Primary election day underway in Queens
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Low voter turnout appeared to define the first hours of voting on Tuesday, June 28, the first of two primary elections to be held in new York this year. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
A slow trickle of voters throughout Queens made their way to their polling sites Tuesday in the first of two primary elections being held in New York State this year.
Despite what appeared to be a low voter turnout, on the ballot Tuesday were a number of statewide races, including the races for governor and lieutenant governor, and a number of local races, including the races for Assembly, Queens Civil Court judge and local party positions like district leaders and judicial delegates.
Governor Kathy Hochul is seeking her first full term as the state’s top executive, and is facing Democratic challenges from Public Advocate Jumaane Williams on the left and Rep. Tom Suozzi on the right. There are also two open Assembly seats in Queens, with a handful of candidates running in each, as well as several contested Assembly races where longtime incumbents are facing potentially serious challengers. Queens voters will also cast ballots to fill two vacancies on the Queens Civil Court.
But while local issues mattered to many, at the top of a large number of voters’ minds were national issues.
“I vote every election because every election to me is important – but this year, especially just because of what's going on with the abortion issue,” said Joann Saggese, a Long Island City resident who cast her ballot from Information Technology High School.
“National issues are important for me now, that’s why I’m out here for this [election] in particular, and out early,” she added.
The sentiment was echoed by nearly a dozen voters who spoke with the Eagle, including Tamarah Strauss, who wasn’t planning to vote a week ago.
“I don't think I would have voted if the decision hadn't come out last week,” Strauss said. “But that's the most important issue.”
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, the legal precedent that protected abortion rights throughout the country for the past 50 years. The court ruled that abortion was no longer a federal issue, and sent the issue back to the states, some of which immediately acted to ban the medical procedure. New York is one of a handful of states that already have abortion protections in place but elected leaders have said they aim to fortify those protections and create new ones to support the potential influx of patients coming from other states that don’t have them.
Joe Geni, a voter in Hunter’s Point, told the Eagle that while the court’s decision was a politically motivating factor, it’s not what drove him to the polls.
“Now that it's going to the states, I think that it's really important that the states pass good laws in that regard, but it didn't seem like that was really on the ballot today,” Geni said. “It wasn't a motivating factor today – I was going to vote regardless, and it seems like everyone's more or less on the same page.”
The same wasn’t true for voter Erin Li, who felt that the governor’s race was the best place to fight for abortion protections. She said that Hochul’s commitment to furthering abortion protections motivated her to cast a ballot for the incumbent.
“I think she's trying to make New York like a safe haven for people from other states, and I wanted that to continue,” Li said.
As is the case in most primary elections in New York City, most voters headed to the polls because of their sense of civic duty.
“We always vote so it’s a matter of practice, but I know local elections feel like some of the only things we can make an impact on,” said Molly Shoemaker, a voter in Forest Hills.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz was spotted at P.S. 101 in Forest Hills and told the Eagle that she was encouraged by the turnout she had seen at the poll sites she had visited.
“I think it’s extremely important that people are here,” Katz said. “I was happy to see turnout at two locations. People are coming out. That’s a good thing.”
“Between the end of school and the start of summer, I’m glad people are remembering and hope they continue to come out,” she added.
Assembly races
For the first time in nearly four decades, voters in Western Queens won’t see Cathy Nolan’s name on their ballots. Nolan, who was first elected to the Assembly in 1985, will retire at the end of the year, creating one of two open Assembly seats in Queens.
The race for Assembly District 37 features progressive candidate Juan Ardila, the Nolan-backed Joanna Carmona, community organizer Brent O’Leary and local attorney Jim Magee. Progressive organizers, including the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, see the open seat as an opportunity to elect yet another progressive candidate to the section of Queens that has elected DSA-backed candidates to office at the local, state and federal level.
But a majority of District 37 voters who spoke with the Eagle Tuesday said that the race flew under their radar. Additionally, a large number of voters told the Eagle that they had only recently moved into the district – Long Island City had one of the highest rates of population growth in all of New York City in the past decade.
“I'm not super familiar with the Assembly seat candidates,” said voter Jennifer Chang. “I mean, I know who was who was running, but I don't know, like their platform super well. I decided to vote for the one that I've been seeing the most.”
