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While Ben Akselrod was narrowly defeated in his bid to unseat Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz at polls last Thursday, his ally and ticket-mate Ari Kagan emerged victorious in his campaign for district leader.

Kagan, a Russian-American reporter and activist, bested 24-year incumbent Mike Geller, head of the Highway Democratic Club, for the male district leader position in the 45th Assembly District. Kagan took home 1,818 – or 61.63 percent – of the paltry 2,950 votes cast, according to unofficial counts released by the Board of Elections. Geller received 686 votes less, for a total of 1,132, or 38.37 percent.

“I want to thank all my supporters and I promise to work hard on behalf of all neighborhoods and communities of our great and diverse 45 Assembly District,” Kagan wrote to Sheepshead Bites.

The district leader position, listed on the ballot as the Member of the State Democratic Committee, is an unpaid, nongovernmental representative. District leaders help pick the party’s chairman, appoint judges and hire poll workers. Though often under the radar for most voters, district leaders can play a pivotal role in local elections, helping organize grassroots efforts and sometimes directing the support – and campaign coffers – of the state or county party. Every assembly district has a male and female district leader.

The results of this election have not yet been certified by the Board of Elections. They are unofficial results from initial counts of ballots at the booths. This week, the board will add in numbers from ballot write-ins, absentee ballots and paper affidavits.

Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz eked out a primary victory yesterday, defeating Ben Akselrod by a narrow margin and moving ahead to a rare general election battle.

Cymbrowitz earned 244 votes more than his opponent, a margin of just seven percent of the 3,304 votes cast in the election. Cymbrowitz garnered 53.7 percent versus Akselrod’s 46.3 percent, according to results published by the New York Times.

Brooklyn Daily was at the Highway Democratic Club’s election night party, and here’s the scene they described:

Tensions were high at the High-Way Democratic Club’s results party on McDonald Avenue as Community Board 15 chairwoman Teresa Scavo called out the results as they trickled in.

Cymbrowitz appeared confident as he thanked friends and supporters, but left his own party before the vote was called, and refused to speculate on the outcome.

“I think we’re going to have to wait until all the votes are counted,” Cymbrowitz said, refusing to comment further.

Akselrod a former CB15 district manager, would not comment or concede, claiming that the vote was too close to call.

Cymbrowitz will now face off against Republican Russ Gallo in November’s general elections.

Steven Cymbrowitz (l.) and Ben Akselrod (r.)

In the days before today’s face-off between incumbent Steven Cymbrowitz and challenger Ben Akselrod, it appears the campaign has taken a personal turn, with Akselrod supporters turning the assemblyman’s marriage to a non-Jewish woman into a political issue.

The Daily News reports:

Syrian Jews in the 45th district have been swamped with emails slamming Cymbrowitz for breaking Jewish law by marrying Vilma Huertas after his Jewish wife, Lena, died in August 2000 following a long battle with cancer.

“Cymbrowitz does not follow [RELIGIOUS]community values,” one email from BrooklynMessage said.

The supporters are likely tied to challenger Ben Akselrod’s campaign, multiple sources familiar with the race said.

“The campaign is not very conventional,” an Akselrod source said.

“It’s definitely organized,” a Brooklyn political pundit added. “It’s not the average Joe saying they feel very strongly about a particular viewpoint. They use fake email addresses and names to try to get the negative message out.”

The e-mails also point out that Cymbrowitz has not opposed the proposed mosque on Voorhies Avenue, which Akselrod has claimed is tied to a radical organization he incorrectly said was “outlawed” by the United States. Cymbrowitz has not taken a stand for or against the mosque; its location is outside of his district.

Akselrod declined to comment about the e-mails.

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Cymbrowitz told the Daily News. “When a candidate doesn’t have a record to stand on the only thing he can do is be negative.”

Well, I just got back from casting my vote in today’s primary election, and, as of 9:15 a.m., only five other people had voted at my polling station.

Let’s pick it up, Sheepshead Bay! Let’s prove to New York City and New York State that our area has a voice and we will use it!

For many in our coverage area, the only races going on are the primary battles between sitting Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz and his upstart opponent Ben Akselrod, as well as the race for male district leader, between incumbent Mike Geller and challenger Ari Kagan.

Polls will be open to 9:00 p.m.

