David Storobin. (Photo: Facebook)

Former State Senator David Storobin officially filed for term-limited Councilman Mike Nelson's district today, setting the stage for what will likely be one of the few competitive general election race in heavily-Democratic New York City.

Politicker actually bumped into Mr. Storobin last night at a fund-raiser for socially conservative Democratic mayoral candidate Erick Salgado--although Mr. Storobin, a Republican, said his presence wasn't an endorsement. The buzz among several attendees was that the former state lawmaker would indeed run for the seat, so we asked him where he was at in his decision-making process. He claimed to be undecided.

"You catch me at a different hour, I have a different feeling," he explained. "I don't know what ... I'm going to do."

Mr. Storobin, who noted he just lost a brutal re-election battle last year after narrowly winning an equally tough special election a few months before that, expressed reservations about entering a third campaign so quickly. On the other hand, he said he felt like he had a unique opportunity in an open Council contest containing some of his best electoral turf in Brooklyn's Russian-American community.

Should he enter the race, Mr. Storobin would be the only Republican in a field that includes a plethora of Democratic hopefuls, notably attorneys Igor Oberman and Michael Treybich, district leader Ari Kagan, Nelson staffer Chaim Deutsch and community board chair Theresa Scavo.

(Photo: Facebook)

At a pro-Israel rally earlier today, Brooklyn District Leader Ari Kagan told Politicker that he will file to run for City Council within the next few days, entering what is likely to be a hotly-contested battle for term-limited Councilman Michael Nelson's seat.

And, Mr. Kagan said, he has friends in high places already lined up to support his candidacy, including Frank Seddio, the chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party.

"I'm very happy to have the support of so many of my friends like Hakeem Jeffries, you know like Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, he calls me 'bro,'" Mr. Kagan added, ticking off a list of political allies. "We ran together and we're close, close, close friends and I believe he is a rising star in Brooklyn politics. ... I'm very close to Senator Diane Savino, Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, Councilman David Greenfield and Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny."

Mr. Kagan, who ran and lost a narrow race against Mr. Brook-Krasny in 2006, said that the greatest focus of this campaign will be recovery from Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged the southern half of the district. A graduate of Baruch College's business program, he was quick to say that business is not the only part of his background people should know about.

"I'm a journalist, I have a journalism degree from the Soviet Union too," he pointed out.

Mr. Kagan further claimed he'll be able to unite  the Orthodox Jewish and Russian communities of the district, which have clashed at times during the ongoing redistricting process.

Those two communities also tend to be some of the more conservative segments in the overwhelmingly Democratic city, and as a result, Mr. Nelson's seat is among the few that both parties will likely be targeting this year. Accordingly, former State Senator David Storobin, a Republican, has indicated his own interest in the seat.

David Storobin (Photo: Facebook)

Over the past days, Republican State Senator David Storobin replaced the top levels of his government office and campaign operations, including his chief of staff, spokesman and campaign manager, according to sources familiar with the decision.

"I honestly don't want to comment, right now," Mr. Storobin told Politicker last night when we asked about his motivations for the changes, "I think it's better kept personal. It was the right move to make at this point."

Interestingly, the three staffers, Paul Gullo, Steve Stites and David Sieling, were all previously employed by Queens Councilman Dan Halloran at various points, as was documented by a Capital New York report focusing on Mr. Storobin and Mr. Halloran traveling to Israel together earlier this year.

Mr. Storobin's new chief of staff will be Pinny Ringel, who is currently the community liaison in his government office. Mr. Ringel previously worked for Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and then-Councilman Simcha Felder, who are both Democrats. Mr. Felder, of course, is also the Democratic nominee running against Mr. Storobin this year in a district that has been substantially reconfigured to contain the heart of Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community, where Mr. Ringel's name is well-established in political circles.

"Pinny Ringel, is an excellent choice to run my senate office," Mr. Storobin explained, extolling Mr. Ringel's virtues and resume. "He's very well-known, very respected in the community."

Mr. Storobin said he hadn't filled the other positions, but was considering David Simpson to handle his office's communications. Mr. Simpson was Mr. Storobin's spokesman during his upset special election campaign earlier this year.

Regardless of who he hires, Mr. Storobin certainly looks to have his work cut out for him as he runs for re-election. Mr. Felder is an accomplished fundraiser and recently scored a coup in a bold write-in campaign for the Conservative Party's ballot line. However, Mr. Storobin hopes the conservative drift of New York's Orthodox Jewish community will tilt things in his favor come Election Day.

