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	<title>The Wonkster &#187; Sara Jerome</title>
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		<title>Silver Angst: Bringing New York Media Together</title>
		<link>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2008/08/25/silver-angst-bringing-new-york-media-together/</link>
		<comments>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2008/08/25/silver-angst-bringing-new-york-media-together/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:56:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sara Jerome</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Albany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Electoral Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gotham City]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sheldon Silver]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Paul Newell – whose candidacy against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for his State Assembly seat in the 64th district was frequently called a &#8220;long-shot bid&#8221; at the beginning of the campaign – recently gained some high-profile fans. Newell received the endorsements of both the Times and the Post.
The most interesting thing to glean from this [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Paul Newell – whose candidacy against Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for his State Assembly seat in the 64th district was frequently called a &#8220;long-shot bid&#8221; at the beginning of the campaign – recently gained some high-profile fans. Newell received the endorsements of both <a href="http://http//www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/opinion/22fri4.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin">the Times</a> and <a href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/08242008/postopinion/editorials/newell_for_assembly_125822.htm">the Post.</a></p>
<p>The most interesting thing to glean from this may be that critics on both sides of the political spectrum are dissatisfied with long-time incumbent Silver.  But this primary isn&#8217;t a two man show-down: Lesser-known candidate Luke Henry is not bowing out.</p>
<p>In response to Newell&#8217;s big-name endorsements, the Henry campaign said the Times &#8220;is not a predictor of success, particularly in local races&#8221; and added that “the New York Post&#8217;s endorsement is even less relevant” because &#8220;the outwardly conservative editorial board of that publication wants to see Silver out but — we can be fairly sure — does not want to see him replaced by a strong Democrat, and certainly not a true progressive Democrat.”</p>
<p>Facing two challengers in one election surely demonstrates the abundance of negative feelings about Silver – but if the two newbies split the opposition vote, it may be just the thing that lets him keep his seat.</p>
<p>(For more on the contest, see <a href="http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20080628/202/2569">Running Against Albany on the Lower East Side</a>.)</p>
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		<title>The Politics of Change in Lower Manhattan</title>
		<link>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2008/07/01/the-politics-of-change-in-lower-manhattan/</link>
		<comments>http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2008/07/01/the-politics-of-change-in-lower-manhattan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:13:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sara Jerome</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Demographics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lower Manhattan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Luke Henry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paul Newell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sheldon Silver]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The New York Times  reports that &#8220;The Lower East Side of Manhattan is being SoHo-fied. (Or is it Chelsea-fied?)&#8221; The travel section article lists hidden L.E.S. art galleries that have popped up in the past year or so &#8211; though the galleries mentioned by name are likely to lose their &#8220;hidden&#8221; status fast. The [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The New York Times <a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/travel/22surfacing.html?8dpc"> reports</a> that &#8220;The Lower East Side of Manhattan is being SoHo-fied. (Or is it Chelsea-fied?)&#8221; The travel section article lists hidden L.E.S. art galleries that have popped up in the past year or so &#8211; though the galleries mentioned by name are likely to lose their &#8220;hidden&#8221; status fast. The reporter takes the new art scene as a sign of the changing face of the area.</p>
<p>And while demographic shifts could have implications in the art world, they may also affect September&#8217;s elections, potentially even threatening the re-election of 32-year incumbent and Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver. (For more on this race, see Gotham Gazette&#8217;s <a href="http://gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20080630/202/2569">Running Against Albany on Manhattan&#8217;s Lower East Side</a>.</p>
<p>As New York Magazine noted last month in an <a href="http://nymag.com/news/politics/47409/index5.html">article</a> about the speaker, &#8220;It&#8217;s not the old neighborhood anymore.&#8221; Silver hails from Lower Manhattan&#8217;s Orthodox Jewish community, which has shrunk in recent years.<br />
<span id="more-1913"></span></p>
<p>As the article puts it, Silver&#8217;s Democratic primary opponents are from the &#8220;new&#8221; Lower Manhattan: &#8220;The dirty, noisy tenement streets [Silver's] family sought to escape have become postcollegiate playpens. The kosher delis he used to go to are now nightclubs&#8211; like Ratner&#8217;s &#8212; or condo sites &#8212; like Gertles. Even the Grand Street co-ops have changed, as young families move in, paying market rates. His challengers in the September primary come from this new neighborhood.&#8221;</p>
<p>Both of Silver&#8217;s challengers, Luke Henry and Paul Newell, are courting the area&#8217;s young voters, many of whom weren&#8217;t even born when Silver assumed office.</p>
<p>In what The Daily Politics <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/06/is-the-force-with-him.html">saw</a> as a pitch to young voters, Henry recently tried to capitalize on his first name &#8212; Luke &#8212; with a Star Wars flyer. He&#8217;s either making a play for the youth vote or has rare polling data to suggest the geek vote will factor heavily into the election. </p>
<p>Henry also reaches out to the youth vote with the appeal of his young family. He has a baby on the way and says he&#8217;s in the market for baby names (he already ruled out&#8221;Sheldon,&#8221; he said).</p>
<p>But we can&#8217;t count Silver out of the race to woo Lower Manhattan&#8217;s youth. In this photo <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/06/-terry-mcauliffe-loves-obama.html">photo</a> posted on The Daily Politics, Silver looked like a friend to the  (very) young. The photo made him appear in stride with Barack Obama, since the Democratic presidential candidate has been <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/08/obama-fist-bump-catching-on/">credited</a> with bringing the fist bump into mainstream culture in recent weeks. For their part, Newell and Henry are trying to exclude the speaker, a Hillary Clinton superdelegate, from Obama&#8217;s &#8220;change&#8221; message, portraying him as the establishment candidate. Henry was a Clinton supporter, though, and now, like Silver, promises to support Obama in the general.</p>
<p>Beyond the youth vote, Henry and Newell say they are aware of demographic shifts in the Lower Manhattan, but neither disclosed a strategy for courting any specific demographics.</p>
<p>Henry did say he would try to preserve the area&#8217;s diversity in face of changes. &#8220;You really had a melting pot of New York City,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s increasingly becoming less that. There is one place south of 100th Street that still is this vibrant diverse slice of New York that we all love and it will disappear if there aren&#8217;t state policies to make sure it&#8217;s maintained.&#8221;</p>
<p>As for Paul Newell, Silver&#8217;s other challenger, his fluency in Spanish is seen as an asset in the race. </p>
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