The race for the 33rd District State Senate seat has had its fair share of twists and turns, but perhaps the most surprising thing is how each candidate for the position explains why he is right for the job. The incumbent, Senator Efrain Gonzalez Jr., who has represented the 33rd since 1989, speaks of what he believes he can do for the community, while the challenger, Pedro Espada, talks about what he has done.

In an election that has been defined by negative press for both candidates (Gonzalez is awaiting trial on fraud charges and Espada has faced accusations that his actual city of residence is Mamaroneck), Espada argues that his past accomplishments as a state senator and city councilman warrant a nomination from Democratic voters in the 33rd District. However, Gonzalez says his “constituents know what [he has] done for them,” so he prefers to focus on what he wants to get done.

Espada says he keeps the legislation he was most proud of on his wall, including a 2002 amendment to the state education law ensuring children of immigrants are not charged out-of-state tuition by state and city universities.

He is also proud of a losing vote which he cast while in the City Council in 2003. Espada says that he and “Oliver Koppell were the only two (Council members) who had the courage to vote against the Croton Filtration Plant” resolution. At the time, Espada says he and Koppell wanted assurances that the plant would be built and staffed by residents of the Bronx. “We’ve been vindicated,” says Espada, “(the Bronx) didn’t get those jobs.”

While a shower of recent mailings from the New York State Democratic Committee have sought to paint Espada as a Republican operative (during his final years in the Senate he caucused with Republicans), he says such attacks are without merit. Espada says the party’s powerful are afraid of the shakeup he would represent. “I’m in lockstep with [Democratic Presidential nominee Barack] Obama, in terms of the need to change,” Espada says.

Gonzalez says that the diversity of the 33rd District “means that you have to bring everyone together.”

He added: “I’m accessible and all of my constituents have direct access to me.” In his next term, Gonzalez says he “wants to open youth centers to get kids career orientated,” and eventually “wants to see every Bronx resident have access to quality health care.”

Gonzalez is also keen on pointing out the advantages that his seniority in the state Senate will provide the district if the Democratic Party becomes the majority. “I have personal relationships with the other senators,” Gonzalez says. “I can get things done.”