Yvette Clarke | The New York Observer

At Women's Rally for Obama, No Sympathy for Palin

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:51:01 -0400

New York City women who support Barack Obama held a rally at City Hall yesterday, ostensibly to counter the post-Palin storyline of female voters moving to John McCain.

At the end of the rally, I asked some attendees if thought Palin was being treated fairly during the campaign, or if, as Hillary Clinton asserted during her campaign, sexism is still an issue on the campaign trail.

“I can’t speak for Ms. Palin,”...

Bill Clinton Helps Ed Towns Raise Money

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:45:24 -0400

Bill Clinton will speak at a fund-raiser tonight for Representative Ed Towns, whose challenger, Kevin Powell, is trying to frame Towns' support of Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary as a political liability.

The event is taking place at the home of attorney Sanford Rubenstein, on East 64th Street. Clinton is expected to speak around 7:30 p.m. Others expected to attend include Representatives Anthony Weiner and Yvette Clarke, and Manhattan Borough President Scott...

De Blasio 'Very Emotional' Over Endorsements From Clarke, Velazquez

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:39:44 -0400

Yesterday afternoon at City Hall, Congresswomen Yvette Clarke and Nydia Velazquez announced jointly that they are endorsing Bill de Blasio for Brooklyn borough president.

These early endorsements follow announcements of support for de Blasio from UNITE-HERE and The NY Hotel Trades Council. Combined with the campaign's announcement yesterday of having raised "nearly $1 million dollars" ("$177,454 this filing period and $621,891 this cycle"), de Blasio is looking a bit like a...

At Clarke Forum, Simcha Felder Need Not Apply

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:13:06 -0400

The Democratic club home to Representative Yvette Clarke and her mother, Una Clarke, a former City Council member, will hear presentations tonight from State Senator Kevin Parker and one of the Democrats trying to unseat him, City Councilman Kendall Stewart.

Una Clarke said the presentations will be made to the executive committee of the club and are not open to the press. She also said the third Democrat in...

Paterson to Obama: I'll Campaign With You

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:08:25 -0400

David Paterson spoke with Barack Obama around 2 p.m., he told reporters in Midtown during the New York State Democratic Party’s meeting.

“He asked me how the first two and a half months were going," Paterson said. "And I told him it might have even been more difficult than your campaign.”

Paterson went on, “He did ask me to campaign with him, and I told him I would certainly find a way to campaign with him,...

Unity, New York Style, at a Pro-Obama Rally

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:32:34 -0400

Here's a brief moment of disunity at a unity rally in support of Barack Obama on the steps of City Hall this afternoon.

Representative Ed Towns was answering a question about the fact that Christine Quinn and other City Council members weren't there, and then, well, State Senator Bill Perkins and Representative Yvette Clarke kind of got in each other's way....

New York Congress Members Endorse Obama; Rangel To Attend Announcement

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:23:54 -0400

Representatives Greg Meeks, Yvette Clarke and Ed Towns put out a joint statement just now endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

They are planning a 1 p.m. press conference at City Hall on Friday. There's another press conference happening in D.C. at 1 p.m. today.

All of them they previously endorsed home-state Senator Hillary Clinton, although Obama won their districts on the February 5 primary.

According to an aide for...

Clarke Doesn't Expect 'Unintended Consequences' From Supporting Clinton

Mon, 26 May 2008 15:10:10 -0400

Unlike David Paterson, Representative Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn is staying on message for the Clinton campaign, and just told me she thinks it’s a little early to write off Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid.

“I think things will become a little bit clearer after she completes her race. But in addition to that, I think some benchmarks she will be looking at, and her campaign will be looking at, what the D.N.C. rules committee...

New York's 2008 Congressional Earmarks

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:17:01 -0400

Citizens Against Government Waste published its annual list of congressional earmarks (they actually call it the Congressional Pig Book list).

Of course, what one person calls wasteful spending, another person calls bringing home the bacon, and now that Democrats are in the majority, New York was supposed to be getting more federal money.

The state made out with a good portion, particularly in the Catskills, where Maurice Hinchey brought in $43.7 million.

Here...

Crowd Cheers As Paterson Is Sworn In

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:30:57 -0400

David Paterson was just sworn in as governor here in the Assembly chambers on the third floor of the Capitol building in Albany, to cheers of "David! David!"

