UFT ENDORSEMENT APPEARS TO FALL SHORT FOR KATZ

In the closely watched race for Queens District Attorney, it looks like Melinda Katz is going to lose to Tiffany Caban. Katz was strongly endorsed by the UFT as the Union is a part of the Democratic Party establishment.

The UFT could not come through again in a really close race. I have nothing against Katz who was very helpful with Jamaica High School issues as the Borough President. When the UFT endorses and can't win a close one, that hurts us a bit.

That's two in a row for the progressives in Queens as AOC last year beat Joseph Crowley. Maybe times are changing. They are not changing at the UFT.

From Vox:

Tiffany Cabán seems poised to win in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the Queens district attorney race — potentially giving a big victory to criminal justice reformers who want to end the war on drugs and mass incarceration.

The Queens race may seem like a small local news story. But it’s not — Queens has more people than 15 states and Washington, DC, so the race is a huge deal to a lot of people. And this is the kind of story that really matters for criminal justice reform, because district attorneys and other prosecutors hold tremendous power over the systems that oversee all incarceration in the US.

The race was too close to call as of early Wednesday afternoon. But Cabán declared victory late Tuesday night, telling the crowd at her watch party, “We did it, y’all.” New York Working Families Party Director Bill Lipton described the likely victory in sweeping terms: “Queens is turned upside down. Giants fall and empires crumble.”

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Cabán, a 31-year-old public defender, led Melinda Katz, Queens borough president, by nearly 1,100 votes, or around 1.3 percentage points, in a field of six candidates (although seven remain on the ballot). About 3,400 absentee ballots remain to be counted. The final results may not be known until July 3, according to the New York Times.