At press time, in a senate race seemingly to nowhere, Republican candidate David Storobin clung to an unofficial 120 vote over Democratic City Councilman Lew Fidler in the special election to replace former state senator and convicted felon Carl Kruger in the 27th State Senate District.

According to the New York City Board of Elections unofficial total, Storobin is leading, 10,756 to 10,636. However, Board of Election officials say they official tally won’t come until the end of the month when all 757 absentee and overseas ballots are counted and allegations of fraud are investigated.

Either way, the race between Storobin, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, and Fidler a Jewish-American who went to high school with Rev. Al Sharpton, brought new meaning to the term, “mudslinging” in a contest where the winner will only serve a few months due to redistricting.

The current district includes Brighton Beach, Borough Park, Gravesend, Midwood and Mill Basin. However, it will be swallowed up for a new “Super Jewish” district that includes mainly Borough Park, southern and western Flatbush, and Kensington – a Mecca (metaphorically speaking) – for ultra-conservative Orthodox Jews.
Among the accusations flying were Fidler’s claim that Storobin’s Internet writings showed that he had “ties to skinheads, neo-Nazis” and that white supremacist groups had linked to the articles on their sites.
Storobin responded he had relatives who fought the Nazis and that Fidler impugned his mother. It got to the point where the front page of the Flatbush Jewish Journal went as far as to state that Jewish law “prohibited to vote for Lew Fidler” because he “wants to teach same-gender marriage to 6-year-old children.”

While this race was mainly about the Jewish vote in Southern Brooklyn, several of the communities such as Brighton Beach and Mill Basin are in the newly formed 8th Congressional District of Ed Towns.
Other communities in this newly created Congressional District such as Sheesphead Bay, Manhattan Beach and Howard Beach were relocated from Republican Congressman Bob Turner’s old district, which was also swallowed up through redistricting.

While Kings County GOP boss Craig Eaton could not be reached at press time, the bets here are the Republicans will put a good deal of money and effort into winning the seat.

Markowitz backs Clarke
Brooklyn Borough President quickly dismissed a Crain’s story last week that he would challenge Congresswoman Yvette Clarke in her Federal Voting Rights district encompassing most of the middle of the borough, and in fact, issued a statement that he supports the incumbent.

“Congresswoman Yvette Clarke has represented Brooklyn and her constituents well, and I wholeheartedly support her bid for re-election,” he said.

Previous to being borough president, Markowitz has long been a favorite in the Caribbean-American community, which he represented in the state senate seat now held by Eric Adams.

Markowitz also dismissed rumors that he would jump into the 8th Congressional District Democratic Primary between incumbent Ed Towns, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and City Councilman Charles Barron.

“I am flattered by all of the encouragement I have received to take my ‘Brooklyn attitude’ to Washington and make sure everyone in our nation’s capital knows that Brooklyn is ‘in the House’” Markowitz said. “However, my dream job has always been Brooklyn Borough President and I intend to make my final 21 months in office the most productive ever.”