Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the special election for Queens Borough President will be held on Tuesday, March 24. The mayor had to wait until Melinda Katz vacated the office she held for six years in order to take over the office of Queens District Attorney Wednesday.
“I encourage all eligible Queens residents to vote in the upcoming special election,” de Blasio said on Jan. 3. “And I thank outgoing Borough President Melinda Katz for her leadership and increasing the World’s Borough’s diversity and dynamism, and wish her all the best in her new role.
The five candidates in the race now have less than two weeks to gather the 2,000 valid signatures needed to appear on the ballot. The field dropped to five Monday morning when Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman dropped out after the Queens County Democratic Committee endorsed Councilman Donovan Richards.
Councilman Costa Constantinides, former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, former National Latino Officers Association Chairman Anthony Miranda and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer have until Jan. 14 to secure the necessary signatures.
Van Bramer picked up the endorsement of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams on Jan. 3.
“Jimmy Van Bramer is a progressive champion who will fight for a Queens for all,” Williams said. “Jimmy has shown courage time and again to do what’s right, whether it’s speaking out against Stop, Question, Frisk, voting down the city’s plan to build more jails, fighting for immigrant’s rights, or standing up against Donald Trump’s hateful policies and rhetoric against our most vulnerable communities. I’m proud to endorse his grassroots bid to be our next Queens Borough President.”
Van Bramer, who received endorsements from progressive stars Zephyr Teachout and Cynthia Nixon last week, thanked Williams in a fundraising email to his supporters.
“Jumaane is a man of great principle who always speaks truth to power, and his work to end gun violence, call out racial injustice, and raise our collective consciousness in inspiring, and I’ve been so proud to fight alongside Jumaane Williams for over a decade,” Van Bramer wrote.
All five candidates are expected to take part in a Queens Borough President forum in Douglaston on Jan. 5. The event, sponsored by NE Queens Indivisible, will be held at Zion Episcopal Church, located at 243-01 Northern Blvd., beginning at 2 p.m.
Follow QNS reporter Max Parrott on Twitter for live updates of the event.
