Voting Recap

I'm going to point out a few Council races where you do have a choice and hope you consider helping our government balance out between the two parties. For candidate information in the 2005 General Election, please view The Contest List for candidates.

Manhattan
District Two has John Carlino (R,I), Rosie Mendez (D,WF), and Claudia Flanagan (LP). All candidates can claim they can work well with Bloomberg. Rosie is the only one saying she can work with Ferrer. From here on, though, I'll assume Bloomberg is winning, so let's not talk nonsense. John is open to expanding charter schools and a voucher program. I believe if he ran a fully funded campaign, education would've been his No. 1 issue. D2 is all about schools and housing. Claudia was undemocratically knocked off the democratic primary ballot by CoDA, a Dem Club started by Rosie (She claims to have not been involved in CoDA petition challenges). As a Libertarian, she won't win, but she could take protest votes (who are aware of the ballot challenge) away from Rosie. Since no one has really heard of John or Claudia, all Rosie needs to do is run on who has endorsed her and not issues.

District Four has Patrick Murphy (R,I), Dan Garodnick (D,WF), and Jak Jacob Karako (LP). Another district with a Libertarian who won't do much. The real race is Patrick and Dan. The voter ratio between Dem and Rep is the narrowest of all ten Manhattan council districts. Patrick would bring real effective legislating to the council with Bloomberg. Dan would give us another Dem who whines and complains and fights the mayor any chance he gets. I would like to believe residents want to see solutions and will vote for Pat.

District Five has Joel Zinberg (R,I) and Jessica Lappin (D,WF). Joel is not a politician and watching the NY1 debate proved it. I thought he was more polished, but public speaking isn't legislating. Joel wants to save tax payers money by going after medicare fraud. Jessica is a seasoned insider working for Gifford Miller and believing money grows on trees in Albany and Washington D.C. It worries me when a politician wants money for this program and that program without questioning whether government should play a part or the market. Joel has the backing from the mayor.

District Six has Josh Yablon (R) and Gale Brewer (D,WF). If you want tax cuts, cheaper housing, competitive education and government reform, you want Josh. Josh has the experience and drive to bring real republicanism to city government. Gale believes high schoolers and non-citizens should be allowed to vote.

District Nine has Will Brown (R), Inez Dickens (D), Daryl Bloodsaw (I), Woody Henderson (WV) are mixing it up in Harlem. This race would be an exciting one if money was being poured into Brown, Bloodsaw & Henderson's campaigns. When you have a field of four, you can really split votes, but it's likely Dickens, with the support of Mr. Charles Rangel, will easily win. I'm not familiar with Brown's campaign effectiveness, but his year's of experience in the community would be a real asset with a second Bloomberg administration.

...to be continued...