Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Elections

Elections

  • LISTEN: Public Advocate Candidate Forum - Nov. 14, 2018

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    The candidates, moderator and hosts (photo via Gotham Gazette)


    With Public Advocate Letitia James' victory to become the next New York State Attorney General, she will vacate her current position on January 1 and there will be a special election to fill it sometime in February, once the Mayor decides on the exact date within a limited window he has to call it. In the days before and after Election Day 2018, candidates for Public Advocate have announced their intentions to run, or at least explore it, in some cases. Seven of those candidates participated in a

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  • Field for Public Advocate Special Election Comes Into Focus

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    Council Member Rafael Espinal (photo: William Alatriste)


    Letitia James’ win in the race to become the next New York Attorney General means there will be a special election early in 2019 to name New York City’s next Public Advocate. The candidates for what will be a roughly three-month race were just beginning to become clear when news broke of planned City Council legislation calling for the position of public advocate to be abolished, as ...

  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Analyzing 2018 Election Results & Looking Ahead to 2019

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    November 7, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Analyzing 2018 Election Results

    alyssa katz wbai 150The votes have been cast and the results are in. Election Day 2018 had some monumental outcomes in New York and beyond. Alyssa Katz of the New York Daily News editorial board joined Max & Murphy to break it all down, from

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  • Fix New York’s Broken Balloting and Election Laws

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    (photo: Gotham Gazette)


    On Tuesday millions of New Yorkers attempted to exercise their constitutional right to vote. However, far too many in New York City were met with broken ballot scanners and hours-long lines that stretched for blocks

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Election Day Live Show with Special Guests

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    November 6, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Election Day Live Show with Special Guests

    jumm williams 2On Election Day 2018 Max & Murphy held a special live-audience edition of their show, broadcast on WBAI from Commons Cafe in Brooklyn, 5-7 p.m. as New Yorkers continued to go to the polls and/or await election returns.

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  • Cuomo Reelected, Democrats Take the State Senate; 2018 General Election Results in New York

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    Gov. Cuomo votes (photo: @andrewcuomo)


    Democrats will take full control of New York state government in 2019 thanks to the reelection of Governor Andrew Cuomo and other candidates for statewide office, as well as wins in the state Senate that flipped control of the upper chamber. Democrats continue to hold a wide majority in the state Assembly. With help from New York, Democrats also flipped the U.S. House of Representatives.

    The state Senate and ...

  • The 3 Big Reasons Why Elections in New York City are So Poorly Run

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    Gov. Cuomo votes (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)


    Election Day in New York City was, as City Council Speaker Corey Johnson wrote on Twitter, “like Groundhog Day,” where yet again, voters were forced to wait in long lines as ballot scanners across the city broke down, a sign of the abysmal election administration that New Yorkers have come to expect every time they visit the polls.

    The past few elections -- city, state, and federal --

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  • Antonio Delgado Makes Final Pitch in Bid to Swing New York-19

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    Antonio Delgado at Friday's town hall (photo: Brianna Zimmerman)


    Hyde Park, New York — In one of the most critical battleground races of the Congressional midterm elections, Democrat Antonio Delgado held the last town hall of his campaign in Dutchess County on Friday, seeking to cement his relationship with constituents and drive home his message of unity and solutions-based leadership. Delgado is attempting to swing New York’s 19th Congressional District out of Republican hands, part of Democrats’ national effort to win back the House of

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  • Tax Issues at Center of State Elections, Albany Year to Come

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    Gov. Cuomo (photo: Don Pollard/Governor's Office)


    When the dust settles on the 2018 elections, whoever is governing the state will be faced with problems like what to do about NYCHA and the MTA, and how New York should respond to climate change, among many others. Another

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  • Keep the Party Dedicated to Women’s Equality Alive in New York

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    Gov. Cuomo signs legislation (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    Never has the time to stand up against the attacks on women and people of all races and religions been more important. Since the election of Donald Trump, it has been critically important to protect women’s rights against the barrage of attacks including assaults on reproductive rights, attempts to restrict access to healthcare, verbal abuse towards women, and the fight for representation on the Supreme Court.

    The President of the United States publicly mocks victims of

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  • Vote Yes Three Times to Improve New York City Democracy

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    (photo: Mayor's Office)


    A political awakening is sweeping New York City. Voter turnout during the last election spiked nearly 300 percent. More New Yorkers are speaking out and looking to engage in the civic life and democracy of their city.

    Earlier this year, hundreds of New Yorkers, many of them everyday people who gave up their personal time to attend a public hearing, voiced their concerns to a New York City Charter Revision Commission appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio traveling the five boroughs. The Charter Commission boiled down hundreds of hours of

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  • 10 Things to Watch on Election Day in New York

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    (photo: The Governor's Office)


    New Yorkers will head to the polls on Tuesday, November 6, to vote for federal and state candidates in an election that could radically alter the direction of the state and the entire nation. Every seat in the state Legislature is on the ballot, as are the joint ticket of governor-lieutenant governor, the positions of state comptroller and attorney general, New York’s 27 seats in the House of Representatives, and one U.S. Senate position.

    Democrats, hoping to ride a surge of engagement in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s

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  • Running for Attorney General, Wofford Promises to Step Up Fighting Corruption, Step Back Fighting Wall Street

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    Kieth Wofford (photo via @Wofford4AG)


    Keith Wofford, the Republican nominee for Attorney General, appears to have a simple campaign message: he’ll make it harder for corrupt government officials to waste taxpayer money and make it easier for New York businesses to thrive.

