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WATCH: Previewing August Primary Day in New York


Getting out to vote (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


New York's August party primary elections for seats in the State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives is fast-approaching, with primary day Tuesday, August 23. There are several high-profile races, including the highly-competitive Democratic primaries in the new 10th and 12th congressional districts. There are other congressional races and many competitive State Senate primaries.

Dr. Christina Greer, political science professor at Fordham University and co-host of FAQ NYC, and Sally Goldenberg, City Hall bureau chief for Politico New York, joined host Ben Max, executive editor of Gotham Gazette, to preview primary day during a special for Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Watch the conversation:

Read more: WATCH: Previewing August Primary Day in New York

New York’s New State Government Ethics and Lobbying Oversight Body Takes Shape


The Capitol in Albany (photo: Darren McGee/Governor's Office)


New York’s newest state government ethics commission, set to replace the infamously dysfunctional Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), will soon take its first steps when its members are approved by a committee of law school deans. That could take place beginning as soon as this month.

Nine out of 11 nominees to the new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (CELG) have been formally named by New York's statewide elected officials and legislative leaders. By the law passed earlier this year, the deans have 30 days from nomination to vet each candidate, after which time, if approved, they can officially take a seat on the commission.

"The Committee is fully on track to meet its deadline of reviewing and making determinations on candidates within 30 days of each formal nomination. In fact, we are working to accelerate the process," said Anthony Crowell, dean of New York Law School and chair of the review committee, in an interview with Gotham Gazette.

The first formal nomination Crowell's committee received was on July 18, leaving the first CELG member to be formally cleared by mid-August, unless the deans reject them.

"We understand that there is a great need to get the new commission constituted, and we're taking our responsibility to substantively review the candidates extremely seriously," said Crowell.

CELG, like JCOPE before it, is responsible for overseeing New York's ethics and lobbying laws with jurisdiction over state elected officials and employees, lobbyists and their clients. When it is fully established, it will be able to issue formal guidance, advisory opinions and regulations, and investigate potential corruption cases and ethics violations. That could conceivably happen as soon as six members – a majority of the commission – are seated, though at only six members commission votes would have to be unanimous to make a final decision on any action.

For now, 46 JCOPE employees, including its final executive director, Sanford Berland, have remained at work under the new company name, administering financial disclosures laws and maintaining and auditing the state's lobbying registry, potentially giving informal guidance in the process. But those employees may only advance new investigations at the direction of commissioners themselves, who are no longer active.

"They're still doing work," said Rachael Fauss, a researcher at the good-government group Reinvent Albany, of the staff. "It's just that the commission, itself, isn't there so there are no new investigations moving forward, no final decisions being made on any case. All that is dormant."

Lawmakers enacted legislation to replace JCOPE in the state budget earlier this year, fulfilling a promise by Hochul to shutter what she called the "structurally broken" body in the wake of a series of corruption scandals involving disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo. In some of those, JCOPE had a role or failed to pursue them as a corruption watchdog. They were only some of the latest examples of the body’s well-documented failures and flaws.

The new agency has more appointing authorities and the additional vetting body comprised of law school deans. It will also be subject to greater transparency measures. But good government groups who sought JCOPE's replacement have criticized CELG for having little insulation from the elected officials who appoint it and are subject to its oversight – a repetition of JCOPE's fatal flaw.

Initial Appointments to CELG
Per the new state law, passed as part of an April deal between Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and the Democrat-dominated State Legislature, the 11 CELG commissioners are nominated by the governor, who appoints three members, Senate and Assembly majority leaders, who appoint two each, and the legislative minority leaders, the Attorney General and Comptroller, who each appoint one. 

All but one CELG nomination – Hochul's third – has been publicly announced. Nine of those 10 initial nominees have also undergone a background check and a seven-day public comment period, a requirement imposed by the law school deans that was not included in statute.

"Governor Hochul committed to replacing JCOPE and worked with the legislature to create a new, truly independent ethics commission to provide greater transparency and accountability for New Yorkers and help restore trust in government," wrote Hazel Crampton-Hays, the governor's spokesperson, in an email. "We are diligently working to announce our third nomination, look forward to receiving feedback from the Independent Review Committee on the nominations, and are committed to providing any support necessary to the Commission and the Committee to help ensure they are successful in carrying out their mission."

