Evan Thies

City Councilman David Yassky is undecided about whether to support or oppose a legislative change to the term limits law.

But his former chief of staff, Evan Thies, who is running to replace him, called the move "dead wrong." Thies expressed himself in an email to supporters, which was forwarded to me by a reader.

Here it is.

Dear #####,

A few weeks ago, Mayor Bloomberg declared his intention to run for re-election, and asked the City Council to overturn our City's term limits law--a move that would increase the number of consecutive terms allowed for elected officials from two to three. Since then there has been much debate, and subsequent growing opposition, about the Council's right to make such a change.

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One day after Ken Diamondstone announced he's running in the 33rd City Council district in Brooklyn, Isaac Abraham, who told the Daily News he would run back in February, announced a Williamsburg press conference to officially launch the campaign.

The advisory says Abraham announce at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Kent Avenue and S. 9th Street.

Abraham owns a hardware store in Williamsburg, and, if elected, would be the first Hasidic Jew to serve on the City Council.

Already running in the race are former Council staffer Evan Thies, Assembly staffer Stephen Levin, Democratic district leader Jo Ann Simon, and environmental activist Ken Baer.

Which is not to say Abraham is without his constituency. “We are proud and honored to support one of our own residents in his candidacy for Council in 2009,” the advisory says.

Ken Diamondstone, who recently abandoned a bid to try for the second time to unseat State Senator Marty Connor, just announced this morning that he will run for City Council in the 33rd district.

The district, which includes Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO, is currently represented by term-limited David Yassky.

In the announcement, Diamondstone’s campaign said he will “make history by becoming Brooklyn’s first openly gay representative to any legislative body in New York State.”

He has reason to believe he can do it.  read more »

By the time I got to City Council candidate Evan Thies' kick-off campaign fund-rasier last night at Union Hall in Brooklyn, the party was going strong, but Thies had already spoken.

He sent over a copy of his speech, in which he talks about growing up in Brooklyn and how the borough has changed

Excerpts after the jump.

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City Council candidate Evan Thies of Williamsburg thinks the 2009 City Council race will draw a line with voters between two factions of the Democratic party: progressives versus "machine" Democrats.

His opponent, Jo Anne Simon, disagrees. “I don’t know of any insider that is running,” she told me. “So, I honestly am not sure why he’s chosen to make an issue of that in that way.”

In addition to being a private-practice lawyer, Simon is a state Democratic Committeewoman and District Leader, both official positions in the local Democratic Party party apparatus.

Asked if her credentials make her something of an insider, she replied, “I suppose superficially, people can say almost anything.”

More after the jump.  read more »

Twenty-eight-year-old City Council candidate Evan Thies of Williamsburg thinks the local 2009 races are a fight between two factions of the Democratic party.

“The truth is, even though everybody is a Democrat, there are essentially two parties,” he said when I sat down with him yesterday. “There are the progressives and then there are the machine people.”

Thies went on to say, “We have a real shot in the next election of putting the progressives ahead, finally, and making this a truly progressive city as opposed to one that’s tied to an era of machine politics and just government inertia that we’ve suffered through for years and years, since Tamanny Hall.”

Thies is a former staffer for David Yassky and earned some fame in 2004 when he unfurled a huge banner from a window in the The Plaza Hotel to protest the G.O.P convention.

In light of this morning's Daily News article about contributions David Yassky has received from developers, Brooklyn District Leader Freddie Hamilton may now be reconsidering her endorsement of the Council Member for Congress.

Yassky spokesperson, Evan Thies, declined to comment saying, "I'm not going to comment on it until I get a call from Freddie. That's pure speculation." [ADD]

Yassky announced the endorsement in a May 7th press release.

(As a sidenote, that article can now be found in the boroughs section of the News website, although it was in the politics section this morning.)

—Nicole Brydson

UPDATE: This in from Freddie Hamilton:

"Council Member David Yassky has always been on the right side of issues that affect my community in Brooklyn--including good government and affordable housing. For those reasons, and many more, I am pleased to support his campaign for Congress. I hope to stand with him and celebrate victory on election day. "New York is facing serious issues. The people who try to divide voters, and distract them from the real issues have no place in this election."

If there's any excitement over at City Hall this morning, thank Yassky press secretary Evan Thies, who sent out this request Friday:

"please let everybody know that we need folks to show up for Amanda Burden's press conference on Monday at 11 AM at City Hall. we need protesters to chant behind her and Sean Donovan on the steps and bring signs demanding affordable housing etc."  read more »

Thies tells us he was only trying to help.

"Commissioners Burden and Donovan have said quite often that they welcome the community's input," he emails.