New York State Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Moving certain elections to even-numbered years

local elections in New York State

I went to the local Price Chopper grocery store yesterday to buy some items. There were two people at a table in the entryway. One asked if I was registered to vote. I said truthfully, “Always.” They were pleased as they were participating in National Voter Registration Day. I had no idea.

Then I asked them about a piece of New York State legislation, Assembly Bill A4282B/Senate Bill S3505B, moving certain elections to even-numbered years.

It was passed in June 2023, but I hadn’t heard about it being signed by Governor Kathy Hochul. As it turns out, at least as of September 18, she had not. There are over 400 bills that “need to be sent to her desk for signature – or veto. “

Reinvent Albany, the Citizens Union of the City of New York, and Common Cause New York support the legislation. “We believe this legislation will strengthen local democracy in the state by bringing more people to vote for local offices, leading to a more representative voting population and a stronger mandate for elected officials.

“The benefits of holding local elections during even-numbered (‘on-cycle’) years have been thoroughly documented in research, and dozens of towns, cities, and states have successfully made that transition in the previous decade. Good government groups and election advocates support this reform, as does the public.”

Conversely, John Quigley, Ulster County Board of Elections Commissioner (Republican), notes, “While the intentions of these bills may appear well-intentioned, the move to align certain local elections with even-numbered years carries significant risks for voters. Decreased turnout, diluted focus on local issues, limited voter engagement, reduced accountability, and the potential for increased partisanship are all concerns that should be carefully considered. “

My take

Do I agree with a branch of Common Cause or a Republican BoE official? The latter, big time. The voter initiative folks I met agreed with me, FWIW. There may be a greater voter turnout because of the top of the ballot. But will the voters have time/inclination to look at the local issues and candidates?

The even-numbered years encompass the US House of Representatives, state Assembly, and state Assembly races. Some of the even years will have the Presidential elections, the others, the statewide races for governor, comptroller, and attorney general. The US Senate races will also fall in an even year. How are local issues and candidates going to get the oxygen they need?

An interesting element of the bill is that it only pertains to local elections outside New York City. This rubs me wrong and could aggravate the ongoing upstate/downstate fissure.

Moreover, when vacancies exist in many offices, the state Constitution promptly mandates a special election. So, odd-year elections wouldn’t be eliminated anyway. Also, I think a change of such magnitude should be addressed by Constitutional amendment, not legislation.

So I wrote to the governor. I do that too infrequently, but this issue roiled this old poli sci major’s stomach.

A fabricated personal life story

George Santos

Kelly Sedinger has another interesting question.

It’s now coming out that a Republican who won a NY Congressional seat seems to have COMPLETELY fabricated his personal life story during his campaign. To what extent does this reflect VERY poorly on the state’s Democratic Party apparatus, which appears to have completely failed to do any opposition research at all?

It’s actually weirder than that. The Democrats DID spend $22,000 on opposition research in this race. Moreover, according to several sources, some of the fraud surrounding George Santos (NY-3) was known.

From City and State: “People associated with [Democratic opponent Robert] Zimmerman’s campaign and the Democratic Party [said] that they tried to get reporters to write about Santos, but that they were ignored. Zimmerman campaign consultant Jason Kaplan tweeted that “we’ve been screaming it from the rooftops since September.” He and others referenced a DCCC memo that offered details about Santos’ ties to Harbor City Capital, missing financial disclosures, and an allegedly fraudulent nonprofit Santos claimed to run that rescued animals as evidence that proof of the Republican’s purported malfeasance had been available but ignored by the media at large. “

But here’s the kicker: “Much of that so-called ‘opposition research’ had appeared in various news outlets prior to the election. No press release from the Zimmerman campaign, the state Democratic Party or the DCCC referenced the bulk of the [New York] Times reporting, which focused on the many alleged fabrications…” There’s a lot of finger-pointing but no good answer as to why.

Pooched it

The broader issue is that the New York State Democratic Party has continually messed up this election cycle. The Times Union notes: “An expert at the progressive-leaning Brennan Center called the Democrats’ political maps a ‘master-class in gerrymandering.'”

From Bloomberg Law: “The state’s redistricting process, marred by partisan politics, resulted in Democrat-drawn maps. The congressional and state Senate maps were then thrown out by the state’s highest court.” And rightly so, IMO.

