Race to Represent: NY State Primary Elections Special

September 12, 2019

Fordham University political science professor Christina Greer, Politico reporter Brendan Cheney and FAQNYC host Azi Paybarah analyze the heated Governor Cuomo vs. Nixon race, Lt. Governor Hochul vs. Williams race, and the New York State Attorney General race. They also make predictions about the other races for State Senate. Plus, they'll weigh in on Senator Alcantara's controversial involvement in the IDC and the role that fighting back against Trump plays in the midterm elections.

You can also watch MNN’s Democratic Lieutenant Governor debate and our Democratic Attorney General debate.

 

Read the episode transcript below.

 
Race To Represent 2018: A NY Primary Election Roundtable
 
Aired: September 12th 2018
Moderator: Dr. Christina Greer
 
DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that this transcription was done from a audio recording by an out of house
service; therefore the accuracy of the transcript may be impacted. If there is an issue please contact
 
Dr. Greer: Hello, and welcome to a special election edition of Race to Represent on
Manhattan Neighborhood Network. I'm Dr. Christina Greer.
New Yorkers will head to the polls this Thursday, September 13th, for party
primary elections. They'll be asked to cast their vote in many local and statewide
races, including governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and both
houses of the New York state legislature, the senate and the assembly.
My two guests with me today couldn't be more qualified to discuss New York
state politics, and the upcoming ballot. Joining me are political reports Brendan
Cheney, and Azi Paybarah.
Okay, so let's just jump right in. Let's start with the top of the ticket and work
our way down. We know the election is Thursday, September 13th. Let's start
with Andrew Cuomo and Cynthia Nixon. What are you all thinking?
 
Brendan Cheney: Well so, last time around in 2014, when Cuomo ran against Zephyr Teachout, he
got 60% of the vote, and I think Teachout go 33%. The question is, if Nixon can't
win, can she do better than Teachout did four years ago? The latest polls are still
a month old, so we'll hope to see a new one, but back then she was getting less
than 30%, so it's sort of an open question, has she made ground since then, or
not? And can she beat him, or can she at least do better than Teachout did?
 
Azi Paybarah: I think Brendan's right. The first question is, does Cuomo's challenger do better
this year than the person who ran four years ago. And I think the other question
is going to be, what happens to Andrew Cuomo if he gets elected, but the
people running with him do not. That includes the lieutenant governor, attorney
general. If the people who are going to be on his ticket, and a part of an
administration per se, or the people who sort of campaigned as a check against
him, do we start seeing Andrew Cuomo sort of operate almost like Donald
Trump, where there's potentially elements of his administration working against
him?
 
Dr. Greer: Right. So before we get to that scenario, because I find that fascinating, and I
think it's a possibility in many ways, walk us through how you all see this
landscape different than say, 2014. I have some thoughts on the
Cuomo/Teachout matchup of 2014 is not the same as the Cuomo/Nixon
matchup of 2018. It's also very different when you're asking voters for a second
term, versus a third term. Talk to us about what the governor has and has not done, to sort of change this
landscape, because it seems as though all the papers are pretty much saying
that he's the heir apparent, that he will get reelected, even with all his flaws.
 
Brendan Cheney: Teachout had some benefits when she was running four years ago, that helped
her. There was dissatisfaction over Cuomo's fracking, or maybe lack of position
at the time. There were some concerns among teachers and educators over
some of his education policies at the time. She just benefited from those, sort of
getting the anti-Cuomo vote. I'm not sure what those are this time. And yet, I
think Nixon has gotten out there more. She has more name recognition to start
with. The question is, do those outweigh the lack of these other issues that she
benefited from?  There's also just the idea, there seems to be some sort of a liberal surge in
different parts of the country, and the question is whether or not that really ...
you know, these sort of Ocasio-Cortez effect, does that help her?
 
