District 29 - The Race to Replace City Councilwoman Melinda Katz

The emerging situation reminds me of my time in Haiti. I spent some time in Haiti doing development work in Port au Prince and in the rural mountain areas of Seguin. It is a pretty tumultuous place politically with a seemingly almost constant change in government officials on all levels whether by coup, resignation or natural election cycles. The elections, although, are unlike anything I have ever seen anywhere else in the world. There are literally hundreds of candidates for every possible position with campaigns not being run in specific periods but rather on-going. Everywhere in Port au Prince there are campaign signs for those running for political seats, which is normal. But when you pay attention to the seats each candidate is running for you realize you just saw fifty different candidates for one seat. Not that this is a bad thing, its actually good. Its just a lot of information and pretty confusing but makes for an entertaining race as well as actual options for voters.

Well we don't have fifty candidates running for the upcoming District 29 City Council election but we sure do have quite a lot. So far it looks like eight people are running and I am sure we will have some surprise additions and/or pull outs. This is good. Rather than just several candidates and the possibility of being forced to choose the lesser of two evils, we will at least be able to choose the lesser of eight, greatly reducing the total amount of evil we actually end up with ;)

This is an important race. There are on-going problems and issues that NEED to be dealt with immediately in our district. Vandalism, traffic issues, local business promotion, our Forest Park that seems to have been taken over by shady dudes leaving their trash throughout, our public transportation areas such as the KG LIRR station needing repair and upkeep, our public areas needing cleaning and upkeep, etc etc etc. The right person in this position will take care of these problems head on and not let them take over our community or let them be lost in the bureaucratic ether of NYC politics. The community is willing and able to do their part but strong leadership and representation is the only catalyst to real improvement. KGB will report as often as possible on the candidates and their activities leading to the election and is open to hear any of their ideas and plans for our community to publicly share with our readers here.

The Candidates: 

Michael Cohen -

Karen Koslowitz - 

Joseph Nocerino - 

Mel Gagarin - www.gagarin2009.com 

Bob DeLay -  

Lynn Schulman - www.schulman2009.com 

Heidi Chain - www.heidichain.com

Current NYCC District 29 Website - http://www.council.nyc.gov/d29/html/members/home.shtml

I could not locate any campaign pages for those listed above without a website listed - If anyone can lead us to them please do so I may add them. KGB has only been contacted by Gagarin and Chain thus-far.

Some background info on the race: "In all, seven Democrats and a Republican are in the mix." "Based on experience in elected office, Koslowitz and Cohen appear to have an edge. Koslowitz held the Council seat for a decade, before Katz took over in 2002, and Cohen represented Forest Hills in the state Assembly from 1999 to 2005." "DeLay will face former Archbishop Molloy High School classmate Mel Gagarin, also 26, an ex-aide to Rep. Anthony Weiner. Another challenger is Heidi Harrison Chain, president of the 112th Precinct Community Council."

Source: "Council campaign battle royal brewing" BY NICHOLAS HIRSHON NY DAILY NEWS Wednesday, January 7th 2009, 11:44 AM