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Why All The Elections?

The next Election is June 28th for the Congressional Primary. Why are there so many this year?

Although the NY Presidential Primary was concluded in April, our State still has three more elections ahead of it:

– A Congressional Primary Tuesday, June 28
– A State Primary Tuesday, September 13
– The General Election Tuesday, November 8

Why all the elections? The Presidential Primary is set by the Democratic Party and has been around the same time every four years for decades; that was expected. The General Election, too, happens in early November every four years.

The packed schedule is the result of Congressional Primary splitting with the State Primary. In 2009, Congress passed the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act to ensure military personnel (and anyone else abroad) would get their absentee ballots with enough time to vote.

Specifically, the MOVE Act requires ballots to be sent out 45 days before a Federal election (primary or general). And, of course, you can’t send out a General Election ballot until you know who won the primary. Since the State Primary, Sept 13, is not 45 days before Federal General Election a new date was required. The legislature decided to make it the old State Primary date of June 28.

That means this coming Tuesday there are four Manhattan Districts with primaries:

  • 7 (Nydia Velazquez); Lower Manhattan
  • 10 (Jerry Nadler); Lower/Midtown Manhattan mainly W. side
  • 12 (Carolyn Maloney); Lower/Upper Manhattan mainly E. side
  • 13 (Former Charlie Rangel); Harlem

 Find your congressional district here.

You might wonder “why not move both primaries to a new day?” Well, that was tried. It passed the Democratic Assembly and failed in the Republican Senate. Sadly, this will likely result in much lower turnout. Unless, of course, you help us get people out to vote!

Lone Voter
Let’s hope voter turnout doesn’t suffer.

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5/22/16 Executive Board Meeting Recap

This past Sunday, May 22, the County Executive Board met to endorse candidates in the primary election for Civil Court Judge and approve the Party Call.

Civil Court Endorsements
Josh Hanshaft Esq. and Emily Morales-Minerva Esq. have received the endorsement of the NY County Party for the Countywide Civil Court vacancies.

They will run in the upcoming primary with the support of the Democratic Clubs and county organization which will help them petition and turn out voters for their win.

Should they win the primary, they will then proceed to the general election as the Democratic candidate.

The Party Call
The “Party Call” lists all of the available Judicial Delegate, Judicial Delegate Alternate and State Committee positions.These party positions will be elected during the Primary in September.

Judicial Delegates are proportional to the Democratic voter turnout (how many ppl vote for the Dem) in the last Gubernatorial election by district.

State Committee is two per Assembly District (Male and Female).

Meeting Live Tweets

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Democratic Clubs III: It’s That Easy

Last time, our friend Keiko decided to get involved with a local Democratic Club. But there are two Clubs in her Assembly District — which one represents her?

To be an official Club, the Club has to be affiliated with an elected Democratic District Leader. You can find a list of the district leaders elected in Manhattan County HERE.

Each District Leader represents a neighborhood which is called an Assembly District Part. Figuring out the Part lines can be a bit tricky, so it may make the most sense to e-mail our County Secretary at manhattandems@gmail.com and ask which Part you live in.

In Keiko’s District, there are four Leaders representing two Parts: Kim Moscaritolo & Adam Roberts, and Jill Eisner & John Halebian. Remember, each district leaders’ job is to engage with the Democrats in their district, so you should never feel hesitation in reaching out.

Keiko, lives in the Part jointly represented by Kim Moscaritolo and Adam Roberts. She remembers Adam — when he was gathering signatures last year, she bumped into him and traded e-mails. Now it’s as easy as reaching out! She finds his information on the District Leader page (or, if it’s missing contacts manhattandems@gmail.com) and send hims a note.

“Dear Adam,” Keiko writes, “I’m a Democrat and I live on 80th & 2nd. Am I in your district? Which club am I in? I want to get more involved, what should I do next?”

Now, we just wait for Adam to write back — and then we take it from there.

