If Levin’s Such a Carpetbagger, Then Why is He the Frontrunner?

By on September 8, 2009 1:05 pm in Brooklyn Heights


Oy to the vey with this 33rd District race – what with the overwhelming number of mailers coming into our mailbox, the claims of blogs being a front for candidates, commenters here posing as the bloggers allegedly shilling for a candidate who are in fact shills for another candidate themselves, people with clipboards knocking on our door asking who we support when all we really wanted was the pizza delivery guy we were expecting – so why after all this and this run-on sentence is Steve Levin who has been called a Vito Lopez pawn, a carpetbagger and many other things still the perceived front runner and leading in our BHB Reader’s Endorsement Poll?

Just askin’. Comment away.

Oh and there’s another debate of the Herd for the 33rd Thursday, 7pm at St. Francis College.

Share this Story:

, , ,

  • http://www.realreformbrooklyn.wordpress.com Real Reform Brooklyn

    Homer:

    If a front runner is running in the woods where no one can see him, is he still a front runner? It seems that you are the one giving Levin the title. But is there anything to really substantiate the claim?

    RRB

  • bklyn20

    As far as I can tell, it is very possible to vote more than once for your candidate of choice for this poll — as long as you use a different computer. I have considered going from computer to computer in the Cadman Library or playing “Ring Around the Kinko’s,” but so far have restrained myself from dishonestly promoting my candidate of choice.

  • Homer Fink

    RRB – “perception” gives Levin the frontrunner status as well as the Schumer endorsement.

    Bklyn20 – you can’t vote more than once.

  • Steve

    Steve is the front runner because he is by far the hardest working candidate in this race. Every day he is in several parts of the 33rd, and he doesn’t try to have anonymous blogs to what they will never be able to do, which is connect with voters. To do that you actually have to meet people, talk to them about your positions, and explain yourself. Levin has done that thousands of times now, and as a result has won the trust of voters throughout the district.

  • the banned

    if he gets the nod from the grand rebe in B’burg, he’s in. I like Simon but I don’t think a shiksa chic has much of a chance in the 33rd.

  • nabeguy

    Haven’t seen him once in this neck of the woods. Simon, Theiss, Baer, Biviano might as well take over the newstand at the Clark Street station for all the times I’ve seen them there. Maybe Levin was hiding in the tunnels.

  • http://www.realreformbrooklyn.wordpress.com Real Reform Brooklyn

    Steve:

    Are you referring to yourself in the third-person already? Did you learn that from Vito?

    Nabeguy:

    There is no grand rebbe. He died. His sons are fighting over who is the head honcho. Their respective camps hate each other. That is why Levin’s deal in W’burg does not give him a lock.

    RRB

  • Bring ’em back

    Not sure how Levin can be called the hardest working guy when he’s been absent at multiple forums & debates. That’s a guy playing not to lose. Not sure I want someone so timid as a representative.

    Doug Biviano – by far – is the hardest worker. He started from scratch and has proven to be the most earnest and honest of all the candidates. He WANTS this job. And I want a guy that wants it.

  • Steve

    Real Reform, are you a volunteer for Evan Thies, a supporter, or a paid employee? What an embarrasment you are.

    Actually, I am not Levin, but a friend and supporter who also happens to be named Steve. Crazy, right?

    Anyway, not only has he been at Court Street nearly every morning, but he has been in every nook and cranny of the 33rd, which is why he has mass appeal. He’s in Brooklyn Heights, he’s in Park Slope, he’s in Greenpoint, he’s in Boerum Hill, he’s in Williamsburg. All over the place.

    Ask anyone, his campaign has feet on the ground all over the district. Going into the final stretch, none of the campaigns will be able to match his coverage, his ability to send about a dozen volunteers a day canvassing the district.

  • the banned

    biviano needs to have a real career first. When his financial obligations to his family are taken care of, then he should run for office. Why would I vote for someone with no real life work experience?
    The grand rebbe who died was the head of the Crown Heights sect of Hasidim, known as the Lubavich. The Billyburg sect are the Satmar Hasidim who are mostly Romanian and Hungarian jews. They have a grand rebbe and they vote as a block. They were all for Yaskey. They are a big demographic within the 33rd councilmanic district.

  • nidky215

    Steve is ahead beacuse the public knows that he will be most effective as a coucilman. He is focused, smart ent decent.

