Norwood News

Sitting in his office at Soundview Health Center, one of four Bronx health centers he’s created, Pedro Espada, Jr. looks like a success.

At the head of a wooden, oval-shaped conference table, the new state senator in the 33rd District is wearing a sharp navy suit and burgundy tie, the French cuffs of his pink striped shirt monogrammed with his initials. He’s surrounded by happy family photos (he’s married and has three sons and five grandchildren), artwork and sports trophies.

Twice, the people of two different Bronx state senate districts have voted him into office, this time including much of the west Bronx. He’s also served in the City Council (see sidebar). For 30 years, his health centers have employed hundreds of people and provided care for thousands.

So, why is it, he wants to know, that the media and his political rivals always focus on the negative aspects of his political career?
The list of negatives includes a larceny indictment for diverting money from a health plan to pay off campaign expenses in 1996 (he was acquitted in 2000), repeated fines for campaign finance infractions, being admonished for earmarking state funds for his health centers and the conviction of three of his health center executives for illegal use of the health center’s funds. But Espada says that’s all in the past.

“People will always have to go back many years to find the missteps,” Espada says. Later, he says, “This is a new more mature Espada.”

He sums up his past transgressions by saying, simply, “This is a dirty business that we call politics.”

If that’s true, then you could call Espada’s return to politics a muddy resurrection. He won an ugly (on both sides) primary battle with incumbent Efrain Gonzalez, who was running while awaiting trial for fraud.

During the campaign, he survived charges that he faked his residency in the district (he has a house in Mamaroneck and still won’t say how much time he spends at his Bedford Park co-op), that he used health center resources to campaign, that his son attacked a journalist (who was being paid by the Gonzalez camp), and that he was really a Republican (he took campaign donations from GOP leaders).

After winning the general election, Espada and two other state senators (Ruben Diaz, Sr. and Carl Kruger) infuriated top Democrats when they withheld their support for Democratic leader Malcolm Smith, who was poised to become Senate majority leader, the first time a Democrat would hold that title in Albany in 40 years. Smith eventually cut a deal that gave Espada chairmanship of the Housing Committee and an assignment with the powerful Rules Committee. He is also now vice president of the Senate.

“I’ve landed in an incredibly historic positioning with the Senate,” he says. “The west Bronx will now have the most senior Hispanic official as vice president of the State Senate.”

Espada says the financial crisis is an opportunity for some real “out of the box” thinking.

Espada admits he doesn’t have all the answers and will spend the next few months trying to figure out the best course of action. But he does think there’s several redundant city and state agencies that can be consolidated, such as the Dormitory Authority and the School Construction Authority.

“These are agencies that have commissioners with huge budgets and high salaries,” Espada says.

He’s also in favor of higher taxes for the wealthiest earners in the state. “I’m not anti-wealthy or anti-rich,” Espada says. “But in bad economic times, poorer people endure a disproportionate amount of pain.”

Espada says his top priority is creating more affordable housing. He also says he’s against vacancy deregulation and wants to create stiffer penalties for tenant harassment, both priorities for housing advocates who will be watching Espada closely now that the Assembly has passed several pro-tenant measures into his lap in the state Senate. 

For his Bronx colleagues, the jury is out on whether Espada will deliver the goods. New Bronx Democratic Chairman and Assemblyman Carl Heastie, who helped broker the deal that put Smith into power, says only time will tell, but for now, he’s giving Espada the benefit of the doubt.

“The people elected him and I hope he does a good job,” Heastie said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve wiped the slate clean.”

Espada still doesn’t have a district office. For now, he’s asking constituents to call his Albany office or his Soundview business office (which is well out of the district’s boundaries) if they need assistance. He says he hopes to have an office set up, perhaps at the newly renovated Sears building on Fordham Road, by the end of February.

Espada says he’ll scale back his business duties to make more time for his Senate work. But he has another time management secret. “I don’t party,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye. “It’s amazing how much you can do if you just stay active and don’t party.”