Queens candidate 'collective' pledges to support one another — and oppose a rival
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Manny Silva, Rev. Sherwyn James and Nancy Martinez agreed to rank each other on their ballots in the special election for Queens Council District 31. Image via livestream
By David Brand
Three candidates vying for an open Queens council seat united Friday for a unique joint endorsement in the city’s second-ever test of ranked-choice voting. Still, the harmonious event featured its fair share of shade.
Candidates Manny Silva, Nancy Martinez and Rev. Sherwyn James pledged to vote for one another in the second and third slots in the new ranked-choice format. They are among the nine candidates running to replace Donovan Richards in Council District 31, which includes parts of Southeast Queens and the eastern portion of the Rockaway Peninsula.
Silva, Richards’ former chief of staff, organized the event and said he planned to rank James second, Martinez third and another candidate, LaToya Benjamin, fourth.
“We are the first city council campaign that is going to cross-endorse in these special elections,” he said. “Today’s event is not about me or any one candidate. It’s about us as a collective. It’s about putting our values ahead of our own personal interest through action.”
If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, the last-place finisher is eliminated and voters who picked that candidate will have their second choice tallied. That process will continue until one candidate receives a majority of the vote.
James, a Democratic district leader, left the virtual press conference before taking questions about his ballot order. He said Silva and Martinez “share a lot of the same values” as him.
Martinez, a first-time candidate who founded a successful home healthcare training school, said she did not yet know the order of her ballot, but said she planned to include Silva. She said she was surprised by the cut-throat nature of the election, even after the city instituted ranked-choice voting, a system thought to foster coalition-building.
“Just to see the ugliness behind elections really sickens me,” Martinez said. “People should be backing each other up.”
Martinez then railed against another candidate in the race in thinly veiled references to Selvena Brooks-Powers, a project manager with the JFK Redevelopment Program who has racked up endorsements from elected officials and unions.
Selvena-Brooks has touted her work in the community, including with the Joseph Addabbo Health Center.
“I lived here 30 years so I know what’s going on in the community,” Martinez said. “I’m second vice chair at the Joseph Addabbo Health Center. I’ve never seen you there.”
Silva also criticized Brooks-Powers’s many endorsements, but said he did not mean to to target her in particular. “All of my rhetoric was targeted at a system that has gatekeepers and is not transparent,” Silva said.
“Yes, the county, the establishment, is trying to anoint someone,” he added, referring to Brooks-Powers’ endorsement from Queens County Democratic Party Chair Gregory Meeks, the local congressman.
The county Democratic organization does not formally endorse candidates in special elections.
In a statement, Brooks-Powers’ campaign advisor Anthony Thomas called the criticisms a “sad smear from campaigns trying to deflect attention from their own failings.”
“Selvena is a lifelong resident of Southeast Queens with unparalleled experience in public service, community volunteering, and the labor movement,” he said.
Four other candidates are also running in the Feb. 23 race to replace Richards, who left office after being elected borough president. They are Pesach Osina, Shawn Rux Latanya Collins, and Nicole S. Lee.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Manny Silva’s second and third choices. He said he will vote Rev. Sherwyn James second and Nancy Martinez third.
