City Councilman John C. Liu had a few harsh words on Monday for his opponent in Tuesday’s comptroller race, Councilman David Yassky. Mr. Liu, surrounded by cheering supporters, criticized Mr. Yassky for an advertisement that began running last week, and added that Mr. Yassky had run a “highly negative campaign.”

Mr. Yassky could not immediately respond, and for good reason: he was observing Yom Kippur.

Services had barely ended when Mr. Yassky’s campaign fired back. Danny Kanner, a spokesman for Mr. Yassky, said it was “unseemly” for Mr. Liu to attack while Mr. Yassky was “observing the holiest day of the year” for Jewish New Yorkers.

Mr. Yassky and Mark Green, a candidate for public advocate in Tuesday’s runoff election, were taking the day off from politicking, at least until sundown, when Yom Kippur ended. Mr. Green, in fact, had no plans to campaign at all on Monday, while Mr. Yassky planned to greet voters Monday evening at Fairway on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

But Mr. Liu and Councilman Bill de Blasio, Mr. Green’s opponent in the public advocate’s race, decided that the campaign must go on. The two non-Jewish candidates got things started on Monday morning with a joint appearance at an event attended by hundreds of retired union workers in Chelsea.

Both Mr. Liu and Mr. de Blasio, after whipping the crowd into a frenzy with chants and cheers, took pains to defend their presence on the campaign trail.

The fact that the last day before Tuesday’s runoff coincided with Yom Kippur was unintentional. By state law, the runoff had to be scheduled two weeks after the primary, so in this case the political and Hebrew calendars happened to intersect.

Mr. Liu released a light schedule with three or four planned events. By noon, Mr. de Blasio’s aides said they were not sure whether he was campaigning in the afternoon. (They later added a campaign stop at the Grand Street subway station in Chinatown.)

A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio said that on the day after the primary two weeks ago, Mr. de Blasio began consulting Jewish elected officials and friends, including Assemblyman Dov Hikind, to make sure that it would be acceptable to campaign on Yom Kippur.

“We talked to a lot of our Jewish supporters,” Mr. de Blasio said on Monday, explaining that he had been told it would be “perfectly appropriate” to campaign – as long as he did not call, send mailers or campaign in heavily Jewish neighborhoods.

He also said that he did not intend to go negative. “I think it’s also important to keep a positive tone,” Mr. de Blasio said.

Juanita Scarlett, a spokeswoman for Mr. Liu, said Mr. Liu had also consulted several prominent Jewish supporters about campaign etiquette on Yom Kippur. She declined to name the supporters, but in recent days, Mr. Liu has been endorsed by Mr. Hikind and Satmar leaders in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Borough Park.

Ms. Scarlett said that as part of the “muted” schedule, Mr. Liu was not campaigning in Jewish neighborhoods, and volunteers were not knocking on doors in those areas.

Earlier Monday, Mr. Liu, surrounded by a group of enthusiastic Chinese retirees in Chelsea, called Yom Kippur “a solemn day for many New Yorkers, and we are certainly very respectful of that.”

Is it fair, one reporter asked Mr. Liu, to “to take shots at someone who’s observing a holiday because he can’t fire back?”

Mr. Liu said his complaints were nothing new, and he countered: “Is it fair to start a smear campaign with just a few days left before the actual election?”

Note: It has been brought to YWN’s attention that one of the Satmar factions led by the leaders of  UJCare has endorsed John Liu for Comptroller. While the other Satmar faction led by the leaders of the UJO of Williamsburg has endorsed David Yassky for Comptroller. As far as we’re concerned, the most important thing is that you vote today!

(Source: NY Times / YWN Desk)