FOREST HILLS, NY — There’s a highly competitive election tomorrow in New York’s 9th district, which includes part of Queens and Brooklyn, to replace Anthony Weiner. You wouldn’t see too much evidence of it from walking around Forest Hills in Queens, however. Even at the heart of the neighborhood where both Republican Bob Turner and Democrat Dave Weprin spent the day campaigning and Weprin’s headquarters are housed, signs were few and far between.
Neither campaign looked exactly polished either. Weprin and a host of his top Democratic supporters stopped by a senior center in Rego Park, where he caught elderly visitors, mostly Asian immigrants, doing chair exercises for a quick run. “Come on!” a young instructor exhorted them as they performed leg lifts and waved their arms. “Remember, before Medicare there was Me-Care!”
Weprin held two media availabilities at the center, but barely had time to talk to voters, making an ultra-quick run through the crowd of seniors, few of whom seemed very interested in his appearance. Weprin mostly kept his remarks brief — there was no big selling point, no asking about grandchildren, just straight to the point: “Please remember to vote tomorrow!”
Supporters, like City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, rattled off a fairly wide range of reasons for supporting Weprin at the event, but if there was one standout theme, it was protecting entitlements from Congressional Republicans.
“The differences myself and my opponent are like day and night,” Weprin said, “I am committed to preserving Social Security and Medicare. My opponent is committed to cutting the federal budget by 35% by totally eliminating departments….he wants to take a hatchet to the budget.”
Weprin has been repeatedly attacked as a machine Democrat by Turner, but if anything his supporters played up his long family ties to the local party. Standing at David Weprin’s side at the senior center as he addressed the press was his younger brother, Mark, a current City Council member and former State Assembly member. Their late father, Saul Weprin, was the speaker of the New York State Assembly.
“I’ve known the Weprin family for over 30 years,” local City Council member Karen Koslowitz said from the podium. “And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
If Weprin didn’t have the most enthusiastic bunch of supporters among the senior center regulars, he did have one heckler, an octogenarian woman named Maureen. “You’ve been in office a long while; it’s time for the Republicans!” She and Kosnowitz argued for a minute and the woman mentioned that her cousin was Queens Democratic Party chair Joe Crowley, whom some Democrats resent for choosing Weprin to run. She admitted to me afterwards that she’s a reliable Republican vote herself, however.
I asked Kosnowitz if she was used to hearing these kinds of things from voters in the area. She shook her head in resignation.”She doesn’t understand it’s the Democrats that keep this place going,” she said.
Outside the senior center, Weprin took questions from reporters, the tone of which were familiar to anyone who’s seen an “embattled” campaign in action. Why are you trailing Turner in the polls? How can you be losing in a district with a huge Democratic registration edge? What are you going to say to turn things around?
“The only poll that’s going to count is tomorrow,” he said, reiterating that his support for Social Security will resonate with voters. Pivoting to a local issue, he said the campaign would also be about issues like his support for the James Zadorga Act, which provides health care to workers who were at Ground Zero after 9/11 and that Turner has criticized.
One question, that’s come up constantly, is how he’s getting outflanked on Israel with Jewish voters. Turner isn’t Jewish and Weprin is Orthodox, but Republicans have made significant headway by constantly tying Weprin to President Obama, whose call for negotiations with Palestinians based on 1967 borders with land swaps is extremely unpopular in the district. Like many New York politicians, Weprin has consistently condemned Obama’s remarks, but Turner has argued that anything short of withholding his 2012 endorsement is tacitly supportive of his agenda.
Asked at the event about the issue, Weprin points out to reporters that he has been to Israel eight times, recently heading over with New York lawmakers to show support for areas affected by Hamas rocket attacks. He reiterated once again his position on negotiations.
“I think going back to pre-’67 borders as a starting point is a mistake, it’s not a defensible point of view,” he said. “Israel right now from a security point of view doesn’t have a negotiating partner, certainly while the Palestinian Authority is affiliating with Hamas. I’ve been very vocal on that. I think my record on Israel is pretty solid.”
After the event I headed over to another nearby senior center, where Turner was set to gladhand with mostly Jewish retirees, to see how he handled a similar setting. Alas, the event was canceled. Apparently the Turner campaign, failed to check in with the place ahead of time on the logistics and was turned away.
