The New York City Board of Elections has posted the candidate list for the city election of November 7. See it here. There are seven candidates for Mayor, a smaller number than usual.
The independent in the mayoral race, Bo Dietl, has the ballot slogan “Dump the Mayor.” Long ago, when Lenora Fulani was the New Alliance Party candidate for Mayor, she was not permitted to have the ballot logo, “Dump Koch.” That was a reference to the incumbent at the time, Ed Koch.
Also this year, the Republican nominee has a separate ballot line with the label, “Stop DeBlasio.”
The New York City Council has one of the largest gerrymanders in a local regime — 51 districts.
Many districts have been one party Donkey for many decades — since lots of Elephants have moved OUT of NY City long ago — to escape the very advanced Donkey communism in NY City.
PR and AppV
Michael Tolkin, running on the “Smart Cities” line is presumably an independent also.
How are column numbers assigned in New York, and does Column 32 literally mean that Libertarian candidates are eleventy-seven miles to the right of the rest of the candidates?
Columns one through eight are for the qualified parties (Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Green, Working Families, Independence, Women’s Equality, and Reform. But the rest (22 in all appear to be random, though the Liberal and Socialist parties have low-ish column numbers.
The “Stop de Blasio” party has candidates for the three citywide offices and three council seats.
Tolkin ran in the Democratic primary and lost to de Blasio (as did Albanese, the Reform nominee).
Pretty sure all (or almost all) of the Liberal Party nominees were candidates who lost Democratic primaries for their offices. Not sure if any of them got particularly close to winning either. Somebody closer to the scene can mention who is behind that push.
The Green party nominee (Brisport) who is also running on the Socialist line had to win a contested primary (and did by a bit, IIRC) to get the Green nod. So I suspect the extra line was an insurance policy and also a way to get a few more votes for people that wouldn’t vote Green for whatever reason.
The Socialist ballot line was achieved by Brisport supporters in the Democratic Socialists of America, whose Brooklyn organization endorsed Brisport’s campaign. There were two other DSA-supported candidates running in Democratic primaries (Khader El-Yateem for another council seat in Brooklyn, and Marc Fliedner (sp?) for Brooklyn DA), but neither of them won their respective primaries and it’s unclear whether they would have petitioned for a Socialist ballot line as well.
Oh, hey, someone from the Red Party. I love the logo design.
Anyway, as a reply to BH, I assume that’s also why the Democratic and Republican candidates in New York grab up every “third party” ballot line they can get (I put that in quotations because no one is convincing me that the Womans Equality Party doesn’t just exist for the Democrat to get another spot on the ballot, nor do I think they’re a real third party).
Although I have to ask, who is the person who would vote for someone under the Socialist label who wouldn’t vote for someone under the Green label? Yes, I know there are many leftists in this country not convinced that the Green Party is the best force for good, but I think the “anti-Green, pro-Socialist” vote will be minuscule.
I actually rather dislike the New York system personally, and I’d like to see it changed to, if nothing else, having it list candidates and all the parties their nominated by under the same ballot line (yes, I know this would mess with how parties get qualified there if their nominee is just one of the main party candidates, but again, I dislike fusion voting, so I’m not very sympathetic). It seems like a cheap trick, saying, “Oh, you won’t support the Democrat (Cuomo), but you can vote the Liberal candidate (Cuomo), they’re better.” I just have a visceral reaction to having a candidate listed two or three times on the same bloody ballot position, just with a different party label.
New York currently has EIGHT “permanent” ballot-qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Green, Independence, Working Families, Women’s Equality, and Reform. That mean Rows (or in the city, columns) A through H are occupied. So other parties have to share the remaining rows/columns, starting with I.
Sometimes the Conservative line goes to a relatively conservative Democrat. There are Republican voters who won’t vote Democrat under any circumstances, but can vote for that candidate on the Conservative line with no problem.