(Photo: Storobin office)

State Senator David Storobin is in Israel, and he's doing more than tasting the falafel.

"Senator David Storobin (R-Brooklyn, on the left) today visited with General Shmulik Olansky (center), a 3-star general in charge of the Golan Heights Armor Division, directly on the Syrian border in a hostile region," read a morning press release accompanying the photo on the left, featuring Mr. Storobin holding a military rifle. “The Senator is on an official state visit approved by the Defense Minister of Israel. To the right is the Senator's Chief of Staff, Paul Gullo."

"Israel shares a border and a region with multiple dangerous countries," Mr. Storobin said in an attached statement, pivoting to use the spelling of "God" popular among some observant Jews. "Thank G-d for the brave men and women in the Israeli armed services that stare down this danger to protect Israel every day."

In addition to that, yesterday, Mr. Storobin's office released information on his meeting with Limor Livnat, the nation’s minister of culture, "to discuss Storobin’s call for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to pay tribute to the Israeli athletes killed at the 1972 Games."

He plans to be in the Middle East for the rest of the week, so additional photos are likely to come.

Mr. Storobin, of course, is running for re-election in a heavily reconfigured district after his narrow special election victory earlier this year. The new district contains many Orthodox Jews, many of whom share a special affinity with Israel. The Republican will likely face off against former City Councilman Simcha Felder in the general election, although Mr. Felder will first need to defeat Avraham Tischler in the Democratic primary.

He isn't the only New York pol in Israel this week, however. Councilman Dan Halloran, whose congressional campaign shares a spokesman with Mr. Storobin's, has also released photos of himself in his travels, including praying at the Wailing Wall and posing with army cadets:

“The Jewish people have a right to build and live wherever they want," Mr. Halloran, a candidate for Congress, said in a statement. "Our president is not a real ally of Israel’s. Our president’s party, the Democratic Party, is not a real ally of Israel's. They think Israel needs to apologize for defending herself. They think that we should apologize for standing with Israel.”

Mr. Storobin also blamed the Democratic Party for failing to side with Israel, although not quite as directly.

“We must come together to protect Israel, our country’s most devoted ally and the Biblical homeland of the Jewish people,” he said. “Jews have the right to build and live in all of Israel. The president, and many Democrats, do not understand this. For me, this trip isn’t political, it’s personal.”

That Mr. Storobin and Mr. Halloran, who are running in districts in Brooklyn and Queens respectively, would travel together is interesting but perhaps not shocking, as Mr. Storobin recently hired Mr. Halloran's political adviser and spokesman to work on his own campaign as well.

Mr. Halloran's press release notes a rather hefty schedule, noting that he's scheduled to meet with the speaker of the Parliament, the deputy prime minister, the former deputy chief of the Mossad, roughly 20 members of the Knesset, and the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel. For his part, Mr. Storobin is set to meet "with numerous rabbis and leaders in government."

Mr. Halloran returns next Wednesday, Mr. Storobin the Sunday after that.

Simcha Felder and David Storobin

"Upon information and belief, the Storobin Petition is fraudulent, insufficient, ineffective, false, and invalid and null and void," an order to show cause, prepared by the campaign of Democratic State Senate candidate Simcha Felder, argued to the State Supreme Court yesterday.

Mr. Felder's legal position is that the signatures gathered by incumbent State Senator David Storobin to get on the ballot for reelection are so rife with fraud that they should be tossed out altogether.

This is hardly the first time Mr. Storobin, whose team will need to present their counter-argument at the Kings County Courthouse next Monday morning, has battled a fraud lawsuit in recent weeks. Months after voters headed to the polls, he famously won a special election for his current seat -- by a mere 13 votes -- due to an unsuccessful fraud lawsuit against his absentee ballot operation and faced many of the same arguments Mr. Felder is now presenting.

For what it's worth, Jacob Kornbluh, a Brooklyn Republican politico who headed Mr. Storobin's signature efforts this time around, told The Politicker all of their gatherers were trained and, "There is no way that these signatures were collected under any circumstances of criminal act or unknown to rule of law."

