Your 2009 NYC Nightlife Voting Guide
Steve Lewis
September 10, 2009
The end of summer and the start of Fashion Week are what's on peoples minds right now, but Tuesday's primary elections are of paramount importance and need your attention. The New York Nightlife Association (NYNA) and Nightlife Preservation Community (NPC) are endorsing the following candidates.
Manhattan Borough President: Scott Stringer
Controller: David Yassky
Public Advocate: Eric Gioia
City Council: Christine S. Quinn, Gale A. Brewer, James F. Gennaro, Leroy G. Comrie, Jessica Lappin, Bob Zuckerman, Karen Koslowitz
Bob Zuckeman’s race is of particular interest, as last Friday, one of Bob’s opponents, Brad Lander, placed an ad in a Yiddish newspaper in Boro Park that refers to LGBT people as “abominations” and “immoral.” Furthermore, “the [ad] was aimed directly at Orthodox readers, who equate ‘abominations’ with homosexuals.” The ad also states that “it would be a desecration of the name of god to support the other candidates.”
Prior to this ad, the Brad Lander campaign noted that he has been endorsed by the New York Times! I believe that this kind of hate-mongering, must be fought and I urge the NYT to withdraw its support and go with Bob Zuckerman.
It is important that you take some time an get out and vote this coming Tuesday. Candidates successful in the primary elections will more than likely win the general elections in November by a landslide. The NPC has already sent over a half a million voting-age New Yorkers a list of our endorsed candidates. In the next few days we will be using promoter lists, text messaging services, Facebook, and the massive email lists of Joonbug and Clubplanet to get candidates elected that support nightlife. Please vote—a very small turnout is expected, so your vote will count.
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Posted by Statement from Brad Lander on Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 11.11 am
On Thursday, August 27, an unauthorized ad ran in the Yiddish language newspaper Der Blatt, purporting to be “Paid for by Brad Lander for City Council,” falsely claiming that I am opposed to gay marriage, using homophobic, extremely offensive language.
We did not authorize, place, see, or pay for the ad. As soon as the campaign became aware of the ad last week, we publicly made clear we did not have anything to do with it, denounced its gross and outrageous content, and wrote letters to the NYC Campaign Finance Board calling for an investigation of how it was placed (available here) and to Der Blatt calling for a comparably-placed retraction. I am extremely angry that these homophobic statements were, in any way, associated with me or my campaign.
My consistent and strong support of marriage equality and LGBT rights are widely known, including in Borough Park. It has been a public issue in the campaign, on our campaign website, and in multiple pieces in the Orthodox Jewish press and blogosphere.
I also wanted to share the following statement from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle, making clear that they are confident that I had nothing to do with the ad, and that I am a long-time ally and ardent supporter of marriage equality.