30221: Minsky:(news) editorial NYTIMES 3/11 Fiasco in Brooklyn [Haitian wins, is he a resident? now, new election!] (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Subject: Minsky:(news) editorial NYTIMES 3/11 Fiasco in Brooklyn  [Haitian 
wins,
    is he a resident? now, new election!]

The City
  Fiasco in Brooklyn, Published: March 11, 2007 NYTimes

The state of politics in the 40th District in Brooklyn is, frankly, a
mess. Mathieu Eugene, an unlicensed physician, appeared the winner in a
special election last month to fill the City Council seat vacated this
year by Yvette Clarke, who had moved on to the House of
Representatives. Ms. Clarke and her mother, Una Clarke, who previously
held the council seat, enthusiastically backed his campaign.

  But it turns out that Mr. Eugene, who hoped to become the Council’s
first elected Haitian-American, had failed to satisfy a basic legal
requirement: that he be a resident of the district on Election Day.
This was an unforgivable mistake, reflecting incompetence in either the
candidate or his campaign. It also means that the district will have to
vote all over again in a second special election.

  Mr. Eugene admits that he did not live in the 40th district during the
campaign. But he says the law only required him to establish residency
in the district before the date on which the city’s Board of Elections
certified the results. The Board did so last Thursday. But by then, the
state Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, had shot down Mr. Eugene’s
convenient reading of the law. Mr. Cuomo ruled that to be declared a
winner, a candidate had to be a resident of the district on election
day.

  Mr. Eugene says the law was unclear. But if he believed that, would he
not have been wiser to establish residence well in advance instead of
leaving everything to the 11th hour, and risking a different reading of
the law? Mr. Eugene would do everyone a favor by sitting out the next
election.

The 40th District — which includes, among other areas, parts of
Flatbush and Crown Heights — is especially in need of competent
representation. It suffers from an elevated school dropout rate, as
well as high rates of unemployment and of H.I.V., the AIDS virus.

Mr. Eugene’s mistake was also costly for taxpayers. Ten candidates
campaigned for the office in frigid weather, including others who were
not residents. Many voters dug into their meager personal budgets to
contribute to the various campaigns. More than $300,000 in public
matching funds was awarded to several candidates as part of the
campaign finance program. The city’s Board of Elections spent another
$350,000 to print ballots, put machines in place and provide
information to voters. More money will now be required for a do-over,
the first anyone can remember in this city. It should be the last.

  The only real value in this fiasco is that it exposes the weaknesses
in the residency law and the need to make common-sense changes in that
law to require more accountability from candidates. At a minimum,
candidates should be required to live in their district before they
even begin their campaign to represent it. Such a reform would produce
candidates more committed to serve their neighbors, and discourage
opportunistic outsiders.