Eric Ulrich (Photo: Facebook)

Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich, currently a candidate for the State Senate against Joe Addabbo, announced he supports legislation to increase New York State's minimum wage to $8.50 this evening. The move places him on the opposite side of the issue than Majority Leader Dean Skelos and the Republican conference, who steadfastly oppose the legislation.

"People are hurting in Queens and the current minimum wage simply isn't enough to make ends meet for families here," Mr. Ulrich said in a statement. "Single parent households are especially hit hard by the rising cost of living in New York. The bottom line is that there simply aren't enough hours in the week at $7.25 per hour to pay the rent or mortgage and to buy the basic household items they need. I have listened to both sides of this argument, but one truth resonates more than any other: If we don't take this action, too many families are going to go under."

The Democrats in the State Senate and Assembly have been pushing hard for the minimum wage boost and have sent signals that they aim to make it a key campaign issue in November, but Mr. Ulrich, campaigning in a swing district, clearly isn't interested in being bludgeoned on the issue.

It's hardly Mr. Ulrich's first break from the party orthodoxy, however. He's come out in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, was the only Republican in the City Council to vote for rent stabilization, and co-sponsored paid sick leave legislation.

In the release, he tried to frame the issue as nonpartisan.

"The minimum wage should not be a partisan issue," he argued. "I believe that people who work hard to support their families deserve a better standard of living."

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.

"That is not true," he said. "And quite frankly there are a lot of ifs ands and buts, and a lot of things that are moving parts here. So anyone who has told you that I have made any kind decision about anything is absolutely out of their minds, because I haven’t."

Later though, Mr. Fidler clarified to say that no decision has been made, especially since he is not sure when or if he will be sworn in.

"I don’t know. I don’t know. That is the answer. I don’t know what to tell you," he said.  "It may be certified in a day. It may be certified in a week.  It may be certified in three months. Don't you think the answer to those questions will have a bearing on the question you just asked me.  It could get certified in October after the Court of Appeals [rules]. That is a very different question than if I get certified now.  If it is late in the year and the session is over,  I would seriously have to look at whether or not we were saving taxpayers a quarter of a  million dollars by not taking the oath for a vestigial seat."

Mr. Fidler was in the doctor's office when The Politicker reached him.  He was unable to campaign during much of the race due to a severe allergic reaction to medications he was taking. And he declined to say at which point in the calendar he will decide that it will be better off to just leave the office vacant.

"I am not going to put a deadline on it. I am not going to do that. There are so many different factors," he said. "But at this point it is fair to say that if I win I intend to serve."

“This is Congressman Bob Turner. On Tuesday March 20 there is a special election for the New York State Senate in your district," says Mr. Turner in the record.  "I am calling to ask you to vote for David Storobin. He knows that jobs are our number one concern and that our taxes are too high. David Storobin is a small business owner right here in Brooklyn. He’s proven that he can create jobs in a tough economy. And David is the kind of fiscal conservative who I know will work to cut our taxes. Vote for David Storobin on Tuesday March 20. We need David to fight for us to create jobs and lower taxes."

Mr. Turner won a special election in a district that, like the one Mr. Storobin is competing in, is one of the most Jewish in its respective legislative body. And both seats became available due to a scandal of a Democratic incumbent; in Mr. Turner's case, due to Anthony Weiner's cyber-social media scandal, and in Mr. Storobin due to Carl Kruger's guilty plea in a corruption case.

Mr. Turner's win over Democrat David Weprin was considered a huge upset. If Mr. Storobin wins against Mr. Fidler, it will be a big upset too, although perhaps not as big a one, partially because Mr. Fidler hasn't been able to campaign very much due to an extended hospital stay. 

Listen to the audio here.

"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.

Let me first state unequivocally that your outrageous claims are totally baseless and untrue. I know David; and I must insist to you and everyone that the one thing David Storobin is  not, is a neo-Nazi or skinhead sympathizer."

Rabbi Tokarsky notes that Mr. Storobin is a constituent.

