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A Closer Look at the Democratic Attorney General Candidates’ Legal Careers


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The Democratic AG candidates at the NYC Bar Association forum (photo: @NYCBarAssnNews)


At one of several attorney general candidate forums last week, the four Democrats in the race were asked for a highlight of their legal careers, and what is shows about how they’d approach the job.

New York City Public Advocate Letitia James began with a quip about embracing an attack line against her that she wakes up every morning looking for someone to sue, going on to describe a pro bono client she took on whose father was murdered, whose mother abandoned him, and was himself facing deportation. Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham Law professor and corruption expert, spoke about her time working with a team of death penalty lawyers early in her career.  

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who has worked at high-end law firms and in the White House under President Bill Clinton, said he did not have much courtroom experience, because he worked at elite firms, but listed other legal credentials, like working at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Kirkland and Ellis, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. And Leecia Eve, a lobbyist for Verizon who previously worked for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo, hearkened back to her time as a young lawyer who sued the Washington, D.C. prison system on behalf of incarcerated women.

The candidates’ answers to that question, at an event hosted by the New York City Bar Association and New York Law Journal, and to others at prior and subsequent debates and forums, highlight both the candidates’ varying backgrounds and the skill sets they believe they would bring to the state’s top legal office. The attorney general is both a defense attorney and litigator, tasked with defending New York when the state is sued and upholding many New York laws, protecting consumers, tenants, investors, and others.

A closer look at the four Democrats’ legal careers heading into the Thursday September 13 primary vote, when a party nominee will be chosen for the general election against Republican Keith Wofford and smaller-party candidates, shows differing legal backgrounds and expertise and sheds light on the candidates’ possible priorities should they be elected.

Tish James
When James kicked off her campaign, she presented herself as a “champion in government” for New Yorkers, and “watchdog for the people.”

“Throughout my entire career I have been fueled by this idea that the law is our most effective tool in our quest for justice and for progress,” she said in Brooklyn.

James’ legal career is extensive, including work as a public defender, government counsel, and assistant attorney general. She’s been a legislator as a member of the New York City Council, and as New York City Public Advocate she has focused on both filing lawsuits and passing legislation, both to further degrees than her three predecessors in the citywide elected position, though with mixed results.

Throughout her political career, James has largely been seen as reliably progressive, and has been close with labor unions, activist groups, Democratic clubs, and the liberal Working Families Party, on whose ballot line she was first elected to office. James has mostly been an ally of Mayor Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democrat whom she succeeded as public advocate, and, though she has sued his administration on a number of occasions and at times been critical of the mayor, she has shied away from holding him accountable on a variety of matters that have been among the mayor’s largest headaches over almost five years in office.

Seeking to become the next New York Attorney General, James has the backing of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state Democratic Party, as well as many members of the party establishment, and she is running on her experience, while trying to downplay questions about her independence from the governor and other elected officials.

Throughout her campaign, James has sought to distinguish herself from Teachout, especially, regularly pointing to her practical own work in government while referring to Teachout as “professor” at multiple debates in an apparent effort to brand her as detached from the type of work she’s implying an attorney general should have on his or her resume. James, who was previously expected to be a 2021 mayoral candidate before Eric Schneiderman resigned as attorney general amid allegations he had abused several intimate partners, also presents herself as an advocate for the downtrodden and vulnerable rather than a lawyer for the well-heeled.

“As a public defender, I represented New Yorkers who couldn’t afford fancy lawyers — but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t be afforded any less justice,” James said in an emailed statement in response to several questions about her legal experience Gotham Gazette sent to the campaign. “And I saw firsthand how so many New Yorkers, especially young men of color, were targeted by an unfair criminal justice system. I’ve taken these lessons to heart, and I’ve fought against these injustices throughout my career. I’ve fought for and won — real criminal justice reforms.”

These criminal justice reforms include, suing to obtain the minutes for the Eric Garner grand jury, being the first elected official to push for the NYPD to implement the use of body cameras after a police officer killed Garner. It’s a program, currently being implemented in New York City, that James says she wants to help take statewide.

“As Attorney General,” she continued, “I’ll keep that focus — on using the law to help real people.”

At a recent Manhattan Neighborhood Network debate, James took her pitch as a public defender a bit further, saying she has continued to represent defendants.  “I’m a former public defender. I’ve represented countless people in the criminal justice system, and in fact still do,” she said. Asked which cases she has been working on, a James spokesperson did not cite any specific instances, saying only that as public advocate James is tasked with representing all New Yorkers, including people affected by the criminal justice system.   

Before she ran successfully for the City Council in 2003, James worked for years in Brooklyn as a public defender, then as an assistant attorney general. She has Albany experience as well. There, she served as counsel in then-Assembleymember Roger Green’s office. During her time as a City Council member, she sued Mayor Michael Bloomberg when he was attempting to run for a third term over the wishes of the public, and sued on behalf of multiple plaintiffs who were arrested in Zuccotti Park in the Rodriguez v. Winsky case stemming from Occupy Wall Street.  

Additionally, James was one of the key figures opposing Atlantic Yards, the mixed-use project sited in her Council district that continues to be built. As Norman Oder, the leading Atlantic Yards watchdog, recently wrote for Gotham Gazette, James was tough and inquisitive when going toe-to-toe with the developers and the city, but has softened her stance in the years since she left the Council and has stretched her record a bit far when touting it in public, including during the attorney general race. James’ imprecise language, Oder and others have written, is part of a pattern for the public advocate.

While serving as an assistant attorney general, James led investigations into predatory lenders, worked on consumer complaints, and collaborated with the civil rights bureau in investigating the New York City Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy, her campaign said.

And while during her time as public advocate James’ independence from de Blasio and willingness to hold his feet to the fire have been called into question — a charge she has ignored while running for attorney general and claiming her independence had never been questioned until she linked up with Cuomo —  she has filed a number of lawsuits against city agencies. James has also filed suits against bad landlords and other entities. In her telling, she has “turned the public advocate’s office into a public interest law firm.” James also touts that she has passed more legislation than all previous public advocates combined.

It was what James had promised to do upon becoming public advocate and she followed through, hiring more attorneys to the relatively small office and focusing on both litigation and legislation, while largely ignoring hot-button issues related to de Blasio’s multitude of political scandals and controversies. Still, her efforts at litigation have brought limited returns, with the public advocate kicked off a number of lawsuits over a lack of standing, according to presiding judges (James has said she wants the City Charter changed to give her more standing). She has had successes as well.

Among the cases James has brought are ones against NYCHA’s heating policies, which were found to violate New York City Health and Administrative codes. The suit resulted in a shift from policy where the buildings would only turn on the heat when the temperature dipped below 20 degrees. James also invoked New York City Human Rights Law to file an amicus brief alongside City Council members on behalf of rent-stabilized tenants after a landlord denied them services. The tenants were awarded financial compensation in 2016.

Also in 2016, James alleged the Department of Education was providing insufficient services to students with special needs due to a faulty information portal. A court ruled in James’ favor, prompting the DOE to appeal. The case is pending.

During the Bar Association forum, James embraced her reputation for frequently filing lawsuits — an approach she plans to carry with her should she be the state’s next attorney general.  

