Some only seek headlines.
Last week, troubling allegations of sexual assault were lodged against State Assemblymember Juan Ardila in numerous media outlets. The allegations and his responses were followed by Ardila’ allies leaving him high and dry, many asking that he resign. While Ardila says he is innocent, he came out with statements apologizing. The Queens political community remains shocked.
In a Reddit post earlier this month entitled “I was Assaulted by a Queens-based Elected Official”, an attached post claiming “either there are a lot of abusers on this forum or many of you have no idea what it is like to experience this type of situation and figure out how to handle it….”
Some pols we spoke with are curious about the end of the post, which apparently points to the person being somewhat frustrated at the initial lack of response to the post. “Going through the legal system (to handle this) is torture,” the post continued. It concluded with.. “I have first hand experience of this.”
The post has since been deleted.
Numerous Western Queens politicians, political groups like the Working Families Party and even the governor herself have weighed in on whether Ardila should remain in office.
One Pol, Robert Holden, who represents parts of Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Woodhaven, and Woodside in the City Council was one of the first officials to call for Ardila’s resignation. It didn’t seem Holden was surprised.
“Juan Ardila’s record of racism, xenophobia, homophobia, antisemitism, reckless driving, and now sexual assault has disqualified him from office,” Holden said in a statement. “His actions are reprehensible and unacceptable, and they should be disavowed at all costs by elected officials, like [Queens Borough President] Donovan Richards, unions, and other groups. Sexual assault must never be tolerated. The Queens Councilman also has called for a police investigation into the claims.
Although the victims don’t seem to be thrilled with the idea of getting the law involved, it might actually come to that.
We were just wondering why this same Councilman seems to have a different standard when it comes to sexual assault allegations against Republican Congressman George Santos, who is currently under investigation for allegedly committing sexual assault against a prospective staffer within his first few weeks in office…. Is it because Santos didn’t apologize?… Just saying…
Back in 2021, Holden did beat Ardila by just short of a 1,000 votes for the City Council District 30 election. It’s important to Holden and his constituents to hold off progressive legislators in his neck of the woods. Western Queens along with North Brooklyn have been the NYC hotbed for the new progressive (left-left wing) movement.
So maybe that has something to do with it.
