NY Primary Analysis: Robert Jackson WINS over Mulgrew advisor and Charter slug, Wins for DSA Brisport (over Adams backed) and DSA Gonzales - and more info than you can handle

The Latine community appreciates authentic, genuine people. @RJackson_NYC is someone of integrity, honor and faith. There are not tricks or gimmicks. Pure love for community. We know when someone is not being honest abt who they are. Lo dejo ahí. ... twitter feed

“Today we really proved that socialism wins, we are not going anywhere, and we will not stop until we see a socialist slate across this city,” said González, a former intern for U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, as several left-wing elected officials, including State Sen. Julia Salazar and City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, cheered her on. The Elmhurst native trounced Crowley 59% to 32%, according to preliminary city Board of Elections results. González’s wide margin came as a surprise to some volunteers, who thought that the flood of pro-Crowley independent expenditure committee spending in the final weeks of the race — much of it from the real estate industry — would make the contest close.... The City

Last night was a great night for public schools. Four out of our five endorsed candidates won their primaries: Jamaal Bowman, Robert Jackson, Cordell Cleare, and Gustavo Rivera... KidspacNY

The mainstream liberal media line has been that the center/right wins and slams the left - ie - Sean Patrick Maloney's big win over Biaggi - who for many reasons never had a chance and only ran because Mondaire Jones, who might have beaten Maloney from the left, chose to go way outside his comfort zone and finish 3rd in D 10 and preventing another left win there too.) But to me the massive win over Crowley - a Maloney wing candidate) is a big story too.

So, Big wins for Bowman, Brisport and Kristin Gonzales despite loads of anti-left money targeting the left...Progressives divide the vote and allow Goldman to win in D10 with 26%, Corp Dem Maloney wins big over Biaggi after screwing the left.... KidsPac celebrated Progressive educations wins of endorsees, Laments Loss to Dan Goldman - they endorsed Jo Anne Simon with Niou second choice - what if Simon votes went to her?

Sunday, August 28, 2022 -  EdNotesOnline celebrates its sweet 16 -- see our first two posts:

An attentive class size of three

Ednotes Online - August 31, 2006

WARNING: This report is very disjointed and repetitive as I've spent the past few days listening and reading every angle on the elections. I spent many hours listening to podcasts and reading many articles which I share here.

And new stuff coming in constantly - this deep dive dropped from Ross Barkan: Dan Goldman, Democratic Congressman: Money gets you far enough. -  

The rage directed against Dan Goldman, Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District, is righteous and understandable and somewhat out of proportion, given what he actually believes. Goldman’s politics do not differ in any meaningful way from most of the New York City’s House delegation’s politics. He does not exist to the right of Hakeem Jeffries, Carolyn Maloney, Grace Meng, Adriano Espaillat, or Gregory Meeks. He will vote with Nancy Pelosi 98 or 99% of the time. He hates Donald Trump, he supports a public option for the Affordable Care Act, he wants to liberalize immigration policy, and he wants to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The former Trump impeachment lawyer is an Israel hawk in the mold of Chuck Schumer. Like almost all the Democrats, he would authorize indefinite military aid to Ukraine.

If you are a progressive or socialist, Goldman is intolerable. If you’re tired of the somewhat empty brand of resistance-style politics that dominated the latter half of the 2010s—Goldman dedicated much of his victory speech to railing against Trump, as if every deficiency in the United States is the fault of a one-term president—he’s not the congressman for you either. There is talk of Niou running on the Working Families Party line in the general election, which would mean Jones vacating it first and the WFP deciding to throw the weight of their fundraising apparatus behind a candidacy that is probably doomed. 

With Niou coming within less than 2,000 votes of beating Goldman, there’s plenty of anger on the left, at least among those who follow politics casually. It is important to remember the hardcore members of the 

Democratic Socialists of America, and even their elected contingent in Albany, side-eyed Niou somewhat, regarding her as more performer than genuine advocate. She pays her own staff poorly and fought against affordable housing development in her district, taking up the NIMBY cause. Some, who prefer a class-based politics, disdain her overriding obsession with identity. She was not a Bernie Sanders backer in 2020, preferring Elizabeth Warren; she is much more left-liberal than socialist.

Also from Barkan: For New York, I wrote about the big progressive victories on Tuesday and the future of Jerry Nadler’s district.

Ross did an hour long great deep dive with Briahna Joy Gray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxhSbKYtsOA. I learned more about the deep politics of the candidates - like the branded hard leftist Niou is not that hard left -- more Warren than Bernie -- and also some tricky political behavior. And also on Mondaire and why he had a better chance against Maloney - even if he lost he would be honored - like Biaggi is.

