Now that Labor Day has come and gone (along with Jerry Lewis) election season has officially begun. Here in NYC, there are really only three interesting races to watch: the Governor's race, the Attorney General's race, and the Congressional race in the 14th district.
The two senate races are foregone conclusions: Senators Schumer and Gillibrand will be easily re-elected (they have Republican opponents who have no money, no name recognition, and no business running for dogcatcher let alone the US Senate) and it's pretty fair to say that State Comptroller DiNapoli will win too (he has a slighly more serious Republican opponent but should win anyway).
The Governor's race is also fairly certain: Attorney General Andrew Cuomo should win handily but it will be interesting to see who his Republican opponent will be. It will either be former Congressman and failed Senate candidate Rick Lazio or businessman/teabagger Carl Palidino. I hope it's Pallidino as the Republican nominee because it will only be too sad to watch Lazio lose a second big race, plus Palindino is an outrageous racist and watching him lose will be fun.
The Attorney General's race is also very interesting: there are five Democratic candidates vying for the nomination (Nassau AG Kathleen Rice, State Senators Brodsky and Schneiderman, some former commissioner named Eric DiNallo and a lawyer named Sean Coffey). Schneiderman has won the backing of the Times and Al Sharpton and has racked up a lot of big endorsements. Rice is a proven vote-getter in the suburbs and is believed to be the favorite of Andrew Cuomo. So it looks like the nomination ace will come down between Rice and Schneiderman. Whoever wins will face the Republican Staten Island DA Dan Donovan who's a serious candidate and is backed by Mayor Bloomberg. This remains something of a toss-up.
And the most local race is that between Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and young upstart Reshma Saunjani. Maloney has been in Congress for 18 years and is very well-liked and Saujani is a total unknown. They are both running for the Democratic nomination for this safe seat and Maloney has the power of incumbency but Reshma has managed to raise a ton of money to maker herself competitive. Also, this has turned out to be a nasty anti-incumbent year so there's always the possibility that usually reliable Maloney voters might just go the other way -- but this would be a real, real upset and I don't think it'll happen.
This is just the lowdown on only a few races and politics of New York are always crazy. Your best resource to stay on top of all of this is the New York Observer's PolitickerNY blog where they write about, and aggregate, all of the latest political goings on. It's very up-to-the-minute and detailed and a good one stop shope for political news (and no, I wasn't payed to blog about this).
The two senate races are foregone conclusions: Senators Schumer and Gillibrand will be easily re-elected (they have Republican opponents who have no money, no name recognition, and no business running for dogcatcher let alone the US Senate) and it's pretty fair to say that State Comptroller DiNapoli will win too (he has a slighly more serious Republican opponent but should win anyway).
The Governor's race is also fairly certain: Attorney General Andrew Cuomo should win handily but it will be interesting to see who his Republican opponent will be. It will either be former Congressman and failed Senate candidate Rick Lazio or businessman/teabagger Carl Palidino. I hope it's Pallidino as the Republican nominee because it will only be too sad to watch Lazio lose a second big race, plus Palindino is an outrageous racist and watching him lose will be fun.
The Attorney General's race is also very interesting: there are five Democratic candidates vying for the nomination (Nassau AG Kathleen Rice, State Senators Brodsky and Schneiderman, some former commissioner named Eric DiNallo and a lawyer named Sean Coffey). Schneiderman has won the backing of the Times and Al Sharpton and has racked up a lot of big endorsements. Rice is a proven vote-getter in the suburbs and is believed to be the favorite of Andrew Cuomo. So it looks like the nomination ace will come down between Rice and Schneiderman. Whoever wins will face the Republican Staten Island DA Dan Donovan who's a serious candidate and is backed by Mayor Bloomberg. This remains something of a toss-up.
And the most local race is that between Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and young upstart Reshma Saunjani. Maloney has been in Congress for 18 years and is very well-liked and Saujani is a total unknown. They are both running for the Democratic nomination for this safe seat and Maloney has the power of incumbency but Reshma has managed to raise a ton of money to maker herself competitive. Also, this has turned out to be a nasty anti-incumbent year so there's always the possibility that usually reliable Maloney voters might just go the other way -- but this would be a real, real upset and I don't think it'll happen.
This is just the lowdown on only a few races and politics of New York are always crazy. Your best resource to stay on top of all of this is the New York Observer's PolitickerNY blog where they write about, and aggregate, all of the latest political goings on. It's very up-to-the-minute and detailed and a good one stop shope for political news (and no, I wasn't payed to blog about this).
Bravo, the ideal answer.
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