy would be what the Tea Party did during the 2008 Presidential campaign.” Unfortunately, this is another slanderous historical anachronism – as anybody who went to the earliest Tea Party gatherings knows. The very earliest formative meetings were held during mid-2009 and most were still forming up in early to mid- 2010. Nothing was done by the Tea Party in the 2008 Presidential Campaign it was an impossibility.
The Brooklyn GOP never ran any aspect of the Hynes campaign in 2013. I know the Brooklyn GOP’s leaders and several of the very few Republican volunteers in the Hynes effort. None of them were in charge of anything. Of course, if you could name a few names of these race-baiting Republicans that were active in the Hynes campaign, everybody would like to know who they might be.
Gale, you should run a "WHERE IS TIMMY "HOT DOG" COCHRANE and WHERE HAS HE BEEN?" Edition
ReplyDeleteRemember it was one year ago today where Timmy "Hot Dog", "Business Failure", "Loser" Cochran ran for County Chair, and his Republicans for Change (Yes Golden's funded group) platform centered solely around wanting to reform, change and strengthen the GOP in Brooklyn. He went to YR Meetings, Lhota Campaign events, Brooklyn Meeting, rallys, etc, and chanted that he was going to work hard to reform the Party...yet nobody has seen him since he put his face in his hands and watched his political future go down the tubes....and very fast at that. Where are his efforts to change and reform the Party...if he was so enthusiastic, wouldnt it seem that he should still be engaged and involved...at the very least show up at the debate at OLA tonight to cheer on his biggest supporter Golden???? Shouldnt he be helping Astorino, Moss, Cahill, Golden, Grimm and Maliotakis's campaigns..shouldnt he be going door to door with them? Isnt this what people who want to be leaders should do? Well, you all see what I mean...he is merely an opportunist who figured if he won, maybe he could give himself a job.....what a loser.....
The Tea party was started officially on December 16, 2007 on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. So yes it was in existence in 2008 and quite active. Hence, it is not an historical anachronism. (Do you know that Shakespeare first used those in literature?).
ReplyDeleteThank you for your lesson on the Southern Strategy. Have you studied it in depth? I mean, of course, as an academic exercise in the way we study other religions solely for the theoretical underpinnings and certainly not for praxis.
Your third paragraph is categorically false. It is false to state that members of the Brooklyn Republican and Conservative Parties did not engage in the decision-making during the general election after the primary. It is false to state that "only a handful of Republican/Conservative "volunteers" were involved. If you truly "know" the Republican leadership than you know the extent of the involvement. As someone who has dedicated a good part of my life to serving the people of Brooklyn (as have many women religious and members of my family), the actions of the Joe Hynes Republican campaign for DA were deeply troubling and reprehensible. But it is over. My issue is with the commenter who would actually deny that this took place. Yes, politics is a blood sport as they say but every Brooklynite should have been outraged over what we witnessed in that campaign. So let's move on. Did you go to the Kemmerer/Golden debate this evening? I was there. If so, what do you think?
That is absolute nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThe December 16, 2007 event was a fund raising tool used by Republican Congressman Dr. Ron Paul in late 2007 for his 2008 presidential campaign. His GOP presidential campaign received a 24 hour, record breaking, "money bomb" from something referred to as the “Ron Paul Tea Party” that took place on December 16, 2007. No stand alone "Tea Party" was established on that date. Other than as a fundraising adjunct of the Ron Paul campaign there is no evidence of a broader Tea Party movement that was active in the 2008 elections.
In 2009 a loosely organized group of the Ron Paul supporters decided to institutionalize something called a “Tea Party” to influence the Republican leadership to adopt the Ron Paul style of Republicanism.
The “Tea Party Patriots” (TPP) was founded by Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, and Amy Kremer in March 2009. Tea Party Patriots was a co-sponsor of the 9/12 March on Washington, but did not participate in the National Tea Party Convention. Tea Party Patriots is most notable for organizing citizen opposition at the healthcare town hall meetings of 2009,as well as various other anti-government run health care protests.
Those are the two main branches of what is now called the "Tea Party."
I noticed that now you refer to the Conservative Party and the Republican Party and imply that they somehow jointly ran the Hynes Campaign in the fall of 2013. To the extent that it attempts to inculpate the Brooklyn Republican Party as a leader of the Hynes Campaign, your charge is patently false.
Thank you so much for your erudition on the historical roots of the Tea Party. I will defer to your representations on the narrow issues of both the Tea Party and the Republican Southern Strategy as you seem to be a scholar on these two topics.
ReplyDeleteI am corrected for I used to think that the Tea Partiers were just folks stuck in that moment when they first read Yeats' Second Coming and had that feeling of mere anarchy being loosed on the world and the falcon not hearing the falconer and the centre not holding. You've now given me a much broader critical perspective!
/s/
BSI FR-JH Half a Nut Division
I too was at the debate....not very good performance by Golden. A lot of the usual illiterate statements, i.e. incAbator as opposed to incUbator...also he said "there is no dollars"....instead of "are"...where did he learn to speak English, at the Manor?
ReplyDeleteOh, and I forgot, Golden was reading prepared notes during the debate. After 20 years in office he still cannot speak without reading notes? That is truly sad that he cannot put together words and sentences without reading notes.....
ReplyDeleteTo My Brooklyn Tea Party Southern Strategy Scholar Sparring Adversary:
ReplyDeletePlease read Mr. Massey's most recent post on the Marty Golden debate last evening. In it he makes the important observation that many in the audience were Republican D.A. candidate Joe Hynes leftovers from the failed scorched earth campaign the Brooklyn GOP ran in 2013. It seems Flannery O'Connor was correct and eventually everything that rises [or falls] indeed does converge [or come together]. And I might add, they were all root, root, rooting for Marty Golden.