Another Election
May 30th, 2007
In a year of special elections, next Tuesday offers another one: Residents of Manhattan’s East Side will chose a member of the State Assembly to replace Pete Grannis, who left the legislature to become Governor Eliot Spitzer’s environment commissioner. The race has revived the debate over how undemocratic (small d) special elections for the legislature are as party leaders select candidates with little to no involvement by rank and file members. The lopsided party edge in many city districts – including this one, where Democrats reportedly outnumber Republicans three to one — make the elections little more than a formality.
Democratic Party leaders decided on their candidate Micah Kellner, before the seat was even officially vacant. And he’s considered the odds-on favorite.
But Republican Greg Camp is trying to make a horse race of it. For one thing, the Politicker reports, he is pushing to debate Kellner. But Kellner has declined a June 4 debate citing that old standby “schedule conflicts.”
And Camp won the endorsement of Citizens Union (whose sister organization, Citizens Union Foundation, publishes Gotham Gazette). The group’s executive director, Dick Dadey, told the Daily Politics that Camp’s perceived independence helped him win the support. ‘”Unlike his opponent, [Camp] didn’t come out of the political clubs and the current political establishment. He would be a fresh voice,” Dadey said.
But longtime political consultant Joseph Mercurio thinks Camp has an almost insurmountable handicap: George Bush. Unfairly or not, Mercurio has said, voters will link Camp “to Bush and the war. Democrats are much more entrenched now.”
By Gail Robinson on May 30, 2007, 4:52 pmIn category: Albany, Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Governing | 1 Comment »


June 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am
[...] As The Wonkster reported last week, Citizens Union, a nonpartisan good government group whose sister organization, Citizens Unions Foundation, publishes Gotham Gazette, also is backing Camp. But despite that many observers think the hefty Democratic edge in the district, coupled with the East Siders’ overwhelming disdain for the Bush administration, could send Kellner to Albany. [...]