Author: Jerry Skurnik

2007 is an “off-year” in New York City politics. There are no Citywide or Statewide positions to be elected and no Congressional seats to be filled.

But there will be an election this year in New York City and there even may be some Primary contests.

As a public service, I present the list of public offices to be filled this November, with some commentary about who might be running.

This list only applies to public office (not party positions like District Leader or Judicial Convention delegate) and does not include special elections. Also, this list is still subject to change because on death or resignation.

All this press coverage almost a year before the first Primary over a year and a half before Election Day reminds me of nothing so much as something else happening right now – spring training in baseball.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, speaking after a fundraiser in New York last night, told reporters it was “early in the campaign” when asked about former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s surging poll numbers.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” The Associated Press quoted the Arizona senator as saying. “We are doing very well in the early primary states. This campaign … is still in spring training.

According to the press who cover politics, last week was a real good one for Rudy Giuliani. He increased his big lead in the Republican Presidential opinion polls. It was also good for Hillary Clinton who kept her lead in the Democratic polls and for Barack Obama who now leads Clinton among African-American voters.

Of course, if I was writing this before Room 8 was invented, I could have written that it was a good week for Nelson Rockefeller in 1963, George Romney in 1967, Edmund Muskie in 1971, George Wallace in 1975, Gary Hart in 1987, Mario Cuomo in 1991, and Joe Lieberman in 2003. All of those losing candidates were leading in the national polls at a similar time to this those years.

A number of states, including New York and New Jersey are considering moving up their Presidential Primary dates to early February.

Those supporting the move in all these states are doing so for a reason that makes sense – giving their state’s voters more of a say in picking the next president.

But in a few states – New York, Illinois and Kansas, pols have said they have another motive. That is helping the presidential candidate(s) from their state.

As we all recall, the attacks of September 11, 2001 happened on what was supposed to be Primary Day here in New York.

Since the election law still says that primaries are to be held on the first Tuesday in the week after Labor Day, this year, for the first time since that year, Primary Day is scheduled to be on September 11th.

I see a problem with that.

While this is an “off-year” in New York City, with not many election contests to be held, there are some. And outside of the City, some major positions are up for election this year (suburban & upstate County Executives, Mayors & County Legislators).

The NYC Board of Elections held their hearings on petition challenges for the Feb. 20 Special Elections today (Tuesday).

Of the 13 candidates, three were removed from the ballot.

Gerry Hopkins filed the required statement accepting the nomination of his Party one day past the dealine.

Ferdinand Zini submitted only 646 signatures, much less than the required number according to the BOE staff.

Mozell Ducton Albright's number of valid signatures is 960 according to the BOE, 42 less than required. So she is out, though she may go to Supreme Court and try to get back on.

Today (Friday’s) New York Law Journal (no link available) has a story about the possibility that Governor Spitzer, State Legislative leaders, the Brennan Center, Bar Associations and others may have reached an agreement on a replacement for judicial conventions.

The proposal is basically the one I described in an earlier post.

Each Party would have a convention in May or early June. Candidates for Supreme Court who receive 50%+1 of the vote of the delegates would automatically be placed on the ballot as the Party’s endorsed choice. Candidates who received 25% could also run and candidates who did not receive 25% or more could then petition to get on the ballot.

Foreign policy is not something most of us comment about on this blog but this morning while watching CNN report on the upcoming civil war in Lebanon; I couldn’t help but remember back to 2005 and fell the urge to comment on how reality has intruded on the dreams of some people. At that time things looked so much better in Lebanon and in the White House too. Here’s what the New York Sun Editorial Board said –

For those who have been invested for years in the long struggle to drive Syria out of Lebanon, the turn events have taken there since the Lebanese people have taken to the streets is extraordinarily encouraging. The left, the press, and even some skeptical Bush administration bureaucrats mocked the idea that the liberation of Iraq would inspire democratic revolutions elsewhere in the Middle East.

Every day or so, there’s been a complaint by lodged by Republicans who seem to be shocked and disturbed that Governor Spitzer is trying to help his fellow Democrat, Craig Johnson, win the upcoming Special Election for State Senator in Nassau County. This is sometimes accompanied by the insinuation that Spitzer did something underhanded by appointing Republican State Senator Mike Balboni as his top aide on homeland security, which created this vacancy.

I’m surprised that nobody has pointed out that an almost identical situation occurred at the beginning of the Pataki administration when the shoes were on other feet.

Sunday’s NY Times lead editorial in its City & Regional sections was about reforming New York’s courts

In the editorial the Times criticized former Governor Pataki –

The urgency of this task is attributable in no small measure to indifference by Mr. Spitzer’s predecessor, George Pataki. Although he periodically gave lip service to making improvements in the courts, occasionally following through, Mr. Pataki generally shied from expending the necessary energy or political capital to persuade the State Legislature to go along. To the extent Mr. Pataki led in this sphere, it was mostly by bad example. His misuse of the governor’s judicial appointment power to play politics — even to the extent of packing Manhattan’s appellate court with upstate Republicans — has left a legacy of mediocrity and cronyism.