Richard Harbus for New York Daily News
Retired postal worker Maximino Rivera will challenge entrenched South Bronx pol Carmen Arroyo for the 84th state Assembly District seat this September.
He looks uncomfortable in a suit and tie, but the label underdog fits retired postal worker Maximino Rivera just fine.
The Vietnam veteran and longtime tenant organizer from Mott Haven will challenge entrenched South Bronx pol Carmen Arroyo for the 84th state Assembly District seat this September.
Rivera, a Democrat, said Tuesday he plans to focus on youth programs and housing. He portrayed Arroyo as an out-of-touch Albany insider, holding forth in a careworn office above E. 149th St. off the Grand Concourse.
The incumbent, a Democrat first elected to state office in 1994, is the mother of City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo. She held a district leader position from 1973 to 1993 and will enjoy Bronx County Democratic Committee support in 2012.
We want to end the dynasty in our community, said Rivera, 61, who moved to the South Bronx from Puerto Rico when he was 13.
The 84th Assembly District includes Mott Haven, Hunts Point and the lower Concourse.
Rivera enlisted as a Marine after high school and fought in Vietnam. For decades, he was a tenant organizer by day and a postal worker by night. He later became a shop steward and union leader, served three terms as a school board member and managed a Little League baseball program.
The longshot candidate lost a district leader bid years ago and has never held legislative office.
In 2009, he helped launch the South Bronx Community Congress, an ultra-left wing coalition that focuses on neighborhood issues. He still works with tenants in buildings and in housing court.
Rivera organized protests to protect a Mott Haven firehouse from budget cuts in 2010, he said. Last year, he helped homeowners oppose a housing development for people with mental illness.
Arroyo got her start at the helm of a South Bronx community group and developed affordable housing in the 1970s. An advocate for seniors, bilingual education and charter schools, she was the first Hispanic woman elected to the Assembly and won reelection in 2010 with 91 of the v ote.
My 18 years in the Assembly. . . means I know the ropes, she said in a written statement.
My district trusts me. I have never let them down.
But Rivera believes he can unseat the grandmother of Bronx politics. He boasts name recognition thanks to his work with tenants and claims he can count on numerous buildings for support.
The district continues to suffer from high unemployment and Arroyo has sponsored only three bills over the past year, fewest among Bronx assembly members.
In 2010, her grandson was sentenced to a year in prison for looting an Arroyo-linked nonprofit.
Rivera argues that few young people know Arroyo because her district office is located on an upper floor of a large building.
We want to have a storefront office, he said.
dbeekman@nydailynews.com
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