New York – The time has come for the voters of lower Manhattan to turn Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver out of office.
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After 32 years in his seat, including 14 years as the Assembly’s maximum leader, Silver embodies the insider’s game that has captured the state Legislature, to the detriment of 19 million New Yorkers.
Silver’s constituents would serve the cause of open, responsive government – and rock Albany to its foundations – by pulling the lever in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for challenger Paul Newell.
Across America in this election year, people are demanding change. Let’s have it in Albany, too.
Such a vote could mark the start of a revolution. For dumping Silver would send the unmistakable message that the people of this state want a responsible, deliberative Legislature rather than a boss-run fiefdom.
In the process, the lower East Side, East Village, Chinatown, Wall Street and Battery Park City would gain in Newell a well-qualified representative who is both in sync with the district’s political leanings and in touch with grass-roots concerns about traffic, schools, affordable housing and sustainable neighborhoods.
Up against one of New York’s most powerful men, Newell, 33, a community activist well-versed in the issues, has been knocking on doors. For the first time in many an election cycle, Silver has had to go knocking, too.
Nothing better illustrates Albany’s lack of accountability than that Silver has not faced competition for reelection in 22 years. Only now is he being called to answer for so lowering the Legislature that it was properly branded the worst in the nation.
What happens in the Assembly is a charade. Individual lawmakers are all but irrelevant. They have surrendered their authority to Silver, who rewards loyalists with added pay and pork-barrel grants for their districts. (While dispensing a gargantuan $2 million a year to his own pet causes.)
The rank-and-file do what they are told – to the point that until recently, they were counted as automatically voting yes even though they were not present in the chamber. There are no meaningful hearings, and every bill that comes to the floor passes, as Silver dictates.
The big decisions are made in his inner sanctum, easily accessed by politically connected players who have much at stake in acts of the Legislature. In such a distortion of democracy, it’s no wonder the state budget has ballooned beyond proportion.
Nor is it any wonder that in 1999, in order to spare some of his suburban members political discomfort, Silver killed the tax on commuters, costing the city a total of $6.4 billion and climbing. Think of what the money could have meant to the police, parks or schools.
usually when a bad guy is leaving, a worse one is coming in !!!
He is one of few who stand up to “Bloomy” and hold his feet to the fire.
Sheldon Silver has been the best legislator we have ever had. Mr. Newell must have paid someone to print this put down of Silver.
If Shelly was not there, we would be ‘of Gehakta Tzuris’
Could anyone tell me what he has done for unzerer?
He is a leader of minorities and seems to do the most for them.
He is a steadfast liberal. Why would he be good for us?
Isn’t a Community Activist / Organizer something like a small town mayor but WITHOUT the responsiblities?
Bloomberg at work
Being Jewish & Frum doesn’t make a good elected official. He’s been in too long…33 years? Time to get a real job.
I live in Williamsburg. I wish that Hon. Silber’s office will post a notice on how to help his campaign..I would do anything to help him now when he is being screamed down for pure jelousy
the newspapers are owned by billionaires. the billionaires are all bloombergs buddies.
shelly is the only one out there to stand up to bloomberg and bloomberg cant take that.
bloomberg is lehavdil like haman. shelly is like mordechai.
remember what haman wanted to do to mordechai coz he would not bow down before him? this is the same scenario….shelly will not kiss bloombergs u know what. so bloomberg has been working overtime to get rid of him.
take it from someone who knows the inner workings of what is going on.
its the emes
Mr. Silver, if you had the chutzpa to sign for the chukai sedom – gay rights, against the Torah and against morality, you bet it’s time you step down and become a baal teshuva..
He is an arrogent man and should be dumped.
this guy reeks of insider backroom politics.
After 33 years as a professional politician, he’s become too comfotable in his position. Time for a change.
the fact that the new york times hates him shows he is doing somthing right!
!
NYS never had such a powerful advocate for frum jews in its history -things like funerals on Sunday (the only state that the union allows it). or insurance coverage for ppl who r”l need fertility etc he also stands up to Bloomberg weetc so anyone who could write this has no idea whatr Shelly has done for the klal. if anyone could write such an article-it must have been backed by Bloomberg. just realize if a new guy gets in the Assembly – he will be the newest member so he will have no influnece or power to do anything for the community. what a shame that VIN stooped so low as to become this ugly.
