Ritchie Torres Fundraiser

Liberty Democratic Club Meeting

  The Liberty Democratic Club of the 80th A.D. held its after primary day meeting to thank the poll workers and to amend its by laws. Poll inspecter Suzanne J. Piscitelli was honored, as was Poll Coordinator Lorraine Ritter. Several elected officials were also expected. Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj, Councilman Jimmy Vacca, and State Senator Gustavo Rivera. 

  The recent winner of the 15th council Democratic primary and Liberty Democratic Club President Ritchie Torres opened the meeting, and later made a motion that was unanimously passed to endorse Bill deBlasio for Mayor in the general election.

 Liberty Dem Club President Ritchie Torres points to the person who seconded his motion to endorse Bill de Blasio in the general election for mayor.

 80th A.D. State Committeeman Joe McManus congratulates soon to be Councilman Ritchie Torres as the home grown candidate of the Liberty Democratic Club. 

 

Primary Day 2013 - The Bronx Results?

  In what was a light turnout the results of yesterday's primary races are in, but will not be official for at least three weeks. For Democratic Mayor Bill DeBlasio ended the night slightly over the magical 40% line to win without having to go into a run off election, but there are still to many absentee and paper ballots that have to be counted which could place DeBlasio below that magical 40% line. If DeBlasio falls below 40% by even one vote he would be forced into a run off with Bill Thompson who finished second.

  On the Republican side for Mayor Joe Lhota won, and should DeBlasio win on the Democratic side we might be seeing  "No Holds Barred"  in a Giuliani - Dinkins III rematch. 

  There will be a run off election for Public Advocate in three weeks on October 1st as none of the 5 candidates went over the magical (citywide only) 40% mark between Brooklyn State Senator Dan Squadron and Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James. 

  For City Comptroller Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer narrowly defeated former New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer.

  Here in the Bronx, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. was an easy winner coming in with 84% of the vote. Incumbent Bronx City Council members in the 8th, 12th, 14th, 17th, & 18th districts all won, and 13th Councilman Jimmy Vacca did not have a primary. In the open Bronx council seats- 11th Andrew Cohen won by a better than 2 - 1 margin, 15th Ritchie Torres won with a little over 1/3 of the vote, and in the 16th 77th A.D. Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson won with over 40% of the vote. 

  In the special election to fill the vacant 86th A.D. Victor Pachardo won with 22% of the vote, but by less than 65 votes (64 to be exact). It is expected (by me at least) that the winner of this race may not be determined by Thanksgiving or Christmas. 

Here are past 11th City Councilwoman June Eisland, current 11th City Councilman Oliver Koppell, and in the middle the next 11th City Councilman Andrew Cohen.

Left - 11th council district primary winner Andrew Cohen goes over the long list of names he thanked in his win.

Right - One time 11th council district Democratic candidate Cheryl Keeling (right) stopped by to congratulate Cohen on his victory, poses with soon to be Councilman Andrew Cohen's wife Heather Erhard-Cohen. Keeling was knocked off the ballot by Cliff Stanton who ran against Cohen.

Lastly - A photo to remember if you are 87th A.D. Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda who went against the Bronx Democratic County organization to be the first Bronx elected official to publicly endorse Bill DeBlasio for Mayor. Sepulveda worked tirelessly for the Deblasio campaign turning his Parkchester political club into the Bronx Campaign headquarters for DeBlasio. Could we be seeing Assemblyman Sepulveda joining the DeBlasio administration?

CYNTHIA ASKS RITCHIE TORRES TO EXPLAIN HOUSING INCONSISTENCIES

(This came in from the Cynthia Tompkins for the City Council campaign of the 15th council district.)

CYNTHIA THOMPKINS

Cynthia for Change

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rob Giuffre (347) 538-6231

CYNTHIA ASKS RITCHIE TORRES TO EXPLAIN HOUSING INCONSISTENCIES

BRONX – Cynthia Thompkins implores the local Bronx media to ask Ritchie Torres to explain how he can claim he is a candidate of the people and a public housing advocate while simultaneously accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the real estate developer super-PAC “Jobs for New York.” 

The New York Daily News recently ran a story that quoted the following: “It’s disgusting that this is happening.  The money is a corrupting influence on anyone who is running for office.” – Jaron Benjamin, executive director of the Met Council on Housing.  (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/pac-flexes-major-muscle-council-races-article-1.1433324)

“Ritchie Torres is taking the script from the Tea Party and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from real estate tycoons who want to make sure the housing status quo stays in place.  Housing is not affordable and the people funding “Jobs for New York” are about as interested in making housing affordable as Ritchie Torres is in running an honest campaign.  In reality, both Torres and “Jobs for New York” are interested in only two things: protecting their own interests and advancing their own agenda,” said Ms. Thompkins.