Keith Wright: Judicious advocate for diversity
WRIGHT continued from p. 10
aren’t coming to Harlem because they
like black folks so much. They’re getting
priced out of their neighborhoods.
There are places up in the South Bronx
where I wouldn’t have picked up a stray
dog” that are now trendy, he noted.
During his tenure in the Assembly,
Wright worked to end vacancy control
for rent-regulated apartments and the
practice known as “preferential rent.”
“It’s pure bait and switch,” he said
of the latter, which lures in tenants at
lower rents, then seeks to gouge them
later.
“Especially in Manhattan, the price
of every condo is $1 million. Where are
people supposed to live?” he said.
Wright now works for Davidoff,
Hutcher & Citron as the director of its
government relations group.
“For the fi rst time in my life, I’m
making a few dollars,” he mused. “I was
making $79,500 for 25 years. That’s
all I made – put two kids through college.”
As for leaving the Assembly, he quoted
Kenny Rogers, “You gotta know
when to hold ’em, know when to fold
’em.”
At the fi rm, he’s been working closely
with the group Just Leadership U.S.A.,
which is working to close down Rikers
Island.
“It’s just a cesspool,” he said of Rikers.
“I think community jails work better
rather than throwing people down
the snake pit. I think it’s going to be
like legalizing marijuana. It’s gonna
take time, but it’s going to be closed.”
Although the fi rm’s Sid Davidoff is
a lobbyist, Wright noted he himself is
not a registered lobbyist. Which brings
us to the epic Kavanagh-Newell showdown
of September 2017.
“It was a mess,” Wright admitted. “I
never asked for it.”
But, he said, “due to the way that the
law was written,” he and Frank Seddio,
the Brooklyn party chairperson, had to
pick the Democratic nominee for the
special election. This was because of a
quirky rule applying to “intraborough”
seats — for districts spanning two districts.
The state Senate seat stretched
from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn.
Seddio chose not even to let his
County Committee members vote, and
instead just gave all the votes to Kavanagh.
In Manhattan, Wright did let
his members vote, and Newell got the
lion’s share. But when the Manhattan
and Brooklyn votes were combined,
Kavanagh came out ahead.
“I went through a process,” Wright
maintained, adding that, in Manhattan,
at least, the County Committee does
get to vote on such matters.
Wright took fl ak for how it went
down, but he’s unapologetic.
“And I haven’t heard from Kavanagh
since,” he noted. “He hasn’t called to
say, ‘Thank you,’ nothing.”
At another point, he actually called
Kavanagh “an ingrate.”
And Wright said he actually really
likes Newell.
“Paul Newell’s my guy!” he said. “To
be honest — hell yeah! Newell would
have been great — no doubt about it.
Paul is cool. He’s going to law school
and he’s going to be brilliant.”
Tony Hoffmann, a former district
leader and president of the Village Independent
Democrats, hailed Wright
for upholding the rigorous screening
process for judicial candidates.
“New York County, Manhattan, has
extremely diverse, quality judges,” he
said. “And a lot of it, Keith Wright can
take credit for. A large number of women
and a large number of minorities,
and they’re mainly good. It’s a good
judiciary. It started under Denny, and
Keith continued it. Before Denny, there
were a lot of hacks in the judiciary.”
On the Kavanagh-Newell fl ap, on
the other hand, Hoffmann said Wright
simply could have said all his County
Committee votes were for Newell — essentially
overriding the votes for Kavanagh.
“Since Newell got two-thirds in
Manhattan, we felt he could have put
100 percent behind Newell,” Hoffmann
said of Wright, adding, “The
votes of the County Committee are not
binding.”
Told of Hoffmann’s comments,
Wright responded, “This was all very
much uncharted territory. I could have
snapped my fi ngers and said, ‘It’s Paul
Newell.’ But we don’t do that in Manhattan.
Others do.”
He noted that these intraborough
special-election situations “come up every
40 years.”
Village Democratic District Leader
Arthur Schwartz is a big fan of Wright
— and predicts a return to public offi ce
for him.
“Keith is one of the least arrogant
and most personable people in politics,”
he said. “And compared to other
Democratic County leaders, he does
not lead with a heavy hand.
“That doesn’t mean that he hasn’t
pissed a few people off,” Schwartz added.
“But he genuinely wants reformers
and party stalwarts to like him.
“When I told him I was working with
Bernie in 2016, he said, ‘I would have
expected nothing less,’ and then allowed
an open countywide debate and
straw poll to be scheduled — which
Bernie won. I cannot imagine that he
will not return to elected offi ce — higher
than district leader — one day.”
Additional Executive Committee Members
David Warren, President; Judy Richheimer, Executive Vice President; Mark Gottlieb, Treasurer; Brian Mangan, Vice
President; Evelyn Suarez, Vice President; Linda Longstreet, Secretary-Correspondence; Mindy Rosier, Secretary-
Recording;David Silverstone, Secretary-Communications; CRDC members at large: Miguel Acevedo, R. Brent English,
Wyatt Frank, Arnav Guleria, Tom Hogan, Lisa Nearier, Joanne Sinovoi, Michael Schreiber; former President
12 January 17, 2019 TVG Schneps Media