Democratic Party In Manhattan

Party politics is complicated and people throw terms around like state committeeman, district leader, party club, and county committee and almost no one knows what they all mean. Over the last week or so, I’ve been working to decode the tea leaves and come to grips with all the various layers of the Democratic Party here in the city and the state.

Districts
The start of the confusion is that there are many different “districts” that every voter belongs to. Lets go through the types of districts that are important to Democratic party structure from biggest to smallest, starting with the Assembly District. As a disclaimer, I am only sure of this structure in Manhattan. The state committee is the same everywhere, but district leader can mean different things in different Boroughs, and certainly the structure does not translate well to different parts of the state which can have assembly districts spanning multiple counties, town committees, etc.

State Assembly Districts
Each voter is in an assembly district, and each assembly district (shockingly!) elects a member of the state assembly, the New York State equivalent of the House of Representatives. There are 12 assembly districts that are within New York County (a.k.a. Manhattan), numbered from 64 to 75. After the 2000 Census, each assembly district contained about 126,510 people. Obviously that has changed over time, and the districts will be redrawn soon after the upcoming census. Every assembly district is represented in the New York State Democratic Committee (the state-level governing body of the Democratic Party) by two Democratic State Committee members: one male and one female.

Executive Districts (Assembly District “Parts”)
In certain counties within New York City, each assembly district is broken down into “parts.” In these counties, each assembly district can have between two and four parts. Unlike assembly districts, these parts need not be contiguous, but are always within the same assembly district. Each part is presented by two elected District Leaders: one male and one female.  District Leaders serve on the Executive Committee of their County Democratic Committee, and are more or less the NYC analog to Democratic chairmen of cities/towns/villages outside the five boroughs. Local Clubs, which often exist within one assembly district, can represent more than one Assembly District Part.

Election Districts
Election districts (sometimes called “EDs” by people who spend time on campaigns) are the smallest and most basic district type, and they are the building blocks out of which all the larger district types are constructed. The ED is made up of all the people who are assigned to vote on a particular voting machine (certain large EDs may have two voting machines, but you get the point). A typical ED has between 400 to 800 registered voters and never more than 1,000. Each ED can be directly represented on its County Democratic Committee by two (or sometimes up to four) county committee members.

Committees
We’re represented by various Democratic committees, that correspond to each of the districts above. Let’s go through them from biggest to smallest.

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Texas Board of Education Rewriting History

On Friday, the Texas Board of Education approved new social studies standards for their state. This might not sound all that important, but Texas is the second largest textbook buyer in the country, and since the largest market (California) has no money, it disproportionally affects what our nation’s students learn in their history classes.

After experts write proposed standards, the Board can amend them by majority vote. Seven of the 14 members make up a seriously conservative bloc and they have passed more than 160 amendments to the standards. The NY Times Magazine wrote a story on the board last month, and noted that one of the prominent conservative members

moved that Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer, be included because she “and her followers promoted eugenics,” that language be inserted about Ronald Reagan’s “leadership in restoring national confidence” following Jimmy Carter’s presidency and that students be instructed to “describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.

Most of the amendments passed. Sad to think that for many students across the country, history is being shaped and rewritten by a bloc of members on the Texas Board of Education.

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Speaker Quinn, Councilwoman Dickens To Be Honored At 3/24 MYD Event

As you can see from the banner above, we’re throwing an exciting event on Wednesday, March 24th from 7pm-10pm at ultra-luxurious nightclub NIKKI Beach Midtown. MYD will be honoring individuals and groups who have made significant contributions to closing the gender gap. We expect a strong showing of like-minded Democrats as well as a myriad of elected officials in attendance. Drink specials all night, and music by the legendary DJO.

We are happy to announce the addition of the Honorable Christine Quinn, New York City Council Speaker, and Councilwoman Inez E. Dickens to our list of honorees. It is going to be a great night, with more guests to be announced, so you should come out. We’re also happy to announce that the New York Women’s Foundation’s Committee For the Future will be an honoree.

Our other organizational honorees are the Service Women’s Action Network, the White House Project, and Planned Parenthood’s Political Action Group.

You can join our facebook event here.

To join the host committee, please contact MYD Finance Director Alex Leopold: finance [at] gomyd [dot] com

The ticket pricing will be:
$20 for MYD membership and free admission
$5 for MYD members
$15 for non-members

You can purchase tickets securely online via ActBlue.

Rahm: The Man, The Myth, The Failure?

