Hevesi’s Hypocrisy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
When Alan Hevesi was running last year for mayor, he took apparent pride in the fact that he was doing so without the nomination of the Independence Party. This is the party that, despite its innocuous sounding name, still must reckon with the presence within its ranks of Lenora Fulani, who blamed the September 11 attacks on “our government’s aggression and arrogance,” and of Fred Newman, who in 1985 called Jews “storm troopers of decadent capitalism against people of color the world over,” the Anti-Defamation League has reported. In April of 2001, according to an article in Newsday, Mr. Hevesi called on Michael Bloomberg to turn down the party’s nomination because of what he called the “long history of polarization, divisiveness and anti-Semitic comments” by one of its key members, Ms. Fulani. In a September 2001 debate, according to a transcript in the New York Times, Mr. Hevesi noted that in 1997, he was offered the Independence Party nomination for city comptroller. “I turned it down because of the involvement of Lenora Fulani,” he said, criticizing Mark Green for having accepted the party’s support.
This year, running for state comptroller, Mr. Hevesi has flip-flopped and is seeking the nomination of the Independence Party. A spokesman for Mr. Hevesi, Douglas Forand, told The New York Sun that Mr. Hevesi’s “views on Fulani have not changed.” But it sure seems like his views on the Independence Party have. Said Mr. Forand, “We had the opportunity to go in there and make the case on the issues and reach out to Independence Party members. It’s not that the membership of the Independence Party is Lenora Fulani. They are largely people who are dissatisfied with how government is running.” We’re not quite sure which Mr. Hevesi to believe on this issue: the old one or the new one. The Independence Party today is not much different from the one of a year ago. If the new Mr. Hevesi is right, then the old Mr. Hevesi owes Messrs. Bloomberg and Green an apology. If the old Mr. Hevesi is right, then the new Mr. Hevesi owes the voters an apology.
