Goldman Sachs for Congress... In Brooklyn?

General objections have been filed against George Martinez a candidate running for Congress in New York's newly drawn 7th Congressional District. According to public records, Jennifer R. Cruz, 143 S. 4th St. Brooklyn Apt 1 and her neighbor, David Lopez, 153 S. 4th St. Brooklyn Apt 8, have both filed objections. Ms Cruz also filed a general objection against Daniel J. O'Connor. No objections have been filed against either Erik Dilan or Nydia Velázquez sitting electeds and Machine-backed candidates also in this congressional race. Velázquez's people like to portray a difference between her and King's County Boss Vito Lopez's proxy, Dilan, but it's looking like the ballot challenge is coming from Velázquez's camp. So the question is, who are Jennifer Cruz and David Lopez? Why does Ms. Cruz want to knock every candidate but Velázquez and Dilan from the ballot? Why does her neighbor Mr. Lopez want to keep only Martinez from competing? It's clear these two individuals are not going to finance and organize a ballot challenge themselves. Ballot challenges cost big money, the kind of money you might expect from Wall St corporations like Goldman Sachs. Curiously Goldman Sachs just happens to be Velázquez's largest contributor according online watchdog site maplight.org's most recent reporting cycle.

In a time where the President is speaking out against voter suppression, who are they proxying for in this conspiracy against the grassroots? Is it Velázquez? Is it Dilan? Both? To find the answer to this, we can look to Pennsylvania's 13th Congressional District, where Velázquez's close friend and crony Rep. Allyson Schwartz did the same thing to Nate Kleinman from Occupy Philadelphia. Clearly these corrupt establishment Democrats fear the Occupy movement. Otherwise, why would they even bother to spend the time knocking them off of the ballot? This sort of voter suppression is generally used by candidates who feel like they could possibly lose if they had to face these challengers in a primary. It's ironic that one of the main narratives in the Presidential campaign is a challenge to Republican led voter suppression. The Obama campaign is going as far as working with universities in swing states such as Ohio to change the format of their university IDs to make them compliant with new laws requiring a voter to present a valid ID at the ballot box. When Barack Obama gets up on television to talk about voter suppression, it's certain that he is not thinking of Democrats like Velázquez and Schwartz, but in practice that's what they are doing too.

With the vast majority of her money coming from the banking industry and PACs it's no wonder Velázquez is terrified of having to face an Occupy Wall Street organizer/candidate who is from the district and has a history of speaking out on behalf of his community and constituencies. Apparently the Congressmember doesn't understand the Occupy movement because thinking that knocking an Occupier off the ballot will end all scrutiny rather than intensify it is just plain wrong. Velázquez faces an uphill battle. Unlike Kleinman in Philadelphia, the Bum Rush the Vote movement activists have collected more than three times the legal number of signatures required to get on the ballot. What must Velázquez's political allies be thinking, knowing that they have seen their preferred candidates knocked off of ballots in the past by the likes of local party boss Vito Lopez? In 2010, shortly before state Senator Gustavo Rivera defeated federally indicted incumbent Pedro Espada, Jr., Espada tried to knock Rivera off of the ballot with this exact same maneuver. This is the type of bullying that big money candidates do. The Rivera campaign had to fund raise and devote campaign staff to the arduous process of defending the signatures line by line. Ballot challenges are expensive. In fact, it's the easiest way for a campaign that's swimming in corrupt corporate money to drown a campaign running on grassroots support. Velázquez joins such morally questionable political peers as Vito Lopez (Dilan's patron), DCCC shill Allyson Schwartz and Pedro Espada. Since only the grassroots candidates in this race have had general objections filed against them, it begs the question: are supposed rivals Lopez and Velázquez really at odds? Has this shell game been played on the Brooklyn electorate for decades, controlling who gets on the Democratic Primary ballots and perhaps even who's allowed to win?

The time is now to stop voter suppression. The people's voices must be heard. Please consider heelping us raise funds so that George can fight back against these sleazy tactics. You can donate here at the Blue America page, Send The Democrats A Message They Can Understand.