Category: News and Opinion

Yesterday I criticized the Working Families Party (WFP) for a number of failings; among other things, I accused the WFP, in their effort to obtain the 50,000 votes cast on their line for Governor they would need to retain their ballot status, of misleading voters by printing a statement from Cindy Sheehan which implied she advocated a straight ticket vote for the WFP, when in actuality she had endorsed the Green Party candidate for US Senate, Howie Hawkins.

This was true, as far as it goes, but highly misleading, and I apologize.

It turns out that Sheehan has not only endorsed Hawkins, but also the Green Party candidate for Governor, Malachy McCourt. The whole effort to paint her as supporting the WFP is a lie.

"Next week, the mid-term elections will be held. According to opinion polls, most of the voting results for New York State are already known. However, the likely outcome of the State Comptroller’s race is uncertain. One way or another, Alan Hevesi is toast. The smart move for New York voters is to vote for him, so that on his reelection, he can be replaced by a first-rate candidate, such as City Comptroller Bill Thompson, former State Comptroller candidate Bill Mulrow, Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell or Assemblyman Richard Brodsky.

The replacement candidate will be chosen by a joint vote of the State Assembly and Senate, with each official having one vote. Speaker Shelly Silver, the dominant figure in the more numerous Republican-controlled Assembly, will ultimately determine the outcome. To elect Christopher Callaghan, the inexperienced Republican candidate for State Comptroller, would be, in the opinion of many knowledgeable people, including myself, a mistake that could endanger the pension funds of city and state employees.

“I have nothing against adding more parties to the ballot; let a thousand flowers bloom in our glorious democracy! Let’s lower the scandalously high signature threshold for independent candidates, but eliminate cross-endorsements (except in the case of qualified incumbent judges, who should, ideally, be exempted from facing partisan campaigns for re-election; although retention elections would be an even better idea).  Parties should run their own candidates instead of operating glorified extortion rackets preying upon others.”

Like all NYS political parties aiming to keep or attain ballot status for the next four years by obtaining the necessary 50,000 votes cast on its line for Governor, the Working Families Party continues its efforts to sell the public on the idea that a vote cast on its line for Governor will “Send a Message.”

In the last few days, I’ve documented efforts by the Party to sell the public that a vote for WFP will “Send a Message” to stop the Brooklyn Bridge Park plan and stop the sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village; doubtless there are other local causes as well (“a vote for WFP will send a message that we need a new backstop on the baseball diamond at Orienta Point Park”). More globally we are told that a vote for WFP will send a message for “real campaign finance reform” (so the WFP can score more of what its blog calls “first amendment victories” when they get court rulings which gut the enforcement of such laws), “universal health care”, “fair funding for our schools” and “living wage jobs”. However, if the WFP’s mail is any indication, their primary pitch is that a vote on the WFP line for Governor will send a message to “Start Bringing the Troops Home”.

The “New York Post” prints a story accusing a scandal-wracked official up for re-election of having an affair with a member of the New York City Council. The "Daily Politics" blog, which had previously zapped all such comments, is now forced to acknowledge this rumor's existence. Both "Daily Politics" and "The Politicker”, among other outlets, subsequently print their own items, which attract a number of comments, some friendly to the Councilmember, some less so, saying that the story is untrue because the Councilmember is gay. Other rumors, some contradictory, some complimentary, emerge as well. "Daily Politics" attempts to zap many of these comments, but as the story leaves the blog’s front page, new comments appear unmolested. "The Politicker" just lets such comments linger. The whole situation raises many questions which seem worthy of discussion, but to even discuss such matters requires transgressing unwritten rules of behavior, which although never publicly acknowledged, have usually been unquestioned, even by most of those who violate them. More distressingly, to engage in such discussions requires transgressing some rules one might conclude are better upheld. That being said, there's clearly an elephant in the room, and it seems foolish to pretend that it's not there. So let me raise a few issues.

Every year, we hear a lot of hyperbole about elections – “This is the most important election of our lifetime”, “X’s campaign is the worst I’ve ever seen”, “Y’s ads are the nastiest of all time”, etc.

But I think I can say without fear of contradiction that this year’s election for Civil Court Judge in 7th District in Manhattan is the strangest in memory.

The 7th District boundaries are basically 110th Street west of 8th Avenue to the upper tip of Manhattan.

This year, 2 Civil Court judges are to be elected. As is most judicial races, the winners here are inevitably chosen in the Democratic Primary. However, that’s not what’s happening here. For one of the two positions, there is a Democratic candidate – Rita Mella, who is presently the Law Clerk to Brooklyn Surrogate Margarita Lopez Torres. But for reasons that are both too complicated and murky, there is no Democratic candidate for the other slot. And for reasons that are simple (they assumed there would be a full slate of Democratic candidates, there are no Republican, Independence, Conservative or Working Families Party candidates either.

In the past, I have posted some comments questioning how pro-choice, pro-Gay, anti-gun Republican Rudy Giuliani could campaign for various right-wing Republicans around the country.

But now, I found one who Rudy probably felt very comfortable campaigning with.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared at an event for Rep. Jim Gibbons, the Republican candidate, while on the other side, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark stumped for state Sen. Dina Titus.

Giuliani spoke to Gibbons' supporters only for about two and a half minutes before being whisked away to a private fundraiser. He urged them to do everything possible to get their candidate elected.