Page 268 - Demo

* * * * * * * * + * * * + * * * * ADay Primer %u2022 Prim ary Day Primer %u2022 Prim ary Day Primer e Prim ary Day PrimerIn the 14th C.D.:Down to the Finish Line:Fred Richmond and Bernard GiffordAre Making Each O ther NervousBY PETER HALEYThe race between incumbent Congressman Fred Richmond and former city schools official Bernard Gifford for the Democratic nomination in the 14th District is finally heating up. Less than a week from the Sept. 12th primary day, the Gifford camp is searching for its second wind while the wellfinanced and well-organized Richmond campaign so far leads the way to the finish line.Gifford's erratic campaign continues to be plagued by the lack of negotiable political support, the kind that can be translated into substantial votes. Richmond seems to have managed to fend off any large-scale voter backlash over his admitted sexual solication of a black youth last spring.The charge against Richmond and the Congressman%u2019s use of his own considerable wealth to woo community support for a third term are the principal issues in the race as it reaches its closing days. The solicitation issue created strong %u201c grassroots'' support for a Richmond ouster, led by black leaders like Rev. Herbert Daughtry and educator Jitu Weusi, but former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and Bedford Stuyvesant Assemblyman A1 Vann arc the only significant local political figures to denounce Richmond for the charge. Meanwhile, Mayor Ed Koch and City Council President Carol Bellamy lead a parade of New York political leaders who are supporting Richmond for his leadership and accomplishment^ while in Congress.Richmond%u2019s ability to outspend his black opponent, plus an extensive philanthropic base in the district, built up over the past ten years, serve as the basis for Gifford%u2019s charge that Richmond %u2014 whose wealth is estimated to exceed $12 million --- is %u201c buying Brooklyn\ethnic 14th C.D. Richmond counters that the district, which includes neighborhoods in Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuy and Ft. Greene is one of the state%u2019s poorest Congressional districts and that his donations, while %u201c not in large amounts,%u201d are better spent here \calls this \that Richmond%u2019s role as benefactor has reduced community leaders to client status and thus has extended the Congressman%u2019s control over the largely minority district.MISFIRINGDespite the sex solicitation charge and the \man\machine seems to be misfiring. Richmond, meanwhile, is leaving nothing to chance and is campaigning in key areas extensively while hanging subway posters and taking radio spots to boost his campaign.Gifford has sizeable support in the black community, but needs a coalition of white, Hispanic, and black votes to unseat Richmond and the failure to connect this coalition outside of Brooklyn Heights %u2014 the West Brooklyn Independent Democrats there are his strongest supporters --- may be fatal to his campaign unless things change significantly in the final few days.U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan and former Attorney General Ramsev Clark will host a fundraiserin Brooklyn Heights Friday for the challenger, but it may be a case of too little, too late. This past week, Gifford announced the endorsements of reform Assemblyman Frank Barbara of Bensonhurst, Police Benevolent Association president Sam DeMilia, and theschool system %u2019s non-teacher Columbia Association, all badly needed ingredients for a base of white support to give his candidacy scope.It is endorsements, in fact, which have been one of the most thorny problems of the Gifford campaign.On the campaign trail as the race comes down to the wire in the14th Congressional District. Incumbent Fred Richmond above,challenger Bernard Gifford, below [Cuiccio Photos]Some have fizzled, while others are in dispute. One of Gifford%u2019s biggest disappointments was the collapse of a push to get a share of the almost-mystical %u201c Williamsburgh Jew ish%u2019%u2019 vote. Rabbi Chaim Stauber%u2019s effort to build a movement for Richmond collapsed under the counter-endorsement for Richmond from the United Jewish Organizations, a collective leadership of the various Williamsburg Hasidic sects. The vote from this community is substantial in the district and a possible \appears blocked. An insurgent campaign within the Hasidic community is a rarity, and Stauber recently refused to talk about his Gifford endorsement.UNOFFICIAL ENDORSEMENTSAt least three notable minority leaders listed in Gifford Campaign literature may not have endorsed the challenger, or don%u2019t want to own up to it. Black business leader Bruce Llewellyn, Bronx Congressman Robert Garcia and Brooklyn State Senator Vander Beatty are all three listed, but either personally or through spokesmen deny making an endorsement. Gifford says both Beatty and Llewellyn have stated their support at public gatherings, but Llewellyn Tuesday said he was not supporting either candidate in a telephone interview. Beatty last week said he planned to stay out of the race. Garcia, after an earlier false-start announcement of his support for Gifford told this newspaper that he was neutral and would stay that way until %u201cyou hear otherwise from me %u2014 directly.