ICYMI: Brooklyn City Council Campaign Has Become 'Factually Dubious Hit Job,' Critics Say

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A group of neighborhood tenants organizations are calling for the end of what they say have been "dishonest negative attacks" by one candidate in the race for the City Council's 35th district, which includes Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Crown Heights.

The groups are taking issue with a mailer sent out by the campaign of Ede Fox that says Laurie Cumbo, who currently holds the seat, has "sold us out." The back of the mailer also says that Cumbo "sided with wealthy developers" on a controversial plan to turn an old Crown Heights armory into a rec center and condo tower.

Cumbo, though, has vowed to vote down the city's Bedford-Union Armroy proposal, a stance she reiterated in a mid-July interview with Patch.

Errol Louis, a veteran political reporter at New York 1, called the mailer from the Fox campaign "a factually dubious hit job."

In a statement emailed to Patch through a campaign spokesman, Fox said that Cumbo "has a well-documented history of supporting real estate developers to the detriment of the community she was elected to represent."

"She has taken thousands of dollars in developer money to run her campaigns, and went against the communities' wishes in supporting the Bedford Union Armory development," Fox said. "She has directed public money to her own pet project art museum, all in an effort to further her own image. These are the facts and our campaign literature merely points this out. I would tell Laurie Cumbo that the truth hurts. "

Fox and Cumbo are both vying for the Democratic nomination for the council seat, which will be voted on in September. Fox has made the armory development a crucial piece of her campaign pledge. She announced her run for office outside of the armory, surrounded by menacing images of Cumbo.

Cumbo hasn't indicated that she will change her "no" vote on the armory project, which would essentially kill the proposal.

"We're not accepting any aspects of any sale of the Bedford-Union Armory," Cumbo told Patch earlier in July. "The people were explicitly clear about the fact that they didn't want condos, that they didn't want any sale of public land."

The letter from the six tenants groups told the Fox campaign that they expect "a measure of honesty and basic fairness, two things sadly lacking from your campaign to date."

Other candidates in the council race include Green Party members Jabari Brisport and Scott Hutchins along with Republican Christine Parker.

You can read the letter to Fox in full below:

Image: Mailer from the Ede Fox campaign.