Here's a sampling of Mr. Felder's claims, which were numerated alphabetically and ran out of letters:

Upon information and belief, the Storobin Petition is invalid by reason of the following:
(a) the Storobin Petition does not contain the minimum number of required valid signatures;
(b) many of the signatures were not personally signed by the persons whose names appear upon the Storobin Petition, but their names were signed by others;
(c) many of the signers were not registered or enrolled from the addresses given in the Storobin petition
(d) many of the signers did not sign their names to the Storobin Petition in the presence of the subsccribing witness on the dates indicated in the Storobin Petition
(e) the signatures, including signatures obtained by the responded Storobin, were obtaind by fraud;
(f) signers were paid to sign the Storobin Petition;
(g) signatures have been altered;
(h) witness statements have been altered;
(i) dates have been altered;
(j) signatures, including signatures obtained and witnessed by respondent Storobin have been forged;
(k) subscribing witnesses' initials have been forged;
(l) dates and/or addresses have been omitted or are incomplete;
(m) signatures and/or dates and/or addresses are illegible;
(n) signers are not enrolled as Republicans;
(o) subscribing witnesses are not registered at the address indicated or do not actually reside at said address;
(p) subscribing witnesses are not enrolled as Republicans;
(q) subscribing witnesses were paid to collect signatures on a per signature basis;
(r) signers do not live in the political unit;
(s) witness statements have been signed before completed;
(t) notaries public or commissioners of deeds failed to properly administer oaths when taking signatures;
(u) the Storobin Petition is paginated improperly;
(v) the number of signatures omitted or wrong;
(w) signatures were obtained prior to first day for circulation of designating petitions
(x) signers previously signed another candidate's designating petition for the same office;
(y) the Storobin Petition is permeated with fraud;
(z) the respondent Storobin committed fraud in witnessing signatures;
(aa) the Storobin Petition is invalid for other grounds which will be established at the hearing of this proceeding.

This is a fairly standard list, Mr. Felder will likely narrow down his arguments to specific points when he submits a bill of particulars.

Whether or not there will be enough to invalidate a significant majority of Mr. Storobin's signatures, such as to reduce him to less than 1,000 valid Republican signatures needed to remove him from his main party line, remains to be seen. Otherwise, Mr. Felder's team will need to have very solid evidence of fraud.

View the full order to show cause below:

Simcha Felder and David Storobin

It's filing day, and both Republican State Senator David Storobin and his main Democratic rival, former City Councilman Simcha Felder, like their campaigns' fundraising accounts. Mr. Felder reported raising $229,000 with $525,000 cash-on-hand, while multiple sources in Mr. Storobin campaign told us they aren't that far behind, at least in terms of campaign raised.

"He raised more in the last two weeks than in the whole previous campaign," one source explained, with another pegging the number at below Mr. Felder's, but still in the six figures.

“I want to thank all of my contributors for their support," Mr. Felder said in a statement touting the total. "Their contributions show their belief in my commitment, experience and record of fighting for this community.”

Mr. Felder's press release also pointed to the 12,767 signatures he filed to get onto the ballot, which the statement said might have been a historic amount for a state senate race. It read, "According to published reports, this number is significantly higher than any Senate campaign filed across New York State."

“I am encouraged by the combined support of the voters who signed my petitions and the donors who contributed to my campaign," the Democratic candidate continued. "I am honored that so many people expressed such confidence in me.”

Tischler speaking to the crowd.

Avraham Tischler, a 21-year-old candidate running against establishment favorite Simcha Felder in the so-called "Super Jewish" state senate district, has a novel idea. Instead of saying he'll caucus with Democratic Minority Leader John Sampson or Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos, Mr. Tischler, a Democrat, said he'll support Bronx State Senator Rubén Díaz instead.

Mr. Díaz would initially seem to be an odd choice for Mr. Tischler, but the state senator, a political gadfly known for his staunch socially conservative positions, allows Mr. Tischler to back a fellow Democrat without saying he'll back a liberal like Mr. Sampson.

"I would have voted for him to preserve our values," Mr. Tischler said yesterday afternoon at a Brooklyn Tea Party meeting. "I am conservative and anyone that has the best interests of the community, those are the people that I would work with. ... Rubén Díaz has a lot of values that are associated to a lot of my beliefs."

