Hiram Monserrate is back – and he's brought friends
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Hiram Monserrate has begun collecting petition signatures in a bid to run for his old City Council seat. AP file photo by Mike Groll
By Jacob Kaye
The start of petitioning season has brought with it several new entrants into a number of upcoming races in Queens – all of whom have ties to a disgraced former elected official expelled from the State Senate a decade ago.
Hopefuls for elected office hit the streets this week to begin collecting signatures in order to qualify for June’s primary election. The process, known as petitioning, has revealed a number of new candidates tied to Hiram Monserrate, the former lawmaker and current district leader who was booted from the Senate in 2010 after being convicted of a reckless assault misdemeanor charge against his girlfriend.
Ballot petitions reviewed by the Eagle show that Monserrate is backing candidates running for Queens Civil Court and for Queens district attorney, and is himself making an attempt to regain his former seat in the City Council.
Monserrate, who also served two years in federal prison after being convicted of public corruption charges, currently serves as a district leader representing East Elmhurst, Elmhurst and Corona. The perennial candidate has begun to collect signatures in a bid to challenge Democratic incumbent City Councilmember Francisco Moya in the 21st Council District despite a recently passed law specifically designed to keep Monserrate – and other former officials convicted of corruption – from running for a spot in the city’s legislative body.
Despite his past convictions and his slim chances of making the ballot on election day, Monserrate’s influence cannot be discounted. The district leader has run a relatively successful Democratic club in Northwest Queens for the past several years and has supported a number of judicial candidates who have toppled Queens County Democratic Party-backed candidates on several occasions.
This year, he’s supporting John Ciafone, who is running for a spot on the Queens Civil Court bench in the 6th Judicial District, which covers Flushing and most of Northeast Queens. Ciafone, a Democrat who ran for City Council in 2021, will face off against Evelyn Gong, a Queens attorney who has the backing of the Queens County Democratic Party. Also running is Steven Beard, an attorney located in Flushing.
Monserrate is also backing Devian Daniels, a two-time failed Civil Court candidate who is now attempting to run for Queens district attorney. Already in the DA’s race are Melinda Katz, the incumbent, and George Grasso, the former top judge in Queens Supreme Criminal Court who first launched his campaign for DA in the fall.
Monserrate could not be reached for comment.
Monserrate runs – again
A Monserrate bid for office is not unusual. Shortly after being released from federal prison, he made his first attempt to regain the public’s confidence by running for district leader, an elected party position, in 2016. He lost by fewer than 60 votes. The next year, he challenged Moya in the Democratic primary for the Council seat, picking up around 44 percent of the vote to Moya’s 55 percent.
He was successful in a bid for district leader in 2018, a position he won re-election to in 2020.
Monserrate then embarked on several failed bids to unseat Jeffrion Aubry in the Assembly. He never received more than 38 percent of the vote.
In 2021, the City Council passed and former Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law a bill that prevents ex-lawmakers from running for municipal office if they have been convicted of public corruption – Monserrate’s conviction stems from an incident in which he steered Council money to a local nonprofit and used the cash to fund a successful State Senate campaign.
The bill was originally introduced by Moya, who brought it to the Council a year after first being challenged by Monserrate.
“That bill was designed to prevent Hiram from running. Not to prevent pedophiles or murderers who, by the way, can still run for city council,” a volunteer with Monserrate’s 2021 campaign told the Eagle at the time. “Even though you see him as a jerk, an ex-felon, an asshole – why is the city picking on Hiram?”
But several months after the bill became law, Monserrate decided to run for the Council seat anyway. He later was booted from the ballot.
The law is still in effect and election attorneys told the Eagle that it seems likely history will repeat itself in 2023 – even if he collects the required number of petition signatures, the Board of Elections will likely prevent his name from making the ballot before election day.
“I don't know that he has a legal theory on which to proceed,” said Howard Graubard, an election attorney. “I don't know who his lawyer is or what his thought processes are – I just know that I’m not his lawyer, and had he called me, I probably wouldn't do it.”
Matthew Rey, a spokesperson for Moya’s campaign, dismissed Monserrate’s attempt to challenge the lawmaker.
"Hiram Monserrate hasn't won an election for public office in a decade since his domestic violence conviction and corruption plea, and he's lost the faith of his community,” Rey said in a statement. “Central Queens deserves much better, and Councilmember Francisco Moya is proud of delivering for working families, from billions more for our schools to protecting our seniors and immigrants."
Sources told the Eagle that it’s possible that Monserrate is using his name, which is well-known in parts of Queens, to help candidates he supports reach the required number of petition signatures. Even if Monserrate were to be kicked off the ballot, the petition signatures would remain valid for the other candidates listed alongside him.
A photo of one of Monserrate’s petition documents shared on social media by the New York Post’s Zach Williams does not include any other candidates running for public office, but does include seven judicial delegate candidates, including Monserrate himself. Judicial delegates serve an important role within each political party – they vote on which Supreme Court judicial candidates will run on the party’s line in the general election.
“This is not about Monserrate running, it’s about him making people unhappy,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a political strategist who is volunteering for Grasso’s campaign for district attorney. “But he is a serious player who will wreak havoc…He’s terribly talented, very smart about politics and wants to return the favors.”
“It's absolutely an attempt to put together a functional organization for these campaigns – and it's worked for him, he's won races,” Sheinkopf added. “Also, part of what might be going on here is an attempt to prove that the Queens County Democratic Party organization is not all it's cracked up to be.”
