Tenants PAC's priorities for the Tuesday, September 14 Democratic primary are to re-elect Bill Perkins to the State Senate in the 30th State Senate District in Harlem, and to elect Gustavo Rivera in the 33rd SSD in the northwest Bronx. See Priorities below for more information and how to get involved.

Tenants PAC rescinds three endorsements: Aubertine, Foley and Valesky. See Rescinded Endorsements for more information.

Tenants PAC endorses Frank Padavan. See Padavan below.

Tenants PAC also endorses the following Democratic incumbent Senators who have challengers in the September 14 primary: Toby Ann Stavisky 16th SSD, Queens; Kevin Parker 21st SSD, Brooklyn; Neil Breslin 46th SSD, Albany; Antoine Thompson 60th SSD, Buffalo. These four Senators are steadfast tenant supporters. Breslin and Thompson are the only upstate Senators of either party who voted for the two tenant bills on August 3.

Tenants PAC has endorsed three candidates in the September 14 Democratic primary for State Assembly:
26th Assembly District (Queens) - John Duane.
68th Assembly District (Manhattan) - Alvin Johnson.
92nd Assembly District (Westchester County) - Tom Abinanti.

Governor
Tenants PAC endorses Kenneth Schaeffer for Governor, on Row E, the Working Families Party line. It is essential that WFP get the 50,000 votes for Governor to retain its automatic ballot line during the next four years. WFP is under attack from the right because it has successfully pushed progressive candidates and progressive issues, including tenantsí rights. The Independence Party, by contrast, is openly collaborating with the New York City real estate industry to elect candidates who will work to end all rent and eviction protections once and for all.

Attorney General
No endorsement.

Comptroller
Tenants PAC endorses the incumbent State Comptroller, Tom DiNapoli. During his many years in the State Assembly, Tom was a strong supporter of tenants.

Bill Perkins and Gustavo Rivera
Bill Perkins has been heroic in his defense of tenantsí rights, both in the State Senate and in his years on the New York City Council. The hedge fund managers who are behind the charter school industry have targeted him for defeat because of his insistence that public school students get equal treatment, and the real estate lobby has piled on as well, giving Billís challenger carloads of campaign cash. It would be a giant loss for tenants if Bill Perkins were defeated.

Gustavo Rivera is running against the scandal-scarred incumbent Pedro Espada, Jr., the point person for landlords in Albany. As chair of the Senate Housing Committee, Pedro Espada has kept every pro-tenant bill bottled up, refusing to allow them to be reported to the floor. He has introduced a phony ìrent freezeî bill which not only would not result in a rent freeze, but also would allow landlords to decontrol up to 80,000 rent-stabilized apartments ñ a landlord bill posing as a tenant bill. Apart from his fronting for the real estate lobby, Pedro Espada is the most corrupt elected official in the State of New York, who is under investigation by the Bronx District Attorney, the Brooklyn District Attorney, the NYS Attorney General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has sued Pedro Espada, alleging that he has looted the Soundview Health Centers of some $14 million that should have gone to medical care for low income Bronx residents but instead subsidized Pedroís lavish life style.  

Gustavo Rivera, by contrast, is a breath of fresh air, a progressive and a person of integrity who is concerned about the welfare of the people of the 33rd State Senate District, not in lining his pockets.  

Tenants PAC has already contributed $6,000 to the Friends of Bill Perkins, and $6,000 to the Committee to Elect Gustavo Rivera. This is the maximum that Tenants PAC is allowed to contribute for the primary. Individual Tenants PAC board members have also contributed to Perkins and Rivera, and we encourage all tenants to do so as well (see below for contact information).  

Tenants PAC is running a nightly phone bank into these two districts, calling voters who live in rent-regulated, Mitchell-Lama, Section 8 and public housing to explain why they should vote for Bill Perkins or Gustavo Rivera. To volunteer for this phone bank call (212) 577-7001 or email action@tenantspac.org.  

Finally, Tenants PAC is signing volunteers up for GOTV work on Tuesday, September 14 ñ and for Saturday, Sunday and Monday before primary day. Whoever wins the Democratic primary in these two races will win the November 2 general election, because both districts are overwhelmingly Democratic.  

