Joe Placide

Why is this so difficult?

Here are some accounts of the explanations from the campaign of Councilman-elect Mathieu Eugene about when he moved into the district that just elected him.

His campaign spokesman told me shortly after his election that he had signed a lease at an address in his district at the beginning of February.

Then this, from Dave Seifman in the Post:

Eugene's campaign manager, Joe Placide, said Eugene had signed a lease for an apartment in the 40th District on Feb. 1 - nearly three weeks before the results of the election were in.

And a series of odd no-comments to Errol Louis:  read more »

There's no question that Eugene, the first Haitian-born candidate elected to the Council, was living in Canarsie - miles south of the 40th Council District in Flatbush - during his campaign for the office.

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Joe Placide, the campaign manager for soon-to-be City Council member Mathieu Eugene, just told me that his candidate has signed a lease for a three-bedroom apartment in his new district.

He says that the lease was signed on Feb. 1, pending the result of the election.

-- Azi Paybarah

Errol Louis has more on the residency problems facing newly elected City Councilman Mathieu Eugene, whose swearing-in ceremony was just postponed. because he lives outside the district.

[UPDATE: Eugene's campaign manager called to say that neither newly elected Council member was sworn in today because the outcomes were not certified by the city's Board of Elections.]

A reader reminds of a certain irony in the fact that Eugene's strongest supporter in this race, former Council member and current Representative Yvette Clarke, lambasted her opponent last year for moving three blocks into the district a year before the race started.

Eugene's campaign manager, Joe Placide, told me yesterday that his candidate is still looking signed a lease February 1 for an apartment.

-- Azi Paybarah

Ten Creole translators from the citys' Board of Elections were dispatched to the top ten Haitian polling sites in Brooklyn's 40th Council district, where there's a special election today.

Joe Placide, a former David Dinkins staffer running Dr. Matthieu Eugene's campaign, said that there have been issues at some polling sites. "Primarily with Haitian-speaking people, that's where we are seeing," he said.

"We're having a lot of problems."

The campaign also sent three lawyers to three other polling sites, according to Placide.

-- Azi Paybarah