November 10, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
LOCAL
CL ASSIFIEDS
PAGE 11
Katz bests Murray in Queens DA race
BY MAX PARROTT
After a primary campaign
that attracted a national media
frenzy and a month-and-a-halflong
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, 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
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz defeated Joe Murray in the race for Queens County District Attorney.
Photo by Todd Maisel
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
aimed at reducing gun violence,
which largely do not involve her
role as a prosecutor. Following
the death of 14-year-old 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 at-risk 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.
PROUDLY SERVING THE MEDICAL NEEDS
OF THE COMMUNITY FOR OVER 110 YEARS!
Schedule an appointment online today at ehs.org/sjmg
Vol. 8 No. 45 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT QNS.COM
/sjmg
/QNS.COM
