City Council Elections Update: Rivera Foe Drops Bid

June 18, 2009

The last two months have seen big shifts in the local races for City Council as major challengers to incumbent council members Joel Rivera and G. Oliver Koppell decided not to run. Campaign finance reports filed on May 15 offered further hints of the shape of the races to come. The entire City Council is up for election this fall.

Radame Perez, president and chief operating officer of Mastermind Development, a real estate development company, and treasurer of Community Board 6, was planning to challenge Rivera in District 15 until he unexpectedly dropped out of the race last month.  The district includes Bathgate, Belmont, Crotona, East Tremont, and West Farms.

Perez said his thinking changed when it became clear that Rivera would run for reelection. When Perez initially entered the race, term limits prevented Rivera from running again, but the City Council voted to extend those limits last fall. Rivera then flirted briefly with a run for borough president, but announced in March that he would seek a third term in the City Council instead.

 ”It was not my original intention to run against the incumbent council member,” Perez said, though he declined to explain why.

Before bowing out, Perez had managed to raise $156,945, significantly more than Rivera, but he also spent almost all of it. The campaign finance reports shows that Perez spent $103,979, which includes over $21,000 in campaign consultant fees, $1,700 on an Apple computer, and over $800 in Chase bank fees, including a $268 bounced check fee. 

Perez said he would direct the rest of the money he raised to a new political action committee and leadership institute which would “provide tools and training” for Bronx residents who want to run for public office, assisting prospective politicians with fundraising and shaping a message and agenda.

There is now only one candidate challenging Rivera, who has raised $15,914 and only spent $568. The lone remaining challenger, Jose Padilla, has raised just $480 and spent $337.

In District 11, which includes Fordham University and a small chunk of Community Board Six north of Fordham Road, Councilman Oliver Koppell is also facing just one challenger, Anthony Cassino, after a second, Ari Hoffnung, dropped out on June 2.

Like Perez, Hoffnung said he had decided not to run when term limits were extended and it became clear that Koppell would run again. In a letter to supporters, he wrote that a race against Koppell was “a repeat engagement that neither I nor my closest allies deem advisable.” Hoffnung had raised $81,816.

Cassino, former chairman of Community Board 8, officially kicked off his campaign on June 7. He has raised $93,549. Koppell has raised more, at $105,558, and has already spent $54,031, which includes over $8,000 in political contributions to other office seekers.

By IVONNE SALAZAR & RACHEL WALDHOLZ

Written by admin · Filed Under Latest, News/Features, Politics 

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