Sunset Park

Velazquez cruises to victory in primary

Incumbent beats Yungman Lee by 2-1 margin

June 29, 2016 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez easily won Tuesday’s Democratic Primary. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
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U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who had issued an urgent appeal to U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking for a federal monitor of Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the wake of voting irregularities in the presidential primary in April, wound up having no problem at all in her contest.

Velazquez, who represents the 7th Congressional District (CD), cruised to victory over her Democratic challenger, Chinatown banker Yungman Lee, beating him by a 2-1 margin.

Velazquez garnered an impressive 61.9 percent of the vote in the June 28 contest, according to NY1 News. Lee, making his first run at public office, earned 27.9 percent. A third candidate, Jeffrey Kurzon, trailed far behind with 10.2 percent.

Velazquez first won her congressional seat in 1992 and is seeking her 13th term in the House of Representatives. She is expected to easily win the general election on Nov. 8.

The 7th CD includes parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, with both the Brooklyn and Manhattan Chinatowns. The Brooklyn neighborhoods in the district include Sunset Park, Red Hook, Bushwick, Vinegar Hill, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope, Greenwood, DUMBO and Cobble Hill.

Velazquez made headlines in the final days of the primary campaign when she publicly expressed concern over the possibility of problems at the polls on primary day.

The longtime lawmaker wrote a letter to Lynch requesting that the U.S. Department of Justice dispatch federal monitors. “I am writing you with great urgency to ask that you assign federal election monitors to oversee the elections occurring next Tuesday, June 28, in New York’s 7th congressional district, which I represent in the U.S. Congress,” Velazquez wrote in her letter to Lynch.

The congresswoman cited the infamous “purge” of Democratic voters in Brooklyn who were unknowingly removed from the voting rolls by the New York City Board of Elections. Many of these voters showed up at the polls in the presidential primary in April and discovered that their names were no longer listed as eligible voters.

The mix-up launched several investigations, including one by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

“Evidence uncovered today suggests that the potentially illegal voter purges that occurred during 2015 have been substantially concentrated in my district in the areas of Sunset Park, East New York and parts of Bushwick and Williamsburg. This suggests a targeted pattern of voter suppression and therefore an urgent need for federal oversight of the elections occurring in the 7th congressional district,” Velazquez wrote.

Lee, president and CEO of Global Bank, who announced back in December that he would mount a challenge to Velazquez, had hoped to galvanize large numbers of Asian-American voters.

In an interview with the Brooklyn Eagle, Lee said that in the past, Asian-Americans have not made their presence felt in the voting booth. “When they see one of their own running, they will turn out,” he told the Eagle.

In other results, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s vote in favor of the Obama administration’s controversial nuclear arms deals with Iran did not hurt him in the Democratic primary in the 10th CD, despite the fact that his challenger, Oliver Rosenberg, made it a campaign issue.

Nadler won 89.6 percent of the vote in the district, which runs from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Coney Island and includes parts of Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst.

Rosenberg, a former JP Morgan Chase investment manager, had sought to turn Nadler’s Iran vote against him by courting the district’s Jewish voters, many of whom were highly critical of the Iran nuclear deal. He came away with just 10.4 percent of the vote.

Another Democratic incumbent, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, whose Manhattan-centered district also includes parts of Greenpoint in Brooklyn, also cruised to an easy win. Maloney, who represents the 12th CD, earned 90.3 percent of the vote. Her opponent, Peter Lindner, trailed far behind in the vote count with just 9.7 percent.

 

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