There was supposed to be a party. The word ahead of time was that Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Angel Vasquez, his newest political protege, would be celebrating on election night at Quisqueya Plaza in his Upper Manhattan congressional district. All of his political allies would be there, including the younger, Dominican American elected officials who he helped guide into office, helping secure his reputation as the preeminent political power broker north of Central Park and the leading Dominican elected official in the United States.
Instead, election night was spent in a sweaty ground floor office, under harsh fluorescent lighting, where Espaillat leaned over the shoulder of an aide refreshing the election night returns page. Vasquez would lose handily and so would another Dominican American candidate who Espaillat supported for the state Senate, Miguelina Camilo. His effort to unseat two incumbents – one Black, one Puerto Rican – had failed.
A quarter past 10 p.m., Espaillat emerged from the backroom. Some 50 people were gathered in front of the building on Sherman Avenue in Inwood, next to La Casa del Mofongo. “We’ve been here, we’ve been as a club – Northern Manhattan Democrats for Change was started back in 1993 when I was elected district leader. And it’s still going strong,” he said. “We tried to empower a community that at one point felt that it did not have a voice. And I think we’ve done a tremendous job in doing that.”
Espaillat himself had just won his primary, but with only token opposition. His focus had been on electing Vasquez. That would have gotten another ally into office in state Senate District 31 and would have removed a frequent political opponent, state Sen. Robert Jackson, from office. After speaking, Espaillat walked down the street to his waiting black SUV. A man sitting on a plastic chair outside the El Bodegon deli lit up when he saw him, congratulating him – “Felicidades!” The sidewalk was littered with palm cards that featured Vasquez and Espaillat next to each other. Building up Dominican political power was never going to be easy – even if Espaillat had been making it look that way.
Espaillat is no stranger to losing elections. He lost his first two New York City Council races and lost two House primaries before getting elected on his third try in 2016. But his proxy losses in the August primaries were surprising: They ended what might have been the most impressive modern winning streak in New York City politics.
In March 2021, there was a special election to fill the central Bronx City Council seat that Rep. Ritchie Torres left when he went to Congress. Three other candidates had bigger endorsements and more money behind them. But it was Oswald Feliz who won, with Espaillat’s backing. Three months later, three more Espaillat protégés won in crowded, competitive races for open City Council seats. Carmen De La Rosa, who served as Espaillat’s campaign manager before he helped her get elected to an Upper Manhattan Assembly seat in 2016, moved to the council. Shaun Abreu and Pierina Sanchez got in too, and Feliz was reelected. In early 2022, there was a special election to fill De La Rosa’s Assembly seat. Espaillat worked the inside game, and a longtime ally, Manny De Los Santos, won the Democratic Party line at the county committee meeting. He was elected comfortably. Months later came the June primaries. Candidates across the city had been plotting for months to unseat incumbents. Out of 29 Assembly primaries, Espaillat’s guy, George Alvarez, was the only one to actually do it. Assembly Member José Rivera’s star had dimmed considerably since his days as Bronx Democratic Party leader, but he was still an institution in the heart of the borough, someone who had held office for 40 years. Another Rivera opponent in that v race, Emmanuel Martinez, had a super PAC spending nearly $1 million to get him elected. Alvarez, a consultant who had…