Azi Paybarah: The big different between 2014 and 2018 is 2016, and that's Donald Trump.
Against that backdrop, everything looks kind of different, and familiar, in the
same way. Brendan's right that the issues of fracking and opting out of high
stakes testing were sort of taken off the table.
The other thing I think that was different was that Cuomo seemed to be caught
by surprise by the primary challenge four years ago. He didn't even deign to
acknowledge his primary challengers existence. Very famously, there was viral
video of Zephyr Teachout trying to approach, and even shake hands with Cuomo
at a parade, and she was blocked by a gentleman by the name of Joe Percoco,
who seems to be in for some blocking of his own, because of a corruption
conviction. Now Cuomo seems to have had four years to sort of prepare for a challenge. He
also, interestingly, had the Working Families endorsement, I believe in 2014,
and that came very difficult. It was a very arduous process. New York City
Mayor, Bill de Blasio, helped secure that. But then what Cuomo did was sort of
not follow through with the promises he had made to that party.
So, he then had a dedicated oppositional force in the Working Families party
going against him in this landscape that showed the electoral map was not
entirely favorable to him coming out of 2014. So he knew his challenges, he
knew his opponents, and when Cynthia Nixon jumped in the race, people
thought that Zephyr Teachout's performance in 2014 was the floor, and that
somebody with higher name recognition and more money could do better.
 
Dr. Greer: Could build upon that.
 
Azi Paybarah: And it turns out that may be the ceiling, because of the issues that Brendan
raised, fracking and high stakes testing.
 
Dr. Greer: Do you think that Nixon is unfortunately... her achilles heel is the fact that she is
a celebrity, as is Donald Trump? Do you think that some voters are saying, "You
know what? We have the celebrity's who's in the White House, and things aren't
really ... He doesn't fully understand systems, institutions, norms, mechanisms.
Maybe we shouldn't do that for the executive our or estate." Do you think that
the Trump effect is adversely affecting Nixon?
 
Azi Paybarah: I absolutely think that that association is destroying her campaign. Just that
notion. I think with democratic voters, they had to make this decision, if you are
gonna unmoor yourself from the idea of experience and some kind of expertise
in government, then are you bringing your party a little bit close to where the
republicans are, that cult personality and stuff? And Andrew Cuomo very
smartly tried to make the landscape of the debate experience, expertise,
knowledge. Those are not questions that favored Cynthia Nixon. She should
have been, perhaps, better prepared in her debate to answer those questions.
But if those are the questions being asked, they seem to skew more favorably
towards Cuomo.
 
Brendan Cheney: I'm a little skeptical of that, actually. I think that voters historically, don't usually
care that much about experience, and-
 
Azi Paybarah: Hilary Clinton, 2016 against Obama.
 
Brendan Cheney: Yeah, right?
 
Dr. Greer: Well, isn't there a gendered element about that, though, because-
 
Azi Paybarah: Yes.
 
Brendan Cheney: There could be.
 
Dr. Greer: When it comes to men, it's like, "I woke up yesterday. I would like to run for-
insert name of office." It doesn't always match up that way for women.
 
Brendan Cheney: That's true. But I just haven't heard it come up that often in this race. I wonder if
voters feeling more about Trump that like, the problem isn't his lack of
experience, but his personality and his temperament. So, if they're not carrying
the experience factor with them, maybe they're looking at the temperament
and personality. I don't see that hindering her.
 
Dr. Greer: Okay. It's interesting because when I watched the debate, and everyone said,
"Cynthia Nixon won," for a host of reasons, even though it seems like the
endorsements are still coming for Cuomo, even after the debate, I thought in
some ways Cuomo won, because he kept his cool. I thought that he essentially,
had to just go there, answer some questions without seeming like he was
seething, and hated the woman that was sitting next to him. Do you think some
voters picked up on that, or what do you all think that voters were looking for in
that particular debate? And did Cuomo deliver, or did Cynthia Nixon deliver?
 
Azi Paybarah: People always look for a knockout punch, and short of that, they look for gaffs,
things that are a binder full of women, remarks that sort of accentuate flaws
that people perceive a person to have. For a long time, people have always tried
to push Andrew Cuomo's buttons to get him to burst, in essence. That's been
going all the way back, since he first ran in 2002.
I actually do think that Cuomo gave people what they thought he might do,
which is sort of lashing out at Cynthia Nixon. He, number one, called her a
corporation, because she files her taxes as an LLC, which is something actresses
and entertainers do. And then secondly, he accused her of asking for favors of
Mayor de Blasio, which is her friend. She said one of them was to ask the
helicopter to stop flying over Central Park, when they're doing Shakespeare in
the Park, and Cuomo says, "That's not a favor? Isn't it?"
And she goes, "That's not a favor to me. It's a favor to New York." And I thought
right there was a moment where Cuomo was sort of playing into the worst
stereotypes about himself. Calling is rival a corporation, and she says, "I'm a
person." And then, having her explain helicopters over a play-
 
Dr. Greer: And why that's actually- yeah-
 
Azi Paybarah: Stopping it is a favor to New York, where he can't see it. I thought those were
the worst parts about him. Surprisingly, Cynthia Nixon's campaign, I don't think
did an effective job of highlighting those moments. You can talk about the
campaign and the apparatus, but the debate was a test of Cuomo's constitution
in terms of, can he withstand pressure like that.
 