Crampton-Hays said Hochul's initial third choice had declined to be considered. She pointed out that the commission could convene once a majority of its members is approved.

Of the ten nominees to CELG so far, nine have been formally submitted to the deans, triggering the 30-day clock on each, according to Crowell. He declined to disclose who the remaining nominee is out of concern that it could prejudice the process.

Mike Murphy, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, confirmed the missing submission was one of the leader's two appointees – Dr. Claudia Edwards – who hasn't yet completed a required background check from the state Office of General Services.

The ten names that have been announced so far are Michael Cardozo, the former former New York City Corporation Counsel, and Frederick Davie, former chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board (by Hochul); Seymour James Jr., a criminal defense lawyer, and Dr. Edwards, a consultant (Stewart-Cousins); Robert Torres and Leonard Austin, both retired State Supreme Court judges (Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie); Gary Lavine, an attorney and the only nominee to have previously served on JCOPE (Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt); Edward Carni, a former Appellate Court judge (Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay); Nancy G. Groenwegen, former counsel to the comptroller (Comptroller Tom DiNapoli); and Emily Jane Goodman, another State Supreme Court judge (Attorney General Letitia James).

CELG Structure and Voting
The most significant differences between CELG and JCOPE are the appointment and voting structures.

JCOPE had long been criticized for being under the influence of the officials that appointed its commissioners (the governor and majority and minority leaders in the Legislature), who were known to have secretly communicated with members on cases they had interests in. JCOPE's supermajority voting structure allowed a small number of members to block investigations, often stymying probes from reaching the leaders or their allies.

Unlike JCOPE, CELG will have appointees from the attorney general and comptroller and all nominees must be approved by the law school deans – a layer Hochul said would help enable more independence in the appointment process. The deans may reject a candidate but the nominating officials still ultimately choose the commissioners.

"It is not a rubber stamp, it has a different way of doing it," Hochul said on April 7 when she announced a deal on the state budget, including CELG. "And the process of getting here was collaborative."

Good-government groups who have lobbied for a JCOPE replacement felt differently.

"We still have the same core problem that we had with JCOPE," said Fauss. "There's an inherent conflict when elected officials get to appoint their own ethics regulators."

In a letter to the appointing authorities in June, good-government groups, including Reinvent Albany, called on the state to prohibit ex parte communications between commissioners and the officials who appoint them to prevent the type of backchannel communications that could sway commission votes. Lawmakers didn't include any such limits when they enacted the new statute. "It's not an independent commission," Fauss said.

She noted even the inclusion of law school deans was an imperfect solution.

"It's not an easy task to reject a name from the governor," Fauss said. "Some of them are from SUNY schools, for example. They get their funding from the governor."

In the past, JCOPE's voting gave particular weight to commissioners appointed by one party and branch of government or another depending on the affiliations of the subject of investigation in order to counter politically-motivated probes. "The theory behind that was you don't want witch hunts, but they made the bar so high that nothing happened," Fauss said.

CELG decisions will be made by a simple majority rule, a change good-government groups commended. Once established, CELG is required by law to review all regulations and advisory opinions made by previous bodies, including JCOPE.

CELG will also be subject to the state's Freedom of Information and Open Meetings laws, which JCOPE had not.

Budget and Staffing
Lawmakers raised CELG's annual budget from the $5.6 million JCOPE received and Hochul proposed in her executive budget, to $7.7 million. It is unclear what that increase is intended to cover. While the new law raises the per diem pay for commissioners, that would not account for the total increase. A spokesperson for the state Division of Budget said the additional funding would cover personnel costs but did not provide details. The new statute gives CELG its own budget line and prevents the Division of the Budget from decreasing or shifting away funds after the budget is enacted. It is not pegged to be proportionate to other budget lines, making it vulnerable to gutting by lawmakers in the future.

The law states JCOPE's staff will be transferred to the new commission "without further examination or qualification." That includes the executive director, who may be hired or fired by a majority vote of the commission for a number of reasons including failure to obey the commission.

Like the commissioners, the executive director cannot have served as a registered lobbyist, state employee, or political party chair within the last two years. While the commission may delegate some powers to the executive director, the new law prevents the executive director from making decisions that require a commission vote – new language that was not in the statute governing JCOPE.

