From the beginning, Daniel Dromm felt he could beat incumbent Helen Sears. And on Primary Day he did.
In one of the primaries’ major democratic upsets, unofficial election night results show that district leader Dromm trounced on Sears by nine percentage points, 49 percent to 40 percent. This translated to 3,182 votes to 2,561 with 100 percent of the precincts reporting.
“I always knew that we were going to win but I knew that it was going to be a lot of work,” Dromm told The Queens Courier on election night, while standing outside of his victory party on Roosevelt Avenue. “We won by 10 percent of the vote. That’s a huge victory! A real plebiscite! I didn’t win, the people of the district won.”
The third candidate in the race, lawyer Stanley Kalathara, came in at 11 percent with 730. However, from the beginning Dromm and Sears were the real contenders to represent the residents of Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Rego Park, Woodside and Corona.
Dromm said that his first order of business would be to address quality of life issues in the community.
“As I stand here, there is a huge mound of garbage,” he said, adding that health care and education are priorities, especially reducing class sizes. Dromm has been an educator for 25 years.
The race for City Council has been contentious from the beginning. Dromm accused Sears of not being responsive to the needs of the community because she never spent enough time in the district. Sears accused Dromm of being naïve to the processes of the City Council, particularly in budgetary issues.
But in the end, Dromm – who speaks Spanish and is an openly gay man – got the votes he needed to oust Sears.
On Primary night in a statement through a spokesperson, Sears congratulated Dromm.
“He ran an energetic campaign,” she said. “It has been an honor to represent the residents of the district and we wish him nothing but the best.”
