Page 92 - Demo

Off the Record BY Jon CinerTell Me Why?There are few surprises in the list of candidates that emerged from the Board of Elections this week. But there are a lot of questions.The first question goes to Stanley Steingut. Why? Why is the Assembly Speaker running for both Assemblyman and District Leader?There%u2019s an old adage in politics that you don't put your name on the ballot twice, because the voters are too dumb to remember to vote twice. There%u2019s some truth to that brand of cynicism, especially in the case of district leadership races%u2014voters don%u2019t even know what a district leader does (Come to think of it, I%u2019m not too sure I know what a district leader does).But Steingut, a former County Leader, apparently does not want to give up his leadership. Is it brazen pride or stupidity? It looks like the latter. Steingut, after all, is in enough trouble with a 26-year old woman attorney named Helene Weinstein wandering around his district, supporting the death penalty. But the speaker is too much of an old pro to be stupid. Perhaps he expects to throw Weinstein and her 4,069 signatures off the ballot.Steingut isn't the only brazen%u2014or stupid%u2014incumbent to make precarious, re-election possibilities even more precarious. Assemblyman A1 Vann in the Bushwick/Bed Stuy 56th A.D. faces what seems to be a tough primary from Calvin Williams, the former Assemblyman who nearly wiped out City Councilwoman Mary Pinkett in last year%u2019s primary. Yet Vann is going to challenge District Leader Carl Butler also, which can only be to Williams%u2019 advantage. Is making the seating arrangements at the County Dinner that important?Take Me Or Leave MeThe next question goes to Peter McNeil, Paul Asofsky and Hank Klein. They make up the committee on vacancies listed on thepetitions of John W. Carroll, who declined to run for district leader in the 51st A.D. (Park Slope/Sunset Park). The three members of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) have until August 11 to replace Carroll. The question to ask them is: are they or are they not going to pick former CBID president John Wojcik as their candidate for District Leader?Wojcik, anticipating a substitution, went out and got 672 signatures on his own, which means he is a sitting duck for anyone that wants to challenge his petitions%u2014you need 500 good signatures to get on the ballot. In the meantime, CBID club members were miffed because Wojcik was not carrying any of their petitions. They were also annoyed because Alberta Friscia was not carrying any CBID petitions, even though she was listed as the female leader candidate. Incumbent 51st A'.D. District Leaders Louise Finney and Anthony Carraciolo must be enjoying all of this.If the committee on vacancies picks someone other than Wojcik, the split among the club%u2019s past and present leaders may be furthered. In fact, Carraciolo and Finney may want Wojcik on the ballot to insure a split among the opposition. That would leave CBID in the embarrassing position of either having to challenge a past club president or writing off another male leadership race.If the committee decides to embrace Wojcik with open arms, then CBID members will then have to look for something else to fight about. But not to worry. Club elections are only a few months away.How D%u2019ya Do ItTo Velmanette Montgomery, we must ask: How dya do it? Montgomery, who is challenging Fort Greene Assemblyman Harvey Strelzin, came in with an impressive 3,365 signatures, a figure that came a lot closer to Strelzin%u2019s 3,997 signatures than most people expected. The 57th Independent County Committee backing Montgomery must have gone wild during petition gathering. Although she was also carrying Congressional candidate Bernard Gifford%u2019sname on her petitions. Gifford%u2018himself got almost 7,000 signatures to incumbent opponent Fred Richmond%u2019s 9,000, and not all of them came from Brooklyn Heights, where Gifford lives and where the district%u2019s largest club, the West Brooklyn Independent Democrats, was circulating Gifford%u2019s petitions.What does it all mean? Well, both Montgomery and Gifford are black. And they both obviously petitioned in black neighborhoods. And they both got a lot of names. It could all mean that the black vote may be a lot larger this year than many people anticipate.And What About-?To 57th A.D. District Leader Abe Gerges, we might ask why Fred Richmond%u2019s name was in smaller type on his petitions than the other names...To Rhoda Jacobs we might ask why she only got 971 signatures in an Assembly race (43rd A.D.) that is now up for grabs or we could ask how he expects to throw Leanore Waller off the ballot when she came in with over 5,000 signatures...We never have to ask State Senator Vander Beatty how he gets his signatures, but we might ask him if he plans to challenge Socialist Worker Party candidates if he gets past the September primary....To 53rd A.D. Assemblyman Woodrow Lewis we might ask why he was not on the regular petitions this year after playing by the book in Albany for so long.... And to South Brooklyn reformers we might ask%u2014what about Zeferetti?For the RecordCalifornia Congressman Ron Dellomswill be guest speaker at a Black CommunityCongress fund-raiser this Sunday, August 6, 5-10 p.m. at the Orpheus Club, Washington Avenue and Empire Boulevard. The S10 admission will be donated tothe campaigns of the B.C.C. slate...Congressman Leo Zeferetti (D/C%u2014Bay Ridge)has announced that a major education biff passed by the House could increase NYC%u2019s share of federal funds for poor and educationally deprived children by $102.3 