In our current issue, we asked each candidate running for State Assembly (both the 51st and 52nd districts) to submit around 500 words explaining their positions to the public and why they would make a good elected official. The primary is tomorrow – we urge all to go and vote and here is what everyone said (plus the introduction that we wrote in the paper).
As New York is pretty much a Democratic town, many of the November races are actually decided in the September Democratic primary. These are scheduled the second Tuesday in September. Some may remember that 9/11/01, the day of Al Queda’s attacks on America, was a primary day. That year the election, which had already started, was stopped and rescheduled for later in the month. That was the race where Michael Bloomberg became mayor.
This year the election is on September 9th. The races include State Senate, State Assembly and Governor. As a public service, the Star-Revue allows each candidate space to tell you why they deserve your vote. These statements are presented below and on the next page and represent the Assembly races in the 51st and 52nd districts.
The 52nd district includes Piers 1-12, much of the Columbia Waterfront District, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope. For the past 17 years the position was held by Joan Millman, who decided not to seek reelection this year. Red Hook and Sunset Park are in the 51st AD. Felix Ortiz has held that seat since 1994, and is seeking re-election. These are two year terms, and unlike the City Council, there are no term limits.
51st District – Red Hook, Sunset Park, parts of Gowanus and Bay Ridge
Assembly Member Felix W. Ortiz
Serving Red Hook as your Assemblyman is an honor and a profound responsibility and I am proud of the accomplishments we have achieved by working together.
We have faced serious issues and had success, but we cannot afford to lose ground as we prepare for the challenges ahead. We have drawn the attention of all levels of government and we must continue to raise our voices and fight until our needs are fully met.
First and foremost, we must recover from Sandy’s devastation. Promised funds must be released to the families and small businesses who are still struggling to return to normal. I have called on Mayor de Blasio to resolve the delay and as a result he is making this a top priority. I will keep the pressure on until all have received restitution.
In addition, we must continue to raise our voices to add more accessible mass transit services to Red Hook. We are currently working to secure ferry service from Red Hook to Manhattan seven days a week. Securing this service and adding new options will help Red Hook residents access jobs, schools and better connect to the rest of the city.
We must also eliminate the NYCHA repair backlog and hold them accountable for their failure to properly use government funds to meet our needs. Further, we must assure that Red Hook residents have equal and fair access to apartments in the neighborhood by holding NYCHA accountable for the review and assignment of new housing applications.
My number one priority is and has always been the education, safety and well-being of our children. This year, we won the fight to bring Universal pre-Kindergarten to our youngest generation and delivered more funds for our schools, reducing classroom size and bringing in new technology. I have delivered after school programs and worked to improve healthier students by improving access to nutritious breakfasts and lunches.
It was my law that banned the use of cell phones while driving. This law came as a direct result of deaths that occurred in our community when pedestrians were killed by distracted drivers. We have extended that law to include texting and with the newly formed “Vision Zero” campaign joining my safe streets efforts, we have passed a law lowering the speed limit on city streets.
We have accomplished much by working together and I ask for your support again so that I can continue to work with you. I always put children and families of this community first. This sometimes makes the political bosses and special interests upset, but I don’t work for them. I work for you. And I’m proud to be on your side.
I hope I can count on your vote in the Democratic Primary, Tuesday, September 9, 2014. Thank you and God bless.
Challenger Ceasar Zuniga
As the son of hard working immigrants, Ceasar Zuniga knows what it takes to succeed and raise a family in Brooklyn. Ceasar lives in Sunset Park with his partner and his two young sons. He currently serves as the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Parent-Child Home Program, a national early childhood education program. In this capacity, he has helped bring early childhood education programs to families both nationally and throughout New York City, including Sunset Park. A member of Brooklyn Community Board 7 for the past 5 years, Ceasar is also a member of the Council of the Sunset Park Promise Neighborhood Initiative. With extensive experience on the community board, in the education system, and in the non-profit sector, Ceasar has the knowledge of how to craft evidence-based policy that will work for our community.
Ceasar has chosen to run because he does not feel that the families of the 51st District have a representative that they can count on. With our waterfront crumbling, rents skyrocketing, schools deteriorating, and small businesses being trampled, we need an Assembly Member that will fight for us. Ceasar knows that our neighborhood is changing, but he wants to make sure that these changes work for our community. He wants to re-develop our waterfront and invest in our infrastructure in a way that provides jobs and opportunities to our local families. Ceasar wants to ensure that these decisions about investment and development are driven by the community and not by investors and politicians.
