The Crown Heights State Senate Race

BRIC sure has been spending a lot of time in my neck of the hood. They should have looked a little closer at the district boundaries though -- neither of the two CH locations in the videos above are within District. Oh and I've decided it looks like and excavator. 

Also, note the lack of interest in this thread, which has been demonstrated by

1. The attendance and demographics (seems mainly family and friends of the candidates attended)
2. The amount of interest in this thread.

All politics are local.
Maybe if one of these candidates ran on a platform of "universal bike lane, unlimited coffee shops, and death to people who put Ajax out to harm dogs", then there would be stimulating and informative discussion.

Very few people demonstrate by their actions, the importance of STATE politics. NYC gets funding from/thru the state first, and sometimes directly from the federal government.

I have often thought about running for a government office, but it seems like the doors are closed to all but the people who are part of the Brooklyn Democratic machine. How do you even get involved, to begin with?

While less strong than they were 30-40 years ago, the local political clubs are the easiest way to get into the game. You go to meetings, get a coalition to take over a club (or in some cases, set up a new one when the old one becomes defunct), become a district leader, get named to the county committee, and take it from there.

One interesting thing about local politics is that for many years, Brooklyn Democratic politics were ruled by black and latino politicians with white pols that represented the few majority white neighborhoods or had successfully developed crossover campaigns (see Marty Markowitz). Brooklyn Republican politics were split down Brooklyn ethnic and religious lines with Irish, Italians, Jews and Catholics rotating control with Blacks (and to a lesser extent Latinos) serving as the swing block. In the late 80's and 90's many strong Democratic leaders opted not to groom young sucessors, but instead hand-picked family members to take over their seats upon retirement. These folks weren't necessarily the best or brightest, and some of the chaos we see in the city council and state legislature today stems from those decisions.

I'd guess that less representation would be acceptable only to those that remain represented in the shakeout.

In this case, the employer (Gov. Cuomo) seems to have little interest to bring another strong Dem to the current clusterfart that is the state senate.

If I lived in SD20, I would have been made some inquiries into this. The people who live within SD20 own the fault for the poor response to their vacant seat.

I'm not sure this is fair. The decision to have a special election has a steep cost. It's cheaper for all of us if the race to fill the seat is done during the regular election cycle rather than mobilizing off cycle. Presence or absence of this Senator isn't going to change the majority which is why the Governor isn't going to lay out $s to make sure the position is filled until September.

This is more or less what Hamilton told us (i.e. my neighbors) once at a tenants meeting. Gov. Cuomo didn't feel like having the seat filled once Eric Adams vacated it. I think Hamilton had been helping out de facto at the office anyway. (The office at 1669 Bedford Avenue is still occupied even though the seat is vacant. LOL) I know he had arranged for a mobile legal clinic to come to the neighborhood for a couple of days this month.

@whynot_31, these candidates have to give lip service to affordable housing, even though you think it represents ideals that are very pie-in-the-sky. They would probably risk alienating a sizable amount of their constituents if they didn't.