Cabán Maintains Her Narrow Lead in Queens DA Race as Ballots Remain to Be Counted
Tiffany Cabán, a 31-year-old public defender, won 39.6% of the vote among Queens Democrats and led Queens Borough president Melinda Katz by 1,090 votes, or a margin of 1.3%, according to unofficial results from the city's Board of Elections
June 27, 2019 at 05:26 PM
4 minute read
Tiffany Cabán still held a narrow lead in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney Thursday, as her opponent showed no signs of conceding the race.
Cabán, a 31-year-old public defender, won 39.6% of the vote among Queens Democrats and led Queens Borough president Melinda Katz by 1,090 votes, or a margin of 1.3%, according to unofficial results from the city's Board of Elections.
Though Cabán has claimed victory, the race remained too close to call by the Associated Press on Thursday afternoon. Katz has said that she would pursue a recount, and has yet to concede the race. Katz's campaign did not respond to calls requesting comment on her plans.
The New York Daily News reported Wednesday that there were still 6,337 uncounted paper ballots, including 3,556 absentee and military ballots from Democrats and 2,781 affidavit ballots from both parties that still need to be sorted. According to the Daily News, paper ballots can't be counted until July 3.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Cabán said she was “very, very confident” that she would prevail when the results became final.
“I spoke to my team, and we think that once it's counted the margins will still be close, but the decision's gonna hold,” she said, according to an audio recording provided to the New York Law Journal.
Cabán said she had not yet spoken to Katz. Cabán's campaign did not return calls Thursday seeking further comment for this story.
A political upstart, Cabán ran on a progressive platform of criminal justice reform, pulling high-profile support from U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, who represents part of Queens, as well as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Two leading presidential hopefuls running for the Democratic nomination—Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts—also endorsed her campaign.
Among her proposals, Cabán said she would fully decriminalize sex work, eliminate cash bail for any offense and prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who exceed their authority to detain undocumented immigrants in the borough. She also advocated closing Rikers Island without constructing new jails, pushing instead for measures to decrease the overall rate of incarceration.
If elected, Cabán would be the first openly gay, Latina and first woman to serve as district attorney in the country's 11th-largest county by population.
Katz, meanwhile, ran with her own set of endorsements from New York party leaders, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-New York, the Queens Democratic Party chair, and the four major unions in New York City politics.
During the campaign, she pledged not to prosecute low-level marijuana offenses and supported not prosecuting sex work, instead focusing on traffickers, pimps and those who solicit them. She also vowed to crack down on hate crimes and gun violence.
The Republican candidate, Ozone Park attorney Daniel Kogan, is expected to run against the Democratic nominee in the general election. However, the GOP has not won a Queens DA race since 1920, and the Democrat would be expected to win easily.
Thomas Oliva, president of the Latino Lawyers Association of Queens County, said that Cabán, like Ocasio-Cortez, ran her campaign largely outside of the entrenched Queens political apparatus, which allowed her to connect with disaffected voters in one of the cities most diverse areas.
“We find this symptomatic of what party politics in Queens has been over the past few years,” Oliva said.
“I think she was tapping into the viewpoint of AOC—people have been marginalized; they haven't been represented,” he said.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllRetired Judge Susan Cacace Elected Westchester DA in Win for Democrats
In Eric Adams Case and Other Corruption Matters, Prosecutors Seem Bent on Pushing Boundaries of Their Already Awesome Power
5 minute readEric Adams Trial Set for April as Defense Urges Dismissal of Bribery Count
Major Drug Companies Agree to Pay $49.1 Million to 50 States, Territories
3 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Commission Confirms Three of Newsom's Appellate Court Picks
- 2Judge Grants Special Counsel's Motion, Dismisses Criminal Case Against Trump Without Prejudice
- 3GEICO, Travelers to Pay NY $11.3M for Cybersecurity Breaches
- 4'Professional Misconduct': Maryland Supreme Court Disbars 86-Year-Old Attorney
- 5Capital Markets Partners Expect IPO Resurgence During Trump Administration
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250