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Brooklyn Assembly Candidate Says "Negrohood" Flyer Was A Typo
By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 30, 2012
Modified Aug 30, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Aug 30, 2012
Modified Aug 30, 2012
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Last week, Sheepshead Bay assembly candidate Ben Akselrod's campaign hit somewhat of a rough patch after thousands of mailers went out to Democratic voters saying that crime is up in the “negrohood.” Now, Akselrod is saying the error was an unfortunate typo: “As the candidate, I take full responsibility for this inadvertent error and I am sorry to anyone who was offended by it,” he said in a statement. But of course, someone had to take the fall.
And that person is Akselrod's campaign treasurer Bryan Goldstein. The flier, which contained several other typos and factual errors, came from campaign support group “Friends of Ben Akselrod,” and had Goldstein's return address on it. Goldstein told Sheepshead Bites that he was “not involved” in making the flier, and that his address was used “WITHOUT permission or authority.”
“As you can imagine, when I found out about this over the weekend I was quite upset about this,” he told them. “I agreed to be the treasurer for Ben Akselrod. We’ve been friends since high school. It was not something I was thrilled to get involved with but I figured I’d do a favor for a friend.”
Goldstein added that he was largely just a name on the account, occasionally signing paperwork, cutting checks and depositing donations—and now feels very uncomfortable that his address was associated with the flub. Despite his lack of involvement, or perhaps because of it, Goldstein resigned from his position earlier this week.
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assembly
Ben Akselrod
brooklyn
campaign
fllub
flyer
negrohood
sheepshead bay
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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