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e iT 'f s%u2018Counterattack%u2019:Steingut May StillBY JON CINERSupporters of Assembly Speaker Stanley Steingut, who was upset in the recent Democratic primary, filed 1900 signatures yesterday to put the longtime Flatbush assemblyman on the Indedpendent line. The move, which was described as %u201c spontaneous%u201d by a Steingut aide, would strengthen a possible strong counterattack against Democratic primary winner attorney Murray Weinstein in the November election.Officially, Steingut has not consented to the Independent endorsement, and it is still uncertain whether the Speaker, who is already on the Liberal line, will wage an active re-election bid. After his primary loss Steingut, who has been in the Assembly 25 years, went on a short vacation, and since his return he has yet to announce what his campaign plans will be.Weinstein said that while it was Steingut%u2019s %u201c perogative%u201d to run on the Independent line, the incumbent was %u201c foolish to do so.%u201d%u201c The voters will defeat him even more resoundingly than they did in the September prim ary,%u201d said Weinstein who defeated Steingut by some 700 votes--unofficially4838 to 4107. Weinstein took his daughter Helene%u2019s place on the ballot after a court decision ruled her ineligible to run.Although Stanley Steingut has learned to bend with the times%u2014 has actually supported several progressive political and administrative reforms in the state Assembly%u2014the powerful Assembly Speaker has always been essentially from the old school. And it was his old-school approach to last week%u2019s primary that led to his sudden and devastating defeat to political unknown Murray Weinstein.It was strictly old school to wage most of his campaign in the courtroom, where he expected to bottle up most of his opponent%u2019s resources for campaigning on an election law case.It was strictly old school to rely on %u201c control%u201d of the limited primary vote rather than to wage an aggressive campaign celebrating Steingut%u2019s own record, even though the public perception of Steingut has been as a representative of %u201c special interests%u201d and %u201c Bossism.%u201dAnd it was strictly old school to insist on controlling the political leadership in his district%u2014insisting to the point of incitingRun...dissident members of Steingut%u2019s own political club to run candidates against him, and to the point where Steingut would brazenly place his name on the ballot twice, for Assembly and District Leader. That maneuver certainly did not help him in the face of an aggressive primary threat.%u201c He was too much the boss,%u201d said City Councilman Ted Silverman, the master mind behind the challenge to Steingut, who was once a close ally. %u201c He always made decisions without consultation. After a decision was made, then he would consult you.%u201dSilverman had wanted to barter with Steingut, if only to get a district leadership for his wife, Sandy. But when Steingut refused, Silverman decided to engineer a three-fold challenge to both male and female leadership spots, and to Steingut%u2019s Assembly seat. One result was that Steingut%u2019s name appeared twice on the ballot, in the Assembly and Leadership primaries, which could have confused a substantial number of voters who did not know they could vote twice for a candidate.Steingut%u2019s people, however, say that the Speaker was a victim of a massive %u201c smear%u201d campaign.WonBoyland 2018; R. Herlington 942.56th Assembly District: Assembly - Albert Vann 3097; Calvin Williams 2061. State Committee, Female - Annette Robinson 4818; Evelyn Dixon 2311. State Committee, Male - Albert Vann 2637; Carl Butler 2362. Delegates to the Judicial Convention - Vertis Richardson, Irma Robinson, Frank Kennedy, Diana Taylor, Louise Bowman. Alternate Delegates - Mildred Scott, Delores Fletcher, Carrie Thomas, Solomon Sander, Shirley Gould.57th Assembly District: Assembly - Harvey Strelzin 2546; Velmanett Montgomery 1645; Alexis Miranda 1182; Virginia Apuzzo 956. State Committee, Female - Theodora Martinez 2531; Katie Davis 2269. State Committee,Male - Abe Gerges 2969; Roger Green 2156. Delegates to theJudicial Convention - Evelyn Jimenez, Albert Friedman, Doris Rodriguez, Clarence Knight, Judy Blackman, Pedro Cordero. Alternate Delegates - Thomas Greene, Andor Weiss, Elijah Smith, Celestine Miller, Stephen Green, James Robles.59th Assembly District: Victor Robles 1509; Peter Mirto 1460; Horace Green 985; W. Martinez 538DEMOCRATIC PRIMARYState Senate17th State Senatorial District:Major Owens 3687; S. Jackson 2760.18th State Senatorial District:Thomas Bartosiewicz 9009; Samuel Pinn 3,985.iVlh Suite Senatorial Dittirici;Martin Marcowitz 7680; Howard Silverman 5245; Lyle Silversmith 2840.21st State Senatorial District:John Carroll 5,173; John Zito 4069. 