Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr., D-Bronx, holds a key for the locked state Senate Chamber in Albany, N.Y., Wednesday, June 10, 2009. Espada was one of two Democrats who have sided with Republicans. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
The New York Democratic State Committee wants the party to dump the state senator from the Bronx who defected last year to the Republicans in a coup that gridlocked the chamber for a month.
In a letter this week, the committee told the Bronx Democratic Party that it should cancel Sen. Pedro Espada’s enrollment because he bartered away his party allegiance for personal benefit.
Calls to Espada, named majority leader after rejoining the Democrats to restore their 32-30 voting advantage in the Senate, were not immediately returned Thursday.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, the Bronx committee chairman, said Thursday that proceedings against Espada couldn’t be finished before the Sept. 14 primary and any subsequent court battle could take months. Espada and three others are circulating petitions to get on the ballot, he said.
“I’m doing my homework on this in terms of reading past court cases and the election law and other relevant information and I will determine shortly what action if any we should take on this request,” Dinowitz said.
A similar attempt to oust Espada in 2002 failed. The New York Post first reported on the state committee’s letter Monday.
“Quite clearly, Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. left the Democratic Party long ago in all but his official party affiliation. Through his repeated public statements and bad conduct, Sen. Espada has shown he is not ‘in sympathy’ with our party’s fundamental principles,” according to the letter signed by Edgar Santana, a state committee official and Bronx party member.
The letter noted Espada’s flouting of state campaign finance rules and said he operates “in open defiance” of requirements that he reside in his Bronx district. He has a house in suburban Mamaroneck and owns a co-op in the Bronx. The issue was litigated two years ago, and a referee and the court ruled that was enough to establish residency to run for the Bronx seat in the Senate, Dinowitz said.
“Most importantly … Sen. Espada’s decision to affiliate with the Democrats is the result of opportunism and personal gain, not a commitment to Democratic ideals,” the letter said. “This self-serving approach to party affiliation was on vivid display just one year ago, when Sen. Espada bartered his allegiance to the Democratic Party for personal benefit.”
In the coup last summer, Espada and former Democratic Sen. Hiram Monserrate of Queens sided with Republican senators, who tried to claim majority Senate control and named Espada their acting Senate president. The coup followed the holdup by Senate Democratic leaders of some $2 million in state grants by Espada to organizations with ties to Bronx health clinic that he runs.
In April, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo sued Espada, accusing him of siphoning $14 million from the government-funded clinic, diverting assets to himself, relatives, friends and for his political operation. The next day, federal and state investigators raided the clinic and took away documents.
Espada called Cuomo’s allegations a “litany of mischaracterizations and falsehoods” with political motivations.
Cuomo spokesman Richard Bamberger said Thursday the civil suit and criminal investigation are continuing. He declined further comment.
Polls show Cuomo widely favored in this fall’s race for governor, which would make him the most influential member of New York’s Democratic Party.
Monserrate, convicted last year of misdemeanor assault for dragging his girlfriend in an argument shortly before he took office, was voted out of the chamber 53-8 in February. Most Democratic senators voted to oust him.
The Democratic Party backed Assemblyman Jose Peralta in a special election to fill the seat, which he won over Monserrate in the Democrat-dominated section of Queens.
By MICHAEL VIRTANEN,Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
