A file photo of a 2006 rally in San Francisco supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants living in the United States. (AP Photo/ Tony Avelar)

On a chilly October evening, the members of Community Board 7 met as usual. They went through the day’s proceedings: an update on the attempted rapes in Sunset Park, sweeping schedules, the result of the lawsuit against local rezoning.  Two blocks away, meanwhile, a prayer meeting was underway at Trinity Church. Both meetings were full.

Adriana, a Mexican woman who has lived in the area for more than ten years, was present at neither.

“I was working,” she says. Adriana—who declined to give her last name on account of her immigration status—spends seven days a week, from opening until closing, behind the counter of a local bakery.

She is one of the approximately 252,000 Mexican-born immigrants in New York City, according to the Census Bureau. Like Adriana, few of them participate politically or as active members in their local community.

At Community Board 7’s monthly meeting, about 30 of the attendees were white. There was a considerably smaller amount -between five and ten- of Asian participants. Less than five were Hispanic. Yet, Sunset Park’s population, according to the Census, is distributed the other way round: Hispanics make up almost half of the local population. They are the largest ethnic group.

So why are they not participating in local politics and community activities?

“I would expect that unauthorized immigrants generally have higher levels of expectations of returning to the country of origin, but this shouldn’t be surprising. Their status ensures that they are able to develop fewer or weaker connections to the U.S.,” says Professor Louis DeSipio, a specialist on Latino political assimilation at UC Irvine. This is what is called the “Myth of Return.”

But DeSipio also adds that “even in unauthorized communities, the ties to the U.S. relatively quickly become stronger than the ties to the country of origin.”

Adriana has not gone back to Mexico since first arriving in the United States. She can’t, because of the cost and the increasing difficulty to cross the border back. If she does return, then, it will be for good, and she says she is not ready to do so yet.

It could be argued that she has no need to. The enclave in Brooklyn, in which she works and lives, is similar to home. It is easy to obtain all kinds of goods from Mexico. Mexican flags hang outside of houses and stores. Local eateries have names of places south of the border, like Acapulco or Michoacán. Most importantly, the bulk of the Mexican population in Sunset Park comes from the state of Puebla, which is where Adriana was born. People in the neighborhood joke that they live in “Puebla York.”

Adriana has formed personal relationships in the United States. But only with other immigrants. Most of them Mexican, she says.

There is also the issue of language. Spanish, not English, is the main one in much of Sunset Park, used on store signs and as the primary form of social interaction on busy Fifth Avenue.

A 2003 study entitled “Reexamining the ‘Politics of In-Between’: Political Participation Among Mexican Immigrants in the United States” by Matt A. Barreto, now at the University of Washington, and José A. Muñoz, from SUNY Stony Brook, found that English fluency was an important determinant in political participation. “Those respondents with high levels of English proficiency were 13.5 percent more likely to take part in at least one political act,” concluded the report.

Even after spending 10 years in the U.S., Adriana is still far from proficient in English. When she speaks to English-language customers, she either avoids the language or doesn’t construct sentences, communicating instead through one-word questions and answers, using only the words or numbers that she actually needs. When she pours coffee, she asks, “Milk? Sugar?” When she rings up a customer, she says “$5.75.”

Despite her language skills, Adriana is still somewhat informed of what happens in her neighborhood. When the Sunset Park rape scare was at its height in early October, she knew about it. It was not through the flyers in Spanish that were tacked to local telephone poles. It was through her co-workers, who act as her main source of information.

Yet, she didn’t participate in any of the self-defense seminars that were offered (freely and in Spanish) to local women. In fact, she has never been involved in any locally-organized event, she says.

According to David L. Leal, a professor of Latino politics at the University of Texas, there are two key factors that could explain why Adriana doesn’t participate: the difference between American and Mexican political systems, as well as a continuing primary focus on politics back home.

In his 2002 study, ‘Political Participation by Latino Non-Citizens in the United States,’ Leal says that non-citizens may be “unaccustomed to a political system that allows meaningful participation.”

