In the film The Bourne Supremacy, Matt Damon's plays a character whose past catches up to him and he must re-enter a life he thought he left behind. Here in New York City, election day is fast approaching, and I must re-enter the grassroots activism life that I left behind 9 weeks ago when my water broke on West 40th Street and I gave birth an hour and half later.
(Now that I've learned how to embed images, the next thing I will learn is how to make them smaller.)
The Bourne Supremacy was the sequel to The Bourne Identity. Thus, this diary - The Baby Bjorn Supremacy - is the sequel to my previous diary, The Baby Bjorn Identity, in which I schlepped my infant son Quintus in a Baby Bjorn carrier to a subway stop in Brooklyn to campaign for Josh Skaller. Since Baby Q slept through the subway campaigning, I decided to try out phonebanking, this time for Yetta Kurland, another terrific candidate for city council:
Josh Silverstein and his fiancee Michelle, with Quintus in the Bjorn and me
Baby Q learns about phonebanking while I talk to voters
About Yetta Kurland: Yetta is running in District 3, my district, which includes Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea, and the West Village. Yetta Kurland has been an educator for over 20 years. She is also a civil rights attorney and her firm focuses on LGBT issues.
About this race: This is an interesting race for several reasons. First, it's a Democratic primary (which is effectively the general election in this heavily Democratic district) where all three candidates on the ballot are women. The incumbent, Christine Quinn, would have been term-limited out in 2009, but she supported, and championed, Mayor Bloomberg's legislative repeal of term limits. Also, this district has a large number of LGBT voters, and both Quinn and Kurland are openly gay. (Re the third candidate, Maria Derr, I have met her, and though I think she is a very nice person and cares about the community, she cannot win this race. She simply doesn't have the fundraising numbers and volunteer support that Yetta has.)
For me, this race comes down to real estate development. I have met Christine Quinn several times; I like her on a personal level and I admire her strong commitment to health care issues. However, she is heavily supported by large real estate interests, which is clear both in her campaign fundraising and her votes in the council. Real estate money determines way too much in urban areas like New York City, from affordable housing laws to whether small businesses will be able to survive, which in turn determines the character of our neighborhoods. Yetta does not get her money from real estate interests, and she is extremely passionate about making sure people in the community, and not real estate developers, determine how we live (and whether we can live) in our neighborhoods.
My grassroots political group, Democracy for NYC, has endorsed Yetta, along with Josh Skaller, Steve Behar, and Norman Seigel, three other terrific candidates running in the September 15 primary here in New York City. We are a local group of Democracy for America, and I am proud that so many Dean people have continued to stay involved since Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign.
When I arrived in the office with Quintus in the Bjorn, I was trying to get settled, find a place to put my bags, etc. Thankfully, I was able to quickly hand the baby over to Josh Silverstein, my friend and fellow DFNYCer who has been working hard for Yetta. Baby Q was totally happy to be in Josh's arms, and Josh kept right on phonebanking, getting about 3 "Strong Yetta's" in a row: