Voter Suppression Works in NY - No Early Voting, No Registration on Election Day, BOE and Petitions Stop Challengers From Running
According to a new report, New York ranked 41st in the country for voter turnout in the 2016 general election, with just more than 57 percent of the voting-eligible population casting ballots, the Times Union reports.
New Yorker's Taxed To Sit On Their Own Steps is A Perfect Metaphor for The Death of New York's Neighborhoods As Supper Talls Invade
STOOPIFIED
Homeowners forced to pay over $1K a year just to sit on steps (NYP) It’s every Brooklynite’s inalienable right to sit on their own stoops — but that didn’t stop a developer and the city from devising a scheme to tax them over it, a group of homeowners claims. Nearly three dozen property owners in Boerum Hill say they are being charged more than $1,000 a year just to use the steps leading to their homes. “It’s one of those weird, bureaucratic things that doesn’t make sense,’’ said resident Luke Gunnell, 50, who is forced to shell out $1,154 every year to use his stoop. He and 33 other residents bought their stunning town houses, on the leafy north side of State Street between Hoyt and Smith streets, for as much as $2.4 million starting in 2008. And they say their contracts included an “illegal” side deal between the developer and city. The agreement allowed the builder to extend the homes’ stairways 6 feet and 3 inches beyond the property line and onto the city-owned sidewalk, jacking up the sale price. In exchange, the city would receive a special annual tax — paid for by the residents.
Not Only Are NYers Block from Early Voting Albany Does All It Can to Suppress Voter Turn-Out to Protect Incumbents
Low Turnout Elections Designed by Albany Spit 3 Primaries
Another Shockingly Low Turnout Election (Gotham Gazette) The numbers are bad again, additional proof that New Yorkers don’t pay much attention to local elections or make voting in them a priority. There were several hotly contested state legislative party primary elections on September 13, even a few for open seats, yet the best an individual New York City-based Assembly or Senate district did was 20% participation among active eligible voters. The winner of this unglamorous prize was Assembly District 65, Sheldon Silver’s old seat, where short-term incumbent Alice Cancel was defeated in the Democratic primary by Yuh-Line Niou. Of 43,094 active eligible Democrats in the Lower Manhattan district, 8,631 votes were cast, equal to 20.03%. Niou was one of three challengers to unseat New York City incumbents this primary cycle. Another, all the way Uptown in Inwood and nearby areas, saw long-term incumbent Assemblymember Guillermo Linares defeated in the Democratic primary by Carmen De La Rosa. There are 57,053 active eligible Democrats in AD72 and 8,317 voted (4,414 for De La Rosa), for 14.58% turnout. In Queens’ AD30, long-time Assemblymember Margaret Markey lost to Brian Barnwell in a Democratic primary that saw 7.94% turnout -- Barnwell won the primary, and thus the seat, with 1,622 votes to Markey’s 921. There are 32,162 active registered Democratic voters in the district.
Estimate of turnout in yesterday's NYC Dem primary is 10%. Apathy rules & political class loves it!
LES Democrats Make History, Select First Asian-American to Represent Chinatown in Albany
First Hasidic Woman Elected As Brooklyn CivilCourt Judge (WCBS)
Vote Totals
Vote Totals
Ron Castorina defeated challenger Janine Materna with 68 percent of the vote.
Incumbent candidates won races for the State Senate, State Assembly and City Council.
The ex-pol touted a lifetime of public service during his campaign, without any mention of his arrest.
State Senator Martin Dilan defended his seat in the Sept. 13 primary, earning 55 percent of the vote.
Wright beat out challenger Karen Cherry in the 56th Assembly District race Tuesday.
In the Name of Social Engineering de Blasio Attacks NY's Neighborhoods
Few voters show up to decide on key races (Riverdale Press)
State Sen. Gustavo Rivera campaigned outside the Kingsbridge Heights School (P.S. 86), before casting his vote. But few other voters showed up during this week’s key races.
In the Name of Social Engineering de Blasio Attacks NY's Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods are rising up against de Blasio (NYP) de Blasio has learned the hard way that people — even New York City liberals — have their own opinions about how they want to live. Neighborhood after neighborhood has rebelled against de Blasio’s heavy-handed social engineering. In August, the people of Upper Manhattan forced City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a progressive and strident de Blasio ally, to reject the first major rezoning under the city’s new mandatory inclusionary housing policy. MIH was a citywide revision of land-use rules allowing developers to build taller residential buildings with greater density if they also include subsidized apartments for lower- and middle-income New Yorkers. The development in question, called Sherman Plaza, at the corner of Broadway and Sherman Avenue around 196th Street, would turn an old Packard dealership into a 15-story apartment tower. Up to 50 percent of the units would be subsidized. The proposed “upzoning” infuriated the local community, which saw it as an effort to gentrify the mixed Latino and white neighborhood with luxury housing. Pressure built until Rodriguez, who voted for MIH as a citywide policy a few months before, nixed the Sherman Plaza proposal as not in the “best interests” of the neighborhood. A similar scenario played out in Sunnyside, Queens, where progressive council Majority Leader Jimmy van Bramer rejected a proposed development to build more than 200 affordable units. Like his colleague Rodriguez, he supports the widespread development of affordable housing throughout the city — in theory. But his constituents, reliant on a perennially crowded subway line and feeling that their neighborhood is already changing too quickly, opposed the Phipps project and brought pressure on van Bramer to reject it. On the Upper West Side, the beating heart of traditional New York City liberalism, a near-riot broke out last month over plans to redistrict elementary-school zones to promote racial and socio-economic diversity. Racial “segregation” in the public schools has become the latest “root cause” of inequality in New York, and the city is pushing community districts to agree to boundary changes in order to dilute the concentration of white students in certain schools. Of the entire public-school student population of 1.1 million, however, fewer than 15 percent are white, and these students are clustered geographically in particular areas. If racial diversity is meant to solve the problem of racial inequality, it isn’t clear that there are enough white students to make much of a difference. Thinking big is in progressives’ DNA. In the words of de Blasio, progressive proposals must be “transformative,” “historic,” “transcendent.” But as long as the mayor and his progressive allies continue to force their grand vision on an unwilling populace, they can expect to face local revolts from a notoriously and proudly insubordinate city.
NYC's Voting Blocks Can Gentrification Effects Be the Big Story of the Presidential Primary?
The Battle for New York’s Key Voting Blocs (NYT) For the first time in decades, New York will
have two meaningful presidential primaries. With voting on Tuesday,
here’s a look at how key blocs may determine the outcome.
Maybe because of NY restrictive voting registration it will be the 2017 election to show the full change that gentrification has caused in NYC's Voting Block. In tuesday's election a lot of sander's supports are expected to be unregistered
Race lost forthe new East New York: De Blasio's Brooklyn building plan fails thediscrimination test (NYDN) Yet the de Blasio administration has failed to study the potential for discriminatory racial impacts of the East New York zoning
— a failure that’s more than just morally shocking. Such a review is
required under federal fair housing laws. So is a meaningful response.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires the city,
as a recipient of federal funds, to affirmatively further fair housing
when rezoning — to address the vast housing needs of residents in
racially and ethnically concentrated areas of poverty. The city is
obligated to not just avoid perpetuating segregation but also to take
steps to create opportunities for fair housing. In communities like East New York ,
this means preventing the displacement of low-income residents of color
— rather than pushing them out to bring in waves of new faces who can
afford much higher rents. That is anything but residential
integration.* The Daily News writes that with de Blasio’s East New York affordable housing plan on
the verge of approval, the sensible scheme could end up acting as a
model for the entire city and revitalize the struggling neighborhood
while retaining working class residents: * 60,000 Fewer Democrats in Brooklyn and No Clear ReasonWhy (WNYC) The
county of Kings is playing an outsized role in New York State’s
presidential primary race — particularly among Democrats. As the
birthplace of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Brooklyn figures
into nearly every one of his stump speeches. It’s also where former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has based her national campaign
headquarters. Yet, even as the candidates lavish love on Brooklyn , a WNYC analysis of state voter enrollment statistics found
that the number of active registered Democrats dropped there by 63,558
voters between November 2015 and April 2016. That translates into a 7
percent drop in registered Democrats in the borough.
In Liberal NY Your Elected Officials Don't Want Your Vote to Count So They Can Stay in Office Forever and Rob Us Blind
Who Will Be the First Asshole Pol to Put Out A Press Release We Much Change the Voting Law Right After We Pass An Ethic Bill?
California's governance has improved dramatically under non partisan elections and independent redistricting! New York's is a disgrace!
VOTER SUPPRESSION NY STYLE Mass Confusion At the Polls Caused By the Bum Lawmakers Protecting Their Jobs With A Election Law That Prevents New Yorkers From Voting
Independent voters could make polling sites a nightmare
(NYP) A lot of Sanders people who come from the ranks of independent
voters are not actually registered Democrats and they will cause lines
and waits at the poll sites while they attempt to vote affidavit ballots
or obtain court orders to vote,” said John Conklin, a spokesman for the
state Board of Elections.
What if the Daily News Covered the de Blasio Mayoral Turn Out Like They Covered Trumps Votes in N.H.?
The Daily News Hits Trump On Lack of Votes in N.H.
Yet Says Nothing About the Fact That de Blasio Was Elected With Less Than 5% of New York City's Registered Voters
New York's Falling Voter Participation Rate is A Canary in the Coal Mine Warning for Our Failing City and Democracy 2013 Was the Lowest Turnout Since Women Given Right to Vote in 1918 . .200,000 Votes Less Than 2009. Only 282,344 New Yorkers voted in the 2013 primary for de Blasio. That is out of 3,222,468 registered democratic voters 8%, in what everyone knows is the real election in NYC. If you look at the 4,727,307 registered NYC voters then de Blasio became the mayor with just 5% of the voters voting for him. de Blasio Was Elected Public Advocate in 2009 With Just 4.4% of the Democrat Vote or Less than 1.7% of the City's Residences In the 2005 primary runoff Comptroller John Liu received 127,173 or just 4% of the registered Democrats in the city (3,177,740) in the runoff. De Blasio did a little better with 138, 736, he got 4.4% of the city's democratic voters. John Liu was elected with just 2.7% of all the city's registered voters casting their vote for him. New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low * What In A Mandate? worry--50% drop in primary turnout since '89 * NYC voter turnout stinks: report(NYDN * New York Ranked 42 of 50 in Voting Age Turnout 50.7% Mayor O’Dwyer election in 1941, which took place one month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor received more than a million more votes than de Blasio
Cruz and New York Does Share One Value: Sending Out Official Looking Letters Trying to Intimidate People to Vote
Cruz Send Out A Dirty Mailing in Iowa Claiming Voting Violations to Increase Turn Out
Iowa Official Criticizes Cruz Campaign Over Mailer(NYT) owa’s secretary of state chastised the presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz on Saturday for sending a mailer that he said violated “the spirit of the Iowa caucuses” and misrepresented state election law. The mailer, flagged by a handful of Twitter users and confirmed as authentic by the Cruz campaign, included a warning of a “voting violation” in capital letters at the top of the page. It informed voters they were receiving a notice “because of low expected voter turnout in your area.” “Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors’ are public record,” the flier read. “Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday’s caucuses.” Below the text was a list of names, letter grades and percentage scores. The secretary of state, Paul D. Pate, called the effort “misleading.”
