By Miranda Neubauer
After a weeklong recount during which each candidate alternately claimed to be ahead, Lincoln Restler has on Wednesday narrowly defeated Warren Cohn for the State Committee/District Leader in the 50th Assembly District by 120 votes. The election marked a victory for the progressive New Kings Democrats club, which seeks to challenge Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s Brooklyn Democratic Establishment.
Cohn’s family has been politically active in Brooklyn since his grandfather, Harold Cohn, was assemblyman for Greenpoint and Williamsburg from 1959 and 1968. Both candidates were running for the position Cohn’s father, Steve Cohn, had held for 27 years before choosing not to run again. On election night, Restler was only 20 votes ahead of Cohn.
“This is a great victory for the reform movement in Brooklyn,” Restler, NKD’s vice-president, said Wednesday after the conclusion of the recount, calling his win an opportunity “to end machine politics once and for all.” The New York Times reported Friday that Lopez is under federal investigation.
The evening before election day, Restler was handing out leaflets at the Greenpoint Avenue G train stop ,reminding commuters to vote and occasionally greeting them with “Buenas Tardes” or the Polish “Dzień dobry”. Restler continued his campaigning even as a thunderstorm approached, and only briefly considered stepping out of the rain into the less-trafficked subway station, He dismissed a nearby newsagent’s entreaty to keep himself dry. “There’s no way he’s out working in the rain,” he said of his opponent.
On Tuesday afternoon of election day, voters at P.S 84 on Norman Ave did not experience any of the voting problems reported earlier in the day.
. “The family that’s there now, it’s been the same family for 60 years…this is not a dynasty, this is a democracy,” said Restler voter Tom Anten, 60.
“I was generally unaware of [ the position] and … they made such a concerted effort to be visible and introduce themselves [that I felt that ]….their youthful enthusiasm and their initiative deserved support,” another 44 year old voter said of Restler.
Before the final outcome, calling Restler’s campaign message “a lot of rehashed Obama progressive quotes,” Cohn Director of Communications Matthew Berman said that “Cohn has the relationships with the people that hold higher office…..and can bring [concerns] to the people who can actually do something about it.”
Cohn faced challenges due to changing demographics, said Howard Graubard, who has blogged about local politics for the past five years and used to work in local political offices. Outside of Hasidic Williamsburg, “the oldtimers are decreasing….if you take a trip along the East River and look at all that new construction, none of those people have any idea who Steve Cohn is or who Warren Cohn is or who Harold Cohn was.”
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