Primary is 9/13: Meet Assembly candidate Walter Mosley this weekend

Who are the alternatives to Mr. Mosley? What are the differences of opinion they have?

I was struggling with how to answer this, but I think the real answer is that there are very few big policy differences between the two leading candidates, Walter Mosley and Olanika Alabi. I'm pretty sure the same goes for the third candidate, Martine Guerrier.

All of our elected officials and most of our candidates will stand against stop-and-frisk and for marriage equality. Everyone will make passionate speeches about the need for affordable housing, good school and living wages, et cetera, et cetera.

So it really comes down to personal qualities. Both Ola and Walter have been very active in the 57th civic groups, which is a prerequisite for my support. Some of my fellow anti-Ratner activists are surprised that I'm supporting Walter, but I think he's ready to be a lawmaker, both because I can see him writing laws and because he's got a good working relationship with our other elected officials. I like that both Tish James and Hakeem Jeffries has endorsed him. He's got the best temperament for the position.

Here are the clichés about the candidates: Martine is a Bloomberg crony, Ola's a Ed Towns crony, and Walter is a Vito Lopez crony. The truth is that they are all real humans with strengths and weaknesses.

I think Walter can be the best advocate for the district, and I think he'll be an important ally in reforming Brooklyn Democratic politics.

Does this help?

How can any crony of Vito Lopez be expected to reform Brooklyn Democratic politics?

Do you mean Walter or Ola? They both voted for Vito in 2010 as District Leaders/State Committee members.

I'm writing this as someone who has been considered a kook for protesting Vito since 2007. The problems of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn are profound and bigger than VIto Lopez. ALL of his predecessors have ended up in jail.

We need to change the whole friggin system in Brooklyn (and New York state, but Brooklyn is my top priority). It's taken me a long time to warm up to Walter, but I think he understands the bigger challenge: We need more democracy in the Brooklyn Democratic Party.

The situation is not pretty.

Who is the WFP endorsing?

WFP did not make an endorsement. but Tish endorsed Walter (which I prefer over a WFP endorsement).

Tish is ok.

...I just wish she could get further away from the Democratic machine.

Easier said than done. I just wish we had our own voice as a neighborhood, so these other machines had to bend to our wishes, not the other way around.

The first step to that is to VOTE on Thursday, no matter who you vote for.

Something like 20% of eligible voters, vote in the primary right?

I wish! In highly contested, high-money races, you're lucky to get 14%. In normal races, I think it's 7-9%. That's 7-9% of registered Democrats or Republicans, which is a small number indeed.

Here's a recent article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/28/new-york-primaries-voter-turnout-charlie-rangel_n_1633761.html

New York has one of the lowest rates of voter participation in the country:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/new-york-state-ranks-last-for-voter-turnout/