Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer (Photo: NYC Council)
Jan. 19, 2021 By Christina Santucci
Three weeks after hinting to the Queens Post that he was considering running for Queens Borough President, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer has launched his bid for the seat–announcing his run in a video posted to YouTube Tuesday morning.
“It’s time for a new vision for Queens where working New Yorkers get ahead – not real estate developers who put profits before people. Where we tax millionaires and billionaires and reimagine affordable housing. Where we invest more resources in black and brown communities and not the NYPD,” Van Bramer said in the video.
Van Bramer, who currently represents Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City and Dutch Kills, will face his former Council colleague Donovan Richards who assumed the Queens Borough President office last month.
Last year Richards won both a primary and general election for the remainder of former Borough President Melinda Katz’s term, which is scheduled to conclude Dec. 31. Katz had left the BP seat to take over as Queens District Attorney.
Van Bramer initially ran in last year’s race for borough president but withdrew in January 2020, citing family concerns.
“About this time last year, it took a heavy toll on me, and I wasn’t in a good place to mount the run,” he told the Queens Post in a podcast. “If you are ready to run, you have to be all in.”
During the interview, Van Bramer spoke about how the pandemic forced him—along with his siblings–to devise a plan to care for his elderly mother’s health problems.
“I am in a position to run,” he said during the podcast.
When asked what he thought about his chances, Van Bramer said, “I wouldn’t enter a race that I didn’t think I had a chance of winning.”
“If there is a principled reason to run, if there are issues that really should be aired and should be discussed, and if there is a values-based platform that I think is important to share, then I would run,” he continued.
Van Bramer, who advocated against Amazon coming to Long Island City and was opposed to the recent Flushing waterfront rezoning, has already picked up the endorsements of State Senator Jessica Ramos and Assembly member Ron Kim.
According to the New York City Campaign Finance Board, Danniel Maio, a mapmaker from Forest Hills; Stan Morse, tenant organizer with the Justice for All Coalition; and Diane S. Sanchez have also filed candidate certifications for the BP seat.
It’s time for a new vision for Queens, where working families get ahead. Together we can say “yes” to a future that works for *all* of us. I’m so proud to announce my campaign for Queens Borough President ?
(Subtitles available in English & Spanish) https://t.co/bG3xyLc8OP— Jimmy Van Bramer (@JimmyVanBramer) January 19, 2021
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9 Comments
Oh hell no
I’m a proud democrat and I’m excited to have an opportunity to vote for any other Dem over JVB.
Give him a break. He’s stillworking really hard to get the police cars off the sidewalk on 50th Avenue.
He is absolutely the worst. Last thing we need in the city in another deblasio–career do nothing politician spending $$ on pet projects. He has done nothing but overspend. His actions over the summer were shameful and he obviously has no sense of his own terrible failures. He is a joke as bad as Trump.
He has no track record that he’d have ideas for small, medium or large businesses to succeed in Queens. He’s proven to be both anti-business and biased by using his own personal opinions on Amazon’s business model to keep them away from Queens.
He has not track record that he’ll bring people together. When the LIC waterfront needed him, he bashed the population that felt they needed to spend their own money for private security by dividing us and saying they are rich.
If Queens is a diverse community, you do not elect a leader who has bias, is anti-business and pits people against each other. Queens is what he wants it to be. No thank you. He is not a leader for all.
Good grief! Does this snarky little clown have any awareness of how much he’s disliked? He’s done nothing for his district so what’s he going to do as BP?
New vision same old flip flopping Jimmy. Give it up already JVB you’ll never be Queens Borough President no matter how bad you want it. The majority of us in the nabe are exhausted with you, same as Trump who exhausted all of us.
He was first elected to the NYC Council in 2009. As a result of term limits, he will be out of a job at the end of 2021. Now he had to find another public office to run for. Is he really different from any other another career club house politician using the perks of one office at taxpayers expense to run for another?.
Larry Penner
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Always love a good joke.