“The final congressional and Senate lines were drawn by a court-appointed special master, who put competitive alternatives in the place of districts heavily weighted to favor Democrats.”

This meant a special August primary for the Congressional and state Assembly races after the regular June primary. There was a lot of jockeying for which district some of the candidates would run in.

Would Sean Patrick Maloney run in the 17th or 18th District? He ran in the 17th and lost. His colleague Mondaire Jones ran in the 10th but lost the primary. Two incumbents, Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, ended up running in the primary in the 12th, with the former winning.

This process ultimately meant that NYS Democrats had a net loss of four seats in the Congressional delegation, even as the party made gains in other states.

The Republicans made crime the primary issue in these suburban districts. Governor Kathy Hochul could only get 52.43% of the vote as she was elected to a full term.

So yes, the state Democratic Party is a mess.

What to do

What will the party do to get its mojo back? One incumbent Democrat has thoughts about it. “After acknowledging the fallout from the Cuomo affair, the usual Democratic messaging issues, and the antipathy of the Democratic establishment towards the party’s leftwing, AOC arrived at the biggest problem, the lack of party organization. Referring to the debacle on {Election Day], here’s what she had to say:

“‘I don’t feel caught off guard. I don’t feel like my reality has been upended. Others may feel more surprised with this. I feel very clear-eyed about what the path should be ahead. We should rebuild the New York State Democratic Party, and if that is a structure that refuses to be reformed, we rebuild and replace.’”

The complicated act of voting in NYS

two primaries this summer

Voting has become a complicated act in 2022. I’m not talking voter suppression, which I’ve mentioned before.

First, congratulations to Sarah Macinski, a member of my church, who was elected to the Board of the Albany Public Library Trustees on May 17 in a ten-person race. The five-year terms of the three candidates with the highest number of votes begin in July. But Sarah, as the fourth-highest vote-getter, starts her four-year term immediately.

On the same day, school boards across the state were elected. The issues are more urgent than ever. Sandi Sonnenfeld from the board of the Mid-Hudson Arts Education Alliance sounds the alarm. “Of the 1,145 novels and nonfiction books currently banned in one or more public schools in the United States, 74 percent of them feature protagonists of color or LGBTQ protagonists? Another 22 percent examine racism and other forms of social injustice.”

While only a handful of candidates won on anti-Critical Race Theory, and anti-LGBTQ platforms locally, two people won on Manhasset, Long Island, as Alan Singer reports.

ALSO: Albany Public Library names new Executive Director, Andrea Nicolay

VOTING-New York State

As Daily Kos noted, “a Republican judge in upstate New York ordered the implementation of a new court-drawn congressional map that radically redraws the state’s existing districts and has already sparked widespread political upheaval.

“The final map is in most respects similar to the draft proposed earlier… by court-appointed expert Jonathan Cervas, who appears to have prized compactness and competitiveness above other considerations, such as preserving communities of interest.” I must admit that, as an old poli sci major, I too support “compactness and competitiveness.”

Moreover, the Democrats had chosen to approve “maps that were shameful in their egregious bias. They overreached, with hubris both obvious and ugly.” The gerrymandering of certain districts, especially in New York City, was terrible.

Thus, New York State will be having 2 primaries this summer, at double the cost. Well, unless a lawsuit consolidates them. The second primary on August 23 will just be “for Congress and the state Senate, which saw its map struck down on the same grounds. Candidates for the Assembly and statewide office, however, are continuing to run in the original June 28 primary.”

One of the candidates in NY-10 downstate may include Elizabeth Holtzman. Should she succeed in her comeback attempt, her 42-year gap between periods of service in Congress would be the longest in history by far.

ALSO: Federal Elections results in Australia

SNL- PSA: Vote

Soon-to-be governor Kathy Hochul

Erie County

Someone from outside of New York State asked me what I thought of soon-to-be New York State Governor Kathy Hochul. The answer is that I had hardly thought of her at all. In fact, a month ago, if someone had shown me an unlabeled picture of her, it’s only about 50/50 that I would have been able to identify her.

This is a good thing, actually. She wasn’t tied at the hip to Andrew Cuomo, and has, so far, said the right things about cleaning house.

