Primary candidates in the 16th Senate District are poised to take the term deep pockets to a whole new level.
A three-way race in central and northeast Queens will feature a millionaire who is willing to spend “whatever it takes to win,” a small businessman who vowed to spend “several hundred thousand dollars” in the remaining 40 days before the primary and an incumbent who has more than $250,000 on hand.
Dr. Isaac Sasson, a community activist who worked for many years as a cancer researcher at Sloan Kettering before winning a $13 million lotto jackpot in 2007, and John Messer, an attorney and small business owner who previously worked in the city’s economic development corporation, are both challenging incumbent Toby Stavisky in the September 16 Democratic primary.
“She is part of the whole establishment up there in Albany,” said Sasson, who said he wanted to bring trust back to the state capital. “They don’t propose anything about how to keep and create jobs for the state.”
Messer, who worked in the city under former Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani, said he decided to jump into this year’s primary after he saw Albany miss the deadline for the first round of the nearly $700 million in federal education funding in the Race for the Top program.
Messer outlined a number of initiatives he feels would spur job growth and retention led by providing immediate tax relief to employers.
“I am a small business, and I understand what small businesses are going through,” Messer said.
Sasson and Messer have already spent $146,692 and $115,294 on their campaigns, respectively, according the most
Meanwhile Stavisky, who became the first woman from Queens elected to the State Senate in 1999, has held the District 16 seat – a position previously held by her late husband Leonard – for 11 years, touted her experience as one of her biggest advantages in the race.
“I don’t need a roadmap on how to get a bill signed into law,” Stavisky said. “The governor signed three of my bills on Friday alone.”
In addition, she said that when the Senate Democrats took the majority in last year’s election, her allocation increased ten-fold allowing her to deliver more resources directly to the community.