I recommend subscribing to Ross for a few bucks a month to support this kind of journalism: Political Currents by Ross Barkan.

And the NYT, Aug. 24: In N.Y. Primaries, a Fight for the Democratic Party’s Future:  

The party’s more moderate establishment declared victory, but a closer look reveals the battle for the soul of the party will grind on... https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/24/nyregion/maloney-biaggi-democrats-progressives-left.html

Breaking Points' solid election analysis on NY: Krystal interviews Huffpost reporter Dan Marans to break down the Florida and NY elections!  https://feeds.simplecast.com/_iafZVRs

At the very end, they discuss the increasing impact of DSA on NY city and now state politics - Gonzalez election adds to the growth -- he makes the point of a socialist fertile crescent being formed in northern Brooklyn and Northwest Queens. Around 10 members of NY state legislature are socialists.  There were none in 2018. I'm a DSA member - because of what they point out -- DSA is building the kind of infrastructure to challenge the Dem party at the neighborhood level and build from there - also an increasing bench of viable candidates - start at City Council, them state, then national. 

Working Family Party does not seem to build infrastructure and has to work to keep its line on the ballot. DSA has not reached a point where it would run on its own outside the Dems. Maybe never. But some segments on the left mock DSA for working in basic infrastructure to undermine Dem centrist machines and demand they abandon the strategy and form a third labor party. Good luck with that and all the left infighting. 

The big story nationally was the Pat Ryan Hudson Valley win (only for next 4 months) - they focused on his emphasis on the abortion issue which I thought would not be enough - I thought he also should have dealt with the Republican rejection on Insulin relief and other economic issues. 

Ryan Grim

@ryangrim

Everybody is (understandably) focused on how Pat Ryan, not a lefty, leaned into abortion rights to win his NY special election, but is missing another consequential dynamic.  Half (!) his ad buy went behind this anti-corporate monopoly price gouging spot:

"As Ulster County Executive I used my power to hold greedy corporations accountable….Big corporations have too much power, it’s time our families had more.” This is not Rahm Emanuel’s swing-district strategy.

So a left-leaning Bernie type attack on corporate greed resonates.

Another story was the Nadler big win over Maloney - probably due to NY Times endorsement, and most important for our interest, the NYT endorsed Daniel Goldman (Levi Strauss heir - worth $250M) - UFT stayed out of these two. I didn't care for either one.

UFT endorsements

They did endorse Maloney - boo, Bowman- Yea, Crowley- double boo, and Birsport - double yea, Gustavo Rivera - yea, Espaillat - who ran someone against Rivera who beat the Bronx machine - go figure, Cordell Cleare - yea (she worked for Bill Perkins in 2009 and helped us out in protests against Eva) - click the link above for full list. 

The bottom line on UFT endorsements - they don't endorse the left unless they are incumbents (Bowman, Brisport). The Jackson endorsement deserves a deeper dive - down below.

DSA big wins:

The big one was the massive defeat of Queens machine corp dem supported Elizabeth Crowley who loses every election she runs into a more progressive candidate. She was backed by big corporate money.  And the UFT.

Kristen Gonzalez: 57.03%  Elizabeth Crowley: 31.89% Mike Corbett: 6.35% 

UFT failed badly with a Crowley endorsement - they'd never go for a DSA unless forced by incumbency and an obvious winner. Now they are forced to endorse a DSA (gag for them) next time.

So UFT did endorse former NYC teacher and MORE member re-elected with a slam:   Jabari Brisport: 69.09% Conrad Tillard: 15.33% Renee Holmes: 13.60% 

 

Ironic --- they endorsed a former MORE. But then again Unity has a bunch of former MORE members.

Back to D10 - The left won the vote but lost the election.

I've had some level of personal contact with Bowman, Jackson and Cleare. I saw Rivera in person at the Sam Seder Majority Report back in March. KidsPac lament the Dan Goldman win in D 10: 

Our only disappointment was Dan Goldman's win in the new Congressional District 10. Goldman, who spent millions of his own personal wealth on his campaign and also received funding from the pro-charter Walton family, only came out on top because there were so many progressive candidates who split the vote. Yuh-Line Niou, whom we would have endorsed if it weren't for Jo Anne Simon's stellar record in education, came in only a two points behind Goldman, and hopefully will be able to run against him on the Working Families Party line in the fall.  

I met Jo Anne Simon at Leonie's house for the Skinny Awards (Robert Jackson and John Lui were also there getting awards) and she felt she could run because there was no risk to her as she's still in her current office. I liked her and she attended our Medicare rally. 