NYS Democratic Committee Sent Out An Intimidating Letter Warning People to Vote Or You Will Be In Trouble Have to Explain Yourself
Democrats threaten public shaming to get voters to polls(NYP) The New York State Democratic Committee is bullying people into voting next week with intimidating letters warning that it can easily find out which slackers fail to cast a ballot next Tuesday. “Who you vote for is your secret. But whether or not you vote is public record,” the letter says. “We will be reviewing voting records . . . to determine whether you joined your neighbors who voted in 2014.” It ends with a line better suited to a mob movie than a major political party: “If you do not vote this year, we will be interested to hear why not.” The woman also received a report card of her voting record, pointing out that she had failed to vote in two of the last four elections. Overall, the notices were sent out to 1 million registered Democrats who had failed to vote in previous midterm elections, according to the group. The New York State Democratic Committee is bullying people into voting next week with intimidating letters warning that it can easily find out which slackers fail to cast a ballot next Tuesday. The committee — chaired by former Gov. David Paterson — defended the scare tactic, calling it standard practice throughout the country. “This flier is part of the nationwide Democratic response to traditional Republican voter-suppression efforts, because Democrats believe our democracy works better when more people vote, not
less,” said Peter Kauffmann, a committee spokesman.
90% Think NY is Corrupt But New Yorker's Acting Like Sheep and Accept Organize Crime Elected Officials
Why corruption is so rampant in New York government (NYP) New Yorkers care about corruption in government. But not much. Which is why there’s so much of it. It was just six weeks or so ago that federal juries in Manhattan found two of the state’s three most powerful political figures guilty of theft and extortion. Monday, the upstate Siena College Research Institute reported that nearly 90 percent of New Yorkers believe the state is fundamentally corrupt — but only 18 percent think doing something about it should be a top priority in the just-convened 2016 legislative session. This, in a state that has seen 30 lawmakers removed from office via criminal conviction or resignation under fire in the past several years — and that soon will see former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and one-time Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos sentenced to lengthy prison terms * Corruption is so rampant in New York politics because, while New Yorkers care about corruption, they care more about issues like the $15 minimum wage or paid family leave, which is why Albany will not change,the Post’s Bob McManus writes:
Electing Leaders Who Do Nothing to Stop Corruption
Gov. Cuomo stood around with his hands in his pockets for years as the two legislative leaders were filling their knapsacks with other people’s money — and then arguably attempted to ease the heat on the pair (and maybe on himself) by shutting down a special anti-corruption commission. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who’ll hop on fantasy-football bettors like a frog on a lily pad, has never shown the slightest interest in legislative corruption — perhaps because he came to his present office straight from the Legislature. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics was established in 2011 and is controlled by genteel hacks appointed by Cuomo, Silver and Skelos. It has never — not once — caught a pol with his hand in somebody else’s pocket.This should be astonishing, given US Attorney Preet Bharara’s record during the same period. But, given the commission’s appointing authorities, it’s not surprising at all. And local district attorneys have only rarely been interested in official corruption. Who wants to make those kind of political waves? More basically, who’s to doubt that Shelly Silver’s district would re-elect him in a New York minute — tomorrow? The politicians understand this, of course. That’s why nothing fundamental ever changes: The pols aren’t the problem — the people are. Sometimes, democracy is a real bitch.* Siena poll found voters overwhelmingly support a number of Cuomo’s priorities for 2016, but still hold mixed views about the governor himself.
NY1's Louis Says Decreasing Voting is A Boycott of NY's Failed Govt and Politics
Session after session, no amount of howling from civic organizations or editorial boards could stir the obedient flock in Albany into any honorable semblance of revolt or reform. Albany has remained equally indifferent to the disgust of voters, whose ever-falling rates of registration and participation are, in many districts, approaching levels that could accurately be described as a boycott.
True News Months Ago
NYT Gets It Wrong About Low Voter Turn Out
Corruption and the Shadow Govt Lobbyists and Campaign Contributors Take Over the of the Election System Have Made Votes Feel That Election Do Not Matter
New technology and ways to reduce lines at polls are among the ways an Assembly hearing tomorrow aims to improve New York ’s historically low voter turnout. The Times writes that there are a number of steps the stateLegislature could take, including consolidating voting days and improving access to registration, that would help improve New York’s low voter participation rates: No Change in Albany Leadership Assemblyman Brian Kolb said the change in leadership inthe Assembly following Sheldon Silver’s ouster hasn’t resulted in significant change, although Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is “paying more attention” to rank-and-file membership, State of Politics writes * Bill Hammond writes on Politico New York that Cuomo is making excuses about not doing anything to stop Albany’s ongoing corruption and argues there are plenty of glaring weaknesses left in New York’s anti-corruption laws: * Fred Siegel on the Daily Beast explains how Albany’s corruption problems cannot be solved simply with public financing of campaigns or a full-time legislature and argues the Legislature is unlikely to change even after the conviction of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver:* Bill Hammond says there are “plenty of glaring weaknesses left to fix in New York’s anti-corruption laws, several of which directly enabled (former Assembly Speaker Sheldon) Silver to monetize his public office in the amount of $4 million over 10 years.”
NY1's Louis Must Have Seen True News' Graphic About Albany Leaders
Poll 7 of 10 New York voters don't know who any of these Albany people are
Has New Yorkers Changed So Much They Can No Longer Anger?
Where is Serpico To Take On the Lobbyists
Not One Serpico in Albany Who Will Speak Out Against the Corruption? Electing Puppets
Earth to Carl Heastie: Reform needed (Democrat and Chronicle) Planet Earth to New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: The need for ethics reform measures in Albany is far from over. We were taken aback when Heastie suggested otherwise. "What do you think legislatively we can do that would respond to what either Sheldon Silver or Dean Skelos is on trial for?" he asked. Heastie made that comment Tuesday in response to questioning about the trials of Skelos, the former Senate majority leader, and Silver, his predecessor as speaker. These once-powerful officials are being tried in separate Manhattan courtrooms on corruption charges. A key issue in these trials is outside income, for themselves or family members. Heastie, in his own little universe, says there are plenty of new ethics laws on the books, the latest of which were adopted as part of the state budget process in March.* The push by a JCOPE commissioner appointed by former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to require legislators who are applying for exemptions from new financial disclosure rules to submit the paperwork seeking exemptions by hand could weaken future corruption cases, the Times Unionreports:
Assembly Dems Plot to Back Incumbents in Primaries More Top to Bottom Control Of Campaigns
New Speaker Boss is Attempting to Run the State Like He Runs the Bronx Machine . . . What is Next New Assemblymembers Replacing Incumbents After Primaries?
Since 2010 DACC Has Paid WFP $100,000
Heastie Wants to Run the Assembly Like He Runs the Bronx
The Post writes that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s planto use Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee money on incumbents in the primaries is the kind of thing that allowed the corrupt Silver to rule with an iron fist. Carl Heastie is following in Sheldon Silver’s footsteps (NYP) The latest example is his decision to start spending Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee funds on incumbents facing primary challenges. ’Til now, the DACC has only spent on general elections — that is, against Republicans, not other Democrats. Talk about blows to democracy: The primary is often the public’s only real chance to oust an incumbent — because one party’s voters vastly outnumber the others’. (Of course, the speaker’s plainly not all that fond of democracy, as shown by his success in installing a new Bronx DA without giving the voters a chance to weigh in.) Note, too, that if reformers still manage to get a new face into the Assembly, these campaign funds give the speaker another way to legally bribe the new guy to play along with the establishment. Mainly, though, it will further entrench incumbents (on top of their other vast electoral advantages). Or, rather, entrench incumbents who play ball with Speaker Heastie — nicely bolstering his power. This is just the kind of thing that allowed Silver — now on trial for alleged corruption — to rule the Assembly with an iron fist.The excuse is that this move will blunt the impact of the Working Families Party and its union puppetmasters. Really? The Democrats and the WFP rarely find themselves at cross-purposes, anyway. And Heastie has already pushed similar schemes — like the “district allocations” pork that replaced member items — that work primarily to cement his power. Meanwhile, Heastie’s Assembly still hasn’t acted on a constitutional amendment (passed long ago by the GOP-run Senate) to retroactively strip corrupt public officials of their sweetheart pensions.
When Govt is Dysfunctional as Albany A Breakup of NY is Possible
How angry Upstate might ally with Mayor de Blasio (NYP Ed) Bill de Blasio was at a ballgame in Queens last Sunday afternoon when a group of rural landowners, town officials, Second Amendment advocates and Tea Party activists rallied in the Southern Tier village of Bainbridge on behalf of a radical reform that would dramatically enhance the mayor’s power in his own backyard: a breakup of New York state. The event hardly constituted a grassroots groundswell for Upstate statehood. But the motivating grievances are real, persistent and not just confined to counties north of the mid-Hudson Valley. New York City officials have been frustrated for decades by state constitutional limits on their “home rule” powers, including tax policy.
WFP & Lobbyists Campaign Consultants Have Caused the Walmartization of NY's Politics . . . Using the Wal-Mart Business Model to Win Campaigns and Drive Out the Competition
NYC does not have a single Walmart because of the WFP and their friends in the progressive movement protesting the company unfair business practices. The protesters accuse Wal-mart of bulk purchasing and corporate financing to sell merchandise at low costs in order to drive competitors out of the market. WFP says the Wal-Mart's business model pushes mom and pop business out of the market creating an economic monopoly. It is now clear that less than a dozen lobbyists political consultants has use the Wal-Mart unfair business model to take over NY's politics by using unfair 2009 the WFP Data and Field model to give them and their candidates a competitive advantages in campaigns.
A poll showed that 58 percent of New York Statevoters were dissatisfied with the way things are going in the state. (NYT) a majority of poll respondents approve of Preet Bharara'sinvestigations, or think he should be more aggressive. (NYT) * Vote Out All Albany Politicians, New Yorkers Say in New Poll (WSJ) A majority of New York state voters believe all Albany elected officials should be voted out of office to provide a fresh start following a rash of public corruption scandals, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday. LLC Loophole Democratic Lawmakers Disappointed In Cuomo’s LLC Comments (Updated) (YNN) Grand Jury Public Advocate Argues Eric Garner Grand JuryDocuments Necessary for Reform (YNN)* A majority of New York state voters believe all Albany elected officials should be voted out of office to provide a fresh start following a rash of public corruption scandals, according toa new Quinnipiac University
Culture Change the Angry New Yorker No More
The Once Outraged New Yorkers Have Become Sheep to the Culture of Corruption
Where is the outrage from the media, public and GOP for the conviction of Malcolm Smith found guilty of trying to fix the 2013 mayor's race? Where is the outrage from the women leaders that the state is being forced to pay over a half of million for sexual abuse by former Assemblyman Vito Lopez and the Hush Fund arrangements by former Speaker Silver that give Lopez the opportunity to abuse the two women who sued? Each year NYC hires over 200 elected officials and so far none has commented on the Smith guilty verdict or the Lopez Silver tax payer pay
True News Wags the NYP On Where is the Outrage for the Lopez Silver Sex Payout
What We Have In NYC Today are Elected Officials Who Do Not Protect the Voters Who Elected Them
The only solution: robust economic growth. Paralyzed Washington has shamefully failed to do its part — starting, as Sen. Chuck Schumer recently admitted, when President Obama prioritized health reform over economic stimulus. Cuomo’s approach thus far has focused on offering aggressive tax breaks to companies that launch or expand near certain college campuses — which may help, but does not match the enormity of the challenge. Also worthwhile but small-bore are de Blasio’s plans to overhaul the city’s job-training programs and prepare more public school and CUNY graduates for high-tech fields. If he wants to make a difference on his signature issue of income inequality, he’ll need to think a lot bigger than that.
