Katz seat contenders make last rounds to gather votes
Posted on October 21, 2009 by Anna Gustafson in City Council, District 29
Lynn Schulman (l.) and Karen Koslowitz (r.) are running against each other in the Nov. 3 general election.
The two candidates running to replace City Councilwoman Melinda Katz (D-Forest Hills) are continuing their efforts to woo voters before the Nov. 3 general election in a race that Karen Koslowitz and Lynn Schulman do not expect to be an easy win for either of them.
Koslowitz, who is running on the Democratic and Independent party lines, won the primary with 25.89 percent of the vote. Schulman, a Democrat running on the Working Families Party line in the general election, came in second with 22.49 percent of the vote.
“You’re asking people to vote on the third party line, which is always a challenge,” said Schulman, who decided to enter the general election on the WFP line earlier this month. “We’ll do what we can to educate people. It will be challenging, and I’m looking to reach out to different people. It’s a grassroots effort.”
Greg Lavine, a spokesman for Koslowitz, said while he believes the former councilwoman will win, her campaign is in high gear.
“In any election, whether it’s a presidential year when Barack Obama is running and there’s a huge, huge turnout, or not a huge turnout as we saw in the Democratic primary this year, if you take any election for granted, you’re not running a wise campaign,” Lavine said.
Schulman said she decided earlier this month to run on the line of the Working Families Party, which endorsed her before the primary, because numerous residents in the 29th Council District told her they thought she should stay in the race. District 29 covers Forest Hills, Rego Park, Kew Gardens and parts of Richmond Hill, Maspeth and Elmhurst.
Koslowitz is the director of constituent services and community boards at Queens Borough Hall and former deputy borough president. She represented Council District 29 from 1991 to 2001. She could not run again in 2001 because of term limits.
Koslowitz’s campaign is focusing on quality-of-life issues, such as mitigating traffic and working to fill empty storefronts along such shopping hubs as Austin Street. She has emphasized bringing new and better technology to the district’s police precincts.
“We’re running a positive-oriented campaign that Karen has done before and she can do it again,” Lavine said. “She has a proven record and served as deputy borough president and she has new ideas. She understands the changing dynamics of the district.”
Schulman is a senior associate executive director of business affairs at Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn, a member of CB 6 and has served two terms on the 112th Precinct Community Council. She has said she would create a 24-hour constituent service line and said she would work to increase affordable housing, particularly for seniors, in the district.
“Karen represents a time in the past, and I represent the future of the community,” Schulman said. “I want to make the Internet part of the process with constituents in the district. I want to hold town hall meetings in every part of the district. City government is a lot different now than it was eight years ago. The problems are more complex, the challenges are more daunting.”
Both candidates have received a slew of endorsements. Koslowitz has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Katz and all her former primary challengers except for Schulman. Schulman has received the backing of The New York Times, former Mayor Ed Koch and the Citizen’s Union, a nonprofit group that promotes good government.
Reach reporter Anna Gustafson by e-mail at agustafson@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 174.
I was at the forum where Ms. Koslowitz stated that she would be the “best” candidate for Councilmember of the 29th District because she already knew the “locations of the bathrooms at City Hall”. well, I guess when you get to a certain age that is one of your main priorties, but to say you know more about that subject than to say you understand the process of how to put together a budget that would benefit your district and the other citizens throughout NYC, truly flabbergast’s me that this is the person that won the democratic primary.
Karen Koslowitz if successful on Nov 3rd will only address issues that pertain to Forest Hills and Rego Park, she surely won’t be a true representative for Kew Gardens, Elmhurst, and Middle Village. That is why when it comes time in early 2010 for the councilmembers to review the map of their districts as they do everytime there is a census conducted, Ms. Koslowitz will manipulate those 3 areas out of her district. Though she only has a degree/certificate from secretarial school, she’s shrewd enough to get the Queens County machine to guide her to wipe out those area’s from her district.
