The Norwood News, WFUV radio, and BronxNet Television present a special report profiling several candidates ahead of the November general election.

Walking around Astoria Park on a chilly Saturday afternoon, Anthony Pappas talks about the path that brought him to run on the Republican ticket for Congress against Democratic rival Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, particularly in a district that is largely Democratic.

“To get an idea of my childhood, you can go back to one of the world famous movies that was filmed on the street where I grew up,” he says as he talked about West Side Story. “I don’t claim my childhood was exactly like the movie, but it gives you a reference point.”

Pappas, 72, was born to Greek Immigrants in Western Manhattan. Lincoln Center stands where his childhood home once was – when Pappas was 12, his family had to move to Astoria to make way for the building.

On top of his calls for major immigration reform, and undue taxation on New Yorkers, Pappas also wants to see the justice system reformed. And he’s basing the third item on his political platform on experience. Pappas went through a difficult divorce where he found the judge arrive to the bench with a predetermined decision. He thinks some judges abuse their power. “Judges are not investigated or accountable to anyone in my opinion,” he says. “So I would advocate for changing that if I’m elected into Congress.”

Pappas references one U.S. Supreme Court case called Stump v. Sparkman. The 1971 case involved a judge who ruled to permanently sterilize a 15-year-old girl at her mother’s request. The girl was unaware that she was being sterilized and later sued the judge. “I regard it as one of the worst rulings of the United States Supreme Court,” Pappas says.

Pappas believes the girl in this case was denied due process. The judge was granted immunity in this case. “I view that as immoral and unethical against the Constitution. The judges are the only group of officials that have this immunity and they conferred it upon themselves and it doesn’t seem to be a part of the political conversation and you wonder why,” he says.

Pappas believes court cases have had severe and intrusive consequences on families because judges are unfair in some cases and that can eventually lead to a party involved committing suicide.

When Pappas is not campaigning, talking politics, or teaching at St. John’s University, he likes to have lunch at a local Senior Citizen Center. “I do qualify as a senior citizen,” he chuckled. “By going there you don’t have to do the shopping, you don’t have to cook the meal and you don’t have to clean the dishes. And the company isn’t too bad either.”

 

Editor’s Note: This article has been adapted into a radio and television piece for WFUV radio and BronxNet Television respectively.