Live west of Vanderbilt? House party for our State Senator

raulism

When: 8/11 7 pm
Where: Carlton Ave.
More details: Please shoot me an email

I would like to invite members of online community to meet in person to get to know our State Senator. Well, if you live west of Vanderbilt, she's your representative: Velmanette Montgomery.

I didn't want to post this on the political message board because I'd like to help develop a stronger voice for Prospect Heights in the world of elected politics. We don't yet have a political club, so if we want to get a stronger voice to let our electeds know that we exist, we're going to have to do it ourselves.

Luckily, we have a remarkably dedicated, honest, and just all-around nice representative in Albany. Our state government is, of course, a complete f***ing disaster. It's crazy what people consider acceptable among our representatives. Velmanette has been around for a while, but she is the rare person who has not been corrupted by her colleagues. :sunny:

She's getting challenged by someone who gets most of his money from hedge fund-types from out of town. :evil:

So, since we have a chance to vote in about a month in the Democratic primary, I think this is a fine time to meet Velmanette's crowd. You can judge for yourself if you think she's worth re-electing.

I'm also a big supporter of Chris Owens, and he should show up as well.

My goal here is to find common ground for people in the neighborhood. There are a lot of progressive democrats/Democrats here, and we can do a better job in speaking up for ourselves.

PS: Remember this?

pima

Good, please tell her to stop mailing the stupid newsletters to us and save the money instead.

jack krohn

I've never been impressed with her. She's a classic "do nothing" career politician whose about as lame as Letitia James. I sincerely hope the "hedge fund types from out of town" bankroll her challenger into office.

raulism

pima wrote: Good, please tell her to stop mailing the stupid newsletters to us and save the money instead.

This is such a small part of the state budget, and relatively small part of the discretionary spending. Personally, I like to see how elected officials talk about themselves, and Velmanette's newsletters are much less personal advertisements than Marty Markowitz, who's particularly abusive of his free postage. Obviously, it's not a great way to spend public moneys.

But I do like to keep this in perspective. Compare it to one tiny aspect of Atlantic Yards: The MTA appraised the Vanderbilt Railyards at $214 million, and then gave it to Ratner for $20 million.

New York state ranks as one of the most dysfunctional governments in the country, first notes by the Brennan Center is 2006, and proven many times over. I don't think the mailers are the reason for our exceptional patheticness.