While there was some talk in the media about the election of the first Muslim to Congress – Keith Ellison of Minnesota, nobody has talked about the aspect of religion and the new Congress in the way we New Yorkers are interested.

That is – how many additional Jews were elected?

I have the answer.

According to Congressional Quarterly, the new Congress will have 6 new Jewish Representatives and 2 new Jewish Senators.

The new Congressmembers, all Democrats are;

Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona

John Yarmuth, Kentucky

Ron Klein, Florida

Paul Hodes, New Hampshire,

State Senate – District 11 – 232 of 233 Precincts Reporting

  “By rights, with a ticket headed by Spitzer…running against “…the latest Albany revolving door bagman (followed on the ballot by a Senate race between Hillary and …“Mr. Lost His Condom in Yonkers” …), this should be a banner year for Senate Democrats, but they’ve had trouble even fielding place-holder candidates in marginal districts. “ 

Exit Polls

Now go out and make it happen!

The Adam Green for Comptroller bandwagon rolls on, here.

And Domestic Partner was finally persuaded to write in Green, with the promise that his victory would probably put a stop to those silly videos (as if).

If the WFP can scam, lie and deceive to grub a few votes, why can't I?

So, you’re a political party committed to working class people and ensuring their needs are addressed by society. Where do you deploy your City based troops on election day?

Right in the NYC area, there are worthy candidates for Congress like Steve Harrison, David Mejias, and John Hall; State Senate hopefuls like Jimmy Dahroug, Brooke Ellison, Matt Titone, and Michael Kaplowitz; Assembly candidates like Janele Hyer-Spencer and Shelley Mayer. Surely all could use as much help as possible. Moreover, phone banks can provide essential help to progressive candidates in tough races all across the state and nation.

I apologize in advance for this piece being a little late and bearing some resemblance to the items at a close-out sale (but that is the nature of NYC general elections not involving multi-millionaires). By contrast, before the Primary, I ran an ambitious four-part series concerning every contested primary for public office in the entire City of New York. My theory was that anyone who managed to get on the ballot in a primary was already interesting enough to be a subject worth covering. Unfortunately, this does not extend to the general election, where in my beat (the City), many races go unopposed, and even where there is theoretical competition, most non-Democratic candidates face opposition only from placeholders who make no efforts whatsoever, and are sometimes certifiable (shout-out to Sheepshead Bay’s Jack Benton). Because of the abysmal nature of the competition here, I’ve felt compelled to mention an occasional race in our suburbs to pick up the slack.

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.”