Thoughts on the Brook-Krasny Inaguration Ceremony

The New York Democratic political establishment turned out full-throttle to welcome the long-awaited ascension of Alec Brook-Krasny to his perch in the New York State Legislature. Among those who spoke about what just about everyone who spoke termed the “historic” nature of Krasny becoming the first ‘Russian-American’ elected to higher office in New York included Sen. Charles Schmuer, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Cong. Jerrold Nadler, Cong. Anthony Weiner, State Senator Karl Kruger, Brooklyn Boro President Marty Markowitz, Couty leader Vito Lopez and a bevy of other Brooklyn politicos including Brook-Krasny’s closest political ally and soulmate—the man who defeated him back in 2001 for the city council seat he still holds, Domenic Recchia. Only Nadler had the historical memory to point out that in all likelihood some of the immigrant Jews elected to the Assembly or City Council back at the beginning of the 20th Century from the Lower East Side or other parts of the city probably spoke Russian, having just arrived in the Goldenye Medina from the shtetl, then under the rule of the Russian Empire. But in any case, Nadler said, Krasny was clearly the first ‘Russian-American’ elected in the last several generations.

Overall, the event was quite touching; the spectacle of the political establishment finally recognizing that the Russian community had arrived and paying tribute to the community packed an emotional wallop, and there were more than a few tears shed by many in the rapt audience, mainly composed of Russians who had supported Brook-Krasny’s campaign. To see the top people from Schumer on down embracing Alec and welcoming him and his community into the tent was very affecting and certainly, as everybody said, an expression of American democracy and how previously disenfranchised communities organize and finally manage to muscle their way into the system to get their fair share of the oh so delectable pie. PR Guru Marina Kovalyova had it right when she said to me, “One thing is for sure; this would never have happened in Russia.”

To some extent though, the good vibes were diminished by the fact that the Master of Ceremonies for the event was Democratic District Leader Dilia Schack, a hard-charging political operative who for years employed questionable political practices with the connivance of the Brooklyn Democratic machine to defeat Brook-Krasny and other Russian candidates on behalf of the former State Asssemblyperson Adele Cohen, long the bete noire of the Russian community. But last year, as Nadler and other political heavyweights (I hate to use that word when writing about Nadler, but it’s the only one that fits), like Kruger and Recchia decided that fix was in and the time had come to dump Adele and anoint Krasny in order to keep most of the Russians at least nominally within the Democratic Party. So Dilia switched seamlessly to the Brook-Krasny camp, bringing her hardball tactics to the service of BK who subsequently eked out a precarious victory of 94 votes (later amended to 140 in a Board of Elections recount) over a second Russian candidate, Ari Kagan. At Brook-Krasny’s election eve celebration, Dilia exulted from the podium that in delivering the closely fought victory to BK, the Brooklyn Democratic machine had made its opponents “feel our sting.”

And there was Dilia yesterday running things at Alec’s inauguration ceremony, with her husband, Arthur, a NY State Supreme Court judge, bizarrely along in tow to deliver the oath of office to Brook-Krasny. Am I the only one to find the preeminence of Schack at an event commemorating a supposedly new and cleaner day for all of the constituents of the 46th Assembly District to be in questionable taste? I can understand that Brook-Krasny has to work with the political establishment to get elected and get things done now that he is in office, but isn’t there a way to do that without putting Dilia up front at his signature public events? The feeling she transmits is; ‘I screwed the Russian community on behalf of the Brooklyn Democratic machine for as long as I could, and then when demographic reality kicked in, we went out and got ourselves a Russian who was ready to play ball with the machine. For me, Russian, Mongolian, nye vajno, the main thing is keeping the machine in power’.

I must say I have a different, much more positive reaction to Krasny’s evidently very close relationship with Domenic Recchia. I admire both men for being able to put aside the bitterness of having opposed each other in 2001 and subsequently building a bond over the past few years, through which BK koshered Domenic in the Russian community and in the process convinced the Italian-American City Councilman to support him when Cohen stepped (or was pushed) aside. The alliance is all about the political needs of both men to be sure, and yet it is clearly also a genuine deep friendship based on the sheer love of politics they share and, I would like to believe, a commitment to delivering life-enhancing services to constituents the two men share in their overlapping districts, Russians, blacks, Hispanics, Italian-Americans, American-born Jews and everyone else.

I doubt Recchia is spotless, but in his charmingly unsophisticated ‘cut through the bullshit’ outer-borough form of expression, he transmits a desire to serve his constituents, including his less-well-off constituents well, as, I believe, does Brook-Krasny. The question for both men is will they stand for the little people when the chips are down and the big landlords start moving in to carve up Coney Island into luxury housing. There will be a lot of pressure on both men to play along with the rich boys. When push comes to shove, will the twins of south Brooklyn politics be willing to take a principled stand for poor blacks and Hispanics and elderly Russians.

In his own speech, Alec hit the right notes; saying that his victory was not only one of the Russian community, but of all immigrant communities now getting on their feet including third world groups like Pakistanis, Dominicans and Africans. One thing Alex has shown is a genuine commitment over the years to building bridges across racial and ethnic lines. Krasny also promised to fight hard to improve schools, health care and affordable housing, including to try to prevent the possible loss of precious Mitchell Lama housing, and to help preserve the character of various communities under siege of gentrification, including Coney Island, Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge.

So Alec is in power and the jury is out. As the other Democratic District Leader, Mark Davidovich, said to me in response to a question, it is critical now to heal the rifts in the Russian community caused by the bitter campaign and to do so “by meeting with everyone in the community, whether they supported (B-K) or not.” In reaching out and healing wounds though, Brook-Krasny may have to make difficult choices. In this context, consider what someone identifying himself as ‘Locke’ wrote on rubyjewsday in response to my last posting, “The dispute between AK and ABK was never ideological; AK thought we need to take care of the poor and elderly first, where ABK thought we need to take care of the businesses that pay the taxes that make it possible to take care of the poor and the elderly. ABK won; QED.”

Well, Locke, it seems to me that a decision whether to focus on helping the poor and elderly first or taking care of businesses first IS very much about ideology. It will be interesting to see whether Alec will be able to reach out to both groups effectively enough to satisfy both or whether he will have to make difficult choices between them. My friend, Anatoli Belilovsky, who owns the largest pediatric clinic in Brighton Beach, said he hopes Alec remembers his roots as a local businessman (running Fun-O-Rama in the late 1990’s) and makes helping the local business community his principle priority. Here is hoping for the exact opposite; that BK remembers the needs of the large number of people in the district, Russian, black, Hispanic, Pakistani and undocumented people of all backgrounds who are powerless, without money and living in dismal and dangerous conditions. I’m sure Alec’s business supporters could use someone in Albany to further their agenda, but most of them seem to be doing pretty well already. Alec, pajalsta, please don’t forget the little people.