The ugliness of this year’s presidential election bypassed Queens, where 19 races for congressional and state legislative seats were run with civility and occasional bouts of bipartisan fervor.
Several candidates—incumbents and newcomers—were reluctant to even discuss their opponents to avoid any suggestion of negativity when they visited the TimesLedger offices during the campaign.
On Election Day Queens immigrants jammed the polls to send the impassioned message that they rejected GOP nominee Donald Trump’s plan to deport the undocumented and build a wall to keep out Mexicans.
Some Hispanics were voting for the first time in Sunnyside and tried to mark their ballots for Democrat Hillary Clinton in several spots to defeat Trump, a native son of Queens.
Once the presidential primaries passed, Queens was an election backwater—the candidates did not visit here and there were no campaign rallies. The brutal male vs. female contest over race, gender and character was staged far from the borough.
But Queens voters, like New Yorkers across the state, overwhelmingly cast their ballots for Clinton, who had vowed to offer immigrants legal status and give everyone a shot at the American Dream.
Faced with formidable obstacles in her bid to be the first woman president of the United States, Clinton faced more foes than just Trump: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is suspected of orchestrating the hacking into the Democratic National Committee computer network; disgraced Anthony Weiner, who had some of her emails on his laptop; and FBI Director James Comey, who reignited her private email debacle just 11 days before the election.
When the dust settled, Trump had won the most divisive presidential race in memory. We hope he does Queens proud when he moves into the White House.
Trump’s coattails did not extend to Queens, where former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, prevailed over Republican state Sen. Jack Martins to claim the seat held by Congressman Steve Israel (D-Mineola), who is retiring. The candidates traded some punches along the way in the spirit of a tough fight to the finish.
In a stunning turn of events, Brian Barnwell, 30, will replace state Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Maspeth), whom he routed in the Democratic primary. Two other open Assembly seats went to Democrats—Clyde Vanel in southeast Queens and Stacey Pheffer Amato, daughter of a longtime assemblywoman, in the Rockaways.
After the Trump shocker, it was back to business as usual in Queens.
