Queens incumbents cruise to victory
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Incumbents Melinda Katz, Julie Won, Jennifer Guiterrez, Tiffany Caban, Shekar Krishnan, Linda Lee and Lynn Schulman all secured primary victories on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. AP photos by Seth Wenig, New York City Council, Twitter, Krishnan
By Jacob Kaye and Ryan Schwach
The theory goes that with low voter turnout comes few surprises for the incumbents – and that held true during Tuesday’s primary election in Queens.
On Tuesday evening, as ballots began to be tallied in the borough’s Democratic primary races, it appeared as though all seven incumbent elected officials facing challengers were headed for victory.
Not a single incumbent city councilmember in Queens was trailing at any point in the count and of the three incumbent councilmembers facing more than one challenger, all three appeared poised to receive over 50 percent of the vote, eliminating the possibility of a ranked choice second round vote count.
Only Northeast Queens’ District 19 will see a ranked choice competition between Tony Avella, Paul Graziano and Christopher Bae, the three Democratic candidates running to face Republican Councilmember Vickie Paladino in the November general election. The race, which is currently led by Avella, was the only open Democratic primary held in Queens this year.
Katz takes it by a landslide
Incumbent Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz easily won out a challenge from George Grasso, the former top judge in Queens Criminal Court who was running to Katz’s right, and Devian Daniels, a public defense attorney.
Katz received a full 70 percent of the vote and declared victory not long after polls closed alongside the governor - who called her “Landslide Katz” - and Queens County Democratic Party Chairman Gregory Meeks in Forest Hills on Tuesday night.
Katz thanked members of her campaign and staff, and reiterated a comment she gave to the Eagle a few hours prior, that “good government is good campaigning.”
“I believe you take the guns off the streets, you take the gangs off the streets, you think of innovative ways to take care of those that are stealing things from drug stores and retail stores, I believe you do good government, it's good campaigning,” she said. “The numbers show that my office proved it.”
Though she mostly refrained from commenting on her challengers – particularly Grasso, who accused Katz of being soft on crime – during the race, Katz took several shots at the former judge during her victory speech, where she said the race was “results over rhetoric, substance over sound bites, competence over simplistic slogans.”
“They didn’t fall for it...voters know when you are being serious,” Katz said. “Voters know when you are just talking, just complaining, instead of acting.”
District Attorney Melinda Katz accepts victory on Queens Boulevard on Tuesday alongside Governor Kathy Hochul and Queens pols. Eagle Photo by Ryan Schwach
But the contentious race between Katz and Grasso is not over – Grasso will appear on the “Public Safety” ballot line in the November general election, and likely energize a number of Queens Republican voters, some of whom donated to his Democratic primary campaign this year.
Grasso said as much in a Wednesday statement, where he congratulated Katz on her victory, while also attacking his past – and future – opponent.
“This primary raised serious concerns about the democratic process,” Grasso said. “The incumbent refused to be involved in even one public debate. She routinely avoided crucial forums. She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in conjunction with the Queens machine. The institutional advantages of my opponent were numerous. This type of machine politics is destructive and polarizing. It feeds a lack of trust in our electoral system and our democratic process that leads directly to voter apathy. Apathy was certainly at play yesterday.”
“I am happy to say that this race continues,” he added.
Devian Daniels, the third candidate in the race, also thanked her supporters.
“I would like to thank all the people who volunteered to help me spread the concept of fairer treatment of all the residents of Queens by the office of the Queens DA,” she said in a statement to the Eagle. “I campaigned on an inclusive message and platform. I thank all of the voters for casting their ballots and valuing this precious democracy. I pray that we the citizens of Queens will continue to hold the office of the Queens District Attorney accountable to all residents of Queens. I hope that the current DA sees the value of an inclusive office and sees that justice is dispensed fairly to people who have been traditionally marginalized.”
In District 29, ranked choice will decide who will face Vickie Paladino in November, Christopher Bae or Tony Avella Eagle Photo by Ryan Schwach
District 19 not yet decided
Queens’ only closely contested Democratic primary also happened to be the borough’s only open primary.
Unofficial early vote totals showed that with around 99 percent of ballots counted in District 19, former State Senator Tony Avella led the three-way race with around 39 percent of the vote. Christopher Bae, a former prosecutor in the Queens district attorney’s office, held 36.8 percent of the vote. A little more than 100 votes separated the two candidates. Paul Graziano, a longtime local advocate, appeared to have finished third in the race, picking up a little more than 23 percent of the vote.
