Deep in the south of Brooklyn, Kendall Stewart is scheduled to do some grabbing and grinning along Flatbush Avenue. His campaign had planned a swing through a series of nursing homes in the sprawling Caribbean-American community, where he enjoys considerable support.

Flatbush is at the heart of Stewart’s Council district, spanning more of the State Senate district than that of his opponent, Council Member Simcha Felder, and is expected to buoy his candidacy in the contentious primary race against incumbent State Sen. Kevin Parker.

That is, if he ever gets there.

Nearly an hour after the scheduled start time, the steamy Brooklyn air lingers in the nursing home. No one at Crystal Manor, the first of several slated stops, seems to know he is coming. Some do not even know who he is.

In what might be seen as a metaphor for the Senate race, Stewart is nowhere to be found.

With his campaign war chest running low and wounds still fresh from the indictments of two former staffers in the Council slush fund scandal, Stewart has been spending much of the thickening primary season fighting not his opponents, but the impression that his campaign is falling apart.

Even Stewart’s literature acknowledges the contentious circumstances surrounding the campaign. An invitation to a recent town hall event implored voters to “come hear why some people want him out of the race!”

As his opponents point out, Stewart—who defeated Parker in the 2001 Council race—is out of cash. His campaign is in debt, and the scramble to scrounge together what few resources he can, threatens to undercut Stewart’s popularity in the district.

Parker harps on this point.

“Let’s be clear: Kendall Stewart can’t win this race,” Parker said. “How do you win an election with no money?”

But Parker’s strength is in question as well. He is believed to be the most vulnerable state senator facing a primary challenge this year.

Stewart said that with his Council district overlapping with much of Parker’s senate district, he has the built-in advantage in the Sept. 9 election. His depth of support within the large Caribbean and Haitian communities, he believes, will counteract whatever disadvantages his restrictions on spending will cause.

“They may have more money than I do,” he said of his opponents, “but I have the grassroots, and I think that will make the difference.”

Meanwhile, Felder—whose neighboring Council district slices off the predominantly Orthodox Jewish area of Boro Park—has vastly outstripped his opponents in fundraising. He has more than a million dollars on hand, compared to about $48,000 for Parker and a $7,000 debt for Stewart.

Felder and Parker have been raising and spending money at surprising rates, but Parker has been piling up expenses faster than either of his opponents. He has already spent more than three-fourths of the $130,000 he raised in the first half of the year, according to his July filings.

Some of Felder’s cash comes courtesy of his support by Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.), whose re-election bid he backed in 2005. Bloomberg has indicated his preference for Felder, for whom he threw a high-dollar fundraiser this year.

That support, however, has not come without a cost. It has opened a line of attack for Parker, who has labeled Felder a “Republican plant” who would vote with the Republicans for the majority.

One thing Felder has notably not promised to do is support Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) for majority leader should the Democrats get control of the Senate—a touchy subject for Democrats, who just last month undertook a nearly unanimous proxy vote to affirm their support for Smith and insulate him from challenges within the party.

Parker acknowledged that Smith’s desire to retain support for his leadership bid influenced other members of the conference to endorse him.

“I think that that is part of it,” he said, adding that Felder “would not be a vote for the Democratic leader, and thus would thwart our attempts to take back the majority.”

When asked in an interview if he thought Felder would be a reliable Democrat in the Senate, Smith said: “Is he a Democrat now?”

Also weighing on the race is that persistent feature of Brooklyn politics: a dose of ethnic tension.

The demographic profile of this district, nestled in the heart of the borough, is a knotty one, the product of careful gerrymandering intended to concentrate Brooklyn’s immigrant and minority populations. Each of the candidates has tried to paint the others as exploiting those divisions to win the race.

Parker has accused Felder, an orthodox Jew, of relying on Stewart to draw the votes of Caribbean- and African-Americans away from him, thus opening an avenue for Felder to win in a district where orthodox Jews are the minority.

Felder has responded by accusing Parker of using racial rhetoric to marginalize him.

“He talks about race, which should not be the issue. The issue should be his record. And that record is abysmal,” he said. “He’s trying to encourage division. He’s trying to divide the community.”

He added: “How many different ways can Kevin Parker portray me as the devil?”

Stewart, for his part, believes he can solidify his support in neighborhoods like Flatbush and poach just enough of Felder’s Orthodox Jewish base. Anyway, he insisted, Felder does not have enough cross-cultural appeal to win votes beyond his base in Boro Park.

“It would take a real monumental effort by him,” Stewart said, “to convince the people in the 75 or 80 percent of the vote that is non-Jewish that he can win.”  


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An Endorsement All Three Wanted, And All Three Claimed

Perhaps the most revealing flashpoint in the muddle of ethnic demographics and intra-party politicking in the primary race between State Sen. Kevin Parker, Council Member Simcha Felder and Council Member Kendall Stewart is the saga of Assembly Member Dov Hikind’s (D-Brooklyn) endorsement. Each of the candidates has, at one point or another, claimed the backing of the leader of the Orthodox Jewish community.

In an interview, Hikind—who has on previous occasions called Parker “a farce and a joke”—said he was fully supporting Parker because he had promised to do so long before Felder, once his staffer, joined the race.

“It put me into a very difficult predicament, but one that is very clear to me, that I was going to support Kevin, plain and simple,” he said. “I made a commitment.”

He added that, had Felder been in the race from the beginning, his decision would have been different.

“I would have supported Simcha, he’s a friend, there’s no question about that,” he said. “If Kevin Parker had said to me, ‘Dov, I understand your friendship, you can support Simcha,’ then that would have been cool.”

However, both Felder and Stewart said in interviews that Hikind had explicitly committed to support them at various points in time. Stewart said Hikind had helped him build political support in the district in an effort to unseat Parker. And Felder announced that he had Hikind’s support at a rally announcing his candidacy in June.

The seeming reversal, Hikind acknowledge, could be a serious blow to Felder as he campaigns in the Orthodox Jewish community.

“This is his base,” Hikind said, “and of course he cannot win the election without doing exceptionally well in this community. It’s quite obvious.”

Hikind did not respond to repeated follow-up calls regarding Felder’s and Stewart’s assertions that he promised to support them before endorsing Parker.

Senate Minority Leader malcolm Smith (D-Queens) admitted that he talked to Hikind about the race and expressed his support for Parker, but said he did not broker any deals in order to secure Hikind’s endorsement.

“I’ve had conversations like that with leaders and elected officials all around the state,” he said. “That’s important to me, because it’s important to make sure that they know how I feel about other people.”

As for Parker, he said he would overcome any support Felder and Stewart might draw from their respective constituencies, referring to his past victories.

“I’ve run against an Orthodox opponent three other times, and I’ve creamed him three times,” he said. “I’ve run against other Caribbean candidates other times, and I’ve been victorious in those elections as well.”