Early voting and voting by mail are options that we support, but most people are still heading to the polls on the big day and in New York that’s today, so we encourage registered Democrats to make their choices known.
Here are our primary choices:
In Westchester and the Bronx, Democrats should vote for George Latimer over Jamaal Bowman for Congress, as we suspect most will do. As Westchester county executive, and before that, a state senator and assemblyman, Latimer is a solid performer. He has made the convincing case that Bowman’s four years in the House have not been productive.
Bowman aligned himself with the most left-wing members of the chamber in the Squad and that’s not a good fit for this suburban district. Bowman also made himself into a fierce critic of Israel, accusing the Jewish state of committing genocide, putting himself at odds with many of his constituents, Jews and gentiles alike. Latimer will make a fine congressman.
There are open Assembly seats where we’ve also made endorsements.
On the Upper West Side, vote for Micah Lasher, who has served as top aide to a mayor, a state attorney general and a governor. A policy whiz, hopefully he’ll be able to push some smart ideas into law.
There are two contests in Queens, both of which we back the Democratic organization’s candidates. In East Elmhurst and Corona, please, please, please cast your ballot for Larinda Hooks, a leader of a local nonprofit social services. Her horrible opponent, a twice convicted criminal whose name we don’t want to print, must be kept from public office.
In Ridgewood and Sunnyside, vote for Johanna Carmona. We supported the former sex crimes prosecutor two years ago, but a creep named Juan Ardila won. He’s been a disgrace in office, having been credibly accused of sexual assault by two women.
In Brooklyn, there’s a Civil Court primary where Janice Robinson has shown that she is more fit than her rival Kenneth Gayle, who failed to follow the court rules for all judicial candidates. Vote for Robinson.
In the final contest, we strongly endorse Wendy Li for Queens Surrogate Court over the candidate backed by the Democratic machine which controls the millions of dollars in patronage from the estates of the borough’s dead. The machine has held this seat unchallenged since 1962 and Li will break that grasp.
The story starts with the 1942 GOP landslide that brought mob buster Tom Dewey into the governor’s mansion. He swept Queens and carried in Republican Anthony Savarese, a city magistrate, as surrogate. Savarese served 14 years and was reelected in 1956. He reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 1962 and the Democratic machine took over, as Borough President John Clancy won.
In 1971, at age 68, Clancy resigned one day after the deadline for filing primary petitions. Facing no election, the machine installed Louis Laurino. In 1991, three years after being censured for ethics violations, Laurino did the same thing as Clancy, resigning shortly after the deadline to file primary petitions. The machine then installed Robert Nahman.
Nahman served until 2010, when Peter Kelly was nominated by the machine and faced no opponent in the primary or the general election.
So today is the first real choice for surrogate since 1962. Smash the party’s death grip on the court and vote for Wendy Li.
