Pol position Archives - Queens Ledger

Pol Position: DOJ Halts Probe into Mayor – Lander on call

BQE Admin on February 11, 2025

Political pundits are having a field day after a directive came down Monday from the federal court delaying justice for Mayor Adams until after the November election. The case involves the pay-to-play schemes, the most reported involving getting an airline upgrade not so dissimilar to the one our bookie gets. But for Adams it’s a felony. He is in a position to influence decisions involving a great deal of money. In this case he is alleged to have used his influence to get a building’s occupancy status through some red tape. So the case, which was expected to be heard in court in April, looks like it is delayed until November.

There is no doubt that we should expect our elected and appointed officials in highly influential positions be beyond reproach when it comes to potential conflicts of interest. But it’s turned out, since the Trump DOJ case details were so public, a good number of people did conclude, in gunning for Trump, the DOJ was weaponized.

There were certainly those who voted for Trump who say a top reason is they didn’t like the idea that the courts could ‘go after’ a candidate for office they didn’t like. It’s hard to forget, the biggest reported crime was Trump paying someone off (with his own money) and not reporting it properly. Something many consider a petty misstep – at most.

This move, by the DOJ, to wait until after the election, evens the playing field. No excuses. If Adams doesn’t get past the primary in June, there are no excuses that his candidacy was derailed over a court case.

Cuomo the quiet one…

Notice Andrew Cuomo is silent on the Monday news. Smart. The earlier he comes out for his run for mayor, the more time he will be in the news for behavior that’s going to hurt him. While some of the more recent polls put Cuomo well ahead of the field, most believe that when people are reminded of the abuse accusations against him and that congestion pricing might have been pioneered by him while he was governor, he might lose double digit numbers in the polls. But Brad Lander, who paid a visit to our Woodside offices Friday (see our reports in this issue), was not shy about laying down comments after hearing the news, saying he (Adams) stands for ‘himself.’

Lander: Okay to involuntarily hospitalize mentally ill

One of our Pol Position staffers prodded Brad Lander to come to our offices last week and it was an insightful back-and-forth. While we pushed the current comptroller on a basic issue we have been writing about; local non-profit service providers having to wait more than a year to get reimbursed for service to our kids and others, it also seems some charter schools, who are running pre-k programs, are just getting paid now for the last school year ….. That’s the 2023-2024 school year. Although he said it wasn’t the fault of his office, what stood out to us is how he is toning down the rhetoric that public safety is not a big issue. He supports the idea of involuntary hospitalization of mentally ill lingering on the subway, while just a few years ago most on the left didn’t want to touch that subject.

Pol Position: When There’s No Path, Move The Goal …. And Cuomo Still Leads

BQE Admin on February 4, 2025

The red dress, who had been seemingly inserted in every photo
with Mayor Adams prior his legal troubles, announced a run
for city comptroller in November. Woodhaven Assembly
member Jennifer Rajkumar announced then, with great
fanfare, that she could turn the city around. Her blanket
political promises, of course, covered little specific substance,
just outlined that she fixes things and NYC needs to be fixed.
When others saw she was running, they thought she was quite
vulnerable. Senator Kevin Parker was in the race early. The
political playbook says, ‘raise a lot of money and you scare
people away from running against you.’ Well, it didn’t work
here. Seeing Rajkumar had raised a significant amount of
money entering the race, our sources tell us that Councilman
Justin Brennan and Mark Levine didn’t flinch, saw a path to
win the Comptroller race and joined in on the fun. After all,
Rajkumar’s claim to fame, according to legislators we speak
with, is appearing wearing a red dress, in nearly every photo
op. with the mayor. And as soon as he, and those around him
got caught up in probes and cell phone confiscation, she was a
ghost.
It’s not really her fault though. We were the first to talk to her
when she announced she was running for the Assembly and
faced incumbent Mike Miller in a primary in Woodhaven &
Richmond Hill. Our Leader Observer newspaper has been the
weekly paper of record in that area since 1909. She admitted
she moved here from Manhattan, specifically to run against
him in a district that had a low voter turnout. It’s a great story.
We loved her honesty and gave her a bunch of credit for
wanting to get into the political game any way she could. It was

brilliant. But early success, as we all know, sometimes leads to
a false sense that it’s going to be easy to move up in the
political world. By the way, not every legislator wants ‘to move
up’ as they say. Being an Assemblyman, Council representative
or Senator is a pretty successful thing – and many we report on
here see their service in these positions as a goal. But no doubt
some feel the need to move ‘up.’ But we digress.
The ‘Red Dress’ thing is a great prop. It’s a good way for people
to remember you. But people aren’t easily fooled. These days
they want substance. It’s too easy to run for office now, so we
are getting people who are movers and shakers, civic leaders
and business leaders. They don’t solely come out of democratic
clubs any longer. She happens to be sort of an outcast in the
Queens Assembly Caucus. Why? Because she wants more and
her colleagues see it. There’s time, one Queens Assembly
member told us. You can’t just move up because you are smart,
or because you have a brand. Getting elected takes work. It
takes going door-to-door to talk to the people. “… it takes
proving you can get things done.”

