Reid Pillifant at the Observer has a great analysis of the SD-33 race:
"If Espada wins, it sends a message that we Democrats are continuing to fail," said Mr. Samuels, who has pledged as much as $250,000 to defeat Mr. Espada. He raised the specter that a loss in this low-turnout Bronx district-where Mr. Espada last won the primary with only 4,988 votes-could help deliver the Senate to Republicans, giving them control over redistricting and ultimately threatening the progressive cause at the highest levels.
"Can you imagine losing [Jerry] Nadler or Carolyn Maloney? We don't want that to happen," he said. "This is the most important election. Not attorney general, not even the governor."
"He's got to be defeated this September," declared Bronx councilman and former attorney general Oliver Koppell, whose district overlaps with Mr. Espada's. "If we don't defeat him, we could lose the majority. And we also, in a sense, are losing our soul."
Koppell and Samuels are exactly right. If Pedro is on the Democratic line after September 14th, it puts a headwind on every Democrat running for the State Senate in November. Pedro is an corrupt, embarrassing vermin and he has no business being in the Democratic Party.
Luckily the anti-Espada movement is coalescing around Gustavo Rivera. However, it will still be hard to beat Pedro with his army of slave workers from Soundview providing his campaign with boots on the ground. He even admits as such in this interview with Liz from a few weeks ago (starting at 3:48), along with saying that God wants him to win, he is the epitome of the American dream, and he is being selectively prosecuted for being hispanic:
There should be no higher priority for all NY progressives than putting this piece of human garbage where he belongs: out of the legislature and in jail.
