Astoria City Council Hopefuls Leave Race To Back Tiffany Cabán

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The long list of candidates running for a City Council seat representing Astoria is starting to slim down.

Two of the nine people who registered campaigns with the city have since dropped out to back Tiffany Cabán, a public defender who became a celebrity in progressive political circles after coming within dozens of votes of winning last year's race for Queens district attorney.

Rod Townsend, a Queens Community Board 1 member and former president of the Stonewall Democratic Club, left the race Thursday to back Cabán's bid for the seat, which will open up next year when current officeholder Costa Constantinides is term-limited.

"As for what is next for City Council District 22, I think it’s Tiffany Cabán," Townsend wrote in an
email to supporters. “We share a moral compass that leads us to fight for our whole community, not just a selected few. We both recognize that our city needs to tear down systems that don’t work and rebuild them so they work for everyone."

The day Cabán announced her City Council campaign, standing in the same restaurant where she conceded the district attorney race to former Queens Borough President Melinda Katz just over a year before, Queens organizer Jesse Cerotti announced he was ending his campaign and endorsing Cabán.

"I am choosing to suspend my City Council campaign because we now have the opportunity to

elect a public defender, to elect a proven fighter of criminal justice reforms, and someone who
has been a mentor and teacher to me during her Queens District Attorney campaign," Cerrotti wrote in his Sept. 10 announcement. "Tiffany Cabán holds the values and work ethic that every member of the City Council in the greatest city in our country should aspire to."

Cabán has already won the endorsement of the Working Families Party, which she joined as an organizer last year after her loss to Katz, and the labor coalition Road to Justice NYC, which includes Make the Road Action, the union 1199SEIU and Community Voices Heard.

Constantinides this summer endorsed Nick Roloson, his chief of staff, to replace him.