#berlinrosen

Before I voted today, I went to my apartment to get my mail. One of the things addressed to me was a campaign mailer from Assembly candidate Doug Biviano.

Biviano is a perennial candidate and the Brooklyn Democrat equivalent of Alex Jones. Biviano likes to do a lot of guilt by association. For example, he has attacked rival Pete Sikora for having the political firm BerlinRosen do some work for his campaign. BerlinRosen is a big firm that, most notably, got Bill de Blasio elected and was doing the lobbying work for getting universal pre-kindergarten. de Blasio is trying to work to save Long Island College Hospital by striking deals with developers. Ergo, according to Biviano, Sikora is tied to lobbyists and developers because the consulting firm he hired worked for de Blasio who, now as Mayor, has to bargain in order to govern as well as hire help to pass his agenda. Further, he says that some PACs and candidates are other BerlinRosen clients, and thus, Sikora is breaking the law by having them work his campaign since independent expenditure committees (Super PACs) cannot coordinate with candidates but regular PACs can. I don't know how many (if any) Super PACs BerlinRosen represents. Nevertheless, when some other BerlinRosen clients, including de Blasio, endorsed Sikora, Biviano claimed it was an illegal coordination. Like I said, Doug Biviano believes in guilt by association. (Some of BerlinRosen's other clients include Cornell University, League of Conservation Voters, and the Freelancers Union.)

As for the other Democrat running for the 52nd Assembly District, State Committeewoman Jo Anne Simon, he argues that she brought in Brooklyn Democratic Chairman Frank Seddio into a development deal with Brooklyn Bridge Park, made money on a deal that led to the conviction of former Senator Carl Kruger on bribery and corruption charges, and his law partner stood to cash in on LICH closing. I am a political news junkie. If any of these things happened, I would have known about it. Alas, this mailer is the first I am hearing of it.

The mailer, which I have posted below, says that Sikora's campaign manager is "Berlin Rosen" [sic]. How a whole firm can have one title is beyond me. He claims that when de Blasio's arrest (alongside Councilman Steve Levin) for protesting the closing of LICH was fake. Also, in the section of the mailer, there are a lot of words that are capitalized that should not be. (I guess with a shoe-string budget like he had, he could not afford copy editors nor even volunteers to proofread.)

Biviano heavily pushes voters to vote for Zephyr Teachout (in debates in the district, he has been more than candid about his vitriolic animus toward Governor Andrew Cuomo). Before heeding his advice, people should be cognizant of all of his conspiracy theories, acting like a cry baby for the fact that NY1 did not first let him into their debate for the 52nd AD (he was not considered a legitimate candidate since his campaign filed no activity reports on his campaign finance disclosures), finally getting to debate and then acting like such a jerk that Errol Louis threatened to cut his mic. For me at least, Doug Biviano is the type of person who when he tells you to do something, you should do the exact opposite. That is why I am pleased to say that I voted for Cuomo, Kathy Hochul, and Jo Anne Simon.