Rock Hackshaw has asked me a few times on this blog my opinion about election turnout in New York and the US. There are as many theories about this as there are theorists but one theory that I believe has a lot going for it regards ethnic politics.

Put simply, ethnic or racially polarized election contests increase turnouts!

There has been no Presidential election since then that has had a higher percentage turnout than the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election. The reason put forward by many is that this first election where a Catholic had a serious chance of being elected President increased the turnout of both Catholics and anti-Catholics.

Rock Hermon Hackshaw

So another poll came out today from the Quinnipiac people telling us what we already know: that Elliot Spitzer is leading in the gubernatorial race. In the immortal words of one former Nets basketball-player, “whoop-dee-damn-doo”. To me this is where New York’s politics appear trite. Of course, it’s an artifact of the “silly season”.

Rock Hermon Hackshaw

 
Sometime in early 2001, I requested a meeting with Clarence Norman in his capacity as County Leader of the Democrats in Brooklyn. I wanted to discuss a few issues with him, and he willingly obliged me. Let me say first off, that despite the many run-ins I have had with Clarence, he has always treated me with dignity and respect. Whenever he met me, he was very cordial, very civil. Surprisingly so, since I managed his opponent in 1996 (Joan Gill), and I actively supported many other candidates against him over the years (Gumbs, Davis, Roper and Roberts/two). Also, I happened to have challenged many of the electeds (much to his chagrin), by working as advisor/consultant/technician and in other capacities, with insurgents challenging the status-quo, since 1984. Even before he became county-leader.

"State and local governments should not reap a revenue windfall from high gas prices," said Joseph L. Bruno the Senate majority leader, a Republican.

Am I only person to wonder why not? State and local governments reap a revenue windfall when housing prices go up, when Wall Street booms and when people shop more. Why shouldn’t they get more $ from people keep driving?

A letter to the editor in Wednesday’s New York Times reminded me why I hate Ralph Nader and his Green Party supporters.

 The letter from Theresa Amato, Nader’s Campaign Manager responding to Thomas Friedman’s assertion that Nader cost Al Gore the election in 2000, reads in part:

 “The writer blames Ralph Nader for George W. Bush, despite the millions of Democrats who voted for Mr. Bush in 2000; Al Gore’s loss of his home state; and the Florida legal battles”

 My problem with Nader and the Greens is that they won’t take responsibility for their actions.

“We must demand that the Speaker of the New York State Assembly and the Majority Leader of the New York State Senate be replaced, because they have failed to fight for the reforms that we seek. The current leadership in Albany has had ample opportunity to heed the message of reform and address the problems New Yorkers face, but they have spent far more energy making backroom deals to protect their own majorities. ..New York belongs to the nearly twenty million people who call our State home, not to three men in a room in Albany. With Governor Pataki on his way out, it is time to show Majority Leader Bruno and Speaker Silver the door, as well.” —- Tom Suozzi, speaking at a conference on government reform.