The following is a slightly extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

 

The recent State and congressional redistricting process has been confusing to put it mildly, but it has had one benefit. Because the State senate and congressional primary elections have been delayed to Aug. 23, it means voters have had more time to get to know the candidates aiming to represent them in 2023.

 

On Monday, July 25, Schneps Media hosted a debate between the two Democratic candidates running for the “new” State senate district 33 seat. They are incumbent progressive State Sen. Gustavo Rivera, who represents the existing District 33 until Jan. 1, 2023, at which point the “new” S.D. 33 lines [approved in May 2022] take effect, and his challenger, lawyer and former NYC Board of Elections commissioner, Miguelina Camilo.

 

The S.D. 33 showdown has been tipped as a race to watch, mainly due to what some perceive as a surprise decision by the Bronx Democratic Party to throw its weight behind the District 33 challenger over its incumbent. While the race may appear to some as another microcosm of the push and pull dynamics that prevail within the wider Democratic Party in terms of center-left versus far-left ideology, there are other factors at play.

 

The new District 33 broadly encompasses Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham, Belmont, parts of Tremont, Van Nest and Allerton, Spuyten Duyvil, Fieldston, Riverdale and North Riverdale. During the debate, Rivera said the new, redrawn District 33 will include about 50 percent of the current District 33 he represents. Meanwhile, until the end of this year, Norwood, parts of Bedford Park, Spuyten Duyvil, Fieldston, Riverdale and North Riverdale continue to fall under District 36, currently represented by State Sen. Jamaal Bailey but will fall under District 33 next year.

 

As background, Camilo originally ran to represent Senate District 34, when the incumbent, State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, announced she was running for Congress. The party endorsed Camilo for that seat at that time. After the redrawing of the district maps by a court-appointed special master in May 2022, Camilo switched to run in S.D. 33, being that it is the new senate district in which she lives [previously S.D. 34]. As such, she retained the endorsement of the party. Meanwhile, Rivera continues to live in current S.D. 33, despite the redrawing of the district lines. He will need to move into the newly redrawn Senate District 33, should he win the race.

 

Camilo was first to provide her opening statement at the debate. “I am a first-generation immigrant daughter of a bodega owner,” she said, in part. “I worked in that bodega with my father and I, firsthand, saw the value of hard work and the importance of an education as a path to a better life. I am the first in my family to go to college and law school, and I’ve been an attorney now for over 10 years, working throughout the Bronx in family and criminal court matters, where I looked out for the most vulnerable families in our community.”

 

She added, “I offer a unique perspective to the ongoing troubles in our district. I am running for office because in my 10 years as an attorney, I have seen people in their most difficult moments and have witnessed how easy it is to be overlooked.”

 

In his opening statement, Rivera, who is also running on the Working Families Party ticket, said in part, “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m originally from Puerto Rico, got to New York in 1998, moved up to The Bronx in 2000. I was a labor organizer / college professor who ran for Senate in 2010, defeated a guy by the name of Pedro Espada Jr., who then served six years in federal prison after I defeated him for stealing public money.”

 

He continued, “I’ve been in the Senate for 11 years, and I’m currently the chair of the health committee in the Senate, which is the first time that a person of color or a Bronxite has had that position. In my time in the Senate, I’ve been incredibly proud – whether it’s my legislative achievements or the work that I’ve done, and my community affairs team has done in those last seven years, just in the last couple of years… Bottom line is my commitment to the public, to public service, is the reason I ran in 2010. I want to continue to do that.”

 

During the debate, one of the two moderators pressed Rivera about the party’s decision to back his opponent, suggesting that it was perhaps because he was considered too “radical” for the party. Rivera replied, “It’s not radical to want universal healthcare for people, which is my number one legislative priority. I don’t think it’s radical to say that we need to have higher taxes on the wealthy, which is something that I’ve been fighting for, for my entire time in the State senate. I don’t think it’s radical to say that we need to work on criminal justice reforms that actually treat communities of color more fairly.”

 

To set the record straight, we asked the Bronx Democratic Party directly why it had not backed Rivera, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, several months ago as it had done for Camilo, before the districts were redrawn in May.

 

Ariana Collado, the party spokesperson, replied, saying in part, “We did not make endorsements in races where an incumbent did not have an opponent. Before the redrawing of the maps, we did not need to make endorsements because the senators, including Sen. Rivera, did not have a primary. The Bronx Dems endorsed Miguelina when she first announced she was running back in March [in S.D. 34], and that endorsement was not conditional.”

 

Collado went on to say that numerous conversations were also had with the senator and others about how they could avoid a problem [being primaried] and added that other senate districts could have presented an opportunity for the senator to avoid such a conflict.

 

Collado continued, “For the record, [Senate] District 32, [currently represented by Sen. Luis R. Sepúlveda] represented a significant portion of his [Rivera’s] current district after the new lines were drawn, and in order to run in any other district, except for District 31 [currently represented by Sen. Robert Jackson], he [Rivera] would have had to move from his current residence.” She added, “But as is his [Rivera’s] right, he chose to seek office where he desired. We are confident in the abilities of Miguelina, and we know she will be a great senator in Albany.”

 

Some speculate that another potential reason for what is seen as the Bronx Democratic Party’s backing of Camilo over Rivera was in response to Rivera not toeing the party line during the June State primaries and by backing progressive candidate, Jessica Altagracia Woolford, in Assembly District 81 over incumbent, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz.

 

When contacted for comment, Collado also addressed this point, saying, “While we cannot speak on behalf of Assemblyman Dinowitz, his endorsement of Miguelina Camilo was prior to Sen. Rivera’s endorsement of Ms. Woolford.” Norwood News reached out to the assemblyman for comment in this regard. We did not receive an immediate response. Rivera, himself, received the widespread backing of the Democrats when he first ran in 2010 against incumbent, former Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., who was subsequently found guilty of theft.

