BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Alice Cancel was sworn in on Monday as the new assemblymember for Lower Manhattan’s 65th District by Joseph Morelle, the Assembly majority leader.
The seat was previously held for nearly 40 years by former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who was stripped of the office at the end of last year after his conviction on multiple federal corruption charges. Silver was set to be sentenced Tuesday.
Cancel, a longtime Democratic district leader and community activist who lives in Southbridge Towers, won a special election for the seat on April 19. She ran as the sole Democratic nominee — elected by the local Democratic County Committee in February — and bested three other candidates running on various other party lines.
There will be an open Democratic primary in September that will determine whether Cancel just finishes out the remainder of Silver’s term or goes on to represent the district for another term or two. She supports term limits for Albany legislators, so does not want to serve more than two terms tops.
Joining Cancel at her Albany swearing-in was a small group, including her husband, Democratic State Committeeman John Quinn; Monica Guardiolia, president of Cancel’s political club, the Lower East Side Democrats; Cancel’s sister Carmen Castro; and her son Andrew.
Cancel also plans to have a community swearing-in ceremony back in the district this Friday.
