Results tagged “rubendiazjr”

As expected, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. (D-Bronx) won the special election for the Bronx Borough President seat vacated by Adolfo Carrion Jr. (Carrion is now at the White House.) Diaz Jr. won with 87% of the vote—over 28,000 votes— over Republican district leader Anthony Ribustello. Diaz told NY1 about his plans, "I want to meet the mayor of the City of New York. I want to meet with the speaker of the New York City Council. I want to revise the vacancies and appointments on the community boards. And all the different development projects that are on their way here to the borough of the Bronx. I want to go talk to the staff at the Borough President's Office. There's so much to do. I'm ready and I'm anxious and eager to go and work at Borough Hall." Diaz's term will be up December 31, which means he'll need to mount another campaign this fall.

While there is a special election for the Bronx Borough President's seat today, since Adolfo Carrion Jr. headed to the White House in February, it's widely expected that Democrat Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. will win. The NY Times reports that Diaz has the wide support of Bronx Democrats and "His lone opponent is Anthony J. Ribustello, a Republican district leader who is best known, to the extent he is known at all, as the actor who played Tony Soprano’s beefy driver on 'The Sopranos.'" The Times adds a footnote about Diaz being son of State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., "a Pentecostal minister who is an outspoken opponent of gay marriage and abortion. The elder Mr. Díaz was one of the so-called Gang of Three conservative Democratic senators who flirted with Republicans last year and threatened to block the Democrats from assuming control of Senate leadership." Earlier this year, the Daily Politics reported that Diaz Sr. said "his son played a crucial role in convincing him to back Smith for majority leader."