The fracas came about after a number of blog posts Mr. Storobin wrote about were picked up by right-wing and neo-Nazi websites.  Mr. Fidler raised questions about the posts, and today Mr. Storobin called a press conference to denounce Mr. Fidler's attacks. This didn't seem to sway the Democrat at all, who promptly sent out a press release accusing Mr. Storobin of having ties to "white supremacist groups."

The full letter is below:

Dear Mr. Fidler,

As a rabbinical leader, my policy is usually to stay out of politics and focus on my religious responsibilities.

However, your appalling behavior thus far in your campaign for New York State Senate has compelled me to action.

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. 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.”

Let me first state unequivocally that your outrageous claims are totally baseless and untrue. I know David; and I must insist to you and everyone that the one thing David Storobin is  not, is a neo-Nazi or skinhead sympathizer.

In fact, it is just the opposite. David is a proud Zionist Jew. His immediate ancestors, like so many others, perished at the hand of the Nazis in the Holocaust. Later, David’s great uncle was murdered for being Jewish in the former Soviet Union. And when he was 11 years old he and his family escaped their communist county, fleeing from antisemitic persecution.

David Storobin is an active member of the Brighton Beach Jewish Center & Synagogue. He has also completed the Gateways Jewish heritage program. Additionally, David is active in many Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Committee and the Wallenberg Commission. He even started the very first Jewish Law Students Society at his law school and organized pro-Israel rallies while he was there.

But rather than acknowledge these facts, you are spreading falsehoods.

Mr. Fidler, what you are doing is wrong. You are mischaracterizing David’s history as a journalist --- where he occasionally wrote about and interviewed controversial topics and figures --- and falsely portraying him as a Nazi sympathizer. You are misrepresenting David’s past in an attempt to scare people and gain politically on those fears. And you are doing so by employing the worst episode in the history of humanity, the Holocaust, and the remnants of those responsible for it.

This behavior is unbefitting a moral Jew and, most especially, a public official.

What’s more, your untrue assertions are not only hurtful and offensive to David and his family, they are an affront to all people of Jewish heritage and anyone who has been subjected to, as David has, the horrors of religious persecution.

And I am far from the only one who is disappointed with and offended by your remarks. Gedaliah Weinberger from Agudath Israel of America said this week that your comments are (and I quote) “an egregious act that is an insult to all of us.”

Mr. Fidler, on behalf of my congregation and the broader Jewish community, I beseech you to be decent. Immediately retract your offensive and untrue remarks about David, and then apologize for making them.

Apologize to David and his family,
and to the residents of this senate district for fallaciously making this an issue in your campaign.

Politics and the people who run for office should be better than this, Mr. Fidler. But you still have time to do the right thing.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Mordecltai Tokarsky
Jewish Center of Brighton Beach

In an interview last night with Zev Brenner on his Talkline radio show, Mr. Storobin listed his accomplishments, including starting a Jewish club at Rutgers Law School, organizing a rally for Israel and speaking out and writing about Israel, and contrasted that with the record of Mr. Fidler.

"While I was doing that my opponent was organizing rallies not for the Jewish community but for the gay community," he said.

He said that Mr. Fidler held rallies for gay groups that netted one $85 million in city funding, and another rally for a different group which netted them $3 million in funding per year.

Asked in an interview what he was referring to, Mr. Storobin said that he gleaned the information from YouTube and suggested The Politicker search the website for Mr. Fidler's name. The rallies he is referring to could not be located.

"These are not organizations from our district," Mr. Storobin told Mr. Brenner. "These are gay groups, and he feels very passionately about the gay issues which go against everything that Judaism and the Torah stand for, which go against everything on district believes in, yet he has chosen to take sides with them."

He added that the key question facing the district was "Which with community does the person side?"

Mr. Storobin said that voters in the district for the seat formerly held by Carl Kruger need to know that if their representative comes back from Albany and tells them he can't fund their community groups, it is because the state is out of money, "I can fund another group on Christopher Street in Manhattan or in the Village in Manhattan or some place just because I feel that cause is more important to me. We need somebody who will go to Albany and fight for what we want we believe in."

