City Councilman Lew Fidler currently trails David Storobin by three votes in the State Senate special election. The two sides are in court today, but there remains an outstanding question as the Democrats and Republicans battle over every last vote: Does Mr. Fidler even want to win.

Mr. Fidler’s current City Council salary is $112,000, plus whatever he gets as a chair of the Youth Services Committee; his State Senate salary would be $30,000 less. Plus, much of the work of the State Senate is done, since the budget was passed last month. If the recount drags on, Mr. Fidler may serve for only a few weeks or not at all, and he will be giving up a Council seat (albeit one he is term-limited out of in 2014) for a State Senate seat that will be redistricted out of existence by the time the November elections.

Thus, there have been persistent rumors that if he wins, Mr. Fidler will decline to be sworn in.

Today he tried to shut down those rumors. Read More

A Brighton Beach rabbi sent an open letter to City Council Lew Fidler telling him to tone down his attacks on David Storobin, his GOP opponent in the State Senate.

“Right from the outset, you have made it clear that you are determined to stake your campaign in the shifty foundation of negativity and fear mongering, ” writes Rabbi Mordecltai Tokarsky of the Jewish Center of Brighton Beach.

“You did so when you not once, but many times falsely accused a member of my congregation, your opponent David Storobin, of (and I quote) “having ties to skinheads and neo-Nazi groups and white supremacist groups. Read More

Lew Fidler took his State Senate campaign to Borough Park yesterday, attending a block-party for the women’s division of Mekimi, a local social service organization. According to a source who was there, Mr. Fidler, in keeping with ultra-Orthodox tradition, left without shaking any hands.

Notably, the video was sent to us minutes after Mr. Fidler’s opponent for the State Senate, Republican David Stotorbin, attacked him for not spending enough time in the district. And in the video, Mr. Fidler notes that he even though in the City Council he doesn’t “represent a neighborhood anywhere near Borough Park” he has still provided the organization funding. And he notes, “I do intend to become more of a part of this community as things go on in politics.

Take a look: Read More

Lew Fidler is slated to kickoff his campaign for the Senate on the steps of City Hall this afternoon, a location that the Republican Party said reminds them of another Democratic campaign from that section of Brooklyn–that of failed Congressional candidate David Weprin.

“Just like failed Congressional candidate David Weprin, politician Lew Fidler will kick off his insider campaign surrounded by other professional politicians, the party bosses who handed him the nomination, and the wealthy special interests who will bankroll his latest run for office, but nowhere near the hardworking men and women of the district he’s running to represent,” said Senate Republican spokesman Scott Reif in a statement. ”It’s troubling that Mr. Fidler’s very first decision as a candidate for the New York State Senate was to move his campaign launch outside the district so he could just waltz out of his City Hall office, make this announcement and not be bothered with the give and take of an actual campaign.” Read More