To find out if you’re eligible to vote, where your polling station is, and what races are in your district, use New York City’s Poll Site Locator & Sample Ballot Display tool.

After nearly five days of silence since Sheepshead Bites first reported on the mailing of thousands of campaign fliers in which Assembly candidate Ben Akselrod claimed crime is up in the “negrohood,” the candidate behind the mailer has issued an apology calling the comment a “typo.”

Akselrod sent out the following statement yesterday evening:

I was deeply saddened and troubled to learn that a mailer sent out recently by my campaign for New York State Assembly, contained a typo which could be misconstrued as a racial slur. As the candidate, I take full responsibility for this inadvertent error and I am sorry to anyone who was offended by it.

For the record, to accuse me or my campaign of intentionally using racially inflammatory language is an insult. As a person who faced the scourge of discrimination for being born Jewish in the Soviet Union, I reject any form of racial and ethnic bias. I have always stood strongly and proudly for combating discrimination against any individual, irrespective of gender, race or religion.

It is very unfortunate that instead of focusing on the real problems of our neighborhoods, supporters of my opponent are focusing their energy on looking for orthographical errors and typos in our press releases and mailings. The facts are clear: this year, crime rate in the 61st Precinct went up dramatically and the current Assemblyman did nothing to stop this dangerous crime wave. This is the issue we should be talking about. By refusing to debate me, Assemblyman Cymbrowitz is denying voters an opportunity to hear firsthand about our differences and to make an educated choice on September 13.

Neighbors around the district received the mailer on Thursday, August 23. After our report on Friday, the campaign treasurer for Friends of Ben Akselrod contacted us, saying he never gave permission for his address to be used in the flier. He resigned Monday evening.

Ben Akselrod faces off against Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz in the Democratic primary on September 13. The winner will face a challenge from Republican Russ Gallo in November.

CORRECTION (11:58 p.m.): Speaking of typos, the original version of this story introduced Akselrod as “Assemblyman Ben Akselrod.” We meant to write “Assembly candidate Ben Akselrod.” The post has been updated.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: The campaign treasurer for Friends of Ben Akselrod resigned yesterday, outraged that his address was put on thousands of mailers to neighbors that said crime is up in the “negrohood.”

Sheepshead Bites was the first news outlet to report last week that Ben Akselrod, looking to unseat State Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, sent out a mailer to thousands of residents that Cymbrowitz was “allowing” crime to rise in the “negrohood.”

Additionally, the flier contained several typos and factual errors.

The flier came from “Friends of Ben Akselrod,” one of two campaign groups supporting Akselrod for Assembly, and had the return address of the campaign treasurer, Bryan Goldstein.

Following our report, Goldstein contacted Sheepshead Bites and said that he was “not involved” in creating the literature, and that his address was used “WITHOUT permission or authority.”

“As you can imagine, when I found out about this over the weekend I was quite upset about this,” he told us on Monday. “I agreed to be the treasurer for Ben Akselrod. We’ve been friends since high school. It was not something I was thrilled to get involved with but I figured I’d do a favor for a friend.”

Goldstein, a lawyer, said that he was largely just a name on the account, occasionally signing paperwork, cutting checks and depositing donations. (It is not unusual for campaign treasurers to have little involvement in the campaign.)

But since the mailers went out, Goldstein is worried that the nefarious flub would muddy his name, and that “weirdos and nutcases” may try to contact him.

“Basically, I think the feeling was that it was no big deal to use my address …  that no harm would come of that, and obviously I disagree,” he said. “Naturally, when you see something like that and have my home address attached to that, naturally that’s very disturbing.”

Goldstein said he had no involvement in the creation of the flier, and that he wasn’t sure how it could have happened.

“I have no idea how this quote got into it; it was never explained to me and to my knowledge, Mr. Akselrod does not know about it,” he said.

Asked if, as treasurer, he issued payment for the printing, he indicated that no payments had been made to anyone that would be large enough to cover such a printing, but that it was possible he had not yet received the invoice.

At 5:27 p.m. on Monday, Goldstein sent an e-mail to Sheepshead Bites that said, in part, “Effective immediately, I have resigned as treasurer of the campaign for Ben Akselrod.”

Despite multiple requests for comment, no one from the Akselrod campaign has responded.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: State Assembly candidate Ben Akselrod is likely a little red in the face today, after thousands of mailers went out to Democratic voters in the 45th Assembly District saying that crime is up in the “negrohood.”