“Someone once ridiculed me and said, ‘Tish James goes into the office of the public advocate each and every day, she thinks of a lawsuit, and she sues somebody and then goes home.’ That’s true,” she quipped.

James has promised that, if elected, she will go after those who violate the law with respect to the rights of tenants, consumers, workers, and others. Like her competitors, she’s pledged to push criminal justice reform. But she received heavy criticism when she told The New York Times that she wouldn’t embrace the moniker ‘Sheriff of Wall Street’ that had been applied to former Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. While James has said she meant that the name belonged to Spitzer and she wants to chart her own path, her opponents seized on the comment, arguing that the New York attorney general must investigate abuses in the financial industry. James during debates and in an op-ed sought to clarify her remarks.

Often citing her office’s Worst Landlords List, saying she has “supercharged it” after it had been launched by her predecessor, de Blasio, James is pledging to go after building owners who try to force rent-regulated tenants out or practice other unscrupulous tactics.

During the Bar Association forum, James also cited a specific case in which she represented pro bono an unaccompanied minor whose father was murdered in Honduras and came to the United States without authorization. He was granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status after a family member was given guardianship, and now lives in the U.S with a green card.   

“His mother abandoned him and I went to court and I represented him and was successful in getting an asylum petition granted,” she recalled, going on to note the personal relationship they forged. “He recently graduated from high school. And he just introduced me to his girlfriend, who I do not like,” she joked.

Zephyr Teachout
Teachout has pitched herself as the candidate who has the experience to tackle what she views as the key issues at hand for the next attorney general, most especially corruption in state government and in Donald Trump’s administration, businesses, and other dealings. And as the only candidate who hasn’t accepted corporate money for her campaign, Teachout argues New Yorkers can trust her to police Wall Street firms, real estate interests, and others.

Teachout, a Fordham Law professor, has cast herself as the most left-wing candidate in the race, with the most independence and crucial experience addressing public corruption, including her work suing Trump, providing legal advice around prosecuting public corruption cases, and writing a book on the history of the subject in the United States. She also touts that she took on Governor Cuomo in the 2014 primary with a focus on the corruption that he had promised to clean up but hadn’t.

Teachout graduated from Duke Law School, serving as editor-in-chief of the school’s law review. She worked as a clerk for Chief Judge Edward Becker of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and in North Carolina served as a death penalty defense lawyer at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. In the good government relm, Teachout served as the Sunlight Foundation’s first national executive director from 2006 to 2007. She has also worked on political campaigns, including Howard Dean’s 2004 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.  

Teachout has since 2009 taught at Fordham Law School, where she is an associate law professor. She was previously a visiting professor at Duke University’s law school as well as a lecturer at the University of Vermont.

In 2014, just days after she lost her quixotic gubernatorial primary challenge to Cuomo, Teachout’s book, “Corruption in America,” was published. It was widely praised and helped elevate her status as a national corruption expert, though she had already been involved in the issue, including, as she has said on the campaign trail, efforts to fight the Supreme Court’s eventual Citizens United campaign finance ruling.

It is her scholarship, and her job as a professor more broadly — along with the fact that she is running for her third office in four years — that has been the source of repeated attacks levied against Teachout. Using phrases like, “this is not an academic exercise,” her rivals seem to claim that Teachout may know the legal texts from cover to cover but lacks real experience as an attorney and putting theory into action.

Teachout rejects this characterization, saying that she has led teams of lawyers and made complex legal arguments. In a campaign ad released in June, she said she has spent her life combating corruption and democratizing law, ensuring the powerful are held accountable and the powerless defended. One example she often cites is her instrumental role in invoking the emoluments clause against President Trump, alleging he was personally profiting off the presidency by being paid by foreign powers that patronize his hotels and other businesses.

“I have a deep expertise in this area of law that is now painfully relevant,” Teachout told The Atlantic.

Teachout only recently joined the New York Bar after being registered in North Carolina, sparking criticism about the depths of her roots in the state and her commitment to practicing law here.

Further, a reprimand from the North Carolina Bar during her time as an attorney there has also been a source of fodder for opponents, especially James, who has claimed that Teachout “abandoned” a death row inmate and was reprimanded by the bar for it (James inaccurately said Teachout had been “censured”). The facts appear to show a minor mistake being blown out of proportion during a political campaign. Teachout was indeed reprimanded, but for failing to notify the court and her opposing counsel that she had a new address. And while the bar did reprimand her — a relatively uncommon finding — it also ruled that the infraction had no bearing on the client or outcome of the case.

In a statement provided by the Teachout campaign, Stephen Greenwald, who worked alongside Teachout on death penalty cases in North Carolina, attempted to clear the air on the matter, and heaped praise on Teachout’s legal abilities.

“I worked with Zephyr on several death penalty cases and she was a devoted and excellent attorney,” he said. “I worked with her specifically on the case for which she was reprimanded on a procedural point that had nothing to do with the case itself, and I can confirm that it had absolutely no impact on the case, as the bar determined.”

He added that Teachout did not in fact “abandon” a client, and said “it's wrong and ridiculous to claim she did.”

Greenwald also cited a case in which he worked alongside Teachout to defend a man named Robert Bacon, whose life he said Teachout helped to save via “creative lawyering.”

“A week before he was scheduled to be executed we managed to get a stay because we determined that the governor had a been the attorney general previously and therefore had a conflict of interest in determining whether to grant clemency,” Greenwald explained. “The state Supreme Court ruled in our favor six hours before Robert was going to be executed.”

At a recent press conference, Teachout also spoke about a specific death penalty case, and said she learned how to be creative and use every tool in the box to defend her clients.

“One of the first cases I worked on involved a situation where I was working with a team of lawyers who was representing their client on a case where they had sought clemency — life imprisonment without parole, instead of execution — but they were seeking it from a governor who had previously been a prosecutor,” she said. “And we built an equal protection clause challenge around that, which actually led to a three-month moratorium on [death penalty] cases in North Carolina.”

Though she is best-known for her book and scholarship on corruption, it was her time working with inmates facing the death penalty that she chose to draw upon at the New York City Bar Association forum. She spoke about representing defendants in post-conviction review.

“As a death penalty lawyer, you learn a lot. You certainly learn about the horrors of our current criminal justice system, but you also learn how to both dig up facts in intense investigations, find things that haven’t been found before because there is a threat of the state trying to kill your client,” she said. “You also learn how to take out laws and legal theories that haven’t been used before.”

Teachout has promised to do this as attorney general, and has praised Spitzer for reinvigorating the office’s use of the Martin Act to become the ‘Sheriff of Wall Street.’

“A lot of the work that I’ve been involved in has been working in money in politics groups on long-term strategic litigation,” she said at the press conference. “As you may know, I was cited in dissent in Citizens United, which is part of a long-term strategy to shift the way the court understands money in politics...I regularly talk to people — when there’s a constitutional change like McDonnell [a recent Supreme Court ruling that changed the definition of public corruption], prosecutors will call me and talk through what are the strategies we can deal with in recharging, because I have a specialty in white collar crime.”

