The Sheepshead Bay Assembly race has gotten even uglier in the home stretch.
Leading up to the Sept. 9 Democratic primary, incumbent Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D–Sheepshead Bay) and challenger Ben Akselrod have been exchanging racially charged attacks.
The dueling Democrats started spewing racist allegations last week, when a campaign mailer with a picture of Akselrod hand-in-hand with Rev. Erick Salgado, which incorrectly implies Salgado is Palestinian.
The mailer’s text — in English and broken Russian — says “Ben Akselrod Supports the Palestinian State,” and calls Akselrod “a traitor.” Akselrod and Salgado, both adamant supports of Israel, said the mailer false on every level.
“Everybody knows I’m a pastor,” said Salgado, who ran for mayor in 2013. “I’m an evangelical Christian and everybody knows that they have been 100 percent for Israel through the years.”
Salgado led a protest on Sept. 7 in front of Cymbrowitz’s district office, where supporters chanted “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
“It is kind of epic — I went wild,” said Salgado, who added that he was unfairly pegged as Palestinian because of his moustache.
The anti-Akselrod mailer was sent out to reporters last week, but it is unclear whether the pamphlet was actually widely distributed to voters. The Cymbrowitz campaign’s denial of responsibility has sparked rumors that the hamfisted attack might have been a false-flag operation meant to discredit the incumbent — a charge Akselrod denies.
Another anti-Akselrod mailer — which has been verified as part of Cymbrowitz’s campaign — reminded residents of the Marlboro Houses of Akselrod’s 2012 mailer saying that Cymbrowitz had allowed crime to skyrocket in the “negrohood.”
“Say no to racist Ben Akselrod,” the mailer screams in all-caps.
A campaign spokesman for Cymbrowitz said the mailer is simply informing the locals about Akselrod’s past.
Before the racist allegations, the campaign’s attacks were mostly religiously charged. In August, Cymbrowitz said Akselrod was “insensitive” to Jews because he issued subpoenas to locals on Cymbrowitz’s nominating petition hours before Shabbat. Akselrod has accused Cymbrowitz of trivializing the Holocaust by using it to justify spending campaign money in a Munich souvenir shop.
