Craig Johnson

We did it people! Craig Johnson WINS!!

STATE SENATOR-7TH SD-UNEXPIRED TERM
264 EDS COUNTED 264 EDS IN RACE
CANDIDATE NAME PARTY RESULTS CANDIDATE TOTAL

CRAIG M JOHNSON D 24,915
CRAIG M JOHNSON W 1,537
26,452

MAUREEN C O'CONNELL R 18,988
MAUREEN C O'CONNELL I 1,689
MAUREEN C O'CONNELL C 2,252
22,929

[Note: This is an abridged version of an earlier post.]

A little known fact : even though New York has had its fair share of Democratic governors, its state government has been in the clutches of the Republicans for 150 years. The only two times the state government was all blue were in 1932 and 1964. Teddy Roosevelt said once that 'the state Senate is constitutionally Republican'; it's not, but it's been reliably Republican since that party was founded in the 1850s.

It's probably the main reason so many groups have come together to support Craig Johnson.

Another little known detail about the Albany political machine : Incumbency has become the product of anti-democratic redistricting shenanigans.

It is outrageous that NYC, the single
largest demographic in the state, does not have proportional representation in Albany. This is because for years Republicans have been able to pass legislation that favors their districts.

Only in New York would you have majority white and Republican districts inflate their demographics by counting their prison population. This is what The New York Times has to say about the practice [Ending the Prison Windfall — New York Times editorial | Prisoners of the Census]:

If you are a Nassau County (NY) blogger or reader or know of anybody who lives there, make sure you get out the vote by 9 pm tonight.

Keep up with what's happening online and off at The Daily Gotham. We have information on phone banking. If you want to drop by their campaign office, give them a call at 516-393-0700.

Just to underscore the importance of this race, we have word that this special election has broken all records in New York, costing a whopping $5,000,000.

It has also prompted The Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause/NY, DEMOS, League of Women Voters/NYS, NYPIRG to create a task force, hotline and blog to monitor voter suppression in the county. Yes, because even though this is a majority white county, the 20% of minority voters in the district could decide the election.

So hop over to The Daily Gotham to keep up on all what's happening.

Where are we going to be offline?

Prey NYC
Feb 1 2007
6pm
4 West 22nd Street
http://preynyc.com

How about online?
Check out our new chatrooms at the culturekitchen CAFE. I am going to open them at 7pm.

All you have to do to register is to use your ID at either culturekitchen or The Daily Gotham or any other Drupal site, the name of the site and your password. So you would sign-in like this :

username : your_user_name@culturekitchen.com
password : your_password_at_culturekitchen.com

And so on for all the other sites.

For those who find this too cumbersome, just hop over to The Daily Gotham. Michael and I will be liveblogging over there as well.

Any questions?
Hollaback.

We're gonna rock the house anyway you want it.

Liza blogged about it this morning, but I thought I'd weigh in on the race that's presently consuming all of us.

As Liza lays out, there are several reasons to be interested in what at first glance appears to be simply a by-election of little relevance beyond the borders of one district. However, the circumstances surrounding this election are far-reaching.

New York State has a bicameral legislature, the lower House of which is held by Democrats, the upper, the state Senate, by republicans. They have held this body largely without challenge or interruption (there were two, in the last century, in 1932 and 1964 respectively) for one hundred and fifty years. In the 2006 election, for the first time in memory, Democrats won the popular vote for the Senate; it is ripe for a takeover.

This special election is for a seat in the state Senate. A few weeks ago, Governor Sptzer tapped a republican Senator, Michael Balboni, for a seat in his cabinet. To replace him, the other side nominated one Maureen O'Connell, presently the Nassau County Clerk and formerly a member of the State Assembly.

It's her record that puts choice on this ballot.

A little known fact : even though New York has had its fair share of Democratic governors, its state government has been in the clutches of the Republicans for 150 years. The only two times the state government was all blue were in 1932 and 1964. Teddy Roosevelt said once that 'the state Senate is constitutionally Republican'; it's not, but it's been reliably Republican since that party was founded in the 1850s.

It's probably the main reason so many groups have come together to fundraise on Thursday, February 1st, for Craig Johnson.

Organizations like NARAL, PFAW, the Human Rights Campaign, Democracy for NYC, the Council for Urban Professionals and others are working together for this event. It's the first time though, that the local blogosphere is an active participant in an election of this kind. The Albany Project, On NY Turf, Rochester Turning, Swing State Project, our labor of love The Daily Gotham and others are stepping in from the outside to help anchor an event like this. Which, may I add, is in and of itself unprecedented.

Another little known detail about the Albany political machine : Incumbency has become the product of anti-democratic redistricting shenanigans.