“Mayor Bloomberg’s legacy is one of disrespect: extending his term against the will of the people and now labeling honest working class people as Communist for wanting to earn a decent living wage so they can take care of their families,” she said in a statement.

Espaillat will not petition

Wednesday, June 27 will be a big day for state Sen. Adriano Espaillat.

He will either have a new job (the Congressional primary is Tuesday, June 26), or he will have a huge decision on his hands: does he start petitioning so he can keep his state Senate seat?

Petitioning for state legislature began on Tuesday. The signatures are due to the state Board of Elections by Thursday, July 12. Mr. Espaillat said at last week’s Ben Franklin Reform Democratic Club endorsement meeting last week that he would not petition. 

“I will not be circulating petitions for the state Senate seat. I’m running for Congress,” he said sternly in response to a question from the crowd about why he wanted two jobs.

Because of an unusual primary schedule this year, Mr. Espaillat can focus his attention on the congressional seat during most of the state petitioning period and still run for reelection if he loses. If his Congressional bid fails, he’ll have a 16-day window to scramble together enough petitions to get on the ballot for his state Senate seat.

Because of redistricting, that Senate seat will no longer represent Riverdale; the district will be entirely Manhattan.

If he decided to race against the clock and petition for Senate, he might be in trouble with Mark Levine, who ran for the seat against Mr. Espaillat in 2010. Mr. Levine is backing Mr. Espaillat for Congress, but at the same time is making another run at the state Senate.