What’s called for is an aggressive push to roll back the high taxes and onerous regulations that make New York one of the least business-friendly states in the country. To invest in roads, mass transit and other infrastructure that would create jobs while catalyzing future growth . To demand far better performance from schools — so they send out graduates prepared for college and careers, especially in science, technology, engineering and math. And more — much, much more.
NYC's Economic Problems
Taylor Swift Fell 1, 951,246 Voters Short of Becoming NYS Governor
Schneiderman plansprobe into New York'slow voter turnout (NYDN) State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wants to find out why the state's voter turnout was just under 30% on Election Day. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is planning to probe why New York ’s voter turnout was so low on Election Day. Schneiderman, during a radio interview Thursday, expressed alarm that so few voters took part in the election and said he wanted to investigate what impediments might be keeping people from the ballot box.
We don’t have voter ID laws, and yet we are always on the bottom of the list in terms of voter participation,” Schneiderman, a Democrat, said on public radio’s “The Capitol Pressroom.” Pay Raise* AG Eric Schneiderman backs pay raise for state lawmakers * If all state legislators are going to do is pick taxpayers’ pockets by traveling to Albany to give themselves a raise, they should give up the idea of a special session and just stay home, the Buffalo News writes: * AG Backs Legislative Pay Raises(YNN)
The NYT Should Interview Janet Gamble Who Stopped Voting Because Campaigns Full of Lies Have No Connection to Governing
New York's Falling Voter Participation Rate is A Canary in the Coal Mine Warning for Our Failing City and Democracy
2013 Was the Lowest Turnout Since Women Given Right to Vote . .
200,000 Votes Less Than 2009
New York's Falling Voter Participation Rate is A Canary in the Coal Mine Warning for Our Failing City and Democracy
2013 Was the Lowest Turnout Since Women Given Right to Vote . .
200,000 Votes Less Than 2009
The NYT Offers Nonsense Excuses But, Ignores A Broken Election System As the Reason Why Citizens Are Not Voting
The Worst Voter Turnout in 72 Years(NYT Ed) New York tied for third-worst : The Worst Voter Turnout in 72 Years Republicans ran a single-theme campaign of pure opposition to President Obama, and Democrats were too afraid of the backlash to put forward plans to revive the economy or to point out significant achievements of the last six years. Neither party gave voters an affirmative reason to show up at the polls. Showing up at the polls is the best way to counter the oversized influence of wealthy special interests, who dominate politics as never before. But to encourage participation, politicians need to stop suppressing the vote, make the process of voting as easy as possible, and run campaigns that stand for something..* Forty Years of Freefall in New York Voter Turnout (Gotham Gazette)
OPINION: Why I will no longer vote in NYC
By Janet Gamble For Brooklyn Daily Eagle
I have been voting in New York City for nearly 30 years, and now I feel no need to vote here ever again. As a voter, you put your hope and trust in the person you cast your ballot for and want so badly ... so very badly, that they will try to come through for you. But now I see how stupid and naive I was. Now I see it is not the voters that some New York politicians are working for — its rich, real estate interests. They are the official owners of New York politics. It's not hard to see the damage these people have caused the average New Yorker. Affordable housing is almost non-existent in every borough. Once-beautiful historic blocks of brownstone housing are now dotted with newly constructed houses that resemble ugly cereal boxes. The well-off New Yorker has their pick of luxury housing, which brings me to the reason I will no longer vote.
Long Island College Hospital (LICH) has just been sold to a developer who donated money to Gov. Cuomo. Several other companies were supposed to bid on running this hospital, but trumped up excuses were made against the first two bidders and they were passed over in favor of a company that donated the most money to the governor. This should be a scandal and fodder for whoever is running against the governor this year...but it won't be. Who is going to investigate this? No one... not when you've pretty much hired everyone who could investigate you. Our current mayor got himself arrested last year, protesting the closing of this hospital, but I knew it was just a stunt to gain attention ... and it worked. I voted for him with the silly hope that he would at least try to save the hospital, and when he negotiated a deal for different companies to bid for running the hospital, I had hope again...silly, silly hope. When the bidders were rejected under odd circumstances, I knew where this ship was heading and that Gov. Cuomo was at the helm. While I am not sure if the mayor knew how crooked this deal was, his silence was loud enough. In the old days of Hollywood movies, the good guys and bad guys were always clearly seen and most of the time, there was a happy ending. But in this movie, the people (politicians) who we thought were the good guys, turned out to be the bad guys... and there is no happy ending.
The Central Park Horses Are Treated Better Than the Voters In This City
There are good politicians, on both sides, who do want to fight for us. But the rich control the rest, and they will not let anything good happen. There is this mix of emotion that I feel about this: anger, frustration, sadness and hopelessness. When you see thousands of good people losing their jobs and a community losing its hospital — knowing that the people you voted for are the cause of this ... knowing that they betrayed you, just because you were stupid enough to trust them — there is this gnawing ache … an ache of inferiority. Because I, and the average, non-rich, New Yorker, mean nothing to these people ... nothing. I know there are those who will say that if I don't vote then I should not complain when nothing changes. Well I did vote...and I voted for term limits in New York City. I signed the petition to make it a law and voted for term limits, twice.
Then I watched our former, rich mayor strong-arm the city council into overturning that law. No, no more. I will never put my faith in any of these people ever again. Some people will also say, “Just find another hospital.” Why? My luck in picking hospitals is not that great! Nearly every hospital that was affiliated with the doctor I chose has closed. St. Mary's in Brooklyn, St. John’s in Queens and now, LICH. So, I think I'll be doing you hospitals a favor by not going to you at all! I know now that I am invisible ... a nobody ... worthless... left to vent my anger in a letter that hardly anyone will see. LICH was nearly 160 years old. The Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and even the skyline of Manhattan did not exist when this hospital saw its first patient. How ironic to see it fall just because of the view that grew up before it. It was one of the first hospitals to use anesthesia. One of the first hospitals to use a dedicated ambulance corps. Every woman in this country should be angry because, the very first hospital that felt women need special care, too, gave us the first doctor of gynecology. Soon, this will be gone, replaced with luxury condos that only the richest among us can afford. And when that first bulldozer comes to tear down this historic place, I will bury my voter's registration card in its rubble. Thank you, governor ... thank you, mayor ... for nothing.
Signed,
Janet Gamble, AKA Nobody
Kingston Avenue, Brooklyn
Janet Gamble, a Crown Heights resident, was born in East New York and raised in Bed-Stuy. She has had two surgeries at LICH.
I have been voting in New York City for nearly 30 years, and now I feel no need to vote here ever again. As a voter, you put your hope and trust in the person you cast your ballot for and want so badly ... so very badly, that they will try to come through for you. But now I see how stupid and naive I was. Now I see it is not the voters that some New York politicians are working for — its rich, real estate interests. They are the official owners of New York politics. It's not hard to see the damage these people have caused the average New Yorker. Affordable housing is almost non-existent in every borough. Once-beautiful historic blocks of brownstone housing are now dotted with newly constructed houses that resemble ugly cereal boxes. The well-off New Yorker has their pick of luxury housing, which brings me to the reason I will no longer vote.
Long Island College Hospital (LICH) has just been sold to a developer who donated money to Gov. Cuomo. Several other companies were supposed to bid on running this hospital, but trumped up excuses were made against the first two bidders and they were passed over in favor of a company that donated the most money to the governor. This should be a scandal and fodder for whoever is running against the governor this year...but it won't be. Who is going to investigate this? No one... not when you've pretty much hired everyone who could investigate you. Our current mayor got himself arrested last year, protesting the closing of this hospital, but I knew it was just a stunt to gain attention ... and it worked. I voted for him with the silly hope that he would at least try to save the hospital, and when he negotiated a deal for different companies to bid for running the hospital, I had hope again...silly, silly hope. When the bidders were rejected under odd circumstances, I knew where this ship was heading and that Gov. Cuomo was at the helm. While I am not sure if the mayor knew how crooked this deal was, his silence was loud enough. In the old days of Hollywood movies, the good guys and bad guys were always clearly seen and most of the time, there was a happy ending. But in this movie, the people (politicians) who we thought were the good guys, turned out to be the bad guys... and there is no happy ending.
The Central Park Horses Are Treated Better Than the Voters In This City
There are good politicians, on both sides, who do want to fight for us. But the rich control the rest, and they will not let anything good happen. There is this mix of emotion that I feel about this: anger, frustration, sadness and hopelessness. When you see thousands of good people losing their jobs and a community losing its hospital — knowing that the people you voted for are the cause of this ... knowing that they betrayed you, just because you were stupid enough to trust them — there is this gnawing ache … an ache of inferiority. Because I, and the average, non-rich, New Yorker, mean nothing to these people ... nothing. I know there are those who will say that if I don't vote then I should not complain when nothing changes. Well I did vote...and I voted for term limits in New York City. I signed the petition to make it a law and voted for term limits, twice.
Then I watched our former, rich mayor strong-arm the city council into overturning that law. No, no more. I will never put my faith in any of these people ever again. Some people will also say, “Just find another hospital.” Why? My luck in picking hospitals is not that great! Nearly every hospital that was affiliated with the doctor I chose has closed. St. Mary's in Brooklyn, St. John’s in Queens and now, LICH. So, I think I'll be doing you hospitals a favor by not going to you at all! I know now that I am invisible ... a nobody ... worthless... left to vent my anger in a letter that hardly anyone will see. LICH was nearly 160 years old. The Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and even the skyline of Manhattan did not exist when this hospital saw its first patient. How ironic to see it fall just because of the view that grew up before it. It was one of the first hospitals to use anesthesia. One of the first hospitals to use a dedicated ambulance corps. Every woman in this country should be angry because, the very first hospital that felt women need special care, too, gave us the first doctor of gynecology. Soon, this will be gone, replaced with luxury condos that only the richest among us can afford. And when that first bulldozer comes to tear down this historic place, I will bury my voter's registration card in its rubble. Thank you, governor ... thank you, mayor ... for nothing.
Signed,
Janet Gamble, AKA Nobody
Kingston Avenue, Brooklyn
Janet Gamble, a Crown Heights resident, was born in East New York and raised in Bed-Stuy. She has had two surgeries at LICH.
Voter's Protest: New York's Decreasing Voter Turnout
Are the Leaders Of NYC Nuts, Liars Or Incompetent Leaders?