Shelly has been one of the most effective legislators in New York history and has done much for the frum community, much of it behind the scenes. For starters he singlehandedly quashed the misguided congestion pricing campaign touted by the Bloomberg administration. If passed, all of us would either pay a fortune to enter Manhattan or be forced to ride the MTA. He’s championed Sabbath-observing legislation and his office has been an advocate for many individual discrimination cases. He’s crafted legislation to aid the aguna and has been in the forefront of assistance to special childrfen and vulnerable populations. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that without Shelly, we’d been in greater difficulty.
we better hope and pray that shelly wins or else bloomberg will have free reign to make new york a place that only the rich can afford.
shelly is the only one who has the guts to stand up to him.
yasher koach shelly!!
fight for us…we need you!!
I agree shelly should go but this other guy has nothing to offer just another liberal whos dont nothing
‘insurance coverage for ppl who r”l need fertility’
I personally know frum kids who would not exist without this law.
Without Speaker Silver, we would be spending a fortune on a football stadium in Manhattan.
There are dozens of other examples where he has done the right thing to the benefit of the Jewish community and the state as a whole. Yet we are ready to throw him under the bus because he voted in accordance with the overwhelming majority of his constitutents in support of Gay rights? His district isn’t New Square of Kiryas Joel, it is Manhattan!
shelly is a frum jew who’s no doubt done a lot for us but the fact that he’s liberal is a problem.
his opponent is also a liberal with nothing to show.
to throw shelly out with nobody to replace him will be irrisponsible! the other guy is a liberal as much as shelly except that shelly has no doubt done so much for us.
let’s try within the next few years to find some consirvatives willing to work hard for us and get a head start
This is Bloomberg’s revenge for the Jets stadium and tolls for entering Manhattan; his rich friends only zone.
What Silver has done for Jewish families who need fertility help is nothing short of a miracle. He also ensured that medical examiners could not simply do autopsies for their entertainment; made sure that kashruth would be enforced; and stopped much discrimination in government against frum people.
Bloomberg got his rich publisher friends at the anti-Orthodox, anti-Israel New York Times (Sulzberger) to endorse Silver’s opponent; the anti-frum NY Post did the same; and the shiksa loving Mort Zuckerman at he Daily News too. What more do we need to know that every frum yid should rally to Silver’s side on Tuesday and volunteer to help him.
shelly has the blessings of the gedolei ha dor.
i will follow their lead.
any frum person who spreads loshen haroah against silver should realize that they are not only violating the torah but that they are directly challenging Rabbis Dovid and Reuven Feinstein.
I’ll try again to get this on. I called his office, nobody called me back, & this was a matter for all Jews in NY, not just his constituents. He only cares about the Lower East Side. Goodbye, Mr. Silver!!
Silver killed the tax on commuters, costing the city a total of $6.4 billion and climbing.
Costing the city??? They are stealing money from people with this tax- that’s like saying that when America went after the pirates of the barbary coast – it cost the BARBARY cOAST BILLIONS. iT WASN’T THEIR’S IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!
bloomberg is funding all campaigns against silver to get back at for all the dumb ideas silver turned down
We should turn out in mass and re elect Sheldon Silver.
i intend to get as many people as possible to vote for shelly.
even tho i dont live in his district i know people who do.
i will even offer to walk elderly to the polls
shelly silver protecting is molestors in our yeshivas, the oilem needs know were shelly stands on this issue.
I am planning to take a day off from work on Tuseday to help RE elect Mr. silver only becouse he stued up against Mayor Bloomberg which is spending lots of $$ to see him out of office LETS SEND A MASSAGE TO BLOOMBERG/PUTIN!!!! SHELLY DID MORE FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY THAN BLOOMBERG/PUTIN!!!
If you think Silver is liberal the other guy is to the far left of him. We need someone who can stand up to Bloomberg. By the way Bloomberg wants to end term limits to be able to squeeze $ out of the masses.
Yankel, your full of ____! Reb David & Reb Reuvain did NOT endorse this Pro Gay “Marriage” person!
It would be a disaster for the Frum community if Sheldon looses his bid for reelection. We must get out and support him while not perfect (no one is) Silver has been there for us 99% of the time. Please get out there and vote tomorrow for Silver.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Time to work full time at Weitz & Luxemberg (or is that what he was doing all these years….?)
Boruch HaShem Sheldon won with a landslide. He has done a lot for his brethren. He had the ear of Reb Moshe, and now his sons. I, as a Williamsburger am very happy that he won. Nobody’s perfect, especially his liberal record, but it cannot be denied that he is there when we (all communities in NY) need him.