Why We Love Campaign Season + Monday Roundup

GL's phone rang during dinner last night. A friend? A telemarketer? Close. A recorded message for one of the candidates running in the 11th Congressional District race. You would be hard pressed in certain part of Brooklyn, in fact, to know that there are any other races on the ballot other than our nasty little race in the 11th CD. It was impossible, in fact, to walk down any of the 'significant strips of commerce--Seventh Avenue or Fifth Avenue in Park Slope or Flatbush Avenue, to name a few--this weekend without being handed leaflets for one of the candidates. (Thankfully, no candidates presented themselves, but we probably just weren't in the right place at the right time.)

Council Member David Yassky seemed to have the advantage in this department, flooding the streets with volunteers handing out a card and saying, "Endorsed by the New York Times." Our favorite was the girl of about 12 doing this next to Carroll Park on Saturday afternoon. (We were about to engage her in a chat about the corrosive impact of developer money on the political process, but she was very sweet, so we put on a happy face and simply said, "Have a wonderful afternoon!" Don't child labor laws govern campaign work?) We thought we saw Council Member Bill DeBlasio personally handing out literature for Yvette Clarke in front of the Barnes & Noble on Seventh Avenue in the Slope, but we weren't wearing our glasses, and without them we have to be really close before we can I.D. someone with certainty. The photograph above, shot at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street around 6PM yesterday, shows the fate of some of the campaign literature being taped up and handed out.

Roundup:

The Gotham Gazette offers a last-minute guide for primary voters, in case you've managed to tune all this out until now or remain confused. Atlantic Yards Report is weighing in with another good article on the relationship of developer Bruce Ratner and his cash to Brooklyn campaigns. Today's Sun weighs in with a look at the statistical dead heat in the above mentioned 11th Congressional District race. And, the Post says the often race-tinged campaign in the 11th CD has only one color: red hot.