| My ballot petitions have been challenged by Allen Roskoff ! |
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I'm the only City Council candidate to have fully-opposed from the very beginning the RAD/PACT privatisation and demolition scheme that seeks to enrich MAGA billionaire Stephen Ross. As a co-founder of Fight For NYCHA, I've spent over six years fighting this naked land grab, and Allen Roskoff though it was in his best judgment to challenge my ballot petitions ? |
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I need to hire a very costly election attorney. Please donate what you can ⤵️ |
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Allen Roskoff used to be a progressive activist largely known for his relationship with a direct action activist named Jim Owles. Allen negotiated his way into co-authoring the human rights law during the Koch administration that began to codify civil rights for lesbians and gays in New York City. Over the years, Allen transformed into a machine Democrat, operating a Democratic Party political club named after his late lover. Now, he lives in a luxury condo built by Stephen Ross, the CEO of The Related Companies—the same REBNY honcho, who seeks to annex NYCHA public housing into Hudson Yards. As an octogenarian, Allen has seemingly dedicated himself to purge Chelsea of minorities to make the district more White and to protect White power in elected office. |
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Why does it matter that Allen Roskoff is challenging my ballot petition signatures ? |
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- Allen is acting like a machine Democrat. The Democratic Party machine in New York protects corrupt incumbents. One of its best known strategies has been to challenge the ballot petitions of candidates seen as a threat to corrupt incumbents. This was a major issue in the AOC campaign in 2018, and it was one reason I lobbied so hard, and won a mandate, to work on that campaign to defeat former U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y. 14). By challenging my ballot petitions, Allen is acting like a political boss, who undermines democratic access to open and free elections. That's not progressive.
- Allen's big money political club runs politics, and it's no longer for the people. Allen oversees the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club. His political club hosts Big Money fundraiser events, packed with celebrities. He's managed to position himself as a moneyed-insider. He raises money with the prétexte of inclusion, anti-discrimination, and progressive values. But his moneyed position has allowed him to hire Sarah Steiner, a notable election lawyer, to challenge my ballot petitions. This is the height of exclusion, discrimination (the impact to NYCHA residents and to keeping the Council District 3 represented by a White), and anti-democratic (by guarding ballot access). Do his donors know how Allen is using his donations and his money ?
- Allen has lost his radical ethos. Powerholders need a dynamic tension with the electorate in order for politicians to answer to voters. Without a constant challenge to power, Elected Officials would act like despots. He and the late Jim Owles went from holding in-office zaps at the marriage bureau to holding legal zaps to ballot access. Allen started out challenging power, and now he's safeguarding power. What a transformation, and not for the better.
- Allen has abandoned his roots. In his youth, Allen supported radical activism that was rooted in civil disobedience. Fight For NYCHA has spent spent over six years, working with public housing residents, training public housing residents in social movement building, direct action, civic engagement, and political education. In contrast, Allen looks out from his luxury condo in the Chelsea skyline, and he wants to see his corner of Chelsea annexed into Hudson Yards, the public housing residents standing in his way be damned ! That's a racially tone-deaf take to make. That's arguably a racist hill to fight on.
- Allen doesn't care if he faces accusations of racism in his quest to protect White power in Chelsea. The demographics of New York City is changing ; it's now a majority-minority city. As of 2022, non-White residents made up 69 per cent. of the City's population, whilst White residents made up 31 per cent. But Allen wants to keep the Councilmember of District 3 in the hands of Whites. He supports demolishing public housing, where tenants are 90 per cent. non-White minorities. Despite the obvious disparate impact discrimination, Allen supports another upward transfer of wealth from NYCHA to a MAGA billionaire extremist, Stephen Ross. No amount of accusations of racism ever stand in the way of a true racist. Just try asking Allen, yourself.
- In the service of racism, Allen seemingly has machine help. Despite my unequivocal stance against the RAD/PACT privatisation and demolition of NYCHA public housing, Allen was able to hire Sarah Steiner to challenge my ballot petitions. What does it say about the cogs in the Democratic Party machine ? She accepted the mandate.
- Are the correct disclosures being made to the Board of Elections ? In Sarah Steiner's Specifications of Objection Form, she disclosed to me that the objector's name was Allen Roskoff. Does that mean that Allen Roskoff is personally paying for the legal fees to mount this legal challenge ? Or is Allen going to somehow use the deep pockets of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club to cover the cost of Sarah's legal fees ? We don't know.
- In the end, Allen Roskoff has decided to collaborate with the MAGA oligarchy that the rest of us are being told to fight. Set aside how disappointing Bernie Sanders and AOC have turned out across every major issue confronting us today. Let's focus on the #FightOligarchy call-to-action. On that public relations stunt, the least Allen Roskoff should be able to do is to put on airs that he believes in standing up to the oligarchy. Instead, he turns to the New York Post to paint a false picture of the social movement being driven by public housing residents and the formerly homeless as being manipulated by rich, white ladies living in million-dollar condos. It's Allen Roskoff, who is the White and who lives in a luxury condo built by The Related Companies, who is advocating another upward transfer of wealth from a Government Agency that owns and administers strategic, public assets to the pocketbooks of a MAGA oligarch. This violates what Bernie and AOC are telling us to do. The fact that Allen is engaged in machinations that goes against the low-bar theatrics of Bernie and AOC shows you plainly how Allen has transformed himself into the corporate wing of the Democratic Party, not unlike Richard Socarides.
Is this the end of my campaign ? I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. A lot depends on you. Since the fight to save NYCHA public housing benefits us as a society, you have a social connection to its success. From the beginning, I was honest about this campaign. It was a campaign of ideas—of ideas that strategic, public assets should be kept in the public sector ; of ideas that Democrats, who sold us out, should be voted out of office ; of ideas that activists, who have been battle-tested with participation in social movements and with experience with at least some direct action, have a responsibility to pay it forward. That's what I've tried to do. And it got me in the cross-hairs of Allen Roskoff and Sarah Steiner. All of this is happening during Pride Month. How shameful, but not unexpected, since Allen is just following in the footsteps of other LGBTQ leaders, who sold out the movement for equality in order to line their own pocketbooks and to profit from access to power. By that measurement, Allen has succeeded. But it was to our detriment. |
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Le me know how your thoughts about Allen Roskoff have changed ? |
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Please message me on the Signal app at : (917) 944-6187.
Thank you. Louis Flores
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