28 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 8, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Cuomo announces special election for April to
fi ll former Queens Assemblyman Moya’s seat
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @angelamatua
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced
on Feb. 5 that he would hold a special
election on April 24 to fi ll 11 vacant seats
in the state Legislature — including the
Queens Assembly seat formerly occupied
by Francisco Moya.
Moya was elected to City Council to
succeed Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, who
announced last year that she would not
run for re-election, represented the 39th
Assembly District, which encompasses
Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights.
Cuomo could have called a special election
as early as Jan. 1 and was criticized
by local groups earlier last month for
not doing so. Critics said the vacant seats
would leave millions of New Yorkers
without a representative and during a
time period when the state budget is
being discussed.
Th e deadline to hammer out the state
budget is April 1, which means the 39th
Assembly District will have no representative
while this process occurs. Th e
Assembly is heavily Democratic, while the
Republican majority in the state Senate
— with two vacant seats left by Bronx
Senator Ruben Diaz and Westchester
Senator George Latimer — will need
members of the Independent Democratic
Conference (IDC) to vote with them to
pass legislation.
Th e IDC is a breakaway group of eight
Democratic senators that are working
in a coalition with Senate Republicans.
Th ough the state Senate has 32 Democrats
— now 30 with the vacancies, the IDC
allows Republicans to retain the majority.
Catalina Cruz, the former chief of staff
for Ferreras-Copeland is running to fi ll
Moya’s Assembly seat. Th e 35-yearold
lawyer graduated from CUNY
Law School and is a DREAMer. She
was brought to the United States from
Colombia when she was 9 years old. Her
platform will include improving public
transportation, increasing aff ordable
housing and protecting immigrants.
“I want to give a voice to those who all
too oft en have not been heard in government,”
she said in a statement. “I am running
to fi x the MTA, to invest in our public
schools, to advocate for immigrants
and the LGBT community, and to make
New York more aff ordable.”
Aridia Espinal, a former Moya staff -
er and a District Leader for four years,
is also running for the seat. Espinal offi -
cially registered to run with the New
York Board of Elections on Dec. 22
and has received donations from current
Queens elected offi cials such as
Moya, Congresswoman Grace Meng,
Assemblyman Brian Barnwell and from
Assembly campaigns like Ron Kim for
New York, Friends of Aravella (Simotas)
and Friends of Edward Braunstein.
“I am thrilled to announce my candidacy
for the state Assembly, and I thank
Francisco Moya for his support,” she said
in a statement on Feb. 5. “He has been
a mentor to me for decades, and I am
eager to continue his legacy of delivering
for working families. As a lifelong resident
of Central Queens, I understand the
challenges facing our diverse and growing
community. I am the proud daughter
of a union family, and I know that our
communities thrive when there are good
jobs with fair paying wages.”
Moya, who served as Assemblyman
from 2011 through 2017, said he was
“proud to endorse” Espinal.
“We need leaders like Ari to fi ght for us
in Albany because she truly understands
the issues facing Queens families and
seniors,” he said. “Ari will stand up for
our values and work hard to deliver for
us. She is a true champion for all working
families, immigrants and New Yorkers.”
File photo
Governor Andrew Cuomo called a special election to fi ll vacant Senate and Assembly seats on April 24.
Suozzi refl ects on ‘dysfunctional’ D.C.
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Having just wrapped up his fi rst year in
offi ce, Whitestone, Bayside, Douglaston
and Little Neck‘s representative on
Capitol Hill refl ected on the state of aff airs
in Washington.
“I love my job. I’m very grateful to have
this position,” Congressman Tom Suozzi
said in a conversation with Th e Courier
reporters on Jan. 26.
Th e freshman Congressman serves as
vice chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus,
co-chair of the bipartisan Quiet Skies
Caucus and Long Island Sound Caucus
and a member of the House Committee
on Armed Services. He was elected to
the seat in November 2016 aft er former
Congressman Steve Israel announced his
retirement.
“Washington is really very dysfunctional,”
Suozzi said. “I guess I knew that, we
all know that from reading the newspapers
and watching TV; but now that I’m
there, I really see this real dysfunction in
the way it operates.”
Th e dysfunction does not come from a
lack of talent in Washington, according
to Suozzi, but rather stems from what he
called “systemic problems.”
Gerrymandering, “the main, fundamental
problem in our country right
now,” is the top culprit, Suozzi said.
Gerrymandering — drawing boundaries
of electoral districts in a particular way
that gives one political party a numerical
advantage over the other — has recently
re-emerged in the national conversation.
Suozzi was one of 36 current and
former members of Congress to sign an
amicus brief urging
the Supreme Court to
declare partisan gerrymandering
unconstitutional.
“If the Supreme
Court — and it really
is gonna be up to
Justice Anthony
Kennedy — declares
partisan gerrymandering
unconstitutional,
it will change
the face of America in
the most positive way
in the past 30 years,”
he said.
In Pennsylvania,
gerrymandering was
recently declared
u n c o n s t i t u t i o n a l
by the courts under
the state’s constitution.
North Carolina
was also ordered to
redraw its congressional
map and courts
in Maryland and Wisconsin are hearing
similar cases.
“All of a sudden, this is getting a lot of
steam,” Suozzi said.
Over 400 of the 435 seats in the House
of Representatives are considered “safe
seats,” Suozzi noted. Th is security fosters
a stagnant environment, as refl ected
in the recent three-day government
shutdown. Representing a split district,
Suozzi does not hold one of these seats.
“So if you’re in a safe seat, and you
can’t possibly lose, what incentive do
you have to solve these very thorny
problems that exist?” he said. “Th e only
way you can lose is if you lose a primary.”
One aforementioned “thorny problem”
is immigration. Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obamaera
program that shielded some young
immigrants from deportation, was a top
issue Democrats and Republicans were
at odds over during the January government
shutdown.
“On some issues I’m very progressive:
on immigration and a pathway to citizenship
… on the environment,” he said.
“But I’m relatively fi scally conservative. I
think we spend way too much money in
the federal government. I think there’s
way too much waste, fraud and abuse.”
One good thing that has come out of
these tense political times is an increase
in public interest, Suozzi said.
“We have to stop treating government
like its this dirty little thing,” he
said. “We gotta lift up the conversation
… Because politics only works when the
people pay attention. And people are
paying attention.”
Photo: Suzanne Monteverdi/THE COURIER
Congressman Tom Suozzi