million over the next two years. Zeferetti, a House Education and Labor Committee member, said the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which will provide $46.6 billion for the nation%u2019s schools, is the source for the funding increase that Zeferetti, Congressman Weiss, and Congressman Biaggi fought for...CongressmanFred Richmond (D%u2014Brooklyn Heights, Williamsburg, Fort Greene) called on the Carter administration to develop a food price policy at a House Agriculture Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations, and Nutrition, hearing. Richmond, Subcommittee chairman, called on Council on Wage and Price Stability Chairman Barry Bosworth to present the Administration%u2019s views and recommendations regarding spiraling food prices. Bosworth admitted that there was little the administration could do to which Richmond responded, %u201cThe Administration has clearly demonstrated that it has no plans%u2014concrete or otherwise%u2014to deal with spiraling food price inflation. %u2019 %u2019Secretary of State Mario Cuomo said the New York City Board of Education has been violating %u201cthe spirit%u201d if not the letter of the 1977 Open Meetings Law by conducting virtually all its business in private. In a letter to the state%u2019s Committee on Public Access to Records, Cuomo criticized the Board for circumventing the open meetings law by using its public meetings %u201cfor the purpose of rubberstamping decisions effectively made behind closed doors.%u201dCoping ByJudy LinscottIt has come clearer to me in the last several weeks that the disco scene is wildly out of control. Not out of hand or overdone or a trifle jjasse%u2014wildly out of control.Out of control in the vein of hoola hoops, frisbees and the Bicentennial, which, thank God, had an inherently limited life span. It nevertheless produced more legitimate rages in its day than any event should be able to claim to its credit, and I foresee that the discos of this world are following rapidly in the same dreary path. (Why must these fads always deserve oblivion long before they get it?)Now while the disco scene prevailed in the city it was obnoxious but acceptable%u2014 after all, what are cities for (New York City in particular) if not to harbor unto their bosoms all the absurdities that people elsewhere have the good sense to forego? From Studio 54 on down (or up, depending on your vantage points), the grisly scene began and flourished here alongside pizza joints, massage parlours, Broadway theater and Hari Krishna meeting houses. As easy to ignore as to utilize%u2014maybe easier.But the damn discos are everywhere now. You can%u2019t get away from them, even in country %u201c retreats.%u201d This point was%u2018In this bucolic hamletthey can%u2019t buy ashtraysor slurp sweetconfections--but oh,can they dance.If you want tocall it that..brought home not long ago whilst I was attempting to ignore the world at large in a tiny (and I do mean tiny) town on New Jersey%u2019s north shore. The town%u2019s \street%u201d sports a variety store, a liquor store, a newsstand%u2014and a disco. Not even a souvenir shop has penetrated the zoningand the commercial doldrums here; not even an ice cream parlor has won the hearts and pocketbooks of this bucolic hamlet. They can%u2019t buy ashtrays and they can%u2019t slurp sweet confections%u2014but oh, can they dance.If you want to call it that, and I don%u2019t. I suppose that the disco would be fun if there was dancing to be found there, that is to say, dancing with form and flair. Unfortunately, the hopping up and down and vague flapping of arms that characterizes these fly-by-night joints is less akin to dancing than to%u2014hopping up and down and flapping arms. The theory that holds that the hopping provides exercise is damned dubious as far as I%u2019m concerned, given that the only way to survive an evening like that is to simultaneously drink yourself drunk via several million empty calories. And is it so outrageous to suggest that while vacationing at the shore one might consider gathering one%u2019s exercise where ye ought, like in the water? I suppose that after an evening at the local Odyssey Delight one needs a good day%u2019s sleep to recover.A ballroom would let old and young alike have some fun; a square dance hall mightbe corny, but at least fitting; a simple bar wouldn%u2019t preclude human communication. But the disco%u2014with strobe lights that make everyone look moronic and colored lights which tint the crowd with sickly green%u2014 flatters no one and presents a continuous affront to us old fashioned, simple creatures who like a quiet evening stroll around town after dark.I suspect that the patrons of these places (always last year%u2019s cafes, next year%u2019s bowling alleys or roller arenas) are weekend city %u201c imports%u201d like me, whose role in life outside of the Big Apple is to rob natives of their parking spaces and peace of mind from Memorial to Labor Day. But to our credit, 1 also suspect that the entrepreneur behind the cafe cum disco is a native who doesn%u2019t mind. A native, in fact, who%u2019s undoubtedly laughing%u2014as they say%u2014all the way to the bank.A native smart enough to recognize that we New Yorkers like to insist on carrying our excesses with us and are fools enough to think we need them. Trouble is, of course, we do. Everyone knows that once the sun goes down on the New Jersey shore there%u2019s nothing, but nothing, to do.Inklings By Gene SuchmaWAIT A M(N(UT%u00a3v. T # e R %u00a3 . .JWHO A POORER-%u2019ScooPGR?.sW H & N Ya frO T A 16X A I0 C m C O Q U 3U R A 1maV*&n{J JPage 4, TH E PHOENIX, August 3,1978