8 NOVEMBER 9, 2017 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Holden claims victory over Crowley
in razor-thin City Council race
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
AGIUDICE@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@A_GIUDICEREPORT
In what was probably the most heated
City Council race this election
cycle, the battle between two-term
incumbent Councilwoman Elizabeth
Crowley and Juniper Park Civic President
Robert Holden has proven to be
a nail-biter.
According to the New York City
Board of Elections website, at 12:15 a.m.
on Nov. 8, Holden had a slim 133 vote
lead over Crowley for the 30th Council
seat, with 98.97 percent of scanners
reporting. Holden claimed victory late
on Tuesday night, Nov. 7; Crowley has
not conceded as of press time. The 30th
District includes Ridgewood, Glendale,
Maspeth, Middle Village, Woodhaven
and Woodside.
This months-long battle between
the heated rivals wasn’t settled Election
Night and may not be for several
days to come, as hundreds of absentee
ballots still need to be counted.
As of the last tally, Holden had 10,211
votes, while Crowley got 10,088 total
votes. It was a remarkable turnaround
for Holden, who lost big to Crowley in the
Democratic primary but continued on as
a third-party candidate. Weeks later, he
gained the Republican Party’s support
after their nominee, Joseph Kasper,
dropped out to pursue a judgeship.
Republicans in the district, as it
turned out, strongly supported their
new candidate on Election Day, as
Holden got 8,457 votes on that line; he
garnered thousands more votes on the
Reform, Conservative and “Dump de
Blasio” lines.
There were 32 write-in votes.
At his campaign party held at Connolly’s
Corner in Maspeth, Holden
claimed victory based on these numbers
to cheers from his family, friends
and supporters.
“We’re up 133 votes, it’s all in except
the paper ballots,” Holden told his
supporters. “We’re confi dent it will
hold true and I think we won this race.”
In a statement released Nov. 8,
Crowley said she was “proud of my
record and the campaign my team
and I ran based on truth and hard
work.”
“We have done tremendous work
over the last nine years to make our
communities a better place to live
and raise a family, and I am confi dent
once all of the numbers come in, we
will have four more years to build on
that success,” she said.
Republican Councilman Eric Ulrich,
who won his re-election campaign
Tuesday, came out to support
Holden and congratulate him on a
hard-fought campaign, and what
looks like a victory.
“They say that the pride comes
before the fall, and boy did she fall
tonight,” Ulrich said of Crowley.
“Bob Holden showed that you don’t
take the low road to City Hall, that
you can’t use lies and smear, and
innuendos and vicious attacks and
think you’re going to get away with it
because the people of this community
went to the poll in historic turnout
and they swept her out of offi ce.”
Ulrich believes that the numbers
will hold up and that Holden will be
“an outstanding member of the City
Council.”
Photo by Anthony Giudice/Ridgewood Times
Robert Holden with his family at his campaign party after claiming victory
in the 30th Council District race.
‘We don’t share values’: Mayor criticizes Holden in undecided election
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
RPOZARYCKI@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@ROBBPOZ
Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke
out Wednesday regarding
the extremely tight Queens
City Council race in which two-term
incumbent Elizabeth Crowley is in
serious danger of losing her seat to
civic leader Robert Holden.
The results remain unoffi cial, but
Holden has a 133-vote lead on Crowley,
who on Wednesday morning
declined to concede the race until all
the votes are counted. Later in the
aft ernoon, during a press conference
at City Hall, a reporter asked de Blasio
about the prospect of working with
Holden if he’s declared the winner of
the 30th Council District seat, which
covers Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth,
Middle Village, Woodhaven
and Woodside.
“I don’t know him. He’s obviously a
Republican, and we don’t share values,”
de Blasio responded. “I’ll try and
work with him, although I suspect we
won’t see eye-to-eye on issues.”
Another reporter, in a follow-up
question to the mayor, pointed out
that Holden is a longtime registered
Democrat; the Middle Village civic
leader lost to Crowley in the September
primary, but continued his
campaign through third parties
and later picked up the Republican
Party’s nomination.
De Blasio responded that he didn’t
“understand Democrats who run as a
Republican,” and further suggested
that Holden aligned himself with
President Donald Trump when he
accepted the Republican voting line.
“If you can run as a Republican in
Donald Trump’s America, you just
bought the whole label,” de Blasio said.
“I don’t know the guy; I’ll try and work
with him, but he just signed up for
something very troubling in my book.”
When asked about what went
wrong for Crowley — who risks
being the lone Democrat to lose their
City Council seat to a Republican this
election cycle — de Blasio was at a loss.
“Look, I don’t know what happened
there, because the overall trend in
the city went the other way,” he told
reporters, “so I don’t know what happened
there.”
They may not know each other,
but the mayor and Holden are polar
opposites when it comes to a number
of issues. As Juniper Park Civic Association
president, Holden opposed
de Blasio on myriad issues from
bike lanes to a proposed homeless
shelter in Maspeth. During a June
JPCA meeting, in which mayoral
candidate Sal Albanese made an
appearance, Holden remarked,
“Any opponent to Bill de Blasio is a
favorite of ours.”
When contacted by QNS, Holden
said that the mayor’s remarks suggested
to him that de Blasio “apparently
wants a one-party system in the
United States” as a “socialist country
or a Marxist country.” Holden dismissed
the notion that he belonged
to either Democrats, Republicans or
any political party in general — and
would look to remain apolitical if the
results stand and he becomes City
Council member.
“I’m not beholden to parties,” Holden
said. “They the Republicans liked
me. I didn’t seek their nomination;
they came to me and asked, ‘Do you
want it?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ I’m a moderate
Democrat or a Reagan Democrat …
I’m conservative on some issues and
progressive on others.”
“Obviously, he’s being very general
about me, he’s listening to the wrong
people,” Holden added. “He should
meet with me and talk with me.”
Photo via Twitter/@BilldeBlasio
Mayor Bill de Blasio won his second
term in offi ce on Nov. 7.
