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Dem. Party to back Hochul after convention vote
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | FEB. 25 - MARCH 3, 2022 17
BY MORGAN C. MULLINGS
Diana Reyna, former deputy
borough president of Brooklyn
and City Council member, will
run for lieutenant governor
alongside Congressman Tom
Suozzi in the 2022 gubernatorial
race. Announced Wednesday
at a noisy Rodney Park in
Brooklyn, the two expressed
their hope to bring commonsense
policies to Albany.
“I’m a first-generation Dominican
American: The first
person in my family to go to
high school and college, to
graduate, with opportunities
and education that my parents
in the Dominican Republic
could not have,” said Reyna at
the press conference. “I want
to help to keep that American
dream alive.”
If elected, Reyna would be
the first Latina lieutenant governor
— continuing the trend
of making history that started
with Brian Benjamin, the first
Caribbean American to hold
statewide office.
“I want to represent the
heart and soul of New York. And
I want to work with Tom Suozzi
to build a better New York,” she
continued. They bond over being
first-generation Americans,
Suozzi’s family being from Italy.
Reyna highlighted two of
Suozzi’s key policies that bolster
his campaign: Giving judges
more discretion to set bail, and
creating more affordable housing.
And Suozzi says that she
is the right person for the job
because of her work as a City
Council member for Williamsburg,
Bushwick and Ridgewood.
“Diana believes that public
service is about getting things
done to improve the lives of the
people we serve,” Suozzi said.
“One of the things that very
important to me about Diana is
that she is very tough.”
Reyna stressed that she
would not be playing to the left
or the right in her race, which is
perfectly aligned with Suozzi’s
message so far. “Tom Suozzi
and I won’t hide from the tough
issues, won’t pander to the political
left or right, and will stand
up to the special interests and
lobbyists that have been choking
Albany for decades,” Reyna
said. So far, Reyna’s main opponent
is Benjamin, a former state
senator representing Harlem
and Governor Kathy Hochul’s
downstate pick when she became
Andrew Cuomo’s successor.
The position is widely
regarded as ceremonial — a
comment often used for the borough
president position as well.
Read more on
PoliticsNY.com.
BY ETHAN STARK MILLER
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s gubernatorial
campaign gained a
huge boost,as she secured the
state Democratic Party’s formal
backing in its nominating
convention.
Hochul won the party’s endorsement
handily, receiving
nearly 86% of the vote from its
more than 400 committee members.
Due to the convention’s
rules, Hochul is automatically
on the ballot for receiving over
25% of the vote and the party’s
designee going into the primary
for breaking 50%.
In a speech following the
vote, Hochul said her candidacy
for a full term as New York’s
first woman governor is the
start of a new chapter for the
Empire State.
“As the leader of this party,
I’m declaring that a whole new
day has dawned,” Hochul said.
“One that is grounded in the
belief that the power and organization
must rise from the
bottom up. And we reject the
playbook that enabled only a
few to succeed, while others
were left behind.”
This new chapter would
also turn the page on the decade
long reign of Hochul’s
predecessor Andrew Cuomo,
who stepped down six months
ago over allegations that he
sexually harassed over a dozen
women. The former governor
resigned shortly after the allegations
were confirmed by
a report from state Attorney
General Letitia James.
During each convention,
which takes place every four
years, the party’s committee
members write the party platform
and nominate candidates
for statewide positions. This
year the candidates include
Hochul, James, state Comptroller
Thomas DiNapoli, Lt. Gov.
Brian Benjamin and U.S. Sen.
Chuck Schumer.
Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams, Hochul’s most serious
competition, trailed far
behind her with just 12% of the
vote. And the remaining nearly
2% of the vote went to attorney
Paul Nichols.
Because neither candidate
received over 25% of the vote today,
they’ll both have to petition
to get on the ballot — the process
of collecting a certain number
of signatures most candidates
must go through anyway. Both
will have to gather 15,000 signatures
from around the state to
get their names on the ballot.
Williams said the convention
functioned as a coronation
for Kathy Hochul and serves as
an unfortunate reminder that
while the governor may have
changed last year, the power
structures within the party
and the state that enabled him
are very much intact.
“In spite of that, I’m proud
that our campaign received
double the amount of support at
this year’s convention than we
did four years ago, when we ultimately
came within 7% of victory
despite being outspent by
the party machine by a factor
of 10. I’m running to challenge
the systems in place and represent
20 million New Yorkers
across the state, not the donors
who paid the governor $20 million
to preserve the status quo,”
said Williams.
“I’m an organizer by training
and in the politics I practice,
and so I’m excited to begin
the petitioning process — an
opportunity to meet New Yorkers
where they are and hear
about the issues they face,
without charging them tens of
thousands of dollars to see me
at a fundraiser. I’m not going to
let the way things have always
been stand in the way of what
they can be, a vision I’ll continue
to share with New Yorkers,”
he added.
Read more on
PoliticsNY.com.
Hillary Clinton (l.) raises arms with Governor Kathy Hochul at the
New York Democratic party 2022 State Nominating Convention.
Photo by Mike Segar/REUTERS
Congressman Tom Suozzi and Diana Reyna at their running-mate
announcement in Brooklyn on Feb. 16. Courtesy of Suozzi campaign
Gubernatorial candidate Suozzi
picks Reyna as running mate
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