All winners in one horse race

Besides the Presidential election, Queens voters are choosing their legislators -18 State Assemblymembers, seven Senators and a City Councilmember. However, in three Senate Districts and 13 Assembly Districts, there was only one person to vote for.
No Republican came forward to challenge Senate minority leader Malcolm Smith or first-term Senator Shirley Huntley in southeast Queens’ District 10. Huntley had faced a challenge from disgraced former City Councilmember Allan Jennings in the Democratic primary and trounced him 7,603 to 3,020.
Across the borough in Senate District 13, Hiram Monserrate, the once-upstart Councilmember who threatened to challenge three-term incumbent Democrat John Sabini in the primary, became the default winner of the election, when Sabini resigned his seat in August. Republicans have not run a candidate for the seat since the district was created in 2002.
On the Assembly side, of the 18 district contests, Republicans fielded candidates in only five. Among the 13 unopposed candidates, only one wasn’t an incumbent - Democrat Michael Den Dekker in the 13th Assembly District, who was selected by the party after incumbent Ivan Lafayette declined to accept the nomination in July.
“I visited every polling site to meet the voters of the district,” Den Dekker told The Courier on Election Day. “I also helped out with Joe Addabbo’s campaign,” he said.
The former Sanitation Department supervisor and Democratic District Leader may also be remembered as a film actor with eight current film credits (in the latest release as an attorney in Spike Lee’s “Miracle at Saint Anna”). His latest role is in a film that is in post-production, in which he plays - a newspaper reporter.
When asked if he would abandon acting now that he would be an officeholder, Den Dekker chuckled.
“I know that officially, the Assembly is a part-time job, but with all the civic meetings and events that constituents expect you to attend, I don’t think I’d have the time,” he said.
Those interested in making a film about New York State politics could probably get Den Dekker to play himself.