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How a Judge Becomes a Judge Part 1: Civil Court

One of the most honorable duties of the New York County Democratic Committee is to endorse candidates in the Democratic Primary for Civil Court Judge races. Since Judicial races are often under most peoples’ radar, these endorsements can be very important.

In Manhattan, we have a marquee process. The Judicial Committee, a sub-committee of the County Committee composed of a District Leader from each Assembly District (AD), creates an independent screening panel, attended by representatives from third party organizations. The panel proceeds with a thorough review of all applicants and endorses between two and three candidates for each open seat; some of which are County wide and some of which fall within specific districts (but we’ll get into that another time).

Next, the County Executive Board (composed of all the District Leaders and the elected County Leader) votes on which of these candidates will be the endorsed candidate in the Primary. The winner of that, of course, goes to run in the general election. The winner of that, is a judge.

Sound complicated? Here’s a handy graphic.

Civil Court Infographic 3

 

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Downtown Congressional Endorsement Meeting

On Sunday, April 28 four Democratic Clubs held an endorsement meeting for Congressional candidates.

Village Independent Democrats, Village Reform Democrats and Downtown Independent Democrats hosted Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. Nydia Velazquez and Sen. Chuck Schumer. Rep Carolyn Maloney wasn’t able to attend, but sent a representative.

Read the live tweets from our Secretary Ben Yee below.

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#TransparencyTuesday Summary

The Democratic Party is the party of The People. We fight for inclusivity and demand solutions to the inequities that plague communities big and small. Here in Manhattan, we’re using our platform to emphasize the importance of getting involved.

This #TransparencyTuesday we have so much we have to do it over two weeks! This week:

  • Watch a quick video of our Secretary, Ben Yee, explaining how County Committee selected a Democratic nominee for the special Assembly race on the Lower East Side.

Next time:

We’ll update manhattandems.org, with all of the State Committee members – democratic voters’ representatives to the State Party. We’ll also publish an article explaining the importance of their role in the democratic process.

A new map with electoral information everyone needs to know, but many don’t! And who doesn’t love maps?

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February 4th Judicial Committee Minutes

Chair: Curtis Arluck

Co Chair: Louise Dankberg

Membership: Each Assembly District may be represented by one of its District Leaders.

The Judicial Committee chooses organizations which designates members to a screening panel for judicial candidates. Organizations designate panelists, and panelists review judicial candidates, without party input.

I: Panel Administrator Search

  • Candidates

    • Past administrators have been contacted and the committee is awaiting responses. A new Administrator interview date/time will need to be set due to the delay.

    • Committee members are welcome to submit candidates for Administrator.

    • A three year layover is required for Administrators and panelists. They may not serve back to back sessions.

  • Resolution

    • A past Administrator was contacted mid-meeting and accepted the invitation to serve as Administrator again.

    • Since this candidate has served in the past, and most committee members are familiar with him, the Judicial Committee voted for an expedited interview process which would not require a meeting of the whole committee (though everyone is invited)

    • If approved name of the Administrator will be revealed in the official public notice for Judge Applicants in the Law Journal and on ManhattanDems.org

    • The interview was tentatively scheduled for 2/10

II: Organization Outreach

  • Organizations which have agreed to designate a panelist

    • Asian Americans for Equality

    • Korean American Lawyers Assoc

    • LGBT Bar

    • Neighborhood Defenders of Harlem

    • NY State Defenders Assoc.

  • Organizations which have declined to designate a panelist

    • Columbia University Law School

  • All other organizations are pending a response

  • Requirement Review

    • At least 20 organizations should be represented

    • Organizations must be:

      • Non-profit

      • Sufficient affiliation with the County (Manhattan) (Usually satisfied by a local chapter)

      • Sufficient affiliation with the ideals of the Democratic Party

III: New Organization Applications

  • National Hispanic Bar Assoc.

