By KRIS VENEZIA
STAFF WRITER
For some Fordham students, Sept. 10 was a typical Tuesday with class, dinner at Panda Express and a night out on the town. But for some Bronx residents, the day featured a trip to the polls as they cast their ballots for new lawmakers.
The community had plenty of options for the City Council position in the area, as Joel Rivera is stepping down from his seat in District 15. This left a battle for the Democratic spot amongst Ritchie Torres, Cynthia Tompkins, Joel Rivera (no relation to the current City Councilman), Joel Bauza, Raquel Batista, Albert Alvarez and Kenny Agosto. 24-year-old Ritchie Torres emerged the winner, with roughly 36 percent of the vote. According to Torres’ campaign website, he grew up in the Bronx and has been working for City Councilman James Vacca as his housing director. Torres will now run against Joel Rivera in the general election. Rivera finished second in the Democratic primary with about 21 percent of the votes. Rivera switched from the Democratic to Republican party in order to gain poll site jobs, a move that the New York Daily News reports may be illegal.
As it stands now, Rivera will be on the ballot come November against Torres.
Local Bronx voters did not just vote for the next City Council member last Tuesday; they also cast their ballot for the next mayor. The Republican side featured a fairly easy victory for Joe Lhota over John Catsimatidis. Lhota is the former chairman of the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
The Democratic primary was unclear as Bill de Blasio emerged the winner on Tuesday over Bill Thompson with about 40 percent of the vote.
A candidate in the mayoral primary would need more than 40 percent to prevent a run-off election. Earlier in the week, it looked like the Brooklyn public advocate would have to square off against Bill Thompson in a run-off election on Oct. 1. Thompson was very clear after primary day that he did not intend to back down until all the votes were accounted for. However, as the popularity for de Blasio continued to grow, Thompson eventually conceded the race. Now it is officially de Blasio versus Lhota come November. Now, other former Democratic mayoral candidates, such as Christine Quinn, are throwing their support behind de Blasio.
Despite all of these twists and turns, however, lies the question — how interested are Rose Hill students? Well, some said they are not losing any sleep over these tight races. Martin McCormack, FCRH ’15, lives in New York City year-round. He said having a new councilman in the area does not change his opinion of the community. “It doesn’t really affect me because I don’t feel very attached to New York City politics,” McCormarck said, “But good for him.” Luigino Alosco, GSB ’15, had a similar opinion to McCormack. Alosco said New York City politics do not take up too much of his time, but he has paid attention to the mayoral race.
“I don’t care very much,” Alosco said. “I’m just a student here, but I’m intrigued about it with all the weird storylines like Anthony Weiner.” The intense media coverage of Weiner’s personal life in recent months made him a household name and made his campaign one of the most closely followed. However, he failed to live up to the hype that he garnered early in his candidacy, ultimately becoming a non-factor in the later stages of the election. Alosco also said he believes he knows who will be the next mayor of New York City.
“I think de Blasio’s going to win because he has the people’s support, and the other candidates seemed too attached to Bloomberg,” Alosco said. “de Blasio seems to have the voice of the people.” The general election date for New York City is Nov. 5, so voters have a little less than two months to decide for whom to cast their ballot.
