By Rich Bockmann
Mireille Leroy said not much has changed in her southeast Queens community since her last bid for City Council, except that this time around she is on the ballot.
In fact, Leroy’s campaign website recycles a video from her 2009 run in which she lists shuttered daycare centers, overcrowded classrooms and juvenile prostitution as the many scourges plaguing southeast Queens’ Council District 28.
“Everything I mentioned in that video has not gotten better,” the South Jamaica resident said. “It’s now gotten worse.”
Leroy threw her hat into the political ring four years ago when she made a bid to challenge then-Councilman Thomas White Jr. in the Democratic primary for the seat covering parts of Jamaica, South Jamaica, Baisley Park, Rochdale Village, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill and South Richmond Hill. Due to what she called a clerical error, her name did not get on the ballot.
White won re-election but died the following year, when current Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) came out the victor in a special election to fill the vacant seat.
Leroy, who is running on the Unity Party line in the Nov. 5 general election, faces an uphill battle. It is hard enough to unseat an incumbent in a primary — Wills won in September with a 16 percent margin over his closest opponent — let alone in a general election when voter turnout is expected to be low.
The odds are not lost on Leroy, who said she is determined to give this run her best effort.
“As far as most people are concerned, the election was over on Sept. 10,” she said. “What I learned [from 2009] is that I have to stand up and fight, regardless.”
A Haitian immigrant, Leroy organized humanitarian trips with the nonprofit she founded, Yes We Can for Progress, to her native country following the 2010 earthquake that devastated the island nation, and she said many of the community-building lessons she learned there can be applied in southeast Queens.
“I intend to work with my community in the same way,” she said. “If we recognize the possibilities, we can come together and turn things around.
If elected, the candidate said, she would focus on youth employment and being an advocate for immigration reform.
As far as a comprehensive platform for the issues she would address, Leroy said she is working with a committee of community members to identify the area’s needs and possible solutions.
“I can’t fix anything if I don’t know it’s broken,” she said. “These are the kinds of questions I’m asking my committee now.”
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
