William Boyland (Photo: Facebook)
As Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. battles his second set of corruption charges, the pool of candidates circling his seat continues to grow.
The latest two prospective candidates to file campaign committees for the seat, Royston Antoine and Bilal Malik, are both candidates who unsuccessfully campaigned against Mr. Boyland in 2008 as well.
Mr. Antoine, whose 2008 Assembly campaign website jubilantly describes him as "Uncle Roy," is a small business owner and a former 2005 City Council candidate. Mr. Malik is a former school board member who ran against Mr. Boyland in at least 2006 as well.
Mr. Malik and Mr. Antoine join a crowded field that contains no less than five other candidates, including community activists Tony Herbert and Anthony Jones, Nathan Bradley, the Deputy Chief of Staff to John Sampson, public school teacher Dion Turner, and Mr. Boyland himself.
The crowded field creates a complex dynamic to the race. If Mr. Boyland were to plead guilty to any felony, it could trigger a special election where only one candidate receives the official nod of the Democratic Party. Conversely, if Mr. Boyland were to hang on and campaign for reelection, the other candidates could split the anti-Boyland vote in a low-turnout affair, letting the incumbent skirt by with a mere plurality of the vote.