Mr. Storobin, a lawyer and officer in the Brooklyn GOP, seems to have the numbers in the district on his side. He told Mr. Brenner that Republican Bob Turner carried the district with 66 percent of the vote, that Dan Donovan and Harry Wilson each won by double digits, as did Mike Bloomberg and John McCain.

You can listen to the interview here:

David Storobin 1-20-12 part one

Update:

Fidler spokeswoman Jennifer Krinsky passes along the following:

"Councilman Fidler is on the 'side' of children who have nowhere to go and are subsequently spending cold winters sleeping on the streets.  The rallies of which Mr. Storobin speaks are for these children.  The councilman makes no apologies for fighting passionately for the wellbeing of all God's children."

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:

"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."

Mr. Weprin however didn't kickoff his campaign outside the district--he kicked it off at the Thomas Jefferson club in Canarsie and up in Queens at the county's Democratic headquarters--although, as Mr. Reif stated, he was surrounded by Democratic pols.

Mr. Weprin, of course, went down to defeat to Republican Bob Turner in a 3-1 Democratic district. That seat became available when Anthony Weiner resigned in disgrace. Mr. Fidler is running to take the place of another Democrat who resigned in disgrace--Carl Kruger--something the GOP was quick to harp on as well.

"The last thing the residents of Brooklyn need after Carl Kruger resigned from the Senate in disgrace is another politician who is more comfortable with his political cronies and lobbyist friends than he is with regular people. We're confident that voters will choose a successful small businessman who is in touch with the needs of the district; someone like David Storobin."

Lew Fidler (Photo: Facebook)

Gregory Davidzon, the owner of a number of Russian-language media outlets, announced at the Baku Palace restaurant last night that he's endorsing Councilman Lew Fidler in the special election to replace Carl Kruger in the State Senate. Mr. Davidzon is credited with helping push Russian voters to the polls in the last special election in southeastern Brooklyn, where Congressman Bob Turner routed his Democratic opponent. Mr. Kruger's district, vacant since he plead guilty to corruption charges and resigned a few weeks ago, contains an even higher percentage of Russian-speaking voters.

However, it remains to be seen how much impact Mr. Davidzon's endorsement will have this time around. Councilman Fidler's likely Republican opponent, David Storobin, was born in the Soviet Union and is fluent in Russian.

It also remains to be seen if Mr. Davidzon will use his influence to rally voters in the same full-throated fashion as he did for Congressman Turner. However, one Democratic insider assured Politicker that the media head would indeed be working hard on the Councilman's behalf, saying that "Greg is going all out for Fidler." Mr. Davidzon said at the event that he was frustrated with the Senate Republicans efforts to divide southern Brooklyn in redistricting.

Mr. Davidzon, who runs Davidzon Radio 620 and the Davidzon Weekly, has been known to occasionally benefit financially from his political arrangements. Mr. Turner spent $20,000 purchasing media from Davidzon Media.

In a time of such fiscal austerity, that such an outlay would be available is unusual; that such an outlay would be touted in the papers and at a news conference shows the degree to which Senate Republicans want to put the neighborhood in play.

"In a year like this, when we are cutting funds everywhere and laying off teachers, to give 50 school buses to Boro Park," said one local political operative. "You would think they would be quiet about it. This is crystal clear politics not government."

Earlier this year, City Hall News reported that a major social services agency in the area, Agudath Israel agreed to support the GOP candidate for Carl Kruger's Senate seat (once the disgraced pol resigns) in return for for tuition assistance funding for rabbinical students, which Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos fought to keep in the budget.

According to a Boro Park politico redistricting plays a major factor here, with the Republicans hoping to carve one more GOP-friendly seat out of Brooklyn.

The article in Hamodia describes "an unusual and very auspicious event" and says that Skelos "received numerous and thunderous rounds of applause from the mostly Orthodox Jewish crowd."

Boro Park Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat, was in attendance and seemed to hint at where his sympathies would lie in a future race.

The article describes a Hikind, a local powerbroker who has been known to cross party lines, pointing to Skelos and saying "this man, he made it happen."