JUST TELL ME HOW TO VOTE

Everyone in New York is up in arms. The state legislature is recognized as one of the least competent and most corrupt in the nation! Polls in our daily newspapers state that voters want to vote the bums out in 2010, and bring in new blood that won't be beholden to unions, lobbyists, or just individual greed for power and money. So reformers like me must be truly happy that in just one year the party hacks will be sent packing, and New York State will start anew. Bunk! It's never going to happen.

My friend and co-blogger Jonathan Fluck is working on a campaign for the New York City Council. Jonathan is a Green Party activist, and his candidate (who I have never met) seems very well qualified on paper, and, thankfully, is NOT a Democrat. Jonathan is very excited about this campaign and insists that his candidate will reach out to the defeated candidates in the Democratic primary (barely two weeks away), and thus have a shot at winning the seat. Sadly, my good friend is dreaming. New York voters are amazingly parochial, and even in the trendier sections of Brooklyn (where this campaign is taking place), most voters pull the Democratic leaver no matter how good a game they talk about governmental reform. If I were to make a prediction right now, I would say that Jonathan's candidate will be lucky to reach then ten percent mark when the votes are tallied in November.

Take what's going on in my less-than-trendy party of Queens. My incumbent councilwoman is running for New York City Comptroller, leaving her seat up for grabs. (In truth, I considered running for the Republican nomination, but then decided that sleeping late and rewriting a novel would be a better use of my summer vacation.) At least six Democratic hopefuls have made it to the primary ballot, including a former Councilmember from the 1990s, and a former Assemblymember from the early 2000s. What is common to most of the candidates is that they say little about issues of the day save for wanting safer streets and better schools (who doesn't?); instead they trumpet their various endorsements from unions and community groups. Why? Because New York voters need to be told who to vote for in important elections such as Democratic primaries. The endorsements range from the mildly sensible to the ridiculous, with candidates listing endorsements from groups such as the Steamfitters union and the Laborers union. Now, my area is not Sutton Place, but I doubt that there are many steamfitters and laborers calling Forest Hills and its adjacent neighborhoods home. The endorsements are there simply to convince primary voters who is the best Democrat; who is the Democrat worthy of your vote. You, the voter, do not need to look into where the candidate stands on any issue, or what educational background or employment record the candidate has. If the Steamfitters union says he/she is okay, that's all you need. And, sadly, it often is. That is why the New York City Council is a joke, and the New York State Senate and Assembly are embarrassments. Voters are few, and the ones who show up often vote for the candidates they are told to vote for.

What New York needs is an independent party with a centrist ideology that will not cross endorse candidates of the major parties. The Conservative Party is an occassional thorn in the side of the Republicans, but said party does not exist in many areas of the city. The Working Families party is hard left (do we need another hard left group in his city?), but is really a scam party that cross endorses Democrats whenever possible. My friend Jonathan supports the Greens, and I salute him for it. But in most neighborhoods the Greens would probably seem too elite and effete. Still, I am with him in this Brooklyn race. Unfortunately, in New York labels matter more than nearly anything else. And without that Democratic imprimature (and the requite union endorsements), his candidate does not stand a chance. This is a pity, because anyone who is not running as a Democrat, and is not endorsed by the major unions probably deserves to be elected. He couldn't make the Council any worse than it is.

John Attanas