Sure, there are laws prohibiting candidates from going within 100 feet of polling stations on election day, but this is Hiram Monserrate we're talking about! The Times followed him around today as he drove around in a sound truck blaring a recorded message, in English and Spanish, "With Hiram Monserrate, yes, we can." Voters in Queens are deciding whether to give him back his Senate seat after he was expelled in February for assaulting his girlfriend. Asked about his misdemeanor conviction, Monserrate said, "There’s dozens of elected officials with misdemeanors." And when a poll worker approached him outside Public School 89 in Jackson Heights to ask him to move the trucks that were part of his caravan, Monserrate seemed to step through a wormhole back to the Eisenhower era:
Mr. Monserrate denied that the vans were working on his behalf and continued to speak with voters. When the poll worker confronted Mr. Monserrate, he said angrily, “Buzz off, man. Buzz off. Go shave, get a haircut and get lost. Who are you to tell me who I can and can’t talk to?”
Queens voters have until 9 p.m. to decide whether Monserrate can keep talking on their behalf. One voter, a lawyer, told the Times, "I don’t know anyone who’s voting for Monserrate. My friends were amazed someone could be expelled from the Senate and still have the nerve to run."