Paterson acknowledged distinguished guests, including his "good friend" Joe Bruno....

Rangel on the Role of Superdelegates

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:10:22 -0500

Charlie Rangel, a major supporter of Hillary Clinton, is joining Chuck Schumer and a growing number of superdelegates who think the Democratic nominee should reflect the popular vote, not the will of the superdelegates.

From Newsday:

"It's the people [who are] going to govern who selects our next candidate and not superdelegates," Rangel said last night at a dinner for the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators conference in Albany.

Yvette Clarke Raises Money

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:24:09 -0500

A reader sent along this invitation to a fund-raising event for freshman Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, taking place later this month.

As far as I know, no one has publicly said they will run against her. Has anyone has any rumor of a challenge?...

In Pro-Obama Brooklyn, Clinton Supporter Predicts Victory

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:07:48 -0500

Barack Obama has relatively strong support from local elected officials in and around the 11th congressional district in Brooklyn, the heart of his support in New York City.

But the district's newly-elected Congresswoman Yvette Clarke supports Hillary Clinton,

And Mathieu Eugene--the first Haitian-born City Councilman--who represents the area, declined to tell me earlier this week who he’s supporting.

Una Clarke, the Congresswoman’s mother and matriarch of politics in the district, is with Clinton....

Hillary's Special Appearance Before the Congressional Black Caucus

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:24:25 -0400

Rebecca Sinderbrand sends in this dispatch from Washington: Hillary Clinton received a polite reception at the Congressional Black Caucus's Annual Legislative Conference – with most members in attendance applauding and joining in the obligatory standing ovation – but she didn't quite capture the crowd; a few grim-faced members of the audience pointedly refused to rise or cheer.

The senator has been a regular attendee at the conference for years, but her appearance at today's...

Clarke Gets Over Wolfson, Endorses Hillary

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:44:03 -0400

Yvette Clarke is about to endorse Hillary Clinton for president today, according to a campaign aide, signaling that the last New York Democratic congress member has put aside what she admitted was a grudge against a Clinton adviser.

Howard Wolfson, a close aide to Hillary Clinton, served as an adviser to one of the candidates Clarke faced in a contentious congressional primary last year. After winning, Clarke balked at...

Yvette's Legislative Agenda TK

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:27:34 -0400

In January, New York sent four freshmen to congress. So far, they have authored a total of 23 bills.

Nine came from Michael Arcuri upstate. Another nine came from John Hall in the Hudson Valley. And the last five came from Kirsten Gillibrand from Glens Falls.

Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn, so far, has not authored any. (After a reader pointed this out to me, I checked it on...

Eugene2007.com, With Yvette Clarke, Sanford Rubenstein, Jean-Claude Van Damme

Mon, 21 May 2007 07:32:49 -0400

I missed this, but shortly after Mathieu Eugene's tortuous ascent to the City Council, he went up with a website to promote a re-election campaign that will be his third run for the same office in the space of a year.

The picture here of Eugene with Rep. Yvette Clarke and her mother, Una, is from Eugene2007.com, which was created on May 3rd. That's just a few days after, as his biography puts...

Source: Hillary Meets with Holdout Clarke

Fri, 04 May 2007 15:36:25 -0400

A knowledgeable source tells me Hillary Clinton met yesterday with the only Democratic Congress member from New York who hasn’t endorsed her yet: Yvette Clarke.

The two had a “heart to heart,” according to my source. The meeting comes shortly after Clinton’s closet Democratic challenger, Barack Obama, picked up the endorsement of state Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem, and as other local elected officials are thinking of endorsing him also.
...

Clarke Holds a Wolfson Grudge

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 09:33:53 -0400

Freshman Congresswoman Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn, the only Democratic member of the New York delegation yet to endorse Hillary Clinton for President, just confirmed a report on the reason she's holding out. She hasn't endorsed yet, in part, because Hillary spokesman and advisor Howard Wolfson worked on the Congressional campaign of David Yassky, who was one of Clarke's opponents in last year's four-way primary. Here is NBC's transcript of Clarke's interview this morning with John...

The Clarke Interview

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 05:35:20 -0400

A source at CBS said they'll have an interview later this morning with freshman Rep. Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn. In case you somehow forgot, she who won a brutal four-way Democratic primary last year, and who more recently made headlines as the only New York Democratic congress member to not endorse Hillary Clinton. The interview will be streamed live around 10:30 a.m. over here. -- Azi...

