WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES FEBRUARY 24, 2022 7
NYC’s #1 Source for Political & Election News
Ardila announces campaign to replace Nolan
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Maspeth native and community
activist Juan Ardila
launched his campaign to
replace Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan,
a week after she decided to not
seek re-election following a 38-year
career representing western Queens
in Albany.
The progressive Democrat mounted
an unsuccessful challenge against
Councilman Robert Holden last year,
and he became the fi rst to announce
his run for the 37th Assembly District
since Nolan announced her impending
retirement.
The redrawn 37th District includes
much of western Ridgewood, the western
corner of Maspeth, and parts of
Woodside, Sunnyside and the Hunters
Point section of Long Island City.
“I’m running for state Assembly
because Queens residents deserve
aff ordable housing, improved public
transit and a plan to combat climate
change,” Ardila said. “Growing
up in an immigrant family, I have
experienced how important it is to
have representation that understands
how government can impact our lives.
In Albany, I will be a champion for our
seniors, our workers and our tenants.
I am excited to fi ght for a better future
for all New Yorkers.”
Ardila off ers an alternative to the
moderate Nolan, who was a staunch
supporter of the Amazon proposal
that would have built an HQ2 campus
in Long Island City, a project that the
e-commerce giant scuttled aft er opposition
from progressive western
Queens elected offi cials.
“I thank Cathy Nolan for her decades
of service to our community. I believe
it is time for a change,” Ardila told
QNS Thursday. “I am running to make
sure that the community’s needs are
at the center of all decision-making.
I opposed the Amazon development
plan because there was no legitimate
reason for taxpayers to subsidize a
trillion-dollar corporation. The reality
is that Amazon is still hiring and
expanding in NYC, even without tax
breaks, because we have the greatest
workers here.”
Ardila is a lifelong Queens resident
and first-generation American,
the son of a Colombian father and
Honduran-Cuban mother. He said
he understands the hardships of
working-class families and he’s running
to improve the public schools,
the criminal justice system and
housing policies.
The state Assembly candidate
attended St. Adalbert Catholic Academy
in Elmhurst for elementary
and middle school, then Archbishop
Molloy High School in Briarwood
and later earned his B.A. in political
science from Fordham University. He
then got his master’s degree in public
administration with a concentration
in public policy analysis from New
York University.
Ardila grew up in a working-class,
immigrant household. When he was
17, he said, he nearly lost his mother to
deportation aft er she was denied her
residency. Just a few years later, some
of his family members in Honduras
faced persecution from gang violence.
During his campaign against
Holden, Ardila said he regretted racist
and anti-gay language he used in
social media posts as a teenager, and
following his apology he went on to
gain the endorsements of several
high-profi le city and state leaders like
state Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblywoman
Catalina Cruz.
Both Ramos and Cruz are now endorsing
Ardila’s Assembly bid.
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
New York Democrat Suraj Patel
will mount a primary challenge
against Congresswoman
Carolyn Maloney for the third straight
election cycle. Patel, a lawyer, activist,
lecturer on business ethics at NYU and
former staff er in the Obama administration,
announced his campaign last
week to thwart Maloney, the chair of
the powerful House Oversight Committee,
as she seeks a 16th term in
Congress.
Patel came within four points of
defeating Maloney in one of 2020’s
closest primary races.
“Democrats need a new generation
of leaders. This is a new decade, a
new district, and as we enter year
three of the pandemic, we’ve got new
challenges, which means we need a
government that proactively develops
21st-century solutions to 21st-century
problems,” Patel said. “I will solve
these problems because I have lived
them.”
When his parents emigrated from
India in the late 1960s in search of
economic opportunity, they fi t three
generations of his family in a twobedroom
apartment over the bodega
they ran. His father got a night job
fi xing subway trucks, and eventually,
they started a family business in the
hospitality sector.
“I understand what our small businesses
are going through – my earliest
memory is stacking newspapers in my
family’s bodega before my dad went
off to his job as an MTA worker, and
for the last two years, I’ve fought off
foreclosures for the family business,
making sure workers have healthcare,
jobs and landed on their feet,” Patel
said.
He worked on both of President
Obama’s campaigns and went on to
be an associate on the White House
Advance Team. During the Trump
administration, Patel became a fulltime
organizer, working to support
a new generation of American leaders.
When Patel ran against Maloney
in 2020, the primary results were
delayed for six weeks due to a court
battle over absentee ballots. Around
12,500 ballots were never counted, so
Patel went to court fi ghting for election
reform. He also served as a volunteer
attorney for the ACLU when Trump’s
Muslim Ban was enacted.
“I understand that with Republicans
attacking democracy nationally, we
need to stand up for it locally,” Patel
said. “I went to court here aft er thousands
of New Yorkers had their votes
thrown out, and we changed how
ballots are designed, distributed and
counted. I understand that Democrats
need to stand up for science, safety
and our schools, and I will be that
Democrat.”
Patel enters a crowded Democratic
primary fi eld that includes housing
advocate Maya Contreras and community
organizer Rana Abdelhamid
of Astoria. Maloney has represented
New York’s 12th Congressional District
since 1993.
Suraj Patel
Juan Ardila
Patel launches third Democratic primary challenge against Maloney
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