I’ve known Karen Koslowitz for over 20 years, and can acutally say that she is not the right person for the council. It’s strange that Karen never speaks to any of the journalist at the Queens local newspapers, and city-wide newspapers; she has a “spokeperson” state a quote for her. The reason for this and I can speak first-hand on this matter, Karen is unable to verbalize a sentence that makes any sense, she has a very big problem comprehending what is being asked of her. Karen Koslowitz is a very nice person, but just not the right person to return to the City Coucil.
“Lynn has never met a lie she didn’t like”???? Ah so slander is now the campaign tactic of choice? Any other nasty claims you would care to manufacture let alone substantiate? Is it a lie John that The New York Times once remarked that Ms. Koslowitz had “earned a reputation as one of the Council’s least distinguished members” -NYt 9/4/91; and then went on to endorse Lynn Schulman over Karen in this election? Is it a lie that Koslowitz’s campaign benefitted from thousands of dollars of mailings from the Independence party that has yet to be reported to CFB? We all received the mailings, and you can look up the CFB disclosures yourself online, so that can hardly be disputed. Is it a lie that although Karen was one of dozens of sponsors of a toy gun ban while on the Council, the actual legislation came from the Manhattan Borough President’s office and realistic looking toy guns had been banned since the 1950′s — not exactly the impression given in her campaign literature, which extolled her as an author of such legislation? Is it a lie that she is the choice of the County Party machine? We know all these things are true, so where are the lies? And why bring up Ms. Schulman’s bar results, she never lied about this? So I guess we can add rumor mongering and character assasination to your bag of campaign tactics too.
It continues to frustrate me to no end, that we are fundamentally being denied a real choice in this District because the Queens County Democratic Party, a party that should be representing me and my fellow Democrats’ interests and preferences, effectively rigged this election at the outset by actively supporting Ms. Koslowitz. The purpose of a primary is for the members of the party – not the party leadership — to decide who they want. Yet in this election Ms. Koslowitz was given the party’s endorsement from the outset, a significant boost. Even then it was only enough to get her just 25% of the vote [75% of democrats wanted someone else], but with all the candidates running it was unfortunately enough for the primary.
But we do have a choice and when we vote in two weeks, we can either choose a candidate who has advanced no new, creative plans or solutions, who is a party insider [the same party that gave us Hiram Monserrat], and has essentially run a capaign on little more than the premise that she already knows where the ladies’ bathroom is in City Hall [a virtual quote from a forum I attended], or we can choose Lynn Schulman, an independant Democrat, who is not beholden to the party machine, who has the backing of good government groups and tenants associations and who is discussing new and creative ways to improve the provision of City services; to increase our access to government; to make city government more transparent and accountable; to find funding for needed projects in the District; to get ambulances, and ultimately hospital beds, back in the district; and, to develop small businesses and green sector industries. Our votes should not be taken for granted.
Some more of Lynn’s internet attack dogs on the prowl. She unleashed them during the primary…she continues to do so now.
Lynn has never met a lie she didn’t like — and use. How were her bar exam results…oops…she didn’t pass, did she? She hasn’t uttered a word of truth throughout her campaign, and she continues the trend now.
I wish Adam’s seeing eye dog well. Lynn “eye appealing?” Scary.
Karen is not the ideal, but she is far better a choice than the “perpetual -LOSING – candidate”
The quote of Karen’s campaign manager “she was there before and can do it again”, well yes she was there mostly “in spirit”. Her overall attendance at committee hearings was deporable. Ms. Koslowitz was too busy with her own personal agenda; i.e, making sure she was able to get her daughter on the city payroll and clothes shopping. Karen was only perceived as “being a good council representative” because at the time her chief of staff Matt Farrell (who has since passed away) did all the work. Ms. Koslowitz was just his and the county’s puppet. Ms. Koslowitz is a poor orator, she can barely keep a thought or idea, loses the attention of her audience on a continuous basis. Last but not last, who would rather look at for the next 4 years; Karen, big red hair, or Lynn Schulman, eye appealing, able to hold a thought or even complete a sentence without a lot of long pauses. November 3rd VOTE–ROW E.