In Adriana’s case, this is somewhat true. Back home, the system did not allow her almost any participation, she says. There was little in the way of volunteer organizations, or what is called “civil society,” or open official meetings for local political participation. The only way she could influence what happened in her community, deep in the northern sierra of Puebla, was through voting. But she never did. She wasn’t even registered to vote. “It didn’t matter,” she says.

But contrary to Leal’s thesis, she doesn’t follow Mexican politics very closely. She knows that Enrique Peña Nieto, the candidate of the long-ruling PRI party, is on track to become the next president. But like 55 percent of Mexicans in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, she’s not sure when the elections will take place. She doesn’t even know that she’s allowed to vote from abroad.

That she is here illegally or she’s not a citizen is irrelevant from the point of view local political participation in New York. The state is one of the few that actually allows non-citizens to participate in local political activities such as planning councils. Most states once did. But it doesn’t make much difference, as Mexicans don’t participate in Sunset Park.

This is in contrast to the other important minority in District 7: the Chinese.

Through groups like the Chinese Staff and Workers Association, Chinese locals have opposed the rezoning in the neighborhood, for example. They have staged anti-zoning rallies, stormed a local Community Board meeting, and even brought a suit to court.

But interviews with many Mexicans in Sunset Park seemed almost always to end with the same refrain “We just want to get on with our lives.”

“I just want to support my family,” Adriana says. The Arizona and Alabama immigration laws, which have targeted people like herself, are not a concern for her. “I’ll see what I do when that happens here,” she says. She doesn’t want to join any organizations. Mostly, she doesn’t want to be noticed.

Adriana has even lapsed in her faith. According to the 2004 National Survey of Latinos, almost 90 percent say they practice some form of religion —66 percent say they are Catholic and many of the rest belong to growing Evangelical churches— but Adriana chuckles that she has become “an atheist by default.”

“I go to church about once a month,” she adds, but she says that she is never free to go more. So she goes to church, but not to mass, crosses herself and prays for her two children, who are back home in Mexico. She can’t remember the last time she went to confession.

Church involvement historically has been an important avenue for immigrants to become involved in local politics and community decisions. Adriana doesn’t even have this route.

What she has is her time behind the cash register, day after day, serving pan and licuados to people who come into the bakery. In her own words: “After I’m done with work, I just want to go home and rest.”

Assemblyman William Boyland, of Brooklyn, exits Federal Court after his appearance Thursday, March 10, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/David Karp)

Yesterday, Boyland found himself in court again, charged with soliciting more than $250,000 in bribes and accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for official favors.

Chris McCreight, vice president of the Bay Ridge Democrats, said corruption seems to be an endemic problem in Brooklyn’s Democratic Party. “Three of the last four party chairmen have been indicted. The current chairman looks like he could be indicted. Within Brooklyn, corruption seems to be the norm rather than the exception when it comes to politicians being under investigation, especially recently.”

Other Democratic leaders said Boyland is an isolated problem.

“I think there are always bad apples, on both Democrats and Republicans. … If Boyland is found to be guilty of the charges, then he should be removed from office,” says Seamus Campbell, secretary of the Brooklyn Young Democrats.

While Campbell says it is too early to speculate on the case and its proceedings, he says the law should take its course and remove corrupt elements present in the Democratic Party.

The new charges against Boyland were brought in federal court barely two weeks after he was acquitted for separate bribery charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

McCreight said the new bribery charges against Boyland surprised him, but not because of the corruption.

“I am surprised in the sense that I’ve never considered the fact that somebody could be soliciting bribes to pay for the attorney for his current bribery scandal,” he said. “That seems to take it a whole new low.”

Republicans were quick to add to the criticism.

Russell Gallo, president of the Brooklyn Young Republicans, used the old adage of ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ to explain the recent spate of corruption scandals that have rocked the Democratic Party in New York.

“The Democrats in New York have pretty much enjoyed absolute power,” Gallo said. He then reeled off  a list of Democratic political figures who, he charged, “have conducted business as if they were untouchable. The list of New York City Democrats that have been or will be indicted for various crimes is staggering.”

Gallo says that amongst the Democratic officials indicted, Boyland seems to be the most impudent of the lot. “William Boyland is the most audacious. Boyland is actually being accused of soliciting a bribe to pay the legal fees incurred while fighting charges of accepting bribes,” Gallo exclaims. “You can’t make this stuff up.”

