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03/29/2007

Do-over council race down to five with 3 Haitians Candidate (Dr Mathieu Eugene, Gina Faustin and Darly Brutus)

In the do-over of the 40th Councilmanic District special elections, a total of five candidates filed petitions with the city's Board of Elections before the filing deadline of midnight, March 21st.

They include the winner of the previous election, Mathieu Eugene, the first Haitian to be elected to public office in the city, but who could not take office because of questions over his residency; as well as the third-place finisher, Wellington Sharpe and the fifth place finisher, Harry Schiffman.

In addition, two newcomers - both Haitian — have entered the race. They are Gina Faustin, a former Miss Haiti USA, who used a Queens address on her nominating petitions, and Darly Brutus, a political unknown, who filed from an address on Lenox Road.

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Both Eugene and Sharpe filed their petitions from addresses inside the 40th District, using different addresses from the ones they used on nominating petitions filed for the previous special election, which was held on February 20th, and in which Eugene was the victor, with more than twice as many votes as his nearest competitor, Jennifer James, who decided to sit this election out.

The race is being held to fill the seat vacated by the former City Councilmember, Yvette Clarke, who was elected to Congress. She and her mother, former City Councilmember Una Clarke, are backing Eugene, who also benefits from the support of 1199, the health care workers union.

Eugene is the odds-on favorite, according to one political pundit who nonetheless said that it was impossible, at this point, to know, “How much he damaged himself” through the brouhaha over his residency in the district.

“Within the Haitian community,” the source added, “there seems to be an anti-Eugene movement. Some of them find him embarrassing.” If this is widespread, the insider continued, then Sharpe is the person most likely to benefit. “But it's early, so we'll see.”

However, another observer, former Democratic District Leader Musa Moore, who helped Faustin with her petitions though he said he was not currently employed by any of the campaigns, said that three Haitian candidates in the race could spell trouble for Eugene.

Eugene's February victory, contended Moore, “Was a victory for the Haitian community, not for Dr. Eugene. That victory has now been tainted. If his base, the Haitian community, has been upset, they have other options now. I believe the Haitian community deserves a voice in the City Council. I don't know if the community wants that voice to be Dr. Eugene.”

Moore said that he didn't think that a split in the Haitian vote could add up to a victory for either of the other two candidates. “Three Haitians could split the vote,” he remarked, “but I don't believe that would be enough for Sharpe or Schiffman to win.”

All of the candidates averred that they had a good or excellent chance of emerging victorious on April 24th, when the repeat special election will be held.

Eugene said that, after the whole controversy, “People are more motivated to vote now. They are going to support me more than before. Even those who didn't go out the last time are going to go out to vote. I've got big support. If people are saying that people are going away from me, that's not true.”

In part, he said, this reflects anger felt by his supporters that he had been treated differently from other victorious candidates. “I don't understand the way they treated me,” he remarked.

“It wasn't fair to my family,” Eugene went on. “It wasn't fair to the voters. I don't think I deserve what they are doing. I don't think I did anything wrong. I did what the law allowed me to do. I didn't lie to anyone. It gives me more determination to fight and represent my community. We in the Haitian community won a historic victory. For someone to come and mess it up - what is that?”

“I see my chances as excellent,” remarked Sharpe, who said that it had become apparent in his conversations with voters that, “People are really disgusted about the situation. People are talking about integrity and trust, and are saying that there's no way they can have someone represent the district who can't be trusted.”

Sharpe said that he had moved into the district before the February 20th election, “To comply with the regulations. You can't want to become a lawmaker and begin by breaking the regulations,” he contended.

Faustin, too, said that she believed that she had a good chance of winning. “My chances are very good to excellent,” she asserted, saying that her campaign had begun as “a very small grassroots movement,” backed by small organizations and friends, as well as by members of the Haitian media.

Her intention in getting into the race, Faustin said, was to try to “make a difference.” She said she, “Felt it was time to step up to the plate,” in part because of the controversy over the first special election.

“As a Haitian-American, I was really not happy by what was going on,” she said. “I was a little embarrassed by the behavior of one of the candidates. To me, the law was very clear. It's not a case of discrimination. I wanted to let the world know that we don't endorse this type of behavior.”

Despite the fact that she is currently a Queens resident, Faustin said she has been “somewhat involved in the district, so I'm not someone who just popped up.” She also said she would be moving into the district shortly, well before the election is held.

Brutus, too, said he was confident he would be victorious. “I am 100 percent positive of winning,” he pronounced, despite the fact, as he acknowledged, that, “Most people don't know me in the community.”

Nonetheless, said Brutus, he has been involved in the neighborhood where he has lived for over 20 years. “I've helped a lot of people in the community, been pretty much active, but I never sought recognition for what I did,” he explained.

Why become a candidate? Brutus told this paper that he had chosen to run because, “There are some things I don't like that are going on in the community. The community is divided between the people and the police, which is something I feel I could do something about.”

In addition, he said, he believed that the community is insufficiently represented. “There's no representation,” he contended, “even when the unfortunate occurs. If I get elected, I want to revitalize the community.”

Schiffman said that the “main difference” between the first special election and the second is the telescoped time frame. “Last time we had two months to put it together,” he recalled. “This time, only one day.”

Schiffman pointed out that, unlike Eugene, Sharpe and Faustin, he is “running from the address I've lived in for almost nine years. I think I can take this thing,” he added. “I think it's a whole different kind of race.” An added difference, Schiffman noted, is the fact that the election will take place in April rather than February, during, “A week when people are away.”

The biggest issue in this race, said Schiffman, is the fact that residents of the 40th C.D. are losing out by not having a representative in the City Council during budget deliberations. He said that local not-for-profit organizations had been unaware of the deadline for submitting requests, “Because there's no councilmember now,” until he called some of them and told them.

“This is what the second election is costing residents of the 40th C.D.,” contended Schiffman. “They are missing out, left and right, on valuable resources, and I'm the only one running who understands this.”

The next stage of the electoral process involves the challenging of the petitions filed with the Board of Elections. By midnight on March 26th, petitions of all of the candidates were challenged. Those challenges should be resolved by April 11th.

The winner of this election will have to begin the whole process again in June, when petitioning starts for the September Democratic primary.

The likelihood is that some of the candidates who ran in the February special election will throw their hats back into the ring for the September primary, counting on a larger voter pool to benefit their candidacies. The winner of that will run in the November general election, and will serve out the remainder of Clarke's term, which ends in 2009.