Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) and challenger and mutual aid organizer, Jessica Altagracia Woolford, who was recovering from a recent bout of COVID-19, discussed their positions on the priorities for voters in Assembly District 81 on Tuesday, June 21, during a debate aired on BronxNet, hosted by Gary Axelbank, and co-sponsored by Norwood News, the League of Women Voters, City Limits and The Bronx Times. Both candidates will be on the ballot in the upcoming Democratic Primary on Tuesday, June 28.

 

On the question of candidate experience, Dinowitz, who has represented the district since 1994, spoke to the fact that he has worked in A.D. 81 his entire life, and said he was involved in tenant organizing and environmental issues even before he could vote. “This is my neighborhood,” he said, in part.

 

“This is where I live, where I’ve chosen to raise my family. When other people were leaving The Bronx, we chose to stay here, and I don’t regret that for a second,” he said. He said those who left missed out on a lot, and that he fights every day to make sure the community is the “best possible, strong” community and that the people in it get the help they need from his office.

 

He said his office helps thousands of people each year, even more so amid the pandemic, citing assistance his office had provided to address unemployment, PPE needs and food insecurity. The assemblyman said even though the district is diverse, economically and ethnically, the needs of the people are generally the same in terms of wanting safe streets, good schools, jobs, and good mass transit.

 

Altagracia Woolford, who is from Kingsbridge, said she was raised by “brave, resilient women” including her grandmother, a home health aide who had emigrated in the late ’60s to The Bronx from the Dominican Republic. “She taught me that with faith, with hard work and with compassion and with care, anything is possible in The Bronx,” she said, adding that she, herself, had worked for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, bargaining for better contracts, as well as for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs during the height of the public charge crisis under the Trump administration.

 

According to the Milbank Memorial Fund, which identifies and shares policy ideas and analysis on topics important to state health policymakers, one of the Trump administration’s most dramatic efforts to restructure long-established social welfare policy was the public charge rule, issued in 2019 in the face of massive opposition.

 

It fundamentally altered the standard used to determine whether legal immigrants who apply for permanent residency would be allowed to stay as “green card” holders, or instead, be considered public charges, vulnerable to deportation. “Certain legal immigrants, such as refugees, are exempt from the public charge test but many others are not and must effectively prove their community worth in order to become permanent residents,” a statement on the fund’s website reads.

 

Altagracia Woolford also cited her work for U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, her work with the DNC on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and her mutual aid work assisting local residents with food and other needs amid the pandemic. She said that work had started with one simple question: “What do you need, and how can we help?”  The candidate said she brings fresh ideas and a fresh perspective that unifies the community, she believes people deserve better and that, as Democrats, elected officials can do better by Bronxites.

 

Asked for her opinion on the recently-passed State budget, Altagracia Woolford said, “Well, I know that my opponent has called it the best budget that he has seen in 28 years, and while there were some really promising, hard-fought victories there that belong to the activists, the organizers who have been organizing for decades in this community for real commonsense reforms, we didn’t do enough,” she said, citing undocumented families being left out of vital childcare subsidies.

 

She said legislators should understand that over half the residents in the district are struggling to pay their rent, while many are also taking care of elderly parents and their kids. She added that she welcomed the governor’s comments on the importance of language access and equity, but said more had to be done in terms of delivering multilingual, constituent services, citing the Bengali community, one of the fast-growing communities in the district as an example, and saying constituency offices should be staffed with people who can serve such diverse communities.

 

For his part, Dinowitz said, “Make no mistake. This was the best budget in all these years. It’s never good enough. We always strive to do even better but this was definitely the best budget.” He said more funds had gone into education, healthcare and childcare, adding that there were, of course, things that he would have liked to have seen done that weren’t done, but said with 150 assembly members, 63 senators and one governor, compromises were needed.

 

He mentioned that he had opposed the allotted funding, which continues to cause controversy, for a new Buffalo Bills stadium in Buffalo, NY, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s hometown. “To suggest this wasn’t the best budget is really not consistent with the facts,” he said, nonetheless. “The funding that we put in for so many important things is unmatched in anything we have ever done. I’m very proud of it but I fully recognize that we have more work to do, and we’re going to continue to do that work.”

 

The topic of the voluntary intoxication loophole bill, which would provide the same legal protection to victims of rape who may become voluntarily intoxicated as it does to victims of rape who become involuntarily intoxicated (where their drinks may be spiked) was raised. The assemblyman is chair of the codes committee and was asked why the law had not passed during the latest legislative session. “It didn’t pass the House or the Senate, let’s be clear; that’s not good enough,” Dinowitz responded. “I’ve worked on the bill for a few years now,” he said, adding that not all bills pass as quickly as legislators would like, and that voting coalitions were needed in both legislative houses.