23rd State Senatorial District:Vander Beatty 6832; Maxwell Clemmons 2,462.Latest Vote Count:Most IncumbentsBY PETER HALEY Female - Sheryl Pearlmutter 2,327;Unofficial final results in last week%u2019s primary election races confirmed election night preliminary figures which showed incumbents winning re-nomination in north Brooklyn primary races for Congress, State Senate and Assembly, except in Bushwick%u2019s 59th District, where a former aide to Rep. Shirley Chisholm defeated long-time incumbent Assemblyman Peter Mirto In races for Democratic State Committee, Senator Vander Beatty, 53rd A.D., and Assemblyman A1 Vann, 56th A.D., won over incumbents there, and long-time GOP leader in the 57th District, Roy Vanasco, was apparently defeated.On September 20, a week after the primary, the Brooklyn office of the NYC Board of Elections still has no official figures available for the public. Following are unofficial figures compiled through PHOENIX sources for some local and B rooklyn ra c e s .REPUBLICAN PRIMARY15th Congressional District: Robert Whelan 2094;Vito Batista 1066.57th Assembly District: State Committee, Male - Mario DiFalco defeated Roy Vanasco. State Committee, Female - Maria Terrabosso defeated Grace Guadagno.DEMOCRATIC PRIMARYCongress, 14th District: FredRichmond 10,738; Bernard Gifford 6646; Irving Gross 2141; Owen Augustin 1419.Congress, 15th District: LeoZeferetti 10,447; Joseph Seminars 4050.DEMOCRATIC PRIMARYAssembly District Races43rd Assembly District: Rhoda Jacobs 1902; C. Chess 1286; Stanley Clarke 1,092.44th Assembly District: Assembly - Melvin Miller 3,976; Morty Itkin 1.129. State Committee,Judy Segal 1,787. State Committee, Male - Jacob Gold 1,994; Joseph Burns 1,636. Delegates to the Judicial Convention - Ruth Gordon, Michael Levine, Phyllis Eisenberg, Rita Branch, Jay Feldman, Seth Shapiro, Tina Ashkenazy, Steven Lichtman, Selma Kaplan, Martin Scheier. Alternate Delegates to the Judicial Convention - Philip Greenburg, Rita Sprung, Edward Levine, Madeline Adler, Sherman Alpert, Theodore Diamond, Joseph Hecht, Lorainne Berger, Jasper Kennedy, Lillian Cox.50th Assembly District: Albanese 1619; Jones 885; La Bella 588; McGuire 976.51st Assembly District: Joseph Ferris 2983; Beatrice DeSapio 2762. State Committee, Male - Anthony Caracciolo 2654; Peter McNeil 1778. State Committee, Female - Louise Finney 2610; Alberta Friscia 1049. Delegates to the Judicial Convention - Joan McLaughlin, Andrew DiOrio, Frank Torre, David Kaplan, Catherine Donavan, Bernard Connelly, Joseph Montalto, Timothy O%u2019Dea 1702. Alternate Delegates to the Judicial Convention - Thomas Iorvolino, Joseph Pisano, Donato Ruggiero, Nicholas Bonavita, John Valentino, William Straub, Gilda Priess, Catherine McDonough.53rd Assembly District: Assembly - Woodrow Lewis 2308; MarionJeffries 930. State Committee,Female - Anna Jefferson 1736Angela Darby 1197. State Committee, Male - Vander Beatty 1806;Andrew GUI 1231; MaxweU Clemmons 1164. Delegates to theJujdlcial Convention - Artis Beatty,Clarence Norman Jr., DeloresThomas, Arthur Bates, SylvesterLeaks. Alternate Delegates - JanieClemmons, Evelyn Jenkins, RobertSpeak, Hazel Love, RandolphScott.54th Assembly District: ThomasHelen and Murray Weinstein [Michael Cuiccio Photo].But the supporter added %u201c People believed everything they were told because there was a cloud over him.%u201dThe %u201ccloud,%u201d of course, was the quashed indictment against Steingut and his son Robert, as well as the nursing home scandal, two headline-making incidents that made a lot of copy, and for which Steingut is remembered.The death penalty, which Steingut has helped fight off in recent years, appeared to have had little effect on the campaign. David Halperin, a Brooklyn state Senator in a district covering the same general area, ran against a staunch death penalty advocate and still won bv more than 60 percent.But Steingut, throughout the campaign, did little to off-set that %u201ccloud%u201d of suspicion, as well as the %u201c Boss%u201d image cultivated, in part, when he was Brooklyn%u2019s County Leader. He may have made things worse by pursuing his court case so zealously against Helene Weinstein, in an effort to throw her off the ballot.