Author: Gatemouth

Earlier this year, some observers expressed shock that the right wing “Jewish Press” made an early and emphatic endorsement of Eliot Spitzer for Governor. I was not surprised. The endorsement proved that, however conservative the "Jewish Press" may be on social issues, the Orthodox Jewish establishment is more interested in being on the side that's winning, with all that entails, than with any social agenda. Or as one Rabbi once said "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's". Or was that render unto Spitzer? (and with which character in the quote does he identify?)

Early last week, busy campaign workers from the Working Families Party (WFP) began dropping flyers in coastal Brownstone Brooklyn encouraging people to vote for Eliot Spitzer. How puzzling!

The victory of the candidate these hours of house to house physical labor were ostensibly being expended upon was such a foregone conclusion that he was already being treated as the Governor-Elect in all but name even by the opposition party (and sometimes even they slipped and called him Governor). Moreover, since there were no local races in serious contention, this clearly wasn’t a ruse to draw out votes to help other candidates. Perhaps this was an effort to draw votes to the Party’s statewide AG candidate, currently leading by only 20 points, or the party’s candidate for Comptroller. But, even if firmly committed to Hevesi, surely the real passions of the Party’s volunteers lie elsewhere (although the Comptroller has made innovative strides in ensuring that New York State provides para-transit services to the differently-abled; clearly he is committed to the cause of "Economic Just-us"). And, if one were doing this for GOTV purposes, surely one would be trying to juice the vote in low turnout areas rather than among the sort of affluent white voters who never miss a general election (and, if Hevesi were the cause, might be likely to join the Times in jumping ship).

On September 26, 2006, I became the first prominent partisan NY Democratic blogger to declare he could not vote for Alan Hevesi’s re-election. This was two days before Rock Hackshaw, who given his September 18 endorsement of Jeanine Pirro, is obviously somewhat less driven than I am by rigid standards of ideology (and given that he still supports Pirro, is also seemingly somewhat less driven by rigid standards of morality, at least on subjects other than same-sex marriage)[OK Wonk, you owe me dinner].

FW: YONKERS MAYOR PHIL AMICONE TO ENDORSE JEANINE PIRRO – ok to send

That’s what it has come to; a Republican mayor from Jeanine Pirro’s home county has something nice to say about her, and it is actually a newsworthy story.

This article wraps up my journey through this year’s NYC primary results (see also here, here, and here ), which were recently posted on the Board Elections’ website. There will be a summary of my the post-primary observations not made in previous articles, as well as some other things I’ve gleaned from other info recently posted by the Board. (I’ll admit this series would probably have been far more extensive if John Mollenkopf’s maps of the 11^th CD race hadn’t convinced me of the futility of trying to give informed analysis with limited resources). But first:

This is the third part of my trawl through the Primary results just posted on the NYC Board of Elections website. I finished this piece before I learned of John Mollenkopf’s more detailed Election District by Election District (ED) analysis of some of the same races, which puts mine to shame. However, I think the points I raise are still worthy of discussion, so I’m posting this rather than trashing it.

The object of this series is to examine shibboleths concerning the results which have arisen since the September 12^th primary. For example, it has been reported, in the Brooklyn Paper, and in several blogs, that in the 25^th Senate District challenger Ken Diamondstone beat incumbent Martin Connor in the district’s Brooklyn portion, and, in fact it’s been reported that Diamondstone has publicly taunted Connor over this (I’m sure Connor’s crying all the way to Albany). It’s a great story. But it’s not true. In actuality, Connor carried Brooklyn 3864 to 3,806, with two write-in votes going to Tracy Boyland.

“Jersey’s Lesson for GOP
By Arnold Ahlert
New York Post, October 9, 2006

On September 30, 2002, Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli, mired in an ethic scandal, retired – and was replaced on the New Jersey ballot by former Senator Frank Lautenberg.

On October 2, the State’s Supreme Court decided that Lautenberg could be added to the ballot 34 days before the election – violating a state election law requiring a 51 day limit.

On September 29, 2006, Republican Mark Foley, mired in an ethics scandal, retired and was not replaced on the Florida ballot by the actual candidate Joe Negron – because it violated Florida election laws.

“What ifs” always raise unpleasant issues; after all, as the French say, “if bubbe had cojones she’d be zayde”, and if the Democrats had cojones they’d be in the White House and we’d be in Darfur instead of Iraq (but Michael Moore would still be complaining).

In the aftermath of this year’s congressional primaries, many “what ifs” have been raised about the race in the 11th District; both supporters of runner-up David Yassky (ruefully, and under their breathe, or after a few beers) and also-ran Chris Owens (by the candidate himself, in his concession speech) have claimed, contrary to the initial conventional wisdom that the presence in the race of additional black candidates helped Yassky, that Owens cost Yassky the primary.

“Anyway, next thing you’ll do is start telling me about Tasini’s poll numbers. Don’t bother. Most of his votes probably come from the same rightwingers who voted for the boob from the McManus Club in the last primary, and probably will vote for Spencer in the fall.”

Posted by Gatemouth| March 2, 2006

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Tasini’s Citywide Percentage:                                             16%

Tasini’s Best Borough: Staten Island                                  22%

Tasini’s Best AD:
 – 48th Represented by Dov Hikind (Running D-R):              37%

Runner Up:
 – 62nd  Represented by Vincent Ignizio (Running R-C-I)     29%

"All couples should enjoy what my wife and I have enjoyed for 20 years. It’s a civil right,"  MALCOLM SMITH

So there you have it; the Holy Trinity of Civil Rights: "The Emancipation Proclamation", "The Voting Rights Act", and "The Bear Mountain Compact".