As the Riverdale Press reports, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is intent on installing his former staffer Andy Cohen as Councilman Oliver Koppel's replacement. Despite his thin resume and lack of public recognition, Cohen has already lined up an array of elected officials at the behest of Dinowitz. Dinowitz has begun the Cohen push in earnest, parading him out before a press conference last week attacking Con Edison (see photo with Cohen at Dinowitz's hip). Expect to see a lot more of that. The only other announced candidate at this time is community advocate Cliff Stanton.
Andrew Cohen is a just puppet! We need a real councilman.
ReplyDeleteI have lived in Riverdale for 40 years and never heard of Andrew Cohn until this blog posting. That's not a good start for a local candidate seeking my vote.
DeleteHere’s a great reaction to this stooge Andy Cohen being tapped to run for Councilman from the 11th District in northwest Bronx:
ReplyDeleteThe Riverdale Press | Thursday, December 6, 2012
Letters to the Editor
NO DIVERSITY IN DEM'S PICK
To the editor:
How ironic that in the same issue where Joe Zizzo declares the death of the old white male electorate in your Points of View column, we see the announcement of the latest Ben Franklin Club candidate.
Not surprisingly, in the most diverse area of the Bronx, the club leaders — four white Jewish men, all attorneys — endorse another white Jewish male attorney who lives up the hill and who isn’t even from the Bronx a full year before the election.
Two of the politicians who endorsed Andrew Cohen are the same people The Press says helped Andy Wolf buy the Riverdale Review, the same paper Mr. Zizzo blasts for scare tactics and divisive politics. The local Democratic Party looks and acts a lot like the Republicans.
Xena Ramirez
I do not trust Assemblyman Dinowitz, so I certainly do not trust anybody he handpicks such as Mr. Cohen. The last thing we need representing Riverdale and Kingsbridge is an empty suit taking orders from an obnoxious and insignificant assemblyman. On Primary Day, I would gladly vote for Cliff Stanton or Ari Hoffnung or Dan Padernacht ... or anyone but Andy Cohen!
ReplyDeleteI have no respect for this opportunistic political puppet.
DeleteSorry folks, but you could put Stanton, Hoffnung, Padernacht and Cohen all into the same room with me and I'd have no idea who is who.
DeleteWhich one in the photo is Cohen?
ReplyDelete"Handpicked" by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz? That doesn't sound appealing at all.
ReplyDeleteI prefer a candidate who's running on his own intiative, not an underling put up by an assemblyman who's afraid of being upstaged by a strong, independent council member in his own backyard.
That's just one of the good reasons to support Cliff Stanton for the job. Through his years of civic activism and deep involvement in the neighborhoods of the north Bronx, Cliff Stanton has already shown that he gets important things done and that he is not beholden to stale, old politicians.
I guess Jeff Dinowitz thinks any average Joe Schmoe will do for city council. It's so insulting to the voters.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Cohen = made-up BS candidate
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not Cohhen as a person but as a hand picked candidate with no record to qualify him for the importance of being a city legislator.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Cohen is just a flunky
DeleteThe last time I checked we were a democracy. Andy Cohen has the same right to run as anyone else. The endorsement of a local politician has nothing to do it. LET THE VOTERS DECIDE ON ELECTION DAY!
ReplyDeleteDon't fool yourselves. Just about ANYONE is qualified to be a member of the New York City Council. And if you don't believe me, just take a look at the embarrassing collection of imbeciles, halfwits and lowlifes who currently serve on the Council.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few good council members, but I wouldn't let a few good apples spoil the bad reputation of the bunch.
DeleteYes, I agree, but couldn't Dinowitz find anyone better than him?
DeleteYes, the City Council is an embarrassing mess, but that doesn't mean we should not try to improve things. And that's a really good reason to vote against a woefully inexperienced and practically unknown person like Cohen.
DeleteHandpicked? How misleading. There is nothing seedy or shady going on here. The assemblyman has chosen to support a candidate in an open race for City Council, as is the custom of politics anywhere in this nation.
ReplyDeleteDid he rig the system for Cohen? Have other candidates been kicked off the ballot because of Dinowitz? Or is he just supporting an ally while you make a mountain out of a molehill?
Were you attempting to handpick Mark Levine for State Senate? Guillermo Linares? Of course not. Politics (not policy)is, in some respects, a game of endorsements, and there is nothing unseemly about endorsing a preferred candidate.
In the end the voters will decide between at least two, but possibly up to four, candidates for this seat, and it will be up to them, not the assemblyman, to handpick their council choice.
