Change NY 2010

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One thread for wider 2010 elections notes.

If more candidates confirm, maybe this would be of interest for more than Manhattan voters.

http://dfnyc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2553


"Democracy for NYC will be holding a candidate forum on Sunday, May 23rd from 2-5pm, at the The Tank, 354 W. 45th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

We have invited candidates in 2010 Democratic primaries for U.S. Senate, State Senate, Congress, Attorney General and other races. "

Candidates:

All candidates below have been invited. (They are listed in alphabetical order within each race.) Check back here for updates on confirmed candidates.

Attorney General
Richard Brodsky
Sean Coffey
Eric Dinallo
Elizabeth Holtzman (confirmed)
Kathleen Rice
Eric Schneiderman

 
U.S. Senate

Randy Credico (confirmed)
Chuck Schumer

Congress


District 10:

Kevin Powell (confirmed)
Edolphus “Ed” Towns
 

District 14:

Carolyn Maloney
Reshma Saujani

... ...

Not related, and dedicated to a few Astorians,

http://www.congress.org/news/2010/05/12/moulitas_polling_helps_activists

Some of Markos points are interesting.

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2nd post and already going OT

So will mix in, curious who/m the Dem candidate, for Gov announcing before 2011, would choose for Lt Gov.


And OT

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/incumbent-armageddon-what-to-w.html

It will be interesting to see how incumbents fair today.

"But there is a growing consensus among Obama's senior staff that the best strategy for the fall is to argue Republicans should be just as worried as the Democrats are."

Said one senior Obama aide: "I think a lot of it is going to be hand-to-hand combat. ...
The real divide isn't between Republicans and Democrats. It's America and Washington. This is a continuation of the last election.
But as the party in power, we are more vulnerable."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aq8VW7B4waQU

Cash to Congress

"the financial industry is holding fundraisers for lawmakers at a rate of almost one every business day this month."



- And I did not know Sestak had been a Vice Admiral -

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I think these reforms have strong support locally. It simply needs to be independent, accepted by the courts, and ideally supported by majority/minority/and independents. A lot to ask for, but possible.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/Albany/20100513/204/3266

I. The most and least populous senate and assembly districts shall not exceed the mean population of districts for each house by more than 1 percent;

II. Counties and county subdivisions shall not be divided in the formation of districts, and where it is unavoidable, more populous counties or subdivisions will be divided in preference to those with smaller populations;

III. Villages shall not be divided ;

IV. Districts shall be as compact as possible; and

V. Districts shall unite communities of interest.

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http://www.dfnyc.org/

~ Cash Bar for Drinks at The Tank ~

Sunday, May 23rd from 2-5pm, at the The Tank, 354 W. 45th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

Attorney General


Sean Coffey (confirmed)

Elizabeth Holtzman (confirmed)

Eric Schneiderman (confirmed)

...

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Interesting but choose good venues.

Is anyone more familiar with Holtzman.
Perhaps she should run, but would she really have a chance of carrying enough voters across the whole of the state.
Is it a significant benefit having a younger officeholder?

http://www.coffey2010.com/

http://www.ericschneiderman.com/


http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/good_day_ny/liz-holtzman-for-attorney-general-20100511-kc

,,,

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Seeing the Queens Dem slate does not give me much hope for better change.

powerful organization threw its support behind all incumbents...

A lifelong Queens resident who currently serves on Community Board 11 and works as a legislative assistant to Speaker Sheldon Silver, Braunstein has already received the backing of a number of unions.

State Senate

Shirley L. Huntley – 10th District
Tony Avella – 11th District
Michael Gianaris – 12th District
Jose Peralta – 13th District
Malcolm Smith – 14th District
Joseph Addabbo – 15th District
Toby Stavisky – 16th District



In other news, Queens HS
http://www.queenscourier.com/articles/2010/05/26/news/top_stories/doc4bf30a9978178864384108.txt

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http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/electioncalendar.html

September 14 - Primary Election
November 2 - General Election

Lots of time to enjoy the season for most and for baseball.

http://www.budget.state.ny.us/pubs/press/2010/pressRelease10_revCons0301.html

Not better news yet. Though hopes for the employed to maybe see better wages.
Concerns listed are

* Tax uncertainties (get that settled) * Interest rates (should go up eventually), and borrowing charges  * Commercial real estate concerns

http://capitaltonight.com/2010/06/gov-pushed-into-last-resort-layoffs/

For the next governor.
Cuomo has some very broad issues, but then drills down a bit more.

http://www.andrewcuomo.com/issues_and_agenda

Not yet finalized but unless some primary surprises looks to be Lazio for C and R. Cuomo for D and IP, and likely WFP.
I really hope the next Governor and team execute better than Spitzer.
 :|

Still need better results from NY Senate and Assembly.

Anyone looking at voting other than their party line? I dont see much choice, but might imagine voting another line in 2014.

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A couple interesting notes.

http://www.nyuprising.org/

In the coming weeks New York Uprising will be releasing proposals for non partisan redistricting, budget reform and ending “pay to play” politics in Albany. New York Uprising will focus strictly on good government reforms that go the heart of fairness, transparency and the effectiveness of government.

http://capitaltonight.com/2010/06/kochs-first-pledges/#more-5050

I expect more local and state candidates will sign on.


