FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JULY 4, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
Queens DA primary
HOW THE WEST WAS CABAN’S
Primary maps reveal staggering turnout for progressive
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
With Tiff any Cabán holding a 1,100-vote
lead over Borough President Melinda Katz
before the scheduled July 3 count of absentee
ballots in the Queens district attorney primary,
maps from CUNY Graduate Center
show election districts that went heavy for
the insurgent Democratic Socialist.
Not only does the research in the maps
depict territories clearly more dedicated to
Cabán, but they also show that the public
defender posed a surprise challenge to Katz
in the borough president’s own turf: Forest
Hills and Kew Gardens.
Katz dominated in the southeast, while
retired Judge Gregory Lasak swayed majorities
in traditional conservative strongholds
across Queens in the northeast,
Howard Beach and the western Rockaway
Peninsula.
About 28 to 50 percent of votes in
Queensbridge and Astoria Houses went
to Katz, giving her the advantage in those
election districts. But they were enclaves in
what turned out to be Cabán country, contrasted
by deep red indicating 60 to 95 percent
of voters choosing Cabán over the six
other candidates on the ballot.
Approximately 70 to 100 percent of voters
chose Katz in Far Rockaway districts,
while parts of Fresh Meadows also voted
heavily for the borough president, whose
term is up in 2021.
Aft er the polls closed on June 25, Katz
and Congressman Gregory Meeks –
Queens County Democratic Party chair –
said they would seek a full count of absentee
paper ballots that they believed would
tip the race in Katz’s favor.
Th e city Board of Elections count of
about 3,400 absentee ballots is scheduled
for July 3. Aft er the count, it will certify a
primary winner.
“When you look at the map you realize
there are many more election districts
where Cabán received 70 percent or more
of the vote than Borough President Katz
did, so supporters who turned out for
Cabán really turned out more strongly,”
said Steven Romalewski, who heads up the
CUNY Mapping Service, told QNS. “Th ere
are almost two poles of support: there’s
western Queens and southeastern Queens.
But between all of that there is a lot of
mixed support. Th e votes weren’t strongly
for one candidate or another.”
“What that tells me is that Borough
President Katz could have done a lot better,
but she didn’t,” he added.
Romalewski pointed out that although
Katz’s support is depicted in green across
wider swaths of the fi rst map, the pie chart
map illustrates just how much Cabán and
other candidates may have watered-down
the vote.
“I think it’s premature and incomplete
to say that Cabán is the candidate of places
that people consider are gentrifying. She
got support in a lot of other places, maybe
not enough support to win those election
districts but still she made a strong
showing in many parts of the borough,”
Romalewski added. “It’s not that she did
poorly, but I would have imagined it to be
much stronger.”
Romalewski also said this was an election
with low voter turnout, which only 11
percent of registered Democrats making
their way to the polls.
Queens has not seen a competitive race
for DA in over 28 years, since Richard
Brown was appointed to succeed John
Santucci, and while other counties have
brought reforms to the offi ce, policies have
remained mostly unchanged.
Lasak, on the campaign trail, claimed
that while he worked to overturn wrongful
convictions during his time in the DA’s
offi ce, Brown was resistant to creating an
offi cial unit that would vindicate innocent
people sitting behind bars for crimes they
did not commit.
And as the criminal justice community
has long debated eliminating cash bail,
Albany only recently voted on a statewide
reform this year in April.
But while the offi ce under Brown maintained
a steady, tough-on-crime attitude
for 28 years, those who carry on Brown’s
legacy, such as acting DA John Ryan, have
defended the late Brown as a fi ghter who
made the borough a safer place.
While Cabán’s campaign rarely took
issue with Brown’s policies directly, she ran
on a platform that called for zero cash bail,
an end to prosecutions for low-level drug
possession or sex work as well as advocating
for an end to incarceration with a
motto of “no new jails.”
Cabán, whose campaign was slow to raise
funds or create a stable organization, quickly
picked up steam in the fi nal weeks before
the primary, buoyed in part by high-profi
le endorsements from Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Philadelphia
DA Larry Krasner, and Senators Elizabeth
Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Check QNS
for updates on
primary count
Th e New York City Board of Elections
was scheduled to begin counting on
Wednesday, July 3, the paper ballots
in the still-unresolved Queens district
attorney primary election.
Because of the Independence Day
holiday, the print deadline of this
newspaper was moved up by a day to
Tuesday, July 2. Th erefore, the results of
the July 3 count are not available here.
We invite you to check QNS.com for
the latest reports on the count and the
Queens’ DA race itself.
As of press time, public defender
Tiff any Cabán had a nearly 1,100-vote
lead on Queens Borough President
Melinda Katz in the Democratic primary.
Th ere were an estimated 6,000
absentee and affi davit ballots to be
reviewed and counted by the Board of
Elections.
— Robert Pozarycki
Photo: CUNY Mapping Service
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