Espaillat Calls it Quits in 13 C.D. Race

   In a press conference outside his State Senate office Adriano Espaillat announced that he will no longer go forward with his challenge to the results of the 13th congressional race. Espaillat said that while a few more votes were found for him lowering Rangel's lead to 953 votes that number could not be overcome. Espaillat then congratulated Rangel on his victory saying that he will work with him as he has done in the past for the districts they share.

   When asked if he would be continuing the court challenge, he said that he would not, but others will still be doing that in the hopes of fixing the election system.

   When asked if he would now be running for his old state senate seat, Espaillat fudged a little saying that after the June 26th election when he thought that he lost he allowed people to get signatures in his name for state senate.Petitions are being handed in starting today for state senate and assembly seats, and will continue for the next few days. After that is the challenge phase, and then rulings by the Board of Elections as to just who stays on the September primary ballot.

**********************************************

Espaillat: "It's Not Over Yet"

     Wednesday Night July 3rd current State Senator and candidate in the 13th Congressional race Adriano Eapaillat told a packed room of supporters that the race for the 13th C.D. is not over yet. "We will fight until every vote is counted", and asked those in attendance to come forward with any problems that occurred at any poll site to suppress voter participation  be reported to the campaign if it has not already been done.  We were told that there were problems at poll sites in most of the district with the Tracy Towers and Fordham Hill poll sites at the top of the list.

    Espaillat said that the campaign is now in the technical phase, and legal process. He added that the campaign will be at the Board of Elections Thursday morning to watch the counting of the remaining ballots that have to be counted. Espaillat then thanked all the people who helped on the campaign from the Bronx, Washington Heights, Marble Hill, and any other part of the district. 

      Below are a few photos of the event. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

Left -  Manhattan District Leader Mark Levine, Right - Bronx District Leader Yudelka Tapia speaking to the huge crowd.

Left - Espaillat as he is in the front of the room after thanking people who helped on the campaign. Right - Espaillat waits to be introduced to the crowd.

Left - The crowd roars as Espaillat is introduced. Right - Espaillat addressing the crowd on where the campaign is at the moment.

     

**********************************************************

Espiallat--- Don't Let The 13th C.D. election be another Florida

Senator Adriano Espiallat's campaign is in court trying to secure ballots so as the campaign says "That there can be a correct and honest accounting for all ballots". In this New York Daily News piece Celeste Katz says that Espiallat does not want the NY 13 race to become another Florida .

   Ms. Katz tells you exactly what we have been saying that not all the ballots have been counted, and that many people who wanted to vote for Espiallat were told that their names were not in the list of voters and to go home. Hundreds of complaints came into the Espaillat headquarters about that, and that still with thousands of vote not counted that Rangel's lead keeps getting smaller and is no at 802.

   We are wondering if this race will be decided by the November Election, if this election will be thrown out by the courts and there will be another election in September on the state primary date, or even that the way things have been handled by the Board of Elections that heads start to roll as Mayor Bloomberg said Friday after the election when asked "this is the most easily corruptible in the world" as Bloomberg slammed the Board of Elections once again.

  So How Did It Happen, and Who is Responsible? 

  We hope to have the answer for you.

******************************************************

13th Congressional Race Mr. Clyde Williams

    Redistricting has changed the once majority black district into a majority Hispanic district. While Harlem, East Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood remain as part of the district 200,000 Bronx voters have been added to the district. The mostly Hispanic communities of Bedford Park, Kingsbridge Heights, Van Cortlandt Village, and most of Kingsbridge were placed in the new 13th Congressional District. A date of June 26th was also place as the date of the new congressional primary.

   Charlie Rangel has claimed to be the incumbent in this new district as most of it came from his old 15th Congressional District. Rangel has the backing of the Manhattan and Bronx Democratic county machines (and we said that both Democratic county leaders were looking at the proposed district lines for a possible future run). State Senator Adriano Espaillat announced his intention to run in the now majority Hispanic 13th C.D. Senator Espaillat has nothing to loose if he does not get elected to congress, as he can still run for his state senate seat in the September Democratic primary.

   We sat down last week with Mr. Clyde Williams, who is another candidate in the 13th Congressional race.  Mr. Williams is concerned how the district has problems that have not been addressed by Congressman Rangel. High unemployment, lack of jobs, poor public education, lack of accountability, and high oil prices are high on his priority list of things to get done. How can Clyde get that done, I asked. Mr. Williams who first praised Congressman Rangel for the good things that he did in the past, and said that there are new problems now then there were in the past. He went on to say that there are huge health care disparities and education gaps.

   Mr. Williams spoke of putting people to work in the jobs that are needed, such as nursing, auto mechanics, electricians, and other good paying jobs. when I asked about the Empowerment Zone that Congressman Rangel set up, Mr. Williams said most are out of business by using the funds for the community, but that "the Harlem Empowerment Zone still has lots of money left". Mr. Williams said that up to 5,000 new jobs could be created right now if tourism was set up not only for lower Manhattan, but the rest of the city. New Hotels and restaurants could be built for tourist to stay over rather then come for an hour or two, or to see the Yankee game then leave.

  When I asked Mr. Williams what his qualifications for congress were, he said that he knows the D.C. area very well, the president, and how congress works. He added that he worked for both President Clinton and President Obama in high level positions. Mr. Williams believes like others do that in this election the Bronx will play a key role in determining who the representative from the 13th Congressional District will be. He is making important connections in the Bronx, and plans to keep them. when asked if he is doing all this to set up for a run for office when Congressman Rangel decides to retire possibly in 2014 or sooner, Mr. Clyde Williams said "I am in this race to win this race".

Mr. Clyde Williams stands in front of the Kingsbridge Armory with two of his supporters

.

Here the trio stand by the Kingsbridge Road Subway station of the   # 4 subway line. On Mr. Williams left is Mr. Ephraim Cruz of Bronx For Change, and Mr. Anthony Rivveccio of NWBD on his right.

************************************************************