Just 48 hours after a tense Election Day, it's becoming clear that New York Democrats bungled both their chances of keeping the U.S. House of Representatives, and their own supermajorities in the state legislature.
Democrat Max Rose would have won his challenge against Republican Nicole Malliotakis in Staten Island and South Brooklyn, had state Democrats not fucked up the chances to implement the redistricting maps they drew. Instead, they got greedy and their maps were vulnerable to a lawsuit funded by a Long Island billionaire who didn't want an offshore wind farm near his property. ("I just keep thinking of the old adage: Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered," a Democratic strategist told Politico. "There was a way to draw those lines to make more Democratic seats and withstand a legal challenge. By overshooting, we're now going to lose two or three more seats than we need to.")
Also don't forget: The conservative judges who were sympathetic to the arguments advanced by the Republican-backed lawsuit were appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. (The former governor's spokesperson noted yesterday that the judges were also approved by the state legislature, so that it's not entirely Cuomo's fault. In our opinion, this merely lends more credence to the headline of this link roundup.)
The state Democratic party, led by Jay Jacobs, and the Brooklyn Democratic party, led by Flatbush Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, were the target of scorn for many in that borough for seemingly doing nothing on the ground to boost Governor Kathy Hochul's campaign, or the campaigns of struggling Democratic state lawmakers who appear likely to lose to Republicans once the final vote is tallied.
"The state Democratic Party failed the governor, let's put it that way, and failed Democrats in New York," Rep. Nydia Velázquez told the CITY.
"We were literally left to die on a vine here. And it's deeply frustrating that our party didn't even put up a fight," State Senator Andrew Gounardes added.
The cartoonishly inept Brooklyn Democratic Party held a fundraiser on November 1 but didn't use any of the money it raised towards the election.
"Under current leadership, the county party has had seemingly limitless time, energy and resources to commit fraud, appoint a deceased activist to a party role, bungle basic administrative meetings, attempt to stamp out BYD—its own youth arm—and aggressively crush commonsense reforms intended to increase participation and transparency," the Brooklyn Young Democrats said in an emailed statement. "Yet when it comes to supporting Democratic candidates running against right-wing election deniers and conspiracy theorists, the party has nothing to offer."
Bichotte Hermelyn responded in her own statement, writing, "There were parts of south Brooklyn where the headwinds appear to have been too great, but all that means is we go to work to return those seats to the Democratic column in 2024."
Jacobs, whose name was greeted with a retching noise on Tuesday night at Governor Hochul's victory party, continues to deny that anything is amiss. He told City & State that this is all the fault of progressives.
"New York did underperform, but so did California,” Jacobs said. "What do those two states have in common? Well, governmentally, we’re among the two most progressive states in the country."
Don't look for anything to change soon: All of the Democrats and all of the lobbyists are in Puerto Rico getting drunk for the next few days.
More links for your Thursday:
—Kyrie Irving met with the NBA commissioner to talk about getting deprogrammed from antisemitism but the Nets just beat the Knicks by nearly 30 points without him soooooo.
—"Trumpism became entangled in the Jewish camp," Rabbi Aaron Teitlebaum, the grand rebbe of one the Satmar Hasidic sects, said in a speech Wednesday. "This Trumpism twisted the minds of so many yiden. It brainwashed people—and that's so painful."
—New York has raked in $740 million from online gambling so far. Seems fine!
—Incarcerated New Yorkers are going to lose access to free tablets, because some people somewhere need to make money.
—Kingston's rent guidelines board voted for a 15 percent rent DECREASE for some properties.
—Oh so now the Murdochs don't want Trump around anymore?
—Speaking of that sterling media empire, apparently, the Post offered two crime victims the opportunity to be on the front page if they just said they were Democrats voting for Zeldin. Journalism!
—The MTA is misspelling the name of its own rail road in Grand Central.
And finally: We are GOING to Car World.