Teachout then tied her legal work to what she wants to accomplish as attorney general — goals for which she says she has been a consistent champion.

“One of the key themes of my campaign is the wrong people are in jail,” she said. “We have to end mass incarceration, and return our focus to white-collar crime. And in the antitrust world, I also worked on strategic litigation there. I’ve worked on filing briefs myself, but also working with teams of lawyers on shifting the shape of the law.”

Sean Patrick Maloney
Maloney has on the campaign trail cast himself as a candidate who is less ideological about the job he wants, but is battle-tested in the upper echelons of law and the toughest political fights. In order to take on Trump, and handle the issues that come the office’s way, Maloney has said, an attorney general needs both public and private sector know-how. After graduating from the University of Virginia’s law school in 1992, he worked in high-level jobs in law, technology and politics; he went on to unsuccessfully run for New York attorney general and successfully for Congress.

“I think what is critical in this job is to understand the combination of legal and policy issues together with the political issues that determine the success or failure of the attorney general,” Maloney told Gotham Gazette in an interview eight days before the primary. “The attorney general needs to be able to win complex legal cases, run major investigations, and to do all that in the context of public policy and political questions that are also at play. If you think about going toe-to-toe with Donald Trump, you’ve got to both understand the law and the political angle.”

In a campaign ad, Maloney says New York is in a “street fight” for its future, arguing that having “nailed corrupt CEOs and landlords,” defended hate crime victims, and while in Congress taking on the NRA, he’s the most prepared candidate to win the fight.

Maloney began his legal career at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, an international corporate law firm, where he worked as an associate from 1992 through 1997.

Maloney was hired to work in President Bill Clinton’s White House, where he served from 1997 to 1998 as special assistant to the president, deputy assistant to the president from 1998 to 1999, and as assistant to the president and staff secretary from 1999 to 2000. After his years in the Clinton White House, he worked from 2000 to 2003 at Kiodex, a software company, as its chief operating officer, managing $40 million in private equity, according to his campaign. He then returned to work as an associate attorney at Willkie Farr & Gallagher from 2004 to 2005. In 2006, he ran for attorney general for the first time, losing in the Democratic primary to Cuomo.   

Maloney then returned to government, working in the gubernatorial administration of Eliot Spitzer, working in the executive chamber under Spitzer and his successor, David Paterson. From 2007 into 2009, Maloney served as senior adviser, handled budgetary matters and oversaw 13 state agencies and departments while in the governor’s office, according to his campaign.

In early 2007, Maloney began serving as first deputy secretary under then-top Spitzer aide Rich Baum. While in that role, “Troopergate” — a scandal in which the Democratic governor's office misused state police to track then-Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno — took place, though Maloney has denied he played any part in it. The New York Times editorial board, however, endorsed the incumbent Maloney was challenging in his successful 2012 congressional race because Maloney “appeared to be most interested in holding back the staff’s personal emails from investigators” during a probe into the Troopergate controversy.  

Maloney worked briefly for Governor Paterson, who took over when Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal. Maloney moved back to the corporate legal world at the end of 2009 and became partner at Kirkland & Ellis, where he stayed until 2011.  

In 2011, he was made partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a firm specializing in technology and energy law, in its global finance group, working in large part on public-private partnerships and infrastructure projects, according to Law360. In 2012, he ran for Congress and won a seat where he represents what has been a swing district in the Hudson Valley. Maloney defeated a Republican incumbent, and won reelection in 2014 and 2016.

He’s on the ballot again this year, though he plans to drop his congressional bid if he wins the attorney general primary. Maloney’s dual candidacies have been the source of much criticism from his opponents and others. Maloney insists he’s suspended all congressional campaigning, and is pursuing the job he wants in attorney general. He has said if he could get off the congressional ballot already he would have.

Maloney has also been criticized — and sued by Teachout — for transferring well over $1 million from his congressional campaign account to his attorney general coffers. He insists his actions have been legal.

During last week’s Bar Association forum, Maloney acknowledged he has not spent much time in a courtroom, but brandished his credentials as an elite lawyer, arguing his experience made him best-equipped to take on bad actors of all kinds.

“You’re talking to somebody who’s spent years at Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, as partner at Kirkland and Ellis, and Orrick Herrington, so when you’re at a really good law firm, they don’t let you near a lot of courtrooms,” he said to the experienced New York City legal crowd.  

While his opponents have not denied his legal experience, some have argued he is too cozy with certain industries and sectors — like big real estate and financial firms — that he’d need to investigate, prosecute, and hold accountable as attorney general, making him less-than-ideal for the job. The Teachout campaign last Tuesday blasted out a story from The Financial Times, which reported that Wall Street had chosen its candidate, Maloney, because the industry had donated the most to him out of the candidates.  

Maloney in the interview forcefully denied that he wouldn't take on Wall Street if need be.

“Yeah, that’s a bulls*** thing to say,” he said when asked about the claim he was Wall Street’s candidate and thus would not sufficiently take on its bad actors.

Asked to elaborate, Maloney said that the “city’s best lawyers,” are supporting his campaign, which “means they respect me as a legal mind and practitioner who can go toe-to-toe with any lawyers the big Wall Street guys throw at me.”

“I don’t have any experience in Wall Street,” he added. “But I have experience in doing sophisticated legal work, and being able to compete at any level.”

Moreover, Maloney argued his experience handling classified material and receiving briefings as a member of Congress would be of assistance in combatting Trump.  

“I’m the only candidate with a top secret security clearance and I am currently regularly briefed in the Russia investigation and the Justice Department probe. And that’s unique in this field of candidates and that’s very important right now,” he said. “That means I can hit the ground running.”

“I have a level of understanding of the extent and scope of the Russia investigation that includes having received classified briefings that just better prepares me to do this work,” he added.

Leecia Eve
Born in Western New York, a graduate of Harvard Law School who now lives in Harlem, Eve has described herself as the candidate most well-versed in the in-and-outs of all of New York State, while possessing a broad range of legal skills that prepared her for the attorney general job.   

“I’m running as the most qualified and best prepared candidate,” she said in Buffalo at the beginning of her campaign. “I’m telling people they should want somebody with an understanding of the needs of this state. And my roots in New York State run deep.”

Eve, who like Maloney is also taking her second shot at running for attorney general, has shifted her focus over the decades. As City Limits reported on Tuesday, Eve’s career went from taking on the D.C. prison system to a lobbyist for Verizon — a job she described to the outlet as entailing “educating stakeholders.” Between, she worked at one of upstate New York’s largest law firms as the first African-American general equity partner at Hodgson Russ, specializing in commercial, securities and intellectual property litigation. Eve previously served as an aide to then-Senator Joe Biden and then-Senator Hillary Clinton, giving her broad experience on legal, legislative, and security matters. She is currently on the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

In an interview with Gotham Gazette, Eve made the case that, due to her deep familiarity of legal issues in New York and experience working on them, she is the best fit for the job.  

“There is no comparison whatsoever, frankly, between my diverse background as a litigator, but also someone who understands a wide array of issues of concern to New Yorkers from a both legal and a policy perspective,” she said on September 3.

