Gotham Gazette

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Elections

Elections

  • Cuomo Takes Aggressive Approach to Molinaro in Debate with Limited Substance

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    Andrew Cuomo, left, and Marc Molinaro


    Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that debates can be a “disservice to democracy” and on Tuesday he ensured that what is likely to be his only general election debate provided limited clear and substantive discussion for voters to chew on ahead of the November 6 election.

    A Democrat seeking a third term as governor, Cuomo took an aggressive and at times hostile approach to his debate with Republican nominee Marc Molinaro, currently the Dutchess county executive, filmed Tuesday afternoon at CBS studios in

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  • Molinaro Reveals Reason He Didn’t Vote for Trump

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    Marc Molinaro during Tuesday's debate (photo via @CBSNewYork)


    Marc Molinaro, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, has long-insisted that he did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016, saying that he “had significant differences at the time” and decided to write in former Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson for president.

    As he’s tried to straddle the Trump divide in the New York Republican Party and appeal to independent and moderate voters in an uphill quest to

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  • Senate Republicans Leave Molinaro Out of Only Hope Messaging

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    Marc Molinaro & Senator Marty Golden campaign (photo: @marcmolinaro)


    Republicans fighting to keep control of the state Senate this year have been adamant that their continued majority in the chamber is the only thing standing between New York and socialism. And with the party playing defense in a number of races, there’s a certain logic to motivating voters to come out based on the idea that their district could be the one that determines who controls the entire Senate, especially resonant given the one-seat margin the Republican conference holds.

    But the rhetoric

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  • [Updated] Can Democrats win the state Senate? How progressive is Cuomo? New Yorkers are about to find out

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    Gov. Cuomo (photo via New York Democratic Party)


    This op-ed is an updated version of a previously published column, now accounting for the October 32-day Pre-General Campaign Financial Disclosure and incorporating other new information, including reader feedback from the original version, previously published in Gotham Gazette October 2.

    In the November 6 general election, New York Democrats have a

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Battle for Control of the State Senate

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


    October 17, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Senator Michael Gianaris and Thomas Doherty

    Michael Gianaris Thomas Doherty WBAI

    Control of the State Senate is at stake this election year in New York, with Democrats hopeful they can overcome what is now a one-seat margin that leaves them in the minority and win a majority,

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  • 'Speaker Heastie PAC' Gives to James for AG, Skoufis for Senate

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    Speaker Heastie, with Gov. Cuomo and Assemblymember Morelle (Governor's Office)


    New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s eponymous political action committee has continued to donate to Democrats in competitive races this year, recently making new contributions to Public Advocate Letitia James’ attorney general campaign and Assembly Member James Skoufis’ bid for State Senate.    

    The latest campaign finance filings with the State Board of Elections showed that Speaker Heastie PAC spent about $26,000 between September 21 and

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  • Brewer Creates Committee to Oppose Charter Revision Proposals

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    Mayor de Blasio & BP Brewer (photo: Brewer's office)


    Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer is forming an independent expenditure committee to try to defeat two public referenda on the November general election ballot that would impose term limits on community board members and create a new citywide civic engagement agency under the control of the mayor’s office.

    Last month, the charter revision commission created by Mayor Bill de Blasio approved three ballot questions to present to voters on November 6. The first would significantly

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  • Democrats in Swing Districts Run On, Not From, Single-Payer Health Care

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    Gov. Cuomo & Long Island Democratic Senate candidates (photo: @andrewcuomo)


    Since the Affordable Care Act has failed to tame the beast that is America’s private health insurance system, and a new presidential administration is actively hostile to even that modest attempt at near-universal coverage, activists and many Democrats in New York have recently come to embrace a way forward. Single-payer, state-government-administered health care coverage has become something of a rallying cry for progressive activists in New York even as Governor Andrew Cuomo has

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  • WATCH: State Comptroller Candidate Debate

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    Candidates DiNapoli, Dunlea, Gallaudet, Trichter (l-r) (Photo: MNN)


    Watch the first debate in the general election race for New York State Comptroller, among the four candidates who will be on the ballot: incumbent Democrat Tom DiNapoli, Republican nominee Jonathan Trichter, Green Party nominee Mark Dunlea, and Libertarian Party nominee Cruger Gallaudet. DiNapoli will also appear on the Reform, Independence, Women's Equality and Working Families Party ballot lines on the November 6 ballot, while Trichter also has the Conservative Party line.

    The debate, embedded below,

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  • Is this the Election that Kills Fusion Voting in New York?

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    (photo via the Governor's office)


    As New York lumbers out of its double primary season and rolls into a general election that’s being closely watched for its potential to give Democrats control of the state Senate and therefore the entire Legislature, another issue more central to the democratic process itself is being debated in pockets across the state.

    Fusion voting, the practice of allowing one candidate to take multiple political party ballot lines in a single election and aggregate the votes received on each, is under the gun as both Democratic

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Republican Attorney General Nominee Keith Wofford

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


    October 10, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Republican Attorney General Nominee Keith Wofford

    keith wofford wbai 277Keith Wofford, the Republican nominee for Attorney General, joined the show to discuss his platform for assuming the role of the state's chief legal officer, outlining a vision very different from his main

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Larry Sharpe, Libertarian nominee for Governor

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


    October 10, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Larry Sharpe, Libertarian nominee for Governor

    larry sharpe wbai 277Larry Sharpe, the Libertarian nominee for Governor, joined the show do discuss his platform, which includes decentralizing government, slashing the state budget, and overhauling the state's education system. He

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  • Comptroller Candidates Debate Powers and Responsibilities of State's Top Fiscal Officer

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    Candidates DiNapoli, Dunlea, Gallaudet, Trichter (l-r) during their first debate


    New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, a Democrat running for reelection as the state’s top fiscal officer, faced his three challengers on Tuesday in the first debate of the general election, hosted by Manhattan Neighborhood Network.