Eugene vs. Sharpe, Again

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 11:40:12 -0400

Mathieu Eugene isn't the only candidate from the first special election in Brooklyn's 40th Council District to enter the second special election in that district. Wellington Sharpe, who had a modest results earlier, confirmed he's running again. And this time, he said he'll have the support of one-time Yvette Clarke staffer Nancy Ramos, who'll be in some kind of managerial position. The second-place finisher, Jennifer James, is expected to make a statement about the race...

Weiner, Always With the Campaigning

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:00:00 -0400

Representative Anthony Weiner has lots to do in the House of Representatives. “I’m working on a health-care plan. That’s one of the reasons I asked to be put on the Energy and Commerce Committee,” he said. He’s also working on brownfield legislation, on a report depicting the “boondoggle” in homeland-security spending that should be out shortly, and on an effort to reauthorize a federal program to subsidize local police hiring. “I’ve been pretty busy,”...

Lobbyist, Fund-raiser, Mother

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 11:02:16 -0500

Certainly, there's been a lot of talk since last year's midterm elections about loosening the ties between lobbyists and members of Congress. But what happens when the lobbyist and elected official in question happen to be mother and daughter? Here's an email from former Council member Una Clarke, now a registered lobbyist, about an April 1st event to raise money for a bipartisan non-profit group that supports women in government.

Women Celebrating Women with Congresswoman Yvette...

Missing Member

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:11:32 -0500

Here's a view of the City Council, where Speaker Christine Quinn is discussing a package of legislation aimed at improving safety at night clubs. Note the empty desk behind her. That's where Yvette Clarke used to sit and, presumably, where Mathieu Eugene would have been sitting if he had been sworn in. He and Vinny Ignizio, who also won a Council Seat during the February 20 special election, have yet to take the oath...

Residency Matters, Except When It Doesn't

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:15:00 -0500

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...

Jennifer James and the News

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 04:30:00 -0500

The much sought-after Daily News endorsement in the City Council in Brooklyn went to Yvette Clarke's former fund-raiser Jennifer James. Here's what the News said:

"A local political activist, lifelong Flatbush resident and daughter of Caribbean immigrants, she has broad support in a diverse district. Also welcome is a promise to donate any "lulu" pay beyond her salary to...

Ask the Council Candidates

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:00:00 -0500

Journalists Sam Tait, Tony Best and I are going to moderate a televised forum for candidates in the special election to fill the City Council seat in Brooklyn that was recently vacated by Representative Yvette Clarke. It'll air tonight between 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Time Warner channel 56, and on CableVision channel 69 in Brooklyn. The candidates in the race are Mathieu Eugene, Jesse Hamilton, Wellington Sharpe, Jennifer James, Moe Razvi, Harry Schiffman, Zenobia McNally,...

Yvette on Iraq

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 04:15:00 -0500

While some Representatives from New York try figuring out their position on the Iraq War resolution, expect to hear newly elected Congresswoman Yvette Clarke's position on the war around 10 a.m. on C-SPAN. On the campaign trail, Clarke's message about the war was this: "Imagine a Congress that was half female, allowing our children to be sent to war, in harm's way without an extremely good reason." -- Azi...

Times for Hamilton

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 05:00:00 -0500

The New York Times endorsed Jesse Hamilton in the special election for Yvette Clarke's old City Council seat in Brooklyn. The Times was careful to explain that ethnic politics had nothing to do with their decision, writing:

"While we like anything that might help increase voter participation -- ethnic and cultural pride included -- there are more important considerations here than the origins of the...

James and Clarke

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:33:39 -0500

Here's a mailer for Jennifer James, one of the candidates running in the upcoming special election for Yvette Clarke's council seat in Brooklyn. James, who used to serve as Clarke's finance director, makes prominent mention of her former boss's name, though without implying any endorsement. (Both Yvette and her mother -- former Council member Una Clarke -- are supporting another candidate in the race.) -- Azi...

Election Time in Brooklyn

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:32:21 -0500

Here are a couple of visible reminders (from this morning) of the upcoming special election for the Yvette Clarke council seat. While this race has gotten relatively little attention -- compared with, say, the $5 million special Senate election in Nassau this week -- it has, at least, prompted a number of influential figures within the party to take a rooting interest. Clarke, who gave up the seat when she was elected to congress, is backing...

