RIDING INTO THE SUNSET
‘Cowboy’ Diaz: G’bye
City Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. — the cowboy-hatwearing firebrand who gained notoriety with a slew of homophobic statements — announced Monday that he will not seek re-election in 2021, likely bringing his career in politics to an end. Diaz’s announcement follows his distant third-place finish in the June Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. José Serrano in Washington — a race likely won by fellow Councilman Ritchie Torres, who is gay. “EVERYTHING HAS ITS END,” Diaz, also a former state senator, tweeted in all caps.
The Bronx pol also wrote an e-mail to his supporters, saying, “After serious analysis, of which I spent in prayer with God, family, ministers and after a political analysis, I have made the decision to follow the example of my two sons. My biological son Ruben Diaz Jr., and my political son Marcos Crespo.”
Diaz Jr., borough president of The Bronx, announced in January that he was abandoning his 2021 campaign for mayor, while Crespo — a former assemblyman and head of the powerful Bronx Democratic Party — stunned longtime observers in February when he said that he was stepping down from both posts.
“With the help of God and my Lord Jesus Christ, I intend to finish out this term as a Member of the City Council which comes to an end on December 31, 2021,” Diaz Sr., an ordained Pentecostal minister, added.
Torres celebrated Diaz’s decision to skip re-election.
“I cannot officially declare victory until the results are certified but I can announce that I have retired the politics of hate and fear in the Bronx,” tweeted Torres, who maintains a commanding lead for the Democratic nomination in the 15th Congressional District. “Happy Belated Pride!”
The Board of Elections is still tallying absentee ballots from the June contests.
Diaz Sr. has been a lightning rod during his two decades in Albany and on the City Council.
In 2009, he joined with three other New York City state senators in withholding support for the chamber’s Democratic leadership.
Eventually, two of the “four amigos” would become key players in the coup that paralyzed the state Senate and turned it into a national laughingstock.
Diaz returned to city politics when he won a special election to take his council seat in 2017. His tenure at City Hall was marked by a series of controversies that left him almost entirely sidelined.
The City Council in 2019 stripped Diaz of his chairmanship of the committee that oversees Uber, Lyft and other for-hire vehicles after he told an interviewer that the lawmaking body was “controlled by the homosexual community.”
An uproar ensued as Diaz’s fellow lawmakers — including Speaker Corey Johnson, who is gay — demanded he apologize, but he doubled down instead.
“Apologize? No, for what?” he told The Post. “I didn’t say anything wrong. I am speaking the truth and the victim here is me. I’m the one.”
Even Diaz Jr. was forced to distance himself from his father as he sought to shield his aspirations from the political fallout.
“NYC is a place where we celebrate our diversity and inclusivity,” Diaz Jr. tweeted at one point.
“The LGBTQ community is unequivocally an essential voice in our City.”