Edited by: JV Staff
The longest serving African-American woman in the New York state legislature, Senator Velmanette Montgomery is not running for re-election this year and has endorsed Assemblymember Tremaine Wright to succeed her in the 25th State Senate District seat, which covers the northern Brooklyn areas of Fort Greene, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, Gowanus and Park Slope.
According to a previous report on the amny.com web site, The neighborhoods that make up the 25th district might very well change though, when political districts across the state are realigned in 2022, based on the 2020 Census results.
Having been in the State Senate since 1985, Montgomery has passed the torch to someone that she believes will ensure that her district has a representative familiar with the district’s constituents and their needs — and that she believes Wright is the perfect fit for that role.
“My consideration to leave this post was indeed with great concern that the work we have all put into building this district over the decades be preserved,” said Montgomery during her announcement Jan. 11 in the basement of the Transit Workers Union Local 100 headquarters, as was reported by amny.com several months ago. “I’m hopeful that we will be able to replace my presence with someone who will do us equally proud, and that someone is Tremaine Wright.”
Amny.com reported that Wright, who represents the 56th Assembly District which covers central Brooklyn, won the seat in 2016. She now joins two other candidates in the race to succeed Montgomery: former staffer and life-long district resident Jason Salmon and Democratic Socialists of America-backed middle school teacher Jabari Brisport.
“We have to look at the whole, and what the most broad effect of the legislation that we pass is going to have on our people,” said Wright. “And this is the training I have been getting over the last three years in the Assembly. “
Entering New York’s 9th Congressional District Democratic Primary race is City Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D-Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Manhattan Beach, Homecrest, Marine Park, Midwood). Mr. Deutsch is running against incumbent Rep. Yvette Clark.
Back in January, Deutsch wrote on Twitter, “I am excited to announce my candidacy for United States Congress in NY-9. Public service is in my blood – it is how I was raised and it is how I have lived my life. For the past six years, it has been my honor to represent the 48th district in the City Council, one of the most diverse districts in NYC, advocating for my constituents every single day. It is with this simple spirit & passion that I pursue this new opportunity in Congress.”
Besides running against Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Prospect Lefferts Gardens), Deutech will be taking on Adem Bunkeddeko, who narrowly lost to Clarke in 2018 and Isiah James.
According to a report on the Kings County Politics web site, besides being the only white conservative Democratic candidate in the race in a district that is roughly 50 percent black, much of Deutsch’s city council district is in Clarke’s Congressional district includes the Orthodox Jewish heavy neighborhoods of Midwood and Marine Park.
Additionally, Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach and Homecrest are more conservative Democratic neighborhoods, who may not like President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, but see some positives in his policies and are turned off by the current Democratic partisanship and politicization of the impeachment drama now consuming Washington.
According to a June 8th report on the Kings County Politics web site, the money pot for the 51st Assembly District race is spilling over with cash, as Katherine Walsh, one of three challengers to incumbent Assemblymember Feliz Ortiz (D-Red Hook, Sunset Park) has raised over $100,000 in total campaign contributions.
Of those contributions, 91% of those were $100 or less, coming from a total of 1,308 donations since launching in late September.
Walsh’s campaign said the main reason behind the flood of cash is Walsh’s demand for better leadership, a theme she has incorporated throughout her campaign.
“At the start of the pandemic, there was a deafening silence from our current State Assemblymember, leaving our district to fend for itself. Neighbors stepped up to help us grow South Brooklyn Mutual Aid, which has now delivered groceries to over 1,800 families. But neighbors can only do so much. We deserve more from our elected leadership,” said Walsh.
Richardson originally addressed the “attacks and nonsense” surrounding Hamilton in similar fashion on Facebook back in 2018. Hamilton lost his senate seat, to current State Senator Zellnor Myrie, which was largely attributed to Hamilton’s affiliation with the disbanded Independent Democratic Conference (IDC).
She denounced Hamilton, calling him a Democrat that doesn’t caucus with other Democrats, but with Democrats who vote Republican. A claim supported two years ago by progressive organizations, like True Blue NY, which also referred to him and other IDC members as turncoats.
After 47 years, Brooklyn Assemblyman Joe Lentol may be facing a real challenge in the June primary, according to a January report in the Gothamist.
He will face a local activist named Emily Gallagher who was won the support of some reform Democrats in the area, hoping to pull off an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-like upset against an incumbent who may be tougher to dislodge than Joe Crowley.
The Gothamist reported that Williamsburg and Greenpoint have changed drastically since Lentol first took office. In the 1970s, they were working class neighborhoods, home to a large contingent of Italian, Polish, Jewish, and Latino immigrants. In the 1990s, Williamsburg was a hub for artists and upwardly mobile new arrivals. By the late 2000s, the area had rapidly gentrified, with a Michael Bloomberg-backed rezoning triggering the development of luxury condominiums along the waterfront. The working and middle classes have largely been priced out.
(KCP)
