Community News
Queens Borough President special election set for March 24
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I JANUARY 2020 25
BY BILL PARRY
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
that the special election for
Queens Borough President
will be held on Tuesday,
March 24. The mayor had to wait until
Melinda Katz vacated the office she held
for six years in order to take over the office
of Queens District Attorney.
“I encourage all eligible Queens
residents to vote in the upcoming special
election,” de Blasio said on Jan. 3. “And I
thank outgoing Borough President Melinda
Katz for her leadership and increasing the
World’s Borough’s diversity and dynamism,
and wish her all the best in her new role.
As of Jan. 3, the five candidates in the
race had less than two weeks to gather the
2,000 valid signatures needed to appear
on the ballot. The field dropped to five on
Dec. 30 when Assemblywoman Alicia
Hyndman dropped out after the Queens
County Democratic Committee endorsed
Councilman Donovan Richards.
Councilman Costa Constantinides,
former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley,
former National Latino Officers Association
Chairman Anthony Miranda and
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer had until
Jan. 14 to secure the necessary signatures.
Van Bramer picked up the
endorsement of Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams on Jan. 3.
“Jimmy Van Bramer is a progressive
champion who will fight for a Queens for all,”
Williams said. “Jimmy has shown courage
time and again to do what’s right, whether
it’s speaking out against Stop, Question,
Frisk, voting down the city’s plan to build
more jails, fighting for immigrant’s rights,
or standing up against Donald Trump’s
hateful policies and rhetoric against our
most vulnerable communities. I’m proud to
endorse his grassroots bid to be our next
Queens Borough President.”
Van Bramer, who received
endorsements from progressive stars
Zephyr Teachout and Cynthia Nixon in
late December, thanked Williams in a
fundraising email to his supporters.
“Jumaane is a man of great principle
who always speaks truth to power, and
his work to end gun violence, call out
racial injustice, and raise our collective
consciousness in inspiring, and I’ve been so
proud to fight alongside Jumaane Williams
for over a decade,” Van Bramer wrote.
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