The Independent View: The Inner Workings of the Political Process

In March 2012, we had a Special Election for a State Senate seat in Brooklyn.

We still don’t know who’s going to win the State Senate race between Republican David Storobin and Democrat Lew Fidler, and the outcome, in court for the recount, has now been in limbo for nearly a month. But one clear development is that Brooklyn Conservative Party Chairman, Jerry Kassar, has become an increasingly staunch supporter of Storobin, and the socially conservative positions that Storobin put forth during the race.

Kassar, who worked on Storobin’s campaign, is likely to back Storobin with the Conservative line regardless of whether or not Storobin wins the recount. If Kassar does decide to stick with Storobin no matter what, that could bring up an intriguing situation.

The Russian community was largely cut out of the new Super-Jewish seat, during the 2012 redistricting maps, and many in the Orthodox Jewish community would like to see one of their own hold the district, putting pressure on Senate Republicans to back an Orthodox candidate, Storobin is Russian. But the Conservative line could complicate things.

Kassar’s situation is even more complicated because he happens to work as chief of staff for Republican Sen. Marty Golden, a high-ranking member of the conference, whom Fidler may decide to challenge instead of running in the Super-Jewish district.

This type of internal political party manipulation is what turns voters off.

Update
Ex-Brooklyn Councilman Simcha Felder, who has been working as a deputy in Comptroller John Liu’s office, told the prominent Jewish paper Hamodia on Wednesday that he’s definitely running for the new, heavily Orthodox Jewish Senate seat in Brooklyn.

Felder’s announcement comes before vote counting has even been finished in the special election race for an overlapping, pre-redistricting seat between Democrat Lew Fidler and Republican David Storobin. And the Hamodia article states that Fedler, who has been courted to run for the seat as a Republican, is running on the Democratic line – setting up a possible clash with Storobin in November.

The Senate Democrats, whose prospects for holding the seat had been looking bleak, could possibly be in better shape, assuming that Felder actually caucuses with them. It’s unclear from the article whether that will happen — Felder says simply that ” as always, I will work with anyone and everyone who will work with this community.”

One element that could further throw these scenarios into flux is a redistricting lawsuit that would potentially force a re-drawing of state legislative lines — perhaps the best possible outcome for both Fidler and Storobin. But one headache for both Fidler and Storobin is that the vote tallying in their special election could take another month, potentially delaying any decision.