Bayside Candidates Debate Reports Of Sexism Days Before Election

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — During the final weeks of this year’s primary election, a couple of female candidates said that they’ve faced sexism from several of their male opponents while running for Bayside’s District 23 seat — a position that has never been held by a woman.

Steve Behar, a candidate in Bayside’s District 23 City Council race, has faced criticism during the past week for a series of profane online comments and a tweet that another candidate, Linda Lee, said was a misogynistic message directed at her — all reported by the New York Daily News.

Sanjeev Jindal and Harpreet Singh Toor have come under fire for what Jaslin Kaur, another candidate in the race, described as a “full-on misogynistic campaign of intimidation against me, my neighbors, and my supporters,” ranging from demanding that supporters take down her campaign signs to lying that she has dropped out of the race.

The candidates who have been called out for sexism perceive their actions differently.

Toor said in a written statement that his “pointing out her [Kaur’s] inexperience should not be confused with accusations of misogyny.”

Behar told Patch that “other campaigns have decided to take out of context comments and claim that I am a sexist,” adding, “I don't care what the other candidates say. They're desperate because they're losing.”

Polling is not available for city council races, but fundraising and endorsements can provide some clues as to how each campaign is faring.

Going into the last few days before the primary, both Lee and Kaur have added to their lists of endorsements and raised more money overall from individual donors than Jindal, Toor, or Behar.

‘A trail of vile sexist comments’

The complaints of sexism against Behar came after a tweet at the beginning of last week.

"I'm running on my record. 2600 new school seats is better than "Vote For Me I'm a Mommy"!" Behar wrote in defense of his earlier claim that he is “the ONLY education candidate in the race.” The tweet has since been deleted.

Behar told Patch that his “mommy” comment was in response to District Leader Tammy Osherov, who pushed back against his education credentials by pointing out that Lee, another District 23 candidate, is endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers.

In her response to Behar, Osherov included the hashtag “#MothersRule,” which is what Behar said he was responding to.

“She attacked me and she said I can’t say that and I’m a child and a baby and that I can’t make this claim because I’m not a mother," Behar told Patch. 'My response to District Leader Osherov, trying to get it into 280 characters on Twitter, was one, I’m running on my record, and two, you need more than mommy hashtags.”

Lee did not perceive the remark that way.

“Most women are used to misogyny in their professional careers and having their experiences and accomplishments diminished, and I definitely felt that way when I read that comment,” she told the Daily News.

Debra Markell, another candidate in District 23 who is co-endorsed with Behar by the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, said in a written statement to Patch that he “misled the voters about his labor support,” pointing to a mailer where he again claimed to be the “ONLY Education Candidate!”

Behar told Patch that the other side of the mailer states that he is the “only candidate with a proven record on education,” citing a long list of $300 million worth of accomplishments that he achieved while working for Council Member Barry Grodenchik.

“Endorsements are nice, but I’m running on my record,” said Behar, adding that the work in Grodenchik’s office is a team effort involving himself, the council member and his chief of staff. “Nothing gets done in our office without the three of us all coming to an agreement."

Council Member Grodenchik has claimed these education accomplishments as his own in the past.

In addition to the mailer, Markell took issue with other statements that Behar has made in the past.

“[He]” has a trail of vile sexist comments on social media stretching back years,” she said in a statement, alluding to a series of comments that were surfaced by the Daily News this week.

The Daily News reported that Behar has used derogatory phrases like “stupid racist c--t,” “Nazi c--t,” and “p---y” on social media — including photos of comments with this language.

Behar told Patch that the derogatory phrases were “fooling around" with a friend.

The site also reported that Behar joked about rape and refuted Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Behar said that the statements about rape were “said sarcastically to mock Republicans,” and that he did not make those claims about Ford.

“I've done more to elect women than 99 percent of the people out there,” he said, citing a list of female politicians’ campaigns he has worked on.

Behar conceded that he called former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos a “dumb b---h,” in response to her claim that guns are necessary to protect children from grizzly bears at school.

He said that he also called former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen “Nazi Barbie” for signing off on the family separation policy under former President Donald Trump, which separated thousands of children from their parents at the Mexican border. Both of those statements were first reported by the Daily News.

“It doesn’t make me a sexist; it makes me a guy who speaks his mind, is very open, and sometimes has no filter," he told Patch.

Patch reached out to Lee’s campaign about these statements, but the campaign has not commented.

Electing a woman in District 23

Jaslin Kaur told Patch “there’s really something to be said about how a woman has never represented our district in the council before,” pointing to a gender imbalance in her district’s leadership that plays out in the city’s Council at large. Only 13 women currently hold seats in the 51-member body.

Kaur said the attacks on women candidates are “baseless,” but said she is focused on women’s experience in politics beyond social media.

“Too often we are concerned about the social media aspects of what happens to women instead of our actual realities and what we have to fight against every single day on the campaign trail and in the office” she said.

She pointed out that Grodenchik has admitted to sexually harassing a female council staffer in 2019 — an incident which Behar has said was “politicized.”

“My hope is that people will take these instances more seriously,” said Kaur. "We want to send a candidate to City Council who has the integrity to maintain a safe workplace."