 

In reference to the redistricting process, Rivera said he opposed the way it had been handled and the “mess” it had caused and laid the blame with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for allegedly devising the State redistricting commission model. Camilo agreed the redistricting process had been extremely confusing for voters and communities who she said had to grapple with all the changes it caused.

 

“They are the victims in all this,” Camilo said. “It’s not who’s chosen to run for office or who has held the seat that is no longer there, it’s really the people that now have to deal with such a big change on Election Day.” Both candidates emphasized that they had no hard feelings towards each other and accepted the situation at hand.

 

Bail reform was later discussed in the context of the controversial case of Manhattan bodega owner, Jose Alba. Alba was initially arrested and held on Rikers Island for fatally stabbing a customer who assaulted him amid a dispute inside his store in July.

 

Camilo said the matter had hit home for her, having worked in a similar store with her family members. “Usually what we try to do is have more than one person at the store at a time,” she said. “Seeing the facts of the case where Mr. Alba was approached behind the counter, I knew immediately that he was in that store by myself and he was confronted with that situation.”

 

Referencing the fact that the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had since dropped the charges against Alba, she said, “I stand by protecting our small businesses. That is one of my main platform issues, to advocate for our small businesses so that, in turn, we have a more vibrant economy.”

 

Camilo also acknowledged the rationale for bail in terms of ensuring people showed up to court, and added, “Everyone has a right to have those constitutional protections in court, to have their day in court, to have a speedy trial.”

 

Rivera agreed with the decision to drop the charges against Alba. “Bail was ultimately a way to criminalize poverty,” he said, before talking about Kalief Browder, his former constituent, who spent three years in prison for allegedly stealing a backpack. “He was ultimately let go but he spent most of that in solitary confinement, and ultimately committed suicide in the district that I currently represent in his mother’s house because of the PTSD that he suffered, and the reason he was there is because he could not afford bail.”

 

The senator continued, “On the other side, you’ve got Harvey Weinstein, somebody who was obviously an unrepentant predator, but because he was a millionaire, he was able to be in court for less than an hour [and] go back home.”

 

The discussion later moved on to universal healthcare. Camilo said she grew up not being able to afford healthcare and suggested the pending New York Health Act had languished under Rivera’s watch. Rivera, a longtime advocate for universal healthcare, said the bill had more sponsors now than ever before and equated the fight to that of marriage equality legislation, which he said also took many years to pass. Camilo expressed a desire to find a sort of happy medium of affordable healthcare that also protects people who have their own private health insurance.

 

The moderators later pressed the candidates on the matter of fiscal responsibility within the State Legislature in the context of balancing long-term policy ideas. The questions were mostly directed at Rivera who said the pandemic had shown that emergency healthcare was more expensive than regular healthcare, another reason he said why investing in planned healthcare was cheaper in the long run.

 

Meanwhile, Camilo said having a deep knowledge of the real needs of a community and working in partnership with other colleagues in government was one way of knowing where best to make cuts to the State budget in order to be fiscally responsible.

 

The two candidates broadly agreed on how best to tackle and prevent gun violence and are both supportive of the latest State legislation passed in this regard. Rivera said more needed to be done at a federal level to tackle the inward flow of guns to New York from other states, and also highlighted the need for more investment in programs like Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence (B.R.A.G.) to help prevent it from occurring in the first place.

 

He also acknowledged that there was a role for school safety agents in terms of keeping kids safe. Camilo broadly agreed, and also supported investment in afterschool and other programs for youth in order to show them another path in life, highlighting the importance of setting an example for youth.

 

The two candidates later had a chance to ask each other questions. Rivera questioned Camilo’s alleged ties to the Independent Democratic Caucus (IDC), a now disbanded group of Democrats in the State Assembly who had worked with Republicans in the past, slowing down or blocking progressive-led legislation. The question was raised reportedly due to Camilo’s alleged support for a former IDC member, Marisol Alcantara.

 

Camilo refuted the charge, alleging it was a false statement and that she didn’t support the IDC since she wasn’t involved in politics at the time they existed. “I absolutely will say now that I would have joined you in fighting against the IDC because caucusing with the Republicans and opposite party is not something that I would ever support,” she said.

 

After the debate, on July 28, the opposition group, No IDC NY, endorsed Rivera for re-election. An extract of the press release from the senator’s campaign, announcing the endorsement, included the following question, “250 dollars to Marisol Alcantara, one month before her 2018 competitive primary, and you didn’t know Marisol was an IDC member? Money speaks, Miguelina Camilo lied.”

 

Camilo then asked Rivera if accepting campaign contributions from PACs with links to the healthcare industry was in conflict with his role as chair of the senate health committee. Rivera suggested that these were union related and that he was happy to accept their contributions.

 

To illustrate his defense of not being beholden to any one pressure group, Rivera added that he was also not afraid to oppose large private hospitals on the subject of universal healthcare. “I’m going to tell them when I agree with them, and tell them when I don’t agree with them,” he said, adding that it was his hope that as such, he had their respect. “I want to pass the New York Health Act, and I’m committed to that because I believe that healthcare is a human right,” he said.

 

Primary Day is Aug. 23. Update your address by Aug. 3. Request your absentee ballot by Aug. 8. Early voting will begin Aug. 13. Your poll site may have changed. Check your voting card before you go to vote.

 

Editor’s Note: According to reports by both Deadline Hollywood and The New York Times in February and March 2020, on Feb. 24, 2020, a jury found Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, guilty of rape in the third degree and of a criminal sexual act in the first degree, and not guilty on three counts, including two more serious charges of predatory sexual assault.