As an education professional, Ceasar knows there is nothing more important than the opportunities that we provide for our kids. He has raised millions of dollars to expand early childhood education to under-served communities including in Sunset Park. He wants to ensure that universal pre-k and early childhood education is fully funded so that kids are given opportunities at an early age. He wants to open new schools and improve our old ones in order to fix overcrowding, and he wants to raise the bar for our schools so that every child can attend a high preforming school, no matter where they live.
As Ceasar works to improve the standard of living in our neighborhoods, he wants to work to ensure that the families he’s working for aren’t priced out of the neighborhood. Ceasar knows that the cost of living is spiraling out of control across our neighborhoods. He wants to protect the affordable housing that we have — and expand affordable housing in the future. As our Assembly Member, Ceasar will ensure that new development is affordable for people from all walks of life. He will work to expand rent regulations beyond 2015 – without giving in to developers. He will work for tax breaks for small homeowners.
Ceasar is dedicated to our community and to the families that live there. He wants to be a voice for every resident and to fight for our community in the Assembly. Vote Ceasar Zuniga on September 9th.
52nd District – Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Red Hook piers, Brooklyn Heights
Jo Anne Simon
It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the 52nd Assembly District as your Democratic State Committeewoman and District Leader, and to work closely with Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman and my co-leaders over the past 10 years.
When Joan Millman decided to not seek re-election I was honored to earn her support to succeed her in the State Assembly. I’ve also been endorsed by US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, and NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. You can read the full list of endorsements at www.simonforbrooklyn.com.
My extensive experience working with local neighborhood organizations and individuals, coupled with the support of community leaders for my candidacy, demonstrates the trust people have in me to be their representative in Albany.
I am most proud that my record of achievement (which is spelled out in detail on my website) was as a community volunteer. It wasn’t my job. All of my community involvement has been dedicated to giving our community a meaningful voice, not for a paycheck. Whether for my current position as Democratic District Leader or as President of the Boerum Hill Association it was for our communities.
Now, with the departure of Joan Millman, I believe I can put my experience to work for us not just here in Brooklyn, but in Albany as well.
There’s a lot of talk about reform. However, I am the only candidate who’s “walked the walk.”
I led the fight to drive the sexual predator Vito Lopez out of the Kings County Democratic Committee and the State Assembly. After his resignation, I ran for Democratic County leader on a platform of party reforms, and while I didn’t win that election, the reforms that I and others pushed for were adopted. That’s a record of achievement unmatched by my opponents. I will bring that same energy and experience to the Assembly to achieve long overdue reforms.
As an educator and attorney, I’ve seen how our schools could be doing so much more for our students. I took action, with such things as helping found Gowanus In Unity Tutoring, working with the ARISE Coalition, and serving as President of Everyone Reading. In the Assembly, I will fight to fund our local schools to realize the promise of the court’s ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equality decision and against the overreliance on high stakes testing. I will work to ensure the new Universal Pre-K program is fully funded, while working to shrink class sizes in other grades, starting with elementary school.
Our community faces many challenges ahead, from the future of Brooklyn Bridge Park (where I oppose the housing at Pier 6), to LICH, to opposing the shelter on West 9th Street, to the ongoing Atlantic Yards Project, to our local libraries and schools. The list almost seems endless. But it is a list I am very familiar with, where I have helped achieve real victories, and a list where my experience and skills can make a real difference for the people of the 52nd Assembly District.
Doug Biviano
My opponents for Assembly, Peter Sikora and Jo Anne Simon, are deeply involved in Mayor de Blasio’s campaign deception using LICH Hospital and it makes me worry about our future. That’s why I’m running.
Allow me to explain…
Like you, I am frustrated at the corrupt waste and lack of smart government in Albany that are causing this state to have the highest taxes, pushing the middle class and businesses out of our neighborhoods and causing suffering of the poor. Hospitals have been disappeared throughout NYC for condos for over a decade now. The leadership and professionalism that made New York the economic, cultural and idea capital of the world have gone, replaced by a generation of politicians whose elective office will be the best and only jobs they have.
Breaking campaign promises — whether it’s LICH, overcrowded schools, condos in Brooklyn Bridge Park or shrinking and closing libraries — is unfortunately only a symptom of the damage to our neighborhood. The worst thing today’s permanent class of politicians has done to us by controlling the election process is the taking of power of governing away from our community and you the voter to consolidate it for themselves and the permanent government to do as they please.
