By William Lewis
As we look at this year's upcoming Queens races, especially for the state Assembly, the situation is that all 18 Queens Assembly seats are held by Democrats. The last Republican to hold a Queens Assembly seat was Doug Prescott of the 26th Assembly District of Bayside, Whitestone, Douglaston and Little Neck. He lost the seat to Ann Margaret Carrozza (D-Bayside) in 1996 after serving 14 of the previous 16 years in that office.
Going back over 30 years when there were 16 Queens Assembly members, almost half of them were Republicans, including Rosemary Gunning, John Esposito, Vito Battista and John Flack. The Queens Republican Party lost these offices mainly to reapportionment and demographic changes.
The state Republican Assembly leadership maintains a regional city office. That office's deputy director is Robert Hornak. He recently outlined his views on recruiting Republican candidates for public office in the city. He said Republicans have been unable to adapt to cultural changes and immigrants coming into the city.
“We really don't have a strategy for reaching out and bringing new immigrants into the Republican Party,” he said. “I absolutely believe it can be done by forging an alliance with local community leaders in predominantly immigrant neighborhoods.”
He emphasized that these leaders should be people who have community credibility. He mentioned as an example Peter Koo, a successful Chinese businessman running this year as the Republican candidate for northeast Queens' 16th State Senate District.
Hornak is involved in reaching out to new community groups, including black evangelical church groups and various Asian-American community organizations. He is also trying to set up registration drives and reach new citizens at a personal level. Hornak pointed out that Democrats have been more successful in bringing new immigrants into their political party. One reason is that the city Democratic Party has the advantage of having a large organization that can reach new members on a one-on-one basis.
Turning to the presidential campaign this year, Hornak thinks U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as the Republican presidential candidate will help Republican candidates at the local level. He also said that McCain will appeal to middle-class, blue-collar workers; independents and various ethnic groups.
In the race for the vacant Dennis Gallagher Council seat, there are petition challenges among the Republican candidates. Anthony Como has filed specifications against Thomas Ognibene's petitions that will be answered at city Elections Board hearings. In addition, Ognibene has filed specifications against Joseph Suraci's petitions, charging insufficient signatures.
Suraci needs about 1,000 signatures to qualify for ballot position. He, however, has filed less than 900. In his defense, Suraci has indicated there is insufficient time to obtain the signatures, with only 12 days allowed. He believes the special election petition process favors organization candidates over insurgents like himself, since they have more people to assist them in the petition-gathering effort. He implied that he may take legal action to achieve a place on the ballot if his petitions are invalidated by the board. Former City Councilman Ognibene is confident that his petitions will be validated by the board.
There are no petition challenges involving Elizabeth Crowley and Charles Ober, the two Democratic candidates
In another campaign development, anonymous letters have been sent to the city Conflicts of Interest Board and city Campaign Finance Board alleging that Como had solicited campaign contributions from employees of the Elections Board when he served as a Queens Elections Board commissioner prior to April 18, when he resigned to run for City Council.
There are regulations forbidding city employees in executive- or policy-making positions from soliciting campaign contributions from subordinates under their jurisdiction. Although he earlier denied these allegations, he could not be reached for comment.
This special election is being held on June 3. Another petition process for the same seat, however, will begin on June 3.