That still leaves questions about how the staff may handle advisory opinions, according to Fauss. It's unclear, for example, if that type of language would have prevented JCOPE staff from approving Cuomo's $5 million pandemic book deal, which the former governor reportedly used state resources to write and which JCOPE later tried to retroactively bar, unsuccessfully.

The law requires the CELG to establish separate units for advice and guidance, training, financial disclosure, lobbying, and investigations and enforcement. Each unit, except the financial disclosure unit, must have a deputy director. The commission is responsible for approving a staffing plan from the executive director with titles, responsibilities, and salaries listed.

CELG and the Legislative Ethics Commission
The new structure leaves intact a bifurcated enforcement system that has rankled good-government advocates for years. As in the days of JCOPE, the new commission can investigate and issue civil penalties for executive branch employees, lobbyists and their clients. For employees of the State Legislature, on the other hand, the commission may investigate claims but cannot impose discipline; they can only refer the findings to the Legislature's internal body known as the Legislative Ethics Commission.

As a result, the two bodies perform somewhat parallel tasks, and may even issue competing advisory opinions on the same subjects. Advocates say the system would be far better without that segregation but eliminating the Legislative Ethics Commission would likely require a state constitutional amendment.

Harassment and Discrimination
Advocates are also concerned that the new commission will not reflect the state demographically or through experience. Seven out of the ten nominees announced so far are men, repeating a gender imbalance within JCOPE and signaling a potential uphill battle for victims of workplace harassment and discrimination. Nothing in the statute requires racial or gender diversity among commissioners.

According to Erica Vladimer, co-founder of an advocacy organization of former government aides called the Sexual Harassment Working Group, the lack of female representation on JCOPE was symbolic of the agency's frequent mishandling of harassment and discrimination cases.

"One of the biggest things we saw with JCOPE was just how ill-equipped it was to handle that type of ethics abuse," Vladimer told Gotham Gazette.

In 2018, Vladimer accused then-State Senator Jeff Klein, the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) leader, of forcibly kissing her outside a bar in Albany in 2015 when she was a member of the IDC staff. "The investigation itself can be so traumatizing," she said.

The new statute requires CELG’s deputy director for training and enforcement to complete four hours of annual training in "trauma-informed approaches." 

"Training should be the bare minimum," Vladimer said, suggesting the new commission hire staff with experience working with or interviewing people who have been traumatized. The Sexual Harassment Working Group was the leading force behind major changes to state harassment laws, including some that Cuomo later ran afoul of before his resignation, according to a series of accusers and multiple corroborating investigations.

Ongoing Reform Efforts
In April, Hochul celebrated a win with the replacement of JCOPE and adoption of CELG. "I want to thank many of the good government organizations who partnered with us to achieve major ethics overhaul," she told reporters at her April 7 budget deal announcement.

But advocates who have been pushing for government ethics reform for decades want to see more.

"There's sort of a perception that the governor and Legislature can check the box, 'We did ethics reform, let's move on.' But there's a lot of things that didn't get done as part of this," said Fauss. That includes changes to lobbying laws, including reporting requirements of lobbyist campaign activity, something New York City has taken steps to address. It also includes expanding financial disclosure rules, and further limits on outside income for lawmakers, she said.

Despite those concerns, all stakeholders appear eager to see the commission take off, not least of all people with pending cases. "I first came out against Klein in 2018," Vladimer said. "I am still having to work with this transitional commission between JCOPE and CELG around my claim. It's been over four years."

***
by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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New York Congressional Races to Watch in the August Primary


(l-r) Jerry Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, Suraj Patel, Yuh-Line Niou, Jo Anne Simon (top)
Dan Goldman, Carlina Rivera, Elizabeth Holtzman, Mondaire Jones


Early voting for the August 23 party primary elections begins on Saturday, August 13, with competitive races in many of New York’s now-26 districts in the U.S. House of Representatives. After a chaotic redistricting process that significantly changed the state’s political map, these congressional races are unfolding ahead of the general election that will determine which major party controls the House and Senate. Democrats currently hold slim margin majorities in both, and New York House races will be a significant factor in the national picture.

But first, the primaries, several seats where the primary winner is all but certain to win the general election.

