Special Election in Brooklyn for Grimm, Assembly Seats

Voters in Staten Island and certain sections of Brooklyn are getting another chance to make their political preferences known as a special election is held Tuesday to fill a vacancy in the state Assembly and another in Congress.

Republican Rep. Michael Grimm stepped down after he pleaded guilty in December to federal tax evasion. Democratic Assemblyman Karim Camara left his position after he became the executive director of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Office of Faith-Based Community Development Services.

The 11th Congressional District is also high profile because of the history of one of the men looking to fill it. Staten Island DA Dan Donovan, the GOP candidate, came to national attention last year when a grand jury he empaneled didn’t charge an officer in the death of a black man, Eric Garner.

His Democratic foe is Councilman Vincent Gentile. Donavan is favored to win in the conservative borough.

The 43rd Assembly District covers Crown Heights and East Flatbush. And it’s got its own wrinkle — in the heavily Democratic district, there’s no one running on the Democratic line since the candidate who was chosen by the local party didn’t file the required paperwork on time.

Instead, Democrats are running on other party lines. Diane Richardson is on the Working Families line, while Shirley Patterson is on the Independence Party line and Geoffrey Davis is on the Love Yourself party line. The Republican candidate is Menachem Raitport.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the May 5th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.