Borough Park, NY – Lessons To Learn From Simcha Felders Loss, The Jewish Community Does Not Take Voting Seriously

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    Borough Park, NY – On Tuesday September 9th the democratic primary for New Yorks 21st Senate district took place and in a stunning display of voter apathy Councilman Simcha Felder failed to unseat incumbent Kevin Parker. With all the polling sites in the number broke down with 49% to Kevin Parker, 36% to Simcha Felder and nearly 14% for Kendall Stewart and only 2340 votes separating Mr. Felder from Parker.

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    Many may remember Kevin Parker making headlines for assaulting a traffic agent while repeatedly screaming “do you know who I am”? This was followed by mandatory anger management classes and what would have appeared to be a loss of political clout and confidence from his constituency.
    While casual political observers may simply be concerned with the win/loss column it of far greater importance to understand why despite raising more than twice the amount of campaign money than his competitors combined and a masterfully planned and executed campaigned managed by the politically savvy Y. Phillip Goldfeder, did Mr. Felder fail to unseat Kevin Parker?

    The 21st Senate district is a diverse district that includes Hispanics, African Americans, Carribean Americans and Orthodox Jews. The neighborhoods include Kensington, Ditmas Park, East Flatbush sections of Flatbush and sections of Boro Park. Based on the location of a polling site political analyst can determine exactly which groups are voting for which candidates and which communites are coming out to vote.

    What can be concluded from preliminary evaluations is that Mr. Felder pulled in approximately 3100 votes from the African American and Carribean American community and approximately 3800 votes from the Jewish community.

    The latter number represent about 45% of the potential voters from the Jewish community in the 21st Senate District. 45% is an awful turnout. It is embarrassing and it reflective of the apathy that seems to be so pervasive. On September 9th the Jewish Community of the 21st district missed two major opportunities. 1. In Felder they missed being represented by one of their own, a powerhouse of an individual who serves his community with genuine dedication and regard. It will be a long time until a similarly qualified candidate will have the chance to run in a primary with a similar slate of candidates. But, perhaps even more importantly they have shown that they are politically insignificant. They are neither a threat nor an asset.

    A community that cant even be bothered to support a candidate who is one of their own has made a very clear statement and the elected officials and political parties are listening. If numbers broke down differently and Felder would have lost but 90% or more of the Jewish vote would have come out to support him, it would have still been a flexing of political muscle and would have let the victor know this is a community that matters and needs to be respected. But that is not the case.

    I write this not to put down specific Brooklyn neighborhoods but rather as a lesson to us all and warning for future elections. The Orthodox Jewish community is its own special interest group with unique needs. The importance of being politically significant is critical for ongoing services, programs, and benefits. While there will always be individuals that refuse to vote with the brilliant mantra of “my vote doesn’t count” or the individual that wont register to vote for fear of being called to jury duty even though they have already made the list through tax rolls and DMV records, it is important that communities as a whole instill the value of voting and creating well organized voter drives and show high percentages of voter turnout. There is no valid excuse.


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    85 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    its a shame and shows very much iresponsibility Brooklyn has i believe 20,000 votes that they could bring and that would be a strong block vote even monsey is strong when it comes to voting

    sam
    sam
    15 years ago

    3800 votes from the jewish communtiy what a joke is this 10% or less why cant brooklyn come out strong and ONLY they will benefit from this i am sure they all see that BP has over 20,000 jewish people and only 3k are coming out to vote

    Joe
    Joe
    15 years ago

    How can we punish the Chasidem for not voting?

    an
    an
    15 years ago

    its a shame only about 3000 of his community voted for him,felder did not loose we did.