Cuomo Still On Top

Case in point … Andrew Cuomo. This week another poll came
out showing he still has a 25-point lead in a run for mayor ….
and he didn’t even announce. You have Stringer, Williams,
Ramos, Landor, Mamdani and Adams, each under 10%.
Cuomo has a track record of getting something done. Whether
you like it or not.
As of last week, the path to the next level for Rajkumar is in the
Public Advocate office. Moving The Goal… brilliant with
unapologetic moxie.

Jennifer Rajkumar

Pol Position: Mayor’s Messiah Complex Returns

glendaleregstg on June 21, 2023

Mayor Adams spent Sunday doubling down on his religious messaging and claiming that he woke up in the middle of the night 30 something years ago with God telling him that he would be Mayor starting January 1, 2022.

“The message was clear. God stated, you can not be silent. You must tell everyone you know,” Hizzoner continued before quipping that people thought he was “on medication” for telling people that he would be the Mayor.

Adams continued to say that he woke up in the same state a few months ago.

“God said talk about God. And I started to say don’t tell me about separation of church and state. Don’t tell me that when you took prayer out of school guns came in. Don’t tell me that I have to remove my feeling of god. And you saw what happened. All the front pages and national stories,” Adams said during his Fathers Day Remarks at Lenox Road Baptist Church. “I don’t care what anyone say – it’s time to pray.”

Hizzoner was roundly ridiculed in February for comments critiquing the separation of church and state. Adams partially retracted his statement, saying that government shouldn’t interfere with religion but declined to give an affirmative answer to the idea that church and state should be separated.

“No, what I believe is that you cannot separate your faith. Government should not interfere with religion and religion should not interfere with government. But I believe my faith pushes me forward on how I govern and the things that I do,” Adams said in a CNN interview after being asked point-blank whether or not he supports the separation of church and state.

Eric Adams continued to compare himself to the protagonist of Glory, a Civil War film where Denzel Washington’s character runs away from his fort to meet the love of his life before battle. When he came back his punishment was to be whipped, but since he already had a lot of scars, he told them: “What could you do to me? I’ve been beat already.”

Adams then turned the cinematic reference into an impassioned critique of the press.

“What do you think they can do to me? You try to beat me with your news articles? I got the scars already. You try to beat me with your commentary? I got the scars already. You can’t do anything to me! I know who’s voice I hear,” said Adams.

Pol Position: AOC absent or is Ramos full of hot air?

webadmin on July 27, 2022

State Senator Jessica Ramos recently slammed Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez for being ‘absent’ in the district.

The debacle started on Monday after a British medical student tweeted that AOC’s staff dismissed NHS experts, telling them that “they were doing healthcare right now.” AOC tried to address the issue saying that it was antithetical to her values. (A representative for AOC told The New York Post that they werent able to identify the meeting referenced in the tweet.)

“Maybe if you spent more time in your office and with your team you’d know what goes on,” Ramos, the left-leaning local politician who represents overlapping Queens neighborhoods tweeted.

“She’s barely ever present in the community. It’s an indisputable fact,” Ramos, who shares an office building with the congresswoman added in a follow-up tweet.

DSA-affiliated pols like Brooklyn State Senator Julia Salazar, Brooklyn State Senator Jabari Brisport, and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani came to AOC’s defense on Monday night.

“Respectfully… I don’t think New York State Senators, who are only expected to be in Albany for like 70 days/year (or less), can expect a member of congress (who also rep districts like 3X larger than our districts) to be in one neighborhood in their district as often as we are,” Salazar tweeted.

“Respectfully, she ran on breathing our air,” Ramos replied. In AOC’s original 2018 campaign, she released an ad stating that someone who “doesn’t drink our water or breathe our air cannot possibly represent us,” critiquing the then-long-time incumbent as out of touch with the district.

Ramos added that she has gotten better facetime and support from local officials like Congresswoman Grace Meng than she has out of her Astoria counterpart.

