The Manhattan Times

Election Watch

by Mike Fitelson

Strong field of candidates for D.A.

Voters will do something this September that they haven’t done in 35 years: elect someone to Manhattan district attorney who is not named Robert Morgenthau.

The 90-year-old Morgenthau, more an institution than an individual as the borough’s top crime fighter, announced in February that he is retiring.

There are no Republican candidates running so the winner of the Sept. 15 Democratic Primary will win the office.

The Democratic candidates – Richard Aborn, Leslie Crocker Snyder, and Cy Vance – have similar stances on the biggest issues.

All three vow to be tough on violent offenders and white-collar criminals, enact programs that prevent young people from falling into cycles of crime, increase domestic violence convictions and build stronger partnerships with community institutions. All applaud the initial efforts at reforming the so-called Rockefeller Drug Laws that Albany began enacting earlier this year.

But there are distinctions between their credentials and visions for the D.A.’s office.

Snyder, who served as an assistant district attorney under Morgenthau’s predecessor Frank Hogan, has the longest resume of the three candidates and is the only one to have served as a judge, which she did for 20 years. Snyder also ran against Morgenthau in 2005, one of the few to oppose him during his term, losing by about 25,000 votes, 53,315 to 78,629.

Snyder made an impact in the D.A.’s office in the 1960s and 70s as the first female prosecutor to try homicides in Manhattan and in creating the country’s first sex crimes unit. As a judge, Snyder presided over some of the city’s most disturbing murder trials, including a series that put away members of the Jheri Curls and Wild Cowboys drug gangs, both of which were very active in Northern Manhattan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Due to these trials, and threats to her life, her children received police escorts at school for several years.

Snyder says her experience and experiences differentiates her from her competitors. “I’ve been talking about many of these issues for four years,” she said during a recent phone interview.

Immigration has received less focus during the D.A. campaign than other issues. Snyder’s top concern is ensuring that victims feel that they can report the crimes against them without fearing questions about their immigration status. This will require ongoing community education and training of law enforcement personnel about Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” immigration policy, she said.

“Even legal immigrants are afraid” of being deported, Snyder said. “They have an absolute legal right to come forward if they are a victim.”

Cy Vance is running in the enviable position of being Morgenthau’s hand-picked successor. Both in the D.A.’s office and in private practice he built a strong reputation for taking on corporate criminals, including leading a successful class action suit against the Boeing Corporation. Outside the courtroom, Vance served on the sentencing commissions of Governor Eliot Spitzer and David Patterson that helped create the recommendations that reformed the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Vance has spent more time as a public defender than his opponents and has the longest career in litigation. It is this experience, knowing the criminal justice system from “both sides,” that Morgenthau pointed to in endorsing Vance. The Daily News also endorsed Vance this month.

Of the candidates, Vance probably has the most detailed plan for addressing immigrant issues, such as bolstering Immigrant Affairs to a full unit within the Special Prosecutions Bureau and doubling its resources.

One of the centerpieces of Vance’s platform is establishing a larger presence for the D.A.’s office in Northern Manhattan. He has pledged to create a Washington Heights based satellite office to be more responsive to community-based issues, such as helping tenants take on slumlords, and establish a Family Justice Center uptown that would target domestic violence and elder abuse.

Aborn is typically described as the most progressive of the three candidates.

Aborn, who has lived his entire life in New York City, has helped lead the national campaign for stricter gun control laws by helping craft the Brady Bill, the national assault weapons ban, and the ban on large volume clips. He advocates for ending the so-called “war on drugs” and putting greater focus on treatment of substance abusers. He has also championed the use of technology in crime fighting, particularly in DNA testing, and has advised large police forces, including Scotland Yard and the LAPD.

Aborn, who was an assistant district attorney under Morgenthau from 1979 to 1984, has earned endorsements from the Working Families Party and a slew of state senators, including Eric Schneiderman.

Vargas officially launches campaign

District 10 City Council hopeful Ruben Dario Vargas formally launched his campaign on Mon., Aug. 10 at an evening press conference at Caridad restaurant on Broadway near W. 204^th Street.

Half a dozen journalists from the Latino press lobbed question after question at Vargas for nearly two hours. While Vargas plans to hit the streets in the next four weeks, his other campaign efforts are decidedly non-traditional, sending out just one mailing and promising not to go door to door becuase he doesn’t like the invasion of privacy.

“We won’t be harassing the people with mailings,” Vargas said.

The unorthodox campaign strategy highlights Vargas’ unique approach to campaigning and how he would act if elected to the Council.

“The main reason is to deliver the message, why are we here? We’re not here just for a job. We’re here because of our natural ability to serve. I didn’t come [to the United States] to pursue the American Dream. I came here to serve.”

When asked why he decided to launch his campaign just a month before the primary, he said it was because he is known in the community.

“We believe one person doesn’t need more than one month. It will be sufficient to bring the campaign to victory,” Vargas said.

Yassky in the Heights

New York City Comptroller candidate City Council Member David Yassky spent Aug. 12 in Washington Heights and Inwood talking to residents, meeting with small business owners and raising some cash for his campaign.

His day began at 6:30 a.m. at the 207^th Street subway stop accompanied by former City Council Member Guillermo Linares, who was recently knocked off the ballot to run again, and several local volunteers. “David is an impressive candidate, with an impressive resume,” said Linares, who endorsed Yassky for comptroller on Sunday at the Dominican Day Parade.

“His narrative helping small businesses is perfect for our community where entrepreneurs are our economic engine.”

Yassky then met with a dozen local merchants to talk about how the city can better attend to their needs. Presently, Yassky serves as the chair of the City Council Small Business Committee. In the afternoon, Democratic District Leader Mayra Linares introduced Yassky to residents on 168th Street subway stop. The day ended at a fundraiser at the home of Broadway star and “In the Heights” Tony Award-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda. Speaking to 75 neighbors at the gathering, Yassky explained how, five weeks before the Democratic Primary, more than half of New Yorkers who are likely to vote do not know the comptroller candidates.

“I started my career at the city’s budget office, then as part of Senator Schumer’s team in Washington, went on to become a City Council member from Brooklyn, and if you tell others about my candidacy, I’ll be your next comptroller,” he said.

Ruling that fell Linares doesn’t affect district leader race

The unanimous ruling by the 10-member Board of Elections that booted Guillermo Linares out of the City Council 10th District race could have applied to Rafael Escaño, a candidate for 72nd Part B Democratic District leader, if anyone had contested his petitions.

When Miguel Martinez, the 10th District Council Member and incumbent district leader, resigned last month, his three-member vacancy committee signed over all the petitions he had earned to Linares for Council and Escaño for district leader.

A challenge by Council candidate Ydanis Rodriguez revealed that the paperwork filed by the vacancy committee was inaccurate, invalidating the committee’s decision to substitute Linares for Martinez.

Even though the committee's paperwork was found in error, its decision to give Martinez' district leader petitions to Escaño still stands because the challenge was only filed against the petitions for Council.

“No one objected to the district leader,” said Board of Elections spokesperson Valerie Vasquez-Rivera. “The petitions are automatically, on its face value, assumed to be valid.”

The deadline for filing objections has passed. Unless a legal challenge is brought forth, Escaño’s name will remain on the September 15 primary ballot.

Escaño is facing Manny De Los Santos for the unpaid position.

The Manhattan Times is the bilingual newspaper of Washington Heights and Inwood.