Roberto Pérez | 12/12/2012 | El Diario
The holiday season is in full gear and I, like every other politico, am trying to make the rounds to as many events possible.
I made it my business to pass through the Northern Manhattan Democrats for Change holiday party held Friday in the Bronx. As some of you may know, this is the home club of State Senator Adriano Espaillat and there was an impressive turnout of both supporters and elected officials.
Among the guests were Manhattan BP Scott Stringer, who Espaillat introduced as the next New York City comptroller. Councilwoman Leticia James, who aspires to become public advocate, was dancing merengue with State Senator Gustavo Rivera. Current City Comptroller John Liu was in the house, as was Congressman Charles Rangel, Manhattan BP candidate Julie Menin, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. Councilman Robert Jackson, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, and Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa also worked the room.
Four candidates vying for Robert Jackson’s seat were mingling in the crowd: District Leader Mark Levine, District Leader Marisol Alcantara, Realtor Thomas Lopez Pierre, and former District Leader April Tyler.
Speaking of the 7th Council District…
My sources tell me that Manuel Lantigua, who landed 18% of the vote in 2009 to Robert Jackson’s 66%, is running again. Ruben Dario Vargas, who ran against Rangel and then stepped aside to support Espaillat, is also running in the 7th CD.
More and more people are telling me to look for rematch between
Assemblyman Rafael Espinal and Make the Road NY’s Jesus Gonzalez for Erik
Dilan’s 37th council seat. It will be interesting to see Gonzalez
run against Espinal, this time on the democratic line. Last time, he ran on the
Working Families Party line.
In other news, one local political player told me that Bronx
Democratic party Executive Director Ischia Bravo is the favorite, if she runs for Joel Rivera's Council seat. If the party coalesces around Bravo and she starts to use
her contacts to help her raise money, she could be tough to beat.
I believe that in life, there are NO goodbyes, only see you later’s.
So I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people at El Diario,
Publisher/CEO Rossana Rosado, Executive Editor Erica Gonzalez, who gave me a
break, and former Opinion page editor Maibe Ponet, for their help and support
throughout my time writing for the daily.
I will no longer be writing in the pages of El Diario because I am joining the staff of New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. I’m going to discontinue THE PEREZ NOTES blog, as I pursue this new endeavor. I would also like to take this time to thank everyone who supported my blog and to wish everyone a happy healthy holiday season.
