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January 24, 1974 PHOENIX Page 11WBID Takes Tongue-in-Cheek View of Primary:Reformers Handicap Coming RaceBy Creating 14th CD Tip Sheet'BY FILS DE LE CHEVALThe horses are on the track! Pony players shiver with ecstasy at that call and political punters are no different. As soon as the odd-year election is over in November, the sporting fever starts heating up in the Fourteenth Congressional District. You won%u2019t hear an issue debated, nor will you be told a single reason to even have a representative in Congress, but you will be touted. Please therefore accept this Tip Sheet as a very very early Morning Line.1. THE RACEA handicap steeplechase event with countless hurdles and hazards. Called the Democratic Primary. Open to fillies and mares, and possibly a claiming race. Variable entry fee from a few dollars to a few hundred thousand. Must be aThis article is reprintedfrom the January issue of%u201cWBID%u201d, the monthlynewsletter of the WestBrooklyn IndependentDemocrats, BrooklynHeights-based politicalgroup. The editors accept noresponsibility for theevaluations or the oddsstated.registered Democrat with claim to residence in the Fourteenth. Post time to be decided by Rocky; number of finalists not scratched depends on signatures on petitions, pressure, and ego. While the course is treacherous - to emerge victorious you must find the right combination of Regulars, Reformers, Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Wasps, Ethnics (primarily Italian with some Irish, Polish, and others), Jews (Chasids plus others), Women, Youth, Gays, etc. etc. - one thing is guaranteed: there will be a winner. No place. No show.II. THE PRIZEA seat, a membership, a job, a power, a \genuine bonafide mailing privilege with envelopes that are printed: Congress of the United States, House of Representatives. (There is a showing of colors race in November against a Republican and-or Liberal andor Conservative opponent, but that is only for sport).I I I . THE ENTRIES1. LOWENSTEIN (7-2)Al has got to be everyone%u2019c favorite. Shows fantastic early speed out of the gate, speaks brilliantly, has the admiration r the largest variety of groups in the district. Teipfic spirit (even though not declared the winnerin four consecutive congressional elections, never conveys the image of a loser), able to attract outside money, outside workers. Charges of his being an outsider diminished by time and staying power. May enter Senate Sweepstakes for bigger prize. Kicks up such a storm at start that tends to finish weak against a dust-inthe-eyes enraged opposition. Dangerous tendency to believe his own public relations.2. ROONEY (9-2)If he is half alive and half kicking, a better campaigner than anyone in the Regular Camp. The party brass seems to be saying \heard that before. Merits intense loyalty from large voting blocs that are not easily transferable to anyone else (e.g. the Jewish vote in Williamsburgh, the 1000 Regulars in BrooklynHeights). Young turk (by comparison) regulars may not really have the gumption to run against old John if he decides to slap down his nominating petition. An anachronism whose time may have run out. Stili much hated and still liable to draw fierce opposition. This may be the year he is ridiculously easy to beat, like Celler, like Farbstein.3. PESCE (6-1)The class of the future may be too early to win. Great combination of Reformer and Ethnic may be able to crack the Italian and Polish vote that alwayseludes the left in the Fourteenth. Hard worker with many committed-to-the-bitter-end hard workers in his camp. Paid his dues in Peace and Community movements. Can raise the dollars from the usual libera! sources plus the Italian prideB rooklyn E acle P ost C ard, S eries 54, No. 321Ferry H ouse, foot of A tlan tic A venu e, B rooklyn, in 1850.Chess Candidate MatchesMerit BPL Play-by-PlayChess is back in the news and the Brooklyn Public Library is keeping up with it. The Candidates Matches to find a challenger for world chess champion Bobby Fischer are presently pitting eight of the gam e%u2019s greatest grandm asters against one another. One of the most interesting matches, between Fischer's last victim, Russian Boris Spassky, and Brooklyn%u2019s Robert Byrne began in San Juan last Monday (January 14). And that%u2019s where the Brooklyn Public Library comes in.Through special arrangement with Manhattan%u2019s Marshall Chess Club, the Central Library at GrandEditor The phoenix i*,c>clin+pf\\ 5t grorKlyk, M y. HZOIWe wanf to hear from you!Army Plaza is receiving all match moves as they are made. A special Marchall Chess Club telephone hook-up to Puerto Rico relays the moves to the Art and Music Division on the Library%u2019s third floor. There they are indicated on a jumbo board for the pondering of City chess buffs, many of whom follow the moves on their own small boards.The Library chess reporting is featured every day of the match, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m., and will continue for the duration of the match. The library will not, h n w e v p r h e a h lp to r p n n r t th p moves to telephone callers. Like all library programs, admission to the chess feature is free.There will be no play-by-play TV or radio reports on the SpasskyBvrne duel. So. as far as Brooklyn%u2019s concerned, the Central Library's coverage is the only game in town the only place to gel up-to-the-minute information on this important chess matchpeople. May not be credible enough yet to Blacks and Hispanics (Ft. Greene, Williamsburgh, Bushwick) nor familiar enough to all liberals in Brooklyn Heights and elsewhere (although) Mike is their Assemblyman).4. RICHMOND (8-1)Made the race once and lost and then won a Council seat in a very similar overlap district: known to lots of voters in the Fourteenth. Fred has enough money for several races and past performance shows will spend. Lots of reformers think he%u2019s still one of them (if he ever was) and lots of Regulars don%u2019t care that he%u2019s changed stripes. A terrible campaigner whose best chance of winning is to stay out of the district during the race and let the campaign pros run things completely. Appears to be doing a good job as Councilman (or gets good press, what%u2019s the difference). People may still remember he was Rooney's campaign manager last time (or they might be reminded). Seems to have a lot that people get reminded about. May not be blessed by Meade and has no direct obligation from Mangano.5. STRAUB (11-1)Looks like Robert Redford%u2019s version of Tunney Kennedy and wants to be like them. A Regular State Senator from Greenpoint. Chester comes on like a Liberal (with a record on some issues like abortion and a commitment to the organization's manipulation of Democracy that confuses the initiated). Probably the Party's candidate. Might be willing to make accommodations with the Reformers, but hasn't yet. Always silent on the Rooney issue, may be too late to be convincing.6. ELLIOT (15-1)Former Chairman of the City Planning Commission. Credentials are valid and nice ties (Hispanics in W illiam %u00adsburgh) in some strange places for a Brooklyn Heights man. Tested the course previously, but entered too late for Post Time. This may be the year for a Donald Elliot, Lindsay muck-amuck with the glamour and talent such an image evokes. And it may not be.7. DOWD (20-1)jGc iS everybody s Second choice. Even some Reformers. He has threatened to run so often that some people think he has. Can't campaign, was an undistinguished Assemblyman for years, has no charisma - the perfect qualities of the typical member of Congress. May be*%u2014 rf %u2022 4 ^ U. %u25a0 ,4 4 L ^ i 1 rIV IC ll I g c i l t u O L d l l U I U U l C , U U l I N C H Onot enough.8. MANN (25-1)The black community may decide to run Joe Mann regardless (and then he%u2019ll surely lose) or by some miracle the Reformers may join in and then he'll only probably lose. Attractive, a good speaker, he almost ran before - but his current Hospital job pays morethan a Congress seat (which may effect his thinking).9. SEGARRA (30-1)The Hispanic community will come out to vote somewhat but will \be acceptable with enthusiasm to them or the Reformers? Doubtful. Angel seems to lack the clout in his own community to be able to catch on elsewhere.10 BEARD (40-1)Sam put up a lot of signs that made you guess he was a candidate for City Council but he hints %u201c no\he's exploring Congress. If he finds it. it will be a miracle. But no doubt at the present, he's moving faster than all others. Just because he moved here from Manhattan a few months ago does not mean \another word.11 BELLAMY (50-1)Any State Senator, popular in the Woman%u2019s Movement, who just last month became a member of the Board of Director of National Sane can not be discounted now no matter what she or anyone else says. A Pesce and Lowenstein decision not to run, for instance, might put Carol right in the picture to finish in a blaze.12. COLLINS (60-1)Last time he said he as a candidate, John got shoved out by the Lowenstein juggernaut plus the Reform machine. This community activist may find that lightning strikes twice, but others may find him harder to push.13. GROSS (100-1)The beloved Harold Stassen of the Fourteenth, Irving would disappoint us if he did not run.14 THE FIELD (125-1)Not to be forgotten are the spoilers put up by the Regulars to beat the Reformers (most likely this year Black, Puerto Rican, or Woman or some---- u :%u2014.a.: %u2014 iL---- ~i\\ 4L^ UUIIIUM lUUUi I UICICVI), II IV, uui nhorses waiting in the wings or former candidate who might reconsider (Dicj< Neuhaus, Zeph Nesbett, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mark Lidigh. Geraldo Rivera, Priscilla Rassin, Charles Berkman, Mason Reese, Jan Peterson, James Scheur, Mar\\A/ifAn/\\ A 1/ Inin lilUl lit mi nmiU tuuiii, v/jhuPerro to name a few '