By Betsy Scheinbart
James Sanders celebrated his victory in the race for City Councilwoman Juanita Watkins’ (D-Laurelton) seat last week with a party at Arianna’s in Howard Beach. Watkins, dozens of campaign supporters and several of the council members vying for leadership roles in the new Council joined in the festivities.
A. Gifford Miller, Eva Moskowitz and Christine Quinn, Democratic council members from Manhattan who are not being forced out of office this year by term limits, came for the beginning of the party and congratulated Sanders on his success.
Also at the party were Councilmen-elect Leroy Comrie, who will replace Archie Spigner (D-St. Albans) and David Weprin, who won the race for Sheldon Leffler’s (D-Hollis) seat Nov. 6.
“Queens is not going to hungry in the City Council,” Sanders said, as Weprin and Comrie nodded in agreement.
Sanders’ supporters came from both the Rockaway peninsula, where Sanders makes his home, and from the “mainland” of Laurelton, Rosedale, and other neighborhoods in southeast Queens.
The Rockaways account for one third of the district’s population, but Sanders clearly had supporters from all over the district, because he captured 86 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results tabulated by the Associated Press.
“The district is so unique, that you have to build a coalition,” said Sanders, adding that as a result, “I am beholden to only one special interest: the people of New York.
Sanders had the support of leaders in the Rockaways’ Orthodox Jewish community, including Yaakov Goldfeder, the vice president of the Jewish Council of Queens, and Richard Altabe, who worked with Sanders on School Board 27.
Members of his congregation, the First Church of God in Far Rockaway, were key supporters in his campaign, Sanders said, and the church members joined Sanders’ father, sister, bother, two children and other extended family at one of the long dinner tables.
Sanders joked about getting good ideas from everyone he met on the campaign trail — including Republicans — and then Republican District Leader Joseph Kasper popped up from one of the dinner tables and exclaimed: “One good idea was electing you!”
Kasper then made a long speech praising Sanders’ service to the community and emphasizing that the district is one of the most neglected areas in the city.
In response to that comment, Sanders pledged to “find out why the city is neglecting this area … this jewel of Rockaway beach front… for the past 30 years.”
Sanders also pledged to work on preventing further flooding in Laurelton, Rosedale and Springfield Gardens and to work with his colleagues in the Council and in the state Legislature. He said he hoped to learn from Watkins’ experience.
Watkins has been in the Council since 1992 and has served on the Public Safety and Governmental Operations committees. She said representing the 31st Council District, the largest district in the city, was exciting and exhausting.
“James will have more territory than any of his 50 colleagues,” Watkins said of the future councilman, “and I have every confidence and reason to expect that James Sanders Jr., is going to be a wonderful council person.”
Watkins and Sanders have already begun meeting and planning the transition, which they expect will be a seamless one.
“She is tutoring me,” Sanders said of Watkins’ help, “I may not be her fastest student, but I will be the most enthusiastic student.”
Watkins was an educator and educational publisher before her tenure in the Council. She said that after the transition, she will take for time out to care for her family and get some rest.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 138.