New York City’s delusional leaders — hear, see and say no evil (NYP) Our leadership in City Hall this past month has proven itself to be delusional at best. Mayor de Blasio hears no evil; his No. 1 adviser, Chirlane McCray, sees no evil and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton speaks no evil. What a trio. De Blasio has an earworm that he just can’t get out of his head. He walks around practically singing that we’re the safest big city, and things have never been better. As The Post headline blared “Violent Crime Soars, De Blasio Splits Town,” his response was that out-of-towners give him more respect. They understand his achievements; ungrateful New Yorkers don’t. As felony crimes escalated in the subways, he said it was simply because more people are riding subways now than ever before. With sex crimes soaring this past month, his spokesmen have said it’s the result of expanded outreach and improved reporting procedures. But he’s not alone.
His top adviser, his wife Chirlane McCray, sees no evil. In a recent NY1 interview, she recalled that 1977 was a vintage year in NYC. New York City was, in her words, “Strong, inclusive and dynamic. A city that had affordable housing.” This was, of course, the year when Howard Cosell famously described how The Bronx was burning in the distance as Reggie Jackson rounded the bases after his third home run against the Dodgers in Game 6 of the World Series. A blackout occurred in the summer followed by two days of looting and burning. We locals referred to our city as the Rotten Apple. “Strong, inclusive and dynamic” it was not. And then finally we have Bratton, who can speak no evil. He denied, against strong evidence, that reducing stop-and-frisk contributed to the subsequent rise in crime. When it comes to explaining why fewer black males are taking the test to join the NYPD, the commish first blamed black males who were victimized by stop-and-frisk. * Andrew Cuomo, mere mortal: How to explain his declininginfluence in Albany (NYDN)
NY Dems Blame Low Turnout
State Senate Democrats cited low turnout, a strong national showing by Republicans and a GOP playbook dividing upstate and downstate in explaining their electoral losses, the Times Union reports:
Fredric U. Dicker @fud31 NYT: "Republican Takeover of Senate May Aid Andrew Cuomo’s Centrist Brand."
AP:"Cuomo's liberal agenda faces divided Legislature."
Another Daily News Story About Falling Vote Turnoout . . . Without Giving Reasons Who New Yorkers are Giving Up Voting
Mandate? Cuomo did worse than de Blasio in New York City Cuomo got 1.9 million votes — about a million less than when he was first elected four years ago. Also, Remington confirms tough gun laws led to its expansion out of state. Just 18 percent of the state’s 10.8 million registered voters actually voted for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who beat Republican Rob Astorino by 13 points and he only got 743,679 votes in New York City , compared to de Blasio’s 795,679 votes in 2013, the Daily News’ Ken Lovett reports: *Steve Cohen's words about de Blasio 'mandate' come back to haunt Gov. Cuomo
More on Gentrification
Bubble Mayor No Town Hall de Blasio Spins and the NYC Press Defining Journalism Down
Voter's Protest: New York's Decreasing Voter Turnout
How Come Albany Pols Who Attack Cops Have No Serpico To Clean Up Their Own House?
New Yorkers Says Fuck You to Big Brother Threats to Vote
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Pols Tried to Avoid Shame and Analysis of Low Vote Turnout
NY breaks lowest voter turnout record in governors race(NYP)New York voters shattered a record in Tuesday’s elections — but no one’s going to be bragging about it. This record is for the lowest turnout in a New York gubernatorial election in the modern era. Only 3.7 million people bothered to go to the polls — the fewest since the state Board of Elections began keeping precise tallies in the 1970s. That means only about one-third of the state’s 10.8 million active voters filled out ballots to re-elect Gov. Cuomo.* Gov. Andrew Cuomo won re-election with what is probably the fewest number of votes of any New York governor since Franklin Roosevelt in 1930 * Democrats ‘Shame’ Voters With Mailers (WSJ) Pre-Halloween Scare Comes Via Postcards and Letters. Democratic Party mailers sent to more than 800,000 NewYorkers gave them grades on how often they voted (WSJ)
Not Voting Is A Protest Against An Election System That Only Gives Us Broken Promises
The Post’s Bob McManus notes that Cuomo racked up thefewest votes recorded by a winning gubernatorial candidate in New York since FDR in 1930, but that he still was in “the catbird seat” after the election: *Democratic voter complains about pushy ‘vote or else’ letter(NYP) Brooklyn . “This use of intimidation and shame tactics to spur votership has to stop. In fact, I may choose to not vote this November 4th just because of this letter.
Where Have You Gone Jane Jacobs? Developers Have Drive Out the Middle Class and Push the Poor Out of the Many Neighborhoods With No Push-Back
Jane Jacobs was well known for organizing grassroots efforts to protect existing neighborhoods from "slum clearance" – and particularly for her opposition to Robert Moses in his plans to overhaul her neighborhood, Greenwich Village. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly throughSoHo and Little Italy, and was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on the project. Jacobs chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway (a.k.a. Joint Emergency Committee to Close Washington Square to Traffic, and other names), which recruited such members as Margaret Mead, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lewis Mumford, Charles Abrams, and William H. Whyte.[24] Papers such as The New York Times were sympathetic to Moses, while the newly created Village Voice covered community rallies and advocated against the expressway.[39] The Committee succeeded in blocking the project. On June 25, 1958, the city closed Washington Square Park New York City (to which Jacobs commuted from Toronto ), her charge was reduced to disorderly conduct.[43][44]* Longtime residents of Sutton Place
* The de Blasio administration said it sought input from every corner of the city on its OneNYC plan, but many community board leaders said they were not consulted ahead of the plan’s release, Capital New York reports:
Bubble Mayor No Town Hall de Blasio Spins and the NYC Press Defining Journalism Down
Voter's Protest: New York's Decreasing Voter Turnout
How Come Albany Pols Who Attack Cops Have No Serpico To Clean Up Their Own House?
If Albany has any honest politicians left, they should be wearing wires (NYP) No wonder public faith in government is in the toilet. In a June poll, 55 percent of New York voters wanted all office-holders voted out. The trials will spotlight what US Attorney Preet Bharara calls Albany ’s “show-me-the-money” culture. But he notes that “even a series of tough and successful prosecutions . . . has not been enough to thwart others from following in their felonious footsteps.” New Yorkers, he warns, can’t “prosecute our way to cleaner government.” Well, legislators aren’t doing much to clean house.* Albany Needs a Senator Serpico (2012, Morgan Pehme) If there are so many decent, upright members of the Legislature—as representatives of both houses insist—why is it not that one of them has the guts to step forward and breach the wall of silence that shields their unsavory colleagues from accountability and denies their victims—all of us—justice? It has often been remarked, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Right now, anyone who claims to be a reformer in Albany is just blowing smoke. Unless these supposedly virtuous men and women step up and take bold and brave action to root out the epidemic in their midst, they must be held as responsible for its ills as anyone. Officer Serpico risked his career and life—evidenced by the bullet he still has lodged in his face four decades later—because of his deep and abiding morality, an innate conviction that what is right transcends what is expedient. Is there no one in the Legislature who will put the interests of the people before his or her own? Out of the 212 members of the Senate and the Assembly, is there not a single hero? Thanks to his valor, the name Serpico has become synonymous with honest cop. Who in Albany has the backbone to earn the title of honest politician?
NY breaks lowest voter turnout record in governors race(NYP)
Not Voting Is A Protest Against An Election System That Only Gives Us Broken Promises
Bully GOTV Shows Contempt for the Voters By Democratic Leaders
Elected Officials Do Not Want to Be Embarrassed By A Low Turnout So They Scare the Voters
Democrats threaten public shaming to get voters to polls(NYP) The New York State Democratic Committee is bullying people into voting next week with intimidating letters warning that it can easily find out which slackers fail to cast a ballot next Tuesday. “Who you vote for is your secret. But whether or not you vote is public record,” the letter says. “We will be reviewing voting records . . . to determine whether you joined your neighbors who voted in 2014.” It ends with a line better suited to a mob movie than a major political party: “If you do not vote this year, we will be interested to hear why not.” The woman also received a report card of her voting record, pointing out that she had failed to vote in two of the last four elections. Overall, the notices were sent out to 1 million registered Democrats who had failed to vote in previous midterm elections, according to the group.* Do those ‘we know whether you voted’ warnings actually work?An expert weighs in. (Wash Post)
Pols Like Low Voter Turnouts
New Yorkers Held Hostage By Their Election System
New York’s Miserable Voter Turnout Isn’t an Accident (NYT)Incompetent Albany politicians like the system just the way it is.
As PACs Suck Power Away From Local Communities, Centralizing Campaigns In the Hands of Lobbyists and Special Interests
The Daily News Says PACs Have Not Been A Game Changer (Depends Which Game You Care About)
The influx of independent PACs—which can raise and spend as much as they want for statewide and legislative races as long as they don’t coordinate with the campaigns—has hardly been the game-changer some expected, the Daily News’ Ken Lovett reports: *State Senate PACs Coalition pushing for Democrat-controlled state Senate setto begin campaign mailings(NYDN)* An independent expenditure group recently set up by education reform advocates associated with StudentsFirstNY has raised $1.75 million over the past week to pour into New York’s November elections—and is likely to help Senate Republicans, Crain’s reports: *Charter-schools group poised to aid Senate GOP
The healthcare workers union 1199 SEIU has endorsed Brooklyn GOP Sen. Marty Golden for re-election, in spite of a vow earlier this year to work exclusively toward helping the Democrats win the majority.
The NYC-based consulting firm BerlinRosen Public Affairs is establishing a new digital practice headed by former Obama campaign staffer Josh Cook.*IDC PAC Funds Bronx County-Backed Assembly Candidates(NYO)• Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos outlined the successes of coalition rule, an indication that he isn’t ready to write off the Independent Democratic Conference just yet, State of Politics
The Daily News Says PACs Have Not Been A Game Changer (Depends Which Game You Care About)
The influx of independent PACs—which can raise and spend as much as they want for statewide and legislative races as long as they don’t coordinate with the campaigns—has hardly been the game-changer some expected, the Daily News’ Ken Lovett reports: *State Senate PACs Coalition pushing for Democrat-controlled state Senate setto begin campaign mailings(NYDN)* An independent expenditure group recently set up by education reform advocates associated with StudentsFirstNY has raised $1.75 million over the past week to pour into New York’s November elections—and is likely to help Senate Republicans, Crain’s reports: *Charter-schools group poised to aid Senate GOP
The healthcare workers union 1199 SEIU has endorsed Brooklyn GOP Sen. Marty Golden for re-election, in spite of a vow earlier this year to work exclusively toward helping the Democrats win the majority.
