Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (photo: @erinmdurkin)
Our annual day of spooks and scares has come and gone, but it's Election Day when I'm truly haunted. I know that when I'm in the voting booth I'll feel the ominous lurking of undead politicians—the ones who just won't stay buried. On the Upper East Side where I live, for example, the spectre of soon-to-be-former Assembly Member Micah Kellner lingers.
Just last week, former Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine upheld the Assembly Ethics Committee's decision that Kellner had through his inappropriate flirting with multiple employees created an "abusive and hostile" workplace. Kellner, in case you don't remember, is the one who told a junior staff member in her twenties during an online chat, that he "wouldn't mind falling asleep with her but not remotely."
Since sexual harassment in the workplace disproportionately affects women, I took enormous pleasure this September in supporting a worthy woman (Rebecca Seawright, who won the Democratic primary) to hold the seat Kellner is vacating. It looked like we would finally be rid of him.
My revenge-vote moment was ruined, however, when I cast my eye further down the ballot. There it was: Micah Kellner for State Committee Member. And then that night, Micah Kellner winning. I didn't vote for him, but 2,614 others did. Micah Kellner is still in elected office, folks, and while he told The New York Observer that "This isn't some comeback or rehabilitation," it sure looks like that's what he's planning.
For some infuriating reason, sexual misconduct does not seem to be a matter that male politicians consider serious enough to make them think twice about running for office. Just look at last year, when Kellner and Vito Lopez both attempted—and lost—runs for City Council amid scandal. (Lopez, after resigning from the Assembly, remains a State Committee Member like Kellner.)
It is deeply disturbing to know that multiple sexual harassment claims, which Kellner dismissively calls "sensationalized, five-year-old allegations," weren't enough to make Kellner question whether he should continue to run, then or now.
Even more upsetting: this time we let him win.
Kellner, Lopez, and other politicians seem to think these issues are awkward, but surmountable. They don't believe that their sexual misconduct means they shouldn't get to hold public office. This attitude of entitlement and exception sends a message to people—primarily women—that if they are harassed by male superiors, it doesn't matter. And it sends an even more insidious message when we, the voters, don't hold them accountable.
On a much grander stage, entitlement and exception led NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti to attempt their despicable cover-ups of 'the Ray Rice incident.' These powerful men tolerated the intolerable in order to protect their jobs and the reputations of their respective organizations. Doing the right thing wasn't important enough to them until real public pressure built.
Entitlement and exception led Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to attempt to hide Lopez's harassment with a confidentiality clause in the secret settlement that was requested by Lopez, not the female staffers he harassed. Not that Lopez and Kellner are isolated incidents—see the list of accusations against former Assembly Member Dennis Gabryszak for still other examples of the behaviors that have occurred on Silver's watch.
Silver is currently facing claims that he "aided and abetted" Lopez's pattern of abuse through his failure to take official action. This is not mere rhetoric: Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, serving as special prosecutor to investigate the case, concluded that Silver's deliberate behavior "encouraged" Lopez to continue harassing. Protecting the Assembly's interests, Donovan wrote in his report, "outweighed any interest in investigating or disciplining Assembly Member Lopez or in preventing similar occurrences in the future." [emphasis added]
So there it is: the choices of Silver, Goodell, Bisciotti, and other leaders who look the other way encourage abusers and harassers to keep abusing and harassing. They know that under leaders like these, they won't have to pay. We may not be able to elect the NFL Commissioner or oust an owner, but we can do something about candidates like Silver (who faces a challenger on Election Day), Lopez, and Kellner. When we continue to vote these men into office—or don't bother to vote against them—we are equally complicit in perpetuating these patterns of abuse and harassment.
If we refuse to tolerate sexual harassment and attitudes of entitlement and exception when we're at the polls, then those in power will truly feel that they have something to lose. But until the majority of us take that stand, sexual harassers will continue to operate with impunity.
In September, Kellner bet on the voters not caring enough about his sexual misconduct when it wasn't on the front page. His victory is our loss. Next time he or a similar candidate is on the ballot, we need to do better—for women, for workers, and for ourselves, the voters of New York who have a choice.
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Sara Gold is a community organizer active in local issues and politics. She has been a resident of Assembly District 76 for three years. Follow her on Twitter @saragold2
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