"CHAIRMAN EATON TO CUOMO–SCHEDULE THE 27th SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION NOW
BROOKLYN, NY – With disgraced Democratic State Senator Carl Kruger’s resignation Tuesday as part his agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to plead guilty to federal charges of bribery and conspiracy charges, Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to immediately recognize this resignation and immediately schedule a special election to fill the 27th Senate District seat for April 24, 2012."
"New York State, and the Board of Elections, is hemorrhaging money. Now that Brooklyn voters have yet another vacant seat to fill thanks to yet another corrupt Democrat, Governor Cuomo must schedule a Special Election as soon as possible – and in the most efficient and cost effective manner possible”, said Eaton.
“The people of the 27th Senate district have been without adequate representation for far too long. A Special Election coinciding with the scheduled primary in April is the quickest and most cost effective way to do this.”
Some may argue that scheduling any Special Election with the April primary would result in a higher Republican turnout – a point Eaton dismisses based on recent history. “Governor Cuomo scheduled the 9th Congressional special election for the same day as Democratic primaries in Brooklyn”, said Eaton. “Congressman Bob Turner didn’t complain about his transparent attempt to draw more Democrats to the polls. He got out the vote and he won."
"If Governor Cuomo doesn’t do the right thing and schedule the 27th Senate Special Election for April 24th, then all should question his commitment to cutting government waste and call him out for putting politics ahead of the people of Brooklyn."
The above referenced press release is so disingenuous on oh so many levels that it is worthy of a prize.
Gerry O’Brien, a smart and talented operative who knows his way around a sentence (putting the lie to the rumor he writes the semi-literate homophobic GOP HATE BLOG “Craig’s Dick Is Up My Ass” –or whatever it’s called) did a great job here.
He probably giggled like a school girl when he finished writing it.
But it’s just so dishonest on oh so many levels.
Let’s see how many I can count before my coffee finishes brewing:
“Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to immediately recognize this resignation and immediately schedule a special election to fill the 27th Senate District seat for April 24, 2012… Governor Cuomo must schedule a Special Election as soon as possible."
“Immediately” schedule a December vacancy for April. Translation: “Hurry up and wait”. Time must really be of the essence.
“Now that Brooklyn voters have yet another vacant seat to fill thanks to yet another corrupt Democrat.”
Now that’s unfair. Anthony Weiner may be depraved, and possibly mentally ill, but there’s no proof he ever took a dishonest dollar.
And it’s also unfair, because, as Mr. Eaton knows the prime enablers and beneficiaries of Mr. Kruger’s politics have been Republicans, so much so that Brooklyn Republics refused to run candidates against Kruger, and sometimes gave him their line.
“The people of the 27th Senate district have been without adequate representation for far too long.”
So let’s make sure that they are deprived of any representation during the budget process.
“A Special Election coinciding with the scheduled primary in April is the quickest and most cost effective way to do this.”
No, the “quickest” way to do something is to do it sooner rather than later.
However, I’ll stipulate that scheduling a special election the same day as a primary would reduce some costs, although not as much as Mr. Eaton pretends.
As Mr. Eaton surely knows, since he controls the appointment of an Election Commissioner, and his Party controls appointment of one half of the Board of Elections payroll, including one-half of all Election Inspectors, the City’s Board of Election has proven incapable of efficiently running a primary and a special election on the same date using its new electronic equipment.
On the date of the recent primary coinciding with the 9th CD Special election, Brooklyn voters in the 9th Congressional District had to cast two separate ballots, in two separate rooms, with two separate groups of poll workers. One ballot was for the Congressional special election, and the other ballot was for the Democratic primary election for Kings County Civil Court, or the Republican races for the Party’s District Leaders and County Committee. Many voters were unaware that they had to vote twice. As a result, double the number of inspectors were needed wherever the Special Election was taking place, at nearly double the cost.
