NY State Primary Day

And Also: It was announced that David Wright will be activated for the final homestand and will play in at least one game. He also said that he does not think he is physically able to fully comeback, but will not officially retire (he has more time left on his contract). I think this was a clear for a long time, but it was an emotional moment to admit it.

 

There are multiple election days in my district this year given a special election to fill a local seat and separate federal/state primary dates after a federal lawsuit during the Obama years to give military personnel more time to participate.  I am not really sure why any lawsuit would not cover at least state-wide elections, if federal elections are covered. Anyway, to give state officials time to run around the legislative schedule or something, we had a federal election in June and today was the state govenrment primary. The special state assembly race was in April.

There has already been reports of people not listed as on the rolls when they went to vote, even though they might be listed so when they checked online.  Chris Hayes has noted the convoluted nature of NY election rules (the two primaries don't help the reputation) though honestly I myself have never really been stressed out about it.  I don't assume this means things are fine, including more restrictive absentee rules, no early voting etc.  We also only changed from 19th Century lever machines a few years back and do not have receipts to check our votes.

A final bit of weirdness is that today is Thursday. Well, Tuesday conflicts both with the Jewish New Year and 9/11, so for this year only, a special rule was put in place.  It might have been better just to have it next Tuesday, since Tuesday is the normal day to vote, or perhaps have extended voting so that one day doesn't matter so much.  Also, for some reason, they re-arranged things at my polling place, which confused me when I got there.  A couple people, I think they said they were from some media group, asked me outside if I supported Jeff Klein.  Have an idea it is part of the Jeff Klein juggernaut, seen in part by the number of signs around.

I am tired of seeing so many Cuomo ads playing during baseball and then football games, each one phrased as if he was running against Trump. The latest batch talk about "experienced" officials, a dig at the more amateur nature of the challengers (including against former IDC member Jeff Klein and for District Attorney).  The challengers (including Zephyr Teachout, who I think has decent chance of winning) I support also have not had television advertising.  I am not sure that was a good idea.  I fear, like for a local city council race, name recognition can win the day in a close race. At least, wish there were more Alessandra Biaggi signs around. All these Klein signs, a few big ones, are a bit creepy. 

Teachout had a protest campaign against Cuomo that resulted in a respectable, at least for such a non-entity, performance (around 30%) and failed in her bid for a congressional race by nine points.  I think her race for attorney general, especially given her efforts as a reformer (campaign finance particularly), has a good shot given the times. It probably will be a close race and along with Biaggi (after the upset in the local House race, Senator Gillibrand has also gone on her bandwagon) she did get a NYT endorsement.  It is basically a three person race (my feeling is Maloney is a respectable third; am not aware of this Eve person).

The times are depressing though there is some hope for change in November with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez receiving the most excitement locally.  I am ready to support strong progressive voices against dubious establishment figures or even against people (Tish James for DA seems fine really) somewhat less ideal in that fashion.  Andrew Cuomo on that front is again someone I will vote against in the primary though honestly he is someone who has done some good things.  But, these days, you need to aim higher. I honestly don't see Cynthia Nixon winning, but she has already pushed Cuomo and IDC Democrats too in fact to move left.

I will update this tonight. Again, I voted for governor and lieutenant governor (separate slots), state district attorney and state senate. There were no judges (silly affair, people no one heard of) or local state party officers or whatever on the ballot.  I personally had no issues voting.  Got my sticker.

ETA:  Cuomo's [who won; as we knew he would] choice for Attorney General won a plurality but Teachout was a strong second. A third candidate, however, split the anti-James vote and sealed the deal. The state needs instant run-off voting. But, that's just one of many potential voting reforms it can use.

There was a bright spot, other than the fact that Cuomo did various things to protect his left flank (Cynthia Nixon only received about a 1/3 of the vote, but she clearly concerned him), because Jeff Klein lost.  So, locally, I will have three women (including a more establishment friend assemblywoman) representing my interests. Toss in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and perhaps full control of the state legislature, that is not too bad.

(A footnote.  Joseph Crowley actually won the Working Family Party line for the House seat but promised not to run though he refused to consent to work with them to get his name off the ballot totally.  Cynthia Nixon also won there and in theory could get a sliver of the vote.  I question if it would be enough to seriously threaten a chance of the Republican winning.  But, given the bad blood there, it's not a lock she steps aside.)

[9/17 article on the last issue.]