|
Jesus, mooseontheloose, you're still doing this? You either have the patience of a saint or you have an unhealthily high tolerance for pain and bullshit. The last campaign I worked for was almost a year ago and now I'm at an office job. Campaign jobs can be fun, but the magic wears off after a while. However, I did do some GOTV phonebanking for the winner of a special election for the New York State Assembly earlier in May. I couldn't vote in it on account of living less than two blocks north of where the district begins, so I decided to do that after work instead. It was a very strange election from the start- the Democratic machine candidate had a snafu at the Board of Elections and didn't make it on the ballot, so the Democratic line was vacant for the election. The three Democrats that clamored for the seat (there was a Republican candidate, but his base of support is solely the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Lubavitchers, who are headquartered in a small part of the district, so he had no shot) ended up being on different party lines, and all three of them ran on one issue- tenants' rights. As this article explains (please excuse the horrible first paragraph- the NY Times put this in the Sunday Metro section and their audience is mostly the kind of people who can relate to sending their West Indian nanny home after a long day's work), Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens stand to lose a lot if New York state rent regulation laws aren't renewed this year, as they must be every three years, because it has a high concentration of rent regulated buildings compared to the rest of New York City. The Democrat who was closest to the Brooklyn machine, Shirley Patterson (who ran on the Independence Party line), talked the talk, but she got money from a developer who owns some buildings in the district, so it was pretty clear she wasn't going to walk the walk if she won- not to mention that I hardly saw any signs for her in the district until a week before the special election. Geoffrey Davis ran on the "Love Yourself Party" line (your guess is as good as mine as to why it's named that), and while he was more visible on campaign literature, he ended up placing dead last with less than 5% of the vote. The winning candidate was Diana Richardson, who ran on the Working Families Party line. She took no money from developers, and when she spoke at a meeting of the Crown Heights Tenants Union, she gave the entire room her personal cell phone number, which is both incredibly courageous and kinda stupid. Also, she might be younger than some of the campaign veterans that have posted in previous iterations of this thread. The message is clear- the tide may be finally turning against the real estate lobby. Of course, this is just one district, and if the rent regulations are renewed (they probably will be), a lot can happen in the three years before they need to be renewed again. But I have hope. get that OUT of my face fucked around with this message at 05:32 on May 19, 2015 |
#
¿
May 19, 2015 05:30
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 12:59 |
|
|
Mooseontheloose posted:New York (like any place) seems like it is a tough place to be, especially if you are anti-development/anti-real estate. It's not even halfway through the first year of Cuomo's second term and already people are clamoring for Bharara, state AG Eric Schneiderman, and state comptroller Tom DiNapoli to run for governor in 2018. If this leftward momentum continues into the 2016 elections, Cuomo and his more-GOP-than-Democratic agenda will be on the ropes. But a lot can happen in a year and a half. I highly doubt Bill de Blasio will run, partially because he's running for re-election as NYC mayor in 2017, partially because he's an oblivious idiot in spite of the fact that he's enacted some good things (universal pre-K, five paid sick days for practically everyone who works in NYC, practically no business can run a credit check on you for employment), demagoguery towards protesters notwithstanding. get that OUT of my face fucked around with this message at 00:57 on May 20, 2015 |
|
#
¿
May 20, 2015 00:54
|
|
|
Y-Hat posted:I'd like to think that New York's going through a seismic shift right now, but as a dyed-in-the-wool pessimist I can't be too sure. I saw a couple of job postings for a recently-elected state senator's office south of my current district who's an OK guy, but I refuse to work for anyone in Albany because it's such a clusterfuck. Also, the dad of my ex-girlfriend's best friend works for him, and I really don't want to be pulled back into the crazy world they occupy. get that OUT of my face fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Jun 17, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Jun 17, 2015 02:18
|
|
|
Special primary election in northeast Queens Thursday! Why Thursday? I'm not sure! Supposedly it's because of Rosh Hashanah but that starts on Sunday. Whatever, I'm not the kind of Jew who celebrates it. I'd help out with it but I'm already busy doing not-campaign things for my job, and even if I wanted to, there isn't a single subway stop in that neighborhood. Even though white people have always represented this particular part of Queens on the city level and in both houses of the state legislature, it's incredibly diverse. White people make up over 30%, Hispanics and black people make up around 15% each, and Asians (both South and East) make up another 30%+. So naturally two of the major candidates are white, including the establishment Democrat-backed Barry Grodenchik (a former Assemblyman) and the labor- and Daily News-backed Rebecca Lynch (who worked for the city's Community Affairs department). The only non-white candidate who has a chance is Ali Najmi, an attorney and civic activist who's aiming to be the first South Asian elected official in city government. He has the NY Times' blessing. The state senator who represents the district, true to his bizarre nature, endorsed a nobody businessman who's also Sikh, but he's got no chance. It'll be an interesting fight. There's a not insignificant Republican presence in the district, but the GOP doesn't win City Council elections outside of Staten Island (in fact, there's a second vacant seat in the southern district of that borough, but gently caress Staten Island).
|
|
#
¿
Sep 9, 2015 05:00
|
|
|
Dr. Arbitrary posted:Anyone experienced with both NGP VAN and Nationbuilder. I've been asked to consider both and it just seems like NGP VAN is way more expensive. I assume that's because it's not really an apples to apples comparison. If you must choose only one, use Nationbuilder, end of story. I've been on a couple of campaigns that have used both, but after this clusterfuck, NGP VAN is going to lose a hell of a lot of luster, and I'm sure campaigns across America will take notice. get that OUT of my face fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Dec 19, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Dec 19, 2015 07:52
|
|