Our Town Daily Newspaper Profile

Decision ‘09: Republican Challengers
Profiles by Dan Rivoli
October 23, 2009
Your mailbox may not be as full of campaign “literature” as it was prior to the primary election, but there are still a number of candidates looking to court voters ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. Though they all do not have the same amount of money to spend as Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the independent running on the GOP line, Republicans are challenging several incumbent Democrats, and vying for open citywide seats for comptroller and public advocate.
Stephen Kaufman – Republican Running for City Council District 5
Stephen Kaufman is a martial artist and “hanshi,” a Japanese honorific for a “grand master.” He started the practice 50 years ago, during his time in the Air Force. He is challenging incumbent Council Member Jessica Lappin, he says, because the discipline that is a hallmark of martial arts is lacking in city government. Lappin represents District 5, which roughly covers Roosevelt Island, Yorkville and the East Side from East 49th to 92nd streets, between the East River and Lexington Avenue.
“I’m fed up with the way the city is being handled, the incompetence of those in office,” Kaufman said. “They are machine people.”
The gruff, no-nonsense Kaufman is a Flatbush, Brooklyn native who moved to the Upper East Side more than 25 years ago. He now lives on East 75th Street, near First Avenue. Kaufman has written 37 books, 16 of which have been published, such as The Sword in the Boardroom and The Hanshi of Central Park.
If elected, Kaufman said he would kick special interests out of City Hall, slash waste and decrease the homeless population. He would also conduct “transparency studies” of the East 91st Street waste transfer station and the “fiasco” that is the never-ending Second Avenue subway project. He’d like to kill the project and install a light rail instead.
“It’s one-tenth the cost of the subway and it’ll flow with ease and grace,” Kaufman said. “And it could be done in two or three years.”
On school overcrowding, Kaufman wants to use eminent domain to take vacant buildings and turn them into schools, instead of constructing new space.
Kaufman is currently a management consultant, but says he wants to end the rule that allows Council members’ jobs to be “part-time,” which gives many legislators additional outside income.
“It’s a full time job 24-7, or you’re not doing the job,” Kaufman said. “It’s not a social thing. It’s a down-to-the-ground, kick-ass kind of a job.”
His initiatives will be successful, Kaufman believes, because of his independence from politics and refusal to seek higher office.
“I’m not looking at it from, ‘What do I got to do to keep votes,’” he said. “I got the balls to do all of this.”