As she did during the Bar Association forum — and as referenced in a campaign commercial — Eve pointed to her about her time representing incarcerated women as a young lawyer as a high point of her career that she said sheds light on how she would act as attorney general.

As a young associate at Covington & Burling, she was part of a pro bono legal team representing women incarcerated in the Washington D.C. whose rights, the court found, were systematically violated. Eve has also described the conditions faced by the women she represented.

“One of my clients literally had her legs shackled to a hospital bed as she was bringing a child into this world,” she said in the interview, reiterating something she has stressed repeatedly on the campaign trail. “Some of our clients literally felt that they had no choice but to engage in sexual acts with prison guards in order to be guaranteed an opportunity to visit with their children, something that they otherwise were entitled to do.”

“Obviously, this is inhumane conduct, it’s illegal conduct, it’s unconstitutional conduct,” she continued, “and I’m proud to say that I took on the D.C. prison system, filed suit, fought hard, and we won.”

The precedent-setting case — which she said sparked prison reform nationwide — was not the only case from the early part of her career in which she successfully represented victims whose civil rights were violated. A church group of African-American young women who stayed at a hotel in Western New York, Eve recalled, were subjected to racial discrimination, and were granted a favorable ruling after she represented them pro bono.

Asked what she took away from her time in law, Eve said she learned how to “best and powerfully give voice to an injustice” while facing off against a more puissant opponent.  

“I say that because I have these very powerful, vivid memories of being in some of the D.C. prisons, spending time with my clients, hearing about what happened to them, and then saying, ‘We must fix this, we must stop this,’ and then translating that experience … into a detailed complaint,” she explained. ”When you represent hundreds of women who are incarcerated, who by and large are powerless, by and large [are] uneducated, and your opponent is the government representing the most powerful city in the most powerful nation on earth, you have a battle on your hands.”

Thus before she even turned 30 — a “baby lawyer,” as she described it — she learned how to fight and beat powerful forces.  

Yet those highlights from the fledgling stages of her law career — working to help incarcerated women and victims of racial discrimination — come in contrast to her more corporate, establishment-oriented work in recent years. Eve was proud of her work in both Clinton’s and Biden’s offices, where she says she advised then-Senator Biden on immigration issues and the Violence Against Women Act. She said these jobs should and would be viewed as an asset, not a fault. She has repeatedly defended her ties to the long-time Democratic politicians whose politics have fallen out of favor with much of the left wing of the party that appears energized by the presidential candidacy of Senator Bernie Sanders and Trump’s election.

Eve has argued her own progressive credentials, including her work drafting votings rights legislation and her plan to pursue both voting and criminal justice reform if elected attorney general. For Cuomo, Eve was a top economic development aide.

Asked about her most recent work, corporate lobbying for Verizon, she said, “I am proud to work for a company that employs nearly 20,000 people with good jobs and invests billion in this state.”

“People are still hungry for good-paying jobs,” she continued. “You want companies to be here. You want companies to expand and grow.”

She said should two unnamed candidates — presumably Teachout and James — take the attorney general job some companies would be “running for the hills,” in an apparent reference to the candidates’ being furthest to the left and promising to crack down on bad actors in a variety of sectors.  

Eve went on to say she knows how to appropriately do that work due to her experience and took a less-than-subtle jab at Teachout.

“What you need as an attorney general that understands how most aggressively to go after bad corporate actors. And someone who knows only what she teaches in a classroom is not that person,” she said. “Taking on extremely tough fights has prepared me to take on what are going to be tough fights to hold this administration accountable, to hold Donald Trump personally accountable, and to hold bad actors in this state accountable as well.”

With additional reporting from Victor Porcelli and Annie Abreu

Last-Minute Guide to Voting on Primary Day, September 13


Cuomo voting

Gov. Cuomo voting in 2011 (photo: The Governor's Office)


The 2018 New York state-level primary elections are Thursday, with mostly Democratic races on the ballot, including hotly-contested primaries for three statewide positions of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General. There are also many legislative primaries, mostly on the Democratic side, including eight state Senate races in which the former members of the Independent Democratic Conference, which folded in April amid a great deal of criticism, are being challenged. There are a few other Senate primaries of note for New York City voters, as well as a few Assembly primaries.

All four state-level statewide positions will be on the ballot this fall, there is no Democratic primary for Comptroller and Republicans have avoided any primaries for the statewide posts. All 150 Assembly and 63 Senate seats are also up for election this year, with control of the Senate hanging in the balance -- the Assembly is certain to remain under Democratic control. Republicans have held a very narrow majority in the Senate for several years, ensured through 31 GOP seats, almost all of which are from outside New York City, and Brooklyn Senator Simcha Felder, who was reelected in 2016 on both the Democratic and Republican ballot lines. The IDC has also bolstered that majority in recent years. Like the former IDC members, Felder is also facing a primary challenge.

The three statewide Democratic primaries have been highly competitive, though it is unclear what the margins will be once voters go to the polls on Thursday. Polls have shown certain possible outcomes, but few are putting much weight into those metrics given what New York and the country have seen in recent months and years.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul are trying to beat back progressive primary challenges from actor and activist Cynthia Nixon and City Council Member Jumaane Williams, respectively, while the Attorney General primary is wide open, with no incumbent running and an apparently tight three-way race in a four candidate field.

Below is a relatively brief rundown of races for New York City voters to be aware of heading into Thursday’s primary, with some additional resources in some instances to help voters be ready to cast their ballots. The winners of these primaries will move on to the general election, which will be decided November 6, at which time New Yorkers will also decide on one U.S. Senate race, for the seat currently held by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, all 27 New York seats in the House of Representatives, and, for New York City voters, three ballot questions proposed by Mayor de Blasio’s charter revision commission.

But first, the Thursday September 13 primaries. And before our rundown of the key races and information about them, details about voting:

Where to vote & your ballot
Polls in New York City and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, and Erie will open at 6 a.m., and polls in all other locations statewide will open at noon. All polls statewide will close at 9 p.m. Check your registration statuspreview your ballot; and check your polling place.

Governor
The big-ticket item is, of course, the race for Governor. While Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to prevail on Thursday, with polls showing him well ahead of primary challenger Cynthia Nixon, recent upset wins by left-wing candidates in Florida, Massachusetts, and New York have Nixon and her supporters optimistic that she has a shot to defeat Cuomo.

Nixon has hit Cuomo hard on the subways, affordable housing, education, the environment, criminal justice, healthcare, ethics, and more. She has promised to fully implement MTA New York City Transit President Andy Byford’s “Fast Forward” plan and pay for it with congestion pricing, a millionaires’ tax, and a carbon tax. Nixon has also slammed Cuomo for what she characterizes as his tacit endorsement of the Independent Democratic Conference, a rogue group of Democrats who aligned with the state Senate Republican majority, and for corruption within his administration and the larger state government, and for his broader approach to economic development as indicative of his penchant for catering to wealthy donors.

Cuomo’s lurch leftward on numerous issues over the course of the campaign, including on NYCHA, marijuana, voting rights for parolees, and the IDC unity deal, has been referred to by the campaign and observers as “The Cynthia Effect.”

