A week after Adriano Espaillat won his primary election for State Senate, he held a meeting with his former opponents to hear their ideas for the district.

Espaillat, an Assembly member from Washington Heights, held a breakfast meeting at Dyckman Express Restaurant Sept. 23 with candidates Mark Levine, Anna Lewis and Miosotis Muñoz.

Adriano Espaillat.

The group discussed their priorities and ideas for improving the diverse district. Represented for more than a decade by Eric Schneiderman, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, the State Senate seat covers parts of the Upper West Side, all of northern Manhattan and Riverdale in the Bronx.

“We had a very lively senatorial race,” said Espaillat, who took 51 percent of the vote in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary.

Lewis offered her endorsement of Espaillat, which prompted Levine to say that he considered it “universal” among Espaillat’s past rivals.

“One thing about the campaign is that everyone agreed on the main issues,” Levine said. “We all care about the district and the community.”

During the campaign, each candidate tried to highlight their background to separate themselves from the pack, as each ran as progressive Democrats. Levine, who came in second, touted the credit union he founded in the area to help small businesses; Anna Lewis, the only Upper West Side resident in the campaign, emphasized her background as a lawyer who helped draft state laws; and Munoz focused on special education and senior services.

“I know their strengths,” Espaillat said. “I hope to talk to them for not just ideas but real-life solutions to problems.”

Lewis suggested that Espaillat tackle the spate of empty storefronts cropping up where small businesses once operated in the Upper West Side. She also proposed increasing the “dismal” Medicaid reimbursement rates for independently-owned pharmacies and studying ways to keep commercial rents low.

Espaillat proposed creating a “one-stop center” for small businesses that will assist with licensing issues and provide an attorney to help with leases.

After his primary victory, Espaillat only has nominal opposition in November’s general election from Green Party candidate Ann Roos.

Epaillat said his priority in the Senate is to pass pro-tenant legislation that the chamber has bottled up for years, such as repealing vacancy decontrol—the point at which a newly vacant unit is taken out of the rent regulation system and converted to market rate housing

“The conditions are there for it to be taken seriously,” Espaillat said.

In this year’s primary election, Upper West Side voters gave a favorite son a promotion and rewarded legislative incumbents with another two-year term. Here are the results from contested Democratic primary races in the Upper West Side.

Attorney General:

Eric Schneiderman

Eric Schneiderman

Eric Schneiderman, an Upper West Sider and six-term state senator, narrowly won a five-way Democratic primary for attorney general.

Schneiderman beat his nearest competitor Kathleen Rice, a district attorney from Long Island, with 34 percent of the vote to 32 percent, according to the AP’s latest tally.

He totaled 202,894 and cleaned up in the five boroughs, especially in Manhattan. There, he took 57 percent of the borough’s vote.

In November, he faces a tough challenge from Republican Dan Donovan, Staten Island’s district attorney.

Congress:

Charles Rangel

Charles Rangel

The Harlem Lion handily beat back four challengers in the Democratic primary. Rangel, elected in 1970, ran for re-election as he faced 13 counts of ethics violation. But voters in a district that covers Harlem, northern Manhattan and a sizable part of the Upper West Side, gave Rangel another term in Congress with 51 percent of the vote. Adam Clayton Powell IV, an East Harlem Assembly member, was a distant second with 23 percent of the vote.

State Senate:

Bill Perkins

Bill Perkins

Bill Perkins, first elected in 2006, overwhelmingly beat his challenger, charter school advocate Basil Smikle, in this Harlem State Senate seat that extends into the Upper West Side. The voters sent Bill Perkins back to Albany with 76 percent of the vote. Gov. David Paterson, who used to hold the State Senate seat, campaigned with Smikle in a last-minute effort to boost his candidacy.

State Senate:

Adriano Espaillat

Adriano Espaillat

In the race to succeed Eric Schneiderman in the State Senate, Adriano Espaillat won the Democratic nomination against his rival Mark Levine with 51 percent of the vote. This is a diverse district that stretches from the Upper West Side to cover all of northern Manhattan and reaches into the Bronx. In the four-way race, Levine, from Washington Heights, took 39 percent of the vote. With Espaillat’s assured November victory, this is the first time the Upper West Side will be without a state senator from the neighborhood.

State Committee:

Daniel Cohen

Daniel Cohen

The state committee primary was a race for an obscure spot that only garnered the attention of die-hard Democrats. It’s an unpaid position within the Democratic Party. The committee member goes to the state convention to vote for statewide candidates to be placed on the ballot and craft the party platform.

Daniel Cohen, who advocated for an increased role in local community issues, beat Bob Ginsberg, who held the seat for 30 years until 2008, with 55 percent of the vote. Cohen will represent Democrats in the 69th Assembly district, which covers the Morningside Heights and Manhattanville area of the West Side.

Your support (“We Endorse,” Sept. 9) of two members of Congress who are well past their sell-by dates, and one of whom is clearly a crook, shows your paper’s inability to see past the tired, established mainstream media biases that have made your industry increasingly irrelevant. Of all the years to support Charlie Rangel, when his district finally has viable alternatives! If you are looking for reasons for the country’s discontent (not to mention the dysfunction in Albany), look no further than your own editorial board.

Christopher Stephens
Upper East Side

Democrats in the race to succeed State Sen. Eric Schneiderman recently won endorsements.

Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat got the backing of his ally, Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg, who is unaffiliated with any party after dumping the GOP, cited Espaillat’s independence in Albany.

“Adriano has been an outspoken voice in the fight to reform government, improve our city’s schools, protect our environment and revitalize our small businesses,” Bloomberg said in his statement.