To contribute to Tenants PAC: Make your check payable to Tenants PAC, and send it to Tenants PAC, 277 Broadway, Suite 608, New York NY 10007. Or contribute on line at www.tenantspac.org.  

To contribute to Bill Perkins: Make your check payable to Friends of Bill Perkins and mail to: Friends of Bill Perkins, P.O. Box 1355, Morningside Station, New York NY 10026. Or you can contribute on line at www.BillPerkins.org/contribute. To volunteer: Bill Perkins campaign headquarters is at 281 West 114th Street (Frederick Douglass Boulevard), New York NY 10026, or call (917) 684-8564. 

To contribute to Gustavo Rivera: Make your check payable to Gustavo Rivera for State Senate and mail to Gustavo Rivera for State Senate, 220 Lafayette Street, 3d floor, New York NY 10012. Or you can contribute on line at www.GustavoforStateSenate.com.  To volunteer: Gustavo Rivera campaign headquarters is at 3224 Grand Concourse, Unit G-1, Bronx NY 10458. Or call (646) 450-5429.

Rescinded Endorsements: Earlier this year the Tenants PAC board of directors voted to endorse a number of candidates for State Senate. Included in this group were three Democratic incumbents who come from areas of the state where there is no rent-regulated housing: Darrel Aubertine (48th State Senate District, North Country), Brian Foley (3rd SSD, Suffolk County), and David Valesky (49th SSD, Syracuse area).

In February 2008, Tenants PAC played a role in electing Darrel Aubertine, then a Democratic Assembly Member, to the Senate in a special election for an open seat that had been represented by a Republican for more than 100 years. In the five-week time frame of a special election, Tenants PAC raised and contributed $3,000 to Aubertine, and organized a phone bank into Oswego County staffed by our volunteers in New York City. Seven Tenants PAC members, including four board members, traveled to the City of Oswego the weekend before the election and spent four days tramping around in the snow in Get Out The Vote activities. One of our crew was arrested on Election Day on trumped-up grounds by an over-zealous Republican cop.

In the fall of 2008, Tenants PAC also helped Brian Foley defeat an entrenched Republican incumbent, Caesar Trunzo. We contributed $3,000 to Foleyís campaign and paid travel, food and lodging costs for four volunteers who traveled to the Long Island district the last four days to help with GOTV activities.

These two races were crucial steps in the multi-year campaign by the Democrats to win control of the State Senate, which was finally achieved that November when Foley and another Democratic challenger beat Republican incumbents.

Despite the promises of the Senate Democratic leadership that once they took the majority they would restore our weakened rent protection laws, there was no action on tenant legislation for almost two years. Finally, on August 3, two minor pro-tenant bills were brought to the floor of the State Senate, where both failed to pass.

Seven Democrats voted against tenants, including two from New York City whose districts contain rent-controlled and rent-stabilized housing (Pedro Espada and Carl Kruger), one from Nassau County whose district includes rent-regulated housing (Craig Johnson), and four from areas of the state without rent controls: William Stachowski of Buffalo, Aubertine, Foley, and Valesky.

Earlier this year Tenants PAC had endorsed Aubertine, Foley and Valesky ñ all of whom have serious Republican challengers in the November 2 general election ñ and approved campaign contributions of $3,000 to each of the three to be made in the fall, following the September 14 primary election.

On August 9, the Tenants PAC board voted to rescind these three endorsements, and to reallocate the $9,000 in contributions to candidates who support tenants. We will not support legislators who vote against tenantsí rights.

Tenants PAC endorses Frank Padavan for re-election: On August 3, all Republican Senators except one voted against the two tenant bills that were brought to the floor: Frank Padavan of the 11th State Senate District in Queens. Senator Padavan, who is extremely conservative on many issues, has been a consistent supporter of tenant protection laws in his 38 years in Albany. He has always been a reliable vote for tenants, even against the wishes of his party leadership. This year Padavan is being challenged in the November 2 general election by a Democrat, former City Council Member Tony Avella, who has been a staunch supporter of tenants in his years on the Council. It was hard to choose between two strong tenant supporters, but the Tenants PAC board believes that an incumbent who stands up to his leadership for tenants, and who has proved himself a true friend, deserves our endorsement.