A former member of the Mount Vernon City Council, Ruth Thompson has represented this district, which includes parts of Westchester as well as the Bronx since 2000.
On Election Day, she faces Curtis Brooks, who tried in vain to unseat her in 2006.
Thompson has said cutting spending and trying to make government operate more efficiently would be top priorities in Albany next year, although she also hopes to try to prevent cuts n education. Over the years she has worked for and with a number of organizations that promote the interest of minority business owners.
Brooks, a 68-year-old housing developer who lives in the Bronx, , has mounted seven unsuccessful campaigns for elected office, including Congressional and New York City Council, according to the Journal News. He has been in little evidence this year, not submitting answers to various candidate questionnaires. In 2006, when he also ran against Thompson he said his top priorities would be "political reform, educational reform, immigration reform."
Thompson raised $28,670, according to her 32Day Pre-General campaign finance report, and spent all but about$1,000 of it. Records for Brooks were not available.
Jeffrey Klein is finishing his second term representing this district that includes part of the Bronx and Westchester. Klein, who was then a member of the State Assembly, won the office in a hotly contested race in 2004 after the longtime incumbent, Guy Velella pled guilty to taking bribes.
In Klein's bid for a third term, he faces Daniel Fasolino, a retired police officer who has also been a real estate broker and homebuilder. In an interview with the Journal News, Klein said his key priorities included property tax relief and cutting spending to reflect the state's straitened economic circumstances. Fasolino cited his key concern as "the tax situation."
According to his 32-Day Pre General filing, Klein raised more than $48,000 in the reporting period and had almost $756,000 on hand. Figures for Fasolino were not available.
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On primary day, Pedro Espada Jr. accomplished something incredibly unusual in New York politics: He defeated an incumbent member of the state legislature. The fact that that incumbent, Ephrain Gonzalez faces criminal charges probably helped Espada's cause.
He may also have benefited from a schism in the Bronx Democratic Party. The organization, headed by Assemblymember Jose Rivera, backed Gonzalez, who was just one of a number of the organization's candidates who lost Democratic primaries on Sept. 9.
On Election Day, Espada's sole opponent is the Conservative Party's William Sullivan, who has seemingly kept a very low profile .Republican Richard Soto, another almost invisible candidate, is no longer on the ballot.
Espada's return to the State Senate -- he previously represented another Bronx district in that body -- makes some Democrats nervous. Although he is running as a Democrat and previously held office as a Democrat, Espada has flirted with the Republican Party. This worries Democrats, who hope to capture the Senate this year. If the elections leave the parties deadlocked, they fear Espada will once again turn to the GOP, letting the Republicans maintain their control.
"There's something ridiculous about a Legislature in which a pol as slippery as Pedro Espada Jr. could be the ultimate power broker," Bill Hammond wrote in the Daily News, reminding readers of Espada's past legal and political shenanigans. But, Hammond continued, "His whim might well determine which party controls the State Senate - and the future direction of state government."
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