%u201d Garcia is on vacation this week, but his administrative assistant insisted that his position of neutrality had not changed as of Tuesday.Making it all more confusing are the tangible signs of support from at least one of the three. \Llewellyn made a speech at last week's Ramsey Clark, Kenneth Clark fundraiser in Manhattan in front of more than 400 people endorsing me and he has made contributions to my campaign,%u201d Gifford said Tuesday night. He indicated that Beatty made a similar gesture of support at a meeting of a Bedford-Stuyvesant political club. Gifford says that Garcia has personally told him he would endorse him publically, and that he is using the name on campaign literature and in advertising based on that promise.In addition to endorsement woes, the sex solicitation issue seems to have been fumbled by the Gifford camp, with Percy Sutton labeling Richmond a \Gifford himself inconsistent in his approach, first saying that \sexuality is not the issue%u201d in the campaign, and then branding Richmond%u2019s acts as %u201c pedophilia.%u201dBut fumbling aside, the Richmond campaign isn%u2019t taking Gifford lightly and in fact, fear of any sudden turn-around has kept them on the attack. \two-face con artist who tries to direct reporters to the incident (thesex solicitation charopl while %u00bb-%u00bb ' ------ %u2014trying to appear that he is running away from it,%u201d says Richmond aide Lou Gordon. \the Congressman is going about his day to day work of bringing jobs to Brooklyn. Gordon said that Gifford is an \whose political posture sometimes seems almost \%u201c (tiffnrH huv,Stamp program as neo-colonialist and this attack one of the most important social programs in New York City puts him right up there with former Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz, former President Gerald Ford and ex-U.S. Senator James Buckley. It proves he doesn%u2019t know the district and the people he wants to represent.%u201dGifford called Gordon%u2019s charges a \Richmond%u2019s \of Brooklyn%u201d and the charges loged against him in Washington.Gifford himself has been doing extensive campaigning to bolster his insurgent campaign and Gifford manager Michael Gersuwitz insists this kind of persistence is closing the gap betwen them and Richmond. %u201c We%u2019ve been gaining ground since the beginning. Our progress has been steadily closing that gap and by election day we will have passed it,%u201d says Gersuwitz. He indicated that anti-Gifford literature in the Hasidic community was an indication of Richmond%u2019s fear of voter desertion in the last days before the election.\in Yiddish that says %u2018Richmond is one of us and he is in need right now and the Torah says Jews must aid each other in time of need,%u201d said Gersuwitz. Richmond aide Gordon said that he hadn't seen the literature and countered that Gifford allies are mounting a \literature distorting what Richmond had admitted to in the spring.Around the district, the campaigns vary in intensity. Liberal Brooklyn Heights voters seem to be split and Gifford has received the support of the reform West Brooklyn Independent Democrats. In Greenpoint, despite the conserative nature of its largely Polish and Italian voting community, Richmond seems to be on solid ground.\to win solidly and take 75-80 per cent of the vote here, mostly because he has been very visible here over the years,%u201d said John Dereszewski, Bushwick district manager and veteran of many reform campaigns in north Brooklyn.Richmond has made his pitch for black support among several black churches and traditional black Democratic clubhouse leadership, such as District Leader Carl Butler, but Gifford as a black candidate, together with black leaders opposed to Richmond, promises a solid black vote for Gifford. The Black United Front and the Black Community Congress have set a rally Friday to mobilize support for all its slate of endorsed candidates, including Gifford.Other areas of the district seem ambivalent about both the incumbent and the contender, despite city and even nationwide attention to the campaign. Richmond has poured over $200,000 into the campaign so far ton n K 1 ir> i-%u00bbo K ic c i m n / v %u00bb4 r\\f n o m i i k o rt---------------------- *%u2022*- %u2014 r r w%u2018 - %u00bb v . e ..w w 4hoods, while garnering either expressed or tacit local political support for his campaign. Gifford has kept up a strong pace, but a low profile schedule and inferior financing make his best weapon the media attention to the campaign.Page 14, THE PHOENIX. St^piemberT, 1978H i H H a n f