BY COLIN MIXSON | Welcome back, Connor?
Brooklyn’s Democratic Party boss is angling for former state Senator Martin Connor to return to the seat recently vacated by Daniel Squadron, claiming the pol would serve for a year and not seek re-election so that there can be a proper vote to fill the seat in next year’s primary.
Brooklyn party chairperson Frank Seddio said that by temporarily installing the former state Senate minority leader in the position, the party would avoid filling Squadron’s seat with someone chosen by county committees and allow for a more democratic process to choose a permanent replacement down the line.
“Let him be a placeholder for the 13 months remaining and then have a real primary,” Seddio said.
Squadron, who ousted Connor from the District 26 state Senate seat — which includes Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn — in 2008, resigned from Albany’s upper house in August. But the pol stepped down after the petition-filing deadline for candidates to get on the September ballot passed, preventing a primary vote from determining a Democratic nominee that almost certainly would win the seat in November’s general election.
Instead, the nominee, Squadron’s likely successor, will be chosen by the district’s combined county committees from Manhattan and Brooklyn. And, as a result of party rules that weight the decision in favor of Manhattan’s committee members, Manhattan party boss Keith Wright is ultimately empowered to choose the nominee, according to Connor, who currently works as an election attorney in Brooklyn Heights.
Seddio said he hopes to sell Wright on the plan, arguing it would be fairer for voters to choose from a fresh slate of candidates next year that does not include an incumbent selected via county committees.
“Incumbency has an enormous amount of value,” he said, “so not having that would allow a real election.”
Connor told the Brooklyn Paper, a sister paper of The Villager, in August that he had no intention to campaign for Squadron’s seat. But speaking last week, he said he would agree to assume the position at Seddio’s and other Democrats’ request, claiming it is the best move for the party.
“I’m not running,” Connor said. “I’m not making calls. But if that’s helpful to the party and the constituents and would give the other candidates an open shot in the primaries, I’d be willing to do it.”
The former politician promised he would not seek re-election next year if appointed, and his word is good enough for Seddio, even though there is nothing that would legally prevent Connor from launching a campaign.
“I’ve known Marty Connor for 30 years,” Seddio said. “He’s one of the most honest people I know in terms of how he handles his political role. I can’t imagine him giving his word and not keeping it.”
Eileen Naples, a former prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, is the only Brooklynite vying for the seat.
“I haven’t spoken to Marty Connor himself, but a placeholder that promises not to run is the most democratic thing,” Naples said. “To give the choice of the democratic nominee to the voters ultimately is the goal.”
But some are skeptical that Connor would willingly hand over the position if appointed.
“I would cast a cold eye on such a promise, because too often promises are broken,” said Sean Sweeny, a leader of the Downtown Independent Democrats, who voted for Connor in 2008.
Paul Newell, a Lower East Side Democratic district leader running for the seat, decried any effort by party bosses to handpick a candidate.
“The idea that two county leaders would sit together and decide without the committee members who have been selected for this purpose would be the least democratic outcome,” Newell said.
In addition, during the election when Squadron ousted Connor nine years ago, some slammed the longtime Albany fixture as a “do-nothing” politician.
