Errol Louis wrote about the AD-64 race in his column on Sunday, calling it the single most important political contest in New York this year:
The single most important political contest in New York this year is the reelection race of Manhattan Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, a Democrat who doubles as speaker of the state Assembly - the second most-powerful post in state government after governor.
I would actually argue that Silver is more powerful than the governor, because the Governor can have his veto overridden by 2/3 of the Legislature, whereas Silver's refusal to bring a bill to a vote can not be overridden by any amount of the other Assemblymembers. But nonetheless, he continues:
Fewer than 12,000 voters are expected to cast ballots in the 64th District, which covers all or part of the lower East Side, the East Village, Chinatown, Wall Street and Battery Park City.
But their choice will affect New York's 19 million residents.
That's because the screwed-up setup in Albany places vast influence in the hands of three men: governor, Senate majority leader - and Assembly speaker.
Every year, the trio negotiate the state budget in near-total secrecy before dumping a phone-book-size document on the desks of legislators for a vote within minutes of receiving it.
(snip)
They will be voting - for the 19 million of us who can't - on the record of a powerful pol who has, for too long, been accountable to nobody.
That's essentially Albany in a nutshell for ya.
And Bouldin puts the length of time Silver has been accountable to nobody in persepctive:
Think about this for a moment: one elected official, with power equal to or greater than that of any statewide elected official, has gone over two decades without a challenge. When Silver was last challenged, Gorbachev was running the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan was President, and a guy named Barack Obama had just moved to Chicago to become a community organizer.
Bouldin also notes how it's amazing how a contested election can get a legislator to... actually give a $#!T about how his constituents percieve him:
This primary has been nothing but salutary for the people of that district. Suddenly, there's a mobile constituent services office - which leads one to wonder why that didn't seem to be a worthy idea in a year when the Speaker isn't getting challenged at the polls - a rumored if unconfirmed campaign web site, and repeated appearances by the incumbent in a district he's all but neglected in favor of the gleaming marble offices of the Albany Capitol.
While despite his 22% approval rating, Silver will probably get re-elected in this election because the opposition is split between two challengers, I don't think there's anything controversial about saying that this challenge has been a good exercise in democracy for a pol who's been unaccountable for far too long.
And while many people lament that despite the "three men in a room" changing between Pataki, Spitzer, Paterson, Bruno, and Skelos the structure never changes, I would argue that nothing has changed because none of those men have been changed at the ballot box. If the voters do indeed revolt, it could at least bring the possibility of structural reform. |