    The four candidates offered their views on the powers and role of the state comptroller, charged with managing the state’s $207 billion public pension fund, overseeing state and local spending, auditing state contracts and the finances of

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  • Cuomo Challengers Level Critiques; Will Anything Stick?

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    Gov. Cuomo (photo: Mike Groll/Govenor's Office)


    With less than a month till voters go to the polls on November 6, it appears Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has little cause for worry as he seeks a third term. His favorability among voters may have dropped but public polling has shown him holding consistently wide leads over his opponents. His campaign war chest, though massively depleted by a bruising primary battle, still remains formidable at $9 million-plus, dwarfing his four general election competitors. And he is instantly recognizable to most voters,

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  • A Lifelong Democrat and Famed Civil Rights Attorney, Michael Sussman Runs for Attorney General as a Green

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    photo via Sussman campaign on Twitter


    A 19-year-old from Flatbush, Brooklyn sat in the Iron Forge, a middle-eastern restaurant on Q Street in Washington, D.C., and looked around. He had started his internship with the Democratic National Committee, and was given the opportunity to choose from a group of candidates whose campaign he wanted to work on. He saw the men around him, who he would work with in the coming months, the fall of 1973: Georgians Hamilton Jordan, Jodi Powell, Bert Lance, and Griffin Bell, along with the governor, Jimmy Carter.

    The young

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Jonathan Trichter, Republican nominee for Comptroller

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


    October 03, 2018 - Jonathan Trichter, Republican nominee for Comptroller

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    Jonathan Trichter, the Republican candidate for state comptroller, joined the show to discuss his candidacy, including his critiques of incumbent Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and his plans for doing things differently if

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Comptroller Tom DiNapoli

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


    October 03, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Comptroller Tom DiNapoli

    tom dinapoli 130Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, a Democrat who has held the office for roughly ten years, joined the show to discuss his case for reelection.

    Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter ...

  • Klein, Filing Late Post-Primary, Shows Over $3 Million in Senate Campaign Spending

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    Sen. Jeff Klein meets voters (Photo: jeffkleinny.com)


    Already spending at what is likely a record pace, with two weeks until the September 13 primary, New York State Senator Jeff Klein kept spending his campaign cash at a rapid clip to try to beat back a Democratic primary challenge from Alessandra Biaggi, a lawyer and first-time candidate, Klein’s late post-primary campaign finance filing shows. In sum, Klein spent nearly ten times more than Biaggi, but was still unsuccessful as Biaggi claimed the nomination, likely unseating one of the state’s major powerbrokers of the past

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  • Cuomo Begins Push to Flip State Senate and House of Representatives

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    Cuomo & Long Island candidates (photo: @andrewcuomo)


    Having resoundingly won the Democratic Party nomination for a third term last month, Governor Andrew Cuomo is now directing the enormous campaign and party machinery that propelled his victory to focus its efforts on the New York State Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. In a break from past cycles when he has been criticized for doing too little for his party and its candidates, Cuomo has pledged to leverage the significant resources, financial and human, at his fingertips to help

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  • New York Congressional Races to Watch - Start of October

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    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at a NY rally (photo: New York Democratic Party)


    Four-and-a-half months after Donald Trump became president, Governor Andrew Cuomo held a rally in New York City with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, pledging to help take back the lower chamber of Congress by flipping several New York seats through the midterm elections, which were then well over a year out.

    Those elections are now five weeks away, and, after his decisive victory in the gubernatorial primary on September 13, Cuomo held another rally recommitting himself and the state

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  • How ‘Blue’ is New York?

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    Gov. Cuomo (photo: New York State Democratic Party)


    New York is frequently portrayed as one of the most solidly Democratic, “blue” states in the country, along with places like California and Massachusetts. And New York reliably votes for Democrats in presidential elections, has two Democratic United States senators, a majority of its U.S. House members are Democrats, it has exclusively elected Democratic governors and other statewide state-level officials since 2006, and a wide majority of its state Assembly members is Democratic.

    But the state Senate is split

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Stephanie Miner, Serve America Movement Nominee for Governor

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


    September 26, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Stephanie Miner, Serve America Movement Nominee for Governor

    sm mediakit 01Former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, a Democrat, is running for Governor as an independent, on the new and bipartisan Serve America Movement party ballot line, which she helped create through petitioning for

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Howie Hawkins, Green Party Nominee for Governor

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


    September 26, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Howie Hawkins, Green Party Nominee for Governor

    hawkins 2010 f1For the third straight election cycle, Howie Hawkins is the Green Party nominee for Governor. He's improved the Green Party vote total each of his previous two runs, earning 5% of the vote in 2014, and is hoping to

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  • Post-Primary Campaign Finance Filings Show Cuomo’s Already Spent $28 Million

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    Photo: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat running for reelection to a third term, successfully claimed the Democratic Party nomination earlier this month after a bitter primary battle against actor and education activist Cynthia Nixon. But the victory came at significant cost as Cuomo spent more than $20 million this year alone, nearly ten times what Nixon spent in total as she attempted to unseat him.

    Cuomo, who won with 64.4 percent of the vote to Nixon’s 34.4 percent in the September 13 primary, is headed into the

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  • Cuomo and His Progressive Critics Face Moment of Truth

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    Gov. Cuomo (photo: @andrewcuomo)


    Governor Andrew Cuomo, emboldened after a sizeable Democratic primary victory, and an invigorated progressive movement with recent wins of its own, are again forced to grapple with the rift between them, as the factions must decide what steps they are willing to take to unite in the aftermath of a contentious primary season.

    Facing a handful of general election opponents

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