Lander in 39th

WNYC says that Lander is leading Skaller, 41% to 25%, with over 75% of precincts reporting. Congratulations, Brad.

Early Returns

09/15/2009 | Comment

CityRoom says that deBlasio is leading Green, 32 to 31 (with 65% reporting). That is big – a contrary to all of the polling. In the comptroller race, Liu is at 39%, one point below the magic no-runoff number, with Yassky at 29%.

Locally, Short says that Diana Reyna is up by 97 votes (45% to 44%), while Steve Levin appears to be walking away with it – just over 31% with 70% reporting (and no runoffs in council races, I believe).



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What if They Gave an Election and Nobody Came?

The purpose of having elected officials, as opposed to a self-perpetuating oligarchy like China, ought to be to enhance accountability.

Yglesias starts off well, but his suggestion that we dispatch with borough-level elected positions and rely instead on a unicameral state legislature would be a disaster for NYC.

On the Candidates

09/15/2009 | Comment

So, there’s an election today. It will probably determine who your City Council member is for the next four (or eight or twelve) years. It will also probably determine who your Comptroller, Public Advocate and Borough President is for the next four (or eight or twelve) years. So it’s kind of important and worth paying attention to.

Al Sharpton called last night, and he wants me to pass on his support for Bill de Blasio. Ed Koch called last night, and he’s supporting Melinda Katz for Comptroller (so is Diana Reyna, but she didn’t call me last night). Sara Horowitz from Freelancer’s Union called, and they’re supporting David Yassky for Comptroller and Evan Thies for Council.

Here are links to the very excellent candidate profiles Juliet Linderman did for the Greenpoint Gazette.

In the 33rd District (open race):

Isaac Abraham
Ken Baer
Doug Biviano
Ken Diamondstone
Steve Levin
Jo Anne Simon
Evan Thies

In the 34th District (Diana Reyna is the incumbent):

Maritza Davila
Gerry Esposito
Diana Reyna

And for the citywides, here is a recap of the major races from the Times.



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Thinking About the 33rd

AYR supports (“gingerly”) Jo Anne Simon. Part of the calculus is Evan Thies’ role – or lack thereof – in Broadway Triangle. As Norman puts it:

Could Thies have stopped the Broadway Triangle project from going forward, as Simon’s latest mailer suggests? No, but his departure from Community Board 1 before the vote was not his best moment…

UPDATE: Realreformbrooklyn took Simon to task for her campaign literature making essentially this same accusation.

Since I was there, I can shed some more light on all of this.

As Norman says, Evan’s vote on Broadway Triangle wouldn’t have made a whit of a difference – the vote was 23 in favor, 12 opposed and 1 abstention. Evan was clearly on the record opposing Broadway Triangle (as he said to me, the process was the biggest problem – “shockingly exclusionary” – and he wanted to see more bulk in the zoning*).

As for his resignation, Evan told me in April or May that he would be resigning from CB1 in order to focus on the campaign (and in particular the petitioning) long before Broadway Triangle hit the Community Board’s schedule. I don’t know when Evan actually resigned, but I do know that the certification of Broadway Triangle happened very quickly. (Recall that at its May meeting, CB1 voted not to meet in July or August because there was nothing on the land use agenda – it wasn’t until the end of May that Broadway Triangle was certified, upending our summer vacation plans.)

For the record.

[* Which is where Evan and I part company – I voted for the Broadway Triangle rezoning because it was the right density. But Evan and I agree on the process.]