The NYC-based consulting firm BerlinRosen Public Affairs is establishing a new digital practice headed by former Obama campaign staffer Josh Cook.*IDC PAC Funds Bronx County-Backed Assembly Candidates(NYO)• Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos outlined the successes of coalition rule, an indication that he isn’t ready to write off the Independent Democratic Conference just yet, State of Politics
NY's Incumbent Protection Party
New York’sIncumbent Party — can’t throw the bums out(NYP) There come moments, H.L. Mencken once wrote, when men must rise above principle. For New York , this may be one of those moments. Here’s the problem: Today a single party maintains its grip over Albany by rigging the electoral maps. It’s called the Incumbent Party, and it includes Republicans and Democrats alike. In theory, voters go to the polls to choose their representatives. In practice, legislative control over redistricting often means incumbents choosing their voters. And data-driven technology makes it easier and easier for them to do it. In 2010, California opted for a citizens’ commission to reform a redistricting process skewed, like New York ’s, to favor incumbents. The next year, Pro Publica ran a story exposing how Democrats had gamed the reform. “Skilled political professionals armed with modern mapping software and detailed voter information,” the story said, “managed to replicate the results of the smoke-filled rooms of old.” Truth is, any completely independent commission would by definition also be completely unaccountable. It also means recognizing the problem will only get worse. Long before he was indicted on federal bribery charges and became one of the few incumbents to lose a primary, state Sen. Malcolm Smith had admitted that if Democrats got control of both houses at redistricting time, they’d “draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years.” But instead of looking for one big magic fix, New Yorkers would be better off recognizing that even if this reform would help, it’s only one of a series of measures needed to put the squeeze on Albany ’s Incumbent Party.
Others include ending rules that now allow third parties to cross-endorse a candidate already on the ballot as a Democrat or Republican — which only gives incumbents another line on the ballot they can buy. Goo-goos should also have no problem with another simple measure: requiring full disclosure of all outside income — and its sources — for our part-time legislators.Incumbents might have a more difficult time being returned to office if their challengers could point voters to the connections between an incumbent’s votes and the people who are paying him the big bucks. The challenge of gerrymandering, of course, is as old as American democracy, going back to accusations that Anti-Federalist Patrick Henry in 1789 tried to design Virginia New York Texas
* State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will examine why New York’s voter turnout was so low on Election Day, and said that despite not having voter ID laws, the state is “always at the bottom of the list,” the Daily News reports:http://goo.gl/YSJP1M
It Has Gotten to Threatening Voters Who Don't Think It Matters So Pols Can Avoid Embarrassment Caused By Low Turn Outs
Democrats decry ''lazy'' NYC voter remarks as they send Democrats a million threatening letters telling them not to be too lazy to vote . . . Sources said that the menacing letter sent out to a million New York Democrats to bully them into voting was written by a top campaign strategist who was appointed by Cuomo himself
Democratic voter complains about pushy ‘vote or else’ letter(NYP) Brooklyn . “This use of intimidation and shame tactics to spur votership has to stop. In fact, I may choose to not vote this November 4th just because of this letter.”*Author of Democrats’ ‘threatening’ letter identified (NYP) “There’s infighting going on, a definite circular firing squad over the mailer and a sense of panic over it in Cuomo’s camp right now,” the insider continued. The governor claimed on Friday that he was not aware of the campaign mailer. But a senior Democrat called Cuomo’s claim “laughable” and noted, “Nothing like this could possibly be done without Andrew’s OK.” "There was a 6% turnout in NYC for the public advocaterace, which is what Tish James currently occupies." (TU) * Democrats ‘Shame’ Voters With Mailers (WSJ) Pre-Halloween Scare Comes Via Postcards and Letters.
The mailers have proven particularly effective in competitive races, increasing voter turnout by as much as eight percentage points, according to a Yale University Syracuse on Friday, offered no criticism of the mailers. “I haven’t seen the mailer so I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s my understanding that…there’s nothing new about this or novel about this,” he said. “But I don’t see how it can be bad when you’re telling people, exercise your franchise.” The language used in the mailers bothered some Democratic Party officials. The end of one of the letters reads: “If you do not vote this year, we will be interested to hear why not.” “I think that last line has a threatening tone to it,” said Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Committee in Long Island , where some of the mailers were sent. “I don’t think that’s the way we go about it.” Analysts said the mailers could backfire. “It’s just dumb,” said Gerald Benjamin, a professor of political science at SUNY-New Paltz.
“Citizens rightly believe their vote is a private matter and this could cause some voters to see this as an excessive scrutiny of their behavior.”The letter warned voters that the party would be keeping tabs on who goes to the polls on Tuesday. Several Democrats told The Post the letter was part of Cuomo’s effort to turn out a larger Democratic vote amid widespread concerns of voter apathy. Neal Kwatra, appointed by Cuomo to be the state Democratic Party’s chief campaign strategist, was identified by two key Democratic insiders as the “author” of the mailer. “It was the brainchild of Neal Kwatra,” said one of the insiders. “He wrote the letter and sent it out, and now other Cuomo people are trying to distance themselves from it.”* Gov. Andrew Cuomo, at a labor-fueled rally in Times Square, seized on Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin’s remark that New York City voters are “lazy,” using it to fire up the crowd ahead of tomorrow’s election, theObserver reports: * Democratic Party mailers sent to more than 800,000 NewYorkers gave them grades on how often they voted (WSJ)
Re-Elected Tax Rebate for the Dumb Voters
Re-Elected Tax Rebate for the Dumb Voters
How money screams inAlbany: What Gov. Cuomo and John Flanagan's tax rebate gimmickry has in commonwith a big union political contribution (NYDN) T he single ugliest feature of the “Big Ugly” deal that belched out of Albany last week was a scheme to send state checks to millions of homeowners less than four weeks before Election Day in 2016. Lawmakers are packaging the payments — of $130 or $185, depending on the county — as “property tax relief.” But the Oct. 15 delivery date, as prescribed by statute, makes clear that “transparent vote buying” is the more accurate description. Chief responsibility for the crass timing goes to Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, who’s scrambling for any advantage he can find to keep his Republicans in control of half the Legislature.
NYC Voters Are Disconnected From Their Own Believes
New York's Voters
Cuomo Connected to Corruption
We Support Cuomo
Cuomo Emerges Unhurt From Morelandgate Scandal; Dem Primary Challenger Unknown
More voters see Gov. Cuomo as part of New York's corruption problem, not solution: Quinnipiac Poll(NYDN)
Cuomo Connected to Corruption
We Support Cuomo
Cuomo Emerges Unhurt From Morelandgate Scandal; Dem Primary Challenger Unknown
More voters see Gov. Cuomo as part of New York's corruption problem, not solution: Quinnipiac Poll(NYDN)
Fully half of voters in the new poll say they disapprove of the way the incumbent Democrat is handling government ethics, while only 39% say he's doing the right thing.
That's a total reversal from the May 22 Q poll, when 48% of voters approved and 34% disapproved. Despite the souring views of his ability to muck out the Albany cesspool, Cuomo is still wrecking all challengers in the Democratic primary and November general election, Quinnipiac found in the latest survey. Cuomo still holds a 56 to 28 lead over Republican gubernatorial challenger Rob Astorino despite almost half of voters saying Cuomo is part of the corruption problem in the state, a new Quinnipiac poll found* Polls continue to show huge lead for Cuomo over Astorino(NYP)
Daily News Too Busy Kissing Cuomo Ass To Understand New Yorkers Think Voting Makes No Difference
All joking aside, his approach to campaigning ismystifying." Cuomo's (very) low-turnout primary: (Capital) Unofficial election results from the state’s Board of Elections show only about 9.3 percent of the state’s 5.8 million registered Democrats cast their ballots in the primary contest last night, the lowest turnout in a Democratic statewide primary in more than a decade. Turnout actually dipped below 2002’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, when Cuomo took himself out of the race against then-state comptroller Carl McCall shortly before the vote to avoid an expected hiding, and remained on the ballot in name only. According to unofficial returns, 531,205 Democrats voted yesterday, which was also lower than the 661,296 who voted in 2010, when there was no competitive race for governor.* Paterson: Low Turnout Raised Volume Of Cuomo Dissenters(YNN)The Democratic primary race is shaping up as one of the lowest-turnout statewide contests in recent memory – under 10 percent.* Why almost no New Yorkers voted(NYP)
Even With Teachout Protest Vote Turnout Only 9.3% . . . Where is the Outrage?
Landslide Cuomo (Daily News )
Randy Credico @Credico2014
All joking aside, his approach to campaigning ismystifying." Cuomo's (very) low-turnout primary: (Capital) Unofficial election results from the state’s Board of Elections show only about 9.3 percent of the state’s 5.8 million registered Democrats cast their ballots in the primary contest last night, the lowest turnout in a Democratic statewide primary in more than a decade. Turnout actually dipped below 2002’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, when Cuomo took himself out of the race against then-state comptroller Carl McCall shortly before the vote to avoid an expected hiding, and remained on the ballot in name only. According to unofficial returns, 531,205 Democrats voted yesterday, which was also lower than the 661,296 who voted in 2010, when there was no competitive race for governor.* Paterson: Low Turnout Raised Volume Of Cuomo Dissenters(YNN)The Democratic primary race is shaping up as one of the lowest-turnout statewide contests in recent memory – under 10 percent.* Why almost no New Yorkers voted(NYP)
Is the NYT All About Politics
The NYT Which Has Not Commented About the Undemocratic 9% Turnout is Pushing For A Big November Vote to Keep the Senate in Democratic Control
A Bigger Midterm Election Turnout(NYT Ed) Will voters realize that decisions made on Nov. 4 will reverberate in laws not passed, roads not built and jobs not created?* In wake of dismal primary turnout, sources tied to Gov.Cuomo want him to lay out 2nd term agenda and energize base(NYDN)
Daily News More Worried About the BOE Than the Fact New Yorkers Stop Voting
The reason the New York City ’s Board of Elections continues to make mistakes running the city’s exercises in democracy is because of how the board trains their hires, the Daily News writes:
Solving Our Voter Turnout Crisis(Gotham Gazette)
Reporter Spin Pols Crap On Not Voting But Never Asks the Public Why They Don't Show Up At the Polls
Democrats Try Scaring Voters to the Polls (NYT) A report cards sent to Democrats evaluates their voting records. The card, sent by state Democratic parties, showed how many times people had voted in the last four general elections. In the New York mailing, three or four times was considered “excellent,” two was “good,” one was “fair,” and none was given an “incomplete — not enough data at present time, voting record to be reassessed post-November election.”
A Lot of New Yorkers Agree With Janet Gamble and Have Stop Voting Over the the Last Decade
New York's Falling Voter Participation Rate is A Canary in the Coal Mine Warning for Our Failing City and Democracy
2013 Was the Lowest Turnout Since Women Given Right to Vote . .
200,000 Votes Less Than 2009
de Blasio Was Elected Public Advocate in 2009 With Just 4.4% of the Democrat Vote or Less than 1.7% of the City's Residences
In the primary runoff Comptroller John Liu received 127,173 or just 4% of the registered Democrats in the city (3,177,740) in the runoff. De Blasio did a little better with 138, 736, he got 4.4% of the city's democratic voters. John Liu was elected with just 2.7% of all the city's registered voters casting their vote for him.
A Little Over 1 Million NYC Voters Show Up At the Polls Yesterday
Lowest turnout since women won the right to vote in 1918
Only 1.7% of all the registered voters voted in the city voted for Bloomberg in 2009. The mayor received 585,000 out of the 4,657,516 New Yorkers Registered. 1.2 Million Voted.