Further, the fiscal argument is undermined by the failure of the State Senate Republicans to agree to a June primary in order to be in compliance with the dictates of federal law. They want the primary to be in August, which I must say disproves that the GOP is interested solely in suppress the votes of students and minorities—since an August primary would be a universal vote suppressant.
But more importantly, the bi-partisan Election Commissioner’s Association wants a June primary, feeling the August date cuts too close to the Federal deadlines:
“The NYS Election Commissioner’s Association continues to impress the importance of moving the Federal primary date far enough in advance of the November General Election to ensure that no challenges and court actions threaten the timely mailing of overseas ballots,” the commisioners write in the letter dated Monday. “We realize that the State Primary date may not accompany this change and our encouraging our legislative leaders to alter the Election Calendar to include both the Federal and State Primaries. We continue to endorse a permanent primary date change to the fourth Tuesday in June.”
In other words, a group made up of people who actually run elections, half made up of Republicans beholden to their Party leadership, thinks a June primary is the only way to ensure compliance with the Federal mandate.
The consequence of failure to agree could be a Federal Court Judge imposing compliance—and since his jurisdiction in the matter applies only to Federal elections, the primary for State Legislators would remain in September. Since we have to have the Presidential primary before the nominating conventions, that means three primary elections this year statewide (not even counting the general, plus jurisdictions with Village and School Board elections).
In their game of chicken, The Senate GOP, of which Mr. Eaton is a wholly owned subsidiary, is willing to impose upon taxpayers the costs of three statewide primaries. So please Craig, cry me no crocodile tears over the cost of having one little special election in time for the voters of southern Brooklyn to have a voice in the State’s budget.
“Some may argue that scheduling any Special Election with the April primary would result in a higher Republican turnout – a point Eaton dismisses based on recent history. ‘Governor Cuomo scheduled the 9th Congressional special election for the same day as Democratic primaries in Brooklyn’, said Eaton.”
Gerry must have pished in his pants when he wrote that one.
First of all, it wasn’t the date of the Democratic primary—it was the date for all primaries.
Secondly, the only public office being filled in the Democratic Primary on the Brooklyn side of the 9th CD was for Civil Court Judge, which, in a year when nothing else is on the ballot, usually attracts a crowd somewhat larger than a minyan, but somewhat smaller than the lines at Movies at Sheepshead Bay.
To further diminish turnout, the candidates in this primary turned out to be two black women no one had ever heard of, one of whom had a name which sounded black, and the other of whom had a name which sounded Latino). The only significant block of voters of either of these categories in the 9th CD was in the relatively small Sheepshead-Nostrand Housing Project (the old formerly black area of Sheephead Bay near the elevated tracks is now predominately Asian).
Almost the only votes cast in the Civil Court race in the 9th CD were from voters who accidentally wandered into the second room after they cast their vote for Congress.
In fact, both anecdotal evidence and the write in votes cast indicates that many voters who heard about the Turner/Weprin race didn’t live in the district, and were angry when told they could only vote in the Civil Court primary, and that many took out their frustrations by writing in Bob Turner (or even David Weprin) for Civil Court Judge,
In fact, I would argue that the Republican Primary for District Leader in the 45th AD between Joseph Hayon and Boris Pincus probably drew more voters to the polls in the 9th CD who might not have otherwise turned out than did the Democratic primary for Civil Court.
Further, in Queens, besides a Council race, which probably didn’t overlap the Congressional election by more than a block, the only public office up in 2011 was the race for DA, which everyone knew was not being contested, leaving a few overlapping GOP races for State Committee the only thing on most primary ballots besides the Special Elections.
To compare such non-event elections to a highly contested race for the GOP nomination in their ability to draw partisans to the polls is just preposterous.
The only race why Eaton might have a point is because of the NYS GOP’s history of making sure that anyone but the choice of the Party’s leadership is denied ballot access in their Presidential primary.
If that’s what you meant Craig, I apologize.