FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 22, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 27
Peralta defends IDC membership,
promises to ‘fi ght’ for constituents
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @angelamatua
State Senator Jose Peralta is up for
re-election this year and is hoping his
constituents, whom he calls his “extended
family,” vote him in for a fi ft h term
in offi ce.
Representing the 13th Senatorial District,
Peralta’s district encompasses Jackson
Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst and parts
of Astoria and Woodside. Aft er seven years
as a member of the mainline Democrats,
Peralta announced last January that he
would join the Independent Democratic
Conference (IDC).
His switch to the IDC angered some
constituents, and Peralta’s political opponents
argue that he doesn’t deserve another
term aft er making the switch.
Democrats make up the majority of the
state Senate — they have 32 members,
while Republicans have 31. But while it
would seem that Democrats outnumber
the GOP, the Senate is complicated
by another factor: the Independent
Democratic Caucus (IDC).
Th e IDC, founded in 2011, is a group
of Democratic state senators who form
a majority coalition with Republicans.
Subtracting those eight members and
state Senator Simcha Felder, a Democrat
who caucuses with Republicans, puts the
number of mainline Democrats in the
state Senate at 23.
With two recent Democratic senator
departures, the number of mainline
Democrats is now at 21. Gov. Andrew
Cuomo called for special elections on
April 24, which is expected to shift the
balance back to 23 mainline Democrats
in the coming months.
In June 2017, approximately 200
Queens residents attended a town hall in
Jackson Heights to discuss the senator’s
defection to the conference and criticized
his move, which came a few days aft er
President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Paula Avila-Guillen, an Astoria resident
in Peralta’s district, said at the town
hall that she felt “betrayed” by the senator
when he announced his move to the IDC.
“I believe that everything the IDC is
doing is sending a very clear message, also
to the federal government about where
they stand,” she said. “As a Latina and him
being a Latino, I just feel very betrayed
about not only the policies that the IDC
represent, but it’s also a symbolic message.
Th ey’re saying they agree with federal
policies, that they agree with the federal
administration and they’re not willing
to take a stand for what is right.”
His challengers, Jessica Ramos and
Andrea Marra, have made his IDC membership
a core part of their platforms and
have sharply criticized him for it, referring
to him as a “turncoat Democrat.”
“One year ago today, politics in our district
changed forever,” Ramos said in a
press conference on Jan. 25. “One year
ago today, the bigot in the White House
announced the travel ban on Muslim
majority countries targeting our fellow
Queens residents and making them feel
unsafe. Th at same day, our state senator
who calls himself a Democrat joined the
conference that concedes control of our
Senate to the Republicans.”
But, in an interview with QNS, Peralta
defended his move, pointing to legislation
supported by the IDC that has
been passed. Th e state Legislature raised
the minimum wage, passed paid family
leave, raised the age of criminal responsibility
to 18 (New York was one of two
states that charged 16- and 17-year-olds
as adults), established a legal defense fund
for immigrants and created the Excelsior
Scholarship, which makes state and city
college tuition free for certain students.
He argued that a Democratic majority
would not necessarily lead to the passage
of more progressive legislation and
recounted his experience with trying to
pass the DREAM Act in 2014 as an example.
“I’m with the mainline Democrats and
I want to bring the DREAM Act onto the
fl oor,” he said. “I’m literally told by my
leadership, ‘You cannot do so.’ And, of
course, I ask why. I was told, ‘It’s going
to hurt the marginals in Long Island.’
Wait a second — I thought we were the
Democratic Party and that we stand for
this issue?”
He said IDC leader Jeff Klein convinced
him to bring it to the fl oor. Th e legislation
failed by one vote when Democratic
state Senator Tedd O’Brien, who originally
told Peralta he would vote for the
DREAM Act, decided to vote against it.
Felder also voted no.
“One of the most progressive items
on the table failed because Democrats
did not want it to happen, and that’s an
unfortunate piece of this,” he said. “I
get the ideology and assumption that if
they’re all Democrats they all have to vote
the same way and they’re all going to be
progressive. No, they’re not.”
But Peralta also said he thinks a reunifi
cation plan is “very likely.” Governor
Andrew Cuomo last year presented a
plan to reunify the IDC and mainline
Democrats and both leaders — IDC leader
Jeff Klein and Democratic Conference
Leader Andrea Stuart-Cousins — have
agreed to it.
Th e plan would make both Klein and
Stuart-Cousins co-leaders and each
would have a chance to decide the agenda
and bring legislation to the fl oor. In
return, Democrats would not actively
seek to run primary challengers against
Photo: Angela Matua/THE COURIER
the IDC members.
Th is version of the plan is diff erent
than the plan fl oated in 2014, Peralta
argued, because “You didn’t have both
sides publicly say, ‘Yes, we’re going to do
it.’ Th ere’s a mechanism in place to hold
people accountable.”
Cuomo, Congressman Joseph Crowley,
who is the chair of the House Democratic
Caucus and Héctor Figueroa, the president
of progressive labor union 32BJ,
have all approved the proposal.
It is not clear how eff ective a co-leader
system would ultimately be, but Peralta
argued that “we should just give it a shot.”
If elected to a fi ft h term, the fi rst
Dominican-American to win a state
Senate seat said he will focus on three
main issues: education, immigration and
housing.
Peralta said his years of experience
within the state system will allow him
to keep achieving results for his constituents.
“We’re rolling up our sleeves day in and
day out to provide services to my constituents,”
he said. “Now more than ever we
have to ensure we put people over politics.
It’s about who’s been there year aft er
year aft er year aft er year delivering, fi ghting
the fi ght even though you know there
have been some defeats.”
State Senator Jose Peralta