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A New Dominican Face in Bronx Politics
Nelson Castro, campaigning in the Bronx for NY State Assembly
Few people inside or outside of Bronx political circles knew much about Nelson Castro just a few months ago. Yet in a short time, Mr. Castro, a 36-year-old former coordinator with a health insurance company, has positioned himself to become the first Dominican-born member of the Legislature from the Bronx.
Mr. Castro was deeply involved in Democratic politics in Washington Heights, the heart of the Dominican community in New York City. He was once chief of staff to Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, the first Dominican member of the Assembly. But he and Mr. Espaillat had a less-than-amicable parting of the ways. He moved to the Bronx three years ago and started to work with civic groups in the University Heights area.
This year, he decided to run for district leader against the incumbent, Hector Ramirez. But before that campaign got off the ground, the Assemblyman in the district, Luis Diaz, resigned to take a community affairs position in the administration of Gov. David A. Paterson.
Assemblyman Diaz had already obtained signatures for his petitions to get on the ballot for the Sept. 9 Democratic primary, when he decided not to run, so that placed the decision about a replacement on the ballot with a committee on vacancies, a five-member panel consisting of people close to the Bronx Democratic organization and its chairman, Assemblyman Jose Rivera.
After interviewing a number of aspirants, the committee selected Mr. Castro.
“I want to continue the work that Luis Diaz did in his years in the Assembly,” Mr. Castro said. “He did a lot of work with seniors and I want to continue that. I also want to develop more programs to keep kids in school and to expand on child care programs for women with kids.”
Of course, it will not be a completely easy run for Mr. Castro. He faces a Democratic primary opponent, Mike Soto. Mr. Soto is the brother of Richard Soto, a politically active business man in the Bronx who has run for office in the past. But Mr. Soto has campaigned little if at all and his telephone number is not accepting messages (the memory is full, the recording said).
Some are also raising questions about why the organization selected Mr. Castro to run, passing over Mr. Ramirez, an incumbent district leader who had been loyal to the Bronx organization. Several Bronx politicians pointed out that Mr. Castro had briefly been a registered Republican before moving to the Bronx (Even Mr. Diaz had indicated that he wanted to be succeeded by Mr. Ramirez).
The Bronx party chairman, Mr. Rivera, indicated that he wanted to expand the diversity of the borough’s delegation in Albany by supporting a Dominican candidate, though Mr. Ramirez, too, is Dominican.
Assemblyman Rivera said that the decision to support Mr. Castro had been a difficult one because of the strength of the candidates who met with the community.
“At the end of the day, we felt that Nelson Castro was the best candidate that we could choose,” Mr. Rivera said. “We had this young, dynamic young man and we thought it was important to get him in the political process, even over an incumbent district leader.”
Of Mr. Ramirez, he said: “Hector Ramirez led us to believe that he was interested in running for the City Council next year. I don’t think he has any complaint about how things turned out.”
Several officials close to Mr. Ramirez said that the district leader was none too happy about the decision.
Some Bronx Democrats said that Mr. Rivera was not interested in empowering Mr. Ramirez because of his close ties to politicians who were supporting Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. for Bronx borough president next year rather than his son, City Councilman Joel Rivera. For his part, even Mr. Castro said he was surprised that he was selected over Mr. Ramirez.
“I don’t know why they made that decision,” he said. “I was expecting that they would automatically pick Hector Ramirez.”
He added: “I even congratulated Hector before I heard they selected me. All I can say is that I’m glad and that I’ll work hard.”
Tags: Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, Assemblyman Jose Rivera, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr., Bronx Borough President, Bronx Democrats, Bronx News, Bronx People, bronx politics, David A. Paterson, IRS, Joel Rivera, Jose Rivera, Luis Diaz, Mike Soto, Politics, Washington HeightsRelated posts
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