First she was out. Then she was in. But, in the end, former Queens City Councilmember Helen Sears decided not to run in the Special Election for Senate District 13.
After three days of speculation that Sears would accept an invitation to run on the Republican ballot line, the longtime Queens Democrat turned down the Republican party’s nomination on Monday, February 23 – leaving only Monserrate and Peralta as candidates.
“The belief was that with my experience and being a Democrat and receiving other nominations would allow me to be something that I was in the Council, which was a balancing force,” Sears told The Courier by phone on Tuesday morning. “Unfortunately, events over the last couple of days have convinced me that such an effort wouldn’t be that way.”
Sears, who served in the City Council from 2002 to 2009 before losing a Democratic primary to now City Councilmember Danny Dromm, declined to address specifics about what events led her to change her mind.
However, a Republican source said that when the State Independence party declined to give Sears its ballot line – it deterred her from throwing her hat into the ring in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 7 to 1.
Republicans believed that by giving Sears their ballot line, she would give them the best chance to score an upset victory in the overwhelmingly Democratic district. If Sears had won, Republicans hoped that she would sit with the Republicans giving the party the critical 31st Senator, which would leave the Chamber split down the middle with 31 Republicans and 31 Democrats.
Sears did say that the Special Election was an attractive option because of the combination of the 13th Senate District largely overlapping with her former Council District and her prior legislative experience.
“I didn’t enter the race so someone else could win, and I believed I had the opportunity to win,” said Sears, who met with Queens Republicans on Friday night, February 19 where they officially nominated her to be on their ballot.
After Sears declined the Republican nomination, the party nominated Administrative Law Judge Robert Beltrani – a prominent Jackson Heights attorney who has previously run for Queens Supreme and Civil Court judge.
