One year after coming up four votes shy of pulling off a stunning upset in a Democratic primary against City Councilmember Thomas White, Lynn Nunes now has his sights set on the State Senate.
The young political upstart, who owns a real estate company in Richmond Hill, is challenging two-term incumbent State Senator Shirley Huntley for her 10th Senate District seat in south Queens in the September 14 primary.
“We need elected officials who are going to make real things happen – not be at parades and rallies and then go back to the office and things are business as usual,” Nunes said. “Things need to change in the most fundamental of ways.”
Nunes pointed to the highest rate of foreclosures in the country in Jamaica, the closing of three hospitals and the stagnant graduation rates for schools in Huntley’s district as three examples of major areas she has let the community down.
“I think we have serious issues, and whether or not Senator Huntley is working is irrelevant, because if she is and if she is doing her best, it’s obviously not producing the desired results that are necessary to have a prosperous community,” Nunes said.
Huntley, who said she has only met Nunes twice in her life, said she wasn’t worried about the primary or impressed with Nunes’ close race against White.
“The bottom line is 1,800 votes in a Senate race means you lose,” said Huntley. “Running in a [City] Council race is very much different than running in a Senate race and I’m not Tom White.”
Huntley defended her record talking about all of the senior centers, schools and other organizations that are still in operation because of funding she has provided.
Meanwhile, Huntley said that in the past few months she received harassing phone calls and vulgar picture messages with “naked people doing stuff.” She said she has filed multiple reports with the local police, but they have not given her any reports about who’s behind it.
Then, on Tuesday morning, August 10, Huntley said a bouquet of flowers was left on her doorstep, but on the flowers was a gold band with the words “rest in peace” written on it. The police came to her house and filed a report.
Huntley said she had no evidence that any of the incidents were tied to Nunes’ campaign, but she said “nothing like this has ever happened to me.”
