With the primary election next month, Zack Fink takes a closer look at the 10th District Senate race in Queens, where incumbent Senator James Sanders is facing a challenge from Adrienne Adams, who has the backing of the powerful Queens County Democratic Organization.
James Sanders Jr. is feeling confident about his primary challenge next month.
Sanders is running without the support of the Queens Democratic machine, which he seems to think is an advantage, since he is not beholden to party bosses.
"Somebody can't call me in the middle of the night and say, 'You are going vote this way.' I'm going to laugh at them. I'm going to say, 'Wait a minute, If I went with whatever the party bosses wanted to do, I would not have been the only elected official in Queens that supported Obama when he ran,'" Sanders said.
Although Sanders has fought with party leaders before, some say it was his early challenge to Rep. Gregory Meeks just this year that resulted in a party-backed primary challenge to Sanders for his Senate seat. Sanders opted not to run for Congress, but his challenger Adrienne Adams decided to take him on anyway.
"It seemed as though my senator didn't want to be my senator anymore and decided to run for Congress. I saw that as a vacancy and an opportunity for me to meet the needs of a lot of people that have encouraged me to run for many. many years now," Adams said.
Adams chairs Community Board 12 in Queens. She says local issues are her focus.
She is proud to have organizational support behind her campaign.
"It absolutely makes a big difference with me to have the delegation behind me," she said. "I'm actually the only non-incumbent to be supported by Queens County."
But Sanders doesn't seem concerned about running against the party, and he looks forward to Democrats possibly regaining the majority with big wins this fall. He says Democrats have a lot to tackle should they win control of the Senate.
"We have to figure out mayoral control, and a real idea of it. But we also have to look at all of the stuff, the bills that have been jampacked and waiting for help," he said.
Because Labor Day is so late this year, the primary is not until mid-September, September 13. The two candidates in this race will square off in a debate on Inside City Hall Monday night.