New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low * What In A Mandate? worry--50% drop in primary turnout since '89
2013 Was the Lowest Turnout Since Women Given Right to Vote . .
200,000 Votes Less Than 2009
In the primary runoff Comptroller John Liu received 127,173 or just 4% of the registered Democrats in the city (3,177,740) in the runoff. De Blasio did a little better with 138, 736, he got 4.4% of the city's democratic voters. John Liu was elected with just 2.7% of all the city's registered voters casting their vote for him.
Lowest turnout since women won the right to vote in 1918
Only 1.7% of all the registered voters voted in the city voted for Bloomberg in 2009. The mayor received 585,000 out of the 4,657,516 New Yorkers Registered. 1.2 Million Voted.
New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low * What In A Mandate? worry--50% drop in primary turnout since '89
The Smaller the Vote the More Elected Officials, Corrupt Party Leaders and Special Interests Win
The City's Falling Turnout The
City's election results from a half-century ago look like misprints.
3.46 million out of the City's 3.53 million registered voters, a
staggering 98%, cast ballots in the 1952 Presidential election. One year
later, 93% of registered New Yorkers voted in the Mayoral election.
Today, the bottom has fallen out for the City's electorate. Only 27% of
the City's registered voters cast their ballots in the last mayoral
election in 2005. 39% of registered voters took part in the Mayoral
election of 1997. Voter turnout was less than 20% for City Council
elections in 1999. NY's Falling Voter Participation New York's Sinking Vote 1. 337,110 more New Yorkers voted in 2004 than 2008. 2. New York Ranked 42 of 50 in Voting Age Turnout 50.7% 2008.The City's Falling Turnout The
City's election results from a half-century ago look like misprints.
3.46 million out of the City's 3.53 million registered voters, a
staggering 98%, cast ballots in the 1952 Presidential election. One year
later, 93% of registered New Yorkers voted in the Mayoral election.
Today, the bottom has fallen out for the City's electorate. Only 27% of
the City's registered voters cast their ballots in the last mayoral
election in 2005. 39% of registered voters took part in the Mayoral election of 1997. Voter turnout was less than 20% for City Council elections in 1999. NY's Falling Voter Participation New York's Sinking Vote 1. 337,110 more New Yorkers voted in 2004 than 2008. 2. New York Ranked 42 of 50 in
Voting Age Turnout 50.7% 2008. 3. In 1944 NY had 6,291,885 votes for
president and 47 Electoral votes. 4. In 1944 Florida had 482,592 votes
for president and 8 Electoral votes. 5. In 2008 Florida had 1,204,479
more votes for president than NY. 6. In 1944 New York had 3,423,467 more
votes than California. 7. In 2008 California had 6,291,885 more votes
than NY. 8. In 1944 New York cast 13.1% of the Nation's vote. 9. In 2008
New York cast 5.5% of the Nation's vote. Mayor O’Dwyer election in 1941, which took place one month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor received 1,100,649 more votes than Bloomberg 68 years before mayor won his third term. The 1940 census reported the population of New York City to be 7,454,995. The
most recent estimate from the City Planning Commission, as of July 1,
2009, gives the population of New York City as 8,363,710. Two decades
before that Mayor John FrancisHylan(1921) Jimmy Walker(1925) both received 200,000 thousand more votes than Bloomberg
NYT Pushing for A Democratic U.S. Senate While Ignoring 9% Turn Out in NY
Long Lines at Minority Polling Places(NYT Ed)It may not be a coincidence that some of the longest lines on Election Day occur in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
The Smaller the Vote the More Elected Officials, Corrupt Party Leaders and Special Interests Win
NYT Pushing for A Democratic U.S. Senate While Ignoring 9% Turn Out in NY
Long Lines at Minority Polling Places(NYT Ed)It may not be a coincidence that some of the longest lines on Election Day occur in black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
The Pols and Election System Breaking the Spirit of Long Time New Yorkers
OPINION: Why I will no longer vote in NYC
By Janet Gamble For Brooklyn Daily Eagle
I
have been voting in New York City for nearly 30 years, and now I feel
no need to vote here ever again. As a voter, you put your hope and
trust in the person you cast
your ballot for and want so badly ... so very badly, that they will try
to come through for you. But now I see how stupid and naive I was. Now I
see it is not
the voters that some New York politicians are working for — its
rich, real estate interests. They are the official owners of New York
politics. It's not hard to see the damage these people have caused the
average New Yorker. Affordable housing is almost non-existent in every
borough. Once-beautiful historic blocks of brownstone housing are now
dotted with newly constructed houses that resemble ugly cereal
boxes. The well-off New Yorker has their pick of luxury housing, which
brings me to the reason I will no longer vote.
.jpg)
Long
Island College Hospital (LICH) has just been sold to a
developer who donated money to Gov. Cuomo. Several other companies were
supposed to bid on running this hospital, but trumped up excuses were
made against the first two bidders and they were passed over in favor of
a company that donated the most money to the governor. This should be a
scandal and fodder for whoever is running against the governor this
year...but it won't be. Who is going to investigate this? No one... not
when you've pretty much hired everyone who could investigate you. Our
current mayor got himself arrested last year, protesting
the closing of this hospital, but I knew it was just a stunt to gain
attention ... and it worked. I voted for him with the silly hope that he
would at least try to save the hospital, and when he negotiated a deal
for different companies to bid for running the hospital, I had hope
again...silly, silly hope. When the bidders were rejected under odd
circumstances, I knew
where this ship was heading and that Gov. Cuomo was at the helm. While I
am not sure if the mayor knew how crooked this deal was, his silence
was loud enough. In the old days of Hollywood movies, the good guys and
bad guys were always clearly seen and most of the time, there was a
happy ending. But in this movie, the people (politicians) who we thought
were the good guys, turned out to be the bad guys... and there is no
happy ending.
The Central Park Horses Are Treated Better Than the Voters In This City
There are good politicians, on both sides, who do want to fight
for us. But the rich control the rest, and they will not let anything
good happen. There is this mix of emotion that I feel about this: anger,
frustration, sadness and hopelessness. When you see thousands of good
people losing their jobs and a community losing its hospital — knowing
that the people you voted for are the cause of this ... knowing that
they betrayed you, just because you were stupid enough to trust them —
there is this gnawing ache … an ache of inferiority. Because I, and the
average, non-rich, New Yorker, mean nothing to these people ...
nothing. I know there are those who will say that if I don't vote then I
should not complain when nothing changes. Well I did vote...and I voted
for term limits in New York City. I signed the petition to make it a
law and voted for term limits, twice. Then I watched our former, rich
mayor strong-arm the city council into overturning that law. No, no
more. I will never put my faith in any of these people ever again. Some people will also say, “Just find another hospital.”
Why? My luck in picking hospitals is not that great! Nearly every
hospital that was affiliated with the doctor I chose has closed. St.
Mary's in Brooklyn, St. John’s in Queens and now, LICH. So, I think I'll
be doing you hospitals a favor by not going to you at all! I know now that I am invisible ... a nobody ... worthless...
left to vent my anger in a letter that hardly anyone will see. LICH was
nearly 160 years old. The Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and
even the skyline of Manhattan did not exist when this hospital saw its
first patient. How ironic to see it fall just because of the view that
grew up before it. It was one of the first hospitals to use anesthesia.
One of the first hospitals to use a dedicated ambulance corps. Every
woman in this country should be angry because, the very first hospital
that felt women need special care, too, gave us the first doctor of
gynecology. Soon, this will be gone, replaced with luxury condos that only
the richest among us can afford. And when that first bulldozer comes to
tear down this historic place, I will bury my voter's registration card
in its rubble. Thank you, governor ... thank you, mayor ... for
nothing.
Signed,
Janet Gamble, AKA Nobody
Kingston Avenue, Brooklyn
Janet Gamble, a Crown Heights resident, was born in East New York and raised in Bed-Stuy. She has had two surgeries at LICH.
NY's Incumbent Protection Party
New York’sIncumbent Party — can’t throw the bums out(NYP) There come moments, H.L. Mencken once wrote, when men must rise above principle. For New York , this may be one of those moments. Here’s the problem: Today a single party maintains its grip over Albany by rigging the electoral maps. It’s called the Incumbent Party, and it includes Republicans and Democrats alike. In theory, voters go to the polls to choose their representatives. In practice, legislative control over redistricting often means incumbents choosing their voters. And data-driven technology makes it easier and easier for them to do it. In 2010, California opted for a citizens’ commission to reform a redistricting process skewed, like New York ’s, to favor incumbents. The next year, Pro Publica ran a story exposing how Democrats had gamed the reform. “Skilled political professionals armed with modern mapping software and detailed voter information,” the story said, “managed to replicate the results of the smoke-filled rooms of old.” Truth is, any completely independent commission would by definition also be completely unaccountable. It also means recognizing the problem will only get worse. Long before he was indicted on federal bribery charges and became one of the few incumbents to lose a primary, state Sen. Malcolm Smith had admitted that if Democrats got control of both houses at redistricting time, they’d “draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years.” But instead of looking for one big magic fix, New Yorkers would be better off recognizing that even if this reform would help, it’s only one of a series of measures needed to put the squeeze on Albany ’s Incumbent Party.
Others include ending rules that now allow third parties to cross-endorse a candidate already on the ballot as a Democrat or Republican — which only gives incumbents another line on the ballot they can buy. Goo-goos should also have no problem with another simple measure: requiring full disclosure of all outside income — and its sources — for our part-time legislators.Incumbents might have a more difficult time being returned to office if their challengers could point voters to the connections between an incumbent’s votes and the people who are paying him the big bucks. The challenge of gerrymandering, of course, is as old as American democracy, going back to accusations that Anti-Federalist Patrick Henry in 1789 tried to design Virginia New York Texas
The Central Park Horses Are Treated Better Than the Voters In This City
Signed,
Janet Gamble, AKA Nobody
Kingston Avenue, Brooklyn
Janet Gamble, a Crown Heights resident, was born in East New York and raised in Bed-Stuy. She has had two surgeries at LICH.
NY's Incumbent Protection Party
New York’sIncumbent Party — can’t throw the bums out(NYP) There come moments, H.L. Mencken once wrote, when men must rise above principle. For New York , this may be one of those moments. Here’s the problem: Today a single party maintains its grip over Albany by rigging the electoral maps. It’s called the Incumbent Party, and it includes Republicans and Democrats alike. In theory, voters go to the polls to choose their representatives. In practice, legislative control over redistricting often means incumbents choosing their voters. And data-driven technology makes it easier and easier for them to do it. In 2010, California opted for a citizens’ commission to reform a redistricting process skewed, like New York ’s, to favor incumbents. The next year, Pro Publica ran a story exposing how Democrats had gamed the reform. “Skilled political professionals armed with modern mapping software and detailed voter information,” the story said, “managed to replicate the results of the smoke-filled rooms of old.” Truth is, any completely independent commission would by definition also be completely unaccountable. It also means recognizing the problem will only get worse. Long before he was indicted on federal bribery charges and became one of the few incumbents to lose a primary, state Sen. Malcolm Smith had admitted that if Democrats got control of both houses at redistricting time, they’d “draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years.” But instead of looking for one big magic fix, New Yorkers would be better off recognizing that even if this reform would help, it’s only one of a series of measures needed to put the squeeze on Albany ’s Incumbent Party.
