Comments on: “Meet Brooklyn hardball”

By: rochesterturning.com: turning the tide upstate

rochesterturning.com: turning the tide upstate — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:46:51 +0000

[...] I have a lot of respect and admiration for our senior Senator from NY. You took back the Senate as head of the DSCC (Thank you, Thank you, [...]

By: exile in SF

exile in SF — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:33:27 +0000

The ball they are playing in Albany is wholly transplanted from Brooklyn. Joe Bruno in Canarsie 30 years ago would have been eaten alive…

By: phillip anderson

phillip anderson — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:53:32 +0000

heard something about that when i was working up there. not really sure of the details though. that said, small towns can be rough too. my little redneck hometown down south has a pretty rough reputation as well. i guess the thing about brooklyn that strikes me so is the institutional nature of the problem. one can find bad actors anywhere. in brooklyn, it’s the entire political culture that is a bad actor. that and it’s beyond cuthroat.

By: Exile on Ericsson St.

Exile on Ericsson St. — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:31:06 +0000

But didn’t a county assessor allegedly get murdered there back in the day?

By: phillip anderson

phillip anderson — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:28:35 +0000

funny that you bring up duchess county. i’ve worked on two state senate campaigns. a primary challenge to a thoroughly corrupt dem in brooklyn and on brian keeler’s campaign in duchess. about two weeks before e-day in keeler’s campaign i start thinking about how many poll watchers we are going to need and how i need to train them.

then i realize, this ain’t brooklyn. e-day in duchess was a picnic compared to primary day in brooklyn. no fistfights, no mistresses running polling sites, no outright vote buying, no burglaries of campaign offices (oh, yes.) and no one physically threatening senior citizens who declined their candidate’s free steak dinner.

By: Exile on Ericsson St.

Exile on Ericsson St. — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:16:05 +0000

Do they leave threatening phone messages on candidates’ father’s answering machines in Brooklyn?

You’re right that Brooklyn is rough, but upstate is just as bad or worse. Do you remember the big Duchess County scandal from about five years ago?

By: phillip anderson

phillip anderson — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:56:27 +0000

a game of “catch”? maybe at schumer’s level. but, trust me, as someone who lives and brooklyn and can see the machine all up close and personal, the real brooklyn hardball is fucking vicious. local politics in the county of kings is a full contact sport. literally. i have actually seen brawls at polling places.

and besides, where do you think those brawlers in albany learn their trade? they learn it coming up through the urban machines, and the brooklyn machine is first among equals in the “hardball” dept.

By: Dennis O'Brien

Dennis O'Brien — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:47:21 +0000

schumer is awesome. especially for the down to earth way he lives in dc. but he also takes the time to talk to staffers. i know state officials who are ‘above’ that. anyway, keep in mind that chuck is a product of albany, so he knows albany hardball as much as brooklyn hardball. although brooklyn hardball has a nice ring to it.