Early Voting: Not For Me

We are amid early voting in New York, which started last Saturday. Since it began, I took part, recently in a polling location a few blocks away. There have been three different polling places since it began.

April was the presidential primary. Now, we have the state primaries, including the state and federal legislatures. And, other local races, including some judicial races. I thought my federal representative (Rep. Ritchie "not AOC" Torres) had token opposition, seeing something a few months ago saying as much.

But it looks like I mistook a third-party candidate as his Democratic opponent. No candidate is running in my district. Two responses. (1) I wanted to vote against Torres in the primary. (2) It annoys me more since I usually get to walk a few blocks to serve as a poll worker. Now, I have to trudge somewhere around a half hour away. Plus, this means I do not have my usual comfortable spot. I'm just some newbie filling in. Blah.

This is another result of the New York re-districting follies last time around. There was a lawsuit, the map was declared unconstitutional under the state constitution, and I lost AOC in the process. Her district is under a block away. I have a "pragmatic" liberal now.

Torres is botherwise for two basic reasons. First off, he is over the top regarding Israel. Two notable data points there:

He has made that clear on his personal X account, with half of his posts, retweets or interactions since Oct. 7 being about Israel. Torres’ campaign was among the top recipients for AIPAC contributions, collecting nearly $600,000, according to a review of his campaign filings.

I'm at best wary about the U.S.'s strong support of Israel. I'm sympathetic to those going the other way. Torres takes no prisoners. It is part of the second part about him that annoys me. He comes off as an over-the-top jerk on certain issues. For instance, there is room between not supporting "Defund the Police" and saying something like:

“any elected official who’s advocating for the abolition and/or even the defunding of police is out of touch with reality and should not be taken seriously.”

Then, there was something I flagged on the blog earlier when he compared Assemblywoman Niou's failure to concede in a very close race where the liberals split the opposition vote (the Democratic primary winner received about 26% of the vote) right away. The official count was not out yet. Torres compared her actions to election denial. It's a bullshit reference against someone who was a great liberal voice in the state assembly.

Torres is on the correct side on most things. Nonetheless, his over-the-top take on Israel and acting like an asshole in various ways generally turns me off. A primary vote is a good place to at least symbolically show your opposition. AOC has an opponent. If she was still my representative, I would be five minutes away from the polling place.

Torres gets a profile in the paper and saw some accounts suggesting he thinks he has a big future. If people want to vote blank in the presidential primary to speak their minds on Israel, how about running against Torres? Well, yes, that is somewhat more expensive.

Torres received around 85% of the vote in the general last time. So, if I wanted, it would not be a big deal if I wrote in someone's name or something. Sometimes, voting third party or whatever is okay. Still, I rather not do that, symbolically at least, given the general stakes.

The primary is the time to vote more to the left or right (as appropriate to your tastes). Or, sometimes, just for the best person, wherever they are on the spectrum. It also helps to keep the incumbents somewhat honest, especially when they are (as they often are) in safe districts.  

Oh well. It is a bummer. 

ETA: One striking thing regarding Torres' one-note Israeli policy is that there is a strong Arabic presence in my neighborhood. I assume, if anything, these people are likely more pro-Gaza than pro-Israel.

There are multiple stores with Arabic writing and/or providing Arabic-friendly items. I have also seen more women in full covering, a family of women, or whatever at the supermarket just last night. 

I suppose many of these people are not citizens yet and/or do not vote. Nonetheless, I myself saw one person want to protest on their ballot in the last election. I doubt this was some sort of outlier. I have never seen any reference to this in coverage. But, it is another reason I find his one-note views on the subject so troubling. 

Compare, for instance, President Biden's attempts to show he is supportive of the concerns of Muslims. Yes, I know, not every Muslim or Arab person here will have the same views. But, I'm thinking median position. 

Jamaal Bowman Race

The biggest local race is another "pragmatic" opponent to a strong progressive, Jamaal Bowman. Bowman had a few words against Torres, particularly on Israel. 

I'm tired of watching Bowman's opponent badmouth him as if Bowman was somehow not a Biden supporter because he at times had a dissenting vote on the left as a protest vote when his vote didn't matter. In Biden's Administration, progressives have consistently been reliable. Biden at times had more trouble from the right side of the party.

Chris Hayes had a segment on the funding of the opposition. He shows the vast majority is coming from pro-Israel groups, often funded by conservatives. And, the ads do not talk about Bowman's position on Israel. They focus on Bowman's supposedly not being on Biden's side. 

So, on top of it all, there seems to be some bullshit -- the ads suggest the backers suppose the constituents are not even too upset at Bowman's position on Israel. Hayes did note a smaller funding stream did have ads on Israel. But, this time, the backers are cryptocurrency types. 

Bowman's position on Israel, some more conservative parts of his district, and some mostly vague "missteps" (he got caught pulling a fire alarm supposedly to delay a Republican vote, which is mostly embarrassing) left him vulnerable. Cynical heavy spending (the "most expensive" primary according to Chris Hayes) helped a lot. 

Bowman was on Colbert's show tonight. So, there's that. Colbert's audience gave him loud applause more than once. I will be upset if he loses. the guy he is running against comes off as something of an asshole. 

I am, of course, a bit biased about that. But, he does. It is a heavily blue district -- which is why Bowman can be a strong progressive who dissents from Biden's more median approach (necessarily) sometimes! So, the primary is key. 

Maybe, Bowman will go back to being a school principal.