With a special election for his old Queens seat scheduled for tomorrow, expelled former senator Hiram Monserrate is down 42 points in the polls with Democrat Jose Peralta favored to win. Monserrate was convicted of slashing his girlfriend Karla Giraldo in 2008, briefly abandoned the Democratic Party and voted for legislation to ban gay marriage, but some critics say Peralta is hardly an improvement. According to the Daily News, he's accused of directing $500,000 to a long-defunct nonprofit (he claims he realized his mistake and got most of it back), but that's not all.
Based on his record, NY Magazine's Chris Smith thinks Peralta's politics are politics as usual. For one thing, his first employer in politics was corrupt former assemblyman Brian Mclaughlin, who in 2007 pleaded guilty to stealing $3.1 million while in office. Next, Peralta was himself elected to the assembly where, Smith says, he "has been a dependable cog in Shelly Silver’s machine ever since." Higher-ups have helped him along, as have powerful unions who've all given him their blessing. But with all those inside ties, some worry he'll have no loyalty left for the public. “Jose is smart,” a fellow Queens Democrat says. “But he isn’t an improvement at all for the Senate as a whole. At least Hiram was at times an independent advocate. You won’t get that out of Jose.”