The race is bound for a ranked choice voting second round and Bae could be poised to pull out the victory.
Bae would need a little more than half of Graziano’s approximately 1,400 votes to surpass Avella’s total and that seems like a possibility – throughout the campaign, Bae and Graziano together took shots at Avella and told their respective voters to rank the other second on their ballots.
Bae, who had the least name recognition going into the race, pulled out the majority of his votes in most of the district’s northern portion.
"Four months ago I was sitting in the trenches in the Queens District Attorney’s Office, prosecuting violent criminals, when I looked around and said this is not where we should be as a community,” Bae said in a statement Wednesday. “That’s when I decided to run. To challenge politics as usual, to reject the idea that we were getting what was owed to us, and to introduce fresh ideas and new energy to our City’s government.”
“The fight is not over. We have to make sure every vote is counted, because every vote counts,” he added. “We made it to round two, when almost no one expected us to survive round one. I am humbled and energized and ready to keep fighting for this community.”
However, Democratic strategist Trip Yang see’s similarities with District 19’s last Democratic primary, which saw a similar situation result in Avella’s victory after a ranked choice voting count.
“It reminds me a little bit of the 2021 Democratic primary between Tony Avella and Richard Lee,” said Yang. “Christopher Bae seems to have replicated much of Richard Lee's base in the Democratic primary. There's a large Asian American presence in District 19.”
After round one in 2021, Avella had a 1,112 vote lead over Lee in six candidate field, and after Tuesday night, he maintained just 124 votes on Bae.
Yang also said that Graziano’s difference from the third place candidate last time around, Austin Shafran, and ideological similarities to Avella will be beneficial to the current leader.
“Paul Graziano is running on a similar homeowner friendly platform as Tony Avella,” Yang said. “He's not someone like Austin Shafran who was running to the left of Tony Avella. The third place candidate is different, and so in this scenario, I think Tony is poised to win the Democratic nomination after all the votes are counted.”
Although Graziano and Bae did publicly say that their voters should rank the other one second, Yang said since they did not make a loud public declaration like what was done in Manhattan’s 9th District, where eventual winner Yusef Salaam and Assemblymember Al Taylor pushed the other as their second choice, it wouldn’t have the same impact.
“It wasn't a public formal positive display of singing Kumbaya,” Yang said about D19’s candidates.
Avella, who experts believed was the apparent frontrunner, took to Twitter late Tuesday night.
“We are confident that we will prevail when the ranked choice process is over,” he said. “As we wait for the final results, we will continue our work to ensure Vickie Paladino is defeated this November.”
Results in the race likely won’t be finalized until at least July 5.
Not so much of a rematch – and another rematch to come
Many thought that the race for the 26th District would be a close contest for incumbent Julie Won, who was challenged from the left by Haillie Kim, who also ran in 2021.
On Tuesday, that turned out to not be the case, with Won taking 61 percent of the vote over Kim by a margin over more than 1,300 votes.
“I am incredibly humbled by my neighbors' overwhelming support for my re-election to the City Council! From the beginning, my campaign has always centered the needs of the working class, immigrants, and families across the district,” Won said in a statement. “From approving a record amount of permanent affordable housing, and protecting our education budget, to delivering our district's fair share of city funding and free WiFI for all our neighbors in NYCHA – I am proud of the work I've done in my first term as councilmember.”
In the days leading up to the election, a portion of Kim supporters protested Won in Long Island City over her “yes” vote on last year’s budget.
“Our landslide victory demonstrated that a campaign rooted in positivity, real accomplishments, and genuine grassroots support will always triumph over one built on lies, personal attacks, and dirty tactics,” Won said. “It has been the honor of my life to serve the people and places I love. Now, it's time to get back to work!”
The race was anticipated as a rematch between Kim and Won, who both ran in 2021. Won got 56 percent of the vote in that race following the ranked choice count, and Kim came in eighth.
This year’s race had an incredibly low turnout, so low that Won's first round vote count in 2021 was more than every single vote cast in this year’s race.
This year, Kim received a total of 2,207 votes, in 2021, she was eliminated in round 9, and received 1,166 votes.
Kim took to Twitter on Tuesday night to thank her supporters.
