It’s been three months since Hiram Monserrate lost his bid to regain his former state senate seat – but the disgraced politician is taking another stab at politics.
Monserrate filed petitions Tuesday in hopes of being placed on the Democratic primary ballot for the 39th Assembly District Seat in Queens.
The former senator is running for the seat that once belonged to the man who currently holds his former seat, New York Senator Jose R. Peralta.
Peralta won the vacated seat by a landslide in a special election on March 16, 2010. The seat was left vacant after the state senate expelled Monserrate in Feburary. His expulsion was due to his conviction of recklessly injuring his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, after he dragged her through the lobby of his apartment.
The disgraced senator faces tough opposition in the September primary. Monserrate will be squaring off against Cablevision official Francisco Moya. Moya submitted more than 4,000 signatures in order to get on primary ballot, according to the Daily News. He has also garnered a tremendous amount of support from New York Democrats and has the endorsement of the Working Families Party, giving Moya a second line on the ballot.
The candidates submitted thir signature just in time for a new Sienna College poll.
“Voters are not impressed – to say the least – with state leaders’ handling of this year’s budget. Forty-seven
percent of voters say the Legislature deserves a failing grade," said Sienna College pollster Steven Greenberg.
The poll released today, asked 760 New Yorkers their opinion of the state legislature. Nearly half of New Yorkers give the State Legislature an “F” for its work on the state budget this year, while about one-quarter say Governor David Paterson deserves a failing grade," according to a SienaCollege poll of registered New York voters.
