I got an interesting piece of lit in today's mail, something that was long in the making: an attack ad about Councilmember Charles Barron, aka "Homie the Clown".

It calls into question his record on delivering for the district. If you listened to the audio from last week's 42nd council district candidates forum, you heard Barron speak about what he says are his deliverables to the district. Click here for the post that has the link to the audio.

Click here to download the entire clown ad in PDF format.

As you can see, the councilman is in full clown gear. I don't feel one bit sorry for him being ridiculed this way considering how he berated one of his opponents during his closing statement in the aforementioned forum, attacking the opponent personally. Unfortunately my audio recording runs out before just before the closing statements (my recorder's battery died). Up to that point, the event was mostly civil and calm.

It's a rare thing to see attack ads like this in local races around East Brooklyn. This one was produced on good paper, with good copy and graphics. I don't know if it went out to prime voters only or beyond that, but I do know that many people in and out the district are pleased that the news is getting out about his discretionary fund deliverables--or lack of.

Does this cross a line in campaign ads? Does the ability to bring in big discretionary funds to a district make for a good councilman? Is this a sign of things to come for Barron?

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Manny Burgos,
Brooklyn, New York
"Más vale morir luchando, que vivir muriendo."