POLITICAL ARENA

The Press has not endorsed any candidates

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A campaign mailer distributed by Alessandra Biaggi’s senatorial campaign features news headlines addressing Biaggi’s opponent, state Sen. Jeffrey Klein and his former Independent Democratic Conference.

One of the headlines, however, was pulled from an April edition of The Riverdale Press, exclaiming, “How can we trust anything Sen. Jeff Klein, IDC say?” It includes a logo of the newspaper, and a publication date of April 20.

The headline, however, did not come from the editorial staff, but instead from a Point of View opinion piece submitted by reader Gene Binder, and was actually published the day before, on April 19.

In a statement, Biaggi press secretary David Neustadt said both the headline and Binder’s opinion piece convey “an important point.”

“It was not our intention to suggest that the headline conveyed the position of The Riverdale Press itself,” Neustadt said. 

“We value the excellent objective journalism provided by The Riverdale Press and its value to the community. Going forward, we will clearly identify when headlines are from opinion pieces.”

Continuing a long-standing tradition, The Press will not make any endorsements in the campaign, which Democratic voters will decide Sept. 13.

 

Klein has plenty of money, but Biaggi is raising, too

With just a few weeks left before Democrats head to the polls to decide who will represent the ticket in the 34th state senate district, political newcomer Alessandra Biaggi has picked up an additional $76,800 — a vast majority from individual donors and partnerships, according to state campaign records.

That gives Biaggi just under $276,000 on-hand to try and unseat state Sen. Jeffrey Klein. 

But despite raising less than $15,000 over the same period, Klein won’t have to sweat too much, at least on the financial side. 

Despite spending more than $550,000, he still has $1.6 million in the bank.

Both will look for votes in the Sept. 13 primary, with Democrats eyeing their first majority in the upper chamber since 2008.

Jeffrey Klein, Alessandra Biaggi, Gene Binder, David Neustadt, Michael Hinman,

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