New York lost a congressional seat after the 2020 Census, falling just 89 residents short of maintaining its numbers (27) in the House of Representatives, despite an overall increase in the state’s population. That was followed by the state’s problematic redistricting, which eventually resulted in a court-appointed special master drawing new district lines and a judge ordering two separate primaries, one in June for statewide and Assembly races and one in August for State Senate and Congress. 

The new lines caused particular disarray for Democrats in New York City, with incumbents having to face each other in certain districts, especially the new 12th district in Manhattan featuring Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler, and created opportunities for Republicans to pick up seats elsewhere.

There are also several ‘open’ races with no incumbent running where there is heated competition in the primary, particularly the new 10th district where a deep and diverse field of candidates is hoping to represent much of Lower Manhattan and a big stretch of Brooklyn.

Democrats currently hold 18 seats in New York’s congressional delegation and Republicans hold seven, while there are two vacancies in Districts 19 and 23. 

Here are New York congressional races to watch in the August primary: 

1st Congressional District
U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican, is his party’s nominee for governor, challenging Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat running for her first full term.

With Zeldin out of the race for the 1st District, which covers two-thirds of Suffolk County, Long Island, three Republicans are seeking to replace him: Anthony Figliola; a lobbyist and a former deputy supervisor of Brookhaven; Nicholas LaLota; chief of staff to the Suffolk County Legislature and former Republican commissioner of the Suffolk County Board of Elections, who has been endorsed by the Suffolk County GOP; and Michelle Bond, CEO of the Association for Digital Asset Markets.

The Democratic candidate, Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, is running unopposed. 

2nd Congressional District
Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino faces two primary challengers in his new district, which covers the South Shore of Suffolk County from Amityville to Eastport on Long Island. The challengers include Robert Cornicelli, a U.S. Army and Navy veteran and former Sanitation Inspector Supervisor for the Town of Oyster Bay; and Mike Rakebrandt, an NYPD detective. 

The winner will face Democrat Jackie Gordon, a former teacher and former Town of Babylon Council member, in the general election. 

3rd Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi did not run for reelection this year as he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor, losing to Hochul in the primary. Five Democrats are running to replace him in the District covering the northern half of Nassau County on Long Island: former North Hempstead Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman; Robert Zimmerman, a longtime Democratic National Committee member; Nassau County legislator Joshua Lafazan; progressive activist Melanie D'Arrigo; and businesswoman Reema Rasool. 

Zimmerman has the most establishment support in the race, including endorsements from Reps. Gregory Meeks, Ritchie Torres, and Grace Meng. D'Arrigo, meanwhile, is the progressive favorite in the race, with the backing of the Working Families Party. Lafazan, however, is Suozzi’s chosen successor for the seat.

The primary victor will face Republican George Santos, an investment banker who unsuccessfully ran against Suozzi in 2020, in the general election. 

4th Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice is not running for reelection, leaving an open race for her district, which covers the southern half of Nassau County on Long Island. Four Democratic candidates are running to succeed her: former Town of Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen; Nassau County legislator Carrié Solages; election attorney and Malverne Mayor Keith Corbett; and Dr. Muzib Huq.

Gillen is the establishment favorite in the race, and has been endorsed by Rice, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

The winner will face Republican Anthony D’Esposito, a Town of Hempstead council member, in November.

7th Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Nydia Velázquez is running for reelection in a significantly changed district. Her current district includes Sunset Park, Red Hook, and the Lower East Side, all of which were cut out of the new district, which retained parts of northern Brooklyn including the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Greenpoint, and Bushwick and southwest Queens, while expanding into Greenpoint, Sunnyside, and Glendale.

She faces a nominal primary challenger in Paperboy Love Prince, a performance artist who has run for multiple offices before, including against Velázquez last election.

Velázquez is all but assured to win and face Republican Juan Pagán in the general election.

8th Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, chair of the House Democratic Caucus and possible successor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is running for reelection in a district that stretches across southern and central Brooklyn.

Jeffries was among the most vocal critics of the Court of Appeals throwing out maps drawn by Democrat-run State Legislature and of the initial map offered by the special master, which divided historically Black communities such as Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, which was in his district. The final map, however, rectified that, uniting Bed-Stuy, but cutting out parts of the western parts of his district including Fort Greene and Clinton Hill and eastern neighborhoods including Howard Beach and parts of Ozone Park.  

