It’s election year in the Russian community, and the two power brokers are out at it – over dominance in the first Russian represented council district. While the Democratic Party has yet determined who will be its nominee on the November Ballot, Storobin has managed to secure the Republican and Conservative party lines to take the campaign for the council district, represented by term-limited councilman Michael Nelson, ahead of time.

This past friday afternoon, Democratic district leader Ari Kagan, who’s running in the Democratic primary for the 48th council district, took his preferred mayoral candidate Comptroller John Liu through the famous Tatiana Restaurant on the boardwalk, greeting voters in the middle of a late lunch. Two days later, Republican David Storobin brought Joe Lhota, a former deputy mayor in the Giuliani Administration, to do the same exact thing, earning an endorsement at the same time.

The two pols didn’t hide their disguise of each other while battling over the honor of representing the first created Russian district in Brooklyn, Politicker’s Ross Barkan reports.

“[Mr. Storobin] will play the Giuliani angle,” Mr. Kagan told Politicker. “He will say, ‘This is the guy who worked for Giuliani, he is endorsing me.’ People are very sophisticated, especially in Russian-speaking communities and in Orthodox Jewish communities, American and Chinese communities … people are not stupid.”

Mr. Storobin was quick to fire back.

“The guy has never had a full-time job in his life,” Mr. Storobin said of his rival, who’s backed by his rival over power, Russian radio mogul Gregory Davidzon. “That gentleman has been campaigning for about 15 years. And like I said, he’s never had a full-time job in his life. He doesn’t even own a driver’s license. For a 46 year old, I don’t know if that’s too much work experience.”

The hatred between the two men, is to be attributed to Kagan’s ties to Gregory Davidzon, who suffered a setback last spring with David Storobin’s slim victory over Lew Fidler, Davidzon’s candidate.

“He is known almost strictly to the elderly Russian people who listen to one radio station because they don’t speak English,” Mr. Storobin told Politicker. “Everyone who knows English knows me better … Even with the younger Russian people–and by younger I mean anyone under 65–they all know who I am. Nobody outside of the Russian retirees knows who he is. Literally has next to zero name ID.”

Mr. Kagan didn’t shy away from hitting back.

“I think I know local issues significantly more than him,” Mr. Kagan said. “I was at the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Park [in Sheepshead Bay] for example, in 1997 … Ask anybody in 1997, if they ever heard his name anywhere. He said, ‘I was young,’ but I came to America when I was 26 years old and I became involved the very next day.”

The fight between Kagan and Storobin is all about who takes the lead of representing the fast- growing Russian voting bloc as an influential entity. Thus, the Democratic primary outcome will determine what faction wins the political rule of the American-Russian community in Brooklyn. If Kagan pulls it off against Chaim Deutsch, Teresa Scavo and Igor Oberman, Kagan’s main rival, Mr. Storobin will have a tougher case to make in November. Whereas, if Storobin manages to split the vote between the two Russian candidates and stops Mr. Kagan ahead of time, he cruises towards victory in November as the dominant Russian powerbroker in the years to come.

(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)