Dear Friends and Neighbors:

I’m writing to let you know that I am running for the New York City Council seat from Northeast Queens now held by Dan Halloran, who has recently been indicted on federal corruption charges.

As many of you are aware, I nearly won this Council seat in 2001 – losing to Tony Avella by just 400 out of 35,000 votes.

I’m running again this year for two reasons. First, of course, to restore to our communities and to the Republican Party in our area the tradition of integrity and honesty in government set for many years by Senator Frank Padavan and former Councilman Mike Abel.

I’ve been struck by how many non-political people have said to me “Congratulations” when I told them I was going to run. I’ve jokingly responded, “Congratulate me when I win, not now.” But I’ve realized that their reaction says something important – says that despite all the politicians, in both parties and both locally and nationally, who’ve let us down and betrayed our trust, people still respect the democratic political process. Respect it enough to congratulate someone for just entering into it. They deserve public officials who are worthy of that respect.

I’m also running because I want to preserve and build on the advances in public safety and neighborhood quality of life of the Giuliani and Bloomberg years. As many of you know, I ran a public interest group that worked for many of the Giuliani policies that turned this city around – like the crack down on porn shops and squeegee men – and I don’t want to turn back the clock.

One of the many battles we fought along with Rudy Giuliani then has been strikingly relevant this week – the defense of public safety surveillance cameras against the NYCLU and other far left opponents. Of course it was cameras like these that allowed the Boston Police to track down the Marathon bombers in four days, and without which they would almost certainly still be at large. I don’t want to turn New York back over to the kind of politically correct thinking that would have blocked these cameras and other crucial common-sense ideas that save lives.

The 19th District is one of the precious few seats that is viable for a Republican on the City Council, and we’ve set up an aggressive campaign and fundraising operation. I hope to have your enthusiastic support, and will work to restore the public trust in government.

Best regards,

Dennis Saffran

For more information on Dennis Saffran, please go to http://saffran2013.com/