Queens Gazette

No Decision Yet In Bush-Kerry Race; All Queens Incumbents Win





Gathered at the Taminent Regular Democratic Club in Astoria to await election returns last night were (l. to r.): Former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., state Senator George Onorato, Athena Onorato, Teddy Kasapis, Taminent vice president, Gloria Aloise, Taminent president, Assemblymember Michael Gianaris, Joseph Esposito, Civil Court Judge candidate, Gloria D’Amico, Queens County Clerk, and Gus Prentzas, Democratic state committeeman.

Gathered at the Taminent Regular Democratic Club in Astoria to await election returns last night were (l. to r.): Former City Council Speaker Peter Vallone Sr., City Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., state Senator George Onorato, Athena Onorato, Teddy Kasapis, Taminent vice president, Gloria Aloise, Taminent president, Assemblymember Michael Gianaris, Joseph Esposito, Civil Court Judge candidate, Gloria D’Amico, Queens County Clerk, and Gus Prentzas, Democratic state committeeman.

Several hours after the polls closed to end yesterday’s voting, not enough of the tallies had been reported to indicate whether President George W. Bush had been re-elected or whether U.S. Senator John Kerry had pulled off an upset to become the next president of the United States.

The close race between the Republican incumbent and his Democratic challenger may not produce a clear winner until later today or perhaps even later.

But voters in Flushing’s 22nd Assembly District, a heavily Asian–American enclave, made Jimmy Meng the first member of that nationality group to become a member of the state Assembly.

According to incomplete and unofficial returns, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer won election to his second six-year term, and Congressmembers Gary Ackerman, Joseph Crowley and Anthony Weiner also won re-election.

The same pattern of incumbents winning new terms followed in state legislative races as state Senator George Onorato and Assemblymembers Ann Margaret Carrozza (Bayside), Michael Cohen (Forest Hills) and Jose Peralta (Corona) scored victories in the balloting. All four are Democrats.

Re-elected because they ran without a challenge were Congressmember Gregory Meeks (D–Southeast Queens) and state Senators Frank Padavan (Bellerose) and Serphin Maltese (Middle Village), both Republicans, and Democrats John Sabini (Jackson Heights) and Toby Ann Stavisky (Flushing).

Incumbent Assemblymembers elected without opposition, all Democrats, were Audrey Pheffer (Rockaways), Mark Weprin (Bayside), Brian McLaughlin (Flushing), Nettie Mayersohn (also Flushing), Margaret Markey (Maspeth), Ivan Lafayette (Jackson Heights), Jeffrion Aubry (East Elmhurst), Michael Gianaris (Astoria), Catherine Nolan (Ridgewood) and Anthony Seminerio (Ozone Park).

Six contests for state Supreme Court judgeships with 14-year terms returned as winners, James McGuire, a former counsel to Governor George Pataki, Supreme Court Justice Randall T. Eng, who won another term on that bench, Criminal Court Judge William Erlbaum and Civil Court Judges Augustus Agate, James Golia and Brathwaite Nelson Vale. All are Democrats and all had other party endorsements.

Lee A. Mayersohn, son of Assemblymember Nettie Mayersohn, won a Civil Court post on his first attempt. Mayersohn, a Democrat, defeated Republican Peter Lane of Whitestone.

In the presidential race, it is expected that because of the anticipated closeness of the contest, a clear winner would not emerge until late this morning or later. There’s also a chance that court challenges to the results in some states could bring a repeat of the protracted process that followed the balloting in Bush’s race against Al Gore four years ago.

It took unprecedented action by the U.S. Supreme Court to make Bush the eventual winner.

The
Gazette
will report all the official winners of yesterday’s voting in next Wednesday’s issue.



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