24
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 22-28, 2022
BY BEN BRACHFELD
Monique Chandler-Waterman
won the Democratic nomination
on April 14 for the special election
in Assembly District 58, encompassing
parts of East Flatbush,
Canarsie, and Brownsville, aiming
to secure the seat in the May
24 contest just weeks before the
previously-scheduled June primary.
Chandler-Waterman, the director
of ground support at the city’s
Test and Trace Corps, and a previous
candidate for City Council in
2019, won a unanimous vote of the
district’s County Committee members
to be selected as the nominee,
she told Brooklyn Paper.
“I’m feeling great, I’m humbly
honored that the community supported
me. I’m not surprised in
that I work with the community,
I’ve worked with the community
for decades, I’ve lived in the community
my whole life,” Chandler-
Waterman said by phone. “It was
an organic earn of support, so I’m
really excited that we were able to
do the process today and I came
out victorious.”
Chandler-Waterman formally
entered the race last month to
replace longtime Assemblymember
Nick Perry, who left his seat
to assume his new post as Ambassador
to his native Jamaica.
Chandler-Waterman, a longtime
community activist who founded
East Flatbush Village with her
husband Eric Waterman, has the
support of much of the area’s political
class, including Perry, City
Councilmember Mercedes Narcisse,
Assemblymember Jaime
Williams, and Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams, along with
the Working Families Party.
The special election is essentially
a lock for Chandler-Waterman
Supporters surround Monique Chandler-Waterman at the launch of her campaign earlier this year. Photo by Jack Desa
after winning the Democratic
nomination; the special in
the 58th district is likely to be even
less competitive than this year’s
two previous Assembly elections
in Brooklyn, in the 60th and 43rd
Districts, where the WFP nominated
an unsuccessful Democratic
challenger to run against the pick
of the county party.
Chandler-Waterman faced opposition
from charter school administrator
Otis Danne Jr. She
is also facing competition in the
Democratic primary from Hercules
Reid, an aide to Mayor Eric
Adams. The timing of Perry’s
resignation triggered a call for
a special election despite being
only a month out from the primary;
if Perry had resigned just
days after he did, the seat would
be left vacant until after the November
general election, City &
State reported.
The meeting was conducted
with little fanfare; about two
dozen County Committee members
showed up, Chandler-Waterman
said. The party also did not
publicly announce the meeting
ahead of time on social media,
nor was it livestreamed on Facebook
as previous meetings were.
Even candidates were out of the
loop: Danne said on Twitter that
neither he nor his campaign was
notified of the meeting.
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn
Democratic Party did not respond
to a request for comment.
Chandler-Waterman says that
she hopes to use her official platform
to push for solutions to gun
violence in her district, which recently
took the life of 12-year-old
Kade Lewin, after years of working
as an advocate to reduce violence.
For now, though, she plans
to knock on doors and mobilize
her volunteers ahead of election
day, and then primary day
shortly thereafter.
“Next is getting back on the
ground, and speaking with community
members and constituents,”
she said. “That doesn’t stop.”
Chandler-Waterman
wins Dem nomination
for Flatbush election
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