    Hello
    Hello
    15 years ago

    who says they need to be “represented” by one of “their own” ?

    what about all the other neightbors?

    is mister shapiro suggesting that all blacks vote for the black guy and all latinos vote forthe latino and all frummies vote for the frummy?

    this is america man, get with the program.

    even hikind and the jewish press were not in favor of felder!

    josh
    josh
    15 years ago

    U r so right we don’t go out to vote, I would not vote 4 Simcha regardless but he did not run in my district. But I think why Simcha turned to a certain degree on his community cause he knows that we don’t vote & those that do go will vote 4 him anyway if every one 18+ will go out to vote no politician on a city level 4 sure on state level maybe would listen to us you can be sure. So let’s start a voter regastration drive

    Oy Gevald
    Oy Gevald
    15 years ago

    Not quite! I was turned away from the polls for not being a Democrat. ONLY Democrats can vote in these elections! That’s stupid! I proudly abandoned the Democratic Party after suffering the unmoral Clinton years. And I am NOT going back! Let the local politicians figure out how to allow all registered voters in NYC vote, not only Democrats. Democrats, FEH!!!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    MAYBE FELDER DOESN’T QUALIFY FOR THE JOB.

    BP
    BP
    15 years ago

    GO Phil Go!!! This kid is going places.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I would like to point out that hundreds of people were not allowed to vote on voting machines and instead were forced to use “affidavit ballots.” Still hundreds more were turned away from the polling sites, not allowed to vote, without even the courtesy of an explanation. Many sites were totally closed down. I know many people that had these complaints firsthand. Some places the booths weren’t delivered etc. At one voting site, at 7:30pm there was a line of about 100 people waiting to get in but the doors were locked. I think that Simcha should investigate this fact and contest his loss in court.

    The who
    The who
    15 years ago

    Why did Dov Hikind support Kevin Parker and not Simcha Felder.This political infighting must have had some effect.

    Sadtheist
    Sadtheist
    15 years ago

    I think that there’s a lesson to be learnt from this: we lost because we weren’t organized. We didn’t hit the correct polling places and we didn’t hit in the numbers we needed. We also didn’t do enough community outreach. But then again, I’m not too unhappy about Simcha’s loss.

    I don’t trust him with vetoing the community board and putting up the Windsor Plumbing project that’s a fire hazard.

    Too bad though a frum politician in the seat would’ve been nice anyway, but maybe it’s better that it isn’t simcha.

    unknown
    unknown
    15 years ago

    I am sure he must be really upset!!!

    Hello
    Hello
    15 years ago

    Gevald,

    when there is a PRIKARY to choose between candidates from a specific party, DEMOCRAT, or REPUBLICAN or otherwise, the people from that party choose between the candidates to be the nominee.

    Had feler won, you would have had the chance to vote for him in the general election.

    if there was a republican primary yesterday you would have been able to vote in that election.

    why are people so ignorant of something so pashut?

    Hello
    Hello
    15 years ago

    typo, PRIMARY pardon me

    Im happy
    Im happy
    15 years ago

    i think felder should now run against parker as an independent. it seems to me he would win. he woud give us a second chance. and it might work.

    but he has to first make sure that everone is a registerded voter,and make sure everone should know were he has to vote,and send baby sitters to people s houses or put a mobile infront of the polling booths people should be able to leave their children for atleast 15 minutes till they get around with does stupid people sitting over there. he should also make a good text massage systym.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    You all have the picture wrong. Simcha lost because the Boro Park people didn’t vote for him. He didn’t deserve the people’s votes.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    oh please!! i went out with my husband at our lunch hour we gave our name and address and we were ready to vote simcha felder WELL the two polling workers looked at each other and said “OH NOT AGAIN”

    they told us that through out the day so many people came to vote BUT ARE NOT IN SIMCHAS DISTICT!! we were so shocked we live in the 12-49 area,

    we asked the same question as so many residence of boro park diffrent district???!!!

    as we went back to work we had only one question WHY COULDNT ANYONE MENTION ANYTHING ABOUT THE DIFFRENT AREAS THAT MIGHT NOT NEED TO GO OUT AND VOTE???

    WHY DID WE NOT DESERVE SUCH CURTOSY???

