8 OCTOBER 10, 2019 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Group challenging Joe Addabbo for senate
wants to elect a progressive candidate
State Senator Joseph Addabbo at a February 2018 press conference. Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
According to a press release circulated
last week, a new political
group Joe’s Gotta Go is eyeing state
Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr.’s office.
Literally. They even went so far as
to list his district office’s address
as theirs on their press materials
because the grassroots group is not
centrally located.
“We’ll have Joe’s address one day,
hopefully,” they tweeted.
The group is seeking out candidates
to primary Addabbo, the
six-term senator who has never
faced a Democratic challenger
since entering office after beating
out Republican incumbent Serphin
Maltese in 2008.
Jeff Griffin, a former Addabbo
staffer, is leading the organization
alongside with members of
Rockaway Revolution. According
to Griffin, they have been reaching
out to political groups across
the district to build a coalition
and take suggestions on potential
candidates.
“I am pleasantly surprised at how
this is going,” said Griffin, who
added that the group’s Twitter
inbox was overflowing with grassroots
support after they went live. “I
really do think we’re going to find a
candidate before 2020.”
The organization listed a number
of political priorities that they feel
Addabbo has not upheld including
“unequivocal support” of a green
new deal, abortion rights, disavowing
campaign donations from the
real estate, criminal justice reform
and cooperation with the city to
combat homelessness and school
segregation.
The group’s reason for targeting
Addabbo is that they believe in him
to be an unreliable source of support
for progressive legislation.
Griffin said that in the event that
Democrats are able to flip more
three Senate seats in 2020 and
achieve a supermajority capable of
overturning Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
veto, he sees Addabbo as a potential
impediment to getting certain progressive
bills through.
The lopsided stretch of Senate
District 15 extends from Maspeth
through Ozone Park and Howard
Beach to the western tip of the
Rockaways. Among Democrats up
to now, the political consensus has
been that the district has been too
conservative to challenge from the
left.
“The electorate is changing quite
a bit,” Griffin said. “I think that
people are relying on outdated,
conventional wisdom.”
Though Addabbo never caucused
with the now-defunct Independent
Democratic Caucus, this past year
he did turn heads when he became
the only Democrat, apart from the
renegade Senator Simcha Felder, not
to vote for legislation expanding
abortion rights.
Ultimately the Democratic senate
majority did not need Addabbo’s
vote to pass the legislation. But
Addabbo did say that in addition to
his objection over parts of the bill’s
language that there was an electoral
calculus in his decision to appeal to
his more conservative swing voters.
In June, Addabbo told City & State
that it was popular in his district
to vote against the Reproductive
Health Act.
Out of the legislation the Addabbo
has introduced himself, one
of his biggest pushes has been for
the legalization of mobile sports
betting and other gaming-related
laws as the chair of the Racing,
Gaming and Wagering Committee.
This past year, he also introduced a
law that established an annual day
of remembrance throughout all city
public schools each Sept. 11.
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