    The first-time candidate for political office who has made a highly-lucrative career for himself as a attorney says that if elected the state’s top legal officer, he would step back what he calls the over-prosecution of corporations, especially financial institutions that have so often been the focus

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  • Without Cuomo, Other Candidates for Governor Present Ideas in Tempered Debate

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    Cuomo, Molinaro, Miner, Hawkins, Sharpe


    New York’s gubernatorial candidates (minus Governor Andrew Cuomo, who declined the invitation) took the stage at Albany’s College of Saint Rose Thursday evening for the second debate of the general election, but, unlike the first, one that did not once summon the name “Trump” and focused more on the intricacies of running the

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: 'Minor Party' Candidates for Comptroller & Attorney General

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    October 31, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: 'Minor Party' Candidates for Comptroller & Attorney General

    voting line in277With Election Day less than a week away, several of the "minor party" candidates for state comptroller and attorney general joined the show to make their cases: Comptroller candidates Mark Dunlea of the

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  • Molinaro Pledges Education 'State of Emergency,' Council of Mayors

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    Marc Molinaro (photo: @marcmolinaro)


    Republican gubernatorial nominee Marc Molinaro intends to declare a “state of emergency” for struggling school districts to address a plethora of issues and provide districts with more control over their destiny.

    Speaking to Gotham Gazette after his Tuesday speech at the Association for a Better New York, Molinaro said that the dismal status of some school districts, especially in upstate cities, requires extraordinary action and significant facets of educational policy-making devolved to local

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  • Climate Change, and What To Do About It, Largely Missing from Governor’s Race

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    Gov. Cuomo and former VP Gore in 2015 (photo: The Governor's Office)


    New York’s 2018 gubernatorial election has largely been eclipsed, like so many things in United States politics, by a massive Trump-shaped shadow. Within that shadow, Andrew Cuomo and Marc Molinaro have argued about the health of upstate New York, management of the MTA, and dueling corruption charges, among other topics. But one looming issue, climate change, has seemed

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  • In Attorney General Debate, James and Wofford Contrast Careers, Approaches to Cuomo and Trump

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    Letitia James and Keith Wofford at NY1 (Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times - pool)


    The two leading candidates to become New York State’s next Attorney General faced off in the sole televised debate of the race on Tuesday night, going back and forth about the role of the state’s top legal officer and the degree to which political considerations might affect the way they handle their duties.

    New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, a Democrat, is the frontrunner in the race competing against Republican Keith Wofford, a Buffalo-native attorney who is

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  • Two-Tiered Agenda for Democrats If They Take State Senate

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    Senate Democrats (photo via @nysenatedems)


    State Senate Democrats are already contemplating which policies they will pass under a one-party state government, confident they will win big in the upcoming November 6 elections, keeping control of the governor’s office and Assembly, while flipping the upper house of the Legislature. According to one leader of both the government and campaign agendas, Democrats have a general sense of a two-tiered policy agenda they plan to take up if victorious, prioritizing a long list of stalled progressive demands.

    Meanwhile,

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  • Top Republican Strategist on Where the New York GOP Went Wrong and What To Do About It

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    former Gov. George Pataki at the 2018 NY GOP convention


    The New York Republican Party is on the brink -- perhaps not of extinction, but of a certain type of political wilderness -- and one longtime party figure says he knows where things went wrong and what to do about it.

    Republicans have not occupied a statewide office since George Pataki left the governor’s mansion at the end of 2006, and barring a massive upset in November, the statewide offices will continue to be occupied by Democrats from 2019 through 2022. Meanwhile, the state Senate,

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  • Gubernatorial Candidate Larry Sharpe Wants to Reinvent New York's Education System

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    Larry Sharpe on the trail (photo: @Sharpe4Gov)


    Larry Sharpe has a radical plan to reshape New York’s education system. The Libertarian candidate for governor, Sharpe has been campaigning vigorously around the state, making lively and entertaining media appearances, and putting forth substantive policy proposals far different from those typically discussed in mainstream state politics by the two major political parties.

    Among those is Sharpe’s education plan. A former marine and University of

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  • Senate Democrats Full of Optimism About Flipping Chamber, One-Party Control of State Government

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    Senator Michael Gianaris (photo: @SenGianaris)


    New York Democrats are confident that the upcoming elections will result in a completely blue state government, believing they will easily upend the current one-seat majority held by Republicans in the State Senate, according to the head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, State Senator Michael Gianaris of Queens.

    If they hold the governorship, and Democratic incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to win a third term, and their supermajority in the Assembly, Democrats could have unfettered control

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  • In Run for New York City Public Advocate, Blake Offers Federal and State Experience

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    Michael Blake (photo via Blake campaign)


    Michael Blake wants to bring his experience in federal and state government to city government as the next Public Advocate of New York City. Currently a member of the state Assembly from the Bronx, Blake worked in the administration of President Barack Obama before he became a political consultant and successfully ran for Assembly, defeating the chosen candidate of the political machine in his home borough thanks to a variety of factors, including his national network and fundraising prowess.

    With the

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Rep. Dan Donovan

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    October 23, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan

    us rep dd 209Representative Dan Donovan, the lone Republican representing any of New York City in Congress, joined the show to discuss his reelection bid. Donovan, whose 11th congressional district includes Staten Island and part of Southern Brooklyn, is facing a

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Cuomo-Molinaro Debate Analysis

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    October 23, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Cuomo-Molinaro Debate Analysis

    cuomo molinaro debate 277The day after the Andrew Cuomo-Marc Molinaro gubernatorial debate on CBS, hosts Jarrett Murphy and Ben Max break down what went down.

    Listen to the conversation with the two candidates and let us know what you

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