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    bp did vote, me and my friends voted for kevin parker at least i wont have to pay $1600.00 every year for riding through manhattan and since mosdos got 100 million why didnt mosdos cut schar limid ?

    voter
    voter
    15 years ago

    I think that Felder who is a great & honest askon

    lost because of prior askonim who were not honest &

    didn’t do any thing for the community

    those askonim send a message for the entire community

    that elections means money & self interest

    now that we finally got a great askon who REALLY cares

    for us Reb Simcha couldn’t win because of history.

    We have to explain to our entire community that we finally got someone

    who is ready & will do any thing to help our yeshivas & our community

    I think that Reb simcha will have more opportunities to run for high

    Positions & he will come in very strongly

    GO FELDER GO

    הציבור עם שמחה

    Student
    Student
    15 years ago

    this eli shapiro guy is a very very naive young man

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    as someone mentioned before this was aPRIMARY not an election only registered democrats were allowed to vote.a large majority of our area is registered as republican or independent not as democrat. Let him run as an independent in the election and you will see the difference in votes. Joe Leiberman did it and won why cant Simcha Felder?

    Latke
    Latke
    15 years ago

    Maybe the lesson is, that a campaign that is run on “If Simcha loses, we all lose” yet while he is in the council voted against our interests, like raising property taxes, water taxes, congestion pricing, etc.will not work. Had Simcha had the courage “real courage” to do what is right there would of been a bigger more enthusiastic turnout for him.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    20,000 votes for a small piece of boro park is a large turnout the other 20,000 boro parkers are either republican or independents and another 5,000 that arent registered or couldnt find time thats 50,000 people

    BIG TURNOUT

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    America is a wonderful country. You don’t have to vote if you don’t want to.

    It is an insult to people’s intelligence that they are an embarresment if they do not vote for Simcha Felder. This is taking their vote for granted. He may have, with his vote for congestion pricing, his non vote (because he had to go to the bathroom) for Speaker Quinn, and other issues which he voted for HIS own best interest, not neccesarily his constituants.

    I am certain, that there were people that knew him and voted against him, and there were others, that knew him and didn’t want to vote against him, but didn’t vote because they didn’t want to vote for him.

    In this district only 20% of the voters are jewish/orthodox/frum. The fact that Simcha received 36% of the vote and a substantial number from out of his base, is really good.

    The fact that 45% of jews in Boro Park voted in a primary is really really good voter turnout. Generally in a primary 10% is the average.

    The fact is, that the demographics were stacked against Simcha Felder, he knew this, but since he had a $1 Million warchest to sit on, with OTHER PEOPLES MONEY, he was willing to “take the plunge” and campaign for this seat. There was nothing for him to lose.

    The real question is, will a 3rd person, who is either liberal modern orthodox, or liberal non religious jewish, be able to win Felder’s council seat when Joe Lazar and David Greenfield slug it out and split the Frum/religious vote. It may happen.

    21st Senate district
    21st Senate district
    15 years ago

    I live in the heart of Boro Park. i came to the Polls to vote on Tuesday. They told me I’m not in the district. If the district would be streched until 60th st. or even less Simcha would have won!

    Yanky from BP
    Yanky from BP
    15 years ago

    I’m sure if the Pigeon’s would be able to vote, they wouldn’t Vote for Felder just like us…

    We in BP are very angry at Felder for not helping with the increase in Parking Ticket’s. So YES, we Voted for Parker. He is anti Ticket Agents! Don’t you remember how he punched a Traffic Police Officer in her face?

    ano
    ano
    15 years ago

    dear eli shapiro

    i read your article and i believe it is riddled with innacuracies

    as the person said in a post two before mine anyone that runs a campaign with the arrogance of if simacha loses we all lose is doomed to failure. he banked on the fact that all jews wouyld vote for him because he gave the institutions money whil not realizing that voting for tax increases , gay city council speaker, pigeon control water taxes congestion pricing made him unfit to care for the interests of the little guy

    i voted parker for all these reasons and also due to the slogan

    we all win and lets all be besimcha

    Choizik
    Choizik
    15 years ago

    I’m a registered Republican. I couldn’t vote for Simcha even if I wanted to. With the recent voter registration drive, everyone assumes they all registered as Democrats. Thats just NOT the case!