Others include ending rules that now allow third parties to cross-endorse a candidate already on the ballot as a Democrat or Republican — which only gives incumbents another line on the ballot they can buy. Goo-goos should also have no problem with another simple measure: requiring full disclosure of all outside income — and its sources — for our part-time legislators.Incumbents might have a more difficult time being returned to office if their challengers could point voters to the connections between an incumbent’s votes and the people who are paying him the big bucks. The challenge of gerrymandering, of course, is as old as American democracy, going back to accusations that Anti-Federalist Patrick Henry in 1789 tried to design Virginia New York Texas
"New York's voter registration record is dismal - we rank 47th in the country" http://trib.al/PvXMsya
Group Paid to Encourage Voters Turnout Earns Their $ By Reporting Turnout Stinks
NYT Never Did A Story How 15% Less New Yorkers Voted in 2013 than in 2009
In all, nine states have passed measures making it harder to vote since the beginning of 2013. GOP leads the effort.
Gerson Borrero
True News
Low Turnout Not A Popular Uprising
Newsday’s Dan Janison notes the paltry turnout numbers in last week’s general election, running counter to the narrative of a “popular uprising” for de Blasio
Lowest Turnout Since Women Given Right to Vote, 200,000 Votes Less Than 2009
Lowest turnout since women won the right to vote in 1918
Only 1.7% of all the registered voters voted in the city voted for Bloomberg in 2009. The mayor received 585,000 out of the 4,657,516 New Yorkers Registered. 1.2 Million Voted.
New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low
1/6 of the city’s electorate and 1/10 of its population could in effect be choosing our next mayor."
As conventional wisdom has it, New Yorkers are seeking a striking change in tone in the coming mayoral election, one that makes the selection of a Democratic mayor seem almost inevitable and the party’s primary process likely to represent the conclusion of the story rather than the plot-escalating middle. As we’ve also been made to understand, a relatively small number of voters will determine the outcome of the primary race.
The Small the Vote the More Corrupt Party Leader, $$$ and Special Interests Win
The City's Falling Turnout
The City's election results from a half-century ago look like
misprints. 3.46 million out of the City's 3.53 million registered
voters, a staggering 98%, cast ballots in the 1952 Presidential
election. One year later, 93% of registered New Yorkers voted in the
Mayoral election. Today, the bottom has fallen out for the City's
electorate. Only 27% of the City's registered voters cast their ballots
in the last mayoral election in 2005. 39% of registered voters took
part in the Mayoral election of 1997. Voter turnout was less than 20%
for City Council elections in 1999. NY's Falling Voter Participation New York's Sinking Vote 1. 337,110 more New Yorkers voted in 2004 than 2008. 2. New York Ranked 42 of 50 in Voting Age Turnout 50.7% 2008.
New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low
As conventional wisdom has it, New Yorkers are seeking a striking change in tone in the coming mayoral election, one that makes the selection of a Democratic mayor seem almost inevitable and the party’s primary process likely to represent the conclusion of the story rather than the plot-escalating middle. As we’ve also been made to understand, a relatively small number of voters will determine the outcome of the primary race.
The Small the Vote the More Corrupt Party Leader, $$$ and Special Interests Win
_____________________________________
Low Turnout Not A Popular Uprising
Newsday’s Dan Janison notes the paltry turnout numbers in last week’s general election, running counter to the narrative of a “popular uprising” for de Blasio
Lowest Turnout Since Women Given Right to Vote, 200,000 Votes Less Than 2009
Lowest turnout since women won the right to vote in 1918
Only 1.7% of all the registered voters voted in the city voted for Bloomberg in 2009. The mayor received 585,000 out of the 4,657,516 New Yorkers Registered. 1.2 Million Voted.
New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low
New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low
_____________________________________
Lowest Turnout 200,000 Votes Less Than 2009
Lowest turnout since women won the right to vote in 1918
Only 1.7% of all the registered voters voted in the city voted for Bloomberg in 2009. The mayor received 585,000 out of the 4,657,516 New Yorkers Registered. 1.2 Million Voted.
New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low
New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low
Mayor O’Dwyer election in 1941, which took place one month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor received 1,100,649 more votes than Bloomberg
68 years before mayor won his third term. The 1940 census reported the
population of New York City to be 7,454,995. The most recent estimate
from the City Planning Commission, as of July 1, 2009, gives the
population of New York City as 8,363,710. Two decades before that Mayor John Francis Hylan(1921) Jimmy Walker(1925) both received 200,000 thousand more votes than Bloomberg
de Blasio Bigger Win Then Jimmy Walker
Biggest None Incumbent Win
What do Jimmy Walker and Bill de Blasio have in common? If the polls are right, de Blasio has a real shot at getting the highest percentage of votes for a non-incumbent for mayor in the city's modern history. Walker pulled in 65.8 percent of the vote when he first ran in 1925. Ed Koch holds the overall record for winning percentage: he got 78 percent in his 1985 re-election. Local voting participation has collapsed, especially when it comes to mayoral elections. About 2.46 million people voted for mayor in 1969 – when the city's population was smaller -- and we'll be lucky if half that many vote today.
June or August Primaries Smaller Turnouts. How About Early Voting and Mail In Voting?
New York City already has very low voter turnouts in the primaries. In the runoff primary that gave the democratic nomination to John Liu for comptroller he received just 2% of the votes from registered voter in the city. If we make the primary during the summer the turnout will be even lower.
Summer in the City: Beaches, Barbecues -- and Ballots?(Gotham Gazette)
New York's Incumbent Protection Society Is Planned
Other
tools incumbent pols use to ensure phoney elections besides the
corrupt election law is that they draw their own district (like they
are doing right now) cutting out their opponents. The recession which
makes it harder to raise campaign funds for challengers and lack of
public campaign financing also help keeps state pols in office forever.
New York ranks 48th in the nation with only 64 percent of eligible residents registered.
Nobody Votes, Special Interest Win
king News: Liu and de Blasio Win N.Y. Primary Runoffs Turnout Is a Trickle in Primary Runoff * Terrorism Suspect Pleads Not Guilty *** 2009 MAYOR'S MANAGEMENT REPORT *** Senate Panel Rejects a ‘Public Option’ in Health Plan *** Companion Is Called to Testify at Monserrate Trial' *** COURT TOSSES RATHER SUIT *** Democratic Fundraiser Norman Hsu Sentenced to 24 Years *** Fund-Raiser Is Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison (NYT) Toyota Issues Massive Recall *** Bloomberg: Keep Runoffs, Dump Partisan ElectionsNobody Votes, Special Interest Win
Pay for Vote
How low voting increases slush fund extortion For the last few days the candidates have been going around promising everything but city hall's bathroom sink to special interests group in return for pulling out their members next Tuesday to vote for them. The groups being promised government pay to play include: the Democratic Machines, religious, racial and ethnic leaders, unions and lobbyists who pay for the campaigns, are already on the government tit for member items, programs and grants for themselves are becoming more empowered by the city's falling voter participation and declining media coverage of the issues and how those issues are important to the voters and their families The Real Campaign is to Suppress Challengers *** Tammany’s Ballot Control Again and Again
While the media reports low turnout expectations, where is the call for change of an election system that favors the permanent government and special interests. In 1965 when 14% of the democratic voters voted for Abe Beame in a runoffs there were calls for election reform that led to runoffs like today. Today less than 1% may vote and no media, good government or elected officials say a word. They all become the insiders in a very corrupt election system that cuts the public out for the most part on who wins elections.
Calls for a runoff were raised in 1965 after Abraham D. Beame won a four-way mayoral primary with 327,934 votes, which, with 32 percent of Democrats voting, meant that only about 14 percent of enrolled party members voted for him. He was defeated that year by John V. Lindsay, a liberal Republican congressman. "Democrats will be lucky if 150,000 people bother to vote. Polls show that the candidates are more or less evenly matched, meaning the winner may not get much more than 85,000 votes. That is ... equivalent to barely 1 percent of the city’s population *** Clyde Haberman coins a Safiresque phrase - "panjandrums of political prognostication" - while lamenting the expected low turnout *** NYT predicted turnout of 150,000 "is something every New Yorker should really be complaining about Tuesday’s Forgotten Election
The City's Falling Turnout The City's election results from a half-century ago look like misprints. 3.46 million out of the City's 3.53 million registered voters, a staggering 98%, cast ballots in the 1952 Presidential election. One year later, 93% of registered New Yorkers voted in the Mayoral election. Today, the bottom has fallen out for the City's electorate. Only 27% of the City's registered voters cast their ballots in the last mayoral election in 2005. 39% of registered voters took part in the Mayoral election of 1997. Voter turnout was less than 20% for City Council elections in 1999. NY's Falling Voter Participation
New York's Sinking Vote 1. 337,110 more New Yorkers voted in 2004 than 2008. 2. New York Ranked 42 of 50 in Voting Age Turnout 50.7% 2008. 3. In 1944 NY had 6,291,885 votes for president and 47 Electoral votes. 4. In 1944 Florida had 482,592 votes for president and 8 Electoral votes. 5. In 2008 Florida had 1,204,479 more votes for president than NY. 6. In 1944 New York had 3,423,467 more votes than California. 7. In 2008 California had 6,291,885 more votes than NY. 8. In 1944 New York cast 13.1% of the Nation's vote. 9. In 2008 New York cast 5.5% of the Nation's vote.
NY Times Democratic Machine Losing millions like every other newspaper in the Internet age, cutbacks in news coverage and sections, the Boston Globe union fight, a new headquarters which threatened before a government bailout of the mortgage company GMAC to bankrupt the paper. What are year for the "Old Gray Lady." The only piece left from 'The Kingdom and the Power" era is the blind following of many New Yorkers who still vote to candidates endorsed by the paper Endorsement Power: Times Vs. Daily News *** Smith: Who Really Flexed Muscle in Yesterday’s City Primaries? The New York Times *** The Times and Clyde Vanel (Gotham Gazette) *** Are We Losing the News that’s Fit to Print? (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) *** The Times finds a pony(NY Fiscal Watch) *** New York Times Co. Discloses Bonus, Stock Option Snafus (Editor and Publisher)
Afghanistan Women Facing Danger Shame New Yorkers' Low Voters Turn Outs
2013 Lowest Turnout Since Women Given Right to Vote, 200,000 Votes Less Than 2009. Below Afghanistan Woman Vote Defy Threats of Violence
KABUL, Afghanistan Vote
New York City Vote
A Little Over 1 Million NYC Voters Show Up At the Polls Yesterday
Lowest turnout since women won the right to vote in 1918
Only 1.7% of all the registered voters voted in the city voted for Bloomberg in 2009. The mayor received 585,000 out of the 4,657,516 New Yorkers Registered. 1.2 Million Voted. New York: Turnout Appears Headed for Record Low
Bloomberg Knew Last Year the New Yorkers Were Not Voting 1.7% of all the registered voters voted in the city voted for Bloomberg on Tuesday. Before the paper is counted, the mayor received 548,660 out of the 4,657,516. The recent runoff does make Tuesday's vote look like a mandate. In New York the Democratic Primary is the real election, for most elective officers.. In the primary our new Comptroller John Liu received 127,173 or just 4% of the registered Democrats in the city (3,177,740) in the runoff. De Blasio did a little better with 138, 736, he got 4.4% of the city's democratic voters. John Liu was elected with just 2.7% of all the city's registered voters casting their vote for him.
