By William Lewis
The 38th State Assembly District in western Queens, which includes parts of Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Glendale and Ridgewood, is on the Brooklyn-Queens border and for almost 30 years has been represented by former Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, who resigned last June. He will soon be sentenced in federal court for taking monetary payments through an illegal consulting firm.
That district has had little political activity during most of that 30-year period in terms of party primaries or a competitive fall general election. Seminerio dominated the political scene in the 38th Assembly District, but now that has changed.
In August, Gov. David Paterson issued a proclamation calling for a special election in that district to be held on Primary Day, Sept. 15. It was an unusual type of election in that the procedures to be followed included the provision that the county executive committees of each political party listed on the ballot would choose a candidate for their party’s designation.
That candidate, once selected, would not be subject to a primary challenge. This especially affected the Democratic Party, since there were at the time four prospective candidates interested in obtaining the Democratic designation.
The candidate chosen by the district leaders in the 38th Assembly District was Michael Miller, who was then a member of Community Board 5 and seemed to have strong support in the Glendale area of the district. He was also endorsed by City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), who herself had recently been elected to the 30th Council District seat in a special election.
A significant part of the 38th Assembly District is contained within the boundaries of Crowley’s district. In addition to that, Miller also obtained the endorsements of the Conservative and Independence parties, so he ran on three lines. The Republican candidate was Donna Caltabiano, the executive director of the Forest Park Senior Citizens Center.
The three Democratic candidates who failed to obtain the Democratic nomination were Nick Comaianni, Albert Baldeo and Farouk Samaroo. Comaianni is the president of the local community education council and chairman of CB 9’s Education Committee. He has a background in electrical and chemical engineering based on his military service in the U.S. Navy.
Baldeo, an attorney, has a law practice in the area. In 2006, he ran for the state Senate in the 15th Senate District against former Republican Sen. Serf Maltese and came within 800 votes of winning. It was the votes of the Conservative and Independence parties that gave Maltese his narrow victory.
The third Democratic candidate who entered the contest late was Samaroo, who at the time had just been discharged from the U.S. Army after serving 12 months in Afghanistan.
At present, it is expected Miller (D-Glendale) will be confronted with a Democratic primary from one or more of these three former candidates. When we look at these three Democrats from the standpoint of their becoming primary challengers, Comaianni, on the other hand, seems committed to running against Miller, although he has not yet made a formal announcement. He believes his candidacy will have wide support from Democratic voters within the 38th Assembly District.
In the case of Baldeo, he believes he should have received the Democratic designation in the 38th Assembly District special election last year, since he had dropped out of the Senate race against Maltese in 2008 and supported then-Councilman Joseph Addabbo, who went on to win the seat. Like the other two potential candidates, he has not made a final decision on whether or not he will run. He is considering a possible primary challenge for the Assembly or Senate against Miller or Addabbo (D-Howard Beach).
Samaroo has become a full-time college student with ambitions of going on to law school. Therefore, in his case it would be unlikely he would be running for public office at this time. Last year, however, just before the special election in the 38th Assembly District, it was Samaroo who filed a lawsuit in federal district court seeking to have the special election invalidated. It was unsuccessful, with the judge ruling in favor of the Democratic county organization.
As we summarize the situation in that part of Queens, it is possible Miller and Addabbo could face Democratic Party primary challenges this year.
