Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz thanked her supporters for her landslide victory in the June 27 Democratic primary but warns that Judge Grasso remains in the race as a third-party candidate in November.
Photo by John Schilling
Despite her landslide victory in the June 27 Democratic primary, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz is reminding her supporters that there is still work to be done in her re-election bid.
Katz acknowledged that retired Judge George Grasso, who had a disappointing second-place finish in the primary, will continue to challenge her campaign into the fall.
“My Democratic primary opponent wants to run again in the general election on a third party line, hoping that far-right Trump voters will sustain him,” Katz wrote to her supporters. “Honestly, I look forward to facing him again. And call it a woman’s intuition, but I think he is going to lose again.”
Grasso congratulated Katz on her primary victory while calling her out for avoiding several candidate forums in the days and weeks preceding the Democratic primary.
“The incumbent refused to be involved in even one public debate. She routinely avoided crucial forums,” Grasso said in a post-primary statement. “She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in conjunction with the Queens machine. The institutional advantages of my opponent were numerous.”
Grasso added that low voter turnout negatively contributed to his distant second-place showing in which he just edged out public defender Devian Daniels.
“Apathy was certainly at play. The vote total was anemic. Less than 8% of Queens Democrats came out to vote,” Grasso said. “The good news is I remain in this race. The issues are the same. There have been unacceptable increases in major felony index crimes during the tenure of the incumbent DA.”
Katz reiterated the theme of her victory speech that she delivered with Governor Kathy Hochul and Congressman Gregory Meeks, the chairman of the Queens County…
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