Author: Jerry Skurnik

Thanks to a former Governor, anyone reading this knows that Thursday was the deadline for candidates to file designating petitions for the Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Working Families, Green & Independence Parties.

Prime News, our annual recap of local election results will be mailed on Wednesday to those on our mailing list. If anyone not on our list wants a copy or if you just can't wait, you can email me at primeny711@aol.com and I'll send you a PDF.

People involved in public affairs tend to see every major event as proof that their previously held theories are correct.

For instance, after the indictment of Malcolm Smith, Mayor Bloomberg said that partisan elections were a reason for the alleged crimes.

An important change in City elections kicks in this year and very few people seem to know about it.

Because of changes in the City Charter, that override the State Election law in local elections, the signature requirements to get on the ballot have been lowered drastically.

Now that Room 8 seems to be functioning, I'm joining Gatemouth in coming back.

Some of you may remember that in 2007, I postulated a theory of the two electorates – a small group of well informed voters and a massive group that could care less about politics. And I suggested that cable TV & the web were largely responsible for this

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/jerry_skurnik/the_theory_of_the_two_electorates.html

This week's Economist has a story that, whicle focusing on cable news, makes many of the same points.

Here it is –

Designating petitions have now been filed with Board of Elections and we can now see where likely September Primary contests will occur.

This list is subject to change as candidates will withdraw or be removed from the ballot after petitions are reviewed.

There are also probably typos & omissions on the list I received.

The Board of Elections has now released the voter history for those who voted in the recent Storobin-Fidler Special Election.

While it’s a little late, as we have had a Statewide Primary election to digest since then, I thought it would be interesting to compare the Special Election voters to all voters in the (soon to disappear) 27^th Senate District.

Party breakdown

News and Opinion

My partner, Stu Osnow, has decided I should tweet. Against my better judgment, I have started. You can “follow” me at Twitter @primenewyork