Simcha Felder Scoffs At Democratic Push To Boot Him: ‘Are They Going To Build A Wall?’
State Senator Simcha Felder Image by New York State Senate
By Dave Goldiner May 24, 2018
New York Democrats passed resolutions Wednesday night backing primary opposition to turncoat state Sen. Simcha Felder — and moving to kick him out of the party.
Party leaders gathered at an annual convention demanded Brooklyn party leaders move to boot Felder, who has handed control of the evenly divided chamber to Republicans by caucusing with them.
“He is not a true Democrat, but a political opportunist with no loyalty to the party,” the measure said, according to the New York Daily News.
The Democrats also backed a motion calling for financial and political support for Blake Morris, a neighborhood activist who is taking on Felder in a September primary, or another challenger in Felder’s south Brooklyn district.
Felder scoffed at the moves, saying through a spokesman: “Are they going to build a wall to keep me out?,” the News reported.
Felder has run on both major party lines and analysts consider him a powerful force in the district which was drawn to include Orthodox and Hasidic neighborhoods in Boro Park and Midwood.
The political spotlight on Felder has become harsher since a separate rump group of eight so-called “independent” Democrats rejoined the party fold. Some insiders believe Democrats have a good chance of winning several GOP=held seats in November, making Felder’s role less important.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
