NYC Dem seeks to create ‘Pro-Israel Party’ to help win Assembly seat: ‘Transcends politics’
NY Post
A Democrat seeking a state Assembly seat in heavily Jewish southern Brooklyn has filed petitions to run on a separate “Pro-Israel Party” ballot line to bolster his chances of winning.
Dem hopeful Joey Cohen Saban is trying to win back the seat occupied by first-term Republican incumbent Michael Novakh by trying to get on the ballot as both the Democratic Party’s candidate and also the nominee for a new one he is calling the Pro-Israel Party.
Saban said he has garnered enough local voter signatures for his new Pro-Israel Party to warrant an additional separate column in the 45th Assembly District race on November’s ballot.
“The line would provide a way for people to show support for Israel, to get the attention it deserves,” Saban told The Post. “There’s tremendous support for Israel in the district.
“Novakhov has supported people who are anti-Israel — it crosses the line,” added Saban, 31, a Brooklyn native and first-generation American and Sephardic Jew who works in his family’s real estate firm.
Saban said his Republican foe previously donated campaign funds to democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont who is a staunch critic of Israel.