There has been a lot of talk recently about Obama’s inner circle and its effectiveness. Particularly in the news recently has been Rahm Emanuel. The discussions began months ago, but I’d begin with Dana Milbank’s column, where he argued that the problem in the White House isn’t Rahm, but that the President doesn’t listen to him. He begins by pointing to other articles that serve as a good preface to this discussion:

It is the current fashion to blame President Obama’s disappointing first year on his chief of staff. “First, remove Rahm Emanuel,” writes Leslie Gelb in the Daily Beast, because he lacks “the management skills and discipline to run the White House.”

The Financial Times’s Ed Luce reports that the “famously irascible” Emanuel has “alienated many of Mr. Obama’s closest outside supporters,” while the New America Foundation’s Steve Clemons lumps Emanuel in with the “Core Chicago Team Sinking Obama Presidency.”

They join liberal interests who despised Emanuel long before he branded them “retarded.” Jane Hamsher of firedoglake.com, together with conservative activist Grover Norquist, demanded a Justice Department investigation into Emanuel, who is “far too compromised to serve as gatekeeper to the president.”

His argument in the end is, however, that

“Obama’s first year fell apart in large part because he didn’t follow his chief of staff’s advice on crucial matters. Arguably, Emanuel is the only person keeping Obama from becoming Jimmy Carter.”

This was followed up by a new story from the Washington Post by Jason Horowitz, which had as its thrust that Rahm is doing an alright job. Then David Broder, the so-called dean of the Washington press corps, attacked his own paper’s reporting and Dana, which is surprising, as you wouldn’t expect “the Post’s marquee political writer of the past 40 years [to] beat up on the Post.”

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Sexy Charter Changes Coming

I have been challenged to make the Charter Revision Commission announced Thursday sexy. I am not sure I’ll reach that bar, but I am going to try to make it interesting.

What is the City Charter? Think of it as the constitution of the city. It is the document that decides how the city works–everything from the existence of a City Council to what The Long Term Planning and Sustainability Office should be doing.

It is quite long, with 356 pages and 74 sections. You can read it here, if you’d like.

Two years ago, the Mayor promised that he would appoint a Commission to look at city government holistically, from his 2008 State of the City:

Modernizing City government also requires a comprehensive look at its structure and operations, something that hasn’t happened since Mayor Koch appointed a Charter Revision Commission 20 years ago. Since then, a lot has changed, and we’ve come to see redundancies, antiquated regulations, and areas for cost-savings. It’s time to apply those lessons in order to make government more open, accountable, and efficient – not just this year, but permanently. Today, I am pleased to announce that we will appoint a new Charter Revision Commission that will conduct a top-to-bottom review of City government over the next 18 months.

He had not done much to follow up with that claim. Last year, during the fight over whether terms limits should be extended from two to three terms, the Mayor promised a seat on the commission to billionaire Ronald Lauder, a strong proponent of term limits. Other than that, there isn’t been much movement on it. In the end the commission exists, although Lauder opted out–he prefers to prod from the outside than to handle the difficult work of work.

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More Paterson Revalations And The Accidental Lieutenant

Last week  in my post I said that “if Paterson as well as his State Police protection intimated a victim of domestic violence, I think impeachment needs to be used in this situation if he will not resign.”  Today we are getting more and more indication that Paterson used state resources to engage in what may well be obstruction of justice. It is important to note, as the Times does, that “the governor’s state of knowledge about the alleged assault and personal involvement in the administration’s handling of it have remained murky.” Either way though, Paterson spoke with the woman, and now at least four state employees spoke directly with her about the case, some of them under Paterson’s direct “orders.”

You can see the The New York Post’s reporting here.

The Daily News is reporting that Paterson might be a little distant from the reality of the circumstance:

In Gov. Paterson’s world, he’s the victim.

In his first comments since pulling the plug last Friday on his election bid, Paterson insisted “there is a hysteria that I’ve been a victim of.”

In reality, Paterson and the state police are under investigation for contacting a woman who accused his top aide, David Johnson, of slapping her around last Halloween.

This seems about the time that we should ask: who is Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch? Read more

Paterson Will Not Run for Reelection

After yesterday’s story that Governor Paterson intervened in a domestic violence case involving one of his aides, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza is reporting that:

Embattled New York Gov. David Paterson (D) will not seek re-election this fall, a bow to the inevitable given his low poll numbers and a recent controversy surrounding one of his top aides.

“It’s done,” state Senator Bill Perkins told the Post’s Jason Horowitz. “The governor is not going to be running for reelection.”

The Daily News is also reporting that he will not resign, but will not run. The formal announcement is expected this afternoon.

