Baldeo, an Ozone Park attorney who has run for several elected offices in the past decade, said he is collecting signatures to meet Monday’s deadline to be on the ballot for the Nov. 2 special election for the 28th Council district.
“This is taking my advocacy and community leadership to a new level,” he said.
The 28th Council district includes the neighborhoods of Jamaica, Rochdale Village, Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park. Other candidates officially in the running for the non-partisan election include Leroy Gadsden, the president of the Jamaica NAACP, Nicole Paultre-Bell, Ruben Wills and Allan Jennings, who held the seat from 2001-2005.
Baldeo was defeated by White in the 2005 Democratic primary and the next year he came within 900 votes of defeating state Sen. Serphin Maltese. He was slated to take on Joseph Addabbo in the 2008 Democratic primrary for Maltese’s seat, but dropped out of the race and endorsed his opponent, who went on to win the seat.
Last year, he collected funds for a shot at the seat left open by indicted state Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, but the Queens Democrats chose Michael Miller to run the special election.
