Ed. Note: This is the second in a series of articles about 33rd District State Senator Gustavo Rivera who was thrust into the spotlight after defeating the controversial Pedro Espada, Jr. last fall. Rivera represents the entire Norwood News coverage area. Click here for Part I

First-Time Candidate Gustavo Rivera Takes on Pedro Espada

It was early spring, 2010, when Gustavo Rivera became a political candidate by default and a dash of desperation. At the time, two other Democrats had declared their intention to run against the incumbent in the 33rd Senate District, Pedro Espada, Jr., who, less than a year earlier, had brought the New York state senate to its knees by offering his party allegiance to the highest bidder.

Liz Krueger, a Democratic state senator from Manhattan whose unabashed hatred for Espada and his politics runs deep, sat in a diner on the Upper East Side with Rivera and Rivera’s longtime friend, Chris Malone, a political science professor. They were discussing possible strategies for ousting Espada, whose political gamesmanship had all but squandered the Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the senate — the first time in decades Democrats enjoyed control of both legislative houses. “We needed a non-criminal person to hold that seat,” Krueger says now, referring to Espada’s legal woes. (Espada has never been convicted of a felony, but is scheduled to stand trial for embezzlement sometime early next year.)

Krueger liked the two candidates already in the race, but didn’t think either could take out the well-financed Espada. At one point, Rivera offered up himself in the form of a question. “Do you think I could win?” Krueger remembers Rivera asking. Hmm, Krueger remembers thinking, that just might work.

That afternoon, the trio spent “like forever,” Krueger says, “talking about how this was perhaps totally the wrong thing to do, but we’re going to do it anyway. From there we went out and we ran and ran hard.”

Malone says Rivera, a Kingsbridge resident who couldn’t stand the thought of being represented by Espada for another two years, ran not so much out of “opportunity, but out of necessity.”

Rivera went from completely unknown to front-runner in a matter of months, garnering support from elected officials, unions and, especially, Bill Samuels, whose New Roosevelt Initiative pledged $250,000 to defeat Espada.

Espada attacked Rivera relentlessly on the campaign trail, trying to paint him as puppet of the Demoratic machine and printing fliers showing an angry, darkened mug-shot-like photo of Rivera that said he wanted to take aware seniors’ health care.

“Gustavo was courageous in the first place to run against Espada,” says Frances Fox Piven, a liberal political activist and professor at CUNY.
But Rivera stayed on message, often refusing to mention Espada by name, calling him “that guy” or “that dude,” as he enumerated the ways the district wasn’t being served and why he was the most viable candidate to defeat “that dude.”

Though he had never been a candidate himself, Rivera knew how a candidate should act. Aside from teaching a class on field organizing, he had spent the last decade on the campaign trail.

After coming to New York from Puerto Rico in 1998 to study political science at City University’s graduate program, Rivera’s path toward a career in academia took a turn toward electoral politics. He found himself drawn to the gritty work of field organizing and, based on the results, he was good at it.

Before running himself, he had worked on successful campaigns for the late Phil Reed, the City Council’s first openly gay member, former Governor David Paterson (when he was a state senator), state senators (and current colleagues) Jose Marco Serrano and Andrea Stewart-Cousins (for whom he also served as chief of staff), and, more recently, President Obama and U.S. Senator Kristen Gillibrand. In between, he worked for the Democratic Conference, Democrat-leaning unions (SEIU) and the mayoral campaign of former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer.

But last year was the first time Rivera stepped out from behind the shadows and became the subject he had always worked for.

“He proved himself to be extraordinarily good at going out on the street and meeting people,” says Krueger, who Rivera now refers to as part of his family. “Answering people in English and Spanish. He showed incredible respectfulness to them and where they were coming from.”

Malone, who was on sabbatical last year and joined Rivera’s campaign as policy director (he’s now Rivera’s legislative director), says Rivera meticulously prepared for his new role, eventually becoming “one of the best candidates I’ve seen.”

One by one, his other primary opponents running on the ant-Espada ticket fell by the wayside until it was just Rivera versus Espada. And on primary day last September, Rivera won and won huge.

He didn’t have much time to celebrate. With Espada more or less absent for the final three months of his term, Rivera became the de facto state senator for the 33rd District soon after his primary victory. He even joined the borough president’s task force assigned to come up with a plan to redevelop the long-vacant Kingsbridge Armory.

The real work, however, began in January when he was sworn in. Democrats had lost their majority by then, but those who remained were pleased to gain a staunch liberal with deep ties to the party.

“He has the advantage of being welcomed by colleagues who will be happy to see him,” says Rivera’s longtime mentor Ken Sherrill, now a president emeritus at Hunter College. “But that’s short-lived. If you turn out to be a lazy jerk or a crook, then…”

Editor’s Note: In Part III of our series on 33rd District State Senator Gustavo Rivera we will examine Rivera’s first year in office. Look for it in our next issue, which comes out Oct. 6. Click here to read Part I.