100 PERCENT Saturday February 27, 2016

100 PERCENT

By Robert Press

Time to Unite

   For those who say that it was business as usual in this past Tuesday's special election they must be in the less than 40 percent that the Bronx Democratic County organization received as a winning percentage. As the John Lennon song 'Imagine That' goes, imagine that the Bronx Democratic County organization had been rejected by the voters in the special election. In reality over 60 percent of the voters rejected the Bronx Democratic organization, and it is now time to join together and put that majority to the test. There can be no more division among the ranks, but unity to win and keep on winning. The only way the Bronx Democratic County organization got away with a win in the special election was that you saw elected officials like Congressman Jose Serrano out at train stops doing for county what he does not even do for himself, campaigning. Congressman Serrano should be the first example to have a united single challenger. No more of this four or five people seeking to get on the ballot, only to split the majority of the vote and have everyone loose. there must be one united candidate against Congressman Jose Serrano, and then the Bronx Democratic County organization will get the message. After that the assembly districts can be picked away from county one by one. Next year the City Council districts, and maybe a whole new county organization. This mat be a dream for now, but it can become a reality in just a few short years if there is unity.

   State Senators Ruben Diaz Sr., and Gustavo Rivera, several assembly districts like the 78th, 82nd, 83rd (if he is not indicted, as NY 1 political commentator Curtis Swilia says Assemblyman Heastie will be), 84th, and maybe one or two others including the 85th currently held by the Bronx Democratic County Leader Assemblyman Marcos Crespo are also vulnerable. Next year there will be a few city council seats up such as Jimmy Vacca's, Anabele Palma's, and maybe one or more if current Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. decides to run for mayor, plus the possibility of a couple more weak incumbents. So my insurgent friends do not fear, there will be many opportunities to run. The only way to do this however is to unite together, otherwise you are only going to help the Bronx Democratic County organization. Remember 2008 and the Rainbow Rebellion. It was a united effort put up to overthrow the Bronx Democratic County Leader that worked, and it can be done again. The only question is when?

    The Bronx Chamber of Commerce has many upcoming events, and you can check the archive section on the left of this blog for them. Also check for upcoming March events that Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj will be hosting. It looks like KAZ Realty will be handling the business end of the Coop-City Riverbay Board leasing of the malls in Coop-City, and the Riverbay Board has made a fine choice in Bronx based KAZ Reality. 

    Moving to the race to replace Charlie Rangel there are now eight announced candidates, and tomorrow afternoon the Barack Obama Democratic Club of Upper Manhattan and the People's Theatre Project will be co-hosting a congressional candidates forum for the 13th district of New York. the eight candidates are Current State Senator Adriano Espaillat, State Senator Bill Perkins, Assemblyman Keith Wright, Assemblyman Guillermo Linares, former Assemblyman Adan Clayton Powell, Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook, Mr. Mike Gallagher, and Mr. Clyde Williams. the forum is to be held at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center located at 530 West 166th Street Manhattan, starting at 3 PM. Let's hope that the eight candidates remember that while the majority of the 13th Congressional District lies in Manhattan that there is still a substantial part of the district that lies in the Bronx.   

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