    1984jew
    1984jew
    15 years ago

    You got that right, many of us in Boro Park are registered Republicans, including myself. I would run to vote for Felder. Also note that not the whole of BP are in Felders district.

    smart
    smart
    15 years ago

    why should i vote for simcha ,what did he do in the past ? i almost never heard of him the last couple of years dov heikind is allways doing something ,so if he suported parker i voted for parker !!!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    1) WHy is boro park broken into separate districts??????hu???????

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    I enjoyed reading the analysis, however, it does not tell us how many votes Parker and Stewart got in Jewish areas. Maybe Mr. Shapiro can provide such info to make the picture more complete.

    Thanks.

    Simcha
    Simcha
    15 years ago

    I guess that Kol Koreh went unheeded. Funny how people pick and choose which ones to listen to. It was the Jews who cost Felder the elction, let’s see how good this next guy is for our community. It’s a shame.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Many of us new voters are Republican.

    No one told us to register democrat.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I find it very disturbing that the writer harps on the fact that the Jewish community failed to vote in “one of their own”. That statement is sickening. While certainly having someone who is intimately familiar with your needs is important the implication that otherwise we have inadequate representation is blatantly racist and absurd. It does not matter what a person’s religion or race or gender is. If they are capable and genuine in their desire to help their constituents then they are worthy of support. If all things are equal, then perhaps a nod to the candidate who is a member of the community would be in order. But it is not a tragedy if a different person is chosen to represent us.

    Come on, we decry the 97.5% of the black vote going to Obama as racist. Aren’t we being hypocritical when it concerns one of our own?

    Anon
    Anon
    15 years ago

    Half of Boro Park wasn’t able to vote because Felder wasn’t in they’re district. Did anyone know that???? They called your house fifteen times, signs on evry corner, pamphlets, fliers, double decker buses….. Not one flier had a map to indicate what district you belong to and who’s running where.

    Countless people I know went and weren’t able to vote for him.

    Don’t go blame BP, chassidim….

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    11:42 you are 100% correct. The average yungerman whose vote simcah needed didn’t feel he had any Tovas Hanooah from all these Millions to the Mosdos, as they still keep on raising the Tuition for each of them. Imagine, you have 5-6 kids in a mosod and you get raised 40.0-50.0 per child, how are they to swing this? What happened to these Millions that he claims the mosods got?

    BP
    BP
    15 years ago

    In my opinion, Simcha needed much more time to methodically knock on the doors of prime (That would have eliminated most of the confusion). He entered this race WAY too late. He should have run this race from the beginning focusing on the needs of Boro Park and not the entire city. Then he would have had Dov, The Jewish Press and the community endorsement. He would have had plenty of money for a senate run without the Winsor Plumbing developers or the Sephardic money (both of which lost votes for Mr. Felder). With the timeframe they had, this was an organized, professional campaign that is not typical of Boro Park campaigns. The only thing I agree with is voting for congestion pricing. We benefitted greatly from his relationship with Bloomberg and his vote didn’t really matter. I hope that this wasn’t a hoax to give Simcha name recognition to run for something else yet again. Lastly, The Sinas Chimum and disrespect going on here is disgusting. I agree with change and youth but not at the price of disrespecting our elders… I agree with change but not at the expence of disrespecting our elders. There is a lot the community can learn from the experience and leadership of Dov Hikind Sheldon Silver and young campaigns should embrace them rather than put them down.

    HolyMoe
    HolyMoe
    15 years ago

    I know scores of people in my part of Boro Park including myself that purposely did not vote at all.

    Simcha disappointed us.

    At a meeting about the proposed housing project near McDonald Avenue, hundreds of neighborhood people attended including the Mattersdorfer Rav. We were all very strongly opposed to this project. The show of hands there was unanimous against this project. The only one in favor was Simcha Felder.