He is being challenged in the primary by nonprofit organizer Queen Johnson, but Jeffries is expected to easily prevail. 

That will also be the case in the general election, where the Republican candidate is Yuri Dashevsky, a public relations consultant and interpreter.

10th Congressional District
Among the most competitive races in the primary is the contest for the new 10th congressional district, which covers Lower Manhattan south of 14th street and parts of western Brooklyn including Downtown, Gowanus, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Borough Park.

A field of more than a dozen Democrats are on the ballot for the primary nomination though six leading candidates have emerged via various metrics, including public polling, endorsements, and fundraising: City Council Member Carlina Rivera; Assemblymembers Yuh-line Niou and Jo Anne Simon; Dan Goldman, a former prosecutor who led the first impeachment of then-President Donald Trump; former Representative Elizabeth Holtzman; and Representative Mondaire Jones, who represents the Hudson Valley’s 17th district but recently moved to Brooklyn to run in the new 10th.

Republican Benine Hamdan will face the primary winner in the November general election.

11th Congressional District
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis represents District 11, which covers the entirety of Staten Island and parts of South Brooklyn. She unseated Democrat Max Rose in 2020 after Rose had unseated Republican Dan Donovan in 2018. Rose is seeking the Democratic nomination again this year in hopes of regaining the seat, which is currently the only GOP-held congressional seat 

Malliotakis is being challenged in the primary by John Matland, a health care worker.

Rose is running the Democratic primary against progressive activist Brittany Ramos DeBarros and Komi Agoda-Koussema, a public school teacher.

Malliotakis and Rose are expected to run in a rematch in the general election where Malliotakis will likely be favored to hold the seat but Democrats will eye the opportunity to flip a seat and help Democrats keep a House majority.

12th Congressional District
The newly-drawn district lines put longtime Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney in direct conflict with each other by combining the East and West Sides of Manhattan, from roughly 13th Street to 110th Street, into the new 12th congressional district. The two are facing each other in the primary and a third candidate, Suraj Patel, who previously unsuccessfully challenged Maloney twice. Some polling has shown Patel within striking distance of the two representatives who were each first elected to Congress in 1992. A fourth candidate, Ashmi Sheth, is in the race but has run a limited campaign.  

13th Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat is running for reelection to the slightly modified 13th district, which covers Upper Manhattan from East Harlem to Inwood and parts of the Bronx including Kingsbridge, University Heights, and Bedford Park. He faces two challengers: Francisco Spies and “social democrat” Michael Hano, though neither seems to be running a viable campaign.

14th Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is running unopposed but there is a Republican primary in the district between business owner Tina Forte and Desi Cuellar, a once-homeless former bartender. Both Forte and Cuellar currently live outside the district, according to City & State.

Ocasio-Cortez’s district saw some major changes in the redistricting. The neighborhoods cut from her district include Sunnyside, Woodside, and parts of Jackson Heights in Queens and Pelham Parkway and parts of Van Nest and Morris Park in the Bronx. Her district expanded into Hunts Point, Soundview, Clason Hill, and Castle Point in the South Bronx. 

16th Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s district covers southern Westchester County and parts of the northeast Bronx. He is running for reelection and faces three primary challengers: Westchester County Legislators Vedat Gashi and Catherine Parker, and Mark Jaffe, president and CEO of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce. Gashi seems to be Bowman’s toughest challenger and has received some establishment support. He has also been endorsed by former longtime Rep. Eliot Engel, who was ousted by Bowman in 2020.  

In redistricting, the 16th District lost parts of the North Bronx including Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Woodlawn, Eastchester and Co-op City, while expanding further up north into Westchester into White Plains, Harrison, Elmsford, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington and Tarrytown.  

Republican John Ciampoli is running in the general election.

17th Congressional District
Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones, the incumbent in District 17, is running in the 10th District in New York City, which has left an open race for a district that spans Rockland County, northern Westchester County, Putnam County, and parts of Dutchess County. 

Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who currently represents District 18 and chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, decided to run in the new 17th District, where he lives. He is facing off against New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, who had announced a run in the 3rd district before the initial maps were thrown out. Once the new maps were released, she shifted to run in the 17th, where she has since moved, to take on Maloney after he pushed Jones out of the race. Biaggi is offering herself as the progressive alternative to the more moderate Maloney.

