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 the race, City Councilman Simcha Felder, has not asked to speak to the club. Felder announced his candidacy for the seat only a few weeks ago, and Clarke says, "There is still a lot of unknown about him in the community.”
When asked which candidate she was leaning towards, Clarke replied, “I am not leaning — I am standing straight until I get a level playing field and figure out what exactly is happening.”
Clarke said she thinks this primary shares some similarities with the 2006 Democratic primary in Brooklyn’s 11th Congressional district— the contest won by her daughter — when there was considerable speculation that the district’s African-American voters would be divided among the three black candidates, giving the only white candidate a victory. Clarke thinks Felder poses a threat if he “gets a solid vote in his community, and the other votes are split in many ways.”
UPDATE: A source close to Felder said he made numerous calls to Yvette Clarke about the event which were not returned, and he did not receive an invitation to tonight’s event.