 

The assemblyman said he had met with advocates and district attorney offices, and said that the rape cases in question were “horrible” and “unfortunately, don’t often get prosecuted.” He added, “That’s on the DAs’ offices, but I don’t want them to even have the excuse not to prosecute.” He continued, saying that although he understood the DAs may want to maintain the best possible win/loss records, he wanted to ensure victims got justice.

 

Explaining his concern about the subject matter, he said he had passed New York’s first anti-trafficking act, which he said had served as a model for the country. He said he had also sponsored the Child Victims’ Act, which extends the time previously afforded to child victims of sexual abuse to take a case against their abusers, the Adult Survivor’s Act, which serves as similar purpose, and the Rape is Rape bill. He acknowledged, nonetheless, that there was more work to be done and said he hoped, next year, both houses of the legislature could come together to pass a bill on the voluntarily intoxication loophole “that’s the same in both houses.”

 

Altagracia Woolford asked for a fact-check on the point about the law not passing in either house, suggesting the bill had been introduced in the Senate in 2019, and had actually passed there. According to the records of the legislature, senate bill S6679C, sponsored by Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (S.D. 34), did pass in the senate in July 2020, but not in the assembly. A new version of the bill was introduced in the 2021-2022 legislative session under senate bill S452 (assembly bill A5519).

 

Altagracia Woolford added that, as a rape survivor, the process of coming forward to testify was a “nightmare,” and added that the criminal justice system was built to dissuade people from coming forward to testify. She said she was grateful for the support she had received in reporting her case, including from a mental health support perspective, and added, “I also believe that our laws reflect what we know must be the gold standard, which is affirmative consent.”

 

She said affirmative consent [when someone is intoxicated] should be the law and that New York had the opportunity to be a national leader on the issue. She said she was grateful for existing Title IV protections but said legislators had a responsibility to care for survivors and to make sure laws reflect what people knew to be true in terms of affirmative consent being the gold standard.

 

The assemblyman responded, saying, “I am terribly sorry you went through that horrible experience. It’s an experience that nobody should go through. It should not happen to anybody, and victims, survivors deserve justice and that’s what we’re aiming for. This is important for us to do and we should do it.” He reiterated that the bills had not passed in either legislative house during the 2021-2022 legislative session and reiterated his hope that they would pass into law next year.

 

Norwood News has since reached out to the Bronx District Attorney’s office on the assemblyman’s comments regarding the win/loss rape case ratios. We will update this story upon receipt of any feedback.

 

The next topic was on police reform. Axelbank cited recent polls which show that 73 percent of Bronxites feel less safe since the beginning of the pandemic. Altagracia Woolford said that residents of the 81st district had said lack of affordable housing was a public safety issue. “I believe that it’s time that Democrats really commit to not bowing to Republican talking points about public safety, but that we take a really comprehensive view,” she said, referring to dignified, safe housing for elders with quality home care, the health of the ecosystem, and whether kids in A.D. 81 were attending fully funded and safe schools.

 

She talked about how the ceiling had collapsed on her grandfather in recent years and how terrifying that had been for her family. She added that Black and brown families had informed her that they wanted to see more cops on the street, and said, as an assembly member, she aimed to ensure public safety service provision would be effective, accountable and transparent.

 

For his part, Dinowitz said his view was that residents were most concerned with public safety on the streets, citing the dangers of gun violence. “People are worried,” he said. He said public safety not only involved ensuring there were enough cops on the streets, but also funding services to improve mental health and crime prevention.

 

He said he had supported criminal justice reform, citing the repeal of the 50A law, which had allowed police misconduct records to be shielded from the public, and added that it was his understanding from what he had read recently that Altagracia Woolford wanted to cut a billion dollars from the police budget, which he said didn’t make sense to him.

 

Altagracia Woolford said she assumed the assemblyman was referring to a dangerous smear mailer campaign that was “full of lies” that had been circulating by Trump supporters which had been trying to portray her as “a reckless and dangerous socialist.” She called on the assemblyman to disavow the attacks which she said were untrue and alluded that they were also racist in nature.

 

Dinowitz responded saying he had received similar negative mailers from Altagracia’s supporters in the Working Families Party which he said had blamed him for the 17 people who were killed in the Twin Parks fire tragedy, and he called on Altagracia to disavow the accusations. He said the Trump mailer referred to an open letter to former Mayor Bill de Blasio dated June 2020, published by the NY Daily News, of which Altagracia Woolford, along with 236 current and former staffers of de Blasio administration, was a signatory and which had called for, among other things, the reduction of “the NYPD operating budget by $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2021.”