Daily Kos notes: “Hochul will be New York’s first governor from the Buffalo area since none other than Democrat Grover Cleveland, who won the top job in 1882 after a short stint as mayor. She’s also the first bona fide Upstate resident to hold the post since Republican Nathan Miller of Cortland County left office in 1922.”

From Buffalo to Albany

This upstate/downstate issue has been an issue in the state since approximately forever. Heck, where upstate begins – Poughkeepsie, maybe – is subject to debate. (And that doesn’t even count the people who’ve decided that Buffalo’s actually in the Midwest US because it’s closer to Detroit, Mi (255 miles/411 km) than New York City (374 miles/601 km).

Daily Kos: “As distant as her geographic roots are from the Queens-born Cuomo’s, so too does her personal style differ. As Roll Call’s Jim Saska puts it, ‘Where Cuomo was feared, Hochul is beloved; where Cuomo had judged, Hochul has empathized.'”

Her relatively conservative record when running for Congress a decade ago became a liability when running for lieutenant governor. She was primaried twice and did less well in her primaries than Cuomo did in his. I voted for her opponents both times. I picked in 2014 legal scholar Tim Wu, who lost 60-40, and in 2018, low-profile New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams, lost by only a 53-47 margin. So since I’ve not voted for Cuomo in 2014 or 2018, I’ve never voted for her.

Enough is Enough

Still, I’m very willing to give her a chance. After Andrew, she’ll be a refreshing change. She says she’s running for governor next year, and she absolutely had to announce that. If she didn’t, she’d be an instant lame duck. It’ll be a contentious primary in June 2022.

From the Times Union: “She has led Cuomo’s 10 regional economic development councils, chaired a task force on heroin and opioid abuse and addiction, and led the governor’s ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign to combat sexual assault on college campuses. She is married to William Hochul, the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, who is now in private practice. They are the parents of two children.”

The history community is excited to see her in the new job. As IHARE notes: “The incoming Governor is far better qualified… I say this not because she has a background in such history but because of her training in office. For the past few years, she has held what is routinely regarded as a ‘ceremonial’ position. As such she has spent a lot of time outside of Albany traveling to a multitude of local events. These events from time to time include history sites and conferences.

I wish Kathy Hochul good luck as the state’s first female governor.

Vaccine incentive: donuts to college

free stuff

I’m OK with the COVID-19 vaccine incentive programs. So is the White House. The programs range from free donuts and beer to lottery tickets to select free passes to attractions.

Still, I was just a tad put off by the fact that many of the incentives were only for the newly vaccinated. (Sidebar: a previously resistant local columnist got kudos for changing their mind and deciding to get the vaccine. Meh.)

Yeah, yeah, getting the injections as soon as I could was its own reward. Second Pfizer shot on March 24, for the record, back in the old days when people were actually in line to receive it.

So, I’m pleased that New York State is offering a Vaccination Scholarship Incentive. “Enter your vaccinated 12-17-year-old for a chance to win a full scholarship to a SUNY or CUNY school.” I believe we have one of those in our household. Yup, under 18, vaccinated the second time in mid-April. So I signed up.

“Get a shot to make your future. New Yorkers age 12 to 17 who get vaccinated (or already have gotten vaccinated) can enter for a chance to win a 4-year full-ride scholarship to any public college or university in New York State. Fifty total winners will be chosen at five random drawings. The scholarship includes full tuition, room, and board, as well as an allowance for books and supplies. Parents can learn more here.”

American football

Oh, and here’s something potentially for me, as noted in the Boston Globe: “Starting June 1, you could score a VIP trip to Super Bowl LVI along with your COVID-19 vaccine at CVS. Woonsocket-based CVS Health announced… that eligible customers who received or plan to receive a COVID-19 vaccination through one of their retail pharmacies will be able to enter into their new sweepstakes program for a chance to win one of more than a thousand prizes. The winners will be chosen through weekly drawings and grand prizes over the next six weeks.”

Note to self: go to this site today. I’m going to the Super Bowl! OK, probably not. Where IS the Super Bowl next year anyway? Near Los Angeles.

Regardless, I hope this governmental and corporate bribery of the citizenry works to get more shots in arms.