Good Tuesday morning.
You could be forgiven for not knowing that it’s Election Day, because this is what those of us in the political bizz call an “off-cycle” year. In other words, there are no big-ticket contests taking place – presidential, congressional, statewide, state legislative etc., and all the action is happening at the local level.
But as the late great former House Speaker Tip O’Neill of Massachusetts is famous for opining: “All politics are local.” (Actually, he might not have been the person who originated the phrase, but he is the one most closely associated with it).
While he meant that races are won or lost at the local level for all candidates, no matter how high an office they’re seeking or trying to defend – I think this saying can also be interpreted to mean that some of the most important contests – the outcome of which have the potential to impact people’s lives most directly – take place at the local level.
While voter participation goes up exponentially in presidential years – a phenomenon the Democrats count on to pull their down-ballot candidates over the line to victory in this state, where they enjoy a considerable enrollment edge – I would argue that it really should be the other way ’round.
If you care about your local schools, taxes, garbage pick-up, community character, public safety, planning, zoning etc., well then you really should be paying more attention to what’s happening at the local level.
AND you should be getting your butt to your local polling place, (assuming you didn’t participate in early voting, which ended this past weekend, which I assume you DID NOT, since the turnout was so damn low), and casting your ballot tomorrow.
There are a number of interesting New York City Council races taking places – including the battle for a newly-created Asian majority seat – along with multiple mayoral races in Westchester and on Long Island.
Meanwhile, Suffolk County will elect a new county executive. At the other end of the state, the most closely watched contests are the race for Erie County Executive, Niagara Falls Mayor and Lockport Mayor. (The Erie and Suffolk county executive races actually have some national implications related to the migrant crisis).
If you need help locating your polling site, click here (for NYC) or here (statewide). Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.
And when you get there, remember to read the whole thing and don’t miss the two (admittedly a bit obscure, but still important and both related to municipal debt) statewide ballot measures:
Proposal 1 would remove the debt limit placed on small city school districts under the state Constitution. (There are 57 small city school districts that may not borrow beyond 5% of their total property wealth, Spectrum reports. If this amendment passes, they would be able to operate at 10% – the same limit on indebtedness as all their rural and suburban counterparts).
Proposal 2 would extend an exclusion from the debt limit for sewage projects.
For the record, there are some high-profile races worth watching across the nation tomorrow, but they’re occurring outside New York – including several southern gubernatorial contests and an Ohio abortion ballot referendum, all of which will be seen as bellwethers for 2024.
By the way, in case you have ever wondered “why is Election Day on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November?” Well, it has been that way since 1845, when Congress made it so – in part because the fall harvest was more or less over, and the mostly agrarian voting community (read: men who were largely engaged in farming) were able to travel to cast their ballots.
There is a push afoot to make Election Day a national holiday, but it’s kinda oddly controversial. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo at one time was a fan of the idea for New York, but so far it is not one of the states that has taken action on this issue.
Employees are entitled to paid time off to vote under New York State Election Law, provided they do not otherwise have “sufficient time to do so,” and there’s a whole litany of qualifying requirements there.
One thing that will be cooperating to make going to the polls easier today: The weather. We’ll have mostly cloudy skies with just a slight chance of a rain shower, and temperatures will be in the low 60s. No excuses, people. Get out there!
In the headlines…
Israel’s military said its troops had encircled Gaza City, effectively splitting the Gaza Strip in half as the U.S. secretary of state finished sweeping through the Middle East in another intense push by the Biden administration to prevent a wider regional war.
Israel once again rejected calls for a humanitarian pause in the war with Hamas yesterday − including one from President Joe Biden − as it battered northern Gaza in preparation for an imminent ground incursion into Gaza City.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will have “overall security responsibility” in Gaza “for an indefinite period” after its war with Hamas.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military offensive a month ago, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah said, drawing from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted that he made progress on the goals he set for a whirlwind Middle East trip as he departed with few tangible results to show for a flurry of meetings with leaders about the Israel-Hamas war.
State Department staffers offered a blistering critique of the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war in a dissent memo obtained by POLITICO, arguing that, among other things, the U.S. should be willing to publicly criticize the Israelis.
Biden’s influence over Israel and Ukraine seems far more constrained than expected, given his central role as the supplier of arms and intelligence.
Hundreds of protesters boarded ferries to the Statue of Liberty yesterday, carrying banners calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war that they unfurled from the statue’s pedestal.
Over 300 Cooper Union alumni are threatening to cut donations to the university over its response to an anti-Israel demonstration that left a group of Jewish students cornered inside a campus library in fear for their safety.
The U.S. State Department has approved a $320 million sale to Israel of equipment for kits that turn unguided bombs into more precise, GPS-guided munitions, according to a letter sent by the department to Congress.
Former President Donald Trump defended his wealth and business, tangling from the witness stand with the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial and denouncing as a “political witch hunt” a lawsuit accusing him of dramatically inflating his net worth.
