Good morning, it’s Tuesday, and it’s a big day in municipalities across the state, where voters will be heading to the polls in primary mayoral contests.
Primaries in New York are held on the fourth Tuesday in June before every general election “unless otherwise changed by an act of the Legislature,” according to state law.
Not too terribly long ago, the Empire State had a bifurcated primary system, with statewide primaries held in September and federal primaries held in June. We were the ONLY state at the time to have this set-up, which was costly and also confusing for voters – not a great thing, given how dismal turnout tends to be, especially in non-presidential years.
This situation developed after a lawsuit in 2012 brought by the federal government, which argued that overseas and military voters needed more time to request absentee ballots and the truncated period between the September primary and the November general election didn’t allow for that. So the federal primaries were moved, but the state date remained the same.
That changed in 2020, thanks to an act by the state Legislature (see above). That was the same year that early voting was allowed in New York for the first time.
During the COVID crisis, when the governor had extraordinary powers due to the state of emergency we were in, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo moved the presidential primary from April 28 to June 23 to coincide with legislative and congressional primaries that were already scheduled for that date. He did this via an executive order.
Cuomo is now seeking political redemption in the New York City mayor’s race, but may well have his quest thwarted by a much younger and charismatic upstart Democratic Socialist, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani. The race, which has 11 contenders, has been incredibly acrimonious and is being characterized as nothing short of a battle for the future of the Democratic Party – not just in New York, but nationwide.
The race is difficult to predict in part due to ranked choice voting, which New York City deployed for the first time in 2021. Ranked choice voting only applies to the primary in the city and not to the general election, which is shaping up to potentially be competitive – very unusual in the Democrat-dominated Big Apple – because of independent party line-runs by Cuomo and the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, who declined to participate in the primary.
The New York City mayor’s race has been sucking all the air out of the room, news coverage-wise, but there are competitive primaries elsewhere in the state, too, including in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.
The heat is undeniably going to be a factor in turnout, perhaps depressing same-day voters from showing up at the polls. Recognizing this, the governor over the weekend repealed an “outdated” section of New York election law that prevented voters from being served refreshments (namely water) while waiting in line outside polling sites.
The extreme heat warning is in effect through 8 p.m. tonight, with dangerously hot conditions and heat index values up to 107 degrees. Heat index, as a reminder, is “apparent temperature,” which means it’s how hot things FEEL, due to a combination or air temperature and relative humidity. Stay hydrated; stay inside if you can, and overall, stay safe.
OH, and a PSA: If you need to find your polling place, click here (NYS Board of Elections), or here (NYC Board of Elections).
In the headlines…
Israel joined Iran in agreeing to a cease-fire, a truce first announced by President Donald Trump that spurred cautious hopes for an end to 12 days of unprecedented warfare between the two countries.
Uncertainty surrounded Trump’s announcement, which had caught some of his own officials by surprise. Both sides continued to trade fire in the last moments before confirming a truce was in effect.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said that the ceasefire would take effect just after midnight on the East Coast of the United States, with the war slated to officially end 12 hours later.
Neither Israel nor Iran immediately confirmed Trump’s announcement that they had agreed to a ceasefire.
Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, has accused Iran of breaking the cease-fire after rocket alert sirens blared out in northern Israel.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie told reporters he won’t advance a measure to block U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict if the apparent cease-fire announced by Trump holds.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough dealt big-time blows to GOP priorities this past weekend when she ruled that chunks of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” violate the chamber’s rules.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that lawmakers in his chamber will remain in Washington, D.C., until they pass Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to deport migrants to countries other than their own, pausing a federal judge’s ruling that said they must first be given a chance to show that they would face the risk of torture.
The order, for which the court gave no explanation, potentially clears the way for the administration to send men held at an American military base in Djibouti to South Sudan.
The Trump administration said that it would open up 58 million acres of back country in national forests to road construction and development, removing protections that had been in place for a quarter century.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans to repeal the 2001 “roadless rule” that had preserved the wild nature of nearly a third of the land in national forests in the United States, saying the regulation was outdated.
“Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common-sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive ‘Roadless Rule,’” Rollins said.
New York’s potential reliance on nuclear power to help the state meet its renewable energy mandates came a step closer as Gov. Kathy Hochul directed NYPA “to develop and construct a zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant in upstate New York.”
Hochul said she has directed the state’s public electric utility to add at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear-power generation to its aging fleet of reactors. A gigawatt is roughly enough to power about a million homes.