    • Deputy VP Albert Barrueco, Attorney at Pepper Hamilton, addressed the committee

    • Organization wants to be considered for an invite to nominate a panelist

    • Local Chapter President is counsel to NYC Bar

    • Thousands of members nationally

    • Over one hundred members in the NYC area

  • Hispanic Bar invited by acclamation

IV: Organizational Designees

  • Alan Flacks submits Designee from Association of the Bar of City of New York (City Bar Assoc.)

  • Names of organization designees are not released prior to the convening of the panel to prevent lobbying by judicial applicants

V: Old Business (last week)

    • Committee voted to extend invitation to Nigerian Bar Assoc – but question: Does Nigerian bar have NY presence

      • Verified intent to invite Nigerian Lawyers Association not Nigerian Bar Association

      • Nigerian Lawyers Association found to have sufficient affiliation and invite extended by acclamation

    • Committee voted down extending invitation to National Bar Association (National African American bar)

      • The National Bar is represented in the NY region by Joseph Drayton

      • National Bar resubmitted by and voted up for extending an invitation by acclamation

VI: District vacancies in Judicial District 4, 6, 7

      • Judicial Screening Panels

        • District Leaders in the 6th, 7th and 9th are holding their own panels and soliciting groups for designees independently

          • The 9th is an incumbent judge and is non-competitive

        • The 4th is incorporating its screening panel with the County Independent Judicial Screening Panel

        • Judicial Applicants may go before multiple panels and all panels will use same application

VII: Current Timeline (subject to change)

    • 2/17 Law Journal and online Notice for Judicial applicants

    • 2/25 Designees appointed

    • 2/25 Applications begin being accepted

      • A unified application for all panels is suggested and agreed to

    • 3/9 Panel Convenes

    • 5/5 Panel reports out
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Primary Primer III: What Happens At Convention

The primaries are upon us and soon both parties will be selecting their nominees. But if the residents of States vote in the primary, what’s the role of the Party Convention? Where do SuperDelegates fit in? Who is really choosing the Presidential candidate?

As we covered in the last two posts, the Presidential nominee for a political party is not directly elected by all voters. Instead, delegates are selected in a variety of ways; most often exclusively by registered members of a particular party. These delegates are then sent to a party’s National Convention to pick the nominee.

Nothing Is For Sure
Oftentimes it is clear who will win the nomination before Convention. However, even with primaries done and delegates pledged, the results are not predetermined. People can walk in expecting to be the Nominee and walk out an also ran. How? Let’s find out.

Voting Share
Unlike in general elections, representation isn’t necessarily based on the number of residents, or even eligible voters. Instead, every State is given a certain number of delegates proportional to the number of votes people in that State cast for the Party’s Presidential candidate in previous elections. So, the more votes your state give to a Democrat (averaged over the last three elections) the delegates your state gets to the Convention.

Who Can Delegates Vote For?
At the Convention, elected (not Super) delegates are bound to vote for whoever won the primary or caucus in their state; and in the same percentage. So, if a candidate on 40% of the vote, they get 40% of the delegates. Whoever wins a majority of the of Convention Delegates receives the nomination.

If no one wins a majority, delegates are released from their pledges. At this point, horse-trading and deals can be struck in a Brokered Convention. Voting continues through successive rounds until one candidate wins a majority.

The Democratic Party actually changed its rules in 1936 because nomination required ⅔ of the delegate vote and made brokered conventions incredibly common. As a result, many nominees ended up being compromise candidates who weren’t even front-runners before the Convention!

And The Winner Is…
Whoever gets the required majority of delegates becomes that party’s nominee. This candidate will receive the prodigious support that a National Party can offer – from local organizing apparatus (like local parties and Democratic Clubs), to the Party’s political brand and, of course, money.

It is up to the Party to come together after a nominee has been chosen and put aside the differences which were expressed in the primary period. Whatever issues were raised, the job of the primary was to air them and give Party members a chance to make the decision of who would perform best in the General election with their eyes open.