Roosevelt Island's NY State Assembly Member Micah Kellner Not Running For Re-Election Reports Politcker - Democratic Party Battle To Succeed Mr. Kellner Begins

  Image of Micah Kellner From NY State Assembly

NY Observer's Politicker reports that Roosevelt Island NY State Assembly Member Micah Kellner is not running for re-election. According to Politicker, Mr. Kellner said:

I’ve been very proud to represent Upper East Side, Yorkville and Roosevelt Island,” he said. “In light of the slow pace of the appeal, I decided to not to run for re-election because this community deserves an election based on the issues they care about and not a referendum on sensationalized, five-year-old allegations

The Twitterverse reports:

So I'm hearing @MicahKellner announced that he's not running for reelection at Dem club mtg
— Victoria Bekiempis (@vicbekiempis) February 21, 2014

and Politicker has audio of Mr. Kellner's announcement provided by the campaign of Ed Hartzog who is seeking to replace Mr. Kellner.

The NY Daily News Celeste Katz Daily Politics Blog has more on the Democratic Party battle among candidates to succeed Mr. Kellner.

As I reported in January, a power struggle between supporters of two hopefuls eyeing Kellner's seat -- regardless of whether he stayed in the game or not -- led to some bad blood on the East Side.

At the time, investment banker Gus Christensen tried to pack a group in Kellner's district, the Lenox Hill Democratic Club, by underwriting $2,600 in dues for friends to join just before the club picked a president to replace businessman David Menegon, who's also on a mission to succeed Kellner.

Ostensibly with an eye to getting the club's endorsement for Assembly, Christensen ended up winning the vote -- although his backers insisted he could have done so without opening his wallet.

Now the man he defeated, M.J. Dillon, has co-founded a new organization, the Four Freedoms Democratic Club....

Click here for the entire post by Ms. Katz.

Corey Evans is another candidate expected to try to replace Mr. Kellner.

As far as I know, there is no current Democratic Party club on Roosevelt Island. It will be interesting to see if Roosevelt Island Democratic Party members line up behind one candidate.