In her announcement, Hochul gave few details about where the plant would be built, how much the project would cost or how long it would take to complete.
Environmental advocates were left disappointed and confused after the state Assembly gaveled out for the year last week without taking up a bill to curb plastics that they thought was a sure bet.
A relentless and intensifying heat wave will continue to expand across the central and eastern US today, bringing well-above-average heat to millions of people from the Midwest to the East Coast and prompting health advisories across several states.
In the final hours before Primary Day, the Democratic race for mayor of New York City appeared to be razor-tight, leaving the two leading candidates — Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani — in scramble mode to boost turnout today.
A new poll by Emerson College suggested the race was too close to call, with Cuomo drawing the most first-place votes but falling short of the 50 percent threshold required to be declared the winner under the city’s relatively new ranked-choice voting system.
In its hypothetical initial round of voting, Cuomo’s lead shrinks to 3 percentage points, with 35% of likely Democratic voters supporting him compared to 32% for Mamdani and 13% for city Comptroller Brad Lander, the survey found.
One of Cuomo’s testiest exchanges with a campaign rival over leadership of the MTA offered a revealing look into how the former governor ran the nation’s largest transit system.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont made an unplanned endorsement of Cuomo for mayor of New York, ignoring the wishes of a top aide who tried to keep him focused on less contentious things — say, the veto of two bills backed by his own party.
Housing affordability and quality-of-life concerns are pushing longtime Black New Yorkers out of the city, underscoring Democrats’ challenges with their base ahead of the mayoral election.
More than double the number of New Yorkers cast ballots during the nine days of early voting compared to four years ago, including a substantial number of first-time voters, according to a new analysis of turnout data.
As temperatures hit the upper 90s, the 11 contenders vying for the party’s nod in November’s general election shook hands and tried to earn their rank at the top of voters’ ranked-choice ballots.
The Chicago Tribune issued a grim warning to New Yorkers about electing a socialist mayoral candidate like Mamdani in a bombshell op-ed the day before the Empire State’s primary elections.
A DSA operative whose partner is a member of a designated terrorist organization is a city employee — and his CFB position gives him access to sensitive information about anyone running for office and the ability to selectively enforce or influence compliance.
Frightened movers and shakers said that a Mayor Mamdani would be “disastrous” for New York City — with some loath to speak out publicly for fear of ticking off progressives and galvanizing the Queens assemblyman’s lefty, anti-business base.
New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander, who was arrested last week by masked ICE agents, says his arrest wasn’t nearly as bad as what immigrants and asylum seekers go through every day.
All 51 City Council seats are up for election this year, and the Democratic primary battles feature crowded fields, moneyed interests and some recognizable figures.
Mayor Eric Adams and New York City’s planning department are taking the first steps in their “Manhattan Plan” to add 100,000 new homes to the borough over the next decade.
Adams puffed on a hookah at the flashy Sands of Persia lounge in Queens Sunday — one day after the US carried out airstrikes on Iran.
New York City leaders dropped their fight to turn the city-owned lot known as the Elizabeth Street Garden into affordable senior housing amid furious opposition from downtown residents, including a slew of celebrities.
The MTA’s finance committee approved the $2.3 billion purchase of 316 new railcars for the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North.
The MTA will be swapping the East River crossing points of the F and M trains, in a move meant to simplify the route across a major interlocking in Queens and speed up travel between the borough and Manhattan.
A program that provides free air conditioners to New Yorkers across the state stopped taking applications yesterday, just as the city is enduring its first extreme summer heat wave, with life-threatening temperatures around 100 degrees forecast for days.
A tranche of electronic evidence shedding light on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ debauched lifestyle was admitted into evidence yesterday as prosecutors wrapped up their sex trafficking and racketeering case against the jailed rap mogul.
Ray Gillen quietly retired June 1 from his $232,973-a-year job as Schenectady County’s planning commissioner, but the longtime leader of the county’s economic development efforts isn’t going anywhere.
Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino’s spirited critique of his political rivals has earned him his second cease-and-desist letter in as many months.
A tornado killed two children and an adult when it tore through the Oneida County hamlet of Clark Mills early Sunday and destroyed several homes in its path.
Local legislation passed last week provides tax credits for preserving grasslands in the rural Rensselaer County town of Nassau. It’s intended to help bolster preservation — sometimes a financially arduous task.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
