So today it election day in NYC. His main competition is Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, who represents part of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and East Shore, Staten Island in the New York State Assembly. She certainly has shown up more than our last Republican, Joe Lhota, who ran against De Blasio. Most likely De Blasio will win a 2nd term, but I am not sure he will serve all four years. There is mounting evidence of his pay-for-play issues and the main defendant who has been implicated in political bribery is singing like a nightingale. More on that another day.
But wait, there's more! We have three issues for proposals on the ballot that are making politicians very nervous:
Prop 1 asks voters whether they want to hold a state constitutional convention. If this passes, then maybe we can get some ethics reform written into our constitution.
Prop 2 would give judges the right to trim or revoke pensions of elected officials and other public employees if they’re convicted of felonies related to their official positions. And seeing how we've had at least 25 elected officials jailed since 2010, this just seems like a no=brainer. If elected officials steal from the taxpayers and are jailed for it, the taxpayers should not have to fund their retirement post-incarceration. As of now, these criminals serve their time and get to keep their pensions including our former Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority leader who were both convicted of crimes against the taxpayer - appeals are pending.
Prop 3 asks voters whether they want to give local governments the right to use 250 acres of forest preserve for local projects. This would "amend the Constitution’s “forever wild” clause to let towns use small parcels of the Adirondacks and Catskills “forest preserve” for vital projects, like laying electric lines, digging wells or eliminating roadway hazards. In exchange, the state would buy 250 acres of private land to add to the preserve. If towns need more later, the state could buy more. In the past, towns have had to work out individual deals and present them, one by one, as ballot proposals making tiny changes to the Constitution — which takes years. Prop 3 paves the way for vital projects to get done sooner and at lower cost, without shrinking the size of the forest preserve. The only losers are the fixers who profit from the current crazy system." - NY Post
Anyway, I will keep you posted.
But wait, there's more! We have three issues for proposals on the ballot that are making politicians very nervous:
Prop 1 asks voters whether they want to hold a state constitutional convention. If this passes, then maybe we can get some ethics reform written into our constitution.
Prop 2 would give judges the right to trim or revoke pensions of elected officials and other public employees if they’re convicted of felonies related to their official positions. And seeing how we've had at least 25 elected officials jailed since 2010, this just seems like a no=brainer. If elected officials steal from the taxpayers and are jailed for it, the taxpayers should not have to fund their retirement post-incarceration. As of now, these criminals serve their time and get to keep their pensions including our former Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority leader who were both convicted of crimes against the taxpayer - appeals are pending.
Prop 3 asks voters whether they want to give local governments the right to use 250 acres of forest preserve for local projects. This would "amend the Constitution’s “forever wild” clause to let towns use small parcels of the Adirondacks and Catskills “forest preserve” for vital projects, like laying electric lines, digging wells or eliminating roadway hazards. In exchange, the state would buy 250 acres of private land to add to the preserve. If towns need more later, the state could buy more. In the past, towns have had to work out individual deals and present them, one by one, as ballot proposals making tiny changes to the Constitution — which takes years. Prop 3 paves the way for vital projects to get done sooner and at lower cost, without shrinking the size of the forest preserve. The only losers are the fixers who profit from the current crazy system." - NY Post
Anyway, I will keep you posted.
Prop 3 sounds like one of those deals where the local government would buy property owned by the mayor for three times the going rate to compensate for the "forever wild" land.
ReplyDeleteLL: There are enough acres of unspoiled forest land in upstate NY for the Gov to make a killing off of this! I mean, he has spent $59 million to create a whopping 1100 jobs in 4 years. And built acres of warehouse spaces for all of those startup flooding our acreage...not.
ReplyDeleteOther hot races to watch today - Virginia Governor very tight race btw Dem Lt. Governor Northam and Conservative Gillespie. Out to be fun...
ReplyDeleteNortham won in Virginia...
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats did quite a bit better than expected in Virginia. Sounds like they are going to win not just the governorship but everything else.
ReplyDeleteFor both parties power at a national level is electoral poison in middle America due to a tendency to attack over everything and to wildly overpromise while in opposition.
As predicted, DeBlasio won...ugh...by 66%. Only a little over 1M voters voted. Prop 1 lost by 87% which is a surprise, but the other Props won handily.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like an indifferent night. Virginia is blue and went bluer. NYC retained their despot. The trees lost in NYC... as if there were 250 acres of forest in NYC.
ReplyDeleteOT: The NFL has been knuckling under lately to this small cabal of leftist players. The public has not. The public still views these guys as anti-American and don't support them.
ReplyDeletePart of the knuckling under has now involved the NFL paying for ads in which these bastards talk about how patriotic they are and how much they love the military (no mention is made of the kneeling, but the ads only use the kneelers). Sorry, but F-you. This is called propaganda. What you are doing is anti-cop, anti-military and big F-you to America, don't try wrapping yourselves in the flag. All you are doing is pissing people off and proving the true meaning of "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
BTW, On Virginia... Virginia has been democratic since the Civil War until the 1990's. In the 1990's, there was a brief period where it moved to the right and the GOP started winning. Then the Religious Right destroyed conservatism in the state at the same time a bunch of liberal northerners moved into Northern Virginia. The result has been a mostly blue state and a GOP that isn't tolerable to average people. So this election is no surprise.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the Democrats were pretty sure they were going to lose last night.
As I read the morning fiction that passes for news these days, I have to laugh at the theme that "the Democrats won the first nationwide election since Trump's election!"
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, this is not nationwide. This took place entirely in blue and deep blue eastern states: New Jersey, New York, Virginia and New England. When Republicans win in those places, it's a freak occurrence.
Secondly, isn't it funny how all those prior elections the Democrats lost over and over weren't referendums (after the fact), but now this one is?
This is kind of the equivalent of this: after wrongly claiming victory twenty or thirty tests, Democrats now found the most favorable testing ground they could and they "won" what they should have had the whole time barring a freak occurrence.
Congrats on that, kids. I hope you're proud enough not to fix your problems.
Andrew, that's my take on Virginia as well. I knew the Religious Right has a strong presence there and that they did their typical horde of locusts act there. I wasn't surprised or concerned about it either.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that Democrats winning in a few states that Trump didn't win constitutes a backlash against Trump is pretty wild. I guess it shows their desperation and/or relief.
ReplyDeleteDaniel, The guy who lost to the transexual actually ran around calling himself the "chief homophobe" in the state. Good luck with that.
ReplyDeleteNot surprising he lost.
tryanmax, It really does. And they're all out there now hailing their great victory. Even dipshit Obama is out praising their amazing triumph.
ReplyDeleteKind of sad, really.
I didn't know those details but it's surprising he wasn't polling far worse than that if that was the case. I did know that the Republicans in the state legislature were pushing for a North Carolina style transgender bathroom law, though I don't know how it actually did. Not well I imagine. It's a shame that the GOP in places like Virginia and Colorado can't or won't take their party back from these psychotic losers.
ReplyDelete