Klein wins big — everywhere but Riverdale

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Across the 34th senatorial District, state Sen. Co-majority leader Jeff Klein soundly defeated challenger Oliver Koppell in last week’s Democratic primary. In Riverdale, residents were about evenly split between the two candidates.

Mr. Koppell, who represented the neighborhood for decades in various offices, narrowly beat Mr. Klein in the 81st Assembly district, which includes Riverdale, by 2,474 to to 2,430 votes, according to unofficial results from the Board of Elections in the City of New York.

Overall, Mr. Klein triumphed by 7,855 to 3,726 votes — or about 68 to 32 percent of the ballot.

Mr. Klein’s campaign did not respond to an interview request for this article.

With the senator enjoying strong support in much of the 34th district, which includes part of southern Westchester and the east Bronx, Mr. Koppell needed a huge victory in Riverdale to stand any chance of toppling the incumbent.

Bruce Feld, a longtime leader of Riverdale’s Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club, said Mr. Klein’s showing in the 81st Assembly district proved how strong his campaign was.

“It’s a considerable victory if you’re up against an incumbent of 44 years where you can hold him even on his home turf, so to speak,” Mr. Feld said.

Mr. Koppell said he was disappointed that his criticism of Mr. Klein did not resonate more with voters, either in Riverdale or the rest of the district. Throughout the heated race, the former councilman contended that Mr. Klein effectively used state money for his campaign, pointing to a Klein-sponsored concert series and other activities as examples.

“All of these resources are being directed here for Klein and nobody picks up on it, nobody’s critical of it, everybody’s accepting of it. ‘This is the way we do business in politics.’ This is not the way we should be doing business in politics. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

Jeff Klein, Oliver Koppell, Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club, Shant Shahrigian
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