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Met Council Endorses Liz Krueger
in Bid to Take Back State Senate
by Kenny SchaefferÌ
(note: this article reflects Met Council's position
and not necessarily that of TenantNet)
The Met Council board voted unanimously on June 28 to endorse Liz Krueger for the 26th District State Senate seat currently occupied by Republican/Liberal Roy Goodman.
This year, because of voter shifts, the Republicans’ hold on the State Senate is weaker than it has been in decades. Goodman, who has represented the Upper East Side district for 30 years, is the chairman of the
Republican Party in Manhattan, and has helped funnel millions of dollars in real-estate contributions to corrupt the political process in Albany and City Hall. While he was one of the few Republican state senators to vote for renewing rent regulations in 1997, he is a linchpin of the Republicans’ slim majority in the State Senate, which devastated rent controls in 1997 and has blocked legislation essential to tenants.
Krueger is on leave from her posts as associate director of the Community Food Resource Center and treasurer of the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court’s board. She will likely face a primary in September for the Democratic nomination against Robert J. Bellinson, who lost to Goodman in the last two elections. She has already been nominated by the Green and Working Families parties.
Goodman appears vulnerable. The East Side “silk stocking” district, one of the richest parts of the city, is traditionally Republican, but has elected Democrats to formerly Republican seats in Congress and on the City Council in the last four years. Democrats and independents now outnumber Republicans. Liz Krueger has been part of the housing movement for many years, both at the Community Food Resource Center—where she has worked to alleviate hunger and prevent evictions, and to attack the political causes of hunger and poverty—and at the City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court, which provides invaluable information to the 90% of tenants who must face eviction threats without the benefit of counsel.
This year, Krueger worked with Met Council, the Coalition for the Homeless, and other groups against the $15 a month “poor tax” on low-rent apartments. Testifying before the Rent Guidelines Board in May, she said that many poor families faced with the additional $15 charge would have to cut back on their already inadequate food intake rather than get evicted. Excessive housing costs, she added, were a primary reason that food pantries and soup kitchens have experienced sharply increasing demand in recent years. Liz Krueger’s challenge to Goodman comes at a time when Republicans are aware that their hold on the State Senate may be slipping away. This year, there are serious challenges to Republican incumbents Guy Velella in the Bronx, by Lorraine Coyle Koppell, and Frank Padavan in Queens, by Rory Lancman. The Bronx race is complicated by the fact that Democratic county chair Roberto Ramirez has supported Velella in the past. Democrats could also make inroads in once solidly Republican Nassau County, which has elected a Democratic county government.
In the face of this threat, Republicans in Albany, including Gov. George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, have been taking positions in sharp contrast with their far-right records on a number of issues. However, deals on two such bills fell through; one that would have limited rent increases from major capital improvements, and another which would have raised the state minimum wage to $6.75 an hour.
The Working Families Party experienced significant internal disagreement about whether to endorse certain Republicans if they had passed the $6.75 minimum wage. The question became moot when industry mobilized a massive counterattack, which turned the Republicans around and led to their backing an increase only to $6.15, which WFP rejected.
“So where does that leave the WFP?” asks state director Dan Cantor.
“Basically, we feel pretty good. The dominant view inside the WFP is that we were right to try to win this legislation, that we were right not to automatically follow the Democrats, and that we were right to walk away when the Republicans reverted to form and decided to screw the working poor.” The Green Party is also enthusiastic about supporting races such as Krueger’s, which will challenge corporate two-party control. And as for Liz Krueger, she is confident of getting the Democratic nomination and, with Working Families and Green support, “going on to victory in November,” she stated.
Tenants who want to help Liz Krueger and Met Council take this Senate seat away from the party of Bruno and Pataki should call the Krueger campaign at (212) 689-7295.