Gallo says that Brooklyn’s Republicans are now “energized like never before” and expects the GOP to see good results, “not seen in years,” in the upcoming elections.

Ede Fox, founder of the Prospect Heights Democrats for Reform, said that corruption cases like these divert focus away from the constituents of the district.

“As a reform-minded Democrat, my concern is to make sure that the people’s business is being taken care of, and these events end up being a distraction,” Fox said.

Fox said such scandals impact people’s faith in the government, but also serve as a reminder for people to become more actively engaged with local politics. She said reform-minded Democratic clubs in Brooklyn have been calling for significant change in the party structure for the last couple of years.

McCreight, however, is less optimistic.

“Oh, I don’t think this will change anything. When someone gets indicted in Brooklyn or someone steps down due to a scandal, the person who comes in place is not a reformer, it’s always somebody picked from the upper echelon ranks. So, you cut off one head, and another sprouts back up.”

*****

Who Is William Boyland Jr.?

The 41-year-old politician, who was arrested on Tuesday for federal bribery charges, is currently serving his fourth term as assemblyman in a district that includes Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, and Bushwick. Boyland Jr. belongs to one of Brooklyn’s most successful political families. According to the New York Times, his father, William Boyland Sr. served as the 55^th district assemblyman for two decades before Boyland Jr. won the seat in 2003. Boyland Jr.’s uncle was also a State Assembly member and his sister, Tracey, served on city council.  

Boyland’s Year of Controversy:

March 10: Boyland is one of eight charged by federal persecutors for his involvement in an alleged influence-peddling scheme.

Nov. 1: Boyland’s corruption trial begins. Prosecutors allege that he struck a deal with the chief executive of a hospital, selling his political influence in exchange for about $175,000.

Nov. 10: A Manhattan jury acquits Boyland of both bribery and theft of honest service charges.

Nov. 29: New federal charges are brought against Boyland, this time for allegedly seeking bribes from undercover agents.

Boyland also claimed travel and food expenses as if he were present in Albany even though he was meeting with the undercover agents in New York City, the New York Press reports. Assembly members are allowed a $165 daily allowance, but they must be conducting official business at least 50 miles from their home district.

Bill Clinton greets voters at a rally in support of Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial race. (Camilo Smith/The Brooklyn Ink)

It’s not as if Andrew Cuomo needed the political rock star brilliance of his former boss, Bill Clinton, to lead him into next week’s gubernatorial election. Cuomo already enjoys a double-digit lead over his Tea Party-backed rival, Carl Paladino.

The packed auditorium at New York City Technical College in Downtown Brooklyn on Wednesday roared with the cheers of almost 700 supporters for Clinton and the slew of Democratic speakers stumping for Cuomo during this a get out the vote rally.

“I care a lot about this race,” Clinton said, “Not only because Andrew Cuomo is my friend, and because he made such an important contribution to my administration for eight years, but because I used to be governor, and I know the shape, the nature of New York’s emergence from this financial crisis. How fast you come out, how well you come out, depends upon the governor of New York.”

“About 700 people filled the Klitgord Auditorium at New York City Technical College on Wednesday, according to the college president’s office.” (Camilo Smith/The Brooklyn Ink)

“People hire the Democrats to fix things, “ Clinton added.

Former President Clinton, has been a long-time political ally of the Cuomo family. At one point he mentioned the elder Cuomo as a possible Supreme Court nomination. The younger Cuomo served in the Clinton administration as Housing and Urban Development secretary from 1997 to 2001.

Clinton remains one of the most popular figures in the New York Democratic party,  and his wife Hillary served as senator for nearly eight years.

Cuomo’s Democratic base was out en masse to celebrate this next chapter in the Cuomo family’s political legacy, building on the two term New York governorship of his father, Mario Cuomo.

Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, breaking into in Spanish to finish her speech, described  Cuomo as a crusader against a corrupt Albany and a politician focused on building community. Velazquez called him, “The man who took care of the most vulnerable of us, the homeless.” She said he would restore the faith in state government.

The latest Quinnipiac University Poll shows Cuomo leading 55 percent to 35 percent over  Paladino. Despite the healthy lead, “energized” was still the catchphrase of the moment.

