Photo by Miriam Quiñones
As candidates step up the pace in the final weeks ahead of the District 15 City Council special election, which takes place on March 23, Elisa Crespo, an education liaison to the Bronx borough president, received another boost to her campaign with news that the progressive group, Our City, is backing her as their first choice candidate in the race.
According to the group’s website, Our City is a project to win a progressive governing vision for New York City in 2021, centered around the agendas and voices of citywide grassroots movements. “Leading up to the June 22 Democratic primary, we will be supporting candidates for mayor and city council who rise to meet that vision – and making sure that voters also know which candidates fall short,” a statement on the group’s website reads.
Described as a New York State independent expenditure committee on the Our City website, the group is paid for by Our City PAC, and is managed by Gabe Tobias, with support from organizers and strategists, Abdullah Younus, Camonghne Felix, Charles Khan, Ed Ott, Helen Brosnan, Nelini Stamp, and Peter Koechley.
Tobias, the group’s executive director, said Crespo’s life experience, visionary platform, and deep moral values demonstrate the bold leadership needed on the council as the city emerges from the pandemic towards a brighter and fairer future. “We could not imagine a more inspiring candidate for our first endorsement of the year,” he said.
The group said that super PACs funded by mega-developers and Walmart heirs are already spending heavily in the District 15 race, and provided links to the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) site which showed donors who contributed to independent spender groups, “Voters of NYC Inc.,” and “New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany.”
Independent spenders are organizations or persons that pay out money to produce or distribute campaign materials for a specific candidate’s political campaign, without coordinating with or seeking approval from that particular candidate.
According to the CFB, “Voters of NYC Inc.,” and “New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany,” have collectively, independently paid out approximately $40,000 in ads in support of John Sanchez, another District 15 candidate. The contributors behind “New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany” are Anthony David, CEO and founder of Inherent Group, Paul Jones, founder and CIO of the Tudor Group, and Alice Walton, a philanthropist.
Inherent Group is an investment firm which uses “environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors to source and underwrite investments.” The Tudor Group is also an investment firm. Meanwhile, contributors behind Voters of NYC Inc. include Adam Flatto, CEO of The Georgetown Company, Rosewood Realty Group Inc., Michael Stillman [no occupation provided] and WLZ Properties Inc.
Our City officials said that to counter this effort, over the next ten days, Our City officials will be reaching out to District 15 voters multiple times across TV, internet, social media, and mail buys to help elect Crespo. Our City officials said they will be be running a 30-second video ad on in-district, smart TVs and digital platforms, will be sending a comparison scorecard mailer to 10,000 households across the district, and will be working to increase youth turnout with social media ad campaigns. They anticipate overall spending to be in the mid five figures.
Our City officials added that, ahead of each endorsement they make, they carefully analyze each candidate’s policy platform, campaign, and donors across four key issue areas: public safety, housing, education, and recovery, and said that this analysis is based on the group’s progressive governing vision. “Elisa Crespo is a clear champion for that governing vision,” the group said, adding that Ischia Bravo, and Latchmi Gopal, who, among others, are also candidates in the District 15 race, were also noted for their strong [progressive] positions.
In terms of other independent spenders in the District 15 race, “Laborers Building a Better New York” has spent $5,235 in ads in support of Bravo. Behind this group are Anthony Vita, Grievance Director, Laborers Local 79 and Joseph Bianco, Field Representative at Mason Tenders, New York.
City Council District 15 covers Fordham, Mount Hope, Bathgate, Belmont, East Tremont, West Farms, Van Nest, Allerton, Olinville and parts of Bedford Park.
Norwood News reported earlier this month that State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who represents the 33rd senatorial district in the Bronx, City Councilman Brad Lander, and The Jewish Vote (TJV) endorsed Crespo, with Rivera and TJV giving her their first choice endorsement, and fellow candidate and Bronx Community Board 7 District Manager, Bravo, their second choice. Lander, who represents the 39th City Council District in Brooklyn, endorsed both Crespo and Bravo equally.
The District 15 race is one of the first two elections in the Bronx which will incorporate the new method of RCV, the other being District 11. 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.
Crespo was previously profiled by the Norwood News. As we also reported, she has also garnered the support of Assembly Members Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas and Harvey Epstein, Council Members Ben Kallos and Antonio Reynoso, District Leader Pamela Stewart-Martinez, local tenant leaders, Elaine Hodges and Bonita Dent, No IDC, Tenants PAC, Sister Diaspora for Liberation, the Black Lives Caucus Organization, Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Northwest Bronx Democrats, and activist, Samelys López.
In addition to Bravo and Crespo, according to the New York City Board of Elections and Ballotpedia, eight other candidates are running in the District 15 race, all of whom aim to fill the seat of former Councilman and now Congressman, Ritchie Torres, who was elected to Congress in November 2020.
