State Sen. Adriano Espaillat

As the September primary date draws near, Sen. Adriano Espaillat is pushing full steam ahead in his second consecutive campaign, hoping to convince a whole new set of voters that he is the right man to represent the 31st District in the New York State Senate for another term.

Espaillat narrowly lost the congressional primary against incumbent Rep. Charles Rangel in June. The race went so far as a recount and showed that Espaillat, a relative newcomer up against an entrenched and embattled opponent, had come within hundreds of votes of winning and had rallied a lot of support in the district. When he lost, however, he turned his focus back to the state Legislature, and now he’s running to retain the seat that he’s only filled for a single term.

“I think I come out of this strengthened, and having touched base with voters on a regular basis from January until now is never a bad thing,” Espaillat said of his experience pivoting from a congressional race back to the state level. “It keeps your feet on the ground, it keeps your feet to the fire.”

He’s spent a lot of time in the past year talking to voters, though now his focus is shifted from a larger and majority Hispanic district to a newly drawn and smaller area. The 31st Senate District used to stretch up into a chunk of the South Bronx, cover Washington Heights and run down the westernmost side of Manhattan, but its boundaries have moved south and very slightly east, making a bigger part of the Upper West Side Espaillat’s territory.

“A greater portion of the West Side was brought in, in a funny sort of gerrymandered way. It’s called the spaghetti district,” Espaillat said, referring to a thin strip that snakes across 38th Street to Seventh Avenue, then down to 30th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, then back west across to 10th Avenue and down to West 24th Street. It gives the district a very tiny slice of several different neighborhoods, but Espaillat said that despite the head-scratching methodology involved in creating it (he pushed for independent redistricting), he is looking positively at this new district.

“Rather than having a whole area, you have different pieces of blocks. I’ve made my way over there, and I’ve gotten to meet people in the new part of the district,” he said. “It’s kind of exciting because it goes all the way down to the 20s. [There’s] all of Madison Square Garden, parts of Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea.”

While the racial demographics haven’t changed too much—the old district was 57 percent Hispanic, 30 percent white and 7 percent black, while the new district is 56 percent Hispanic, 29 percent white and 8 percent black—the race is different from the last time Espaillat ran for the seat in 2010. He’s vying for votes from wealthy Riverside Drive enclaves as well as working-class families in Washington Heights, but he said that many issues are similarly pressing to all of his potential constituents.

Some of the diversity of concerns within the district can be a good thing, he said.

“Hydrofracking, which I’m very much opposed to, has a very strong interest on the West Side. I’m trying to get the northern part of the district more aware of that.”

Espaillat will be on the Democratic primary ballot against State Assembly Member Guillermo Linares, who currently represents the 72nd District in Washington Heights. Mark Levine, who has planned to run for the seat with Espaillat’s endorsement, stepped down and is now running for City Council instead.

“At the end of the day, I think I have a very strong record and I’ve worked very hard on the minimum wage bill, rent regulations, hydrofracking, the DREAM Act—important progressive issues,” Espaillat said.

The Democratic primary is on Tuesday, Sept. 13.

The Upper West Side is off to the races.

Candidates for Congress and two State Senate seats filed their petition signatures to get on the September primary ballot.

The districts only contain small chunks of the Upper West Side. But in a crowded primary, the loyal Democratic voters in the neighborhood could be a deciding factor.

The State Senate seat currently held by Eric Schneiderman covers northern Manhattan, parts of the Upper West Side and the Bronx.

To secure a spot on the Democratic primary ballot, each candidate’s petition signature must be valid and meet the minimum threshold. New York’s onerous ballot laws frequently knock candidates off the ballot.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and State Sen. Tom Duane all skirted challengers this year. Francisco Spies, a perennial candidate, filed to run against Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell. But West Side voters are sure to play a role in some critical races this year.

The Upper West Side has a rare open State Senate seat that has attracted a crowd of six candidates who have filed to run for the seat by State Sen. Eric Schneiderman. Elected in 1998, Schneiderman is giving up his seat to run for Attorney General.

The seat is based in northern Manhattan and extends into the Bronx.

Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat from Washington Heights submitted 18,000 signatures. He is the choice of several Upper West Side elected officials. Schneiderman chose Espaillat as his preferred successor. He most recently got the endorsement of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

“I will show up on election day as the winner on the West Side,” Espaillat said. “I have been independent in the Assembly. I supported issues not popular with the leadership and I supported issues not popular with the mayor.”

He cited support for an independent commission to draw the districts in the state and public financing of campaigns.

“I’m not a rich guy. I don’t have Hollywood money like my opponent,” he said. “I have Inwood money.”

Mark Levine, his closest opponent, got contributions from people whose names are more often found in People magazine than campaign finance filings. Actor Ed Norton, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner and Matt Damon contributed to Levine.

The $15,000 Damon donation might earn Levine a Bronx cheer, Espaillat said.

“Last time I saw him was in Fenway Park rooting against the Yankees,” he said.

Levine, a Democratic district leader in Washington Heights, netted 12,000 signatures in his Senate bid. The founder of the Barack Obama Democratic Club, he is getting the support of party activists, district leaders and other Democratic clubs such as Three Parks, Broadway Democrats and the gay and lesbian club Stonewall.

Before running for district leader in 2006, Levine started a credit union in Washington Heights. He has been executive director for Teach for America and a nonprofit that trains staff of after-school programs.

“The West Side is a community with progressive values with activist instincts and a great hunger for reform,” Levine said. “There’s a demand for progressive activists who won’t just follow the crowd and go with the flow.”

He already criticized Espaillat’s ethics after a report in the New York Post showed that a nonprofit Espaillat funds with state money employs his sister-in-law and staffers. Levine wants the Attorney General’s office to investigate.

“I’m running to fight a culture in Albany that tolerates nepotism and insider dealings,” Levine said. “Our community demands an end to those tactics.”

In a statement, Espaillat said he was proud to fund nonprofits in Washington Heights, such as senior centers and citizenship classes.

“I don’t get involved in their hiring decisions. My opponent knows my record,” Espaillat said. “I am more interested in having a debate on the issues affecting the neighbors of the 31st District—the rising deficit, improving our education system, fighting for tenants’ rights and changing dysfunction in Albany.”

The only Upper West Side resident running for this seat is Anna Lewis, an attorney and former judge at the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission. More notably, the New York Times endorsed her for a Civil Court seat last year only to see her bounced off the ballot when most of her signatures were ruled invalid.

Lewis said she nixed another shot at the Civil Court to get to Albany.

“We have lots of good judges but we don’t have lots of good state senators,” Lewis said.

For this race, Lewis submitted 11,000 signatures, which is more than 11 times the minimum needed.

She wants to reform state housing laws and require more affordable housing in developments that get tax breaks. As the only lawyer in the race, Lewis says she can go to Albany ready to write laws.

“I won’t need to go to someone else to draft legislature or help constituents,” Lewis said.

Other candidates that filed petitions include Francesca Castellanos, Rafael Figuereo and Miosotis Muñoz.

Meanwhile, in the other State Senate seat that covers the Upper West Side, Basil Smikle submitted 7,000 signatures to run against Bill Perkins. Perkins, a Harlem state senator whose district covers parts of the Upper West Side, has criticized charter schools and how these privately-operated schools function.

Smikle, a political consultant and former campaign aide to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, jumped into the race as a vocal charter school supporter.n