Get ready for some down and dirty politics.
From now until March 16, residents inside the 13th Senate District can expect more than a few fireworks in the Special Election between former State Senator Hiram Monserrate and Assemblymember Jose Peralta.
“Mr. Monserrate has been involved in many races where he’s tried to tarnish many of his opponents,” Peralta said. “I expect him to do nothing but the same in this one.”
On Monday, March 1, Monserrate held a rally on 82nd Street and 37th Avenue – directly in front of the building that houses Peralta’s Assembly District office – where he and a number of Queens clergy denounced what they termed “a mudslinging campaign” by a group wanting to punish Monserrate for his vote against same sex marriage last year.
Monserrate and his supporters said that “Fight Back New York,” a political action committee focused on making sure those Senators who voted against same sex marriage are not returned to office, planned to spend more than $100,000 to make sure Monserrate does not win the Special Election.
“We are outraged that Fight Back New York would engage in this type of mudslinging and dirty campaign,” said Reverend Osvaldo Rodriguez of John 3:16 Church in Corona. “Furthermore, we are opposed to individuals who are from outside the community, and outside of our state attempting to influence a local election.”
Peralta campaign spokesperson Anne Fenton said this was “another attempt to distract the public from the real issue which is that Hiram Monserrate is a convicted domestic abuser who is not fit to serve as a NY State Senator.”
Meanwhile, this could just be the start of an avalanche of back and forth between the two campaigns leading up to the Special Election and beyond. Monserrate said he plans to run in a September Democratic Primary should he lose the Special Election in March, but Peralta said he was ready for that possibility when he decided to run in October.
“At the end of the day you’re either up to the challenge or you’re not,” Peralta said. “I decided from day one that I was going to be up to the challenge and here I am. We have 16 days left of this campaign and then on March 17 the second one starts.”
