Race for District 30 heats up after combative debate

Queens City Council District 30 Democratic candidates (L to R) Dermot Smyth, Paul Pogozelski and Phil Wong faced off in a debate at the Ridgewood Democratic Club on April 25. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach

By Ryan Schwach

In District 30, one of Queens’ most contradictory and complicated districts, a race is shaping up befitting it.

Incumbent Councilmember Bob Holden’s contrarian reputation in the Council as a Democrat who routinely votes with Republicans, has long suited his district, which has recently voted overwhelmingly for Republican candidates despite being home to three Democrats for every one Republican.

That appears to be the golden ratio in the district, where three Democrats and one Republican are running to replace Holden.

Queens County Democratic Party-backed candidate Dermot Smyth, a well-funded teacher’s union operative; Paul Pogozelski, a local hockey league organizer; and Holden’s own pick for the seat, Phil Wong are all vying for the Democratic ticket. Holden’s Deputy Chief of Staff Alicia Vaichunas is currently the only Republican in the race.

Vaichunas will run without a challenger, leaving the fight in the district between the three Democrats.

At a debate at the Ridgewood Democratic Club last week, surrounded by posters of past Democratic candidates from John F. Kennedy to Letita James, fight it out they did.

From the get-go, the hour-long debate saw all three candidates take harsh jabs at each other, often throwing out accusations of improprieties both personal and political, and spending as much time criticizing each other as they did pitching their own candidacies.

The tone of the debate was set from the jump, when former candidate Michael Lopez – who was recently kicked off the ballot after struggling with petitions – was given a few moments to address the crowd packed into the Democratic Club’s Putnam Avenue headquarters.

“Not only were we disqualified by the board, but I also have the pleasure of being contested and sued by these three fine men,” he said to a chorus of jeers. “So thank you all.”

While his one-time opponents mostly smirked at the jab, the night was young.

Most of the attacks came from Smyth, the fundraising and endorsement leader in the race.

Smyth used a portion of his opening statement to tell the audience to “pay attention to where the endorsements are coming from” and criticized Wong’s endorsement from Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa and Pogozelski’s lack of community endorsements.

Wong, who also works for Holden, proudly owned up to the endorsement.

“Just like Bob Holden, he endorses people that care about the district that gets things done,” Wong said. “I don't care what's the letter next to them.”

Pogozelski shot back at Smyth, pointing out Smyth’s fundraising outside of the district. In the most recent campaign cycle, around 65 percent of Smyth’s funding came from outside District 30.

Smyth responded by saying he didn’t “want to ask the residents of this district to fund this campaign.”

Smyth, the first candidate to enter the race, has long-been backed not only by local Democrats, but by those citywide. His campaign has received donations from a number of current and former councilmembers outside of the borough, including Manhattan Councilmembers Julie Menin and Eric Bottcher. He’s also gotten funds from City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and New York State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs, who lives on Long Island.

At several points during the debate, Smyth used opportunities where he was invited by moderators to be more cordial to instead attack his opponents.

During a period where moderators asked the candidates to say something nice about their opponents, Smyth went after Pogozelski.

“The only thing I can say is a brilliant smoke and mirrors game that he has played,” he said.

“I’m running against a couple of Republicans.”

He was deducted 30 seconds on his next answer.

Pogozelski moved to the district less than a decade ago, and up until recently was a registered Republican. In both his Queens and Long Island homes, he had only voted four times, and not once in local elections.

“There is no political involvement with Paul – Paul is in this for his ownself, his own sake, nothing else,” Smyth said.

Pogzelski defended his record and blamed “people like [Smyth]” for preventing him from being politically involved.

“People that are just career politicians that are looking to take advantage of us, and that's the whole reason why I got into this,” he said.

Focusing on the issues

Not much separated the candidates when it came to their positions on the issues affecting the district. All three are relatively moderate Democrats, and only differed on a few policy positions.

All three agreed that the city should hire more police officers and that e-bikes should be more heavily regulated, a position that Holden has championed in the Council.

Pogozelski – the most independent candidate in the race – differed on a few issues. He argued that police should be required to live locally. He was also the only candidate in support of congestion pricing.

The three candidates’ biggest divergence surrounded immigration.

Wong, who immigrated from Hong Kong, criticized the city for picking up the tab for the migrant crisis.

“We should not spend city resources to combat a federal immigration problem,” he said.

Smyth, who was born in the United States but spent most of his early years in Ireland, said that more work needs to be done to help immigrants operating on the margins of society.

“The reason it's become a problem is because we don't take care of the ones that are here and give them a path to becoming citizens and being able to work out of the shadows,” he said.

Where the race stands

Whether or not the candidates’ attacks – or even the stances they took during the debate – will affect their hopes of being elected, remains to be seen.

“I would say the over-under on the number of undecided voters walking into that debate is two,” said Democratic consultant Evan Stavisky. “I'd probably take the under and I hate betting unders.”

Stavisky is looking more at trends, and more at history when gauging the state of the District 30 race, rather than the specific individuals.

He called the combativeness of the debate a “symptom” of a combative race, and not the other way around.

Stavisky argued that, despite the district’s moderate stances, that in a Democratic Primary, palling up with Republicans isn’t a good look.

“Regardless of how popular Bob Holden is or isn't in the district, running in a Democratic primary as somebody who works with Republicans, is usually not a recipe for success,” he said.

Holden himself lost the Democratic Primary in 2017 to his predecessor Liz Crowley, only to beat her as a Republican in the general election.

“The people most motivated to vote in the Democratic Primary are the people who want to show up to oppose the Republican agenda,” he said.

Under Stavisky’s argument, Smyth’s shots at Pogozelski and Wong for being “Republicans” could be an effective tactic.

“We live in these very polarizing times,” he said. “Those who don't understand history are condemned to repeat it.”

This story previously included reporting that Paul Pogozelski said he was in support of putting Rikers Island into a receivership. After the publication of this story, Pogozelski reached out to the Eagle and claimed he misheard the question. He said he thought the question was about allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents onto Rikers Island, which he supports. He would not support a receivership, should a federal judge order one.