There is also a Republican primary in the district between five candidates: Assemblymember Michael Lawler, the clear favorite; Rockland County legislator Charles Falciglia; business executive Jack Schrepel; Shoshana David; and William Faulkner. 

18th Congressional District
With Sean Patrick Maloney running in the neighboring district, the new 18th District in the Mid-Hudson Valley has an open seat and three Democrats are seeking the primary nomination. They include Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan; Moses Mugulusi, a state financial examiner; and Aisha Mills, a Democratic strategist. 

The primary victor will face off against Republican Assemblymember Colin Schmitt in the general election

19th Congressional District
There is also an open race for the 19th District, which covers parts of the Southern Tier, Catskills, and Hudson Valley, and has been vacant since Democrat Antonio Delgado was appointed lieutenant governor. Two Democrats are running to replace him: attorney Josh Riley and small business owner Jamie Cheney.  

The winner will face Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro in the general election.

Special Election in the Current 19th Congressional District
Because of Delgado’s resignation, there is also a special election to finish his term under the current district lines, with Democrat Pat Ryan and Republican Marc Molinaro facing off against each other in a vote set to take place at the same time as the primaries.

Most of the current 19th District will end up in the newly-drawn 19th, where Molinaro is running in the fall general election as well as this August special election, while parts of the current district have been drawn into the new 18th District, where Ryan is running in the Democratic primary at the same time as this August primary in the 19th. So Ryan is on two separate ballots this month for the special election in the 19th District and primary election in the 18th District. 

20th Congressional District
The capital region district is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko, who is facing a primary challenge from immigration attorney Rostislav Rar. 

Republican Elizabeth Joy, who previously lost to Tonko, is running in the general election. 

21st Congressional District
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is running for reelection to the 21st District, which covers most of the North Country and Adirondacks, and parts of the Capital region, and is unopposed in the primary.

There is a Democratic primary in the district with two candidates running: Matthew Putorti, an attorney; and Matt Castelli, a former CIA officer and Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council under former President Barack Obama, who is the clear favorite. 

22nd Congressional District
The 22nd District in Central New York is currently represented by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney, who is running in the new 24th District after the redistricting process significantly changed the boundaries of her current district. Tenney’s decision led to an open race with primaries on the Democratic and Republican sides.  

Four Democrats are competing for the primary nomination: Francis Conole, a Navy veteran and ​​former national security adviser; Sam Roberts, a former ​​Onondaga County Assemblymember and former state welfare commissioner; Air Force veteran Sarah Klee Hood; and Syracuse Common Councilor Chol Majok. Conole seems to be the favorite in the race, with the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and several local Democratic elected officials. 

The Republican primary is between two candidates: Brandon Williams, a Navy veteran and entrepreneur; and Steve Wells, a former criminal prosecutor and business owner. Wells is the party favorite with endorsements from Pam Thier, chair of the Oneida County Republican Party, and local Republican elected officials. 

23rd Congressional District
After redistricting, the 23rd Congressional district covers parts of the Southern Tier and parts of Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben, Chemung, and Schuyler counties. The seat has been vacant since Republican Rep. Tom Reed resigned in May to join a lobbying firm. He had already announced his intention to not seek reelection. 

There’s an intense Republican primary to fill the seat between former gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino and State GOP Chair Nick Langworthy. 

But there is also a special election slated on the same day for the district, under the old district lines to determine who will finish out the current term. That race is between Republican Joe Sempolinski, who is the Steuben County Republican chair, and Democrat Max Della Pia, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. The winner of the special election will effectively serve a four-month term. 

Max Della Pia will face the winner of the Republican primary race in the November general election. 

24th Congressional District
The 24th District, which includes parts of Western New York and the North Country, has an open race because incumbent Republican Rep. John Katko is retiring. Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of the current 22nd district is running to replace him in the new district, against two primary opponents: business owner Mario Fratto; and perennial candidate George Phillips. 

Democrat Steven Holden will face the primary winner in the general election.  

26th Congressional District
In the 26th District, which includes parts of Erie and Niagara counties, including Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins is facing a primary challenge from community activist Emin “Eddie” Egriu but he is heavily favored to again win the nomination.

The winner will face Republican Steven Sams, a veteran, in the general election.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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