%u201c Here was an example of politics as usual against Helene Weinsteinthat so infuriated voters,%u201d Murray Weinstein said. %u201c It made it a whole new ballgame. People were angry.%u201dThe Weinstein%u2019s, then out of desperation, played up the court battle. Helene Weinstein sent out a letter to 15,000 voters explaining that she was the victim of %u201c politics as usual,%u201d and introducing the new candidate, her father.In any case, the fall of Steingut, which seems likely even if he runs a campaign on the Liberal line, would ironically solidify the power base of another eld school politician, Meade Esposito. Steingut%u2019s likely heir apparent is Carnarsie Assemblyman Stanley Fink, the majority leader, who comes from Esposito%u2019s home club. Whereas Steingut was a power figure that Esposito had to deal with as a peer, Fink will be more the protege who can on the one hand deal with the various %u201c nonregular%u201d factions in the Assembly, and, on the other hand, who can service the County Organization and Esposito with more patronage.. . . Feelers Out for New SpeakerStanley Steingut%u2019s political career is not over yet. It rests on whether or not he decides to campaign as the Liberal Party candidate %u2014 and can get elected. Perhaps out of deference to the Speaker %u2014 or fear that he may yet emerge victorious %u2014 the jockeying for a post position among Democrats to succeed Steingut is only starting.Nevertheless, the feelers are being sent out and the names are cropping up. Stanley Fink, the Assembly Majority Leader, from a neighboring Assembly district in Brooklyn obviously has the inside track. Fink, who hails from Brooklyn County Leader Meade Esposito%u2019s club in the 39th A.D.., is reportedly well-liked and has rapport with the several factions in the Assembly; he more than any other, has had to work with the upstaters, with the reformers and minority assemblymen.The third in line of succession in the Assembly has been the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, a coveted post that traditionally belonged to Bronx County, as traditionally as the Speaker %u201c belonged%u201d to Brooklyn, but which is now held by Assembly man A. J. Kremer from Long Beach in Nassau County. It is unlikely that Kremer would be able lo lobby support tor the big job merely because he is not from New York City. Gov. Carey, provided he is re-elected, would want a Democrat from one of the five boroughs sice more than one-third of the Assembly is made up of City legislators. But Kremer would be a likely successor to Fink as Majority Leader, a first for a NassauAssemblyman.Other %u201c front-runners%u201d being mentioned are Oliver Koppel, a reformer from the Bronx, who is chairman of the Corporations Committee, and Alan Havesi from Queens, chairman of the Assembly Housing Committee. Koppel reportedly has been making a lot of noise, and some feel he is in a position to bartger for the county organization nod for Bronx Borough President %u2014 especially if he can collect substantial support from his reform and upstate colleagues. Bronx afterall did lose Ways and Means, and the chair could be waiting for Koppel or John C.. Dearie if Kremer and Fink move up.Whoever moves to replace Steingut if he should lose in November will have to contend with several diverse factions in the Assembly, Joseph Crangle, the Erie County Leader (on the current Steingut payroll) is said to control anywhere between seven and 21 legislators. The Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus, most certainly will be working for some concessions and possibly a major chairmanship. And the growing number of Assembly reformers have knocked their heads against the wall with Steingut at the helm.One takes for granted the facti l------TA---------------------%u201e , : * L Q 1l l l t i L l a w l / v i i i u v i m o , m i l l v_%u00bb *Assemblymen, will retain a majority after November. There are now 60 Republicans and one Liberal in the AssemHy. Barring a Duryea sweep of the state, the Democrats should still have control. But after the Steingu! downfall, nothing this year can be taken for granted.-J.C.September 21,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 4w