The rally participants consisted of students, dozens of politicians, Clinton fans and overall Democratic supporters. Those among them were Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz, who said he supports Cuomo because “he knows how to work the levers of government.” He added that Cuomo hails from Queens, “our sister borough. “We’re the big brother to Queens,” he said.

Clinton’s speech touched on several cornerstones of Cuomo’s resume,  such as public, private partnerships like Cuomo’s program to help the homeless. He also highlighted his work as the state’s attorney general, going after companies involved in the financial debacle.

“We have a guy who gives you 110 million back, that’s a pretty good deal,” said Clinton.

Cuomo referred to his opponents as “they” throughout.  He called their campaign positions “wedges” that his opponents were using to divide voters.  “They were trying to separate us, gay from straight, he said. “They were trying to separate us, New Yorker’s from new immigrants. They were trying to separate us, upstate from downstate. “

Outside the rally, as campaign helpers were cleaning up inside, Keon Treadwell, 24, who came to Brooklyn after his classes finished at Borough of Manhattan Community College, said he came out to support Cuomo, but was in awe of Bill Clinton. “I never heard him in real life,” said Treadwell.” He said he was supporting Cuomo because of his support for gay marriage, his support of healthcare reform, and his background in helping to regulate Wall Street.

New York shouldn’t depart from its Democratic history, he said. “In New Jersey, they have Christie,” he said, referring to the Republican governor, “and we don’t want New York to be like that.”

Read more about Brooklyn Politics:

Brooklyn Mosque Rally Turns Ugly

On a hot Saturday afternoon deep in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Kevin Powell, candidate for the 10^th Congressional District, was the opening act for the youngsters participating in a basketball tournament. The roughly 15 boys – and the one girl – had warmed up so they glistened with sweat. The kids already had rolled up the sleeves of their matching T-shirts, and were ready to start the game. Nonetheless, the 10-to-12 year-olds listened with rapt attention to Powell’s 10-minute discussion about what it means to be a man – and a woman. “Responsibility,” he stressed was the key.

As he finished up, the adults congregated around him. And then the inevitable question came up. Although exasperated by it, Powell kept his cool when a man enthusiastically inquired, “Aren’t you that guy from the ‘Real World’?” He proudly added, “I work in reality TV, too.” Powell replied, “Sorry about that, brother.” But then he added, “Well, we all have to make a living.”

Powell burst on to the pop-culture scene in 1992 in the first season of MTV’s reality show the “Real World,” cast as the angry black guy. Since then, he has been making a living as a journalist, author, entrepreneur, activist, or public speaker. In the last several years, Powell has put one more addition to his resume– Congressional candidate.

His myriad roles and personal connections, mostly outside of the district, have helped him raise $152,771 to challenge Edolphus Towns, a 27-year incumbent, in the September 14 primary election. Facing serious competition for one of the few times in his tenure, Towns has raised more than a million dollars almost equally divided among individuals, primarily from Brooklyn, and political action committees.

In the diverse district, which spans from Brooklyn Height to Brownsville, Powell has been running for the Democratic nomination against Towns since 2006. Although he withdrew from the race that year– because, he said, he wanted to assist in clean-up and humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which had hit the Gulf Coast the previous year. In the next primary, in 2008, Towns won handily with 24,405 votes to Powell’s 11,558 by spending $1,568,247 – or $64.26 per vote, nearly ten times what Powell did. Now the two are going head-to-head again in the upcoming 2010 Democratic primary, one taking place amid a national backlash against incumbents.

Kevin Powell's Campaign Headquarters. Photo by Shola Lynch

Kevin Powell’s campaign office on DeKalb Avenue in Clinton Hill sits next door to a barbershop that promises to “bring life back to your image.” In the converted storefront window hangs a large “Powell for Congress” banner. With the volunteers already dispatched for the day on a summer morning, it was just Dan Campanelli, the campaign manager (who has recently stepped down) and Gene Johnson, the deputy campaign manager, quietly working away, with the window box air-conditioner buzzing in the background. They periodically checked their cell phones while they waited for their candidate.

