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GENERAL ELECTION %u201986 CAMPAIGN UPDATE:Names Are The Same In GOP/Dem State Senate StruggleContinued from Page 1come close to Mega%u2019s. Neither candidateexpects to spend as much as they did in 1984.Part of the key to the electoral successes ofthe GOP is this placement of a popular partycandidate at the top of the ballot, leadingvoters to other party candidates on the sameballot line. Mega won election in 1980 and 1984during presidential campaigns when GOPPresident Reagan was campaigning. Montalto won his election during an off year withNew York Governor Mario Cuomo leadingthe Democratic ticket.Montalto is hoping that Cuomo will havethis effect again on his current campaign,though Cuomo did personally campaign forMontalto in 1984. %u201cWhat we%u2019re hoping is thatas Reagan was a benefit for Mega, Cuomowill do the same thing for m e,%u201d says Montalto. %u201cThe presence of a Republican figurelike Senator D%u2019Amato on the ballot mightskew the results a little, but I don%u2019t think hewill hurt us that much.%u201dMontalto adds that residents of Park Slope,his political base, are major fans of theDemocratic candidate for U.S. Senate, MarkGreen, and believes he will bring a largenumber of extra voters out on election day,pushing the Democratic vote margins higher.%u201cWe have a very strong ticket overall,%u201d saysMontalto, %u201cand I think all Democrats will dowell this year.%u201dBut strategies aside, Montalto has to campaign hard and remind the voters of his candidacy. He is concentrating on the Bay Ridgeand Borough Park neighborhoods. BoroughPark, according to. Montalto, is where a lot ofswing votes are and he is making all thetraditional rounds at local subway stops inthe morning and community meetings in theevening to make sure those votes swing left.Montalto won most of the Borough Parkelection districts in 1982, a neighborhood thatwas only added to the 23rd S.D. after reapportionment in 1980. Recognizing this problem, Mega intensively campaigned door-todoor in Borough Park and won them in 1984.Montalto mainly won Park Slope and Windsor Terrace that year.Montalto is targeting a number of issues inthe race he thinks are pivotal. PublicForm er State Senator Joe M ontalto (bottom left) will again vie for the Senate Seat withincum bent State Senator Christopher M ega (above with GOP Assembly candidate DianePicucci), for leadership of the 23rd Senate district that includes portions of Park Slope aswell as Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. (Phoenix/Taylor Photos)transportation, while not an issue that moststate politicians are addressing, is one of thetop problems Montalto wants to address.%u201cAfter I left the State Senate I found myselfriding the subways again and I felt they wereworse,%u201d he said one morning while greetingvoters as they went to work at the 86th St. station in Bay Ridge. %u201cIt is a source of aggravation for everybody and I don%u2019t see that thepublic is getting good use of its money.%u201d Montalto says he would like to make the TransitAuthority responsible to a government body.Currently, the agency is not responsible toany elected official and is part of the reason itis in such poor condition.Mega says he does not understand whyMontalto is making an issue of transportation, but to cover his own bases he hasorganized a transit meeting which he plannedto conduct jointly with Rockland CountyState Senator Norman Levy, the chairman ofthe Senate Committee on Transportation, onSept. 30. Mega says that he will be demanding a timetable from Robert Kiley, chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority,and David Gunn, the president, on subwayrepair schedules so that people %u201care nolonger in the dark%u201d as to when the repairswill be completed.With politicians across the country runningfor office discussing drug abuse and enforcement issues, public transportation is not highin the public%u2019s mind. Mega is an original lawand order candidate and is the chairman ofthe Senate Crime and Correction Committee.He says that the issues related to drug abuseare all part of a larger %u201ccrime package%u201d thatthe voters would like too see be more stringent. On these issues, Mega and Montaltocould not be further apart.As with GOP candidates state-wide, Megawould like to see a death penalty become partof the State law. Montalto would not. %u201cIt%u2019sjust part of the Republican%u2019s little packagethat they think shows they are tough oncrime,%u201d says Montalto. %u201cMost, including ChrisMega, voted against a bill last year thatwould have provided for life sentenceswithout parole and I supported this type ofapproach.%u201dMega counters that the bill was aContinued on Page 4'City Wide Democrats Jump On the Liberal Vann-WagonBY ROB TAYLORIn Bedford-Stuyvesant, incumbentAssemblymember Al Vann%u2019s bid for reelection as a Liberal Party candidate wouldbe considered an impossible task by anyother New York politician. But Vann, whowas removed from the recent DemocraticPrimary ballot for technical problems withhis nominating petitions, is determined towin and is now galvanizing community support for an exhaustive campaign betweennow and the November 4 general election.On Sept. 25, Vann formally launched hisLiberal Party line campaign seeking reelection in the heavily Democratic 56th A.D.It%u2019s a feat the legislator has already accomplished once before, in 1980, and he ismaking an all-out effort to repeat themiracle.At a rally at Bedford-Stuyvesant%u2019s Restoration Plaza last Thursday, Vann illustrated hisnear demagogic reputation as he sought toassure his supporters that they can convincevoters to overlook party loyalty and vote forhim as the Liberal candidate.