New York State Senate
Lynn Nunes (D)-Candidate for 10th SD
Senator Frank Padavan (R)-11th SD
Mike DiSanto (D)-Candidate for 22nd SD
Senator Liz Krueger (D)-26th SD
Senator Tom Duane (D)-29th SD
Carlos Ramos (D)-Candidate for 32nd SD
Frank Vernuccio (R)-Candidate for 34th SD

New York State Assembly
Assembly Republican Leader Brian M. Kolb (R)-19th AD
Assemblyman Philip Boyle (R)-8th AD
Jeremiah Frei-Pearson (D)-Candidate for 36th AD
Bryan Pu-Folks (D)-Candidate for 39th AD
...

 :-)   :-)

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http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/06/03/new-york-bill-eases-definition-of-qualified-party/

On May 28, S8007 was introduced in the New York State Senate. It liberalizes the definition of a qualified political party. The existing definition says a qualified party is a group that polled at least 50,000 votes for Governor. The bill changes this, so that it is a group that polled at least 50,000 votes for any statewide office in a gubernatorial election year. If this bill were law now, the Green Party would be ballot-qualified, because in 2006 it polled 117,908 votes for Comptroller, and 61,849 votes for Attorney General, and 55,469 votes for U.S. Senate. Governor is the only race in which the Green Party didn’t receive 50,000 votes.

http://www.nysenate.gov/legislation

This would be a huge step forward. It would give more freedom for voters like me to consider other candidates and parties for each race.

Please support S8007.

New York State Senate
Switchboard: (518) 455-2800

 :smitten:

[mangopaco]

bloody politicians!

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/06/bid-to-save-wfp-line-doa.html

And, Cuomo says no to the WFP,

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/06/cuomo-wfp-no.html

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And, Cuomo says no to the WFP,

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/06/cuomo-wfp-no.html

Really! Welcome to our world.
If only the IP had to offer a real choice.
And strangely the GOP is thinking of creating another GOP -2 party line.

If this bill goes down, I guess less a chance of voting for Dem or GOP.

Seems the CP and the IP have the special interest favorites.

[ditmarszoe]

I hope the bill passes. The election laws in this state are absurd.

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http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2010/06/bill-in-new-york-state-senate-to-expand-ballot-access/

a few interesting comments

and BAN has a suggested article regarding possible NY nonpartisan elections

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/06/02/will-nonpartisan-elections-make-for-dumber-voters/

Schleicher, who teaches at George Mason University Law School, is no fan of the status quo. “The current system of local elections is a disaster,” he says of New York City. “But nonpartisan elections take a bad situation and make it worse. In general, nonpartisan elections are a terrible idea.”

In his study of partisan competition in municipal races, which was published in 2007, Schleicher compared the few remaining partisan election cities like New York and Philadelphia with the rest of the country. About 75% of American cities have embraced nonpartisan voting, he says.

There is a paradox in his findings. The issues that dominate national party politics often have little relevance at the city level, which makes partisan labels a poor indicator for a candidate’s policy positions. “Finding out what party a candidate for Congress belongs to tell you almost everything about her,” he says. “But finding out the same information about a candidate in a local election tells you very little.”

Yet in cities with nonpartisan voting systems, where party affiliations are kept off the ballots, citizens enter the voting booth with no information. A candidate’s national party loyalty may tell you little about his or her views on city issues, Schleicher argues, but it’s better than no information at all.

Nonpartisan elections “take a situation where you know where little and reduces it to zero,” he says. “All evidence shows that voters in nonpartisan election behave as if they have no idea what’s going on and they turn out in far smaller numbers.”

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If you want to buy the Brooklyn bridge, here is some change.
I like the slogan "status cuomo".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/nyregion/04party.html

The use of placeholders would also pre-empt any early endorsement by the party of one of the Democratic candidates for attorney general, two of whom — State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman and Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky — have close ties to the Working Families coalition. Mr. Cuomo, who has moved aggressively to shape the race for his successor, is said to favor Kathleen M. Rice, the Nassau County district attorney.

Mr. Cuomo made his demand at a meeting with Working Families officials on Tuesday and suggested that he would not even consider accepting the party’s endorsement unless they agreed to using placeholders, who under the state’s arcane election laws could be swapped for new candidates after the primary.

But Mr. Cuomo also made no promise to accept the party’s endorsement even if Working Families officials chose to accommodate him this weekend.

“They’re scared to death,” said one person briefed on the meeting, who asked for anonymity for fear of antagonizing Mr. Cuomo. “But they have no guarantees either way.”

A spokesman for the Working Families Party declined to comment on the meeting, as did a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/nyregion/04party.html

http://capitaltonight.com/2010/06/wfp-taps-placeholders-for-gov-lg-ag/

The Working Families Party tapped three unknowns – all attorneys – to run for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general at its convention in Buffalo today, signaling a clear willingness to deal with Democratic nominee Andrew Cuomo, who took a pass on its line.

Kenneth Schaeffer, a legal Legal Aid lawyer, United Auto Workers member, and a longtime WFP member and activist, is the labor-backed party’s candidate (for the moment) for governor.

Maybe Cuomo worked his magic.