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In the News: VOTE today
It’s Election Day in February! So if you want to Instagram your “I Voted” sticker, get out there sometime between 6a and 9p to cast your vote for public advocate. The Gothamist has a great explainer, as does Curbed, for those flying blind. There are SIXTEEN candidates running for the position, but of course that can be whittled down pretty quickly to three, according to The Intelligencer. I’ll throw in a fourth, since by quirk of city election law, there is no primary for this race so the city’s 4.6 million voters could actually cast one for a Republican.
A big note: whoever wins this will have to run again in November, during the regular election cycle. But it will assure them of an incumbent position, which they can get in this crowded field with only 6 percent of the vote.
You can find your polling place here.
The Times endorsed Councilman Jumaane Williams, and my daughter and I happen to love this plug his mother did for him. You may recall that he ran for lieutenant governor kinda-sorta on a ticket with Cynthia Nixon — and he did quite well. But on Sunday, the Daily News reported that he was arrested in 2009 on domestic abuse charges. The charges were dropped and the case was sealed, but opponents (see below) still pounced. Who did the leaking is a good question, and Williams has suggested it is just another way to perpetuate stereotypes about black men. City & State says no matter: Williams is made of teflon.
Melissa Mark-Viverito was the City Council speaker before her term limits were up and Corey Johnson, the councilman for Chelsea, took her place. From the Intelligencer: “Mark-Viverito is also making a gender-based push. The top three city officials, she says, are all white men. ‘When you don’t have a women’s voice at the table, it means we are not a progressive city.'” Along with El Diario, she was also endorsed by the Streets PAC, the city’s committee for traffic issues.
Michael Blake worked for Obama, and gets a mention, along with Danny O’Donnell, Rosie’s brother, as a front runner in the “Ask the Experts” feature in City & State. For what it’s worth, I went to a breakfast fundraiser for Blake, on the recommendation of a BX housing activist friend, and I walked away with no real sense of his plan or his accomplishments. Blake also raised the most money, and here is The Real Deal on which candidates “tapped the industry to fill their war chest.”
Eric Ulrich was endorsed by both the Daily News and the Post for this reason: “To ensure a competitive primary and general election, New Yorkers should vote for Eric Ulrich, a Queens councilman who is a registered Republican. Should he win the interim election, the 16 Democrats will certainly primary each other (where a 40% minimum is needed) to face Ulrich in November.”
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I am both a renter and an owner. i’m off to vote and at the last minute learning about who has taken big money from big real estate developers. After many hours fighting oversized buildings in Tribeca and seeing the loss of small businesses I feel this is a priority that also goes to affordable housing. The candidates who took no money from big real estate are: Williams, Eisenbach and O’Donnell.
Anyone else care to share what they have learned?
This position is a giant waste of your tax money, with a costly election today, and per the City Charter, it will be followed by more elections–a primary and a November general election–later this year.
From the NY Post (1/2/19):
“It will cost the city as much as $23 million to conduct the Feb. 26 special election for public advocate — an office with an annual budget of $3.5 million. […]
“The Board of Elections put the cost of running the contest at $15 million.
“And with such an enormous field of candidates, CFB has set aside up to $8 million to dole out in public matching funds. […]
” ‘My thought about the Public Advocate’s Office is it’s not worth thinking about,’ said City Councilman Ritchie Torres, who’s sponsoring a bill to do away with it.
” ‘We are spending millions in taxpayer funds in pursuit of powerlessness. Taxpayers should be subsidizing something more substantial than a glory pulpit,’ he added. […]
“The position is highly sought because it has few duties and is a time-tested perch for political advancement.
“The public advocate before [now-state Attorney General Letitia] James was Bill de Blasio.”
James nails it. The city government needs to contract… rather than be in a constant state of expansion & empire building by politicians. This place is run so inefficiently & so much money is wasted in bureaucracy… it boggles the mind.
Jeff and James are absolutely right. But I still voted.
Same.