the new york law journal: Incumbent Melinda Katz Facing Former Judge and Public Defender in Bid for Nomination to 2nd Term

Incumbent Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz is facing two challengers in this year’s Democratic primary as she attempts to clinch a second term, with former Judge George Grasso and public defender Devian Daniels also in the fray.

Katz scraped by with a primary victory in 2019—though that field had seven candidates—narrowly beating contender Tiffany Caban by just 60 votes. The longtime politician went on to overwhelmingly win the general election, taking over an office long steered by the staunchly reform-averse Richard Brown, who helmed the office for nearly 30 years before his death.

Her opponents in this primary are Grasso, a former NYPD official and administrative judge for the borough’s criminal court system, and Daniels, who has spent the last five years as a public defender.

Both have attacked Katz for playing politics, while Grasso has accused her of being soft on crime and Daniels has claimed she has no cohesive vision for the office.

Meanwhile, the DA cites her many in-house reforms, leadership through the pandemic, and navigation of new criminal justice reform as reasons voters should support her for a second term.

Katz has raised around $2.259 million this election cycle, while Grasso has sourced just over $519,000 per public filings.

While Daniels filed petitions to run on the ballot, she has no active campaign website and has made no financial disclosures regarding campaign expenditures. She did not respond to questions about how she is funding her campaign or paid for petitioning.

The New York City Bar Association gave ratings of “Approved” to both Grasso and Katz, but deemed Daniels “Not Approved.” Daniels stated she would have been approved if she’d taken part in the process, but was still working full-time until this week and was too busy to fill out the 50-page NYCBA application.

All three candidates spoke to the New York Law Journal about their campaigns and motivations for running for office.

Early voting opened June 17 and wraps on June 25. The primary election is June 27.

George Grasso

Grasso was a beat cop in Queens and then a long-time NYPD official who attended St. John’s University School of Law on an NYPD scholarship. He was appointed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg to New York City Criminal Court in 2010, and later served as supervising judge for Bronx Criminal Court, Citywide Supervising Judge for Arraignments, and Administrative Judge for Queens Supreme Court.

During his time on the bench, Grasso created the “CourtStat” program, which helped slash arraignment times to historic lows across the city.

He says he’s running because everything he worked for over the course of his career has been undermined by “so-called criminal justice reform.”

Grasso also slammed Katz for “ignoring” rising crime.

“If the sitting DA refuses to acknowledge the problem, how can she turn it around?” he asked.

Grasso said his first move if elected would be to bring the Queens Patrol Borough Commanders and “put them on notice” regarding quality of life crimes. He said he would also fill missing vacancies in the office to address the “abysmal” conviction rate.

“A common thread of my reputation is I’m known as someone who gets things done,” he said. “The secret solution is I work with everybody; I’m a person who actually loves stakeholders meetings, I love getting everyone around the table. And when people work for me at any level, if you’re doing the right thing, I have your back.”

He said he would also address morale and attrition in the office by standing up to Albany regarding reform.

“These Assistants, they’re young, they’re idealistic, and the thing that makes it such a problem with discovery reform is they’re spending their time with reams and reams of digital data,” Grasso said. “They’re not getting paid well, it’s a nightmare, [the politicians] have got to own this. George Grasso will be a DA who puts this before the elected officials. [...] This isn’t even about making their job easier, it’s about making their job possible.”

The former judge is a registered triple-prime voter and has been a registered Democrat since the early 1980s, he said. When he first started to run he reached out to all the Democratic clubs, but said no one wanted to see him.

Early on, he said he decided to create his own political party, which he calls “The Public Safety Party,” and petitioned as both a Democrat and a member of the “Public Safety Party.” He got enough signatures, so even if he loses the Democratic primary he’ll still appear in the general election under the Public Safety Party line.

“I’m not an extremist, before all this started, if anything Grasso was considered left of center,” Grasso said, referring to himself in the third person. “The political ground has changed but I have not changed. I see myself as running down the middle on a plan that I think can work.”

Grasso said Katz has mailed pamphlets insinuating he’s a pro-Trump judge, but insisted that was not the case. He’s met with Republican Clubs in Queens at their invitation, he said, but that’s because he values independence.

“For the record, I think Trump is a wannabe authoritarian, and I think if he gets elected again it’s a threat to democracy,” he emphasized.

Grasso said he’s proud of the many unions and people who have endorsed his candidacy, including former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.

“He’s kind of like my North Star in terms of what needs to be done in terms of keeping the city safe,” Grasso said.

Written by Emily Saul, The New York Law Journal

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2023/06/21/incumbent-melinda-katz-facing-former-judge-and-public-defender-in-bid-for-nomination-to-2nd-term/