Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz hoping to avoid another scare in Democratic primary
NEW YORK -- There is an intense and combative race in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney.
Could it be a repeat of four years ago, when absentee ballots decided the outcome?
CBS2 spoke to the candidates on Thursday.
On the surface, Queens DA Melinda Katz looks like she's sitting pretty in the upcoming primary. She has been endorsed by a laundry list of unions and elected officials, including Sen. Chuck Schumer and Mayor Eric Adams, and has had press conference after press conference about getting guns off the street.
Katz spoke of her primary battle with Tiffany Caban four years ago, which on election night saw her down by 1,200 votes. Absentee ballots had to be counted.
"I ended up winning by 60 votes, if you recall. I don't want to do that again," Katz said.
This time, she is facing two tough opponents.
Devian Daniels, a progressive, is determined to take votes away from Katz in the African-American community, especially in southeast Queens, which was critical in Katz's razor-thin victory four years ago.
Daniels says she got 27,000 votes there when she ran unsuccessfully for judge and pointed out that Katz won the DA job with just 34,000 votes.
"There's a lot of people in Jamaica who voted for me last year who are happy to vote for me again," Daniels said.
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Also gunning to take Katz out is George Grasso, a former judge who also worked his way up from beat cop to first deputy commissioner in the NYPD. He says his vast law enforcement experience makes him, not Katz, the person to make the streets safe.
"This is exactly what we don't need in a district attorney whose borough has violent felony major index crimes up over 50% or more during her tenure," Grasso said.
"I think we have to stop playing politics with people's lives, and the district attorney's job needs a temperament and needs complex thinking, not simplistic arguments to cherry pick data to make someone's case. Murder is down 41% here in Queens County. It is down 13% in the rest of the city," Katz said.
Both challengers think they have Katz worried. Daniels claims she was offered two judgeships to get out of the race and Grasso claims Katz has been calling people who donated to his campaign and asking why they are supporting him.