WITH A CLIPBOARD in hand, Samelys Lopez seeks signatures to put her on the Sept. 13 Democratic Primary for District Leader of the 78th Assembly District.
Photo by Wendy Joan Biddlecombe
Lifelong Bronxite Samelys Lopez, former second vice chair at Bronx Community Board 7, is petitioning to become the Democratic Female District Leader for the 78th Assembly District, an area that covers Bedford Park, Kingsbridge Heights, Fordham and a portion of Belmont.
The district leader is an elected and unpaid volunteer within both the Democratic and Republican parties, and responsibilities for the position include hiring poll workers, listening to and advocating for community members’ concerns and encouraging people to be involved in the local political process. There are two district leaders for each assembly district, one female and one male, who are voted in every two years. There are no term limits.
The position is currently held by Nilda Velazquez, a supporter of Assemblyman Jose Rivera of the 78th Assembly District.
“I want to concentrate on political empowerment,” said Lopez, who is a Democrat but is running as an independent candidate for the position within the Democratic Party. “I wanted to run to show that you don’t have to be anointed by the party, and that you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to get involved.”
Lopez, 36, who works for an affordable housing developer, said she learned about the district leader position about a year ago, and decided to join the race about two months ago. She has spent most days since early June canvassing parks, train stops, supermarkets and other areas around the assembly district by bike. With a small group of volunteers, Lopez has been meeting community members and asking registered Democrats to sign the petition necessary to put her on the Sept. 13 primary ballot.
But her request is not automatic. Oftentimes, Lopez winds up explaining not only what the district leader’s role is but how the petition process works and how a name ends up on a ballot in a general election.
“It’s hard to give your signature out of nowhere if you don’t understand what’s going to happen with that signature,” Lopez said. “Regardless of whether I win or lose, I think I’ll come up the winner anyway because the point of it is to raise awareness about local politics.”
Lopez is running what she calls a clean and grassroots campaign, and doesn’t plan to raise money until after she makes the ballot. She has already passed the 500 necessary signatures to put her on the ballot well before the July 14 deadline.
Lopez was recently not reappointed to another term on Community Board 7 for reasons she said are still “unclear” to her, because she “made every meeting” and established workshops, such as the Livable Neighborhoods Program, in an effort to “empower residents and businesses to be civically engaged.”
Multiple attempts were made to contact Nilda Velazquez before deadline with no success.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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Wonderful to see finally see progressive young people within our community come out and meet the challenges which have not been met in this area. Ms. Lopez has been one of the few (and I can count them on one hand) in this community who has gone above and beyond to educate and help her community.
This is great! I am so hope to see my generation in the community to make changes.
The community should always come first. This race is all about raising awareness of our local political process. The journey has truly been rewarding, thank you for your support and encouragement!
As a ‘Seasoned Citizen’, living the Bronx Community since 1998, I have observed Samelys Lopez’s dedicated work and contribution to Community Board 7. I have also observed other youths as they have grown into adulthood and personally, I don’t see a lot of them trying to get involved in the political arena, probably because of the many challenges it is and will be facing in years to come . . especially as VOLUNTEER(s). As a matter of what I am observing, that goes for anything else in our many diverse communities.
So, I feel that ‘WE’, as a rapidly evolving and aging community, has got to realize, is that, ‘our young adults’ have so many, more opportunities available to them than we did, especially when they are extremely intelligent, educated in certain specialties, have credible morals and have opportunities to live anywhere on this planet they want to live and make their contributions.
I applaud Miss Lopez and the many other Young Adults who are stepping to the plate to uphold their Rights as Citizens of this Country, through committed participation and not apathetic participation. I admire her courage and strength to take on the torch that ‘we’, as a ‘collective community’ should be passing on to all of our politically minded, young adults across this state. I further acknowledge her for even wanting to make a contribution to our district and to go through and where we have gone, May our Creator Bless her and others on this campaign trail -2016, for our future endeavors and generations to come.