Winning by Making Crowley (and the Queens Machine) Lose

This post has been updated.

The counting is still going on in the special election for the Queens 30th City Council district, but a spokesman for the candidate who came in last place is claiming victory--because he helped prevent another Democrat, Elizabeth Crowley, from winning.

According to unofficial results, Crowley is a few votes behind Republican candidate Anthony Como.

“We won this race," Sam Esposito, a spokesman for Democratic candidate Charles Ober, wrote in an email to supporters, which was forwarded to me by a Democratic operative. "Maybe not in the way many of you would understand, but we really are winners. We had 2 goals, 1 Charlie would win but more importantly was to not let Crowley take that seat."

It goes on to say, “We put the Queens machine in their place. We hurt Crowley's chances of ever getting elected.”

Also, Ober is looking for someone to challenge Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan, who is from Ober’s Democratic club but did not support him for reelection.

“I am also putting word out that we are looking for people who want to run for the assembly seat against Nolan. And the committee chair against Vanbramer. I will run your petitions with Charles in certain areas and I will run the petitions for you in the other areas also. All I need are 2 people who would like to run for office.”

I left a message for Esposito and was unable to reach Ober via cell phone.

The entire email is here:

To all our supporters, our friends, our volunteers and our workers,

We will be releasing a press release in the coming days. But I wanted to just say a few things about this race. We won this race. Maybe not in the way many of you would understand, but we really are winners. We had 2 goals, 1 Charlie would win but more importantly was to not let Crowley take that seat. We felt that if Crowley won, this district would be in for a very bad 10 years and it would have strengthened the democratic machine here in Queens. We wanted other people and politicians to understand that the 6th crime family, the Queens machine family, was not going to run things the way they are used to anymore. We ran an honest and clean campaign. We never lied, threatened, hurt or demanded anything from anyone. We remained respectable, and thoughtful this whole race. Charlie did not embellish himself like the other candidates did, he did not make up shit like the other candidates did, he did not threaten peoples jobs, positions or even friendships like the others did and we used community people to help us in our entire campaign unlike the others. I can sit here and go on and on about how many rotten and unethical things all the candidates did to try to get elected but in the end, we stayed true to ourselves, and true to who we really are. That is important to us because there was no acting or shenanigans like they all did. we did not hang up fliers all over the poles like all the others did. We did not go and rip down peoples banners and posters like the others did. we did not harass the other peoples volunteers like they did to us. We ran a respectable race with honesty and integrity reflecting Charles personality.

We are winners. We put the Queens machine in their place. We hurt Crowley's chances of ever getting elected. And county has 3 people to blame for that. Cathy Nolan, Lois Marbach and Cathy's wife Jerry Marsicano Nolan. The 3 of them knew since Dennis got arrested that Charlie was going to run. They may deny that now but it is true and Charlie saved the emails that he sent to Cathy about his race. Cathy Nolan underestimated Charlie and figured that he would never be able to mount a successful campaign and she promised him she would endorse him and the club would endorse him. She promised him that he would have her support. in the end Cathy lied flat out. Cathy sent out a damaging letter to all the board members of the club saying very hateful things about Charlie and basically letting the club members know that if they support Charlie she will not be their friend anymore, so no one in the Cathy Nolan Independent! Democratic club supported or endorsed Charlie because they are so afraid of not being able to play with Cathy anymore. Not to mention the fact that Cathy threatened her employees that they would be fired if they supported Charlie. Imagine a grown women using her power and position to control people. Well, that is politics. And lets see if Cathy is going to get 260 people to show up to the 100th anniversary dinner in 2 weeks. If not for Charlie she would have never had such successful events. But now that Charlie is not helping her lets see if they can top 260 like last year I doubt it.