A judicial upset?
Though Monserrate has not come close to winning a race for public office in recent years, he has shown success in getting candidates elected to the bench.
In 2019, now-Judge Lumarie Maldonado-Cruz, who was backed by Monserrate, beat out Wyatt Gibbons, a judicial candidate supported by the Queens County Democratic Party. Later that year, the party’s judicial delegates nominated Gibbons to run for a spot on the Supreme Court bench, where he currently serves.
In 2021, now-Judge Soma Syed, who petitioned with a number of candidates tied to Monserrate, upset Michael Goldman, who was backed by the Queens Dems, in a race for Civil Court. Goldman is again running for a Civil Court seat this year.
Last year, Queens County Democratic Party candidate Thomas Oliva was defeated by now-Judge Maria Gonzalez, who was supported by Monserrate. Gonzalez did not have a campaign website until a little less than a month before election day.
This year, Queens Democratic Party Civil Court candidate Evelyn Gong will face a challenge from Monserrate-associated candidate John Ciafone in the 6th District.
Ciafone, a Queens attorney who has previously unsuccessfully ran for Civil Court and City Council, has hired Michael Nieves, a long-time political strategist and associate of Monserrate, to help run his campaign and said he welcomes the support from Monserrate.
“I have no problems working with Hiram,” Ciafone told the Eagle. “[He and Nieves] have beaten County [Civil Court candidates] three times.”
“[Monserrate] has a checkered past but he's been elected a district leader and after his issues with the law, he’s fulfilled his debt to society, but nobody wants to give him grace,” Ciafone added. “However, the elected officials tend to give the average criminal grace – no jail, no prosecution, no bail. It's pretty sanctimonious, how they treat him.”
In light of the recent defeats, Queens County Democratic Party officials say they’ll likely put a little more focus on the 6th Judicial District race.
Antonio Alfonso, a district leader and the political director of the Queens County Democratic Party, said that he and the party are “extremely proud of the candidates that we've put up this year, specifically for this race.”
“Evelyn Gong is incredibly experienced – she's a community person and has tremendous support, not just from the district leaders and the electeds out there, but from the community,” Alfonso said.
Judicial candidates are often limited in what they can say on the campaign trail – though not a hard and fast rule, they’re generally discouraged from expressing political viewpoints or commenting on political issues. Those restrictions may have contributed to lackluster campaigns in the past, political observers told the Eagle.
“It can be very hard for judicial candidates sometimes to sell themselves because of ethical guidelines, but [Gong] is following those guidelines, following those rules and still making sure that people know her,” Alfonso said. “We're very happy with what Evelyn's doing and I'm hearing from the district leaders in that area about what they're doing and what they're hoping to do should we get to a super competitive primary.”
But Ciafone does not feel restricted by the same guidelines. Speaking to the Eagle this week, he did not refrain from making his opinion on at least one political issue known.
John Ciafone is running for Civil Court judge in the 6th District, challenging Queens Democratic Party candidate Evelyn Gong. Photo via Ciafone’s campaign
“The quality of life in the city has deteriorated,” Ciafone said. “I'm running because I'm not afraid to invoke bail and remand people in jail where they belong – and particularly the people that are violent, career criminals.”
“I have nothing negative to say against my opponent, but my opponent has been selected by the political machinery that is responsible for the elevated crime in our community,” he added. “The people, not politicians, need to elect judges, so we get the judges that are most representative of the people and the interests of people, not special interests, not political bosses.”
Ciafone, who often self-funds his campaigns, said that while his reasons for running for Civil Court may sound like they’d be better suited for a campaign for district attorney, a bid for the bench is more tenable.
“It's too much of an effort,” he said. “And quite frankly, I think Melinda Katz is doing a good job.”
A growing DA’s race
Though Ciafone is backing Katz in the race, his name appears on petitions with Devian Daniels, a two-time candidate for Civil Court judge who is now challenging Katz in the race for Queens DA.
Daniels is a Queens native and after graduating from CUNY Law, has worked with the Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office providing legal assistance to low-income residents, and as a City Council community legal counselor. She also has worked as an arbiter for the MTA and as a private attorney.
In addition to Katz, Daniels will face off against George Grasso, the former administrative judge of Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term.
Daniels will face an uphill battle – as of Jan. 20, Katz had around $1,175,000 in her campaign account and Grasso, who began fundraising in the fall, had around $230,200 on hand.
However, Daniels is from Southeast Queens, an area where Katz saw some of her biggest vote totals during the 2019 Democratic primary race. It’s also the area Queens County Democratic Party Chairman Gregory Meeks represents in Congress.
But Sheinkopf said Monserrate’s support of Daniels likely has little to do with picking off votes from the incumbent.
“What matters is that it forces the organization to spend effort, time and potentially money and resources in a part of the county they took for granted,” Sheinkopf said.
“It's got less to do about winning or losing and it's got more to do with making the organization crazy,” he added. “It’s another way for Montserrate to say, ‘By the way, screw you, I'm here.’”
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Hiram Monserrate was expelled from the State Senate after he slashed his girlfriend with a piece of glass in 2009. That is incorrect. Though he initially faced a felony charge related to the slashing allegations, he was not convicted on the charge. He instead was convicted of a reckless assault misdemeanor.