Cuomo has countered by expounding on his accomplishments in office, such as paid family leave, a minimum wage program aimed at getting to a $15 baseline, same-sex marriage, gun control, raising the age of adult criminal responsibility, and major infrastructure investments. He has also touted his ability to manage government and what he calls smart fiscal policy, including the cap on annual property tax increases and annual state budget growth, as well as the timeliness those budgets have been passed, which has come in stark contrast to the years before he took office in 2011.

Save for a contentious debate in August, Cuomo has largely ignored Nixon throughout the primary campaign, preferring instead to carry out government business and take on President Donald Trump. When he has addressed Nixon, Cuomo has largely been dismissive of her candidacy, though his approach to the campaign -- including spending well over $20 million -- has indicated he does not see it as a slam dunk.

Cuomo has made a number of gaffes and errors during the campaign, but he has the significant powers of incumbency and his unmatched fundraising to his advantage. He also has Nixon’s lack of government experience working for him, which many supporters, including newspaper editorial boards, have repeatedly point to in endorsing the governor in the primary as he seeks a third term.

Nixon has countered the experience argument by saying that she is the only Democrat who had the guts to take Cuomo on in the primary given that she is an outsider with little to lose. She has also pointed to Cuomo’s alleged and confirmed failures, such as management of the MTA, to argue that despite all his experience, Cuomo is “not good at governing.”

The winner on Thursday will have the Democratic nomination for a general election that could include the loser, depending on what the loser does with other ballot lines that have been awarded -- the Working Families Party for Nixon, the Independence and Women’s Equality Parties for Cuomo. The general election will include Republican nominee Marc Molinaro, Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins, Libertarian nominee Larry Sharpe, and Stephanie Miner, running on the newly-created Serve America Movement ballot line.

Watch the lone Democratic primary debate between Governor Cuomo and Cynthia Nixon

Find much more to read about the race here

Lieutenant Governor
City Council Member Jumaane Williams, Nixon’s running mate, is trying to unseat incumbent Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. Williams is seen as a real threat to Hochul, though she has had a solid lead in public polling, due to his Brooklyn base, her limited name recognition, and his endorsements from the likes of the New York Times editorial board, among many other backers of his campaign.

Hochul and Williams have major differences in background and focus areas, and have outlined drastically different visions for the office of Lieutenant Governor. Hochul says she wants to continue her partnership with Cuomo while Williams says he wants to be a thorn in the side of whomever the governor is, turning the position into something of a public advocate at the state level.

Read much more about the Hochul-Williams primary here.

Watch the lone Hochul-Williams primary debate here.

Attorney General
Though the gubernatorial race has dominated headlines both in-state and nationally, perhaps the most consequential race being contested on Thursday is the Democratic primary for Attorney General.

After the abrupt resignation of Eric Schneiderman, Public Advocate Letitia James quickly emerged as the frontrunner in the all-of-a-sudden race, shoring up support from the State Democratic Party, Governor Cuomo, most of the state’s large labor unions, and a bevy of other elected officials. Other candidates include Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout, Congressional Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, and Verizon lobbyist Leecia Eve. Polls have shown many undecided voters and a three-way race with Eve far behind the others.

Teachout, an expert on political corruption who is refusing corporate donations, gained endorsements from the New York Times and the New York Daily News editorial boards in August, indicating the momentum shifting her way. In three broadcast primary debates, James, Maloney, and Eve have all targeted Teachout, attempting to undercut her main arguments for election and cast doubts on her values and qualifications. She has thrown some attacks of her own, mostly at Maloney. The two appear to be competing for many of the same Hudson Valley and upstate votes and may stand in each other’s way in terms of who can best James, whose base is New York City.

Maloney, who entered the race relatively late, has spent his large war chest on television ads but has been criticized for running a concurrent congressional campaign, and transferring over $1 million from his federal committee to his state committee. Teachout has sued him over the latter practice, saying he is violating campaign finance law.

The race has largely centered around who can best combat President Donald Trump. Both Schneiderman and his temporary replacement, Attorney General Barbara Underwood, who had been the solicitor general, have sued the federal government numerous times, and the candidates have made suing to stop the president’s policy agenda, on items such as environmental protections and net neutrality, a focus of their campaign pitches.

The candidates have also promised to varying degrees to go after corruption on Wall Street, in big real estate, and throughout state government. James has taken heat for her supposed lack of independence from Cuomo. Maloney has also endorsed the governor and Eve has said he deserves another term, while Teachout and Nixon are supporting each other.

There is also a three-way primary for the Reform Party nomination for Attorney General. The candidates are Michael Diederich, Nancy Sliwa, and Christopher Garvey. The vote is open to all registered members of the Reform Party and the many New Yorkers who are registered to vote but not with a party, otherwise known as independent or unaffiliated voters.

Read more: A Closer Look at the Democratic Attorney General Candidates' Legal Careers

Watch the Democratic Attorney General Candidates Debate

There is also a Reform Party primary for Attorney General, with three candidates running: Nancy Sliwa, Mike Diederich and Chris Garvey, that is open to the small number of voters registered with the Reform Party as well as the more than 2 million New Yorkers who are registered to vote, but unaffiliatd with any party.

STATE SENATE
Senate District 11 - Queens - Democrats
In eastern Queens, former City Comptroller John Liu is again challenging former IDC member and incumbent Senator Tony Avella. Very little separates the two candidates on policy, but political allegiances and Avella’s membership in the IDC are at the forefront of the campaign.

Liu challenged Avella in 2014 but did not succeed. Winning the seat would be a political comeback for Liu, whose 2013 campaign for mayor collapsed as a result of a campaign finance scandal involving straw donors, for which he was eventually fined $26,000 and a top aide went to jail. Liu entered the race late, joining the slate of challengers to all eight members of what was the IDC until it dissolved to rejoin the mainline Democratic conference in an April deal brokered by Cuomo. But, Liu has strong name recognition and a long-time following, positioning him to ride a wave of activism to victory, if the added IDC awareness and turnout numbers pan out as planned by the forces opposing Avella and company.

Avella has countered Liu’s charges of Republican-enabling by saying that the crucial vote for the Republicans was Senator Simcha Felder, not any of the IDC members. Liu has stated that Avella’s IDC membership has blocked equal funding of schools and the Reproductive Health Act, and rejects the notion that the Republican majority was propped up by Felder alone. On transit, Avella is against congestion pricing while Liu is for it; the district is sparsely served by the subway and much of it is a public transit desert, so both are in support of increased bus service.

The district is heavily Asian and possible reforms to the entrance criteria for the city’s specialized high schools is a key campaign issue -- both Avella and Liu are opposed to eliminating the SHSAT, the entrance exam for the schools.

