Brooklyn, NY – With the timing of David Greenfield’s announcement of his upcoming departure from the City Council shutting the door on the possibility of potential candidates scoring a spot on the ballot for the upcoming September primary, it seemed as if Kalman Yeger had an uncontested path to the 44th District seat in the City Council.
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But a new face with a not so new name has thrown his hat into the ring, as Yoni Hikind, son of Assemblyman Dov Hikind, announced on Tuesday that he will be running for Greenfield’s soon to be vacated City Council seat as an independent candidate.
Yeger appeared to be a shoo in after being named by Greenfield to succeed him as the Democratic candidate in a race that featured no challengers until Hikind declared his candidacy. The 36 year old Hikind dismissed allegations that his entering the race was yet another chapter in the often frosty relationship between his father and Greenfield.
“I want people to appreciate and understand that democracy means their right to have a choice,” Hikind told The Daily News (http://nydn.us/2hm1W82).
Hikind’s only foray into politics came in 2011 when he worked as a legislative aide for Assemblyman Peter Abbate, a job that secured for him by his father that also earned him free health insurance.
Hikind, who has a masters in social work, said that the job had been a good opportunity for him to learn about politics and that as a member of the City Council, he hopes to be able to help others in a big way.
A newly released Hikind campaign video describes how the candidate grew up in a culture of public service and promised to “take the politics out of politics” by serving the public with sincerity, devotion and transparency.
Despite having a father with years of experience in the field, Hikind said that he intends to do things his way as he steps into the political arena, telling his father that he would call him if he had any questions.
“This is my campaign and he really respects that and he understands the need for me to do it,” said Hikind, who will begin collecting signatures on Wednesday for his candidacy on his newly formed Our Neighborhood party line.
Hikind announced his campaign on Twitter on Tuesday night with a tweet bearing the hashtag #YouMatter.
Yeger, who had originally planned on challenging his cousin through marriage Chaim Deutsch for his City Council seat according to Brooklyn Daily (http://bit.ly/2f7zfel), responded with a tweet of his own just moments later saying “My opponent chose Tisha B’Av a the day to launch his campaign. #classy.”
Greenfield stunned the city with his July 17th news that he would be taking over as the new CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, as previously reported on VIN News (http://bit.ly/2hm9NCw).
Naming his protégé to take his spot in an uncontested drew protests from some, prompting Susan Lerner, executive director of democratic group Common Cause New York, to charge the veteran councilman with denying his constituents the right to a competitive election, according to Gothamist (http://bit.ly/2hlDFyO).
“This kind of cynical tactic props up insiders and elite at the expense of voter confidence in our democratic institutions,” said Lerner. “It’s a shame and a shanda.”
Yager your’ an Am Haaretz, what’s wrong with announcing a candidacy Tisha B’av after Chatzot, in fact you are most likely not aware that many Hasidic Tazdukim from the previous generations had a minhag to freshly paint or decorate their homes after Chatzos to show their emunah that despite the Chorben they are making ready their house for ‘Bias Moshiach’. if this the best argument you have against Hikind your in trouble.
Let me to both of you give you my piece of mind, I’m a BP voter in your district, and I can cast my ballot to one of you, so whoever will run here a real campaign and explain what they will bring to this community, and why we shoudl vote for them vs. the other based on issues, rather than making this into a dirty campaign with assaults against each other with dirty tricks, you will not get my vote, im looking for a positive issue filled campaign.
At the end I believe Hikind will not come through and will drop out. not sure he has the blood for this.
Wow the campaign just started and yager first reaction was nonsense!
I hope for a positive campaign I believe the community benfits from it!
I believe boro park deserved a race unlike what Greenfield wanted to do and hand over the seat to someone…
I will support whoever runs a positive campaign
Glad that there is a choice.
Yeger and Hikind are proxies for Greenfield and Dov. Neither candidate is qualified, as they are both young novices with no real experience in anything.
Already busy texting are , Caller, Dubrow, Sender, Daskal/Shomrim, Pinny Ringel, Eichenstein, Yeruchim Silber, the Tishlers., Friedman will work both sides, as he’s done in the past.In Short, the usual cast of characters. Money Men Reiner and Perlstein will be milked repeatedly. Felder will stay out; not a bad idea considering that he’s preoccupied with pigeons.
And finally, stay tuned for the “Shana” expose, a killer skeleton in the closet
Yoni deserves credit for having the backbone & run, our community deserves fair elections, let Yeger run for his seat if he deserves it he will get the peoples vote,
the seat is not a Yerisha where greenfield can chose his successor, US is a democracy,
they thought the can do what Putin did in Russia put in his puppet Medvedev for a few year to keep his seat & pulled the strings behind the scenes,
boro park is not for granted! We want fair & square elections! We want the right to have a voice & have the right to vote.
As far as I see, nothing was posted on Tisha Bav. Actually classy for Yoni to hold it back until after Motzei Tisha B’av. Now I understand why he held back from telling the times earlier in the week he’s running, although he could have had more publicity. He wanted to wait until after Tisha Bav. Classy and he’s starting on the right foot.
Of the 2,Yeger is clearly the more qualified having years of Community Board service, where he is well respected, and having worked for various elected City officials. He earned a law degree while working. I have yet to hear anything about young Hikinds qualifications other than being the son of the one Assemblyman who has never been on an Assembly committee.
The winner will be whomever gets the endorsement of the mosdos.
Neither candidate is from our community, and each has only their own interest in mind.
Hikind has always been an outspoken supporter of our community and publicly defending it when needed. If it runs in the blood then Hikind is a better choice for our community. Yaeger couldn’t care less, and loves to play negative. People will see through him, and I find it hard to believe he’ll get the community to turn out for him.
I wish Yoni limitless success. He brings with him a sense of strong dedication to the klal, and a record of integrity and honesty. These qualities are not something i would pass up for Yeger.
It was with great joy that I heard about Mr. Hikind running. Those that know Kalman, know that he has never been involved in advocating for the community. He has always been involved in fund raising and running others elections.
For those that remember, this is what he has done, going back to the Fernando Ferer Mayoral run.
At least Kalman’s cousin by marriage (Chaim Deutsch) lived in the district when the election took place – and then the boundaries of the election district were changed in an effort to get a Russian candidate to represent the Brighton Beach area. However, in this case it appears that both Kalman and Yoni are classic carpetbaggers – and proxies for their godfathers.
#9 is a Greenfield (or Dov Gordon) troll, Yeger worked in Met Council- where dg IS NOW GOING, was APPOINTED to the community board by his friend and other insiders, was never elected, ran the failed campaign of Lew Fidler and DOESNT LIVE IN THE DISTRICT and has a classic carpetbagger approach to city council. True Yoni doesn’t have much experience but he lives in the district, has a decent personality and isn’t running a dirty and negative campaign.
Nothing has changed. People will recall Greenfield won the election with one of the dirtiest races ever held in our district.
Yoni has very little experience, and is only able to run bec. Totty. the same way he got his only job in politics without any education in that area. I also hope that Yoni Hikind has enough saichel not to give himself blackface on Purim, like his father. We don’t need Jewish Al Sharpton. People complaining about nepotism on Greenfield/Yeger issue don’t see the hypocrisy?