The reason I got tongue tied is that I just didn't feel that personal pull toward any of the candidates. I was impressed with quite a few of them but there was so much baggage attached to this particular race. My response always felt lackluster. There was so much qualifying and hesitation in my attempt at an answer. 

I tried to be practical. I knew that a couple of the candidates had devoted practically a lifetime to politics and public service (Diamondstone and Simon). I knew that one of them had an influential—and reviled—mentor but was basically a good guy who was too young and too beholden to said mentor to do the job (Stephen Levin) I liked Evan Thies for all the right reasons but could never summon any passion for him. While Ken Behr has all the right progressive views he's awful at articulating them and he strikes me as a tad prickly. That leaves Issac Abraham, who I didn't get to know at all. He was an outspoken and humorous presence at the forums.  

But there was only one candidate who always intrigued me: Doug Biviano. I must admit that while I did feel very positively towards him, his views, his outlook and his energy, I had pigeon-holed him as an outsider candidate who didn't have a chance.  

Often I might say, "I'm crazy about Doug Biviano but…" For some reason it didn't feel realistic. I didn't allow myself to go with my gut. 

But I did  have a gut reaction to Biviano very early on. At the very first forum/debate of the 33s at St. Francis College, I was impressed with Biviano. He was like a breath of fresh air: articulate, smart, progressive, upbeat and interesting. 

He was the true outsider. A public school parent with an engineering background who was throwing his hat into the race. 

At that point I had no idea where he was coming from. But when I sat down with him at Theressa's on Montague Street to do his Breakfast-of-Candidates interview, Doug really filled me in on the details of his life. I gained an interesting connect-the-dots sense of his trajectory from a Brooklyn boyhood, to BS and MS degrees  from Cornell University in engineering to a job as a superintendent in a Brooklyn Heights apartment building to his candidacy for David Yassky's seat in the 39th. 

I knew that he had worked for Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign and was often a surrogate for the candidate at rallies in NYC. 

Today was a true turning point for me. Somehow I came to the conclusion that Biviano was the only candidate I didn't feel tongue-tied about. He has run an energetic and impressive campaign. He never stopped speaking out on local and national issues. He has really worked hard to make himself known to the voters in the 33rd. 

So when I heard Representative Denis Kucinch's endorsement of Biviano everything came together. "I don't get involved in too many campaigns. I don't go out of my way to endorse city council candidates. But what we have here is an exceptional candidate with the ability to be an outstanding member of the NYC CIty Council," said Representative Kucinich, who was at one time a City Councilman in Cleveland.  

Inside Biviano's Montague Street headquarters, Kucinich told me: "In him there is energy, drive, honesty, integrity and fearlessness. All the qualities you need in the City Council…Biviano has a willingness and a passion for public service. He's independent. When people ask me why I would come all the way from Cleveland to endorse a NYC candidate that's why…I want all my supporters in Brooklyn to know that Doug Biviano deserves their support. I urge them to go to the polls on Tuesday and vote for him." 

So there you have it. A double endorsement. From Denis Kucinich and OTBKB. What a coup!