Potential “Super Jewish” GOP Candidate Places Anti-Filder Ads

A potential candidate for Brooklyn’s “Super Jewish” state Senate seat is using an organization he runs to bash Democratic Senate candidate Lew Fidler’s position in favor of gay marriage.

The potential candidate, a wealthy Orthodox Jewish real estate attorney named Nachman Caller, is placing the below ad in several of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish newspapers this week, including the prominent daily Hamodia, according to a source close to Caller. Caller is doing so through an organization he chairs called Family First, though I couldn’t immediately track down any tax or incorporation records for the group.

Caller’s ad says the election last summer of Republican Rep. Bob Turner, who opposes same sex marriage, upheld “Torah values” – and calls for the Orthodox community to do the same in the same in the special election to replace convicted State Sen. Carl Kruger. The ad does not mention Fidler or his anti-gay marriage Republican opponent, David Storobin, by name, but it does prominently display Caller’s.

Caller ad

Once the general election for Kruger’s seat is finished on Mar. 20, the victor will have to run again in a primary and a general election in a district that will likely be drawn far more heavily Orthodox. Neither Fidler nor Storobin are Orthodox Jewish.

Caller is known to be interested in running for the seat and would likely be able to self-fund some of his campaign. He also switched his voter registration to Republican last year in anticipation of a general election run – so unlike other potential Republican “Super Jewish” candidates, who are mostly Democrats, Caller would not need the Republican Party’s cross-endorsement.

At the same time, Caller is not especially well-known in Orthodox political circles and his 2010 run for City Council ended mysteriously. He abruptly dropped out of the special election to replace Simcha Felder after spending $40,000 of his own money petitioning, and it ultimately came to light that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had asked Caller to depart the race.