Woodhaven and South Ozone Park will hang onto incumbent Congressional representatives after a Democratic primary Tuesday following the tumultuous redistricting process.
In the newly drawn 5th District, which encompasses areas around the Aqueduct racino in South Ozone Park, Gregory Meeks easily held on.
He faced three Democratic opponents in the primary, but none of them received many more than 1,000 votes.
Meeks received the vast majority of ballots with about 7,500 according to unofficial numbers from the city’s Board of Elections.
He will face another challenge though. Former Democratic Councilman Allan Jennings ran unopposed in the Republican primary, setting up a general election fight.
Jennings lost his council seat in 2005 after he was censured for sexually harassing employees.
He has tried unsuccessfully since then to reclaim political office. He’ll try once again in November.
In the new 7th Congressional District, which stretches from Woodhaven, to Manhattan and into Brooklyn, 20-year veteran Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez also beat away three Democratic challengers.
She claimed a majority of the vote in a race against a City Councilman and two political outsiders.
Velazquez’s most serious challenger was Erik Dilan, a Brooklyn Councilman, but Velazquez handily beat him, almost doubling his vote totals.
In unofficial counts, the incumbent received more than 16,000 votes—almost 60 percent overall.
Dilan clocked in with 9,000 votes, just over 30 percent.
Daniel O’Connor, a businessman and economist, and George Martinez, an Occupy Wall Street activist, each trailed far behind. They won 8 percent and 2 percent of the vote respectively.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