%u201cI%u2019m not worried about the November 4election, I%u2019m confident,%u201d he told the morethan 100 who had crowded into a conferenceroom to boost his campaign. %u201cBut we mustcampaign as we%u2019ve never done beforebecause our enemy is tradition.%u201dWhile the tradition he is afraid of is a votefor the Democratic nominee, Robert Hunter,Vann said he wants this election to send amessage to all of his political enemies as wellthat %u201cwhen they mess with us, it%u2019s going to befiner next time.%u201d%u201cI want everybody to know what is goingon and I want a vote to come out of thisdistrict that will blow their minds,%u201d continued Vann, who is one of the state%u2019s mostn r n m i n p n t h la o lr n n litip ia n c w ith a r n p n r r l i \\ (12 years in the State Legislature, more thanone term as head of the body%u2019s Blacks andPuerto Rican Caucus and most recently asstate-wide leader of Jesse Jackson%u2019s impressive showing in the 1984 DemocraticPrimary.For the rally, the Vann organization hadmustered a number of New York City politicians to lend support to the campaign including: Queens Assemblymember AlanHevesi, who is vying with Brooklyn%u2019s MelMiller in a fight to succeed CanarsieAssemblymember Stanley Fink as AssemblySpeaker next year; Bronx AssemblymemberJose Rivera; Sheepshead BayAssemblymember Dan Feldman andBedford-Stuyvesant/Ft. Greene/South Brooklyn State Senator Velmanette Montgomery.Noticeably absent from the event were anyprominent Brooklyn politicians; even missing was Vann%u2019s political protegee RogerGreen, who himself is fighting the same battle to remain in the Assembly. Vann%u2019s stateddislike of the Brooklyn Democratic PartyChairman Howard Golden, who is alsoBorough President, seems to have madeeven the most sympathetic Brooklyn partymembers stay away from Vann%u2019s Liberal linere-election bid. Vann ran a disappointingDemocratic Primary campaign againstGolden in 1985 and has accused Golden ofmaster-mining the effort to have him removed from the Democratic ballot. Despiteassertions and facts to the contrary, Vannhas not relented from this position eventhough 57th A.D. Ft. Greene Assemblymember Roger Green, also removed fromthe party ballot at the same time as Vann,has made peace with Golden and has beenpromised his active support.Green, who is a member of the Coalition forCommunity Empowerment, the Blackpolitical organization in Central Brooklynfounded and still led by Vann, was not present at the Vann rally, but Green%u2019s 57th A.D.Democratic District Leader, Ed Hightower,was not only there, but served as emcee forthe event. According to Hightower, who saidhe was at the event in his role as vicechairman of the coalition and not as af r fr MM\..- . .4* %u2018V*-%u2019 #mmM MIff* of 1O U R D E M O C R . fik T lC A S%u25a0$. & & ^ Jp%u00ae JKmtk. i....... J Wl I S H r f| L f s tmBronx Assemblym ember Jose Rivera gives his support to Vann while (left to right)Queens Assemblym ember Alan Hevesi, candidate Al Vann, and Sheepshead BayAssem blym em ber Dan Feldm an look on. (Phoenix/Taylor Photo)Democratic District Leader, Green had afundraiser of his own to attend. Green couldnot be reached for comment.The Sept. 25 rally took on the style of achurch revival meeting as speaker afterspeaker talked about Vann%u2019s accomplishments. %u201cAl Vann speaks for the victims,%u201d said Hevesi. %u201cHe is the leader whoknows that it is the government%u2019s job to helpthe sick, the poor, the disabled and the elderly.%u201dMontgomery later reminisced about someof their earlier political work in BedfordStuyvesant and said, %u201cI%u2019m still on the sametrain as Al Vann because he represents whatI believe in.%u201dHightower summed up Vann%u2019s careerreminding the supporters that Vann was thefounder of numerous political movementsand social organizations in the community including the Vanguard IndependentDemocrats, Jesse Jackson%u2019s New York Statepresidential run, and the Brooklyn ActionCommittee.Introducing Vann at the climax of thepresentations, Hightower proclaimed, %u201cIgive you Mr. Bedford-Stuyvesant, Al Vann.%u201dThe crowd that included communitypolitical activists and labor representativeshad been truly primed for Vann%u2019s comments.A mesmerizing speaker when faced with aserious challenge, when Vann talked thisnight, his supporters seemed to listen with areligious attention. His comments, while filled with political jabs, were presented more inthe words and tone of a social philosopherreflecting on the community activism inBedford-Stuyvesant that he has helpedorganize.Without ever referring to Howard Goldenor the Brooklyn Democratic organization by______ IT--------- . . I J ____ A! . - ii n * %u2022 1 %u00bbu c u u c , t c u m a