10
L E H A V R E
N E W S
J A N U A R Y What you need to know about the
upcoming special election for Queens BP
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
While it is still yet to be determined
when the special election for Queens
borough president will be held, one
thing that is becoming clear is that
the race to replace Queens District
Attorney-elect Melinda Katz is shaping
up to be another battle between
“the establishment” and the “left-wing
progressives” of the Democratic party.
From the moment Councilman
Donovan Richards announced his candidacy
for Katz’s seat last fall, with former
Borough President Claire Shulman
by his side, Richards appeared to be the
establishment’s choice.
That became clear Monday when
Congressman Gregory Meeks, the
chairman of the Queens County
Democratic Committee, announced
that Richards was receiving their
endorsement. In accepting, Richards
said, “We want to send an olive branch
to people but they have to want to work
with us.”
Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman
was the only other candidate for borough
president in the room, and she
promptly announced she would step
out of the race and “stand with the
Party” and support the endorsed county
candidate. Hyndman’s decision means
that the vote would not be split in
southeast Queens.
The Richards endorsement came a
week after Councilman Jimmy Van
Bramer received endorsements from
progressive stars Zephyr Teachout and
Cynthia Nixon.
“From defeating Amazon, to defying
the party bosses, to organizing to get
money out of politics, Jimmy is the
true progressive choice for Queens
borough president,” Teachout said.
Van Bramer had campaigned for
the public defender from Astoria,
Tiffany Cabán, who ran on a radical
decarceral platform and nearly upset
Katz, who was seen as the “establishment
candidate.” In the previous
election cycle, Van Bramer supported
Alexandria Ocasio-Costez who
upset former Queens County chairman
Joseph Crowley in the Democratic
primary for Congress. AOC’s victory
put progressive organizations such
as the Working Families Party and
10 LEHAVRE COURIER | JANUARY 2020 | WWW.QNS.COM
the Democrat Socialists of America
as leaders in the far-left movement in
western Queens.
Van Bramer was among the opposition
to Amazon’s plan to build its HQ2
campus in Long Island City, grilling
their executives at City Council hearing.
Richards has made it clear that running
Amazon out of Queens, and taking
their promise of 25,000 good-paying
jobs, was not in the borough’s best
interests.
If Amazon becomes a flashpoint
between Richards and Van Bramer,
Councilman Costa Constantinides, the
author of the city’s Green New Deal,
could ride the progressive wave to
Borough Hall. Constantinides became
chair of the council’s environmental
protection committee and has a long
history of environmental activism.
He declared his candidacy in
September with the promise of a stronger,
more equitable and more resilient
Queens in the face of climate change.
“Queens residents deserve leadership
that ensures they aren’t displaced
by rising tides or rising rents,”
Constantinides said. “Sadly, seven
years after Sandy killed 11 of our
neighbors, destroyed our coastal communities
and eroded our shores, we are
still unprepared for the next storm.”
Also in the race is former
Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley
and retired President of the Latino
Officers Association Anthony Miranda.
Crowley has been pushing to have passenger
service return on the Lower
Montauk Branch of the Long Island
Rail Road.
“I don’t think the borough president
was bold enough in her vision in terms
of building our transportation infrastructure,”
Crowley said at a Forest
Hills candidate forum in November.
Miranda agreed that transportation
had not improved and that Katz
“didn’t do the things that were necessary
to alleviate overcrowding of our
schools.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio must announce
a date for the Queens borough president
special election within 80 days after
Katz leaves Borough Hall. Insiders
expect that date to fall on Tuesday,
March 24, but that is up to City Hall.
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