Melinda Katz bests Joe Murray in Queens DA race
BY MAX PARROTT
After a primary campaign
that attracted a national media
frenzy and a month-anda
half-long primary election,
Melinda Katz clinched her role
as the next Queens District Attorney
with a victory against
Joe Murray in the general
election on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Katz declared victory shortly
after the polls closed, while
the city’s Board of Elections
has Katz ahead with 137,632
votes compared to Murray’s
44,905 votes as of Wednesday afternoon,
with nearly 96 percent
of the precincts reporting.
“We are facing here an opportunity
to make a national
model for criminal justice
reform and if we don’t do it
right here, it’s going to have
massive effects all across this
country,” said Katz said at her
victory party at the Queens
Democratic Party office in
Forest Hills.
After Katz eked out her primary
battle against the decarceral
public defender Tiffany
Cabán in a primary battle that
involved a recount and court
battle, she went on to win
handily with a 50 point margin
against Murray, an ex-cop,
lawyer and registered Democrat
who the Republicans nominated
after the primary.
Katz emerged from her primary
victory as the favorite
to win in a borough-wide race
where Democrats outnumber
Republicans by almost six to
one, and Katz had out-raised
Murray by the about the same
multiple.
Her victory caps a campaign
that argued for an approach
to the office that blends
a list of consensus-driven progressive
reforms with experience
of running a large city
agency.
In her victory speech, Katz
listed some of her policy priorities,
which includes ending
cash bail, prosecuting unscrupulous
employers, protecting
immigrant rights by keeping
ICE agents out of the courts
and reducing gun violence. In
the weeks leading up to the
election, Katz also pledged to
not prosecute low-level marijuana
arrests and create a conviction
integrity unit.
She spent the largest portion
of her speech on policies
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz claimed victory in her run
for Queens County District Attorney. Photo by Todd Maisel
aimed at reducing gun violence,
which largely do not involve
her role as a prosecutor.
Following the death of 14-yearold
Aamir Griffin in South
Jamaica and a recent spike in
gun violence in southeastern
Queens overall, Katz promised
to use the office of district
attorney as a support system
for community groups for atrisk
youth.
“I will work day and night
to make sure that we not only
keep this borough safe, but
that our young people get second
chances,” Katz said. “That
we have rehab programs to
make sure that people get the
help that they actually need;
that we have mental health
programs to make sure recidivism
does go down and we will
make sure there is justice here
in the borough of Queens.”
The no-frills setting of the
Queens Democratic Party Office
served as a reminder of
Katz’s loyalty to the County
Party establishment. It wasn’t
chosen for its practicality,
since the small, balmy office
could barely fit the crowd of
party insiders that came to see
Katz announce her victory.
“Considering everything
we’ve been through and how
important the Queens Organization
was to this selection, it
was an important place to hold
it,” said Michael Reich, executive
director of the Queens
Party, adding that the party
“broke it’s back” to help elect
Katz.
Among the party insiders
in attendance were four of the
borough president hopefuls —
Paul Vallone, Elizabeth Crowley,
Donovan Richards and
Alicia Hyndman, all of whom
are vying for the official party
endorsement.
Now that Katz will officially
be vacating her current role
of borough president, the race
to replace her will kick into
high gear. A special election
for the position will be held 45
days after Katz assumes the
role of district attorney.
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