Residents of Senate District 13 start your engines.
The much-anticipated Special Election for the vacant District 13 Senate seat between former State Senator Hiram Monserrate and current Assemblymember Jose Peralta is officially underway – after a whirlwind four days that concluded with Monserrate filing 5,500 signatures that should enable him to land on the ballot for the March 16 Special Election.
Monserrate filed the signatures under the “Yes We Can” party label with the State Board of Elections late Monday night, February 22 – just hours before the midnight deadline.
“I am committed, as I have always been, to defend the rights of the voters and never allowing their vote to be disenfranchised,” Monserrate said. “The amount of community support during the past six days proves that voters in this district know who best represents them independently from party bosses, political hacks and Albany insiders.”
Monserrate had to file petitions in order to get on the ballot for the Special Election after a federal judge denied his request to reverse the Senate’s decision to expel the former Queens Senator and prevent the Special Election from taking place.
Meanwhile, Peralta, who will be on the ballot on the Democratic and the Working Families Party lines, praised the judge’s decision for “seeing through the politics” and “judging it on its merits.”
Both Peralta and Monserrate said their campaigns are already in full swing and they intend to have a heavy presence in the community during the three weeks leading up to the Special Election.
“We’re doing it all – we’re phone banking, we’re knocking on doors, we are calling people informing them about this election,” Peralta said.
The two candidates, who have butted heads on numerous occasions in the past and have often been at odds politically, almost had a third registered Democrat to contend with in the Special Election as former City Councilmember Helen Sears was mulling a run on the Republican ballot.
After meeting with the Queens Republicans on Friday, February 19, it appeared that Sears would land on both the Republican and Independence ballot lines. However, after the Independence Party declined to offer Sears their ballot, she decided to withdraw from the race, and the Republicans are now running lesser known candidate Administrative Law Judge Robert Beltrani.
With Peralta and Monserrate as the two marquee names remaining in the race, they have wasted little time challenging each other’s records and ability to represent the district.
“The bottom line is he was expelled by a 53 to 8 vote, and in government you need to work well with your colleagues in order to bring resources back to your district,” said Peralta, who also touted his own record of working in the Assembly for the past eight years and the relationships he has developed with legislators, including many State Senators.
However, Monserrate challenged Peralta’s claims and dismissed them as campaign rhetoric.
“He can’t point to anything he’s done; he’s just a lot of talk over the years, and at the end of the day the voters will decide,” Monserrate said.
Peralta and Monserrate both said they would participate in a candidates’ forum or debate, but none have been scheduled at this time.