Cathy Nolan cursed me out in front of 8 people. She accused me of not belonging to the neighborhood and why the **** I was even involved in the club. She accused me of coming into her neighborhood and getting involved in local politics, not realizing that Charlie and I have been friends for over 20 years. She lost her cool because she knew that I was going to mount a serious campaign and did not want that. All along her and Lois tried to set Charlie up for a fall and they failed and now they have to face county. Cathy Nolan the assemblywoman on Easter Eve not only cursed me out but also threatened Charlie, that if he ran he would cause the world to fall on her club. To be exact, she stated that some people would lose their jobs, that Lois would not get any work, that the club will lose support, that no one will support the club anymore, that no politician will ever speak at the club again, that he would lose his partner, that he would lose his friends, that the club functions will fall apart, that the dinner will not be successful because no one will come because he is running against Crowley, that the club will divide itself, that she would lose her precious power within the club all because Charlie was going to run. The only thing Cathy did not blame on Charles' run was the Irag war. Her and her cohorts tried everything to get Charlie to not run. They even tried to see if they could buy him out of the race. what no one knows is that Charlie cannot be bought and he will not compromise his principals and morals like Cathy did. Charlie is true to himself. He is a man of integrity and honesty. He is a man that stands on those same principles he was taught as a kid. Money and power does not motivate him for a seat. He is absolutely a caring person. Cathy Nolan should be ashamed of herself. A former employee went on to say to us that Cathy is very afraid of having to run a campaign after being in office for 22 years. She is so afraid because she is so out of touch with the community and the changes that have come over the last 22 years. Cathy does not want to have an opponent. that is why Nolan did not want Charlie to run because county threatened an opponent against her. Well, either way there will be an opponent against her. County also called on every city employee that got a job because of county and threatened their status if they did not help Crowley. They used their power to threaten all the city council employees to say that if they did not help Crowley they may not have a job later on. This needs to be investigated because this is how the Mafia got their start, through intimidate=ion and threats. Crowley a congressman having his cohorts threaten people and threaten peoples jobs. Is this what we have come down to?

We ran an absolute honest campaign. We did everything by the books. All these wonderful endorsements and kind words about Charlie are really true. I think that a combination of Crowley's people sending out that letter to the community and making homosexuality an issue is part of our down fall. But that only shows you how hypocritical the democrats are. Being gay is only good enough when they need our money, our time and our energy. But when a gay person wants to run for office that is where they draw the line. They are all 2 faced individuals who have to live with themselves for how they acted in this race. Charlie Ober never once used the gay issue as something to run on. We never marched down Myrtle Ave trying to make a point we never brought the gay community here to make an issue we had a small press conference and put a period to it and went on. That letter was a vicious attempt by the Democrats to come after Charlie because they had nothing else to go after him with. He has nothing to hide. He is completely clean and scandal free. so they used his sexuality to scare the people from voting for Charlie. Plain and simple.

We lost because we would not have people go in the poling sites voting under dead people's names, we would not threaten people if they did not support us, we did not fight with people, we did not use horrible tactics to hurt any of the candidates all we did was tell the truth all along and even though we lost the race CROWLEY is not the councilwomen of the 30th district and that is great. Now we need to start again and we hope that the people in the 30th district take this more seriously and see why the NY Times, the Independence party and the 504 Democrats endorsed Charlie, because he really is a man of integrity and honesty and that he will never compromise for anyone. Charlie cannot be bought out.

I am also putting word out that we are looking for people who want to run for the assembly seat against Nolan. And the committee chair against Vanbramer. I will run your petitions with Charles in certain areas and I will run the petitions for you in the other areas also. All I need are 2 people who would like to run for office. I will take it from there. Please contact me if you want to run and we will talk about the logistics.

It is a time to vote out the good for nothings, the people who want to keep their little club together without having outsiders come in and know the truth about all the money they waste on themselves, all the money they give away to groups that are part of their little piggy banks and we want honest people who are going to use the people's tax money in ways that mean something and not in ways that are for themselves beneficial.

A special thank you to the JPCA, Pat Adams at The Forum, Christine Wilkinson and Queens Crap for all your support, among the other people that helped and there was a lot. We have made a lot of good friends and that you cannot vote out. These people are hard working people who make it there business to help the community all the time. We will announce after petitioning what our plans will be but do not count out Ober because we have only started and have a lot more fight in us.

And remember if you are interested in running for the 37 assembly or for committee chair let us know we will be glad to run your petitions for free. We have a lot of people who want to help us now and we will do it as volunteers for you.

Ober for Council Campaign

UPDATE: Esposito says he didn't write the email. He confirmed that it was sent from his address, but says that a hacker broke into the account and wrote it.