But if you want to post this stuff to make yourself and few other people feel good, letting them bust on the assemblyman and his allies, so be it.
Hey, maybe the problem is who's doing the handpicking. In this case, it's Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a sneaky and ineffectual, career politician who seems to enjoy hanging out with old ladies way more than any man his age should. That guy gives me the willies!
DeleteExactly! So consider yourselves alterted: The objections to Cohen aren't really about Cohen since nobody knows who he is. The negativity is coming from people who have a strong distrust and dislike of Dinowitz.
DeleteBut of course he is hand-picked. Of course the system is rigged. He is hand-picked to benefit from Dinowitz's campaign machine. Dinowitz is already pushing him forward in "Senior Seminars", sending out robocalls (which I just got). Cohen has already benefited from the Assemblyman's use of the mail, sending out announcements on these seminars to voters. The system is rigged because Dinowitz has used public funds in this sneaky way to promote Cohen to the voters.
DeleteCohen is an ineffectual sap, but he will be presented by Dinowitz as the "senior savior." Any coincidence that seniors are steady primary voters?
Dinowitz did an end around on our club. He should wait until the club considers its endorsement before weighing in.
DeleteIntelligence is not required in order to leave comments here, that is obvious.
DeleteAccording to this Riverdale Press article, Andrew Cohen was not Mr. Dinowitz's preferred candidate, but actually his THIRD CHOICE:
ReplyDeleteThe Riverdale Press, 10/17/12
POLITICAL ARENA; ALMOST A FAMILY AFFAIR
By Adam Wisnieski
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz considered supporting his son Eric Dinowitz — a teacher at Bronx Theatre High School — in a primary bid for City Council against Cliff Stanton.
Mr. Dinowitz, who as a leader of the Ben Franklin Reform Democratic Club will have a major influence in the race to replace Councilman Oliver Koppell, ended up encouraging Community Board 8 member Andrew Cohen to file. But it seems Mr. Cohen may have been his third choice.
Apart from his son, it’s no secret that Mr. Dinowitz also liked the idea of his chief-of-staff Randi Martos making a go of it, but that she has no desire to run for office.
Mr. Dinowitz denied that he urged his son to run but confirms that “people” and “groups” raised the prospect.
“There was certainly talk and some people thought it was a great idea, some people thought it was not a great idea,” Mr. Dinowitz said.
“If I wanted to push it, believe me I would have pushed it,” he added.
Mr. Dinowitz, however, said Mr. Cohen was not his third choice. He said his son Eric and Ms. Martos would both be terrific at the job but that if either were to run, it would put him in a bind.
Whatever happened to Community Board 8 member Dan Padernacht being in the running for Mr. Dinowitz’s blessing is a mystery.
He looked to be next in line for an endorsement after he agreed to drop out of the Pedro Espada/Gustavo Rivera race in 2010 to help knock the now-convicted Mr. Espada out of office.
But you never know, Mr. Padernacht could file and make a run for the seat on his own.
I hope that rational people take time to read this information. Adds light - not heat.
DeleteSo what does that make Andy Cohen, some kind of local political third banana?
ReplyDeleteYes, it means that Mr. Dinowitz has opted for inexperience by backing an utter novice who is totally subservient and devoid of real credentials.
DeleteDinowitz is President of the Bronx County Democrats and it is inappropriate for him to make any endorsements before a primary. When the time comes, check every single contribution listed with the NYC Campaign Finance Board for conflicts. And sic the fifty young lawyers sitting in that office on Mr. Cohen. That ought to sting.
ReplyDeleteDinowitz has been using new york tax dollars to run this campaign
DeleteDo complaints go to the NYC campaign finance board?
Padernacht is getting the CB chair spot as a consolation prize. He has led the Ben Franklin Club contingent on the Board in undermining the current chair Bob Fanuzzi at every turn. The die has already been cast and its public knowledge that fanuzzi was told he was being unceremoniously dumped for Padernacht whose tenure on the Board has been unspectacular at best. Like Cohen, his only qualification is hi willingness to do whatever Jeff Dinowitz wants.
ReplyDeletethere isn't enough anger in local politics ... we need to send the old crew packing
ReplyDeleteIt never fails to amaze me that people rightly criticize pols like Dinowitz but then don't take the time to vote against him. I have heard people in my building say "oh, it don't matter what I do since that guy is going to get re-elected anyway." And I just want to shake sense into them.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone refuses to make that effort they are in effect saying that they don't care.