Nachman Caller Drops Out Of Race To Succeed Felder

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callerChris Bragg of City Hall News reports: Nachman Caller, a wealthy real estate attorney who had already spent $40,000 of his own money in the Council race to replace Simcha Felder, has suddenly decided to drop out, Caller confirmed in a phone interview Wednesday night.

Caller declined to say why he was dropping out, but said he would explain his reasoning in a letter Thursday in the newspaper Hamodia, written in Hebrew.

According to a source, Caller met with a number of rabbinical and yeshiva leaders around the tri-state area over the past few weeks and was told that even if he won the Council race, he would not have their support going forward. According to the source, the Jewish leaders told Caller he did not have enough name recognition or prominence to win funding for the Jewish community at the city, state and federal levels.

Caller is also expected to write in the letter that he is dropping out in order to unite yeshiva leadership. But Caller is not expected to make any endorsement in the race, the source said.

After a final meeting with Jewish leaders early Wednesday evening, Caller informed his campaign staff that he was dropping out, the source said.

In an interview at around 3.p.m on Wednesday, Caller had insisted several times that he was staying in the race, when asked about rumors that he might drop out.

“I’m definitely running, I’m definitely running,” he said, adding that he planned to spend $80,000 of his own money on the race.

At that time, he expressed disappointment that one of his opponents in the race, Joe Lazar, has so far declined to participate in any debates, throwing into question whether they will actually occur at all. (One is scheduled for later this month.) Caller said he believed that if were allowed to debate the other candidates, he would be able to raise his profile and win over voters.

For the past two weeks, up to 13 paid campaign staffers have been collecting signatures for Caller, including all day through Wednesday’s blizzard. He had already gathered 1,800 signatures, he said, making it likely that he would have had the 900 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

Caller, who lives in Boro Park, likely would have siphoned off more votes from Lazar than from David Greenfield, who is seen as the strongest candidate in other parts of the district. Lazar has gotten the lion’s share of the endorsements in Boro Park so far.

Jonathan Judge, a Republican, remains the only other Boro Park candidate in the race.

Greenfield, meanwhile, also got some good news on Wednesday, winning the endorsement of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

{City Hall News/Matzav.com Newscenter}


4 COMMENTS

  1. not sure why caller did this, he is very well liked and a big talmud chachum. The truth is that he threw his hat in after everyone already chose sides.

    This should, howeever, open things up and result in a clean sweep for lazar, though

  2. Perhaps if he had started earlier he would have had more support. Now that he is out it would seem to me that Lazar with the Heyer team behind him is the front runner. Greenfield is very smart and can never be counted out. It will be fun to watch.

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