Category: News and Opinion

Continuing an irregular series on who the likely voters are in the upcoming "hot" elections, I turn today to the 30^th State Senate District in Manhattan being vacated by David Paterson.  These percentages are based on data in the Prime New York voter file and these reports come with the usual caveats – ethnic data is based on last names so are not 100% accurate, past voting behavior is not always predicative, etc.

Likely Primary Voters Estimated Percentages

Blacks    55%

Hispanics 20%

Jewish   15%

Seniors    28%

I have commented on the race for the 20th Senatorial district twice in the past 5 weeks, and what I have written is there for everyone to see. That’s why I blog openly. I use my full name because I want to be responsible for what I write.  I refuse to take the coward’s way out, and hit someone from behind a sobriquet. I don’t hide because I am not afraid. Politics should brook no coward, but alas, cowardice abounds in this "game".

Stupidity also abounds, but thats somewhat understandable given today’s educational climate, with standards perpetually deteriorating. Too many people leave school unable to think critically, or even rationalize well. It’s unfortuneate, but "c’est la vie".  I do believe that candidates for public should be able to differentiate between common sense and stupidity, and when their supporters make stupid statements, the candidates should  immediately move to correct them. With all this as a backdrop, I hope that Eric Adams and Anthony Alexis would get a grip on their supporters like immediately.

A political consultant recently asked me if it was true that 70% of the vote in a statewide Democratic Primary came from New York City and it’s suburbs. I responded that I have heard and believe that was true for years but have not recently checked.

So I decided to look into past primary turnout and here it was I found.

I looked at the Democratic enrollment and the turnout from the last two statewide primaries – 2000 & 2004. Neither of these years are great because the primaries were pretty ho-hum – in 2000 Hillary had a minor Primary opponent and in 2002 Andrew Cuomo withdrew right before the Primary. But I thought it was better to use them rather going back 8 years.

Why does New York City do so poorly compared to the rest of the State on school aid and legislative pork? Let’s look at the budget process; what follows may seem a simplistic rendering of a complicated series of events, but actually gives more thought to the process than that exercised by the majority of legislators in any given year (which is sad, because I wrote the whole thing while waiting for my toast to pop).

The New York State Constitution’s budget process is a Robert Moses created contrivance whose purpose is to rob the legislature of its legislative powers. The legislature has responded in many years by exercising the one constitutional power it has, which is to do nothing. The current governor has far greater constitutional powers, but regards lethargy and sloth as a matter of personal religious practice, rather than as constitutional law. But, this merely has slowed the process in some (actually many) years. In good years and bad, the basic process remains the same.

Are we all so used to the fact that Mike’s rhetoric has nothing to do with actions that it is no longer worthy of comment?

On Thursday, Mike spoke to a pro-choice group and the press reported:

“On this issue, you’re either with us or you’re not. Period. You can’t have it both ways," said Bloomberg, a Republican, in a passionate noon address before the liberal NARAL Pro-Choice New York. "We can’t let anybody equivocate."

Bloomberg said pro-choice supporters must stand tall against elected officials who "try to nuance themselves" away from a commitment to abortion rights "in the interest of political expediency and partisan politics."

Rock Hermon Hackshaw

 

We all know what happened to Clarence Norman recently, so there is no need to rehash old history, but there are a few things about Clarence’s old seat (43rdAD), that many of you probably don’t know. For example, many Caribbean-American political activists have felt  for quite some time now, that this seat is ripe for Caribbean-American representation. The population here is heavily Caribbean-American.  Ask Allan Campbell, Maurice Gumbs, Gail Yvette Davis, Sheila-Foster-Wai, Ed Roberts and others of that ilk.  Shoot, you can even ask Una Clarke.

Back in the 80’s, Clarence Norman beat back a few challenges from islanders. In 1984 he faced two, Carl Roberts and Maurice Gumbs. Two years later, Gumbs backed off to let  Roberts tackle Norman. It didn’t matter, Clarence held serve. Then there was a lull on the front, until Joan Gill stepped forward to challenge Clarence. Joan was born and bred in Brooklyn, just as James Davis was. She tackled Clarence twice; in 1992 and 1996.  I managed her last campaign, and found out for the

Sometimes the one way to make everyone angry is to take the most sensible position. Take Atlantic Yards. The arena would provide Brooklyn a real public benefit, and whatever one thinks about the adequacy of the percentage of “affordable” housing in the project, I defy anyone to find any developer who’s ever done any better. Yards opponents say they aren’t against an arena, they just think the Yards (easily accessible to half the City’s subway lines, as well as many bus transfer points), is an inferior location compared to putting an arena in the Brooklyn Navy Yard (a mass transit desert located in a flood zone). And they are all for development of the Yards (a deep hole in the ground, whose conversion costs have scared away nearly everyone), but just oppose any plan likely to be viable there. But the Yards plan’s opponents are fundamentally right that the Ratner plan proposed for development is just too damned big, and that the only response Yards plan supporters have given to questions concerning how we will evolve solutions to the seemingly insoluble problems the project presents is “if you build it, they will come”. Pardon my skepticism.

According to ABC News The Note, the New Republic has a profile of George Allen that might interest those who have been debating the Vote for Cuomo-Not the Homo issue.

Some highlights –

"Another classmate, who asks that I not use her name, also remembers Allen’s obsession with Dixie: ‘My impression is that he was a rebel. He plastered the school with Confederate flags."

"It was the night before a major basketball game with Morningside High.The mostly black inner-city school adjacent to Watts was coming to the almost entirely white Palos Verdes High to play. When students arrived at school on game day, they found graffiti spray-painted on the school library and other places. All five people who described the incident say the graffiti was racially tinged and meant to look like the handiwork of the black Morningside students. But it was actually put there by Allen and some of his friends. ‘It was something like die whitey,’ says Campbell."

Rock Hermon Hackshaw

The 20th Senatorial District mainly covers pieces of Crown Heights, Flatbush, Kensington, Clinton Hill and Park Slope. It is roughly 63% black, 18% white, 13% hispanic and 6% other. For about two decades, current Borough President Marty Markowitz was the incumbent. When Marty was elected  Boro Prez in 2001, a special election to fill the created vacancy, saw Carl Andrews (Dem.) defeat Frances Purcell (Rep.); he successfully defended the seat later that year, in a primary election against Wellington Sharpe and  Mickey  Haller. Last year Andrews had no primary challenge, and we really don’t have to discuss what happens in Novembers in this district. It’s a foregone conclusion that once you have the Dem. party line, you win the general election.

Am I the only person who thought it strange to see Pat Lynch, President of the POLICE union on NY1 applauding Roger Toussaint saying he’d break the law again?