Charles Ober gets New York Times endorsement for Tuesday's City Council special election

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Charlie did not emerge the victor ("Only 70 votes separate 2 candidates in City Council Race," Newsday, June 3, 2008)

As readers of the blog know, this Tuesday voters in Queens' 30th District (covering Ridgewood, Glendale and Middle Village) will elect for someone to replace disgraced Republican Councilmember Dennis Gallagher in a special election.

Readers also know that my friend Charles Ober is vying for the seat as a Democrat and an openly gay candidate in what is considered to be a conservative district. He has already been the focus of a vile homophobic and anonymous letter writing campaign to dissuade voters from voting in his favor.

Being gay, of course, does not automatically qualify you for the city council, but Charlie has certainly worked hard as a community leader in Queens for decades and he has certainly earned his right to vie for the seat. As a friend, I might be biased in my support, but some less biased observers also think he is the best candidate among the contenders.

The New York Times editorial board, for one, endorsed Ober yesterday:

Charles Ober [is] a financial executive and community activist. The fact that Mr. Ober is openly gay has drawn attention because of the district’s conservative leanings. But more important are his deep roots in the community and the years he has spent engaging his neighbors on problems like prostitution and graffiti. His energy and civic engagement would be a valuable addition in the City Council.

By all accounts the leading candidate is Democrat Elizabeth Crowley, the cousin of Congressman Joe Crowley, who happens to be the Queens Democratic Party boss. She has also shown not to be all that gay-friendly.

Back in April, Azi Paybarah of the New York Observer noted that Ober had won the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club - the largest LGBT political club in the city - and that Crowley did not even show up at the endorsement meeting.

This in itself does not make her unfriendly to gays but more telling was her campaign's response when those anti-gay letters began to appear in voter's mailing boxes: The Crowley camp not only failed to repudiate the letters but insinuated that the Ober campaign might have made them up (On May 1st, Crowley campaign manager Michael Reich told the New York Daily News "It looks like they manufactured an issue and tried to get press on it").

Considering these developments and the fact that Ober might be poised to become the first openly gay candidate from Queens to be elected to the city council you might think that the only gay Democratic club in the borough might give him a ringing endorsement.

Alas, you might be wrong.

Gay City News reported that the Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club of Queens voted 19-0 in favor of endorsing Crowley over Ober. This despite the fact that Ober showed up at the endorsement meeting and completed a candidate's questionnaire and - big surprise! - Crowley did neither ("Gay Council Bid in Queens," May 15, 2008).

Pauline Park, also a friend, put it this way "It's really hypocritical and extraordinary that they would not endorse a qualified gay candidate especially when they endorsed a candidate who has no apparent qualification for public office at all except that she's the cousin of the county boss."

Then last week Crowley met with the editorial board of the Queens Tribune and came out against same-sex marriage ("Gay Dems' pick in Queens Opposes Gay Marriage," May 29, 2008).

This played into the paper's endorsement on Thursday which says, in part:

Charles Ober, a longtime civic and Democratic activist in his Ridgewood community who served the LGBT community for the past decade as the board president of the Queens Pride House, is a thoughtful candidate unafraid to tell voters how he feels on critical issues, regardless of the way the wind is blowing through any particular audience.

A spokesperson for the Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens indicated that the club's endorsement was still secure in Crowley's hand. "It's surprising because she did send a representative to the club and she showed interest in getting our endorsement," he said, "I'm not going to try to minimize that."

He also added that "It doesn't make Charlie Ober any better of a candidate; we're not comfortable with Ober's relationship to our club," indicating that their endorsement (or lack of one) speaks to animosity against Ober and is not necessarily based on merit.

If you are someone who can cast a vote this Tuesday in the 30th district in Queens, I urge you to pull the lever for Ober. Show that Queens can elect a Councilmember based on his or her ability to serve the 30th District and not on who the Democratic Party boss - or the Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club of Queens - tells you to vote for.

Related:

• The Gay Tammany Hall of Queens (The Visible Vote, June 2, 208)

Previously:

• Homophobic campaign literature emerges in NYC council race (May 1, 2008) - includes VIDEO
• Charles Ober runs for City Council (March 21, 2008)

Homophobic campaign literature emerges in NYC council race

If you think the presidential race is getting nasty, just take a look at a local election taking place in Queens.