Mayor O’Dwyer election in 1941, which took place one month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor received 1,100,649 more votes than Bloomberg 68 years before mayor won his third term. The 1940 census reported the population of New York City to be 7,454,995. The most recent estimate from the City Planning Commission, as of July 1, 2009, gives the population of New York City as 8,363,710. Two decades before that Mayor John Francis Hylan(1921) Jimmy Walker(1925) both received 200,000 thousand more votes than Bloomberg on T
NY's Falling Voter Participation 2/17/2009
The Real Campaign is to Suppress Challengers
Tammany’s Ballot Control Again and Again
Organized Crime Politics Ballot Lines for Sale
Political PARTIES 4 SALE, Organized Crime Politics
Organize d Crime Politics, Rigged Elections
Tammany’s Ballot Control Again and Again
Organized Crime Politics Ballot Lines for Sale
Political PARTIES 4 SALE, Organized Crime Politics
Organize d Crime Politics, Rigged Elections
The Greatest Generation vs. Today's Take Albany Generation
What In A Mandate?
worry--50% drop in primary turnout since '89
In the Democratic Party Run Off John Liu Won with 2% of the Vote of All The Eligible Voters in the City
Voter Apathy Is Leaving Much of the City on the Sidelines of Democracy (NYT) "It is hard to recall when labor unions last turned the tide in a major NY election" writes @Powellnyt
The United Federation of Teachers once boasted great pull in Queens. Today, as the Queens-born academic Mitchell L. Moss notes, it most likely has more members in Boca Raton than in Kew Gardens. * Last Tuesday, the WFP troops challenged the Assembly candidate of the Brooklyn boss Vito J. Lopez. Sustained though their challenge was, their candidate, Jesus Gonzalez, a young community organizer, lost. New York's Decreasing Voter Turnout (True News)
If you care about NYC democracy, worry--50% drop in primary turnout since '89
Well Someone Had to Win: Weak Candidate With A Weak Campaign Vs. Weak Mayor Damaged by Term Limits and Big Spending
Turnout Mostly About Race The media is reporting that the closeness of the mayor race was caused by Bloomberg support of changes to term limits and an anti incumbent nation wide vote. But if one examines the the NYT block by block results of the mayoral election you see that the vote had a lot to do with race. Staten Island except for the North Shore went for Bloomberg as did the Eastside of Manhattan. Harlem, Central Brooklyn and South East Queens went for Thompson. The racial voting pattern really stands out in South West Brooklyn where only Coney Island and Marboro Houses voted for Thompson, the only two neighborhoods in that area of Brooklyn where blacks live in mass. Thompson good showing is an out growth of last years Obama registration in the black communities, while Bloomberg failure to meet the poll spread had a lot to do with the white community unlearning the habit of voting because the incumbent elected officials in their areas get reelected without opposition year after year. Another clue to the closeness of the mayor's race Whites become minority on NYC council , The polls used the old turnout numbers without taking into account the great changes in the city's voting patterns Polls failed to predict tight contest in mayoral race *** Paterson Embolden by Thompson Results The gov starts his campaign commercials TV buys. His team is putting it out on the Internet and the press in hopes it will be talked about, like were doing here and pump up his very low poll numbers. Paterson is more likely to run his race on race, something Thompson refused to do Paterson Accuses Media Of Racism * Elsewhere: Did the Media Sink Thompson? Howard Kurtz scolds New York City reporters for not taking Thompson more seriously" Pollster looks to Cover His Ass Unreleased Marist Poll Showed Thompson Closing in on Bloomberg True News: NY's No Spin Zone While the Bloomberg campaign was spinning the media for votes only True News reported that the city's economic melt down and the lack of state funding for the MTA would make the mayor's plan for free crosstown buses impossible. Today's Answer by the mayor Keep waiting for that free crosstown bus: Bloomy *** Bloomberg Calls for Free Crosstown Buses - City Room Blog (NYT) * Mayor Bloomberg mulls making snail-like crosstown buses free (DN) * BLOOMBERG: FREE CROSSTOWN BUS SERVICE FOR ALL (NYP) Artz's Triangulation Lobbyist consultant George Artz is very comfortable representing three sides at once. Artz's has a lifelong relationship with Ed Koch who Doesn't Appreciate John Liu's Snubbing of Mayor Bloomberg yesterday. Artz who said on NY1 last night that he represented Liu was analysing why Liu missed the tradition unity photo op with the mayor the day a's fter the election McCall Back to the Liu Future? The NYT reported on August 23, 2002 that the just appointed head of Comptroller John Liu Elect Transition team as State Comptroller allowed pay to play Accountants and law firms Gave to Carl McCall After Getting State Contract "Law firms have given Mr. McCall nearly $200,000 in campaign donations. In the Cendant case, Mr. McCall did not interfere when the courts awarded the firms $262 million in legal fees (from the pension fund) -- by one calculation, $10,000 an hour." Carl McCall is also under investigation by the the AG in the pension scandal is to be named to head John Liu transition team. No stranger to Play to Play McCall firm Convent Capital was subpoenaed in May of this year, because he accepted a money manager fee and was unlicensed by the SEC. McCall received $48,221 for assisting Steinberg Asset Management in 2005 which received 25 million in pension funds from State Comptroller Hevesi Political Correctness Reporting Only USA Today broke through the political correctness and reported Fort Hood suspect a war critic (USA Today) the NYT reported Suspect Was ‘Mortified’ About Deployment to War *** The Daily News reported Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hasan opposed wars, so why did he snap? Update Suspect Shouted "Allahu Akbar"? NYT Delays Until After the Election Now you tell us? Third-Term Blues Are Job Hazard in Mayor’s Office and Albany(NYT) Slush Fund Extortion Creates Order Christine Quinn sounds feisty, “I remain frustrated that so many Council votes are 48 to 3, or 50 to 1. If we’re all in agreement that frequently, are we really challenging ourselves on the issues?”Incumbency, Apathetic Public Makes Term Limits A Non Issue 24 out of 27 councilmembers who voted to extend term limits won reelection. Maria Baez lost to Fernando Cabrera, Kendall Stewart lost to Jumanne Williams, Alan Gerson lost to Margaret Chin, David Yassky lost for Comptroller and Miguel Martinez won't be the last councilmember to go to jail for dipping in the slush fund. Not showing up signals to those in power it is OK for them to ignore you 586,890 people voted for term limits, but only 557,059 voted to re-elect Michael Bloomerg SOS NYT Spins Nonsense Election Remakes City Council, and May Give It More Bite, Too
More Analysis on Mayor's Race 8 Reasons Bill Thompson Lost the NYC Mayoral Election *** Here's What Happened To Bloomberg *** Dinkins: 'No show' O hurt Thompson ***The man behind the NY GOP's gains *** Exclusive: Thompson has no regrets about failed mayoral bid *** Bloomberg holds out $850G olive branch to de Blasio for new office budget*** Bill Thompson: “While I can be angry about it, the mayor - he's the one who has to live with, you know, how negative his campaign was.” *** Thompson also spoke with NY1, saying he did the best he could, and that Bloomberg doesn't have a mandate *** Larry Littlefield bucks conventional wisdom. “More turnout, I believe, would also have meant a much greater Bloomberg victory.” *** “I am proud of my role as county leader,” says Vito Lopez *** Bill Thompson isn't bitter and hasn't ruled out taking another crack at the mayor's office in 2013 *** Gabe Pressman thinks it's time to revisit the issue of morality in politics *** Mayor’s Math Would Devalue His Victory *** New York's Bloomberg spent big, for small return (LA Times)
Pay to Play Runoff Elections
Nobody Votes in Runoffs, Special Interest Permanent Government Wins
For
the last few days Public Advocate candidates (maybe Thompson and de
Blasio) will be going around to special interests promising
everything but city hall's bathroom sink, in
return for pulling out their members next Tuesday to vote for them. The
groups being promised government pay to play $$$ include: the
democratic
Machines, religious, racial and ethnic leaders, unions, lobbyists. Non
profits are already on the government tit for member
items are very effective in getting out the vote. Real estate and Wall
Street whales give the quick $$$ the candidates need for TV and GOTV
operations. All these special interests gain more power because of the
city's falling voter participation. Runoffs elections controlled by the
permanent government and special interests.
 |
| Just 2.7% of Registered Voters in Runoff |
In 2009 just 1.7% of all the registered voters voted in the city voted for Bloomberg. Before the paper is counted, the mayor received 548,660 out of the 4,657,516.
The recent runoff does make Tuesday's vote look like a mandate. In
New York the Democratic Primary is the real election, for most
elective officers.. In the primary runoff Comptroller John Liu received 127,173 or just 4% of the registered Democrats in the city (3,177,740) in the runoff. De Blasio did a little better with 138, 736, he got 4.4% of the city's democratic voters. John Liu was elected with just 2.7% of all the city's registered voters casting their vote for him.
2013 Turnout Down 10% From 2001
With about 1 percent of votes citywide left to count from Tuesday's
primary, 646,774 votes for New York City mayor have been tallied from
Democrats, and another 56,763 from Republicans. It sounds like a lot.
But in fact just 20 percent of registered Democrats turned out to vote,
and only 11 percent of Republicans.* 20% Turnout in New York Primaries(NYT) A total of 700,000 voters took part in city elections this week, according to incomplete returns.* New York’s Turnout Crisis (City and State) * Low-Turnout Primary Becomes Referendum On Bloomberg(Gothamgazette)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why Does NYC Have A Runoff?
Because of Mario Procaccino
After a "law-and-order" conservative won the 1969 Democratic mayoral
primary with a plurality, the New York state legislature passed a law
widely recalled as the "Procaccino Provision." The law required that a candidate win at least 40 percent of the vote in
the Democratic primary to become the nominee for mayor. Failure to
reach that threshold means that the top two vote-getters will compete in
a runoff to determine a nominee.
Pols Take Credit for Leandra's Law and Do Nothing to See If It is Working
Letting Leandra downas city fails to get drunks to install ignition locks (NYDN Ed) Relentless pressure by her father Lenny (and heat from the Daily News) resulted in Leandra’s Law, which requires convicted drunken drivers to install so-called ignition interlock devices on their vehicles. They must prove sobriety by blowing into the devices before their cars will start. Now, an audit by state Controller Tom DiNapoli has found that the courts turned 2,166 Leandra’s Law convictions over to the city Department of Probation for enforcement from the statute’s enactment in 2010 to the end of 2014. The department required only 111 drivers to install the devices, just over 5% of the convicted drunks. Queens DA Richard Brown processes four times as many Leandra’s Law cases as does Probation and takes them from across the city on behalf of the city’s four other DAs. Handling drivers from the same population and geography as Probation, the Queens compliance rate approaches that of the rest of the state, 22% of the 8,427 cases handled since 2010. Last year, for example, Probation took 459 cases and installed interlocks in just eight cars, a rate of less than 2%. The Queens DA supervised 1,983 cases, installing 373 devices, a rate of almost 19%.
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