Campanelli, 30, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, explained how he got into politics. “Kevin was an incredibly compelling candidate in ’08,” he said. He was a breath of fresh air, so I volunteered. I owe Kevin a lot in terms becoming active. He just draws people in.”

Gene Johnson, in his late 30’s, also dressed casually, expressed a similar sentiment. “I didn’t know he was a celebrity,” he said. “I just saw him as a hard- working guy who was humbly asking for my vote. That’s why I got involved.” He, too, started out volunteering and grew with the Powell for Congress campaign over the years, and the election cycles.

Powell’s fundraising shows a similar charisma and devotion. His career from reality television star to congressional candidate has spanned 18 years. Along the way, he’s met a lot of people, and many of them have been supporting his campaign.

Large contributions, which are donations of $200 or more, have to be itemized and reported to the Federal Election Committee. Powell’s list was comprised mostly of celebrities, entrepreneurs, teachers, academics, and non-profit directors. It’s a “Who’s Who” among the maximum $2,400 contributors— the Brooklyn-born-and-bred comedian, Chris Rock, and his wife, Malaak Compton-Rock; hip-hop fashion designer Marc Ecko; actor and author Hill Harper; and football player Julius Pepper of the Chicago Bears, just to name a few. Others such as Doug Herzog, president of MTV Networks; Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree; and Shelly Serdahely, the executive director of Men Stopping Violence, have donated $1,000 or more to the campaign. This impressive list of contacts stretches through Georgia, California, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and all around the tri-state area. Only 9 out of Powell’s 110 big donors live in his Brooklyn district.

But it also costs money to raise these funds. According to the campaign’s 2010 itemized disbursement filings, Powell spends a large portion of his funds on travel outside of Brooklyn – planes, train, hotels, and cars.

Unfazed by the number of donations from outside the district, Campanelli said, “You pull money from wherever you can get it. This is a grassroots campaign. I think we need the resources.” After pausing, he added, “I don’t think it really matters.”

Later that Saturday, Powell responded in a similar way. He said, “We have support from Brooklyn, and donations from all over the country. Running against a 27-year incumbent, we just need the money.” He also pointed out that most of their Brooklyn donations are small dollar contributions, which are not itemized. Although more than half of the funds raised by Powell to date are from large contributions, 34 percent come from contributions less than two hundred dollars and, as Powell put it, “are mainly from people in the community.”

Having had a similar campaign fund-raising strategy in 2008, Powell only won the neighborhoods covering the Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill areas. Towns won all the remaining districts.

At 44, Powell, is the oldest member of his campaign team, and he admitted that he made mistakes in the 2008 race, but has learned from them. “Nothing prepares you for doing this except doing it,” said Powell about campaigning. He said, “I was a deer in the headlights” even though he has been working on campaigns since 1984, when Jesse Jackson ran for president. “I was blown away by that campaign and Jesse Jackson, who was the first black running for president,” said Powell. “At the time,” he admitted, I didn’t know about Shirley Chisholm,” who ran for the Democratic nomination for president 12 years before Jackson, and was the first black woman elected to Congress in 1968, representing part of the district now covered by Towns, and coveted by Powell.

Although Powell had volunteered on campaigns, been a community organizer, and worked on voter-education programs, he didn’t have some of the essentials for electoral success like the prime voter list. This time, for instance, Powell said, “I know where the votes are because we have the list.” There are 85,000 of them in the district of 650,000 people. They are the already-registered Democrats who have a track record of coming out to vote in primaries, which generally attract less than a quarter of qualified voters. With the list, Powell can target them directly. He added, “I’m also not wasting any time on high-priced consultants, who try and change you.”

Powell has transformed himself over the years from the brash hip-hop poet with a flat top in the early 90’s. Whether wrangling funds on the phone, speaking with his staff, or potential voters, he was soft-spoken and had a calm demeanor. He also sported a more conservative look. Powell had a clean-shaven head, and was wearing loafers, khakis, and a button down oxford shirt. He wore a wristband that said in big bold letters — “Stop Violence Against Women.”

