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No One Knows Who Won The Nasty State Senate Race For Carl Kruger's Seat
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 21, 2012
Modified Mar 21, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 21, 2012
Modified Mar 21, 2012
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Yesterday, there was a special election for the State Senate seat in Brooklyn vacated by corrupt State Senator Carl Kruger. And after an election that included ads accusing the Democratic candidate of being a "bacon and eggs kind of Jew" (there are a lot of Orthodox Jews in the district) and accusations that the Republican candidate has ties to neo-Nazi groups, it's no surprise that both sides are claiming victory. Capitol New York reports, "As Republican State Senate candidate David Storobin told a cheering crowd last night that he had won the special election for Carl Kruger's Senates by 120 votes, his Democratic opponent, Lew Fidler, stood on a stage at his own victory party, claiming he was winning the race by 207 votes."
The NY Times notes, "There were still at least 757 paper ballots outstanding, and those would not be counted until next Tuesday, said Valerie Vazquez, a spokeswoman for the board of elections. The entire legal process, which also will include a random audit and the counting of emergency ballots, could take at least 10 days."
Fidler is a City Councilman (he was first elected in 2002) whose stance on the issues includes opposing smoking bans on beaches and wanting the Department of Buildings to keep records of how many cell phone towers there are. Storobin was born in the former Soviet Union and is a lawyer from Brighton Beach and a vice chairman of the Brooklyn Republican Party; he said last night, "It’s a Cinderella story. It’s an ugly duckling story. I am proud and humbled to be elected to New York State Senate. It’s only something that can happen in America."
But Fidler said, "Among the valid ballots at the Board of Elections, we have a 5-to-1 Democratic-to-Republican advantage, so that's why we are so confident even with the 200-vote machine advantage."
Tagged
brooklyn
carl kruger
David Storobin
election 2012
Lew Fidler
special election
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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