“While we did not get the result we wanted tonight, I am deeply grateful for the time everyone took to make their voices heard,” she said. “The fight for justice is a marathon, not a sprint. I am excited that we broadened the coalition in support of economic and racial justice while opposing austerity together.”
The borough’s only Republican primary, in Flushing’s District 20 saw Yu-Ching James Pai defeat Dany Chen by 168 votes in an election where only 1,180 people voted.
Pai’s victory means November will bring a rematch of the 2021 general election, where incumbent Democrat Sandra Ung defeated Pai 59 percent to 40 percent.
Incumbents protected with wide margins
Queen’s biggest landslide victory came in the heavily progressive 22nd District, where Tiffany Caban secured 85 percent of the vote against her opponent, former NYPD officer and Hiram Monserrate chief of staff Charles Castro.
“Deep gratitude to everyone who knocked, called and voted!” Caban said in a tweet, thanking her supporters on election night. “This is your victory!”
The second biggest victory came for Jennifer Guiterrez, who pulled in 81 percent of her Brooklyn-Queens crossover district over rapper and activist Paperboy Love Prince.
Ranked choice voting takes a backseat in three-way races
Other than District 19, there were three other three-way races where ranked choice voting could have come into play, but where the incumbent secured enough of a majority to walk with the race on election night – if one candidate receives over 50 percent of the initial vote, ranked choice counting does not kick in.
In District 23 some believed incumbent Linda Lee may be in some trouble from her challengers, which turned out to not be the case, with Lee pulling in 62 percent of the vote, staving off a ranked choice round two count against challengers Steve Behar and Rubaiya Rahman.
“Tonight, we celebrate,” Lee said in a statement declaring her victory. “But tomorrow I’ll be right back at work building on our accomplishments and fighting for Eastern Queens residents.”
Incumbent Shekar Krishnan similarly received 63 percent of the vote, defeating Richard Pacheco and Fatima Baryab.
In District 29, Lynn Schulman pulled in just enough of the vote to win in round one. Local lawyer Ethan Felder and activist Sukhi Singh received 23 and 12 percent of the vote respectively.
“Now that the results are in, I am heartened by my decisive victory in this primary,” Schulman said. “This is a result of showing up for our communities, speaking to neighbors, and producing
results since I took office. We have fought to make our district healthier and safer, invest in our schools, and support our seniors — and we have succeeded.”
The district includes a portion of Richmond Hill, where the neighborhood’s South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities have called for a district unto itself and separated from voters in the more Central Queens portion of District 29.
Singh, the only South Asian in the race, brought in a small portion of the vote, but geographically won the majority of South Richmond Hill where the South Asian and Punjabi populations are prevalent.
Queens voters cast ballots in a number of democratic primary races on tuesday, june 27, 2023. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
Results, as of Wednesday afternoon:
Queens district attorney (Democratic primary)
Melinda Katz – 70.8 percent
George Grasso – 14.3 percent
Devian Daniels – 14 percent
City Council District 19 (Democratic primary)
Paul Graziano – 23.6 percent
Christopher Bae – 36.8 percent
Tony Avella – 38.97 percent
City Council District 20 (Republican primary)
Dany Chen – 42.6 percent
Yu-Ching James Pai – 56.8 percent
City Council District 22 (Democratic primary)
Tiffany Caban – 85.5 percent
Charles Castro – 13.1 percent
City Council District 23 (Democratic primary)
Steve Behar – 29.2 percent
Rubaiya Rahman – 7.4 percent
Linda Lee – 62.5 percent
City Council District 25 (Democratic primary)
Ricardo Pacheco – 23.7 percent
Shekar Krishnan – 63.9 percent
Fatima Baryab – 12 percent
City Council District 26 (Democratic primary)
Hailie Kim – 37.7 percent
Julie Won – 61 percent
City Council District 29 (Democratic primary)
Sukhi Singh – 11 percent
Ethan Felder – 34.6 percent
Lynn Schulman – 53.4 percent
City Council District 34 (Democratic primary)
Paperboy Love Prince – 18.2 percent
Jennifer Gutierrez – 81 percent
Countywide Civil Court judge (Democratic primary)
Sandra Perez – 66.9 percent
Marianne Gonzalez – 31 percent
Civil Court judge, 6th Municipal District (Democratic primary)
Evelyn Gong – 56.8 percent
John Ciafone – 21.6 percent
Steven Beard – 20.9 percent