It is a reminder that in the past he has struggled with a bad temper and violent outbursts, often directed at women. There were several incidents, particularly in college, including pulling a knife on a woman during an argument, which got him expelled from Rutgers University. Powell is transparent about his indiscretions and has written about them in a book, titled “Who’s Gonna Take the Weight? Manhood, Race, and Power in America,” and is a sought-after speaker on the topic at colleges across the country.

Cardelia Utley, a community activist in Bedford-Stuyvesant, said that Powell’s mistakes make him an attractive candidate. Explaining why she’s supporting him, she said, “It’s deep.” Implying that she was over coming her past, too, the 48-year-old described them as “kindred spirits.” “It is as if,” she said, “I don’t like where I come from but like where I’m going.” Plus, she said, she had seen him in action, “and I like what I see.”

Bedford-Stuyvesant, along with Fort Greene, and the Downtown and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods, are what Powell’s campaign manager described as “sweet spots,” where people already know him. As Campanelli put it, “Name recognition is something that we definitely use to our advantage,” and something that “our current Congressperson doesn’t have.” Instead, he said, “Towns has a base of folks he moves to the polls – the traditional Democratic Party system.”

Ironically, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, whose well-known slogan was “Unbought & Unbossed,” mentored Towns and encouraged him to get into politics. Unlike her protégé, she was never a corporate or lobbyist favorite, but the times were also different. In the 1970’s and ‘80’s, she didn’t have to raise more than a million dollars to run for office. According to her autobiography, also titled “Unbought & Unbossed,” she financed her first campaign for Congress with her savings as a schoolteacher and administrator, along with very small contributions from supporters. Even in 1972 dollars, it was far cry from the more than $1.2 million Towns has raised to-date.

Towns has raised funds are from more traditional sources than Powell’s. At 76, he is running for Congress for the 15^th time. His large donors come from all over the country and they are savvy contributors. According to Towns’ summer Federal Election Commission filing, several donors doubled the maximum allowance for an individual by giving the $2400 maximum for the primary, and then again for the general election, which is not until November.  Towns’ campaign has raised over half a million dollars through these large donor individuals.

As Chairman of The Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Towns oversees investigations of waste and fraud that currently include the overall financial viability of the Post Office and the estimated billions in Medicaid and Medicare abuses. According to OpenSecrets.org, a non-profit website that tracks money in U.S. politics and its influence on candidates, Towns has raised the most money through corporations like the Scooter Store, which manufactures motorized wheelchairs that are partially covered by Medicaid, healthcare providers such as Wycoff Heights Medical Center, and four postal workers’ associations that contribute to his $658,825 total collected from political action committees.

Interestingly, Powell has raised $14,667 more than Towns in smaller, unitemized contributions, which Powell’s campaign attributed to money given by voters in the district.

How the numbers will translate into votes won’t be clear until after the primary on September 14. In the diverse district that includes Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Heights, Brownsville, Canarsie, East New York and Ocean Hill, as well as parts of Fort Greene, Prospect Heights and Williamsburg, Powell claims in person, in the press, and in a recent campaign video posted on his website that Towns is out of touch with voters.

As The Brooklyn Paper reported in July, Towns’ campaign “scoffed” at he idea. His spokesperson Julian Phillips said, “You can’t be invisible for 25 years in a district and expect to be elected again and again — that’s just insanity,” and pointed to Towns’ support of a $60-million renovation of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, support of health care reform, and gun control.”

In early August, Towns took his challenger to the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn for fraud. Instead of challenging Powell’s more than 8,000 signatures on his nominating petitions through the election commission, which is standard procedure, the Congressman sued in Kings County Supreme Court of the State of New York to keep his challenger off the ballot in September.  Towns’ spokesperson, Andrew Moesel, dismissed the idea in an email, “We believe Mr. Powell has committed serious fraud on his petitions, such as forging signatures and lying about facts regarding his residency.” Moesel, from Sheinkopf Communications, further wrote, “Mr. Powell is a self-promoter who is more interested in building his own reputation than serving the constituents in Brooklyn. He has cut corners at every turn in his campaign and voters can only believe that he would do the same in Washington.” But Moesel slipped by referring to Brooklyn’s 10^th Congressional District as the 15^th, which is the embattled Charlie Rangel’s district, and writing “the voters of the 15^th District deserved better.”

