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The Price of Defying the Voters: Term Limits
Bloomberg and his Trained Surrender Monkeys on the City Council overturned the will of the voters when they overturned term limits. And this was a widely unpopular move. Poll after polls showed dissatisfaction. Many talked of a backlash from the voters. What was this backlash? In the end, 24/29 City Council members who voted for the Bloomberg Putsch against the will of the voters won re-election, many overwhelmingly, some unopposed. Add to that Bloomberg's win and you have 25/30 of the people who overturned the decision of millions of New York voters handily won re-election. Really shows you the strength of NYC voters. You can do anything to them and they don't do anything back. Which empowers Bloomberg and his allies, empowers the local party machines and developers (the number one source of political contributions in the city). These are the power brokers: Bloomberg, the machines and developer money.
There were 5 exceptions. Six of Bloomberg's trained surrender monkeys from the City Council lost. Maria Baez lost to Fernando Cabrera. Alan Gerson lost to Margaret Chin. Miguel Martinez had to resign due to a slush fund scandal (one of the few caught in one of these scandals who actually had to resign), and Ydanis Radriguez replaced him. Kendall Stewart lost to Jumanne Williams. And David Yassky (running for Comptroller) lost twice to John Liu (who voted against the Bloomberg Putsch).
So if this is the bite voters have when 30 people overturn their will in NYC, I have to say NYC voters are in serious need of dentures.
Re: The Price of Defying the Voters: Term Limits
Candidate Party Votes Pct.
Winner: Domenic Recchia Jr.Domenic Recchia Jr. Dem. 10,125 87.5% Incumbent
Jennifer Adornato Con. 1,086 9.4
Elon Harpaz W.F. 359 3.1
These are the results of MY District (47th). As you can see, Recchia got 87.5% of the vote. He sent out 2 or 3 mailings during the campaign and I didn't see anything from the W.F.P. Candidate let alone the Republican (none of them even posted any signs in the store windows). Recchia, who has destroyed Coney Island with his friend Joseph Sitt (let alone the help he's gotten from Bloomberg), was the highest earner from his "outside" income and who was crying how he needed this job, got re-elected. I know someone (not Todd)who if term limits had not been overturned would have ran for this seat. I was talking to him and he said that this was supposed to be his year but the overturning of term limits killed that. The major reason, Bloomberg would have poured funds into Recchia's campaign to assure his win.
I'm not okay with that but where was the Republican and WFP with their candidates? Why no mailings, flyers, postings in store windows or even a debate? If these parties don't do a GOTV for their candidates then why have them run? Maybe it's just to have a name on their line. I was going to write in my own name as a protest but instead I voted for Elon Harpaz the WFP candidate.
We have to blame ourselves for not supporting candidates that could have won against the Bloomberg Machine. We have to make sure that candidates are not afraid of running against machines and that we give them our full support.
Re: The Price of Defying the Voters: Term Limits
Mole, and yet you supported one such candidate in the 34th counsel district. Your constant inconsistency on issues is the main reason why your blog has almost no credibility left; although it does make for some amusing reading.