Hot Races Update

There are several hot 2012 races in NYC for the primary ballot on September 13th and the general election November 6th.  See below for a list of districts and candidates. Are you supporting one of these candidates?  We want to hear from you! Email Political Director Richard Wallner at rwallner-at-dfnyc.org (replace -at- w/@).

Click here for new district maps in New York State after the 2010 Census.

Click here for our page listing all Congressional seats in NY State, including new & old district numbers and hot races.

Bronx

1. State Senate District 33:  Incumbent Democrat Gustavo Rivera, who beat the corrupt Pedro Espada in 2012, is now being challenged in the primary by Manny Tavarez, a former sports agent who is against a woman's right to choose and against gay marriage. Click here for the DFNYC page on this race.

2. Assembly District 76:  Currently represented by Peter Rivera. We'll have a page on this race soon.

Manhattan

 

1. State Senate District 31:  This seat is currently represented by Adriano Espaillat, who challenged Charlie Rangel in the Democratic primary on June 26th. (CD 13, the old 15th). That race went into overtime, and the BOE recently declared Rangel the winner.  Espaillat is running again for the State Senate, as he turned in enough signatures by the July 12th deadline.  Guillermo Linares is also running.  Click here for the DFNYC page on this race.

2. State Senate District 27:  Incumbent Tom Duane announced his retirement in June.  There are three candidates on the ballot for the September 13th primary: Tom Greco, Brad Hoylman and Tankia Inlaw. Click here for DFNYC's page on this race.

3. Surrogate Court Manhattan:  Kristin Booth Glen, the current Surrogate, must resign at the end of the year as she has reached the mandatory retirement age. Two candidates are competing against each other in the Democratic primary on Sept. 13th. Click here for DFNYC's page on this race.

4.  Assembly District 72:  Incumbent Assemblyman  Guillermo Linares is challenging Adriano Espaillat for the State Senate in SD 31, see above.  The candidates on the ballot to replace Linares in the 72nd AD include Mayra Linares (the current Assemblymember’s daughter) and also Gabriela Rosa, Melanie Hidalgo, and Ruben Vargas. Click here for DFNYC's page on this race.

Brooklyn

 

1. Assembly District 50: Democratic District Leader.  Lincoln Restler, incumbent District Leader (Williamsburg area) is being challenged by Chris Olechowski. Click here for DFNYC's page about this race.

 

2.  State Senate District 22:  Democrat Andrew Gounardes is challenging incumbent Republican State Senator Marty Golden.  Click here for DFNYC's page on this race.

 

3.  Assembly District 57:  Incumbent Hakeem Jeffries is running for Congress; there are several candidates mentioned for his assembly seat.  Click here for more info.  

4.  Assembly District 45: Incumbent Democrat Steven Cymbrowitz faces a primary challenge from Ben Akselrod. This is a seat that could go Republican in November. Click here for more info on this race.

5.  State Senate District 18:  Incumbent Democrat Martin Dilan is being challenged in the primary by Jason Otaño.  Click here for more info on this race.

 

Staten Island

 

Congressional District 11:  Democrat Mark Murphy is challenging incumbent Republican Michael Grimm for the Congressional seat that includes Staten Island and part of Brooklyn. (This is the old 13th District.) Click here for DFNYC's page on this race.

 

Queens

1.  Congressional District 6:  Congressman Gary Ackerman is retiring

~ DFNYC has endorsed Grace Meng ~

Click here (pdf) for the LATFOR map of the district.

Assemblywoman Grace Meng won the competitive Democratic primary on June 26th.  Her Republican opponent will be City Councilman Dan Halloran.  DFNYC proudly endorsed Grace Meng in June and we'll be posting volunteer opportunities on our website. In the meantime, click here for NY Daily News coverage of this race by Irvin DeJohn & Lisa Colangelo.

2. Assembly District 40 (the old 22nd): Now that Grace Meng has won the primary for the Congressional seat, there is an election for her Assembly seat.  Possible candidates include Democrats Ron Kim (who has the backing of the Queens machine), Ethel Chen, Isaac Sasson and John Scandalios, as well as Republicans Phil Gim and Sunny Hahn.  Click here for Colin Campbell's post at the Politicker blog.

Tell the GOP House members to stop having meaningless votes!