MYD Happy Hour With The Caucus of Color Last Evening

Last night the Manhattan Young Democrats and the New York State Young Democrats Caucus of Color held a happy hour at Legends Bar & Grill in midtown. Turnout was better than the recent Illinois primaries, as old and new friends convened for a night of camaraderie and political discussion. Check out the pictures from this event:

PAC Set To Fight Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage

The Times this morning reported a new political action committee, called Fight Back New York, which is planning to raise “high six figures” in multiple State Senate races this year to fight all those who opposed the same-sex marriage bill.

The campaigns first “target” is Hiram Monserrate, who is running in the special election for the seat he was thrown out of earlier this month.

They are playing for keeps:

The committee will start going after Mr. Monserrate, who was convicted of assaulting his female companion in a confrontation that left her requiring more than 20 stitches, by mailing fliers this week to voters in his district. The flier shows still frames of a surveillance video that shows him dragging his companion, Karla Giraldo, through the hallway of his apartment building in Jackson Heights, Queens. He was acquitted of a felony assault charge by a judge, who convicted him of misdemeanor assault.

“He brutally assaulted a woman and tried to cover up his crime,” the flier says. “Now he has the nerve to run again. Many of us have voted for Hiram before. But we cannot vote for him again.”

In the three weeks that remain before the election, Fight Back New York expects to send out at least five different fliers, upwards of 100,000 pieces of mail. The district’s population is around 300,000, but voter turnout in special elections is typically quite low.

Fight Back New York hasn’t decided which senators it will target in the fall, but I think it’s clear that some of the incumbents will be regretting their votes.

Paterson Intervenes in Domestic Violence Case

Update: I stand by  my comment about how serious the issues are if the story’s implications are correct, but the NYTPicker does a good job of pointing out some of the questions marks left open by the story and the changes that were made between web and print editions. Hat tip to Andrew.

The New York Times is reporting that last fall a woman who had repeatedly pressed her case of domestic violence involving David Johnson, an aide to the governor, backed down after a call from Paterson.

The unidentified woman claims Johnson violently assaulted her. She went to court three times seeking protection from him. She twice complained that the State Police harassed her and that they had demanded she drop the case. Paterson then called her, or she called Paterson, depending on whose account you believe, and the day following that conversation she failed to show up for a hearing and the Court dismissed the case. Her lawyer admits the case was never mentioned directly in her phone call with the Governor, although I am not sure why that matters. The Governor offered his “assistance” or whatever in a case involving one of his closest aides; I am sure she got the message.

Just to be clear on the assault, the woman reportedly told police Johnson “choked her, stripped her of much of her clothing, smashed her against a mirrored dresser and [took] two telephones from her to prevent her from calling for help.”

Yesterday, Paterson suspended Johnson without pay and asked Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate whether state police tried to “improperly influence” the woman, according to the Daily News.

This seems like the most serious charge that the Times has been able to levy against Paterson. As Chas wrote earlier, the Times ran two articles on Paterson last week, one on Johnson’s quick rise to power and the second on Paterson’s relative inability to govern. This final story, though, ties it all together in a tragic way. The aide that has risen so quickly was likely “brutally assaulting” his girlfriend, and then the Governor and his State Police intervened to intimidate the woman.

Ben Smith, of the The Politico, speculates that the case “appears likely to end the governor’s tottering political career.” If the Governor had just had his staff intervene in a domestic violence dispute then that would be enough for me to think he should resign; however, he went even beyond that, he called the woman himself to intimate her. In fact, resignation might not be enough, as the actions might constitute criminal intimidation of a witness. Paterson seems to agree with me, as the Times points out:

Mr. Paterson, who has championed the cause of battered women, [] made extended remarks on the case of Hiram Monserrate, the former state senator who was convicted of misdemeanor assault against his companion and ousted from the Legislature. Mr. Paterson said he was offended that while the woman had been granted an order of protection against Mr. Monserrate, the senator’s aides had continued to have contact with her and assist her.

“The order of protection is designed to allow for independence of the victim,” he said. “This victim apparently had no independence.”

He said the conduct of the aides warranted a criminal investigation, perhaps for witness intimidation.

The State Senate did the right thing when they tossed out Monserrate. Domestic violence is not a trivial problem—it deserves punishment. Intimidation is the tool used to prevent women from seeking the rights they should have. If the story is true, he likely should be prosecuted. I am not sure if that will happen, but I suggest reading the Times article in full so you can see how awful the accusations are, and then ask yourself whether Paterson should really be our governor until January 1. If this article is true, if Paterson as well as his State Police protection intimated a victim of domestic violence, I think impeachment needs to be used in this situation if he will not resign. I do not want to see it have to become political like that but it seems that at worst he conspired to intimate an assaulted woman for an aide of his and at best he just intimated her himself.

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