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Who are they
endorsing?
Crystal Hudson
Courtesy of campaign
Ari Kagan
Brooklyn Paper fi le photo
Caribbean Life, MAY 14-20, 2021 13
BY ARIEL PACHECO
The Brooklyn GOP and its
chairman, Ted Ghora, are facing
claims of “racism” and not being
“inclusive” by current and former
members of the party.
Christine Parker, a Black
woman and former Republican
candidate for Brooklyn’s 35th City
Council District, was the most
outspoken in her criticism of the
Brooklyn chapter of the GOP.
“They do not want any sort of
diversity, nor is Ted a leader,” said
Parker. “They are racist. They are
incompetent and they are nitwits.”
Parker feels the Brooklyn GOP
did not do enough to help her during
her candidacy, preferring to
back candidates more likely to stick
to the status quo. She says the GOP
was choosing to back candidates
who “aren’t going to do anything for
the community.”
Avery Pereira, a candidate currently
running for District Leader
of the 51st Assembly for Republicans,
claims to be facing a similar
set of issues that Parker faced during
her candidacy a couple of years
back — pushback from the party.
Pereira received 128 signatures
required from registered Republicans
in his district to qualify, 57
more than necessary
to be placed on the
ballot, according
to a court document
acquired
by Politics NY.
The signatures
were challenged
as being fraudulent
a lt hough
there was
no basis to
these claims, according
to a source in
the GOP party.
The same source says that
Brooklyn GOP leader Ghora and
Chief Clerk of the Kings County
Board of Elections Ray Riley in particular
tried to “run out the clock”
on Pereira’s candidacy. Pereira contested
the fraudulent claims, but
had a very short window to submit
the documents for fi ling
with the Board of Elections.
The Board of Elections reviewed
the signatures determining that
only 62 of the signatures obtained
by Pereira were valid, nine less than
the required amount. Pereira was
then disqualifi ed as a candidate.
The GOP source says that Ghora
called the Brooklyn GOP director
Steve Maresca the following day,
“gleefully bragging” that they were
able to get Pereira off the ballot.
Pereira then allegedly asked Riley
to send him the documents he
needed to contest the decision electronically,
but Riley instead had
Pereira go and pick up the documents
in person at the offi ce in
Manhattan after making him wait
almost a full day. Here, the source
says, Pereira was forced to wait almost
two hours to receive just eight
photo copies. Pereira missed the
deadline as a result.
Pereira resorted to taking the
issue to court. Timothy J. Peterson,
the objector to the signatures,
according to court documents,
had no evidence to present during
court. The court then validated
over 60 signatures that were previously
invalidated by the Board
of Elections. Pereira was then allowed
to appear on ballots.
“They are irrelevant to anything,”
said Pereira.
Pereira, a Hispanic and member
of the LGTBQ community, won’t go
as far as to say the Brooklyn GOP
and Ghora are racist, but do think
the party should be
more inclusive.
“The party
is not as diverse and as inclusive
as it should be in Brooklyn,” said
Pereira. “I’m running for re-election
because the party needs to
grow.”
Former Republican and longtime
president of Crown Heights
77th Precinct Community Council,
James Caldwell, said he agrees with
Parker that the GOP and Ghora are
racist. Caldwell was originally a
Black Democrat who shifted his
party affi liation to Republican during
the Donald Trump Era but has
recently returned back to his original
party.
“It’s part of the reason why I
changed my party affi liation back
to a Democrat,” said Caldwell. “I
didn’t really see anything being
done in the minority community.”
President of the Verrazzano Republicans
club Liam McCabe, who
has had differences with Ghora in
the past, called the allegations outrageous.
“These attacks are unfounded
against him. It’s one thing to have
a political difference but making
up false allegations is ridiculous,”
he said.
McCabe and Ghora are currently
backing two different Republicans
for mayor. McCabe has
backed Fernando Mateo and Ghora
has backed Curtis Sliwa. Still, Mc-
Cabe maintains that the claims of
racism are unfounded.
“I’ve been around the party a
long time. In fact, as an Arab-American,
Ghorra has faced racism and
ethnic slurs, which I’ve been witness
to,” McCabe said.
For his part, Ghora vehemently
denies all claims of
racism, but does feel that the
Brooklyn GOP needs to be
more diverse — a direction,
he says, he is moving
the party in.
“We’ve gone out of our
way to make sure we’ve
broadened our community
members to be refl
ective of the diversity
of the borough,”
said Ghora. “Anything
to the contrary is simply
untrue.”
Rep. Yvette
Clarke endorses
Crystal Hudson
for City Council
Crystal Hudson,
a candidate
for City Council in
the 35th District,
was endorsed by
Rep. Yvette Clarke.
Hudson has already
been endorsed
by several
labor unions and
progressive leaders
including Rep.
Hakeem Jeffries,
The United Federation of Teachers, NY
State Nurses Association amongst others.
“Crystal is the type of progressive champion
Brooklyn needs guiding our recovery
on the City Council,” said Clarke.
“As we fi ght to end maternal mortality,
expand access to affordable housing, combat
the effects of the digital divide by enacting
universal broadband, and fortify an equitable
economic recovery, we need more
Black women at all levels of government,”
Clarke went on. “Crystal is the type of progressive
champion Brooklyn needs guiding
our recovery on the City Council.”
Ritchie Torres
endorses
Ari Kagan for
City Council
Rep. Ritchie
Torres announced
his endorsement of
Ari Kagan for City
Council in the 47th
Council District.
“Ari brings people
and communities
together, and
we need his voice
in the City Council,”
said Torres.
“I am confi dent
Ari will be an outstanding Council Member,”
Torres continued, “and I look forward
to working with him to build back a more
resilient New York City post-pandemic.”
Kagan also received endorsements from
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and the Detectives’
Endowment Association Inc.
Brooklyn GOP faces claims
of racism, lack of diversity
Brooklyn GOP
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