Senate District 13 - Queens - Democrats
In one of the most diverse legislative districts in the city, Senator Jose Peralta, another former member of the IDC, is being challenged by Jessica Ramos, a former de Blasio staffer who has gained the support of her former boss as well as numerous other electeds and progressive groups. Peralta has mostly maintained the support of labor unions. Peralta’s and Ramos’ views overlap on several key issues, but the race again appears to be centered around the incumbent’s membership in the IDC, record of accomplishment, and what Ramos promises to do if elected. Peralta has pitched his experience and ability to get funds back to the district, including some of $15 million for immigrant legal defense that was allocated for the state, while Ramos has repeatedly stated that he should have been part of the mainline Democratic conference fighting for progressive policies and that his membership in the IDC accomplished little for the district. She has pointed to the Dream Act, which Peralta is the lead sponsor of, as continuing to stall despite his arrangement with the IDC and Republicans. Peralta has responded that he’s been adding sponsors to the bill, having to convince many Democrats to back it before he could even work on Republicans.

In the immigrant-heavy district, both Peralta and Ramos have also expressed support for abolishing ICE and allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Also figuring heavily into the race, as with many others, is the condition of the subway -- both Peralta and Ramos support congestion pricing. On housing, Peralta and Ramos are both in support of repealing vacancy decontrol, the vacancy bonus, and preferential rent.

Senate District 15 - Queens - Republicans
In the 15th Senate District in eastern Queens, two Republicans are battling to take on the task of defeating Democratic Senator Joe Addabbo. Tom Sullivan, a veteran and community board member, is backed by the Queens Republican Party and by City Council Member Eric Ulrich, who represents part of the area and is the only elected Republican legislator in Queens. Sullivan is opposed to the mayor’s plan to eliminate the SHSAT, and has criticized what he calls overdevelopment in the district.

He is facing Slawomir Platta, a lawyer whose campaign has centered around his opposition to the construction of homeless shelters in the community, particularly in Ozone Park. Platta formed the No Homeless Shelter Party in August after filing 4,000 signatures with the State Board of Elections.

Senate District 17 - Brooklyn - Democrats
In the wake of the IDC unity deal, Senator Simcha Felder is the only remaining Senator elected as a Democrat but caucusing with Republicans. Felder is being challenged by attorney Blake Morris, who has, like the IDC challengers, cast himself as the “real Democrat” in the race. Felder most recently has courted broader criticism for his central role in controversies surrounding yeshiva oversight and school speed cameras, but his main bloc of support, Orthodox Jews, is likely pleased with his legislative efforts.

Morris has received the endorsement of the New York Times and Daily News editorial boards, as well as a variety of progressive groups and unions, but it is unclear if he can topple Felder in such a heavily Orthodox district.

Senate District 18 - Brooklyn - Democrats
State Senator Martin Dilan, who has represented north Brooklyn in the State Senate for 15 years and for ten years in the City Council before that, is, other than Felder, the only non-IDC Democratic State Senator facing a serious challenge this year. Unlike Felder, Dilan never caucused with Republicans. However, the IDC’s erstwhile campaign committee gave $8,000 to Dilan, the only non-IDC Senator to receive such funds, and a recent report by Gothamist accused Dilan of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from real estate donors while voting for vacancy decontrol and presiding over widespread displacement and gentrification in North Brooklyn.

His opponent, Julia Salazar, is a democratic socialist who had a huge amount of momentum until massive press attention on her turned to uncovering controversies in her past, as well as several instances of her not telling the truth during her campaign.

While she has been surrounded by negative press over the past several weeks, her campaign had gained a large following and many endorsements based on her plans to push for stronger rent laws and combating the gentrification she says Dilan has facilitated, promising to end vacancy decontrol and preferential rent and expand rent stabilization. Dilan has expressed regret in the years since his vote for vacancy decontrol, saying he didn’t anticipate the gentrification of the neighborhood.

Salazar, however, has been caught telling misleading statements and outright lies about her background. These include emphasizing her Jewish heritage when she was raised Catholic, calling herself an immigrant when she was born and raised in Miami, claiming to have graduated from Columbia University when she did not, and painting herself as working class despite having grown up in relative affluence. Dilan has branded her as a gentrifier in the neighborhood herself.

Senate District 20 - Brooklyn - Democrats
In Central Brooklyn, former IDC member Senator Jesse Hamilton is being challenged by attorney Zellnor Myrie, a well-funded opponent who has received numerous endorsements from labor, progressive groups, and elected officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who used to represent part of the Senate district when he was in the City Council.

Hamilton portrayed Myrie in a debate on NY1 as a carpetbagger from the Bronx, and also criticized his former employment by City Council Member Fernando Cabrera, one of the most conservative members of the Council who has a history of anti-LGBT statements. Myrie responded by saying that he had only worked for Cabrera for one year, that Cabrera’s statements about LGBT people occurred after he worked for him, and that he had lived in the Bronx to attend Fordham Law School. Myrie says that during his time in the City Council, he helped write the Tenants’ Bill of Rights. Myrie has focused his campaign around the need for Democratic control of the Senate in order to combat the affordable housing crisis in the city.

Hamilton, who announced his intention to join the IDC a day before the 2016 general election, has been accused by Myrie of blocking reforms to criminal justice and housing through his alliance with the Republicans. Hamilton has countered by saying that his affiliation with the IDC brought much-needed investments into the underserved, majority-minority district. While Myrie has received a significant amount of support from elected officials, including the members of Congress who represent the area, Hamilton has continued support from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, whom Hamilton succeeded in the seat in 2014.

Senate District 22 - Brooklyn - Democrats
In south Brooklyn, Andrew Gounardes, an aide to Borough President Adams, is facing journalist Ross Barkan for the chance to challenge incumbent Senator Marty Golden, the only Republican Senator representing Brooklyn and one of only two in the entire city, along with Staten Island’s Andrew Lanza.

Gounardes’ and Barkan’s policy preferences largely overlap. Instead, Gounardes is distinguishing himself via political experience and connection to the district, while Barkan is touting his refusal to accept corporate contributions and independence from establishment Democrats. He’s also focused much of his campaign on outlining policy plans, with a focus on the MTA, including accessibility. Both are also making the race about replacing Golden, who has made inflammatory statements about immigrants, used campaign money at a catering hall his family owns, and has a history of reckless driving, including killing a woman with his car.

Senate District 23 - Staten Island and Brooklyn - Democrats
In District 23, which covers parts of south Brooklyn and Staten Island’s North Shore, former IDC Deputy Leader Diane Savino is being challenged by Jasi Robinson, an activist. The district is one of the more conservative ones represented by Democrats, and Robinson has raised little money compared to her fellow IDC challengers.

Robinson has said that, especially in the wake of Eric Garner’s death at the hands of NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, Savino failed to be a leader in the community for people of color. Like other IDC challengers, she has said that the IDC has blocked the passage of universal healthcare and the Reproductive Health Act, and plans to support those in Albany. Savino is known as a hard-working legislator with many partners in government who is also well-known and -liked in her district. Many of those supporting IDC challengers have stayed away from this race, likely expecting Savino to win easily.

Senate District 31 - Manhattan - Democrats
State Senator Marisol Alcantara, who represents northern Manhattan and parts of the West Side, is perhaps the most vulnerable IDC incumbent facing a challenge this year, having scraped by in a tight race in 2016 to replace now U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat, who had backed her then but has decided to stay neutral this year.

