Talk Bronx New York

The DN’s Erin Einhorn sent this video of yesterday’s press conference with Sen. Hiram Monserrate at which he compared himself to murdered civil rights workers and announced he had hired civil rights attorneys Norman Siegel and Steve Hyman to take his case.

You’ll notice as Einhorn pans the crowd that three Bronx Democrats - Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. and Assemblymen Jose Rivera and Peter Rivera - showed up to support their fellow Latino lawmaker, while no officials from Monserrate’s home county of Queens is present.

Diaz Sr. is a longstanding Monserrate supporter, but I was surprised to see the two Riveras (who are allies, but not relatives) on hand.

“It’s not a question of support; it’s a question of whether somebody is not getting the kind of fair treatment I think they should be getting,” Peter Rivera told me this morning.

“I think the Senate is treading on very dangerous ground when it tries to impeach one of their members for being found guilty of a misdemeanor. Those aren’t the rules that we have lived by in Albany. Ever.”

“I have an issue with changing the rules midstream and singling out individuals, particularly when they happen to be Hispanic.” Read more..

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Bronx Democratic Chairman Carl Heastie is clearly annoyed by the suggestion that black leaders should be flocking to support former Rep. Harold Ford Jr.’s possible primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

“I don’t feel that I have to support him just because I’m black,” said Heastie, who I caught en route to (yet another) closed-door conference of the Assembly Democrats as they wait for the Senate to sort out the “Race to the Top” mess.

“There’s this expectation that because he’s black and I’m black, I have to run to support him, and damn a sitting US senator,” the chairman continued. “I’m trying to get people thinking beyond race.”

Heastie rejected a report by the Post that he is “open” to supporting Ford.

(In fact, while I was standing outside the chamber with the assemblyman, he spotted Fred Dicker and called out: “Fred. Your sources are wrong.” That, of course, was my cue to exit). Read more..

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                     Ruben Diaz Jr., center, Joel Rivera, left, and Carl Heastie, right

 The call of “Don’t forget to vote on April 21st” practically overpowers the latest Hot 97 hits pulsing from an audio store on the corner of Fordham Road and Jerome Avenue in the west Bronx.

Evening rush-hour riders depart from the screeching number 4 train, slide down two flights of stairs to the street to get a flyer, a handshake and a wide, mustached smile.

“I am running for Bronx borough president in two weeks,” Assembly member Ruben Diaz Jr. says, stretching out his hand.

Running might be an overstatement. For Diaz, who practically has a set of keys to borough hall already, walking would be a better characterization.

The seven-term assembly member has only token, Republican opposition in next week’s nonpartisan special election to replace former borough president turned-Obama administration official Adolfo Carrión. For such a high profile position, the lack of opposition is relatively unheard of.

Just weeks ago, Bronx Democrats were preparing for a brawl between two political dynasties who have been wrestling over control of the county’s Democratic party for months. Since that race has failed to materialize, Bronxites — left with little choice — can now ponder what this means for the county’s new and old political guard. Read more..

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Bronx Democrats were buzzing this weekend about a verbal altercation between embattled party boss Jose Rivera and his formerally, election law attorney Stanley Schlein, that took place at the tony El San Juan bar on the first night of Somos el Futuro.

According to several witnesses, Rivera “got emotional” when he saw Schlein talking to Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr., pointed his finger at the attorney and said: “You better watch yourself in Puerto Rico.”

Rivera, speaking in a raised voice in both English and Spanish, also reportedly called Schlein a “rat.” Read more..

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The Democratic Party organization in the Bronx has been rocked by internal warring so intense that it has been operating in the last week with two headquarters and two leaders claiming to be the legitimate head of the party. And, for a time, neither side quite knew how to resolve the impasse. That is likely to change before long.

The group led by Assemblyman José Rivera, who has chaired the party for the last six years, filed papers in the state Supreme Court in the Bronx this morning to ask that Mr. Rivera be affirmed as the chairman of the Bronx Democratic organization.

The Rivera group is seeking to get the court to invalidate any claim by a faction of rebel elected officials to have their leaders recognized as the officers of the party. The two factions held back-to-back meetings on Sept. 28 with the rebel group electing Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie as the chairman of the party.

Jerry H. Goldfeder, the lawyer for the group led by Mr. Rivera, said that he and “and the current leadership of the Bronx County organization believe they won fair and square and that they were elected under proper procedure.”

Mr. Goldfeder added that there was a 10-day period after the party meeting under the election law to bring the matter before the court. “If it’s necessary for the court to resolve the dispute as to who won,” he said, “we had to begin a court case no later than Oct. 8.” Read more..

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