The Manhattan Times

Election watch

Liu and de Blasio win primary runoff

Queens Democrat John Liu defeated fellow City Council member David Yassky in the Sept. 29 Democratic run off primary, pulling in 56-percent of the vote. Brooklyn Council Member Bill de Blasio defeated candidate Mark Green with 63 percent of the vote.

Liu pointed to the support of ethnic newspapers as a reason for his victory.

District 10 suit tossed out of court

A Queens judge has dismissed a lawsuit which sought to invalidate the results of the City Council District 10 Democratic Primary results.

The suit, brought by candidates Luis Facundo, Cleofis Sarete, Francesca Castellanos and Francisco Spies, alleged that campaign workers and poll site inspectors who backed Council Member-elect Ydanis Rodriguez unfairly influenced votes and outright forged results.

The judge dismissed it after hearing Rodriguez’ lawyer argue that the subpoenas were not properly served to the candidates.

“We’re not going to appeal,” said Verena Powell, the lawyer representing the aggrieved candidates.

“Unfortunately they got out again on a technicality,” said candidate Luis Facundo, noting that the Rodriguez campaign also had Guillermo Linares knocked off the ballot.

The candidates won’t appeal because of the cost of mounting another challenge, Facundo said, even though he believes the judge “didn’t want to get into the messy argument that we had fraudulent elections.”

He allows that Rodriguez would have won the election in either case, but said the primary vote should be a wakeup call – if more voters had turned out then the numbers wouldn’t have been so easy to manipulate.

“If we don’t get out the vote, then this is what happens,” Facundo said.

Castellanos, who won just 271 votes, focused much of her ire at Rodriguez’ biggest supporter, her former rival for the 72nd Assembly District, Adriano Espaillat.

Even though she agreed that there would be no appeal of the court’s decision, she said she plans to turn her evidence of cheating over to the federal government.

“The only way we can control this [from happening again] is with federal monitors,” Castellanos said.

Runner-up Richard Realmuto, an attorney, who had characterized the race as “the campaign that refuses to die” applauded the judge’s decision.

“I think the judge made the right decision. It’s time to move on,” he said.

With election tallies certified, Rodriguez picks up 536 more votes

The New York City Board of Elections has certified the Sept. 15 Primary results. Council Member-elect Ydanis Rodriguez earned 5,321 votes, up from the unofficial count of 4,785. Every candidate increased their count except Cleofis Sarete, who dropped 43 votes from 206 to163, replacing architect Luis Facundo in last place, who also lost 16 votes.

Results:

Ydanis Rodriguez: Official: 5,321 Unofficial: 4,785 Difference: +536 votes

Richard Realmuto Official: 1,325 Unofficial: 1,189 Difference: +136 votes

Manny Velazquez Official: 876 Unofficial: 788 Difference: +88 votes

Ruben Dario Vargas Official: 451 Unofficial: 421 Difference: +30 votes

Francesca Castellanos Official: 323 Unofficial: 271 Difference +52 votes

Francisco Spies Official: 188 Unofficial: 162 Difference +26 votes

Luis Facundo: Official: 171 Unofficial: 155 Difference -16 votes

Cleofis Sarete: Official 163 Unofficial: 206 Difference -43 votes

Surprise City Council runner-up tackled district race his own way

Richard Realmuto, the only non-Hispanic candidate in the eight-way race for District 10, was very clear how he wanted to run his campaign: “Make it about issues, not race,” Realmuto said. “I’m very proud of the fact that I didn’t.”

Voters responded at the polls. Out of 8,820 official votes, Realmuto pulled in 1,325 – more than the bottom six, mostly better known, candidates combined.

According to the unofficial vote count broken down by individual machines at each poling location, his support was consistent across the district, not focused in non-Hispanic areas.

Except for driving around in a poster-plastered truck with a loudspeaker like his competitors, Realmuto earned that respectable showing his own way.

He hired his wife, Wendy, as his treasurer, and told her he never wanted to even see the checkbook. Compared to the army of volunteers of eventual winner Ydanis Rodriguez, Realmuto had just two campaign workers, both from the neighborhood and bilingual, which he paid $10 an hour to collect signatures.

“I wanted to pay them a living wage,” Realmuto said. He’d heard some candidates paid $1 per signature in the month-long dash for the petitions candidates need to get on the ballot.

“That’s ridiculous,” Realmuto said. Imagining himself in the shoes of the petition canvassers, he asked “If that’s how he treats me now, how’s he going to treat me when he’s a City Councilman?”

The tall, affable lawyer from the area around J. Hood Wright Park on Ft. Washington Avenue and W. 175th Street, who can be seen playing catch with his son in the park or watching his dog in the park’s run, decided to run to challenge the corruption he sees in City Council, and after watching the underdog New York Giants win the Super Bowl in 2008.

To get to know the people in the district, Realmuto approached Grassroots Initiatives, a non-profit election firm downtown which provided him a “walking list,” the names and addresses of confirmed Democrats in the district, so the 1,054 signatures he collected going door to door wouldn’t be thrown out if challenged.

“It was a heck of a lot of work,” Realmuto said. “When your look someone in the eye and talk – to them it makes a difference. That was my favorite part of the campaign.”

While other candidates held election night parties in their neighborhood offices or at restaurants, Realmuto invited his supporters to his home.

“I’m such a home guy,” he said. “My strength has always been my home.”

He said he bought a four-foot sub, sent an email out to his friends and supporters inviting them over and waited.

About 40 people responded, leaving crumbs where the sub used to be.

In the aftermath of the election, Realmuto isn’t sure what he will do with the support he’s been shown, and has shown some interest in contacting local charter schools, a big issue in his campaign.

“It was a wonderful run,” he said. “I don’t know how I help. I don’t know what to do next.”

Farrell ends longest reign as top Democrat in New York County

The Daily Politic reported on Sept. 23 that Assembly Member Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr., ended his 28-year reign as the chair of the Manhattan Democratic Party.

Assembly Member Keith Wright was voted into the seat without opposition, though the political blog said there were rumors that Farrell’s political neighbor, 72nd Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat, might make a move for the seat.

The committee is the gatekeeper for any Democrat who might want to run for office in the county.

Farrell, who had planned to run for Robert Jackson’s District 7 City Council seat until the extension of term limits, still remains one of the state’s top Democrats, chairing the powerful Ways and Means Committee in the Assembly.

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