 

Altagracia Woolford then asked the assemblyman to hold up the mailer for people to see which she said included the words, “I [Altagracia Woolford] pledge to defund the police.” She added, “I have never once said those words. Anyone can read that letter. 200 members of the de Blasio administration signed on to this, calling for police accountability because our former boss did not do enough in the wake of the George Floyd protests to protect Black and brown communities.”

 

She continued, “I do not believe that it is Assemblyman Dinowitz’s fault that, unfortunately, we’ve lost 17 members of the Bronx community, but I do believe that it is important for Democrats to hold each other down and make sure that Republicans aren’t deploying these dangerous lies in our primaries.”

 

Dinowitz responded, saying that Altagracia Woolford had signed the letter, nonetheless. During an interview with Norwood News on June 20, we asked Altagracia Woolford directly if she was in favor of defunding the police and she said no, but that she was in favor of police accountability.

 

The final question related to a controversy surrounding a proposal, now suspended, to build a $195 million men’s shelter on North Broadway in North Riverdale. Dinowitz was asked what could be learned from the process in terms of the selection of the location and where, in his view, could supportive and permanent affordable housing be built in A.D. 81.

 

Dinowitz said he had done “more than possibly any other member of the assembly” when it came to keeping people in their homes, adding that he was the author and lead sponsor of the eviction moratorium legislation, which he said kept tens of thousands in their homes amid the pandemic, as well as being the author of the Tenants Safe Harbor Act and other housing laws.

 

“The best way to not have a homelessness crisis is to prevent homelessness in the first place,” he said, adding that he had supported legislative changes which had allowed for more affordability in housing. “I think the current program, 421A, failed us. It did not properly provide affordable housing. We have to replicate programs like Mitchel Lama [a low-income housing program],” he said, adding that as someone who had grown up in NYCHA housing, Mitchel Lama housing, and a rent-controlled walk up, he understood the housing needs that Bronxites faced, and said legislators had to address them head on.

 

He said the Broadway location for the shelter had been a very poor choice by the City, with no community input. “They wanted to give out a contract worth almost $200 million for this not-for-profit from Brooklyn that I think has a track record that’s less than admirable,” he said. “We have to focus on real solutions, not just plopping down a shelter in places where it probably doesn’t make sense.”

 

For her part, Altagracia Woolford said she had also seen firsthand what the housing crisis was like and added that the work of activists could not be erased in terms of the transformative needs that people had fought hard for in terms of the eviction moratorium. “I will say that the number one thing we need to address the housing crisis is Good Cause Eviction,” she said.

 

The candidate was referring to a bill introduced at State level in 2021, which, if passed, would prohibit landlords from ending a tenancy with market-rate tenants without good cause, except in cases of lease violations like failure to pay rent or other infractions.

 

The candidate alleged, in her view, this was because legislators, including Dinowitz, had not done enough to pass Good Cause and alleged this was because they were beholden to the real estate industry, through campaign donations. She said it was particularly important to elect Democrats who would hold back those developers who were not working to keep buildings safe. She agreed that the proposal for the North Broadway shelter was not good enough and she didn’t want “crooked providers” receiving public funding any longer.

 

Dinowitz said the characterization of his campaign donations by Altagracia Woolford was “less than truthful” and said of the two candidates, he had more donors from the local community in The Bronx, which he said included unions, healthcare workers, and front line workers.

 

Altagracia responded saying anyone could look at the two candidates’ campaign filings. “I don’t know why anyone would attack our small-dollar donations,” she said, referring to an earlier statement by Dinowitz to Norwood News in which he said the contributions to his opponent’s campaign were not always itemized. Altagracia Woolford referred to colleagues with whom she had worked in national politics, and at unions and said, “I want to thank all of my supporters.”

 

Neither candidate gave a proposed, alternate location for affordable or supportive housing in the district.

 

In closing, Dinowitz borrowed a quote from former U.S. President JF Kennedy, saying, “Some people see things as they are, and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?” He said that was what he had done in the State legislature, passing first-time legislation on areas like human trafficking, the eviction moratorium and vaccinations. “I think big and I get things done, and that’s what I do,” he said.

 

For her part, Altagracia thanked everyone who had joined her on her journey so far. “We cannot continue to elect Democrats who are beholden to special interests, the status quo and the system that harm working families across The Bronx,” she said, adding that if people wanted to know more about her campaign, they could visit her website.

 

Assembly District 81 includes Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge Heights, Marble Hill, Norwood, Woodlawn and Wakefield, and its borders are not affected by redistricting in the upcoming 2022 primary or general elections. The latest assembly district maps are those approved by the New York State legislature in February 2022. New York State assembly district lines will be redrawn in time for the primary elections in 2024, according to a recent court ruling dated June 10, as reported.

 

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