The Curse of 184 Kent? Yassky Trailing Badly in Poll

City Council Member David Yassky is trailing Council Member Yvette Clarke and several other candidates by a wide margin in the 11th Congressional District race according to poll results published in the Daily News' Daily Politics column, which came to our attention via The Politicker column in the New York Observer via the Brooklyn Record. (Such is the convoluted flow of information sometimes.) Clarke leads with 29%, followed by Carl Andrews with 17%, Chris Owens with 14% and Yassky with 9%. Nick Perry, who had 8%, dropped out. The poll also shows huge room for movement, with 21% undecided. (The poll is said to have been paid for by Perry.) Yassky reportedly has especially weak support among African-Americans. There are also neighborhood pockets of opposition against Yassky based on his stands on hot button development issues such as Atlantic Yards (Yards opponents say he's done multiple flipflops) and the de-landmarking of 184 Kent in Williamsburg (he did not support landmarking the historic building). Councilman Al Vann recently wrote that, "We are in peril of losing a 'Voting Rights' district, the 11th Congressional District, as a result of the well financed candidacy of Council Member David Yassky, a white individual." Yassky has also been attacked by Al Sharpton.

While Yassky is likely more popular than the 9% figure indicates, organized opposition can sometimes be corrossive. Yassky is, after all, the only candidate in the race that has generated a "stop him/her" movement.

Interestingly, though, when we checked in on stopyassky.com--a site that went live about a month ago--it was devoid of content. The site only offers the words "Stop Yassky.Com." Hmm.