Northwest Bronx Indivisible Statement on the 33rd District Race for New York State Senate

Since National Indivisible was formed in early 2017 following the Trump election, hundreds of Indivisible groups like ours have been fighting to save our democracy from the efforts of those trying to undermine our electoral system.

To date, most of Northwest Bronx Indivisible’s democracy focus has been on elections with national impact, but today we turn our attention to local politics and the upcoming August 23rd Democratic primary for the New York State Senate seat in the 33rd District. In recent weeks there have been campaign attack ads by a corporate PAC accusing State Senator Gustavo Rivera of antisemitism.  Northwest Bronx Indivisible is not endorsing either of the two candidates – Miguelina Camilo or Gustavo Rivera – but we explicitly condemn these scurrilous ads. We do not believe Senator Rivera to be anti-Semitic, and we urge voters to disregard any such campaign ads and claims in making their voting decisions in this contest.

There is no place for such defamatory personal attacks in a civil political discourse for this or any other election race.  Elections should be judged on candidate records, political philosophies, and the voters judgements on which candidate can best represent their district.

We call upon Ms. Camilo’s campaign to issue a public statementdistancing itself from the accusation that her opponent is an anti-Semite.  We further urge both candidates’ campaigns to run positive campaigns as we move to next week’s August 23rd primary, and to ask all of their supporters to end negative campaigning of any kind.

Early voting for this primary race continues through Sunday, August 21st. Primary day is Tuesday, August 23rd.

Please make your voice heard on the decision on who should represent the 33rd State Senate District!