From Phil DePaolo:

Remember this?

Block Magazine - 10/27/06

A week after City Councilman Yassky lost a heated race for congressional representative of Brooklyn’s 11th district, piles of Yes for Yassky t-shirts and boxes of informational pamphlets sat in the corner of the small storefront headquarters, whiteboards still read the cross streets of neighborhoods within the district for volunteer canvassing, and the only people left in the office were Yassky’s campaign manager and his mother.

The race quickly devolved into a racial maelstrom in the media, with accusations flying that Yassky was an opportunist and a colonizer who was trying to capitalize on a race with three black candidates who would ostensibly split the black vote and catapult him into the national political arena.

Yassky was considered the frontrunner at many points in the race, but in September 12th’s Democratic primary, Yvette Clark brought in 31 percent of the vote compared to Yassky’s 26 percent, Yassky’s endorsement by The New York Times or his sizable campaign coffers, which topped all of his opponents by a margin of more than $150,000, according to Federal Election Committee records was not enough.

“When [Yassky] sat on the fence about the Atlantic Yards, I thought that was going to hurt him,” said Philip DePaolo, community liaison with the People’s Firehouse, a public safety watchdog group based in Williamsburg. “Because Chris Owens came out against it, I think he took a lot of the white votes. So for me that was his undermining. That really hurt his white base.”

Considering he is often characterized as having an opportunistic political strategy, where Yassky will head from here is now the question du jour. Yassky moved from Washington D.C. when positions on the city council opened up, then ran an aborted campaign for district attorney which some say he abandoned when he saw he may have had a chance at the 11th district.

“He’s a potential player out there, but he just lost the race — a big one,” Muzzio said. “So I don’t know how big a player on the stage of New York City and New York state politics Yassky is going to be.”

***

Two days before the term Limits vote I warned David that if he voted with the Mayor and the Speaker and overturned the will of the people he would commit political suicide. He told me that he preferred three terms over two but agreed that a voter referendum was the only way to overturn term limits.

A few days after the term limits vote I saw David again. I asked him if he was running for Comptroller or his Council seat. He told me he would not run against Bill Thompson so he had to wait to see what Thompson would do. I reminded him that his decision to overturn term limits was going to bite him in the ass! David has no one to blame but himself for his loss. The people have spoken.