Special election date set for Weiner’s seat

Queens voters will be busy this September, as they will be charged with filling two Assembly seats and one congressional seat on Primary Day.
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that six vacant assembly seats and one high profile congressional seat will be filled by a special election on September 13. Among the six Assembly seats, Queens voters will fill seats vacated by former Flushing Assemblymember Nettie Mayersohn, who retired in April after nearly 30 years in Albany; and former Far Rockaway Assemblymember Audrey Pheffer, who resigned last month to take the position as Queens Country Clerk.
Michael Simanowitz, Mayersohn’s longtime chief of staff, was officially nominated by the Queens County Democratic Organization on Wednesday, July 6. Working for Mayersohn since 1996, Simanowitz said that he looks forward to “having the opportunity to continue representing my friends and neighbors in the Assembly.”
But it’s the congressional seat that has garnered the most attention. Former representative Anthony Weiner vacated his Congressional District 9 seat after he resigned following a very public sexting scandal – now Queens Democratic Chairman Joseph Crowley must pick a candidate to run for the seat representing parts of Queens and Brooklyn.
Several big names in Queens politics have been bandied about as possible candidates for the seat – including Councilmembers Mark Weprin and Elizabeth Crowley; Assemblymembers David Weprin and Rory Lancman; as well as former councilmembers Eric Gioia and Melinda Katz.
All of the possible candidates for Weiner’s seat declined to comment, as did Democratic chair Crowley. Bob Turner, Weiner’s opponent in the 2010 election, did say that if called upon, he “would be willing to run again.”
Phil Ragusa, chair of the Queens County Republican Party, said that both he and Brooklyn chair Craig Eaton are currently screening potential candidates and that they might have a decision by Friday, July 8.
“We want to give every potential candidate a proper chance,” he said. “It is incumbent upon us to screen everyone who wants to be screened and to make sure this is a fair process.”
The person elected to the seat would only be there to serve out the remainder of Weiner’s term, which expires in 2012. After that, New York could lose the district entirely because of population shifts.
Pheffer and Mayersohn represented Assembly Districts 23 and 27, respectively. The remaining Assembly seats – 54, 73, 116 and 144 – represents districts in Brooklyn, Manhattan and upstate New York.