    The message was one of arrogance, sort of like “I know what’s best for the neighborhood not you dummies that actually live there”.

    Most people felt he may have been “strongly influenced” by the developers. I don’t want to be challila Choshed him but it left a very bitter taste among the resident of the area. We feel he is not our representative.

    We could not bring ourselves to vote for his opponent but certainly not to vote for him. So I and hundreds, maybe thousands, of others stayed home.

    Will the other guy be better? Who knows!

    Voters have sent a message.

    An elected official must always remember that he is a Shaliach Tzibbur no matter how long he has been in office.

    There is no question that had he sided with the community, we would have had us come out in masses for him and he would have won.

    I hope all politicians are taking note of this.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I dont understand whats wrong with parker. He was the incumbent and i feel he has done a good job. Has anyone ever heard of hakoras hatov just because felder was running we should vote for him? Thats ridiculous. I dont think Felder has ever done anything. He does not deserve our vote.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    The hundreds of Gerrer living in that part of Boro Park didn’t vote for Felder, they voted for Parker. This was a result of him voting to build the housing project on 19th and 50th where many of them live and there girls school is located.

    political analyst
    political analyst
    15 years ago

    it would’ve been nice for felder to have educated the public to which voting district they live in & which district he’s running in. the average boro parker knows they live in boro park. that’s it.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    you are not looking at the problem. the problem is that the schools rig it that when you vote you bring back a card saying you voted and the kid wins a prize. you can only vote legally once so what do you do when you have 8-10 kids in a school. to solve the shalom bayis issue in the house, the parent doesn’t vote so he/she doesn’t have to pick one child over another

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    the polititions kiss up to us not for our vote but for our $$$$$$$

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    ONE THING YOU ARE 101%RITE WHEN SOMEBODY IS GOING TO NEED A PERSONL FAVER HE IS GOING TO CRY I WENT TO THERE OFFICE AND NOBODY HELP HE IS GOING TO HAVE A PROBLEM ON HIS BLOCK HE IS GOING TO CRY HELP HELP WHERE WAS YOU WHEN WE CRIED GIVE ME 5 MIN FROM YOUR TIME JUST GO VOTE (EVEN NO NAME JUST PUSH THAT BUTTON THEY SHOULD GET THE MESSEGE WE ARE A BLOCK)BUT FOR THE OTHER THING THAT WE NEED OUR MAN IN THERE YOU ARE 102 % WRONG WRONG BY HAVEING A JEW IN OFFICE HE IS ALLWAYS GOING TO TRY TO PLEEZ THE NON JEW TO SHOW THAT HE TREATING EVRYBODY THE SAME AND A JENTILE IS ALLWAYS GOING TO TRY TO PLEEZ THE JEW TO SHOW OFF HIS EQUEAL DOING FOR THE JEWS JUST GO BACK A LITTLE ITS WELL KNOW THAT RAB SHIMEN SOFER Z’TZL WAS IN PARLMENT IN WARSAH BUT AFTER THE FIRST TERM HE WENT OUT FROM,THERE SAYING WE COULD BENIFIT MUSH MORE BY BEING OUT SIDE AND THE JENTILES SHOULD WORK FOR OUR SIDE

    EYEONU
    EYEONU
    15 years ago

    I guess the $205,000 to upstate Satmar just did’nt buy him more local votes. When Felder is in the news for pigeons and his wife tells him to lose weight that bring honor to us?

    What about parking/ Housing? Graffiti?

    PIGEON YENTA PESHA
    PIGEON YENTA PESHA
    15 years ago

    i guess I davened till I get fed up!!! I don’t want feeding to be a moving violation. i guess when he came out with this law, he didn’t know I was flying!!!!

    truly yours

    pigeon YENTA PESHA

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    It happens to be that I went to vote in B.P in my regular polling place and they told me my name is not on the list. they said something that districts were changed. I am a registered democrat.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    nobody seems to get it. the 21st district starts from 49th street so you automatically lose have of the Jewish votes.