Lambda Endorses McNally for Clarke Seat

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 05:15:00 -0500

Lambda Independent Democrats last night endorsed Zenobia McNally for the Brooklyn City Council seat vacated by Yvette Clarke, according to a source in the club. To qualify for the club's endorsement, candidates were asked to fill out a questionnaire explaining their stances on LGBT issues and attend last night's meeting in Brooklyn. The fact that not all of them did was a factor in their final decision, the source said. -- Azi...

Profiling a Candidate

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:30:00 -0500

Yvette Clarke may have played up the female angle in last year's congressional election, but that was nothing compared to this. From a piece on Clarke in The Hill:

Clarke isn't your typical half-lost, conservatively dressed freshman. More runway than House floor, upon arriving at lunch she unwraps a thick, multicolored scarf and removes a long, pretty beige overcoat to reveal an animal-print Gianni Versace suit -- a mid-thigh-length skirt accompanied by a short blazer....

Lining Up for the Council

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:15:00 -0500

Here's a list of people who filed petitions with the city's Board of Elections to run for City Council, courtesy of the encyclopedic Jerry Skurnik. For the record, there appear to be 13 names down to run for the Yvette Clarke seat. The filing deadline was yesterday. -- Azi...

One Less for the Clarke Seat

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:27:55 -0500

The field of perspective replacements for Yvette Clarke on the City Council is continuing to thin itself out. A reader forwards this email from Geoffrey Davis, the brother of slain Councilman James Davis:

Greetings Friend, After exploring the idea of running for City Council's 2007 special election. We (The James E. Davis political Club) decided not to run, but continue to build better community relationships while providing Educational, Cultural, Political and Social programs. The James...

The Haitian Candidate

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 07:32:40 -0500

It looks like the Haitian-American Council Steering Committee has found their candidate for the special election for the City Council seat Yvette Clarke vacated with her election to congress. Ferdinand (Freddy) Zizi was endorsed by Haitian-American leaders, according to a press release sent to me around 4 a.m. the other day. "Freddy Zizi was selected among six talented, highly educated and qualified candidates that included: Georges Boursiquot, Mathieu Eugene, Rita Joseph, Yves Rene, Emmanuel Roy, and...

Clarke's Committee

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 04:54:27 -0500

While the race to fill Yvette Clarke's seat in the City Council is heating up, the move to find someone else to chair the City Council's Contract Committee is also underway. One Council staffer sent word that calls were being made in Brooklyn asking members there who would like that chairmanship, which is to say it's not kind of wide-open selection process that we're seeing elsewhere. -- Azi...

Petitioning Begins

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 11:30:00 -0500

A reader with his eye on the calendar sends word that while most people were listening to Eliot Spitzer's first major policy speech to lawmakers, there is some good old fashioned political work to get done elsewhere. Today is the first day of petitioning for candidates looking to run for the City Council seats vacated by Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn, who is now in congress, and Andrew Lanza, who won a seat in the state...

The Clarke Family

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:00:00 -0500

It’s hard to say much about newly elected Congresswoman Yvette Clarke without first talking about her mother.

That would be Una Clarke, the pencil-thin, 71-year-old Jamaican-born grandmother with short white hair who became the political face of Brooklyn’s growing Caribbean community. A decade after her election to the City Council in 1991, Una’s career in politics seemed to have come to an end in 2000, when she narrowly lost her bid for...

The Candidates in Brooklyn

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 09:00:00 -0500

One informed reader informs me that the field of competitors to fill the City Council seat being vacated by Yvette Clarke include may actually be shrinking. Candidates still actively jockeying for position, according to the reader, include: Jesse Hamilton, whose poster you can see here; Ferdinand Zizi, who won support from the Haitian American Steering Committee, and is registering his political committee now; Zenobia McNally, who ran against Yvette in 2005, but is the only person...

Replacing Yvette

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 08:46:06 -0500

The city's newest congresswoman, Yvette Clarke, will get sworn into office next year, but the jockeying for her city council seat is well underway. According to the encyclopedic Jerry Skurnik and a City Council source, the Mayor will call the special election within 3 days of the vacancy occurring (January 1). Then, the election is held within 30 or 60 days. There are no run-offs, and it's a non-partisan race. Candidates have 10 days to petition...

