Heavy Hitting New PAC Takes Aim At Anti-Marriage Equality NY Politicians

The powerful Gill Action Fund has joined with other well-financed LGBT activists to create a new political action committee called Fight Back New York, who plans to target the state senators who voted against December's marriage equality bill. First to face the ire of this new coalition is recently expelled NY Sen. Hiram Monserrate, who is running to re-take his seat in a March 16th special election.

The committee will start going after Mr. Monserrate, who was convicted of assaulting his female companion in a confrontation that left her requiring more than 20 stitches, by mailing fliers this week to voters in his district. The flier shows still frames of a surveillance video that shows him dragging his companion, Karla Giraldo, through the hallway of his apartment building in Jackson Heights, Queens. He was acquitted of a felony assault charge by a judge, who convicted him of misdemeanor assault. “He brutally assaulted a woman and tried to cover up his crime,” the flier says. “Now he has the nerve to run again. Many of us have voted for Hiram before. But we cannot vote for him again.” In the three weeks that remain before the election, Fight Back New York expects to send out at least five different fliers, upwards of 100,000 pieces of mail. The district’s population is around 300,000, but voter turnout in special elections is typically quite low. Mr. Monserrate, who would run as an independent, is facing Assemblyman Jose Peralta, a Democrat supported by the party and many leading Democrats.

In related news, the Empire State Pride Agenda has launched "Don't Get Mad, Get Even," a campaign in support of Monserrate's opponent, Assemblyman Jose Peralta. Visit the above link to donate to Peralta's very short but important NY Senate election bid. Monserrate has formed a new party he is calling "Yes We Can" (seriously) and will not be running as a Democrat.

Adding to the "only in New York" bizarreness, former NYC Councilwoman Helen Sears has decided to cross party lines and run against Monserrate and Peralta as a Republican. And the broken down clown car known as the New York Senate wobbles on.