Fidler: Council Candidate Igor Oberman A ‘Mole’ Lacking Integrity, And Hides Behind Storobin’s Skirt
In a bizarre twist of the 48th City Council race to replace Michael Nelson, a sitting Democratic City Councilman of another district, not at all involved in the local campaign, wrote a scathing letter blasting a Democratic candidate as a “mole” and saying the Republican candidate is “horrific.”
The letter, first published by Politicker, was sent by Councilman Lew Fidler, and accused Democratic candidate Igor Oberman of undermining Fidler’s State Senate campaign against David Storobin by turning over strategic information to his rival. Oberman, who is positioned as the most liberal candidate in the race for the 48th, has racked up an impressive number of endorsements from liberal and pro-labor groups, and Fidler’s letter urged those groups to rescind their endorsements and consider any one of the three other Democratic candidates.
“Igor Oberman purported to support me. In actuality, he was a ‘mole’ inside my campaign for Storobin. I do not make such an accusation lightly.We knew at a point that information about our efforts with Russian speaking voters was leaking like a sieve within minutes and at a point we suspected the culprit,” Fidler wrote in the letter. “But the culprit revealed himself on election night, when Igor Oberman appeared at the Storobin victory party (weeks before the results could be known, if you recall) with his arms raised in triumph interlocked with Storobin. I am told that a search of campaign records will also show a contribution from Oberman to Storobin.”
Fidler and Storobin faced off in early 2012 to replace State Senator Carl Kruger, who had resigned amid corruption charges. Following a heated campaign, Storobin emerged victorious – but served only 11 days in Albany before his district was drawn into extinction during redistricting. In that time, he pushed a number of ultra-conservative pieces of legislation, including a repeal of marriage equality.
Oberman, a friend of Storobin’s, has spent the last several months courting the city’s most liberal and pro-labor groups, including the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn and Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, two gay-oriented political clubs. According to Fidler, these groups should rescind any support they may be giving Oberman because he sided with someone who ran, he said, “the single most homophobic race that I can ever remember.”
“I know that Igor Oberman has been paraded before you as if he is a paragon of progressiveness. He has high priced consultants in fancy suits. But you have been sold a bill of goods here. This is the same man who can embrace the most homophobic right wing effort in many a year…and not even have the integrity to do it openly,” Fidler wrote.
Fidler didn’t just dwell on Oberman’s alliance with Storobin, but also pointed out other examples that might suggest Oberman is less than worthy of office. He wrote about the publicized record of Oberman’s co-op presidency at Trump Village 4, where he has been accused of attempting to evict political opponents – although Fidler stopped short of reiterating the accusations from dozens of residents that Oberman has also been soliciting co-op contractors for campaign donations.
He also touted a local political conspiracy theory that has followed Oberman ever since he first came into the public light: that Oberman allowed himself to be bought off in his initial candidacy against Carl Kruger. Oberman, then an unknown, announced in early 2012 that he would challenge Kruger in the upcoming primaries. Just weeks after the announcement, Oberman pulled his campaign, and, shortly after that, began appearing at community meetings as a paid liaison to Borough President Marty Markowitz, a friend and political ally of Kruger’s.
“Spit and vinegar and vitriol were directed at Kruger by Oberman in the nascient days of his campaign. Then guess what happened. Oberman got a job on a government payroll and lo and behold, the Primary was over and he endorsed Kruger, the prior object of his disaffection,” Fidler wrote.
At the time, Oberman flatly denied a “backroom deal,” and said he withdrew from the race and endorsed Kruger because “there is too thin of a Democratic majority right now.”
After publishing the letter, Politicker reached out to the candidates and Fidler for a reaction. Oberman stayed out of it, with a spokesperson simply saying that Fidler’s claims were “unsubstantiated,” while Storobin wrote a lengthy rebuttal focusing more on what he claims was Fidler’s dirty tactics during the State Senate campaign.
Fidler responded by wondering why Oberman was “hiding behind [Storobin’s] skirt.”
Fidler, by the way, has not endorsed any candidates in the 48th District race, and instead wrote in the letter that the remaining three candidates – Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo, District Leader Ari Kagan, and Flatbush Shomrim Founder Chaim Deutsch – were all “very good and qualified.”
Here’s Fidler’s letter in full:
And make sure to check out the Politicker article for the full back and forth between Fidler and Storobin.