Control of our neighborhoods has been taken over by a Private Tammany Hall made up of lobbyists-campaign consultants and special interests who are not interested in serving the public but, instead, making money by tearing down our vital institutions that save our lives, educate us and give us enjoyment. Sadly, Red Hook and Carroll Gardens understands this more than any community having already lost a young father of three in an ambulance diversion to a distant hospital after LICH’s closure.\
Unfortunately my opponents Peter Sikora (a lobbyist) and Jo Anne Simon are in knee-deep in the deception of LICH. Both were arrested with deBlasio in his campaign stunt to get elected. Now they’re using their arrests to get elected. Both cover-up the fact that de Blasio walked away from LICH and said nothing that he tried to deceive the voters with the level of emergency healthcare protection the proposed Fortis ER would provide in a letter paid for by deBlasio’s Citizen’s Union like PAC. Doctors immediately disputed the letter saying don’t go to the proposed ER for any serious medical emergencies. Both talk about LICH in the past tense. Sikora praises deBlasio for his efforts. Interestingly, Sikora’s campaign consultant is the same consultant who sent the LICH Letter. Instead of apologizing to us for using the consultant who sent the letter, Sikora praised his consultant Berlin Rosen in the NY1 debate this week. Jo Anne Simon brags about how she works alongside developers for minor concessions for the communities like she did ushering in Atlantic Yards for some Affordable Housing that’s mostly unaffordable. Ten years later and countless poor people displaced, the housing is nowhere to be found.
But there is hope and light at the end of this tunnel. By exposing the special interests, the elected officials they control and their dangerous schemes, we can save our vital institutions. Our entire campaign is about protecting these great institutions, our neighborhoods and returning the power of governing back to you the voter. Help me in this fight. Tell your friends. Vote Sept. 9.
Pete Sikora
My name is Pete Sikora, and I’m running for State Assembly in the 52nd AD, which includes Red Hook. I’m asking for your vote this September 9th.
I am a lifelong New Yorker running for Assembly to protect our vibrant, diverse, and inclusive communities from the threat of big developers, overcrowding, and the loss of local business. We need to keep our neighborhoods affordable and livable.
As an environmental activist, I spearheaded the coalition that passed the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Act, fought to strengthen the State’s Superfund program and closed down dirty and dangerous power plants. As an employee advocate, I fought to protect workers’ rights: passing Safe Handling Legislation and winning fair contracts for communications employees. I was proud to be a part of the campaign to fund universal, high-quality pre-K for all 4-year-olds.
I founded Wal-Mart: No Way, a campaign to keep Wal-Mart out of the neighborhood and out of Brooklyn. More recently, I co-founded Parents for LICH when reckless developers wanted to replace Long Island College Hospital with luxury condos.
I have a consistent record of working toward reforming Albany and ensuring fair and balanced elections and election funding.
I’ve never taken a dime from for-profit developers and real estate lobbyists.
Livable Streets & Neighborhoods: Reckless development is threatening the character of our neighborhoods. I’m actively fighting to stop building luxury housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park, turning LICH into high-priced condos, and selling off our libraries for development rights.
Too many families and working people are being forced to move out of our community due to skyrocketing housing costs. We cannot allow luxury condos to dominate. Any new development should include a mix of affordable housing and we must also protect rent regulation, which ensures that ten to fifteen thousand apartments remain affordable in the 52nd Assembly District.
We must also ensure that the small businesses that we cherish remain strong. We don’t want our retail spaces to be dominated by big banks and chain pharmacies. Street-level small store front retail should be preserved in all new developments and small store fronts should not be allowed to be combined into large super stores.
Reforming Albany: The State legislature has become mired in a swamp of special interest money, insider lobbying, influence peddling, and corruption. Fundamental reform is required in order for true change to be made. We must end partisan redistricting, ensure fair elections, eliminate barriers to voting, fight for transparency and reform, and have full-time legislators on our side.
Climate Change: We need a large-scale program of mandatory, aggressive building energy efficiency upgrades expand New York’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), and increase the use of solar, wind, and other renewable energy which can bring enormous cost savings through greater efficiency while reducing global warming and creating tens of thousands of good sustainable jobs.
Economy: We need to tackle income inequality and generate good, middle-class, family supporting jobs by:
1. Raising the minimum wage;
2. Ending tax cuts for the very wealthy;
3. Investing in education;
4. Building and maintaining vital infrastructure;
5. Mandating high energy efficiency standards;
6. Strengthening unions; and
7. Supporting local businesses.
Campaign Finance & Election Reform: New York State’s campaign finance program needs significant changes in order to become effective. We must lower high contribution limits, close loopholes, strengthen election law enforcement, and create a fair elections program with a small donor match. Same Day Registration (SDR) and Early Voting would help to increase voter participation.