Meanwhile, Mr. Felder has been murky on who he'll support for senate leadership and has given seemingly conflicting answers when directly asked. The district's large Orthodox Jewish population strongly opposes gay marriage and the Senate Republican conference has been extensively courting the community, creating complicated politics for a Democratic candidate. Conversely, GOP State Senator David Storobin, running for reelection in the same district, proudly proclaims his support for Mr. Skelos.

Of course, the legislative rules don't exactly enable state senators to back whomever they want for majority and minority leaders, and the positions are instead filled by competing resolutions. Mr. Tischler indicated he might prefer the Republican side in this sort of scenario.

"Without a question, no," he said when an audience member asked if he would vote for Mr. Sampson.

"If that's what my community would like," he said when asked if he'd support Mr. Skelos.

(Photo: Facebook)

In an interview with the Jewish Press that just went online last night, newly minted Republican State Senator David Storobin presented an elaborate case against his likely Democratic opponent, former City Councilman Simcha Felder. As they are competing for the same socially conservative, heavily Orthodox Jewish district, Mr. Storobin made repeated efforts to link Mr. Felder to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is both socially liberal ideologically and an open lesbian.

"If you look at previous races, my opponent was a supporter of Barack Obama, my opponent was a supporter of Christine Quinn, my opponent was a reliable Democratic voter of the Christine Quinn Agenda," he argued, repeating the "Christine Quinn agenda" line again afterwards.

The Republican cited a specific example of his argument as it relates to Ms. Quinn.

"When he takes Christine Quinn and he brings her to a Jewish girls school, ... he points to her and says, 'This is a role model for you.' Most of their parents -- I think none of their parents -- would agree with that," he said. "Christine Quinn's lifestyle is not what the parents would choose for their girls. Not just lifestyles, politically speaking and in many ways, those are not the values of the parents of these kids. I would never bring someone like that and point out that this is a role model for those kids."

Mr. Storobin also made the case that no matter how conservative Mr. Felder may be, if he's willing to support a Democratic majority, it doesn't matter. And, addressing reports that the Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos is privately backing Mr. Felder under the condition that he conferences with the Republican majority, Mr. Storobin dismissed them.

"There are always rumors floating around," he said. "The reality is that I have a very good relationship with Dean Skelos. We've known each other in both political and personal circumstances. I was at his sister-in-law's barbecue."

"I would be very, very surprised if he went against a member of his conference, in particular a member of his conference with whom he had no problems with," he continued explaining when pressed. "There was never been a bad word that was exchanged between us. You look at the pictures ... I went in [the State Senate chamber for the first time] and he has this look of joy on his face and he's hugging me. I mean, he looks like he's happy to have me there."

He also pointed out that Mr. Skelos backed his legislation to translate election materials into Russian, stating, "Like I said, if he didn't want me to get reelected I can't imagine that he would put my bill for a vote for a vote, much less make sure that it passed."

Watch below:

Storobin and Caller on the cover of Hamodia

It's official: State Senator David Storobin will run for reelection in a new, heavily Orthodox Jewish State Senate district. The move doesn't exactly come as a surprise as Mr. Storobin had been strongly hinting at the possibility for some time, but as Hamodia's widely-read weekend edition will report tomorrow, his primary Republican opposition, attorney Nachman Caller, will drop out of the race and endorse Mr. Storobin, clearing his path to the GOP nomination.

Mr. Storobin finally won the recount for a special election in corrupt State Senator Carl Kruger's district a week or so ago, but because his current seat was dismantled in this year's redistricting process, his plans were previously in some doubt.

"I am very happy that I won the previous election," Mr. Storobin told the newspaper. "I think it was a big victory for the Jewish community. I think it was a big victory for all of those who subscribe to conservative values, and I think we need to continue."

Mr. Storobin now is likely to face Democratic former City Councilman Simcha Felder in the general election, although Democrat Avraham Tischler recently started filing petitions to be on the ballot too.

Mr. Felder, who's backed by a good chunk of the Orthodox Jewish political establishment, starts out as the frontrunner, but this is a race to watch this November as the district's main constituencies are increasingly trending towards the Republican Party.

"Storobin would not say if he discussed it with Senate majority leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), who had been reported to be backing Felder," the article continued. "And he dismissed the backing key elected officials in the community gave Felder -- Assemblyman Dov Hikind and City Councilman David Greenfield both endorsed Felder ... shortly after his announcement."

"There are a lot of people who are supporting us and we will be rolling out endorsements," he countered.

View the Hamodia article by clicking the image below: