Norwood News

Fernando Cabrera, a 45-year-old pastor and college professor who, a little more than a year ago switched political parties and moved to the Bronx, is poised to become the new City Council representative for the 14th District.

Following an official recount, Cabrera narrowly defeated incumbent Maria Baez by 75 votes to secure the district’s Democratic nomination in the upcoming general election on Nov. 3. (Update: the Board of Elections Certified the election results on Sept. 25.)

Cabrera may face a token Republican challenger in November, but the Board of Elections could not confirm whether or not anyone had made the ballot. Regardless, in the heavily Democratic 14th District, which includes parts of Kingsbridge, University Heights and Mt. Hope, Cabrera is all but assured of filling Baez’s Council seat come January.

With all precincts reporting on primary night, Cabrera had 1,937 votes (38 percent) to Baez’s 1,847 (37 percent). City auditor and community activist Yudelka Tapia finished third with 1,250 votes (25 percent).

“You did it and God did it,” Cabrera told a spirited group of around 100 supporters during his victory speech at a primary night party inside Maestro’s catering hall in Morris Park.

“Some people questioned whether this was going to happen,” Cabrera said. “I’m here to tell you that not only was it going to happen, it did happen!”

Soon after the results were announced, two young women, volunteers with the campaign, embraced and started rocking back and forth, smiling. “We did it,” one of them said.

Across the borough, inside the Monte Carlo nightclub on Jerome Avenue near Kingsbridge Road, the Baez camp was decidedly less cheerful. There were about 30 supporters, many of them paid campaign workers, milling about, watching the results on television.

Primary night ended with Baez trailing Cabrera by a mere 90 votes. There would be a recounting of all the machine ballots as well as the tallying of absentee and any other paper ballots. Though obviously sullen, Baez attempted to strike a defiant tone as she addressed her team.

“This is not over,” she told the small crowd, which included Assemblyman Jose Rivera as well as Council colleague (and Jose’s son) Joel Rivera. “I see everyone, like, sad. We’re not sad, we’re happy. It’s one percent [of the vote] so let’s just relax.”
Later, Baez said, “It’s not over, they say, until the fat lady sings, and this fat lady ain’t singing.”

There was also a hint of resignation and reflection in her remarks.

“It’s been an honor for me, I never would have imagined that I would have been a member of the Council,” she said.

The next day, Baez went on vacation. Last Thursday, Baez, owner of the worst attendance record in the Council, something she was routinely criticized for throughout the campaign, missed another scheduled meeting.

After the recount, Baez still trailed by 69 votes, a margin certified by the Board of Elections on Tuesday.

Assemblyman Carl Heastie, the chairman of the Bronx Democratic Party who took over the position from Jose Rivera following an ugly power struggle and threw tremendous support and resources behind the winning campaign campaign, said Cabrera would inject “fresh blood and new energy” into the Council.

“Cabrera has a tremendous background,” Heastie said. “He’s a pastor and a counselor, so he can relate to the struggles that families here are going through.”

Assemblyman Rivera, Baez’s political mentor, said he was “proud of Maria, she took to the streets, it was a very grassroots operation.” He said the support of the Working Families Party, 1199 SEIU (the healthcare workers union) and the Bronx County Democratic Party tipped the race in Cabrera’s favor, assuming the result stands. “I know what County can do,” the former County boss said.

Because of her atrocious attendance record and other criticism for running up exorbitant cell phone bills, funding questionable organizations, backing pro-landlord legislation and supporting the extension of term limits, Baez was seen as one of the most vulnerable incumbents seeking re-election.

At one point, as many as seven Democratic challengers had announced their intention to run against Baez in the primary. Early this summer, Cabrera, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage, emerged as the leading contender after picking up the County endorsement, which snowballed into a slew of other party and union support. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. put his name and words behind Cabrera as well.

That institutional support was compounded by the near fanatical energy of Cabrera’s campaign volunteers, most of them young members of New Life Outreach International, the edgy new wave church Cabrera founded in the northwest Bronx 20 years ago (see sidebar).

The campaign, run by a handful of veteran Democratic operators, including County Communications Director Patrick Jenkins, media handler Fernando Aquino and strategist Venacio “Benny” Catala, ran into a snag after it became public that Cabrera had only moved into the district last August and had voted as a Republican in the last presidential primary.

But it didn’t prove to be his undoing.

At Maestro’s, Cabrera’s camp began celebrating even before the results were finally tallied. A mob of supporters rushed the stage earlier in the night before their candidate had even made an appearance. Banging on hand drums and dancing, dozens of Cabrera supporters began chanting in Spanish: “The Cabrera Era has begun!”

Later, Cabrera echoed that sentiment in his victory speech, saying, “We’re going to start a new era of leadership in the Bronx and the best is yet to come!”