The Daily News endorses Micah Lasher, Larinda Hooks and Johanna Carmona

Across New York City there are 16 Democratic primary races for the state Assembly (but only one for the state Senate). Maybe it’s because of the new campaign matching fund program, or ambition, or retirements. There are three races we would like to highlight today and support what we consider to be open seats.

On the northern edge of the Upper West Side, Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell is ending his term after 11 terms, opening the seat after 22 years. While there are five candidates on the ballot, there are three main contenders.

O’Donnell endorses his replacement, Eli Northrup, a public defender, as O’Donnell did early in his career. Melissa Rosenberg is a housing expert and Micah Lasher was Governor Hochul’s policy director (he resigned to run). The caliber of the Assembly would be improved by the addition of any of this trio, who share many of the same views, reflecting arguably the most liberal neighborhood in America.

But voters have to choose one, and we urge Democrats to elect Lasher. He ran for the state Senate in 2016 and narrowly lost to a very boring Democrat, who began 2016 as a leftist delegate to the Bernie Sanders Democratic convention, but after winning the Senate seat he joined the Independent Democratic Conference to form a group with the ruling Senate Republicans. She only lasted one term. We endorsed Lasher in 2016 and the case for her is getting stronger.

Lasher worked as a top aide to the mayor, the state attorney general and now the governor, where he crafted Hochul’s excellent plan to boost housing, a plan the Legislature refused to touch. While Lasher has the support of the teachers union, he disagrees with the union and its two rivals and supports strong control of the schools by the mayor. That is showing independence. Vote for Lasher.

Another soon-to-be-vacant seat is at East Elmhurst and Corona and has been held for 32 years by Jeff Aubry, the man who led the chamber as speaker pro tempore. In 1999, when Speaker and future federal felon Shelly Silver betrayed New York City by repealing the commuter tax (which has cost the City Council $19 billion), seven members of the Queens Democratic Assembly voted to favor repeal, the most of any district. But Aubry voted no to protect the city.

For her replacement, Aubry wants Larinda Hooks, who works at a local nonprofit social services organization. She’s a regular in the Queens Democratic machine, but that’s a very good thing here because Hooks, a solid citizen, is the only person preventing the return to public office of Hiram Monserrate, a scoundrel we’ve long called Monster Rat.

Monster Rat was expelled from the state Senate in 2010 when he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. The feds then jailed him for 21 months for stealing from the public during his previous stint as a councilman. He keeps running for office again and losing. While we don’t want to see him removed from the ballot, as the Council wrongly did last year (and which is still being disputed in court), voters must say no.

Ironically, the final bill that Aubry managed to pass, and for which he was applauded by his colleagues, would eliminate the lifetime ban on jury service for convicted felons. It would apply to Monster Rat. Let Monster Rat be part of the jury, but not the Assembly. The Daily News endorses Larinda Hooks. Please vote for her.

In another Queens race, Democratic primary voters made a two-year mistake by choosing Juan Ardila instead of our choice of the far superior Johanna Carmona, a former sex crimes prosecutor, for an open seat. Ardila has since been credibly accused of sexual assault by two women and everyone from Hochul on down has called on him to resign. Basically, Ardila has not appeared during his entire mandate. Get rid of him.

Ridgewood and Sunnyside voters must correct the mistake of last time and elect Carmona, who is running against them. The Daily News once again endorses Johanna Carmona for the Assembly.