Sabini, Monserrate Debate At Forum
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

Sabini

Housing and health care were the prevalent issues raised by both state Senator John Sabini and City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate at a candidate forum at the Langston Hughes Library and Cultural Center in Corona last week sponsored by the Queens Civic Congress and Citizens Union.

"Our voting record is very similar," said Sabini, the incumbent in the 13th Senate District in the New York state legislature. "We have differences in our approach to problems," he said of City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate, the challenger in the September 12 Democratic Primary, and himself.

In response, Monserrate said, "This is a classic contest between someone who has been an institutional insider and someone like myself, who has worked his way up from the bottom, It is not enough to speak to the issues but also to act."

A former Marine and New York Police Department officer, Monserrate, 38, was first elected to the City Council in 2001. "There is no place else like the 13th Senate District in the U.S.," he said, noting its diverse population. According to the 2000 census, the district, which includes Corona, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, was about 55 percent Hispanic, 20 percent Asian, 12 percent white and 9 percent black.

Monserrate

Sabini, 49, was elected to the state Senate in 2002, one year after the city's term limits law forced him out of the City Council where he had served for 10 years. "I am privileged and humbled to be the voice of the 13th District and its 300,000 people,"

he said. "I have a wealth of experience and have lived here all my life. I know every block of it."

Monserrate said he was born in Manhattan and moved to Queens with his family when he was five years old. "In this community, people are now priced out of their neighborhoods," he said. "The issue of affordable housing is paramount."

Sabini, citing an impending report on hospital closings by a

state commission, said it was an "ominous" development for health care in the city if something isn't done and asked Monserrate what he would do.

Monserrate expressed his continuing support for Elmhurst Hospital Center and pointed to billions of dollars in lost revenue due to Medicaid fraud. "If there's one thing I would work hard for [in the Senate], it's bringing that money back to the city," he said.

"What do you expect to do different in the next two years that you didn't get done in the past?" Monserrate asked Sabini.

Sabini said he was proud of the two pieces of legislation he has passed even with the obstacle of a Republican majority in the senate. "We can't continue to point fingers at Albany," Monserrate retorted. "Our role as legislators is to get results."

Sabini said his top priority was to change the structure of government in Albany. "I am a vocal critic of Albany deadlock," he said. "We have to change that."

"This is a rare moment in the history of Queens politics," said Monserrate. "Two incumbents running against each other ensures that all incumbents understand they can't be asleep at the switch. My leadership is not about saying something, it's about doing something. If you give me the privilege of serving you, I will work very hard for you."

"My office works full time to go out into the community," said Sabini. "We [Monserrate and Sabini] are both in a position to be fairly judged because we both have public records. I want to be in the senate when [Democrats] take the majority to bring even better results to this community."