BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | A fourth candidate is interested in running for Sheldon Silver’s former 65th Assembly District seat. Don B. Lee, who has 25 years of experience working in IT and got his start in former Mayor Ed Koch’s administration, confirmed in an e-mail to The Villager on Tuesday, “Yes, I am interested in the Assembly seat.” Lee said he was getting ready to travel abroad, and would be able to talk more upon returning to New York after New Year’s. He referred further questions to George Arzt, the political communications guru, who said, “Don is exploring the possibility of running in the special election and beyond.” A graduate of New York University who lives in Chinatown, Lee is in his early 50s and has an extensive résumé in both the public and private sectors. He worked for 12 years in city government at the start of his career. He is currently the chief information officer at Coalition of Asian American IPA, Inc. and the Asian American Accountable Care Organization. “He’s worked for several mayors,” Arzt said. “He fought in Chinatown for the opening of the Manhattan Bridge during the construction project years ago.” Corky Lee, known as the city’s “Asian-American Photographer Laureate,” tipped The Villager off this past weekend that Lee was interested in the seat. The three other known candidates said they also heard rumors to that effect, but weren’t sure if Lee actually wanted to run. In addition, Gigi Li, chairperson of Community Board 3, asked by The Villager on Tuesday if she was interested in the upcoming special election or September primary, said, “I’m considering, but have not yet made up my mind.” Lee and Li were not at the Downtown Independent Democrats club’s holiday party at the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark’s Place on Monday evening, but the other three known candidates — District Leaders Paul Newell and Jenifer Rajkumar and Yuh-Line Niou, chief of staff of Queens Assemblymember Ron Kim — were.
The club’s holiday party was twice as big as last year’s, drawing 100 people, perhaps due to the interest in the special election. Governor Andrew Cuomo has previously said he would like to hold the special election for the Lower Manhattan Assembly seat on Tues., April 19, to coincide with the Democratic presidential primary, but he has not yet officially “called” the election. The 65th District is split up between four Democratic clubs, which each lay claim to a portion of the district’s 196 Democratic County Committee members, who will select the sole Democratic nominee to run in the special election. (On the other hand, the Democratic primary next September will be open to all candidates that qualify to get on the ballot.) D.I.D. and the Lower East Side Democratic Club each control about 30 percent of the district’s delegates, while Chinatown’s United Democratic Organization and Grand St.’s Truman Club both lay claim to about 20 percent. Newell reportedly has the edge over Rajkumar among D.I.D. delegates, though Rajkumar is said to “have the club.” U.D.O., led by its president emeritus, Virginia Kee, and her niece, District Leader Jenny Low, courted Niou, who lives in the Financial District, to throw her hat into the ring. The greatest number of uncommitted delegates are in L.E.S.D.C., so everyone is saying that club will ultimately determine the nominee for the special election.
State Committeeman John Quinn, a leader in L.E.S.D.C., has been busily talking with everyone, including Sean Sweeney, a leader in D.I.D., Rajkumar and Newell, and recently also spoke with Judy Rapfogel, Silver’s former chief of staff and a member of Truman. “Judy’s afraid of Paul Newell because he ran against Shelly,” Quinn told The Villager. “They want the status quo. I’m not for the status quo.” Meanwhile, he said, Newell and Rajkumar currently “hate each other” because the fellow D.I.D. members both are hungry for the seat and see the other one as standing in the way. Quinn also noted that while Niou speaks Mandarin — as reported in last week’s Villager — many Chinese-Americans in the district actually speak Fujianese. Councilmember Margaret Chin speaks Cantonese, which is the more common dialect in the district.
Told about Quinn’s comment, Niou explained that she speaks “a little Cantonese,” and can understand it when it’s spoken to her. The writing is the same for all Chinese dialects, she noted. “I was born in Taiwan and part of my mom’s family is Fujianese,” she said, adding, “They’re just different dialects. Usually, Mandarin is the common dialect.” Sweeney and D.I.D. President Jeanne Wilcke both said that their club stands to gain nothing from endorsing Newell or Rajkumar. Quinn said D.I.D. definitely is going to be “torn apart,” and that it will be far worse than when a pro-Koch faction broke off from the Village Independent Democrats in the early 1980s to form the Village Reform Democratic Club. “I wouldn’t say ‘torn apart.’ I would say ‘a division,’ ” said Sweeney. “People want me to pick the candidate,” Quinn said. “I’m not gonna do it. People don’t know how left-wing I am. The community has to pick the candidate.” As for Niou, Quinn said, “She could be a nice person, but what has she done in the neighborhood?” “I’m hearing Gigi might jump into it,” he added. Meanwhile, Niou mingled at the party, introducing herself to the D.I.D. crowd. “She’s got charisma!” said Dodge Landesman, approvingly. With reporting by Lesley Sussman