  • T.K. Small

    Has it definitely been confirmed that the Satmar Rabbi has endorsed Levin?

  • Smarty Smarkowitz

    Hmmm… a Steve who supports Levin but is not named Levin. Gotta rack my brain here. Wait.. wait… it’s coming to me… I’m seeing a member of CB6 and Vito Lopez associate…

  • the banned

    no one knows yet who the satmar rabbi is endorsing. My comment was that whoever he endorses will most likely win the race and that furthermore I believe he is not likely to endorse a shiksa (gentile woman).

  • Smarty Smarkowitz

    .. oh and Atlantic Yards luvah….

  • Bring ’em back

    banned – Of course you shouldn’t vote for someone that doesn’t have real life work experience. What is Levin, 28? Who knew anything when they were 28?

    I have a different read on Biviano’s story. Each one of our lives is defined most by those moments when we face acute adversity. Here’s a guy that when faced with that adversity, pushed “all in” in an effort to change the forces that affected him, instead of allowing them to drown him.

    You can’t teach that. The skills to be a good politician can be learned, but the character to be a good politician cannot. You either have it or you don’t, and he has it. I’m not sure what kind of experience you are looking for, but to my mind, it doesn’t get any more ‘real world’ than that. And when I look out over the landscape of candidates, I just don’t see anyone else but Biviano offering the same desire and integrity.

  • The Where

    Plato was a teacher, Martin Luther King was a preacher, Jesus was a carpenter… Banned (and please go back to your old name this schtick is OLD)… never assume what a person’s decision making ability is by the job they hold…

  • the banned

    By real life experience I mean an ability to make a living and support your family.
    I think doug is a swell guy but I am not about to accept a comparison with Jesus or MLK. I mean, get a grip!

  • Bring ’em back

    By real life experience, I mean an ability to look your children in the eye and decide you will try to change the forces that are impacting your family, not be a victim of them.

    For someone of Doug’s skills, intelligence and earnestness, finding another job would have been the simpler choice. Maybe he was naive not to do so, but I’m not so cynical as to think it was the easy way out, which you infer. Quite the contrary.

    And I think an important quality to know in any politician is why they want the job. Its pretty apparent ‘why’ with Doug. The others, not so much.

  • the banned

    whatever he does, he should not bring up the jesus comparisons when campaigning in Williamsburg.

  • http://bivforbrooklyn.com/index.php/squibb Doug Biviano

    Real world experience?

    I have achieved the credential of Professional Engineer as a Civil/Geotechnical. I have been on superfund sites, done feasibility studies for them. I became a builder. I have built houses from digging a foundation to the last screw in the metal roof or cap vent nail on a shingle roof. Back in the mid 1990s when Thies and Levin were in middle school, I was the go-to guy for excavation remediation on $100 million projects on Vail Mountain in spring mountain runoff conditions while hundreds of workers waited for my geotechnical engineering recommendations. I was the chief soils engineer on massive developments built on mountain sides. I have signed my name to slope stability analysis where lives and property are at stake.

    I have done software engineering where I fully managed and programmed a fully integrated web commerce platform and fulfillment center into a unified enterprise database seamlessly. That’s real world all-nighter for months results. The project took almost a year as every t had to be crossed and i dotted.

    Just today in fact, I wired up my solar panel with a gas station battery headed for the heap and installed a sign light for my office — fully green. I am a doer that does more with less. And I have done more in a short mountain summer than some of the other candidates in years. Real tangible, accountable, can’t walk a way from a can of worms stuff. I am talking the kind of grit these folks know nothing about because you gotta get it done. I’ve sailed oceans on vessels rigged by me with my sole judgment to return my crew safe to port. The list goes on. It’s real know-how that is sadly missing from representatives these days. But most importantly, I have three children all bright and loving creatures. I’m also Brooklyn born and raised with deep roots in this neighborhood.

    Why doesn’t anyone who wonders what experience I have just call me up (917-257-3652) or visit me on Montague instead of listening to this banned fellow. I’m always open and available. You don’t have to guess with me…and that’s why I have the open door series which boasts four very successful forums to date. Charlotta Janssen’s Bus Boycotters Exhibition is on my office walls right now, open and free to the public. Come see her art, feel the power through her paintings, and we’ll chat.