Originally Published: October 11, 2012
Eric Adams, Tony Avella, Marty Golden, And Diane Savino for State Senate; Joe Borelli, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Ron Kim, Nicole Malliotakis, And Nily Rozic for State Assembly
Citizens Union, an independent, nonpartisan good government group dedicated to making democracy work for all New Yorkers, today issued its endorsements of nine New York City candidates for state legislative offices in the November 6 general election. Announced by Peter Sherwin, chair of the Citizens Union Board of Directors and Dick Dadey, Citizens Union Executive Director, the endorsements went to four state senators running for re-election: Eric Adams in District 20, Tony Avella in District 11, Marty Golden in District 22 and Diane Savino in District 23; as well as five state assembly candidates: Joe Borelli in District 62, Jeffrey Dinowitz in District 81, Ron Kim in District 40, Nicole Malliotakis in District 64, and Nily Rozic in District 25.
“Citizens Union’s endorsements go to candidates whose support for our issues reflects our highest legislative priorities of the year: the second passage of the redistricting constitutional amendment by the legislature, as well as reform of New York State’s campaign finance laws. We hope that the citizens of New York will join us in the fight to make independent redistricting and reforming campaign finance a reality in New York State by electing these candidates,” said Peter Sherwin.
“Citizens Union endorses candidates because they support or have advanced reform legislation, and are effective representatives of their communities. Our endorsements of Republicans and Democrats demonstrate our intent to work with all elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, on the critical issues of reform that affect all New Yorkers,” said Dick Dadey. Of the nine candidates that Citizens Union has so far endorsed, three are Republicans, six are Democrats.
The four state senate candidates endorsed by Citizens Union are all incumbents while three of the five endorsed candidates for Assembly are running in open seats. In the September primaries, Citizens Union issued preferences for winnning candidates: incumbent Adriano Espaillat in Senate District 31, challenger Mark Gjonaj in Assembly District 80, Brad Hoylman in the open seat in Senate District 27, incumbent Brian P. Kavanagh in Assembly District 74, Ron Kim in the open seat in Assembly District 40, Nily Rozic in the open seat in Assembly District 25, challenger James Sanders, Jr. in Senate District 10, and Eric Ulrich in the Republican primary in Senate District 15.
In other races it evaluated, Citizens Union decided not to make candidate endorsements in the Senate District 21 race between incumbent Toby Ann Stavisky and challenger J.D. Kim, Assembly District 76 race between incumbent Micah Kellner and challenger Michael Zumbluskas, Assembly District 65 race between incumbent Sheldon Silver and challenger Wave Chan (in which only Chan was interviewed by CU), and the Councilmanic District 12 special election open seat race for Larry Seabrook’s former seat in which seven candidates are running.
Citizens Union will decide on an endorsement in the competitive contest for Senate District 15 between Joseph Addabbo and Eric Ulrich after a candidate debate on October 18th at Ave Maria Catholic Academy Auditorium at 7 p.m. The debate between Addabbo and Ulrich is sponsored by Citizens Union, the Queens Chronicle, and The Forum Newsgroup.
These decisions come after a deliberative process that began with 25 candidate evaluations and interviews conducted by Citizens Union’s Local Candidates Committee (LCC), a group comprised of fifty volunteer Citizens Union members. Using candidate responses to questionnaires and interviews, LCC members gauge the candidate positions on critical good government and political reform issues and recommend choices to the CU Board of Directors, which make the final endorsement decisions. Citizens Union’s candidate evaluation process has been used as a key resource for its members, journalists and researchers looking for background information and data on candidates running for office in New York City.
Candidate questionnaires and additional candidate information will be made available online at www.citizensunion.org by mid-October. Citizens Union will publish and mail its Voters Directory just before the November 6th general election detailing its evaluations of all candidates it interviewed, a public education service that the organization has provided to its members since 1910.