With Primary season upon us I have decided to bring back my political column ‘100 PERCENT’. This column will feature the 14th, 15th, and 16th Congressional Democratic Primary races. Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic petitioning was cut short by Governor Cuomo, who also cut the required 1,500 valid signatures down to only 500 valid signatures.
The 14th Congressional Primary this year features incumbent Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez facing three Democratic challengers. The main challenge will come from well known CNBC Financial Analyst Michelle Caruso-Cabrera of Long Island City Queens. The two other candidates in the race are,Sam Sloan of the Bronx and Badrun N, Khan of Sunnyside Queens. All four candidates had challenges put in against their petitions with the NYC Board of Elections. It is not known who might be knocked off the ballot by the challenge at the Board of Elections, or in any judicial proceedings.
The 15th Congressional Primary will have no incumbent with current Congressman Jose Serrano announcing that he was not going to seek re-election due to health matters. A total of thirteen candidates filed petitions to run. They are Current South Bronx City Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr., Current Concourse Village Assemblyman Michael Blake, Current Mid-Bronx City Councilman Ritchie Torres, Current Upper Manhattan City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Former City Council candidate Julio Pabon, Former Community Board 7 member Samelys Lopez, Frangell Basora, Mark Escoeffery-Bey, Chivona R. Newsome, Johnathan Ortiz, Thomas Ramos, and Marlene J. Tapper.
Only the petition of Ydanis Rodriguez was challenged at the Board of Elections, but it is not known if any other petition will be challenged in the courts, which are on Pause by Governor Cuomo.
The 16th Congressional Primary has incumbent Eliot Engel faces four challengers, who are Jamaal Bowman of Yonkers, Christopher Fink of Pelham, Andom Ghebreghiorgis of Mount Vernon, and Sammy Ravelo of New Rochelle. It is not known at this time if any of these candidates have been challenged since these petitions had to be handed in to the Albany Board of Elections due to the district being part in the Bronx and Westchester County.
More on these primary races and the state primary races in future columns. This column is the opinion of the writer, and not necessarily that of the Bronx Chronicle.
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