Vying to replace one of the few Republicans holding citywide office, three Republicans and three Democrats are duking it out in a special City Council election being held on June 3rd (Republican Dennis Gallagher, who had held the seat, stepped down as part of a plea deal stemming from a sexual assault).

The leading candidates in the race are Anthony Como who got the backing of the Queens County GOP and Elizabeth Crowley, who got the backing of the Queens Democratic Party (she also happens to be a cousin of Queens Congressman Joseph Crowley who also acts as the party's chair).

Also in the running is Charles Ober, who happens to be an openly gay man and is someone I have known for more than a decade. Yesterday, Ober denounced a batch of anonymous and homophobic letters mailed last week using vile language to warn local residents against voting for him.

Excerpts highlighted by the ABC7 report above include the following pearls of wisdom:

• Queers have no place in our life. Get out and stay out. Our children do not have to see this garbage.
• We already have too many faggots trying to change the laws. We don’t need more queers here.
• I now have to worry that a pedophile is going to be living here.
• He is not going to represent me. No faggot is going to represent me.
• That is why God gave them AIDS. Die and rot in hell. He looks like he has AIDS and he probably does.

Today's Daily News also pulled this quote: "Our kids will be exposed to faggots holding hands, kissing and running up Myrtle Ave. in a dress."

Surprisingly, Ober was joined by one of his rivals, Republican Thomas Ognibene, who received one of the letters and offered Ober his support against this type of politics.

"This is one of the most horrendous pieces of literature I have ever received and, of course it's anonymous, because that's they way cowards do business," he tells ABC.

What does the Queens Democratic Party have to say? Here's their Executive Secretary, Michael Reich to the Daily News: "It looks like they manufactured an issue and tried to get press on it."

In fact, the News says that multiple Democratic insiders (read: the Queens Democratic old guard) also expressed doubts about the letter and said that it might be a hoax perpetrated by Ober and Ognibene.

On the Daily News political blog, The Daily Politics, Ober doesn't say if he suspects anyone in particular of sending the letters but he drew parallels to the fact that the Queens Democratic Party had not endorsed him.

Ober has received the endorsement of the city's largest LGBT Democratic club, Stonewall Democrats. Ms. Crowley did not even show up at the endorsement meeting.

My New York: Gay life in Jackson Heights

It might not be a jail sentence, but gay life in Jackson Heights / Woodside - my neighborhood - is suddenly "hot" in media (as it seems to be every few months when editors look for what's happening outside the Manhattan and Brooklyn gay scene).

In this week's New York Bade, Kerry Eleved writes about "Diversity in Jackson Heights."

She delves into the hipness of it all by profiling some upwardly mobile gay couples who have made the borough their home (among them acquaintances Glenn Magpantay and Alfonso Quiroz - and their respective partners).

Some point out that the gayness in the borough is nothing new but Eleved sticks to the "Who knew?" angle and confines the "diversity" tag mostly to gayness without exploring the extensive history of truly diverse gay life in the neighborhood.

The Village Voice does a bit better by featuring a couple of local Latina lesbian bars, Chueca and Bum Bum, both in Woodside, which truly represent the spirit of the neighborhood.

Bum Bum is the grandaddy of Latina lesbian bars in Queens - It might be grungy as hell but it certainly has a place in the neighborhood's history. And Chueca? Not just because Fernanda, the owner, is also an acquaintance (and Colombian to boot) does not mean that, on the right night, it's just the best bar ever! Then again, I might be the only boy that can get in on some nights.

Finally, not necessarily on the gay tip, but perhaps what truly matters, the New York Daily News' Albor Ruiz has an interesting take on local politics.

Christine Quinn, NYC Council Speaker

OK, so I am still rendez-vousing with my family in my birth city of Medellin, Colombia (and loving it so much that I wish I could stay longer) but, darn it, I still have kept an eye on New York City politics and thought I`d bring your attention to the following tid-bit:

Back on November 4th, I asked "Openly lesbian councilmember to be the next NYC council speaker?" The answer, as of last week, is YES! Christine Quinn became the first woman to hold the council speaker role and the first lesbian to do so as well.