Brooklyn State Senator Jabari Brisport hit back against Senator Ramos, tweeting a photo of Ramos and AOC from March, with Ramos’ own words: “I have not spoken to my congressperson in months. Maybe more than a year?”

Ramos called Brisport’s tweet disingenuous, as it was an event and not the same as a conversation or meeting.

Pol Position: What does a socialist look like anyway?

webadmin on July 13, 2022

Last week, dozens of people overheard a verbal exchange be- tween a staffer from City Council- man Bob Holden’s office and a State Senate candidate at Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village.

Japneet Singh, the Democratic candidate running against Senator Joe Addabbo in a primary in the neighborhoods of Middle Village, Maspeth, Glendale, Forest Hills, Woodhaven, Ozone Park & Rich- mond Hill, was at an ‘80s night performance in the park talking to concert-goers and apparently giv- ing out campaign literature.

After all, when there is a crowd in one place it’s a good place to maybe pick up some votes, right?

The staffer began the kerfuffle, claiming that the concert was a private event in the park and cam- paigning should be done outside the park.

Singh told her that he was just socializing with friends, but she

was insistent and apparently stayed right on his tail.

Singh remained in place, and said, “We’re in the park—at an event funded by taxpayer dollars.”

As Singh and his campaign man- ager, Julien Segura, walked away, they heard a man yell, “Don’t vote for socialists.”

Singh says he attempted to talk to the man and was interrupted again. “Don’t get him started. Don’t talk to him. You don’t get to talk to him.”

The staffer pointed up and down at Singh… “This is what a socialist looks like.”

I guess we were mistaken. And all this time we thought all social- ists had three eyes in their heads.

Singh and Segura continued talking to folks in the park after- ward.

Yikes… That’s politics. Makes you think about running for office, huh?

Pol Position: Attack Ads target Assembly Candidate

webadmin on June 28, 2022

Real estate interests are spending big in local assembly district races across the city, with attack mailers labeling candidates as too far left.

One of these candidates, Juan Ardila, was recently endorsed by The Queens Ledger in the race for Assembly District 37 — which covers Sunnyside, Woodside, Maspeth, Ridgewood, and Long Island City.

The attacks ads are part of a last-minute ad-blitz from the group “Common Sense New Yorkers,” a Super PAC funded by big real estate money.

Records from the State’s public disclosure system show that within the last two weeks, “Common Sense New Yorkers” has received two donations from 360 SLD Management, a foreign limited liability corporation under the White Plains-based Cappelli Organization, for $30,000; and Muss Development, a multigenerational development company based out of Forest Hills.

These are the groups funding the message that Juan Ardila is “bad news” for our community. Pretty rich for people who don’t live in the neighborhood.

The mailer labeling Juan Ardila as “Dangerous! Reckless! Socialist!” are far from the truth. In an interview with The Queens Ledger, Ardila emphasized that he was not seeking DSA’s support in the race, and has received the endorsement of more traditional New York liberals like Senate Deputy Leader Michael Giannaris or the Working Families Party.

The mailers also claim that Juan Ardila wants to “reduce the budget of the police throughout the state” and that it is in his own words. In the Jim Owles questionnaire response, the attack ad which refers to Ardila specifically, talks about funds that have been used to militarize the police and divert them to social programs to be able to tackle the issue of crime. While he does advocate for some reallocation, it is far from the “too extreme for Queens” allegations.

The mailers also attack Ardila for racist, homophobic and anti-semitic comments he made in high school. This is not a new revelation as it was unearthed by The New York Post during Ardila’s previous campaign for City Council. Ardila has previously apologized for the language he used on Facebook as a teenager.

The truth is Juan Ardila has the best interests of district residents. He is an ardent supporter of good cause, a necessary bill that will protect tenant rights, while the cost of living keeps rising.

One of Juan Ardila’s main competitors in the race, Johanna Carmona, is the real estate industry’s pick. Public records show that Carmona received $4,700, the highest possible donation from Neighborhood Preservation, a PAC associated with the pro-landlord Rent Stabilization Association.

With 24 hours left in the campaign, Carmona has raised some key high-dollar donations from other real estate interests. Public records show that she took a $1,000 donation from Dan Tishman, a long-standing member of the Real Estate Board of New York. Carmona also took $1,000 from Ayala Barnett, the wife of Extell Development founder Gary Barnett, who received favorable tax breaks after being a long-time donor to former Governor Cuomo, as the New York Daily News reported.

Juan Ardilla has foregone taking corporate or developer money. While the polls will have closed before this paper is printed, these attack ads only solidify our endorsement of Ardila as the candidate to represent the community’s interests up in Albany.