The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

I wonder if any of the old Clintonworld people are now involved in Labour...

 

 

[Juliajms]

This guy will probably be the next one kicked out of the GQP.

 

[DRW50]

He's either going to be gerrymandered out or lose a primary and is trying to use this to help him with a statewide run. Not sure he'd win a primary there at this point either...

[janea4old]

I remember watching all the events live on January 6th, and on that day, Kinzinger seemed like one of the few Republicans with any integrity at all.

[DRW50]

 

[Vee]

 

[DramatistDreamer]

Every time I read something about Andrew Yang, it's talking about how he has apparently offended an entire community. It's almost comical at this point.

[DRW50]

 

[Ponds]

Couldn't happen to a nicer group of people!

[marceline]

 

I've seen occasional mentions that he might be on the spectrum but I'll be honest, I don't know how that gets discussed in the right way. Whatever his issue, this guy doesn't deserve to be anywhere near public office. He's an unserious mess and I'm glad to see his candidacy implode.

[DramatistDreamer]

 

This is why I have been trying to tell people not to get too far ahead of themselves on proclaiming Yang to be the default on "frontrunner" status. Those "polls" have surveyed less than 1500 respondents in a city of millions, usually tends to have an Upper West Side/Upper East Side (UWS/UES) bias and there are at least a dozen other candidates on the Democratic side alone. It was always going to come to pass that, as soon as more people got vaccinated, less people stressed about the virus and all the turmoil to daily life that it has wrought, voters would begin to pay closer attention and candidates would start to be culled. 

Still, I had to chuckle when I saw a Yang ad this morning that showed him 'in action' getting an enthusiastic and lively reception from would be NYC constituents because it didn't show the reality of Yang getting cussed out in various NYC boroughs for honking off New Yorkers,

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.

Scott Stringer, who had been considered a serious candidate is seeing his prospects crumble too. TBH, I never really gave Stringer much of a chance to begin with, but for a completely different reason than the one he confronts now, which I did not foresee. Initially, I just thought Stringer lacked the personality to stand out among the scrum of personalities in the race. Stringer is standing out alright... for notorious reasons.

Similarly, I had thought that Shaun Donovan would not rose above the pack, but he has finally managed to distinguish himself-- for making a somewhat idiotic observation, as did Ray McGuire but in Donovan's case, it comes off as particular egregious as he miscalculated the cost of a house in NYC--this coming from the former Housing Secretary. 

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by DramatistDreamer

[Vee]

Yang is a mirage. Wiley all the way, as a once and possibly future-NYer.

 

Meanwhile:

 

 

[JaneAusten]

I have a relative that lives in Bay Ridge and works for the NYC Public Health Dept.  She's lived in NYC for about 11 years now and wasn't really paying close attention to the race until recently. She thinks Yang is a joke. She's not sure about Adams and being a Borough President is really a figurehead position.  But she did say maybe being a former police officer might mean he can actually get some police reform measures done. 

 

She did say that Stringer is done and in her opinion the race is still open.  She reminded me of how DeBlasio really didn't surge until the very end and that Christine Quinn seemed to be the favorite then and look what happened.  And of course she thinks DeBlasio is a joke. He certainly has not been a friend to her dept and has gone back on every promise he made when he ran.

 

I hope for the best for all of you.  I have mixed feelings on Lightfoot here in Chicago. She didn't handle the negotiations with the teachers union well before COVID but then the teachers union were aligned with her opponent in the runoff race for mayor.  And I feel like in some ways she's handled COVID ok  -  our Governor better iMO - but she also ran as a reformer and we have seen zero changes with the Police Dept here. She also ran on an elected school board like every other mayor has and so far nothing, although I won't declare that a broken promise unless it goes unfulfilled at the end of her first term.

 

 

[ChitHappens]

 

[DramatistDreamer]

 

@JaneAusten

While I no longer live, work or attend school in NYC (former Brooklynite and Manhattanite), I still live close enough to get all the NYC news affiliates and somehow I am still on the e-mail list of the Rep. in the district where I once lived in Manhattan (although I recently requested that my name be removed). Having voted in elections and sort of keeping up with the election, I have my own ideas on how I think things will proceed but ranked-choice voting is a big consideration where the calculus is concerned. 

I will say that, with the upsurge in crime (shootings and assaults especially) on the subways and some streets, Eric Adams (who had been scoffed at by progressives) has been building interest and endorsements. Ray McGuire seems to be the choice of the well-heeled set and Kathryn Garcia seems to be getting more notice these days. Maya Wiley has a following, primarily from her time on MSNBC. All seem to have little problems raising money (McGuire is self-funded and has lots of wealthy backers, Adams and Stringer had raised the highest totals). Shaun Donovan could have been a dark horse until he made that ridiculous comment about him believing a house in NYC costs $100,000! Ray McGuire essentially said something similar but McGuire isn't running a campaign predicated on his experience of having been Secretary of Housing and Urban Development!

 

The wounding of DeBlasio's reputation seems to be mainly self-inflicted. I remember watching his inauguration on NY1 Livestream and there were so many hopes placed in him but he got mired in petty squabbles with Cuomo (which the media gleefully played up to the hilt) and just stupid things like making several unnecessary trips per week in a big gas guzzling SUV from Gracie Mansion to his old neighborhood gym in Brooklyn to barely workout. Then there is the aspect of his habitual tardiness (which hasn't been talked about lately, so maybe it's a thing of the past?) which cast him in a poor light.

Some of the issues, I have to say, were holdover problems from Bloomberg's administration (homelessness, lack of building of affordable housing) that grew in size during DeBlasio's time in office. One thing that NYCers should be aware of now, in the midst of the pandemic is that the real estate industry has had too much away in the planning of how Manhattan, in particular has been built up in recent decades. Too many office buildings and towers, not enough apartment buildings. The pandemic has emptied out many office buildings, many only becoming useful as temporary housing for homeless and quarantined people who cannot safely quarantine in their own homes.

DeBlasio's own refusal to get out of his own way, accept the idea that he wasn't always correct, adapt and adjust was a big part of why he is often regarded with bitter disappointment and enmity these days.

 

I definitely remember Christine Quinn, Mark Green and Fernando Ferrer who were all either frontrunners or headed straight to Gracie Mansion...until they weren't.

Edited May 12, 2021 by DramatistDreamer