In an inset in the mailers, received by most in the area yesterday, Akselrod takes aim at his incumbent opponent, Steven Cymbrowitz, for “allowing” crime to rise in the confines of the 61st Precinct.

The inset reads as follows:

I am running for Assembly because I believe the number 1 job of that office is to keep the community safe. The current assemblyman has allowed crime to go up over 50% in our  negrohood so far this year. I am fighting for video cameras throughout our community to protect our seniors who are the most vulnerable and cut down on anti-semitic attacks in our community. I will also make sure the mayor gives our community more police to patrol our streets. [sic] (emphasis added)

According to the latest CompStat report issued by the 61st Precinct, the command has seen a 43.71 percent increase in crime so far this year, not “over 50%.” In the 60th Precinct, a portion of which is also in the 45th Assembly District, crime has gone up only 6.96 percent.

It’s not the inaccuracy of the numbers, however, that has spurred dozens of readers to contact Sheepshead Bites – it’s the flub in calling the neighborhood a “negrohood.”

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Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries defeated Councilman Charles Barron in the Democratic primary for the 8th Congressional District last night, setting the stage for a general election battle against Republican businessman Alan Bellone and third party candidates in November.

Jeffries supporters outnumbered Barron supporters at the polls by a wide margin, with the victor racking up 25,712 (71.9 percent) votes to Barron’s 10,063 (28.1 percent), according to the New York Times. It was one of the most well-attended elections in New York State last night, with more than 35,000 voters turning out  - putting it neck-and-neck with the much more widely promoted primary for Charles Rangel’s seat.

Meanwhile, Congressman Bob Turner, who currently represents Sheepshead Bay, may be out of a job come January. His district is being eliminated, and last night he lost his bid for the Republican nomination to take on Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Turner received 35.6 percent of the vote, losing out to Manhattan lawyer Wendy Long, who took 50.9 percent.

In the 9th Congressional District, Democratic incumbent Yvette Clarke won the party’s nomination to proceed to November’s election, handily defeating upstart Sylvia Kinard, who took in only 11.7 percent of the vote. Clarke will now face off against Republican candidate Daniel Cavanagh.

The Sephardic Community Federation (SCF) is actively working to inform their members and supporters of their stance on congressional candidate Charles Barron.

Community leaders have already come out denouncing Barron for what they say is his anti-Semitic and anti-Israel agenda.

The SCF-sponsored full page ads in various major Jewish publications over the weekend, according to Yeshiva World News. They spent $16,000 in media ads and sent out over 10,000 mailers to residents of Brighton Beach, Canarsie, Coney Island, Crown Heights, Marine Park, Manhattan Beach, Mill Basin, Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay and Seagate.

In the ads, they write about his viewpoints and encourage residents to come out and vote against him tomorrow, June 26.

Barron is running against Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. The winner will be the Democratic candidate in the November election for the congressional seat currently occupied by Ed Towns, who is retiring.

On Tuesday, June 26, voters will hit the polls to vote in federal legislative primaries, choosing Democratic or Republican candidates for Senate (Republican only) and Congress. This year’s elections, however, are complicated by redistricting. Previously, most of Sheepshead Bites’ coverage area was part of the 9th Congressional District, currently represented by Bob Turner and, before him, Anthony Weiner. That district has now been eliminated and the area divided between three new district with incumbents many in the area may be unfamiliar with.

We’ve put together this pre-primary primer to help you understand the geographic and demographic changes within the district, as well as background information on incumbents, their primary challengers (if any), and challengers in November’s general elections.

Here’s a quick rundown on how to use this guide before Tuesday’s primary:

1. Visit the New York City Board of Elections poll finder and enter your address. This will tell you what congressional district you’re in, where your poll site is, and provide sample ballots for the general election so you know who is running.
2. Return back to this page.
3. Use the following links to find the district profile we’ve put together, with bios and background on each of the candidates. Note that we’ve split up the district profiles between Sheepshead Bites and Bensonhurst Bean, and the links below will direct you to the appropriate site.

• District 7 (Bensonhurst Bean)
• District 8 (Sheepshead Bites)
• District 9 (Sheepshead Bites)
• District 10 (Bensonhurst Bean)
• District 11 (Bensonhurst Bean)

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