Clarke's New Friends

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 11:30:00 -0400

Another clue about how big a role Anthony Weiner played in helping Yvette Clarke establish her Washington connections: this picture was taken a few days after the primary and is the only photo of the soon-to-be congresswoman with statewide stars Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. While Clarke is laying low for the moment, expect pictures like this to start popping when she gets around to campaigning for the general election against an actual...

Humble Fundraising

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:30:00 -0400

In this e-mail to supporters, unsuccessful congressional candidate Chris Owens offers this depressing update about his post-primary financial situation: "We raised $380,000. But we now have some $30,000 in outstanding obligations. Having been "unemployed" for over a year while campaigning, I am not in a position to meet these obligations on my own and I am asking for your assistance one final time. Fundraising during a campaign is a humbling experience; doing so...

Don't Call It a Comeback

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:43:31 -0400

Before Yvette Clarke won the Democratic primary for that congressional race in Brooklyn, she had the City Council seat her mother Una once held. Now that Yvette is bound for Washington, might Una run for her old seat? "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" emailed an aide close to Yvette. -- Azi...

Union Muscle in Brooklyn

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:47:50 -0400

One of the deciding factors in the city's two closest congressional primaries on Tuesday, wich were in Brooklyn's 10th and 11th districts, wasn't race, or the throw-the-bums-out attitude, or even the war. It was unions. 1199/SEIU, 32BJ, and UNITE Here, to name a few. In the 11th, unions seem to have out-soldiered the anti-Antlantic Yards contingent -- at least judging by the final result -- by pulling enough voters out to send Yvette Clarke to Washington....

After Yvette

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 10:17:59 -0400

One theme Yvette Clarke rode to victory on Tuesday was that she was the only woman in the four-way Democratic primary for Rep. Major Owens's seat in Brooklyn. But in the race to fill her soon-to-be-vacated seat City Council seat, so far, women candidates are scarce. One knowledgeable reader suggested the following as a list of possible contenders to take her place: -- Wellington Sharpe, who has run for numerous offices and was kicked off the...

IMterview: Micah Lasher

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 09:33:10 -0400

Feeling pretty good this morning, if a little tired, are the folks at Knickerbocker SKD, who have two of yesterday's primary winners as their clients: Yvette Clarke in Broolyn's 11th congressional district, and Brian Kavanagh in Manhattan's 74th Assembly district. In an attempt to revive the IMterview tradition, I reached out to one of the consultants there, Micah Lasher. azipaybarah: how do you feel this morning? micahlasher: Tired, satisfied, relieved. azipaybarah: you guys helped kavanagh and yvette azipaybarah: what's...

The Primaries and 2009

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 07:44:41 -0400

So how did the prospective 2009 mayoral contenders fare in the 2006 races? Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson backed Andrew Cuomo. But with a 20-point victory, who takes credit for that? In Brooklyn, Thompson backed losing candidate Carl Andrews in the 11th congressional district. Quinn stayed neutral there. Anthony Weiner and Betsy Gotbaum backed the winner, Yvette Clarke. Gotbaum was among a hundred women endorsing Clarke, while Weiner brought the John Murtha endorsement. Adolfo Carrion seems to have...

Spitzer, Clinton, Cuomo

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:46:52 -0400

We're signing off for now. Here's what we have so far: Eliot Spitzer got more than 80% of the vote and by 10:20, Suozzi sent word he will indeed "endorse" Spitzer. Hillary Clinton's got more 80% of the vote in her race. In the close race, Andrew Cuomo beat Mark Green 53-32%. John Spencer beat KT McFarland 60-40%. In Brooklyn, David Yassky and Yvette Clarke are neck and neck, but a source reports Yassky's best districts already...

Clarke vs. NYT

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 06:14:49 -0400

Here is an image of that piece of campaign lit from an old ally of Yvette Clarke that Ben wrote about, explaining why Clarke didn't get the endorsement of the New York Times -- and David Yassky did -- in the 11th Congressional district primary. "Beats us," it reads. "But the grapevine says the Times clearly wants to perpetuate the plantation system in Brooklyn by helping to elect 'a neo-massa.' " Subtle. -- Azi Paybarah