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August 18, 2017- by Steven Greer
We have previously reported how Margaret Chin might very well lose her bid to become a three-term City Council member, violating term limit laws. No major official has endorsed her other than the disgraced Mayor de Blasio.
Today, a televised debate took place and Margaret Chin was a no-show. Candidate Aaron Foldenauer put out this press release:
Today, incumbent City Council Member Margaret Chin failed to show up for the recording of a televised debate for the hotly contested City Council seat in Lower Manhattan. And challenger Christopher Marte was confronted with conclusive voting records from the Board of Elections showing that he never voted in his life until last year.
Aaron Foldenauer, attorney and challenger for Chin’s City Council seat, commented on Chin’s failure to show up at the debate. “Margaret Chin has failed the citizens of Lower Manhattan and her record is indefensible,” Foldenauer said. “Little wonder that Chin failed to show up at today’s debate.”
At the debate, it was Foldenauer who confronted Marte with official documents from the Board of Elections showing that would-be challenger Christopher Marte failed to vote until last year, when he was almost 27 years old.
“Chris Marte claims to care about this community and was eligible to vote when he turned 18 in the year 2007. It is both outrageous and saddening to discover that Marte failed to vote until last year, 2016, when he was almost 27 years old,” Foldenauer said. “What’s worse is that 2016 is the year that Marte first ran for office in his failed bid for State Committee, and thus, his decision to finally start voting was purely self-serving. The community deserves better.”
Another candidate for the District 1 City Council seat, Dashia Imperiale, was also present at the debate and made a number of hard-hitting statements concerning her successes as a housing activist and Marte’s inability to actually fight for the community.
“As a LES native New Yorker I’ve been a housing activist for over a decade and saved over 600 families’ homes and I have battled one of the most powerful landlords, the Archdiocese of New York City,” Imperiale said. “I’m shocked to hear Christopher Marte calling himself a housing activist when he can’t even save bushes or trees!!”
During the recording of the televised debate, Marte attempted to attribute his failure to vote to the many years he lived and traveled overseas. Foldenauer responded that absentee ballots were readily and easily attainable. “This community needs a representative who will be here regularly for the people of New York, not a world traveler like Marte who fails to even vote,” Foldenauer said.
The debate was recorded on Friday, August 18 at the studios of the Manhattan Neighborhood Network and is expected to air on Time Warner Cable, Verizon FIOS, and other networks in the next several weeks, in advance of the September 12, 2017 primary election.
“Chris Marte’s failure to vote until he was nearly 27 years old and running for office himself is inexcusable,” Foldenauer said. “If Marte is incapable, or not interested, in voting periodically, how can we count on Marte to show up for routine votes in City Council?”