4 SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Queens GOP make shake up Council race with Holden
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AND ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
The 30th City Council District
campaign between two arch-rival
Democrats — incumbent
Elizabeth Crowley and challenger
Robert Holden — continues beyond
last week's primary. Though Crowley
prevailed, Holden is pressing on to
the November general election on the
Conservative and Reform party lines.
One odd wrinkle in this contest is
the relative absence of the Republican
party's nominee for the City Council
seat: Joseph Kasper, an attorney who
doesn't live in the district (he does
hold a law practice within it) and
failed last year in his attempt to win a
judicial seat. Kasper has no campaign
website or social media page for a City
Council campaign, although he does
have a dormant Facebook page for a
Supreme Court judgeship campaign
in 2016.
His name is also not listed as
a City Council candidate on the
city's Campaign Finance Bureau's
"Follow the Money" database that
tracks campaign contributions and
expenditures.
Kasper's virtually ghost-like City
Council campaign has puzzled some
political insiders, but a major shakeup
may be near.
Two sources familiar with the
Queens County Republican Party's
operations have told QNS that Kasper
may be enticed to drop out of the City
Council race. The sources, speaking
to us on the condition of anonymity,
noted that he could be replaced on
the November ballot with someone
whom party insiders see as a more
electable choice: Robert Holden.
The 30th District, which includes
Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth, Middle
Village and parts of Woodhaven
and Woodside, includes one of the
few conservative pockets left in
Queens. The seat also has a long history
of being held by Republicans;
when Crowley defeated Anthony
Como in a special November 2008
general election, she became the fi rst
Democrat ever to occupy the seat.
Republicans hold just three City
Council seats, one of which belongs
to Eric Ulrich of the 32nd District in
southwest Queens. The demographics
of the 30th District — which
include many of the Queens election
districts that voted for President
Donald Trump in last year's election
— fi gure to give the Republican Party
what some observers believe to be its
best hope at picking off a fourth City
Council seat.
Kasper, according to one of the
sources we spoke with, acts more as a
"placeholder" for the Republican line
in the Council race than as a serious
candidate. Many party insiders, the
source said, favor Holden and see
him as their "ace in the hole" now that
Holden lost last week's Democratic
primary.
Under election law, a party can
only replace a candidate on the ballot
if the candidate drops out to accept
the nomination to a judicial seat.
The Queens County GOP, according
to a source with knowledge of the
situation, will be nominating judicial
candidates on Sept. 25, and they
may nominate Kasper for a Queens
Supreme Court judgeship once again;
he has repeatedly run for judicial
seats in recent years.
If that happens and Kasper accepts,
Kasper would need to drop out of the
City Council race. That would clear
the way for party leaders to nominate
Holden, a registered Democrat
for more than four decades but one
who isn't shy about being bipartisan.
As Juniper Park Civic Association
president, he has both worked and
clashed with Democratic and Republican
offi cials in the past over myriad
matters.
Robert Turner, chair of the Queens
County GOP, stated that Kasper is
right now the party's candidate,
even though Kasper does not currently
reside within the 30th Council
District — a requirement to run for
offi ce. Turner said that the lawyer
does plan to move there very soon.
When asked about the rumor of
Holden possibly replacing Kasper
as the GOP nominee, Turner said he
is aware of the rumor, but would not
confi rm its validity at this time.
Asked by the Ridgewood Times
about the rumor, Holden said that
he doesn't consider himself "actually
anything other than a community
guy that’s volunteered his time and
worked with both parties" and that
he would "listen to every party that
would be interested in putting me on
the line, obviously."
“I’d have to talk about what they
(the Queens County Republicans)
were off ering because if they wanted
me to change parties and stuff like
that, I don’t know," Holden said. "As I
know, they have this guy Joe Kasper
running, and that’s all I know. I spoke
to GOP months and months ago, and
they had spoken to me about a couple
of options.”
Holden said that if the off er came
along, he "certainly would talk" to the
party, and also to his advisors, about
whether to accept the Republican line.
“I’m a community guy," he added. "I
never belonged to any political club;
certainly my opposition to the Democratic
leadership in Queens County
has been well documented.”
File photo/RIDGEWOOD TIMES
Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association and City
Council candidate.