Espaillat, from Washington Heights, said he worked with Bloomberg on revitalizing the city’s waterfronts and pushing for a national immigration reform policy.

“His endorsement is yet another momentum building milestone for our campaign,” Espaillat said in a statement. “I look forward to having such a strong and influential ally in Mayor Bloomberg.”

Meanwhile, Espaillat’s colleague, Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, endorsed Mark Levine, a Democratic district leader in Washington Heights.

O’Donnell, who represents the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights and Manhattan Valley, said that Levine would “take on the status-quo and make a real difference in Albany.”

“He brings exactly the kind of new perspective needed in Albany to move progressive policies forward,” O’Donnell said in his statement.

In newspaper editorial endorsements, the New York Times backed Espaillat in an editorial that supported candidates in state races. The paper cites Espaillat’s advocacy for an independent commission to draw legislative districts.

“If Mr. Espaillat works hard to represent this diverse district, he could become an important leader in Albany as well as a proud model for Hispanics,” the Times wrote.

But Levine was undeterred in using the paper’s praise of his candidacy, despite losing the official endorsement.

An email to his supporters read, “Here is what the NY Times [sic] had to say about Mark: ‘Mr. Levine has impressive credentials and workable proposals for orchestrating the kinds of reforms we keep pushing for in New York.’”

The email also highlighted the negative words the Times used for Albany incumbents.

“The best advice for New York voters is to vote against anybody who has done time in Albany,” the Times editorial read, which was quoted in Levine’s campaign email.

Here are some words and phrases used to define the Upper West Side Democrat: liberal, progressive, civic-minded, reformer, good-government.

So how will a Congressman charged with 13 counts of ethics violations fare in the Sept. 14 primary on the Upper West Side?

If you’re Rep. Charles Rangel, probably well.

Rangel is fighting the charges against him, which stem from failing to disclose rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic and an investment on his taxes, using House stationery to solicit funds for a CUNY center named after him, and using one of four rent-stabilized apartments as a campaign office.

Residents of the Upper West Side, which Rangel’s district covers from north of West 89th Street, are likely to stick by him as well, according to interviews with Democrats.

Before Rangel, 80, was formally charged by the Office of Congressional Ethics, news outlets reported on possible ethics violations. He also gave up his powerful chairmanship of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in March after a House ethics panel decided he broke rules by taking corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean.

Yet Democratic clubs endorsed him and carried his petitions to help him get on the ballot.

More importantly, Democratic voters were willing to sign the petitions, which also included other candidates that clubs had endorsed.

“Most people had no problem signing a petition that featured his name prominently,” said one Upper West Side district leader, an unpaid elected position within the Democratic Party.

Bob Botfeld, another district leader and former president of Three Parks Independent Democratic Club, said the politically-engaged voter understands the subtleties of the charges against Rangel.

“He’s not asking for money to go on vacations or he’s building a house,” Botfeld said. “Rangel is asking for money for a City College unit. So that doesn’t bother people.”

Botfeld believes the most serious charge against Rangel is failing to pay his taxes from the Dominican villa.

Rangel’s prospects for a 21st term in the House are buoyed by his record in Congress.

“He says what I would say if I were there and he votes the way I would vote if I were there,” said Ed Sullivan, a former member of the Assembly representing Upper West Side’s Morningside Heights neighborhood for 25 years. “What else do you want in a representative?”

The votes and positions he has taken often matches the views of Upper West Side elected officials.

“One wants to look at his political history and see the good he’s done,” said Lorraine Ashman, a Democratic voter who lives on West 98th Street. “On the other hand, we’re reminded of the quote, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely.’”

Kate McDonough, a food writer who lives on West 97th Street, recently moved into Rangel’s district from the East Side. She has a fresh perspective on Rangel and called the charges against him “troubling.”

“I wouldn’t rule [voting for Rangel] out, but I’m hoping to find an alternative,” McDonough said.

Finding another candidate for West Side Democrats to coalesce around will also help Rangel get re-elected, several Democratic officials said.

Vince Morgan, a community banker and former aide to Rangel, jumped into the race first. Joyce Johnson is a former aide to elected officials and ran for local office twice.  Labor activist Jonathan Tasini, who ran a failed primary against Hillary Clinton for Senate in 2006, dropped his challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand this year and instead is running against Rangel.

But Rangel’s biggest challenge comes from East Harlem Assembly Member Adam Clayton Powell IV. He ran against Rangel in 1994 and lost. His father Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., held the Harlem-based Congressional seat until 1970, when Rangel beat him in a Democratic primary.

But Powell has problems of his own.

He has one of the worst attendance records in the Assembly. In the last legislative session, from this January to July, Powell missed the third most sessions, with 27 absences. The two lawmakers with worse attendance records missed sessions because one was ill and the other is retiring this year to focus on her private law practice.

For a lawmaker elected in 2000, Powell has a thin legislative record.

On his Assembly website, he is listed as the prime sponsor of five bills. None of them left a committee.

Perhaps the most serious charge against Powell is his 2008 arrest on the West Side Highway on suspicions of driving drunk. His case went to trial in 2010, where jurors saw a police video of Powell taking sobriety tests and admitting that he was not “drinking that much.”

Powell beat the drunken driving charge but was found guilty of driving while impaired.

“This is not a referendum, up or down on Charles Rangel,” said Curtis Arluck, a district leader since 1979. “It is an election between Charles Rangel and a bunch of opponents…. [There is] one who is terrible and others who are unknown. Under that scenario I think he wins and wins on the Upper West Side.”