A Paucity of Choices

Few Challengers, and Fewer Issues, in Council Races

Comments (0) By Michael Anstendig & Wayne Barrett Tuesday, Sep 2 2003

...continued from page 1

What's with the headdress? Bushwick incumbent Diana Reyna might be regretting her choice of outfits after she marched in a carnival parade during a fact-finding mission to Trinidad and Tobago. The attire included an elaborate headdress and a sexy top. Little did she know that her image would wind up on a flyer distributed at the Bushwick Houses, a 1,200-unit public housing complex, with a marksman's bull's-eye superimposed on her face, along with the caption, "Target Reyna." The flyer, certainly inappropriate after the Davis murder, went on to recklessly accuse Reyna of sending city money to Trinidad.

Reyna, a Dominican in a Puerto Rican district, is supported by Assemblyman Vito Lopez. Her challenger, Juan Martinez, is head of the school board and supported by Congresswoman Nydia M. Velásquez. Some consider the Reyna-Martinez slap-down to be, in reality, a proxy war between Lopez and Velásquez.

Research assistance: Phineas Lambert, Sarah Ruffler, and Brittany Schaeffer