Maria Puglisi was one of only a handful of voters who told the Eagle that they’d been following the Assembly race to replace Nolan. Puglisi said she cast a ballot for O’Leary because she felt he’d been active in the Long Island City community. Though many of her neighbors were withdrawn from the Assembly race, she didn’t hold it against them.
“There’s a lot going on in the world but local, local, local,” Puglisi said. “I think all of the local seats are really important.”
Also in Western Queens, two candidates are vying to replace Assemblymember Brian Barnwell in District 30 – Barnwell abruptly announced his retirement in April. Running for the seat are Steven Raga, a former Barnwell staffer and local nonprofit executive, and Ramon Cando, who has the backing of Hiram Monserrate, the former Queens elected official who was convicted on domestic abuse and corruption charges.
With a relatively low turnout, insurgent candidates could see an advantage Tuesday.
Monserrate himself is mounting a challenge in Northwest Queens against Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry in Assembly District 35. The race could prove to be one to watch. Despite Monserrate’s criminal past, he picked up nearly 3,000 votes when challenging Aubry in 2020. The incumbent, however, cruised to victory with around 65 percent of the vote.
In Assembly District 32, Assemblymember Vivian Cook is facing a challenge from Anthony Andrews, a Queens College employee who has the backing of the Working Families Party. Cook, 85, has been in office since 1990 and ranks among the top leaders of the Queens County Democratic Party.
While turnout appeared low throughout the borough on Tuesday, Assembly District 32 ranked among the districts with the highest voter turnout during the city’s early voting period, a fact that could potentially mean good returns for the insurgent candidate.
Judges of the Civil Court
Queens voters were tasked with filling two vacancies on the borough’s Civil Court bench on Tuesday.
There were four candidates on the ballot – Karen Lin, a former Housing Court judge, Thomas Oliva, the president of the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens, and attorneys Maria Gonzalez and Devian Daniels.
Both Lin and Oliva were endorsed by the Queens County Democratic Party and were also the only two candidates in the race to receive an “approved” rating from the Queens County and New York City Bar Associations. The ratings are one of the only tools voters have to access judicial candidates, who are prevented from running a typical political campaign.
Unable to campaign in a traditional sense, judicial candidates sometimes have trouble reaching voters. Voters on Tuesday told the Eagle that they largely were unsure of who to vote for. That could prove trouble for Oliva who was listed last on the ballot and is the only male candidate running in the race.
Voters on Tuesday said that representation on the court was important to them and that principal is what guided them at the ballot box.
“I tended to lean toward female judges,” said voter Joanna Levinger. “But I know that doesn't always mean they're good judges.”
Li told the Eagle that while she “felt kind of guilty about having been so uninformed,” in the judicial race, she ultimately voted for Karen Lin, who, if elected, would become a handful of Asian American judges on the bench in Queens. Asian Americans are among the least represented racial or ethnic group on the bench in the borough.
“This is a very Asian neighborhood,” Li said. “I got a mailer for Karen Lin and I looked at her website and what she had to say and that's my thought process about that.”
See you in a few months
This year’s primary elections will be split into two. In August, voters will cast ballots for State Senate and congressional races. That’s because the Court of Appeals ruled that the redistricted electoral maps for the two legislative bodies were unconstitutional and the courts needed additional time to draw new ones.
Voters on Tuesday had mixed feelings about the split primaries. Some knew about it, others didn’t. Some worried about turnout, some felt it would offer new opportunities for civic engagement.
But most agreed: it’s a bit confusing.
“I wish all the primaries were on the same day,” Geni said. “I feel like that must hurt turnout.”
Chang said that she had only learned of August’s primary on Tuesday. On top of that, she had only learned about Tuesday’s primary on Monday.
“I actually wasn't even aware of this one,” Chang said. “I just started seeing ads, and then I was like, ‘Oh, sh–t, the primaries are tomorrow.’”
Despite the short notice, she began to research the candidates on her ballot and made it out to vote first thing Tuesday morning.
“Voting counts,” she said. “And it matters.”
Additional reporting by Rachel Vick.
