Welcome to the

CENTRAL BROOKLYN INDEPENDENT DEMOCRATS

ELECTIONS 2004

America Coming Together organized volunteers here to elect Democrats in swing states. Many CBID volunteers traveled with ACT to swing states, particularly Ohio and Pennsylvania. Some of us phoned voters in swing states from phone banks at UFT and ACORN offices in Brooklyn.

Report from the Election Committee:

It was the middle of last August when the newly organized Elections Committee began a ten week effort for two very critical elections - one for the re-election of Congressman Major Owens in our own 11th CD during the Democratic primary campaign and the other for the election of Frank Barbaro in the 13th CD during the general election campaign.

Even though we now face the disappointing returns from the results on November 2nd, we have been able to involve the Club in ten weeks of productive campaign activity.

In the 11th CD, there was intensive tabling on 7th Ave. in Park Slope during the primary campaign. This resulted in several hours of face time with voters in the 44th AD. In addition to this there was subway leafleting of near saturation levels on the "F", #1,#2 , "D" &"R" trains. All of this campaign effort resulted in a heavy turnout for Congressman Major Owens, who won the Sept. 14th primary, and who went on to win re-election on November 2nd.

After Sept. 14, in the 13th CD election, the Elections Committee focused its efforts in the 60th AD. This is the Bay Ridge neighborhood that lies along the Fourth Ave. "R" Train. And, specifically the committee worked in collaboration with the 60th AD leader, Jo Anne Seminara and that AD's Brooklyn Democrats for Change (BDFC). The major share of this campaign activity involved tabling along Fifth Ave. & Third Ave. as well as intensive leafleting of the "R" train stations.

The election results in the 13th CD on election day, November 2nd, along with the national results of course were not happy. However, there were some very positive results from our work in the 60th AD, the most important of these was the establishment of a working relationship with the BDFC; and, the committee is planning to develop this relationship for the 2005 elections.

Also, there is this good feeling among all of those who participated in this campaign effort that we were a team with a purpose. There was an awareness of the value of this collaboration and certainly kudos are in order for their work.

First and foremost of the group is Kevin Patrick Carroll; without Kevin's enthusiasm an energy, the Committee would never have gotten off the ground. Then follows the other wonderful peoples who willingly gave their time and energies - Marty Bernstein, Annette Bernstein, Claudia Bernstein, Meyer Braiterman, Amanda Carroll, Kevin Peter Carroll, Jack Carroll, Jeffery & John, Charles Davis, Ellen Fleishman, Gilbert Hernandez,Nosheen Hussain, Mary Leonard, Risa Novicoff, Jim O'Reilly, Ellen Raider, and Eric Weltman. Also there was Ted Monell, who created his incredible map of the 13th Congressional District. It was Ted's map that was used almost exclusively by the Barbaro office throughout the campaign.

Finally, there is the issue of monies raised and spent. During the tabling process, the Committee collected donations for the Kerry buttons, and as a result, the Election Committee will present a check from these donations to Marty Bernstein for $415.99. On the spending side, the Committee spent $397.34 on the election day food that was needed to feed the above workers; and of course there was a ready bunch of hungry campaigners at the Barbaro office ready to finish off what our committee could not devour.

-Warren Miner, Chair, Election Committee, citizen@cbidems.org

PS - Warren Miner and Kevin Patrick Carroll both deserve credit for organizing this campaign. Warren was too modest to give himself credit.

-Jim O'Reilly, webmaster@cbidems.org

CBID PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENT

KERRY ENDORSED IN A CLOSE VOTE

The Club voted on its Presidential endorsement on February 19, 2004. A plurality of the Club's members voted for Sen. Kerry, with Sen. Edwards and Cong. Kucinich close behind in a tie for second place. When the next choices of the Edwards and Kucinich voters were polled, enough votes shifted to Kerry to give him a majority and the endorsement.

CBID Presidential Forum

Over 50 people gathered at Camp Friendship on Wednesday evening, February 11, to hear representatives from three Democratic Presidential candidates discuss why they chose to support their candidate. The forum was organized by Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats in association with Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Independent Neighborhood Democrats, Lambda Independent Democrats, and Working Families Party-Waterfront Chapter.

Mark Green represented the New York John Kerry Campaign, Bill deBlasio represented the New York John Edwards Campaign and Frank Barbaro represented the New York Dennis Kucinich Campaign. All three representatives had endorsed their particular candidate early in the race and all gave thoughtful presentations on the positions and strengths of their candidate. The questions and follow-up discussion was spirited and raised many important issues for Democrats to ponder and act on.

David Yassky, New York Dean Campaign representative, was unable to attend. We had invited the Sharpton campaign to send a speaker.

-Ma'lis Wendt, Former CBID Recording Secretary

2004 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES WEBSITES

• Sen. John Kerry THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT
• Sen. John Edwards THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR VICE PRESIDENT
• Rep. Dennis Kucinich
• Hon. Carol Moseley-Braun

Former candidate websites not available:


• Gen. Wesley Clark
  
• Gov. Howard Dean, columnist 2004-2005, CHAIR OF THE DNC
• Rep. Dick Gephardt
• Sen. Bob Graham
• Sen. Joseph Lieberman
• Rev. Al Sharpton
  

2004 ELECTION RETURNS

• On the CNN Election 2004 web page, you can find the New York State Presidential primary results broken down by county. You also might find the Delegates' scorecard interesting.


• The C-SPAN Vote 2004 web page.


• The New York Times Campaign 2004 web page