Photo courtesy of Jessica Haller
Jessica Haller, candidate in the District 11 City Council race, for which a special election is set for March 23, announced on Feb. 2 that she has contracted the coronavirus. Saying that, normally, she wouldn’t share information about her health, Haller, nonetheless, said she felt like it was important to let residents know what was going on with her family.
“Even having adhered rigorously to mask-wearing and other guidelines, I have contracted COVID,” she wrote in a written press release. “I may have been exposed during a medical appointment. At the same time, coincidentally, my daughter, who is studying abroad far away, also came down with the infection.” She added, “After a few challenging days, everyone is doing fine, thank God!”
Haller, who is a tech entrepreneur and environmentalist, said that getting infected had forced her to step back and think about how healthcare is delivered in the local community. “I am fortunate to have access to care — but that is not true for everyone in our neighborhoods,” she said. “COVID has taken a fearsome and disproportionate toll on communities in the Bronx with the least access to health care. If you elect me to represent you in the City Council, I pledge to try to erase those disparities in every way I can, starting with the air we breathe.”
Haller is the second candidate in the race (to our knowledge) to have contracted the virus. Activist, founder and executive director of the People’s Theatre Project, Mino Lora, announced on Jan. 7 that she had previously contracted the coronavirus and went into self-isolation afterwards. She added at the time that she had not been out collecting signatures prior to getting sick, though her staff had been.
Social worker and adjunct Columbia professor, Abigail Martin, and District Leader in the 80th Assembly District, Marcos Sierra, announced in January that they had dropped out of the March special election, citing health related risks linked to the virus, but said they still plan to participate in the June primary. Martin announced on Jan. 15 that she had raised $39,360 from 445 contributors in the first five months of her campaign, 163 of which were from contributors in District 11 more than double the number required by the Campaign Finance Board (CFB) to qualify for its matching funds program.
Candidates are required to gather a minimum number of signatures from local residents in order to qualify for the ballot in the special election. As reported by the Norwood News, that minimum had been 450 signatures until Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Jan. 7 that he was reducing it to 315. Some candidates had raised concerns during prior weeks about the impact of the signature collection process on people’s health, and had called for for the minimum signature requirement to be waived amid fears of exacerbating the spread of the coronavirus through mass person-to-person contact.
When Martin and Sierra dropped out of the special election race, and Lora fell ill, Norwood News reached out to both the governor’s and the mayor’s offices a number of times for comment on whether any consideration had been given to waiving the signature requirements completely, and since District 15 candidates are also required to gather the signatures for the March special election. We did not receive a response.
Other candidates in the District 11 special election race include retired NYPD detective, Carlton Berkley, male district leader for the 81st Assembly District and teacher, Eric Dinowitz, son of Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz who also represents the 81st Assembly District, lawyer and Bronx CB 8 Traffic and Transportation Committee Chair, Dan Padernacht and freelance filmmaker, Kevin Pazmino, who is the most recent candidate to join the race. Dionel Then dropped out of the race in August, endorsing Padernacht, as he did so.
In terms of the latest campaign contribution filings (excluding refunds), according to the CFB, Jessica Haller now leads in contributions with $77,742, followed by Eric Dinowitz with $65,386, Dan Padernacht with $39,986, Mino Lora with $32,667, and Carlton Berkley with $7,180. For the District 11 special election, the most recent disclosure period ran from “Beginning of Fundraising” to January 11, 2021. There was no information available for Kevin Pazmino on campaign contribution filings with the CFB. We understand Pazmino announced his candidacy on Jan. 18.
The nonpartisan special election in District 11 was called by the mayor on Jan. 4 to find a replacement for former District 11 City Councilman, Andrew Cohen, who was elected as a judge to the Bronx Supreme Court in November and resigned from his City Council seat on Dec. 31. It is the first election in the Bronx which will incorporate the new method of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).
RCV is a voting method whereby voters can rank up to five candidates in order of preference, instead of choosing just one. If a candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes, that candidate is the winner. If no candidate earns more than 50 percent of first-choice votes, then counting will continue in rounds. At the end of each round, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated.
If a voter ranked the eliminated candidate first, then the next highest ranked candidate on the voter’s ballot will be taken into account in the next round of counting. The process continues as such until there are two candidates left. The candidate with the most votes wins. For official information on ranked choice voting, go to the NYC Campaign Finance Board FAQ page or the New York City Board of Elections website.
The Bronx Democratic Party also recently hosted an informational session on Ranked Choice Voting which can be viewed here in conjunction with the group, Rank the Vote NYC. Norwood News checked with the City’s Campaign Finance Board about the expertise of Rank the Vote NYC and were advised that the group is a reputable source on the topic and is a voter education campaign that is run by Common Cause NY.
A debate between the District 11 special election candidates will be broadcast on BronxNet TV at 7 p.m. on Feb. 2. on CH. 67/2133 FiOS or on http://bronxnet.tv. The debate will be followed by a Q&A with Lehman College students.
The District 11 special election will be held on March 23.
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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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Your statement The process continues as such until there are two candidates left.is wrong.
The process continues until one candidate reaches over 50 percent of the vote of a round. That candidate is then declared the winner. It does not have to go down to just two candidates.
We may see in the first Rank Choice Vote Special Election in Queens that RCV does not come into effect as one candidate seems to have over 50 percent of the vote even though there were eight candidates in the race.