Though I would not say we are friends, I first met Christine back in the early 1990`s when she was chief of staff for then-councilmember Tom Duane (now a state senator) and worked with her on anti-gay violence issues while she became the head of the New York City Anti-Violence Project (though I must say that, at times, the relationship became strained particularly after several staffers who happened to be people of color quit the agency in protest over Chris Quinn`s handling of the agency and issues related to violence in LGBT communities of color).

When she became a councilmember, she spearheaded a number of bills - including the Equal Benefits Bill - which I supported both personally by attending city council hearings as well as institutionally by bringing several Latino LGBT organizations on-board as supporters (The Equal Benefits Bill would have required contractors that do business with the City of New York to extend halth benefits to domestic partners if they also provided them to married couples; it was approved by the city council in 2004 over Mayor Bloomberg`s veto but was ultimately invalidated in 2005 when Bloomberg challenged it in court).

Over the years I have become a Christine Quinn fan. It`s not just her glorious (formely brunette) red-hair, mind you, but her tenacity, smarts, humor and personality. Her rise to the Speaker`s chair, which some call the second most powerful seat in city politics, has been almost methodical and clinical in its strategy and I truly believe that it will become a transformative moment in city politics. For those of us involved - even marginally - with city politics, the moment doesn`t fail to send shivers of happiness up the spine and feelings of awe at what Christine has accomplished. There is little doubt that when it comes to progressive issues and LGBT rights in the city, among those who were in the running for the speakership position, Christine was the best candidate.

And yet...

As some columnists are taking note, Christine could not have become the new city council speaker without earning the support of some of the least progressive segments of city politics. This could simply be a sign of pragmatism but it might also be yet another sign of how impossible it might be for a politician to get ahead today without potentially compromising some principles (which is why I might be among the few of my peers who still give term-limited former councilmember Margarita Lopez the benefit of the doubt despite widespread anger among LGBT political circles for her endorsement of Michael Bloomberg).

In yesterday`s Village Voice, Tom Robbins explores this political reality and says "Quinn`s evolution has been hard to miss." Well, for some of us who live in Queens, this evolution unfortunately has taken the shape of her long-standing pandering for the support of Queens Democratic Party leader Thomas Manton which seems to have paid off handsomely since most political observers say that it is what ultimately got her the position. And I say this as a Christine Quinn fan!

Queens is the most diverse borough in the United States and is home to some of the largest Latino and Asian communities in New York and yet Hiram Monserrate and John Liu remain the only two Latino and Asian representatives from Queens to have ever been elected to the City Council. Manton actively fought both their initial efforts to reach the council, even if he eventually supported Liu in a second successful attempt (as Chisun Lee reported in the Village Voice back in 2001, in Liu`s failed 1997 bid, Manton supported his opponent, Julia Harrison, despite the fact that she referred to Asians in the borough as "colonizers"). A last minute endorsement secured county support for Hiram in his bid for city council, but the relationship between Manton and Monserrate has been notoriously strained particularly after Monserrate mulled - and decided against - challenging current Queens Congressmember Joseph Crowley, a favorite of Manton`s (a move that might hurt Hiram`s political future despite the fact that he has been a great councilmember).

As an LGBT activist interested in the borough`s politics, it has been hard to watch Christine align herself with the worst agents in Queens Democratic politics. Part of me recognizes the amazing work that she has done over the years, some of which I have proudly supported, but over the years it has been harder for me to stand with her at particular events related to the Queens Democratic county leadership. Worse yet, the apparent role that Manton had in securing Christine`s speakership does not bode well that she will necessarily act more independently from their influence in the future.

A public event is being organized for members of the LGBT community in New York to gather and celebrate Christine`s achievement and I will definitely be there to extend my personal congratulations and well-wishes. But I also hope that Christine can prove me wrong and find a way, as Speaker, to engage the interests of the community, regardless of the political influence of a few.

An aside: Speaking of Democratic county leaderships, Christine`s victory also speaks to the utter failure of the Bronx Democratic machine to coalesce around a leader for the second Speakership election in a row, not a good thing considering the drubbing it got as well during the Mayoral elections. That`s another county political machine in dire need of revamping.