New law bars convicted ex-pols from running Cuomo besieged as crises grow County parties hold off on mayoral endorsements
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Mayor Bill de Blasio
signed legislation on Thursday designed to prevent individuals convicted of felony public corruption from holding city office again. If that sounds like the kind of implausible scenario that wouldn’t take a law to prevent, you haven’t met Hiram Monserrate.
The former state senator from Queens was expelled from the Legislature after a domestic violence conviction where he was accused of slashing his girlfriend’s face with a broken glass. Then, he did time in federal prison for an entirely separate crime illegally steering public funds to his campaign when he served on the City Council.
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New York City Council Member Carlina Rivera, a leading contender to be the next Council speaker, is endorsing a slate of 13 women running for City Council this year. It’s the latest sign that Rivera is working to win support from colleagues to succeed current City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who is term-limited out at the end of 2021.
Most of the endorsed candidates are women of color, and Rivera, who is Latina and from Manhattan, said the list “represents the diversity of representation we need in the Council – especially with the diminishing number of women over the last few terms, which is alarming.”
Former city councilman and eternal slug Hiram Monserrate, who was expelled from the state Senate a decade ago after assaulting his then-girlfriend, who then went to federal prison for steering taxpayer dollars into his campaign operation, is running for Council again.
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State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda, a Democrat from the Bronx, turned himself into the New York City Police Department Tuesday morning after being charged with strangling his wife.
That was first reported by News 12 reporter Jessica Cunnington.
Sepúlveda’s lawyer, Marvin Ray Raskin, said in an emailed statement the “true history of the relationship” needs to be understood and that the facts that present themselves will clear his name.” Mr. Sepúlveda has been the victim of recurring physical violence by his estranged spouse for approximately nine years, a situation he has endured because of the young child they share together,” Raskin said. “This false accusation is a calculated attempt by a disgruntled party to leverage a divorce settlement from a case she filed in Florida this past November.”
2021 Democratic primaries
Welcome to City & State’s Campaign Confidential newsletter, where Senior Reporter Jeff Coltin is covering the run-up to New York City’s hugely consequential 2021 municipal elections for mayor, City Council and more.
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This is getting out of comptrol
State Sen. Brian Benjamin needed some relief after a tough week for his comptroller campaign – and he got it at a Sunday forum hosted by the Downtown Independent Democrats. In almost 20 minutes on Zoom, Benjamin didn’t get a single question about his potential straw donor scandal, as reported by The City, or his receiving outside income from a firm with ties to the subprime mortgage crisis, as reported by the Daily News.