Trump’s long-awaited testimony about property valuations and financial statements was punctuated by personal jabs at a judge he said was biased against him and at the state attorney general, whom he derided as a “political hack.”
Trump proudly boasted of his real estate business — “I’m worth billions of dollars more than the financial statements” — and disputed claims that he had deceived banks and insurers.
The former president, who also railed against New York’s attorney general in front of a packed courtroom, denied he committed fraud and called the trial “very unfair.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida needed a lift in his quest to beat Trump in the crucial Iowa caucuses. He may have gotten one, as he received the endorsement of Kim Reynolds, the state’s popular Republican governor.
Biden, perhaps Amtrak’s most famous advocate, announced $16.4 billion in funding for rail projects yesterday, exhibiting a business-as-usual approach as polls show him trailing Trump one year before Election Day.
New York Times/Siena College polling painted a worrisome picture of the president’s standing with a crucial constituency – Black voters. Democratic strategists warned that the erosion could threaten his re-election.
WeWork, the real estate company that offered start-ups and individuals sleek quarters to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States after years of struggling to find its footing.
Profitability has remained elusive as WeWork grapples with its expensive leases and corporate clients canceling because some employees work from home. Paying for space consumed 74% of WeWork’s revenue in the second quarter of 2023.
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan will lay off nearly 140 employees in New York in the coming months as the beleaguered law firm begins its wind-down operations.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation to establish a statewide doula directory, aiming to improve New Yorkers’ access to childbirth experts and to combat a recent nationwide rise in infant mortality.
Buffalo’s professional baseball team is pitching Hochul for financing to refurbish its 35-year-old stadium — a year after she was roundly criticized for putting up $600 million in state funding to construct a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills football team.
Members of a commission tasked with recommending a new salary for New York judges yesterday unanimously supported giving them a salary increase.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Albany lawmakers joined together to pitch a new law they say will help combat rising hate crimes by expanding the definition of such offenses to include heinous acts like spraying antisemitic graffiti or spewing homophobic slurs.
A New York County public defender will get to keep her job after apologizing for brazenly tearing down posters of hostages missing in the Israel-Hamas war, her employer said.
Mayor Eric Adams is juggling a new crisis — in addition to the old ones. The expanding federal corruption investigation threatens to overshadow what he spent much of the year confronting: a surge of more than 120,000 migrants that overwhelmed city resources.
Over the years, Adams has highlighted what he once called his “special connection” to the city’s significant Turkish population and his love of, and many visits to, Turkey, which now appears central to the federal investigation into his fundraising.
The federal corruption probe into whether Adams received illegal foreign campaign donations from Turkey could open the door for a primary challenge when he seeks re-election in 2025, political experts say.
A Brooklyn construction company, KSK Construction Group, is at the center of the federal investigation into Adams’s 2021 mayoral-campaign finances.
Races in southern Brooklyn, eastern Queens and the northeast Bronx will hinge on who’s motivated to turn out, and Republicans in the Democrat-dominated city are counting on voter apathy to help them pick up seats.
Ahead of tomorrow’s local elections, the rightward slide in a city viewed as a liberal stronghold is apparent in the City Council, where, in the past year, 15 Democrats left the Progressive Caucus and a Republican defected from the Democratic Party.
Taxi and rideshare drivers with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance are suing to reverse New York City’s removal of a cap on the total number of Uber, Lyft and other rideshare vehicles on city streets.
Jumal George, a budtender at Housing Works’ dispensary, was released from a Pennsylvania jail after spending more than three weeks imprisoned on Rikers Island, in part because of an arrest warrant for out-of-state cannabis charges.
A pair of studies have found that older adults who use marijuana have more risk of heart attack or stroke when hospitalized than non-users and are more likely to develop heart failure if they are a daily user.
New Yorkers are reacquainting themselves with the subway code — no eye contact; no stinky food — as the city rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic.
Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl, whose February escape from the Central Park Zoo captured the public’s attention in New York and beyond, turned up in Manhattan’s East Village, about five miles from the wooded park area he had settled into since flying free.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the opening of the new BusPlus purple line that will connect downtown Albany with Crossgates Mall, a decade after he made a promise to secure federal funding for the project.
A key food-assistance program is at risk of lapsing if the looming federal government shutdown occurs later this month, potentially endangering the health and wellbeing of over 418,000 New Yorkers, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said.
A man who contracted with New York to provide ventilators during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic is suing KeyBank for their role in the state’s recovery of more than $59 million from that failed deal.
Migrant children receive free English language classes in school, but for their parents, it’s not so easy. Demand for adult ESL classes is soaring in the Capital Region.
What would be the region’s sixth proposed Chick-fil-A may be coming to Albany.
The new owners of a Delaware Avenue building that in 2009 quickly became one of the city’s most popular restaurants are hoping for similar success with the latest venture there, called The Delaware Restaurant and Bar.
Photo credit: George Fazio
