Shams Tarek

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Shams Tarek is leaving his job as spokesman for Democratic State Senator John Sabini and going to work for Democratic City Councilman Jim Gennaro--both politicians represent Queens.

The move is significant, since it looks like Tarek, a veteran of at least two of Sabini's re-election campaigns, will not be on hand for what may be another tough re-election.

And it's may be an important advantage for Gennaro, who is looking to unseat Republican State Senator Frank Padavan. Tarek brings not only contacts in the state Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, but a long history in local Queens journalism (where he and I both worked for years).

More after the jump.  read more »

Senator John Sabini of Jackson Heights, who is in a hard-fought re-election campaign against Hiram Monserrate, has just had two computers stolen from his campaign office, according to a campaign spokesman.

"We're going to have to be a lot more careful with how we store our data," Sabini's spokesman, Shams Tarek, told me.

According to Tarek, campaign workers discovered the theft this morning around 9:30 and called the police. Tarek said the place was not ransacked and nothing else was stolen. Just two computers.

"It's really suspicious, but we can't make assumptions who did this. John's been a campaigner for 14 years, and this never happened. He had a city council office across the street [from the campaign office] for 10 years and this never happened," Tarek said.

Two years ago, when Sabini ran against a candidate who was supported by Hiram Monserrate, one of Sabini's care tires was slashed.

Next Wednesday [time corrected], Sabini and Monserrate are meeting face to face for a debate. -- Azi Paybarah