FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 23
Screenshot from Facebook Live video
Revenge of the ‘real Democrats’ rules primary night in Queens
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com
@robbpoz
Th e two Queens state senators who
were formerly part of the Independent
Democratic Conference (IDC) felt the
wrath of Queens Democratic voters during
Th ursday’s primaries.
State Senator Jose Peralta lost his bid
for re-election to Democratic challenger
Jessica Ramos in the 13th District primary
covering areas of northwest Queens.
On the opposite side of the borough, state
Senator Tony Avella of the 11th District
lost to former City Comptroller John Liu,
who’s making a bid at a major political
comeback.
Both Avella and Peralta were former
members of the IDC, a breakaway group
of state Senate Democrats who collaborated
with Senate Republicans. Th ey took
criticism from traditional Democrats who
argued that the caucus blunted eff orts to
pass progressive legislation in the state
capital.
Although the IDC reunited with the
traditional Senate Democrats earlier this
year, it seems that wasn’t enough to convince
Queens voters to forgive the incumbents.
Both Ramos and Liu positioned
themselves as “real Democrats,” and that
tactic appeared to be the diff erence.
With 99% of scanners counted, Ramos
had over a 2,100 vote edge on Peralta
(12,181 to 10,021) in the 13th Senatorial
District, which covers much of Corona,
East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights
and Woodside.
Liu, meanwhile, won with a more
than 1,000-vote lead on Avella (12,133
to 10,846). He’ll face the winner of the
Republican primary for the seat, former
businesswoman Vickie Paladino. Th e
11th District covers much of northeast
Queens including Bayside, College Point,
Douglaston, Flushing, Little Neck and
Whitestone.
Another defeated Queens incumbent
was Assemblywoman Ari Espinal, who
had won the 39th Assembly District seat
in an April special election but lost on
Th ursday to civic activist Catalina Cruz.
With 97.83% of scanners counted, Espinal
trailed Cruz by more than 700 votes; Cruz
has 3,736 votes to Espinal’s 3,016. A third
candidate in the primary, Yonel Letellier-
Sosa, factors in the race as a bit of a spoiler,
as he has just 225 votes.
Th e 39th Assembly District includes
areas of Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson
Heights.
Other local results from the Sept. 13 primaries
include the following:
• Breezy Point businessman Tom Sullivan
is the projected winner of the 15th
Senatorial District primary over attorney
Slawomir Platta. With 98.74% of
machines counted, Sullivan has a more
than 1,600 vote lead on Platta (3,188
to 1,508). Sullivan will face incumbent
State Senator Joe Addabbo in the
November election for the right to represent
the district spanning most of
southwest Queens and the Rockaways.
• Assemblyman Brian Barnwell cruised
to victory over challenger Melissa Sklarz
in the 30th Assembly District primary.
With 97.73% of all votes tallied, Barnwell
had 5,214 votes while Sklarz — who was
bidding to become the fi rst transgender
woman elected to the state legislature —
had 2,902. Th e 30th District covers areas
of Astoria, Long Island City, Maspeth,
Middle Village and Woodside. Turnout
in this primary was way better than in
2016; Barnwell upset then-Assemblywoman
Margaret Markey in that race
in which a total of 2,543 votes were cast.
• Assemblyman Clyde Vanel handily
won his primary contest over challenger
Oster Bryan in the 33rd Assembly
District race. With 99% of scanners
counted, Vanel had 10,959 votes while
Bryan had 2,794 votes. Vanel will likely
win re-election in November as the representative
of the 33rd District covering
the neighborhoods of Bellerose Manor,
Cambria Heights, Hollis, Queens Village
and St. Albans.
Senator Jose Peralta and Jessica Ramos in bilingual candidate forum.
Turnout surges in Queens Democratic primary, but still below 25%
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com
@robbpoz
Th e “blue wave” that many pundits predict
will happen in the November elections
arrived early in Queens last week.
Turnout among registered Democrats
in the Sept. 13 gubernatorial primary was
23 percent; while that seems like a rather
weak total, it was nonetheless three times
higher than the turnout of the last gubernatorial
primary in 2014.
That year, just 67,886 Queens
Democrats — equal to 9 percent of the
739,114 registered Democrats in the
borough — cast a vote in the primary
between Governor Andrew Cuomo and
law professor Zephyr Teachout. Cuomo
won 71.9 percent of the borough’s vote
in that primary, and went on to score an
easy election that November for a second
term in offi ce.
Facing a tougher challenge this year
from political activist/actress Cynthia
Nixon, Cuomo managed to do even better
in Queens, garnering 131,388 votes,
or 72.7 percent of the 180,313 ballots
cast in the race. Even in defeat, Nixon
received 48,902 votes, slightly more than
the 2014 primary votes Cuomo received
(48,833) and about three times the total
Teachout garnered (14,522) in that contest.
Overall, Cuomo enjoyed a successful
primary on Sept. 13 in the borough
where he was born and raised, winning
17 of the 18 Assembly districts in
Queens. His biggest margin of victory
came in the 32nd Assembly District, represented
by Vivian Cook, covering areas
of Jamaica, South Jamaica, Springfi eld
Gardens and Rosedale; 90 percent of
primary voters in the district went for
Cuomo.
Th e one Queens district Cuomo didn’t
carry also happened to have the highest
turnout by percentage in the borough:
the 36th Assembly District represented by
Aravella Simotas and covering much of
Astoria and Long Island City. Nixon won
56.8 percent of the 12,988 votes cast in the
Democratic primary there; that total represented
27.2 percent of the 47,664 registered
Democrats in the district.
On the fl ip side, the 38th Assembly
District, represented by Mike Miller and
covering much of Glendale, Woodhaven,
Ozone Park and Richmond Hill, had the
lowest Democratic primary turnout by
percentage in all of Queens. Just 6,567 of
the 38,843 registered Democrats in the
district bothered to show up at the polls,
accounting for a 16.9 percent turnout.
Primary results
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