Osina leads fundraising with month to go before election

Queens 23rd Assembly District candidates Pesach Osina and Thomas Sullivan are raising money as the race goes into the home stretch.  Photos via campaigns

By Ryan Schwach

Queens is now less than a month away from the November general election, and candidates are building war chests for the home stretch.

In the borough's most competitive race, Democrat Pesach Osina is outraising his Republican opponent Tom Sullivan in the contest for Southeast Queens’ 23rd Assembly District.

Osina, who won a primary in June, raised twice what Sullivan did in the last fundraising period.

The Democrat raised just shy of $45,000, while Sullivan raised over $25,000.

Both still have significant funds in the bank. Osina has $143,000 for the final month of the election, and Sullivan has around $104,000.

Osina is supported by retiring incumbent Stacey Pheffer Amato, the Democratic Party, and its allies. His highest donations have come from political PACs, including the New York Real Estate Board, which gave him $5,000. He also received donations from the carpenters’ union and the powerful Hotel Trades Council Committee. Both donated $3,000 to Osina’s campaign.

Osina, a Council staffer, has also received significant donations from City Councilmember Simcha Felder and Alice Tisch of the Tisch family. Progressive Councilmembers Lincoln Restler and Sandy Nurse have also given to the campaign.

Despite the donations from powerful groups and New Yorkers, Osina said he is running a “grassroots” effort.

“The coalition that I built during the primary is going to get me over to the victory now in the general,” Osina told the Eagle on Monday. “We are stronger than ever.”

Osina won the primary in June over local attorney Mike Scala.

Scala won the majority of electoral districts in the Rockaway-centered district, but ultimately fell short thanks to Osina’s dominant showing in the Orthodox Jewish community in Far Rockaway.

Sullivan, who is making his third attempt to represent the 23rd District, received mostly smaller donations from family members and local Republicans.

But the retired Army colonel has substantially outspent his Democrat opponent by more than $100,000.

Sullivan has spent large sums of money on political consulting.

Queens candidates are raising money with less than a month to go before Election Day.  Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach

He has paid around $56,000 to McShane LLC, a conservative political consulting company based in Las Vegas. In total, Sullivan’s spending on consulting and communications accounts for about 70 percent of his overall expenditures.

Sullivan told the Eagle he is focused on meeting local voters.

“Not everybody gets mail or follows textbooks or Facebook,” he said. “But when they see you on the corner, it matters. It's time consuming, and not everybody is interested. But the people that engage you are wonderful.”

Other Queens races

District 23 is home to the only truly competitive race between a Republican and a Democrat this November, but that has not stopped money from being raised elsewhere in the borough.

In Assembly District 30, Republican Brandon Castro has more money in the bank than his opponent, Patrick Martinez, who is fresh off a bruising Democratic primary he won by only seven votes after a recount.

Martinez has raised more than Castro, pulling in $12,000 in the last period to Castro’s $2,300. However, Castro still holds about $47,000 in the bank, and Martinez is sitting with under $10,000.

The only other Queens contest where both candidates filed disclosures this week was Senate District 11. In that race, Republican Pamela Michos is challenging longtime Democratic incumbent Toby Ann Stavisky.

Stavisky outraised Michos considerably in the last period, pulling in around $60,000 to Michos’ $16,000. Michos still holds around $88,000 in the bank behind Stavisky’s $99,000.

Two of Queens’ insurgent Democratic Socialist candidates, David Orkin and Aber Kawas, both filed disclosures but their respective Republican opponents, Ruben Cruz and Han-Khon To, did not.

Orkin filed about $11,700 in donations, and Kawas filed about $20,500.

Early voting begins this month on Oct. 24 and runs up until election day on Nov. 3.

Locals condemn Paladino outside her Whitestone office

Locals, including former Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, rally outside of Councilmember Vickie Paladino’s office following comments she has made about deporting Muslims.  Screenshot via Facebook

By Ryan Schwach

Queens locals condemned Councilmember Vickie Paladino during a rally outside her office on Sunday after she called for the deportation of Muslim Americans and for “massive sweeps of Muslim neighborhoods.”

The public denunciation of the Republican member, who is no stranger to controversy, came days after colleagues called for her expulsion on the Council floor following a vote by the body’s Standards and Ethics Committee to investigate her conduct.

“There is no place for hate in our city, New York, our beautiful city,” said Queens Imam Safraz Bacchus. “A city that is shaped by diversity and sustained by the shared belief that every human being is created with dignity.”

“This hate that we are denouncing is against all forms, hate directed to our Jewish community, the Sikh community, the Hindu communities, the African American community,” the imam added.

Sunday’s rally, which was organized by former City Council candidate Japneet Singh and included remarks from other local political candidates – but no sitting elected officials – was a direct response to comments Paladino made last week.

Her initial comments, made on X following the terror attack at Bondi Beach in Australia, argued that Western nations, including the United States, need to “begin the expulsion of Muslims.”

“The administration needs to begin developing a formal legal framework for the denaturalization process and get it over with before we end up with another 9/11 or worse,” she said.

Paladino, who deleted the post after being asked to do so by presumptive Council Speaker Julie Menin, doubled down on those remarks days later, adding in an op-ed to the Queens Jewish Link that there should need to be “massive sweeps of Muslim neighborhoods" in order to facilitate the mass deportations of what she described as “radical Muslims.”

She was swiftly condemned by her elected colleagues. Brooklyn Councilmember Shahana Hanif, who is Muslim, called for the Council to expel Paladino during the final stated meeting of the year.

“She won't apologize, just like every other time,” Hanif said. “So, I ask you, where do we draw the line?”

“We must send a clear message to the New Yorkers that we represent, that racism is unacceptable,” she added. “This colleague must be expelled or at the very, very least, censured.”

Locals continued to criticize Paladino outside her office on Sunday.

Councilmember Vickie Paladino is in hot water once again following comments she made, calling for the deportation of Muslims.  File photo by Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit

“We are here to be fighting for each other, to protect our immigrant communities, and to be standing against bigotry, hate, Islamophobia, anti-semitism and all forms of discrimination,” said Aber Kawas, who is running for the State Assembly in Queens’ 34th District.

Other speakers called for Paladino to be given some kind of punishment for her comments, either in the form of a censure from the Council or from expulsion.

“It is the City Councilwoman's job to help us live together, to thrive together and to not dehumanize and divide us from each other,” said Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. “A leader like Paladino who uses dangerous, racist, bigoted rhetoric must be censured. She has no place in leadership. She has no place in our City Council.”

Paladino appeared to invite censure from her Council colleagues when cornered by reporters at City Hall last week.

“They can censure me if they want, because I really don’t care,” she said. “Let them embarrass themselves.”

In a statement in response to Sunday’s rally, Paladino said she felt everyone was just acting on their right to free speech.

“As far as the protest goes, they have the same right to free speech as everyone else,” she said. “Just as I can speak my mind on social media, they can protest what I say. That’s how it works. It only becomes dangerous when the government tries to shut down free expression in the name of ‘safety’ or politics.”