The current issue
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Dining Guide
Where to GO
Events calendar
Classifieds
The Brooklyn Wire
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
Brooklyn Cyclones
Merchant news
About The Paper
RSS Feeds
CNG Boro Politics

Council $eat becoming two-man race

By Mike McLaughlin
The Brooklyn Paper

Tools

Print this story
digg
del.icio.us

Just-released campaign finance filings by the six candidates seeking to represent a broad swath of Brownstone Brooklyn in the City Council show a shift in momentum.

Josh Skaller, a denizen of a reformist Democratic clubhouse, raked in the most money from by far the largest donor pool in the six-month fundraising period ending Jan. 15 compared to his fellow combatants for the Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill seat being vacated by Bill DeBlasio.

Skaller’s records show he raised almost $22,000 from 213 contributors — not exactly Barack Obama numbers, but good enough to boost him to second behind money leader Brad Lander, a Community Board 6 member.

Lander has raised $105,548 to Skaller’s $75,788.

“If you go back and look at other races, the money makes a big difference,” Skaller said to The Brooklyn Paper.

City spending rules permit office-seekers to spend $161,000 in the primary race and another $161,000 during the general election. In this heavily Democratic district, the fiercest fight is to win the Dems’ September primary. The winner typically coasts through the general election in November.

DeBlasio could have run for his seat again, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg’s successful bid to extend term limits. But DeBlasio, one of the most outspoken and tall critics of the term-limit change, opted for the Public Advocate contest.

The other candidates striving to represent the wild 39th district are:

• Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, who has raised $43,098.

• John Heyer, community liaison for Borough President Markowitz, has raised $18,080.

• Gary Reilly, lawyer and subway advocate, has raised $14,865.

• Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board 6, has not yet filed campaign finance documents.

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

←Smartmom: Smartmom’s family hates her column
→Williamsburg: A one-block landmark in W’burg

Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.