Heard Around Town: Running to remain district leader, Kellner downplays contest

Micah Kellner said he feels confident going into his Sept. 10 Democratic district leader election, saying his lone opponent, Adam Roberts, is trying to make the race seem competitive to drum up stories news outlets would view as “sexy.”

Kellner, a former Upper East Side assemblyman, is in his first district leader race since he lost an appeal challenging the Assembly’s ethics committee’s findings that he sexually harassed two employees. Amid the controversy, he opted not to run for re-election to his Assembly seat in 2014.

Kellner said he was re-nominated by his East Side Democratic Club for the unpaid party position and sought to remain as district leader “to help represent my community, and be active in it,” as he has for the past decade.

Last year, Kellner won nearly 57 percent of the counted votes in a three-way race for state committeeman. Citing those results, Kellner said Roberts was portraying the election as competitive to try to get press. “He can raise whatever issues he wants to raise – the voters are going to choose,” Kellner said. “[Roberts] can’t say what he has done for the community. All he can do is try to make this a referendum on me, and people tried to do that last year.”

Roberts, who formerly worked for City Councilman Ben Kallos, has not received his former boss' endorsement. Roberts said he has tried to meet with Kallos, but he has not been able to do so and is unsure why the councilman has not weighed. Kallos could not immediately be reached for comment.

Roberts said he decided to run because he has long been involved in politics, including as an intern for U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer and at the UJA-Federation, and views elected office as his way of giving back to the community.

The Four Freedoms Democratic Club, state Sen. Liz Krueger and district leaders Jean Fischman, Paul Newell and Arthur Schiff have backed Roberts, according to his website. He initially said he thought the race might be competitive because it involved taking on an incumbent and his strong fundraising.

“I’m the only one campaigning,” Roberts said. “[Kellner] is not actively campaigning at all for fear of getting his name out and people remembering why they know him.”

Kellner disputed this, saying he has been campaigning. He also questioned why the race was even being covered and argued that his race is not newsworthy.

“This is sort of the very sexy, ‘We can write about Micah Kellner’ [thing] – this will be what it will be,” Kellner said.