An Assembly candidate whose campaign sent mailers using the word “negrohood” to residents in his Sheepshead Bay district apologized Wednesday — calling the racially tinged language a “typo.”

“As the candidate, I take full responsibility for this inadvertent error and I am sorry to anyone who was offended by it,” Ben Akselrod, who’s running in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary against Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz, said in a statement. The Friends of Ben Akselrod sent the mailers last week, claiming that his opponent “has allowed crime to go up over 50% in our negrohood so far this year.”

Akselrod didn’t specify Wednesday whether his campaign intended to use the word “neighborhood” instead.

He said he faced discrimination as a Jew in his native Russia, and rejects “any form of racial and ethnic bias.” He also blasted his opponent’s supporters for focusing on the typo instead of addressing crime in the community. The Cymbrowitz campaign didn’t return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Akselrod campaign treasurer Bryan Goldstein told the blog Sheepshead Bites that he was “not involved” in the creation of the flier, but resigned Monday anyway

http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2012/08/akselrod-says-negrohood-flier-was-caused-by-typo/