Comparing the dean of Harlem politics, who has held office for 40 years and is the midst of fighting serious ethic violations, to the long-time incumbent Towns is a connection that Powell has been determined to make in the press, and also did so in a July Huffington Post essay titled, “Is Congressman Towns Afraid of Kevin Powell?”

While Powell won the court case, and will be on the ballot on September 14, the Daily News has recently reported he has another battle on his hands. He owes between $615,000 and $1.3 million in back taxes. In response, Powell said in a lengthy statement recounting his financial hard-knocks, “I feel very strongly they actually make me uniquely qualified to serve the people of Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional district. For their experiences are my experiences.”

Now it is up to the voters to decide.

The Tea Party movement has come to Brooklyn, courtesy of an activist from Manhattan.

John Press is an author with a doctorate in history from New York University, who was fed up with the excesses of the Bush and especially the Obama administrations and had begun going to Tea Party events. He noticed that they were all in Manhattan. So Press talked to some Brooklyn friends who he knew were interested in the Tea Party and talked to them about starting a group there. They all told him they were too busy.

“I said, ‘OK, that means me. I’m on it,’” he said in an interview at the Bobst Library at N.Y.U. last week.

Though Press is something of an outsider in Brooklyn – he had trouble remembering the names of some of the borough’s conservative neighborhoods – his group has gained some momentum. They have their first meeting in a week, a Facebook page with over 350 members and a blog. The motto on the Facebook page reads: “Enough is enough. No more wasteful spending, no more government expansion, no more corporate bailouts. Enough with Democrats, enough with Republicans-in-Name-Only.”

It has long been known that for all of the liberalism that runs through it, Brooklyn has several decidedly conservative areas. Neighborhoods in the southeast such as Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst have traditionally voted Republican. Yet Press said that on the whole Brooklyn remains a decidedly blue state borough. “Overall, if it’s just one big area, certainly we’d lose.”

Asked what has driven him to the Tea Party, Press described his “complete disgust” at the increased government spending under George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“I don’t have any automatic allegiance to the Republicans,” he said, citing the expansive foreign policy and the bank bailouts under Bush. “A huge amount of people feel so sold out by the Republican Party.”

Still, Press said the Brooklyn Tea Party group needs to be involved in finding local candidates and influencing electoral politics – something he said makes his branch different from, say, the Staten Island branch, which is not involved in directly electoral efforts.

Press also said he’s found a way to help the Tea Party movement talk about thorny issues such as immigration. The ideas come from a book he has written, Culturism. He sees it as a way to move away from discussions of race and toward a discussion of culture.

Press’s theory is that there’s a dominant Western culture with values that must be protected. Immigration, he said, is a threat to this. Practically speaking, this means he’s less worried about people from South Korea coming to America – because he thinks their cultural values are in line with Western values – than about people coming from Latin America, whose culture he sees as not valuing education or curbs on teen pregnancy.

On April 15, Press was in Manhattan passing out fliers for the Brooklyn Tea Party at a Tax Day rally being held at Pennsylvania Station. There were many Brooklynites among the hundreds of people who turned out to the protest. Most who received them had never heard of the group until that night, and not all said they were inclined to join. However, they all expressed anger at the current state of the country.

Gregory Bronner, 34, a computer programmer, said taxes are so high it stifles innovation. “People should have freedom to achieve their dreams,” he said.

Asked if he feels alone in Brooklyn, where people may not like taxes but many do love Obama, he replied, “Oh, I’m a registered Democrat. I voted for Obama in the last election.”

Gene Otrovsky, 32, who moved from the Ukraine 20 years ago, said he thinks America is becoming a socialist nation. “It’s the same things they were doing back there, the same explanations, the same arguments.” Otrovsky, who owns an online business in the medical industry, had a flyer for the Brooklyn Tea Party in his hand, but said he’d never heard of it before the rally. He said he feels “pissed off” and would consider joining.

Some Brooklynites at the rally were recruited from Republican Party meetings, while others simply decided to show up.

“I’ve never even been to a political rally before,” said Dennis Fernando, 30, an insurance inspector who lives in Williamsburg. “I party my ass off. I have nothing in common with most of the people here.” However, Fernando did share an apprehension about what he saw as the invasive nature of the federal government.