Alcantara is facing three challengers in the Democratic primary: former City Council Member Robert Jackson, who narrowly lost to Alcantara in 2016, Tirso Pina, and Thomas Leon. Jackson, a former City Council Member from the area, has been endorsed by many elected officials, including Mayor de Blasio, and progressive organizations, while labor unions and the local City Council Member, Ydanis Rodriguez, have stuck with Alcantara.

Both Alcantara and Jackson have expressed unease with the Inwood rezoning that passed the City Council earlier this summer, echoing community members worried that it could cause displacement and gentrification. Like other IDC challengers, Jackson has emphasized Alcantara’s membership with the IDC, saying that it hindered the ability to reform rent laws, codify Roe v Wade, and fully fund public schools. She has touted resources brought back to the district and bills she has passed, as well as the fact that she is currently the only Latina in the state Senate.

The 2016 saw Alcantara, Jackson, and Micah Lasher each earn about one third of the vote, with Alcantara winning by several hundred. This year, Lasher is behind Jackson and working to get him elected, as are a number of elected officials with sway in parts of the Senate district where Lasher did well two years ago.

Senate District 34 - Bronx and Westchester - Democrats
Senator Jeff Klein was the founder and leader of the IDC and, since its demise earlier this year, became deputy minority leader in the Senate under the “unity” deal orchestrated by Governor Cuomo, who pledged not to support any primary challenges to sitting senators, but has kept a lot of distance from Klein. Klein, however, has been sending mailers depicting himself with Cuomo and kind words about the senator from the governor. Cuomo, meanwhile, does not list Klein among those who have endorsed him on a very long list of officials and groups.

Klein is being challenged by Alessandra Biaggi, an attorney, formerly within the Cuomo administration, and the granddaughter of former Congressional Rep. Mario Biaggi. She has questioned Klein’s alliance with Republicans and an extensive agenda of progressive policies not passed given GOP control of the Senate. She has won the backing of a number of progressive groups and elected officials, like Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Comptroller Scott Stringer, and is getting a lot of help from the Working Families Party and 32BJ SEIU, the building workers’ union. She’s also been endorsed by likely future Congressional Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose district overlaps some with the one Biaggi wants to represent in the state Senate.

Klein’s campaign coffers are some of the most flush in the state, and for years he has been one of the vaunted “four men in a room” negotiating the state budget, but he appears to be taking the Biaggi challenge seriously. State campaign finance records show that Klein has spent over $1 million of campaign funds since July; his July disclosure form listed over $2 million in the bank, while his September disclosure listed $950,000.

Though Klein was in the room negotiating new sexual harassment policies for elected officials and others, he himself was accused of sexual misconduct by a former staffer in January, which helped kick off a push for hearings on sexual harassment in Albany. Klein has denied the allegation of forcibly kissing Erica Vladimer, and requested an investigation by the state’s ethics body, JCOPE. The status of that investigation is unclear.

Nevertheless, Klein has been endorsed by a long list of labor unions and a number of elected officials.

Biaggi’s platform includes legislation she claims Klein has helped stymie, such as the Reproductive Health Act, GENDA, the Climate and Community Protection Act, and rent law reforms. Klein maintains that his alliance with the GOP benefitted the district, including investments for seniors and domestic violence survivors, and that the “32nd vote” bolstering the GOP was not any member of the IDC, but Felder.

Senate District 38 - Westchester and Rockland - Democrats
State Senator David Carlucci, a former IDC member who represents Rockland County and part of Westchester, is facing a challenge from Julie Goldberg, a librarian and former teacher.

Talking with LoHud about the race, Carlucci said his highest priority issue for his constituents is lowering property taxes, while also noting his experience as a senator includes on-time budgets, holding to a 2 percent property tax cap, capping state spending, and expanding STAR (School Tax Relief Program). Goldberg’s highest priority is fully funding public schools in the district, which she said were owed $74 million from the state. She also listed “protections for women’s rights, safety for our immigrant communities, universal healthcare, election reform, and criminal justice reform” as other issues she prioritizes.

Carlucci told LoHud that his membership in the IDC brought significant progressive victories, including “marriage equality, the SAFE Act, 12 weeks paid family leave, $15 minimum wage plan, and raised the age of criminal responsibility.” Goldberg said that the IDC is a “complex, cynical machine whose purpose is to ensure its members’ re-election” and that significant progressive legislation was blocked from the floor by Republicans.

Senate District 53 - Upstate - Democrats
State Senator David Valesky, a former IDC member representing parts of Syracuse, Madison County, Oneida County, and Onondaga County, is facing a challenge from Syracuse University administrator Rachel May.

At a debate on WRVO public radio earlier this month, Goldberg said that Valesky’s membership in the IDC had hurt the district by preventing important legislation from coming to the floor. Like other IDC members defending their seats, Valesky claimed that the IDC had delivered significant legislative victories, and that the Republican majority was propped up by Felder, not IDC members. He said some of the legislation that failed in the Senate, such as the Dream Act, had failed despite the IDC’s support because it didn’t have enough votes.

May said that the district’s schools could be fully funded by a small increase of “.03, .04 percent” in the financial transactions tax, yielding “billions of dollars in revenue.” Valesky did not explicitly oppose raising taxes to fund education, but said that raising taxes in an already high-taxed state would drive people away from New York.

STATE ASSEMBLY
Assembly District 30 - Queens - Democrats

Assemblymember Brian Barnwell, who represents Maspeth, Middle Village, Sunnyside, and Woodside, is facing a challenge from Melissa Sklarz, who hopes to become the first transgender person elected to the state Legislature.

Sklarz has criticized Barnwell for voting against the Reproductive Health Act, and has made women’s rights a focal point of her campaign. Barnwell has protested the city’s placement of homeless shelters in the district, a stance which Sklarz, who was once homeless, has criticized while also calling for placing homeless people into permanent housing. Barnwell has only been in the Assembly a short time after having pulled off a shocking 2016 primary upset of Marge Markey.

Assembly District 39 - Queens - Democrats
Assemblymember Ari Espinal, who entered the Assembly in April after winning a special election to replace now-City Council Member Francisco Moya as his chosen successor, is facing a two-pronged challenge for the seat from Catalina Cruz, who was an aide to former City Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland and former Peralta staffer Yonel Letellier Sosa.

In the largely immigrant district, Espinal, who was born in the U.S., is being challenged by two immigrants, including one, Cruz, who is herself a “Dreamer.” Espinal supports abolishing ICE, while Cruz has called the idea “beautiful” but unrealistic. Both candidates have called for passing the Dream Act and for allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Other issues figuring into the Assembly race include education and transit. On the controversial 82nd Street rezoning, all candidates have expressed opposition.

Espinal has the backing of the Queens County Democratic Party, but Cruz, who has received a good deal of support from elected officials and groups, hopes that the Ocasio-Cortez victory signals that the machine’s support is not as meaningful as it once was.

Assembly District 62 - Staten Island - Republicans
Staten Island Assemblymember Ron Castorina announced he would retire from the Assembly for a seat on Surrogate’s Court. Three Republicans are vying in the primary to replace him: Staten Island Community Education Council President Michael Reilly, attorney Glenn Yost, and public health advocate Ashley Zanatta.

