QUEENS — With City Councilmen Leroy Comrie and James Gennaro unable to seek re-election due to term limits, two seats that include portions of Jamaica are up for grabs on Tuesday.
Candidates vying to fill them in Tuesday's election include a labor union head and a former Assemblyman.
In Council Dictrict 27, which includes Jamaica, St. Albans, Hollis, Cambria Heights and portions of Queens Village, Rosedale and Springfield Gardens, I. Daneek Miller, president of the Queens chapter of the Amalgamated Transportation Union is running against Sondra Peeden, an aide to City Councilman Ruben Wills and a partner at the consulting firm Peeden, Jacobs and Associates.
Miller who was endorsed by Comrie, was also backed by a number of unions, including 1199 SEIU, Transport Workers Union Local 100 and 32BJ SEIU.
In the Democratic primary, he received 24 percent of the vote, while Peeden got 4 percent. Peeden is now running on the Independence Party line.
In Council District 24, which includes Briarwood, Fresh Meadows, Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, and portions of Jamaica, three candidates are seeking to replace Gennaro, who is also term-limited.
Rory Lancman, a former State Assemblyman who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2012, is running against Republican and graduate of the University of Miami School of Law Alex Blishteyn and Mujib Rahman, a community leader.
Lancman, who according to his website, has lived in the district for 38 years, received more than 61 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary.
Rahman, who ran in the Democratic primary against Lancman and received 17 percent of the vote, is now running on the Faith and Values Party line.
In Council District 29th, which includes Forest Hills Rego Park, Kew Gardens and parts of Maspeth and Richmond Hills, Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz is running for re-election.
Koslowitz, who served as Deputy Borough President under Queens borough President Helen Marshall, is being challenged by Jon Torodash, a Kew Gardens software engineer who is running on the Civic Virtue Party line. Torodash has vowed to fight to bring the Civic Virtue statue back to Queens after it was removed from the borough despite public protests last year.
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