A New York State Assembly candidate from Brooklyn is under fire for a racially charged "typo" sent out in a campaign mailer.
Ben Akselrod, who is challenging State Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz in the September Democratic primary, apologized for the usage of "negrohood" when addressing Sheesphead Bay's uptick in crime over the past year.
From Akselrod's mailer:
I am running for Assembly because I believe the number 1 job of that office is to keep the community safe. The current assemblyman has allowed crime to go up over 50% in our negrohood so far this year. I am fighting for video cameras throughout our community to protect our seniors who are the most vulnerable and cut down on anti-semitic attacks in our community. I will also make sure the mayor gives our community more police to patrol our streets.
Akselrod apologized for the mailer. "As the candidate, I take full responsibility for this inadvertent error and I am sorry to anyone who was offended by it," he said, adding he faced discrimination as a Jew in Russia and therefore denounces “any form of racial and ethnic bias.”
Since local blog Sheepshead Bites broke the story, Akselrod's campaign treasurer has resigned, saying he was upset the mailer's listed his home as a return address.
"As you can imagine, when I found out about this over the weekend I was quite upset about this," Bryan Goldstein said. "Basically, I think the feeling was that it was no big deal to use my address … that no harm would come of that, and obviously I disagree. Naturally, when you see something like that and have my home address attached to that, naturally that’s very disturbing.
Photo of Ben Akeslrod taken from his campaign site.