Seawright's Office, Posters Vandalized, Prompting Police Probe

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Police are investigating after an Upper East Side Assemblymember's office and campaign posters were both found vandalized within a day of each other.

Around 5:55 p.m. on Election Day, a caller told police they had seen a man defacing a campaign poster for Rebecca Seawright on the northeast corner of York Avenue and East 78th Street, writing the words "Baptise the B---- and Her Rabbi."

A second poster was found nearby, bearing a similar message. The man was seen walking south on York Avenue toward East 77th Street, an NYPD spokesperson said.

Then, around 7 a.m. Thursday, a woman walking her dog past Seawright's district office on York Avenue discovered that the office windows had been splashed with paint. The neighborhood's 19th Precinct and the NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating both incidents, Seawright said.

"We’re not going to be intimidated by this hate act and this vandalism," Seawright said Friday. "We’re confident that the police [are] doing everything they can to bring this forward and have this prosecuted."

Seawright appears poised to win re-election after a tough campaign against Republican Lou Puliafito. The race is the only one left in Manhattan where NY1 has not declared a winner, but Seawright leads in-person ballots by about 3,000 votes, and absentee ballots are expected to strongly favor her.

In August, Seawright was the target of another act of vandalism, in which her office was splashed with white paint and an anti-Semitic note was left outside. An Upper East Side man was arrested, admitting to targeting Seawright because he felt she had mixed religion and government by distributing fundraising materials that mentioned a synagogue, according to the New York Post, which was also first to report on this week's incidents.

Seawright is not Jewish herself, but her husband is, and their children are being raised in the Jewish faith, she said.

She added that the vandalism had not prevented her staff from maintaining constituent services at the district office, including a mask and hand sanitizer giveaway on Thursday.

"We pride ourselves on having a storefront, accessible community office. We’re not going to let this deter us from serving the public," she said.

Seawright, a Democrat, has served in the State Assembly since 2015. This year, she was forced to run for re-election on the independent "Rise & Unite" ticket after being dropped from the Democratic Party line due to a filing error, fueling fears among Democrats that the seat could be a rare GOP pickup in Manhattan.

Seawright received more than $380,000 in contributions for her re-election bid, dwarfing the $2,815 received by Puliafito.

The 76th Assembly District covers the Upper East Side east of Third Avenue between 61st and 92nd Streets, as well as Roosevelt Island.

Related coverage:

• 1 Race Remains Uncalled On Upper East Side: Election Rundown
• Seawright Leads Puliafito In Race For NY's 76th Assembly Seat
• Challenger Drops Out Of UES Assembly Race With Voting Underway