Espaillat makes it Official

100PERCENT

By Robert Press

BRONX, NEW YORK, July 9- State Senator Adriano Espaillat held a press conference to announce that he will abide by the Board of Elections results of the June 26th Democratic primary results for the 13th Congressional District that have him coming in a close second to Charlie Rangel. 

Espaillat said that the official margin of victory (953) was still greater then he felt could be overcome in court. He said that other organizations will continue the fight about how fair this race was and that he hopes change comes about at the Board of Elections for a better system. As for running for his old state senate seat, Espaillat said that a decision will come about in a few days, but we are sure that he will run for his old state senate seat in September.

Mayor Bloomberg has blasted the Board of Elections as have many others on the new system of voting, with Bloomberg saying, “It is the most corruptible system in the world.”

Board of Elections Republican Commissioner J.C. Polanco has fired back saying, “Senator Espaillat's team should apologize not only to the commissioners, but to the hard working employees of the Board of Elections.”

Polanco was also angered at Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez for his story that Deputy Chief Clerk for the Manhattan Board of Elections (and the person supervising the count in the Manhattan portion of the congressional district) Timothy Gay had met with key Rangel supporters and district leaders three days before the election. When asked Gay said that he attended on his own time, and attended the meeting at the request of the Manhattan Democratic County Leader Keith Wright to provide his district leaders with lists of Democratic poll workers and to discuss general election matters in general. Gonzalez goes on about other problems that happened including the lists of poll workers district leaders loyal to Espaillat being virtually ignored, and much less Spanish translators at voter sign in tables.

Staying on the September primary, 87th A.D. candidate Luis Sepulveda will be having a fundraiser on Saturday July 21st hosted by Mr. David Rodriguez starting at 7 PM till midnight at 175 Walnut Avenue. For more information and to RSVP you can call 917-560-6137, or e-mail ctr719@aol.com.

Petitions are being handed in as you read this for State Assembly and State Senate, as are “General Objections” to some of those petitions. Specifications to those objections will be due in a few days later and the Board of Elections will hear from both sides and decide just who will get to be on the September primary ballot. 

We spoke to Mr. Mike Nieves currently working on the Charlie Rangel campaign and at the Bronx Board of Elections for the count of the affidavit and absentee ballots who told us that his next job will be to knock off the challenger to Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera, that being Rivera's current 78th State Committeeman and Chairman of the Committee of 100 Democrats Mr. Richardo “Ricky” Martinez. Mr. Martinez is running this year as Assemblyman Rivera has redistricted his son Councilman Joel Rivera into the 78th A.D. We have been told that Rivera's idea is to pass down the assembly seat like a monarchy when his son Joel is term limited out of a job in 2013.

Don't forget to check my blog at www.100percentbronx.blogspot.com for the latest breaking news on the petitioning for the September primary, and any other items that may occur after our deadline or that we didn't have space for in this column.

If you have any comments about this column or would like to have an event listed or covered in this column or on my blog you can e-mail us at 100percentbronxnews@gmail.com or call 718-644-4199 Mr. Robert Press.