“Fuck the government,” he said. “I want the government to get out of my life.” Fernando described himself as an anarchist but said he is wary of the Tea Party movement because he feels it has been hijacked by the Republican Party.

Anthony Rich, 40, works as a firefighter in Brownsville, where, he said, too many people are dependent on the government. “We’re headed for tyranny,” he said, adding that “some people are awakening, some are still sleeping.”

Rich, who has six children, believes in creationism, Ron Paul and self-reliance. “It will be a cold day in hell when government-dependent Americans vote for someone who loves freedom,” he said.

The New York State Assembly Chamber. (Photo courtesy Matt H. Wade/Flickr)

Brooklyn legislators continue to push back against Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget, but they know cuts are coming.

The state budget was due last Thursday, but Paterson and the Legislature have yet to agree on a final version. The Assembly and the Senate have each passed different versions, and the two branches have been in protracted negotiations with each other and with Paterson ever since. The final contours of the budget will emerge from these closed-door discussions.

The governor, who has made reining in the state deficit a top priority, has called for drastic cuts totaling $5.5 billion in state spending. The education and health care sectors are heavily targeted. According to New York City’s Independent Budget Office, $1.3 billion of those cuts are intended for the city, a large part of which could affect its largest borough, Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the Legislature has proposed restoring $1.2 billion of the total state cuts, and continues to fight other proposed reductions. The Assembly has also approved $193 million in restorations for education expenses, but the Senate and the governor have so far rejected this proposal.

To some extent, this situation occurs every year: The governor proposes cuts, the Legislature restores some of them, and the three camps haggle over the final bill. But it has become increasingly clear to Brooklyn legislators that no matter the final budget, their constituents are likely to lose many vital services.

“It’s going to have a devastating impact on my community,” Assemblyman Alan Maisel said. “Everything is going to be affected by this, even in the best-case scenario.”

Maisel’s two priorities are state tuition grants, or TAP grants, for higher education and group homes for the elderly. The Assembly restored the TAP grants in its version, but Maisel admitted that those policies could be removed from a final version of the budget.

“We have to have a compromise,” he said. “It’s not going to be our way or the highway.”

However, compromise will not be easy because, like Maisel, every legislator will be fighting for his or her pet issues. For example, Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, chair of the Children and Families Committee, is pushing to restore money for student MetroCards, summer jobs for teenagers, and a revamping of the juvenile justice system. For Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., it is about ensuring that, at the very least, the Assembly’s levels of education spending remain in place. “We need to make sure that the numbers stay where they are, and that the money comes home,” Boyland said. “The bottom line is access to education.”

A spokesperson for Montgomery, Jim Vogel, criticized the governor’s management of the budget process, calling it “top-down management reduction.” “Most agency budgets were reduced a standard percentage of 5 to 15 percent,” he said, adding, “Some of the agencies had already absorbed multiple years of budget cuts, and further cuts would effectively end those agencies and services, which would in many cases be illegal.”

Criticism of the governor is common amongst the state’s legislators. Viola Plummer, who is chief of staff for Assemblywoman Inez Barron, said that Paterson’s cuts to CUNY and SUNY programs were “too severe,” though she could only laugh when asked if she thought all of the nearly $100 million in proposed cuts to the SUNY budget would actually be restored. Plummer’s point was echoed by Boyland, who admitted that “there isn’t much to give out” to many of his favored community organizations.

Similarly, Blair Horner, the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said, “We do know there will be cuts.” Horner argued that the different budgets being proposed by the Assembly, Senate, and the governor are not so dissimilar. Indeed, he estimated that around 90 percent of the final budget will “be the same across the board.”

Horner’s analysis indicates that politics may be more at work in the budget negotiations than legislators will admit. Looming over the talks is an embattled governor, battered by an ongoing criminal investigation and calls for his resignation. Many may find it politically hazardous to align themselves with the deeply unpopular Paterson. However, others deny that the governor has any bearing on their decision to support a final budget.

As Maisel put it, “Paterson has no political situation anymore,” adding, “It doesn’t exist.”

Three Brooklyn residents weigh in on the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to place the Gowanus Canal on the Superfund site list.