Later this week, more than likely on Wednesday, the Republicans in the House will again vote to repeal President Obama's Affordable Care Act.  This will be another in a long line of bills that Boehner's House  leadership puts up for a vote and passes that have no chance of making it into law.  They are once again using the House floor, and the publicity of getting a vote passed to fire up the right wing base.

Nothing fires up the right wing these days more than appearing to fight the Health Care Law. This is the 31st vote they've taken to repeal or defund part or all of Obamacare in 18 months  See the following link for the news story:

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/09/156474493/gop-to-make-31st-attempt-to-repeal-obamacare-act). 

It is a waste of time and money, and a misuse of power for Boehner and his colleagues in the GOP leadership to continue puttng through what amount to protest bills.  We need our lawmakers to focus on practical ways to solve our problems, not spending taxpayer money having meaningless votes.

Our friend Timothy Foley at Greater NYC For Change has created an online petition on Change.org to call out the House leadership on their continued use of pointless House votes for partisan purposes

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-u-s-house-of-representatives-stop-the-sham-votes-on-health-care-and-get-to-work-on-jobs

We encourage our members to sign on and forward to people on your contact list who might be interested.  Every signature will automatically cause a copy of the message to go to that persons House representative.  It is time for our lawmakers to all act more responsibly.

As the President says, we must move forward in this country. 

 

DFNYC Endorsement Vote Results

Democracy for NYC  held endorsement voting for the primary races in four Congressional Districts where members expressed interest.  The voting is finished, the votes are counted, and we have results:

CD 6 - Part of Queens, has four candidates in the Democratic Primary for US House Representative.  The percentages they received of the DFNYC vote are as follows (percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number, which sometimes results in a total not exactly 100%):
Elizabeth Crowley - 4%
Rory Lancman - 12%
Grace Meng - 60%
Robert Mittman - 4%
No Endorsement - 20%
DFNYC endorses Grace Meng.

CD 7 - Parts of Brooklyn, Queens & Manhattan has four.  The percentages they received of the DFNYC vote are (rounded to the nearest whole number):  
Nydia Velazquez - 48%
Erik Martin Dilan - 4%
George Martinez - 40%
Daniel O'Connor - 4%
No endorsement - 4%
No candidate reached the threshold for endorsement

CD 13 - Parts of Manhattan & the Bronx has five.  The percentages they received of the DFNYC vote are (rounded to the nearest whole number):  
Adriano Espaillat - 48%
Joyce Johnson - 0%
Charles Rangel - 4%
Craig Schley - 0%
Clyde Williams - 16%
No Endorsement - 32%
No candidate reached the threshold for endorsement

CD 18 - Putnam & Orange, plus parts of Dutchess & Westchester Counties has five.  The percentages they received of the DFNYC vote are (rounded to the nearest whole number):  
Matt Alexander - 41%
Rich Becker - 18%
Duane Jackson - 0%
Sean Patrick Maloney - 5%
Tom Wilson - 14%
No Endorsement - 23%
No candidate reached the threshold for endorsement

We also held votes in the races for US Senate (Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's seat) and President of the United States.

In the Senatorial race, the percentages of the vote are as follows:  Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) - 69%
Wendy Long (R) - 0%
George Maragos (R) - 0%
Bob Turner (R) - 0%
Colia Clark (Green) - 23%
Scott Noren (progressive D running as an Independent) - 4%
No Endorsement At This Time - 4%
DFNYC endorses Senator Gillibrand

In the Presidential race, these are the vote percentages:
President Barack Obama (D) - 69%
Mitt Romney  (R) - 0%
Roseanne Barr (G) - 4%
Kent Mesplay (G) - 0%
Jill Stein (G) - 4%
Rocky Anderson (Justice Party) - 12%
No Endorsement At This Time - 12%
DFNYC endorses President Obama.

Many thanks to all of you who voted and participated in our Big Linkup Candidate event!

Open Letter to the DFNYC Community and NYC Progressive Community

Dear Democracy for NYC members and friends,

You likely received an unexpected email from Josh Silverstein, now the former president of DFNYC, this morning. In this message, Josh announced that DFNYC has dissolved. Please know that this is most definitely not the case.

DFNYC remains the local coalition group of Democracy for America. Both DFA and DFNYC were founded in 2004 after Howard Dean's campaign for president.

We want to let you all know that DFNYC not only still exists, but is ready to take on the challenge of getting President Barack Obama re-elected in November. We remain committed to our progressive ideals and intend to work hard to send fellow progressives to Washington and Albany in the fall.

We look forward to working together.