BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Updated Wed., April 20, 10 p.m. Alice Cancel, running on the Democratic Party line, was the winner of Tuesday’s special election for Lower Manhattan’s 65th Assembly District, according to unofficial Board of Elections results.
Cancel, a longtime Lower East Side Democratic district leader, lives in Southbridge Towers, on the downtown side of the Brooklyn Bridge. She will fill the seat — formerly occupied by the convicted former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — for the rest of Silver’s term, through the end of this year.
However, future control of the Assembly district will be up for grabs once again in September, when there will be an open Democratic primary, followed by a general election in November.
With the results of about 98 percent of the district’s poll-site optical scanners reported, Cancel won on Tuesday night with 7,284 — or 41 percent — of the votes. She staved off a stiff challenge from Yuh-Line Niou, running on the Working Families Party line, who came in second with 6,250 — or 35 percent — of the ballots cast.
Meanwhile, Lester Chang, running on the Republican line, plus three other party lines, won 3,520 — or 20 percent — of the votes. The district is about 6.5-to-1 Democrat to Republican, yet the G.O.P. was hoping Silver’s downfall on corruption charges would be a “perfect storm,” allowing them to pull off a huge coup by finally winning a Manhattan Assembly seat — in the former speaker’s district, no less. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani even stumped for Chang at a Chinatown dim sum palace fundraiser. But it was not to be.
Dennis Levy, the Green Party candidate, ran on a pro-pot platform but didn’t fire up the electorate, winning 661 — or about 4 percent — of the votes.
There were also 47 write-ins, though those names — one wonders if others who could not run under the Democratic line in this race or even a few Sheldon Silvers were among them — were not immediately available.
Cancel’s husband, State Committeeman John Quinn, said she was decompressing Tuesday night after the tough contest and would be giving interviews later. Speaking on her behalf, he said she withstood Niou’s heaping war chest and negative campaigning, plus the Albany power structure’s clear decision to back Niou, based on all the high-powered political endorsements she got, including Comptroller Scott Stringer, former Comptroller John Liu, Public Advocate Letitia James, state Senators Brad Hoylman and Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh.
Meanwhile, Cancel’s only major endorsements were local City Councilmembers Rosie Mendez and Margaret Chin. Plus, the Working Families Party put on a huge push for Niou.
“It was a lopsided race, I’ll tell you that,” Quinn said. “Niou spent $160,000. We had $5,000.
“Rosie was incredible. They had all the Albany support. This is coming down from Heastie and and the real power brokers,” he said of current Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
“Rosie held Alice up,” Quinn said, with awe. “Let’s face it — they were hitting us left and right.”
Quinn said the Puerto Rican-born Cancel’s support came, “naturally,” from the district’s Latino community, but that she also won, for example, Battery Park City.
Niou — who has only lived in New York City about five years and only a couple of years in the district — simply doesn’t have deep roots in the community, and it showed, he said. Niou is chief of staff for Queens Assemblymember Ron Kim, who is the state Legislature’s only Asian-American.
Quinn said Cancel probably only wants to serve one or two terms tops in the Assembly.
“All Alice wants to do is straighten up the mess,” he said, “and then leave.”
Cancel has said she supports term limits in Albany. Quinn said she’s also very interested in having input in the state’s upcoming Constitutional Convention, which only comes around every 20 years.
In February, Cancel was chosen from among a handful of candidates as the Democratic nominee for the special election at a closed vote of about 200 Democratic County Committee members. Realizing she didn’t have the numbers to win the County Committee, Niou dramatically dropped out from the running at the last minute, calling the process “flawed and undemocratic.”
After Tuesday’s election results had been announced, District Leader Paul Newell — who came in second in February’s County Committee vote — promptly issued a statement putting Cancel on notice that he will be running in the September open primary.
“I congratulate Alice Cancel on her election to the New York State Assembly for the remaining months of Sheldon Silver’s term,” Newell said. “I hope that during her term in office, she will do her best to represent the interests of Lower Manhattan, not the political bosses who have driven the special election process from its inception.
“Fortunately,” he declared, “on Sept. 13, the 65th Assembly District will be presented with a real choice.”
Other expected candidates in September include District Leader Jenifer Rajkumar and Community Board 3 Chairperson Gigi Li, both of whom were candidates in the February County Committee vote, and Chinatown activist Don Lee, who did not participate in the County Committee process.
It was not immediately known if Chang or Levy would try to run again in September. Rob Ryan, Chang’s campaign manager, said they will regroup over the next few days and try to reach a decision.
But Niou issued a statement, indicating that she will indeed run in the fall.
“We knew that running against the machine, off the Democratic line, would be a challenge, and while we made a valiant effort it appears we were not successful,” she said. “We come out of this campaign stronger, more organized and more determined than ever to fight for reform and the progressive leadership this state needs. We move on tonight from this party-dominated special election to September’s primary, and I look forward to continuing our vigorous fight to advance our progressive values.”
Sean Sweeney is a leader in the Downtown Independent Democrats club, which will likely field two candidates, Rajkumar and Newell, in September. Getting some shots in early before the primary, he blasted both the upstart Niou and the winner Cancel.
“As expected, the outspent Democrat — who barely campaigned — won, despite a massive effort by the Working Families Party and tens of thousands of dollars expended by Niou’s campaign,” Sweeney said.
“I feel that this is a major defeat for the Working Families Party and the local elected officials who selfishly switched allegiance from their own party to endorse a Queens machine candidate backed by the Working Families Party.
“This also happened last year on the West Side’s 66th Assembly District race for district leader,” Sweeney noted. “The two establishment incumbent district leaders, Jean Grillo and John Scott, heavily backed by the established electeds, got trounced by two candidates, Terri Cude and Dennis Gault, supported by the grassroots of the party.”