Reilly is backed by City Council Member Joe Borelli, a prominent Trump surrogate who represents the South Shore in the Council and previously held the Assembly seat, which could propel him in a borough where 56 percent of voters picked Trump in 2016, most heavily on the South Shore. Meanwhile, Yost is backed by State Senator Andrew Lanza, who represents the southern part of the island in the Senate, and by Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis, the former Republican nominee for mayor who represents the eastern shore and part of southern Brooklyn.

Like many Republicans in the heavily Democratic city, both Reilly and Yost have made lowering property taxes a major campaign issue, as Staten Island is the borough with the highest homeownership rate by far, at nearly 70 percent according to the Furman Center. All three candidates have also cited the need to control the deer population, and to better address the opioid epidemic that has hit the South Shore harder than most other places in the city.

Assembly District 68 - Brooklyn - Democrats
There's an open Assembly seat race in southern Brooklyn after Democratic Assemblymember Pam Harris resigned amid corruption charges. Mathylde Frontus and Ethan Lustig-Elgrably are the two Democrats seeking to replace Harris, and they are engaged in what has been an intense primary. Lustig-Elgraby, recently an aide to City Council Member Mark Treyger, has the backing of a number of elected officials.

Assembly District 84 - the Bronx - Democrats
Amanda Septimo, a former aide to Congressional Rep. Jose Serrano, is challenging Assemblymember Carmen E. Arroyo, who has been in offie since 1994, when she was , according to her website, "the first and only Puerto Rican/Hispanic woman elected to the NYS Assembly...[and] first Puerto Rican woman elected to any State Assembly in the US." Septimo is arguing that it is time for new leadership and is focusing her campaign on issues such as affordable housing and youth programs.

***
by Ben Brachfeld, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

Ben Max contributed to this article.

The Week Ahead in New York Politics, September 10


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

Thursday is primary day! After a few more days of intense campaigning, by the end of the night on Thursday, we should know the victors in the primaries -- almost all of them in the Democratic Party -- for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, many state legislative seats, and more.

The most closely watched races are the statewide primaries between Governor Andrew Cuomo and Cynthia Nixon and between Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and City Council Member Jumaane Williams; the Attorney General primary among Public Advocate Letitia James, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, Professor Zephyr Teachout, and Leecia Eve, a Verizon lobbyist and former aide to several major Democratic officials, including Cuomo. Also, about a dozen Democratic state Senate primaries, including the eight involving former members of the Independent Democratic Conference, six of which include districts covering parts of New York City.

The week starts after an eventful weekend of campaigning and controversy. While candidates and their supporters were rallying and canvassing and announcing endorsements and tweeting and texting and more, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he will not make endorsements in either of the primaries for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. A de Blasio spokesperson told Gotham Gazette the mayor has not decided yet whether he will endorse in the Attorney General primary; wherein his wife, Chirlane McCray is backing Teachout, though both de Blasio and McCray have a long relationship with James.

More controversial than de Blasio’s announcement, though, was news of a mailing made by the State Democratic Party targeting Nixon as anti-Semitic, which Cuomo and the state party’s executive director, Andrew Berman, both denounced after it became public on Saturday. A Cuomo spokesperson said the governor knew nothing about it and Berman said likewise about himself, and that he was going to hold the responsible parties to account. Both declarations appeared confusing to those familiar with how the state party and election season mailers work, including that Cuomo has moved millions of dollars from his campaign account to the state party’s, and is the de facto leader of the party apparatus.

Also this weekend, the Cuomo administration had to explain the fact that the governor had held a celebratory ribbon-cutting for a new span of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (which replaces the Tappan Zee), including Hillary Clinton, only to have the portion of the bridge not opened due to safety precautions emanating from the old bridge, which is being demolished. Cuomo held the celebration on Friday, just six days before the primary, and questions arose as to whether he had rushed the event to take advantage of good pre-primary press.

While the focus of the week will largely be the primaries, the week starts with the Rosh Hashanah holiday and the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

There are several governmental and other events to be aware of this week -- see the day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
Monday is Rosh Hashanah. There will be campaigning, but no public government events.

At 10:30 a.m. Monday, Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max and City Limits editor Jarrett Murphy will appear on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC radio, at 93.9FM or wnyc.org.

Mayor Bill de Blasio will be on the campaign trail for one of the three state Senate candidates he has endorsed, Jessica Ramos, in Queens, and he will make his usual weekly appearance on NY1's Inside City Hall in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.

Tuesday
Tuesday is the 17th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. There will be remembrances across the city. One of this will be at 6:30 p.m., when Staten Island Borough President James Oddo will preside over an annual memorial ceremony for victims of the 9/11 attacks at the Postcards memorial.

Wednesday
The City Council will hold a stated meeting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. It will be preceded by a press conference hosted by Speaker Corey Johnson.

Also at the City Council on Wednesday: the Committee on Transportation will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss proposed laws laws related to the L train shutdown, including “designating community information centers in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn” for the duration of the shutdown, “establishing an ombudsperson within the department of transportation,” and to discuss a resolution “calling upon the Governor and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to commit to an expeditious transition to an electric bus fleet and to use electric buses as a robust part of its replacement service during the upcoming L train shutdown.”

At 8 a.m. Wednesday, the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District (BID) and Baruch College will host their annual Small Business Assistance Forum at Baruch College’s William and Anita Newman Conference Center. The event will include a discussion on issues important to small businesses in New York City featuring Rachel Van Tosh, Deputy Commissioner for Business Services at the New York City Department of Small Business Services, and Carlina Rivera, City Council Member for the 2nd Council District, which includes a portion of Flatiron. That conversation will be moderated by Gotham Gazette Executive Editor Ben Max.

At 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics will hold a commission meeting at 540 Broadway in Albany.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, the latest episode of Max & Murphy will be on WBAI radio, 99.5FM or wbai.org. The show will be a preview of Thursday’s primary elections.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the City Council’s Charter Revision Commission will hold its first public hearing, at Lehman College’s Lovinger Theatre. The hearing kicks off a series of events across the five boroughs over the next few weeks.

Thursday
Thursday is primary day in New York for state races, including Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, State Legislature, Judgeships, and other races. Polls in New York City and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, and Erie will open at 6 a.m., and polls in all other locations statewide will open at noon. All polls statewide will close at 9 p.m. Check your registration status; preview your ballot; and check your polling place.

Friday and the weekend
At 8 a.m. Friday, the Association for a Better New York will host Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza for a “Power Breakfast” at the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown. Carranza will “present his vision and priorities for the New York City Department of Education and New York City public schools.”

At 8:30 a.m. Friday, the Murphy Institute of Labor will host “Is a Democratic Capitalism Possible?” discussing the erosion of democracy as a result of wealth concentration, and steps to “bolster our democracy and create a more equitable society.” Speakers will include Deputy Mayor J. Phillip Thompson; Maurice Weeks, Co-Executive Director of the Action Center on Race & The Economy; and NYU professor Kim Phillips Fein. CUNY professor Frances Fox Piven will moderate.

At 9 a.m. Friday, the New York City Board of Correction will hold a public meeting at 125 Worth Street.

Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday at 10 a.m.

***

Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette



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