These are Kenny Agosto, district director to New York State Senator Jamaal T. Bailey, Oswald Feliz, tenant lawyer and adjunct professor at Hostos Community College, Bernadette Ferrara, president of the Van Nest Neighborhood Alliance, Latchmi Gopal, a community organizer and former staffer for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Jose Padilla, former Independence candidate for both the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate, Arial Rivera-Diaz, a former finance clerk with the City’s Board of Elections and former official at the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, Community Board 6 District Manager, John Sanchez, and Altagracia Soldevilla, another community organizer.
Candidates were 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 the threshold to 315 signatures.
The governor is currently facing allegations of sexual misconduct and bullying, which he denies, increased scrutiny over his past handling of nursing homes, as well as misrepresentation of COVID-19 death figures during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic,
A Board of Elections public hearing was held on Feb. 4 to assess which District 15 candidates had collated the minimum number of signatures needed to proceed. Troy Blackwell, a former White House and Obama administration aide, and Lilithe L. Lozano, a former district chair of NYCHA’s Bronx North council, did not make the ballot according to the Board of Elections. Julian Sepulveda, an official at the Department of Education, had suspended his campaign in November, endorsing Crespo as he did so.
Some City Council candidates had previously raised concerns about the impact on people’s health of the signature collection process, and had called for for the signature requirement to be waived amid fears of exacerbating the spread of the coronavirus through mass person-to-person contact.
In the District 11 race, which is also taking place on March 23, candidates, Mino Lora and Jessica Haller, announced at different points that they had each previously contracted the coronavirus. Meanwhile, as reported by the Norwood News, Marcos Sierra and Abigail Martin have withdrawn from the District 11 special election, both citing health risk concerns associated with the virus, though both have said they plan to participate in the June primary.
In terms of campaign contributions, since we last reported on the amounts raised by District 15 candidates, according to the latest New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) figures, Sanchez continues to lead with $62,343, now followed by Bravo with $44,225, Crespo with $43,431, Feliz with $32,597, Gopal with $18,573, Ferrara with $10,042, Soldevilla with $8,147 and Agosto with $6,420. There is no campaign contribution data listed for Padilla and Rivera-Diaz.
A District 15 candidate’s forum with six of the ten candidates in the District 15 special election race was held on Saturday, Feb. 13, hosted by Little Africa Bronx News, a “Social Impact Strategies” project, an intersection of community relations, issue advocacy and public policy. The forum can be viewed here. Mona Davids, founder and publisher, issued a Facebook statement following the event, explaining that only viable candidates had been invited to participate in the forum.
A District 15 debate among nine of the candidates was subsequently organized in partnership between the League of Women’s Voters of New York City and BronxNet with co-sponsors, Dominicanos USA, NALEO Educational Fund, The Bronx Times, The James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center, and The Riverdale Press. It was hosted by Gary Axelbank, and will be broadcast on Monday, March 15, at 9 p.m. on Optimum 67, Fios 2133, and can also be watched on BronxNet’s YouTube channel here. Soldevilla communicated to BronxNet that she was unable to make the debate.
A further candidates forum was organized by the Van Nest Neighborhood Alliance on March 8. This can be viewed here.
Important dates relating to the March 23 special elections for District 15 [and District 11] are outlined below.
Image courtesy of the New York City Board of Elections
The Bronx Board of Elections confirmed that it is accepting applications for absentee ballots from voters in District 11 (and in District 15) who wish to vote by mail. Further information can be found here or by calling the Bronx Board of Elections at (718) 299-9017 and selecting Ext. 1875.
Polls are open on election day from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Early Voting Period is from March 13, 2021 to March 21, 2021. Voters must vote at their assigned early voting site.
Early Voting Hours
| Saturday | March 13, 2021 | 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM |
| Sunday | March 14, 2021 | 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM |
| Monday | March 15, 2021 | 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM |
| Tuesday | March 16, 2021 | 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM |
| Wednesday | March 17, 2021 | 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM |
| Thursday | March 18, 2021 | 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM |
| Friday | March 19, 2021 | 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM |
| Saturday | March 20, 2021 | 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM |
| Sunday | March 21, 2021 | 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM |
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 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.
Find your poll site and view a sample ballot here: https://findmypollsite.vote.nyc/.
Whoever wins the March 23 special, nonpartisan election will serve until Dec. 31, 2021. Future representation in the District beyond that point will likely be determined via a June 2021 primary and a November 2021 general election.
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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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Where did Elisa Crispo work as A None paid Volunteer for community Events an Rights of Bronx Residents such as qualify of Life
Issues, neighborhood drug problems, city Shelter houses, Local Crime Police Enforcement Safty. I repeat WithOut Being Paid Activist..
Thank-you..
Ur Friend Sal from th bx..🐺 🙏🇺🇸🙏🏽