Are progressives too dumb to win?

But Goldman won with 26% of the vote - meaning 74% are saddled with someone they didn't vote for. Liberals want to talk about suppression of votes in Georgia? Start here in NY which is one of the worst states on elections. The chaos this time deserves a follow-up post.

The corporate anti-left liberal media (no, not a contradiction) brand a Goldman win along with Adams for Mayor as an anti-left win for the center. Fact is that a bunch of Adams supported people didn't win. 

If you look at the candidates, the progressive vote depending on who you count - were almost 70% of the vote - but let's subtract all but Niou and Jones were true progressives. They were 42%. I do blame for Mondaire for jumping into this race. If he hadn't, Niou would have dented Goldman, even if she split that vote with Carlina - who got so much money from who know where I didn't put her in the progressive wing - though she reps the next door district from my apartment and has spoken well at Murray Hill neighborhood meetings. Without Jones, the story today would be different - though you can't automatically count Jones votes for Niou.

I question the "what the hell" view of Simon's running - she got 3k votes -

Let's talk Robert Jackson and the UFT  and his charter supported opponent who worked as an advisor to Mulgrew while announcing and running AGAINST Jackson - I wrote a piece in March making the claim the UFT wouldn't endorse Jackson and got a call from the UFT asking for a correction - which I did --

I was wrong - UFT/Unity HAS NOT YET Endorsed Jackson/Vasquez Contest, UFT Staff Director Memo on Senate Race -  - March 19, 2022

Let me remind you of the UFT staff memo re their colleague running against Jackson-

....while no one is expected to make any financial contribution to Angel's campaign, we recognize that there are those of you who will choose to show him your support.  If you voluntarily elect to contribute to Angel’s campaign you must make the contribution by check, mailed from your home (or other non-UFT mailbox) directly to Angel’s campaign headquarters. You may not hand Angel a check on UFT premises or during UFT work hours. --- Leroy Barr, Anthony Harmon, Staff memo, March 10, 2022

Isn't the very presence of Angel Vasquez deep in the halls of UFT power an ad for his campaign? When trolling for funding, the very fact he is so close to Mulgrew increases his fundraising and dampens Jackson's.

Wait, wait -- It was OK for people being paid by my dues to work against Jackson and for a charter school slug? Imagine if one of those people said they agreed with an opposition reso at a DA -- bye bye. Vasquez earned almost 120K working for UFT, part of the time while running against Jackson. So don't give me bullshit and excuses about the late UFT endorsement for Jackson. 

Some Unity supporting slug was trolling me today on twitter bragging about UFT endorsement of Jackson - which came way too late - he claims they followed the usual endorsement policy which came way too late --- they set the schedule and could have at least made an early effort on Jackson who deserved better than to be treated like any other candidate.

- I wrote that his opponent was sitting down the hall from Mulgrew and on UFT payroll - while running. In essence, our dues money was subsidizing Vasquez. He's reported on leave from the UFT. I would call on the ex bd to rule he doesn't return. Go work for Eva.

Here's the Kidspac letter:

Dear Norm --

Last night was a great night for public schools. Four out of our five endorsed candidates won their primaries: Jamaal Bowman, Robert Jackson, Cordell Cleare, and Gustavo Rivera.

Jackson's and Rivera's wins were especially thrilling as they had hundreds of thousands of dollars in dark money spent against them by the charter school lobby -- mostly from three billionaires: Jim Walton, Daniel Loeb, and Paul Tudor Jones. Rivera also beat big spending by the Bronx Democratic machine and Jackson by Adriano Espaillat and his crew in Upper Manhattan, trying to build their own machine.

Our only disappointment was Dan Goldman's win in the new Congressional District 10. Goldman, who spent millions of his own personal wealth on his campaign and also received funding from the pro-charter Walton family, only came out on top because there were so many progressive candidates who split the vote. Yuh-Line Niou, whom we would have endorsed if it weren't for Jo Anne Simon's stellar record in education, came in only a two points behind Goldman, and hopefully will be able to run against him on the Working Families Party line in the fall.  

But last night was a night to savor and celebrate the wins of four terrific education champions who we know will continue to fight to strengthen our public schools in Albany and DC!

Here's the decent NYT article on the internals in the Dem Party - 

In N.Y. Primaries, a Fight for the Democratic Party’s Future

The party’s more moderate establishment declared victory, but a closer look reveals the battle for the soul of the party will grind on.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/24/nyregion/maloney-biaggi-democrats-progressives-left.html