Dr. Greer: And he didn't flip out on her.
 
Azi Paybarah: Or she didn't take those moments and highlight them to the point that I thought
it would. If this was a presidential campaign, you sure as imagine a room full of
young people with computers would have made gifs, and all sorts of videos out
of those specific moments.nBut I thought overall, the conversation, Cuomo handled himself well, and he
said, "Look, I've been doing this. This is not a time to sort of change leaders,
because we have Donald Trump in the White House, and we need a barrier
between him and us."
 
Brendan Cheney: I think that she showed that she knew the issues, and I think she did get under
his skin a little bit, but not enough, I think, to really cause a big problem for him.
I think that he was able to show his experience without getting too upset.
 
Dr. Greer: Let's start working our way down the ticket. The lieutenant governor's race. So
most of the time, I can't remember in recent memory, where I've really paid
attention to the number on the ticket. I think some New Yorkers do remember
when Spencer resigned, and David Paterson became the governor. It was like,
"Oh, okay. So maybe we should pay attention to the number two, because it is
possible that this person could become our governor, and maybe run later on."
So what are your thoughts on Hochul versus Williams. I mean, we almost can't
have two more different ... I mean they are so different in their style, in their
mission, and how they conceptualize the role that the lieutenant governor
plays. Do you all want to make any predictions?
But, you know, I'm fascinated by Williams' getting the New York Times
endorsement. I'm fascinated by the traction that his campaign has gotten, and
because so many people don't really know who Kathy Hochul is, it's not an anti-
Hochul campaign. In some ways it's a quasi anti-Cuomo campaign. But I wanted
to hear what you all thought about that?
 
Brendan Cheney: The last poll, again, was about a month ago, I think had Hochul at 30 and
Jumaane at 21, and then a lot of people undecided. So there's a lot of room to
move. I think the question is, how much does the Times endorsement of
Jumaane Williams help him?
 
Dr. Greer: And with whom?
 
Brendan Cheney: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And to what extent people know that there's a ticket of
Cuomo of Hochul together, and how many of them are happy to split the ticket,
or how many of them want to keep the ticket together if Cuomo does end up
winning? It's just so hard to get a really good sense of where voters are thinking
on those things.
 
Azi Paybarah: And Hochul has described herself as the eyes and ears of the governor, and
Jumaane Williams has described himself as the eyes and ears of the people, as a
counterbalance to Cuomo. There's this notion that, if Cuomo's inevitable, the
way you sort of vote against him with meaning, might be in these other races.
You sort of elect the anti-Cuomo's in the other races.
In fact, sort of how Donald Trump was the deciding issue in the presidential
race, and in all the races below him in 2016, and again in 2018, it feels like
Andrew Cuomo is the deciding issue in the governor's race, but also in the
lieutenant governor, and the attorney general's race. If you want a partner with
Cuomo, you know who to vote for. If you want someone to challenge him some
ways, you know who to vote for in those races also.
 
Dr. Greer: Well, I think also, it's been fascinating how she has tried to use his past debt as a
negative issue that will hopefully resonate with voters, but it seems, and we've
seen this across the country, it's actually not having the same effect that it's had
in the past, where there seem to be a lot of voters who are saying, "I'm in debt,
too. Finally, can we get a non-millionaire as my representative?"
 
Dr. Greer: So I think that we're in a very fascinating moment post Trump. Sort of in a
leftward moving democratic, big D, Democratic party.
 
Azi Paybarah: And there was also the issue of guns, and on issues of abortion and LGBTQ
issue. Hochul has evolved. She had an A rating from the NRA when she was a
congress member for one term, and now she has an F rating, and she says she
supports the Safe Act. Jumaane Williams an anti-gun activist who has personal
positions on LGBTQ and abortion positions, but he has taken votes very much in
favor of gay rights and abortion rights, and has gotten endorsements to reflect
that. And Hochul is saying, "Well, you can't have personal views and public
views." But then, she herself says, "Well, I've evolved on the issue of guns." And
she seems to be having a double standard about how to view a public official's
change over time on certain positions.
 
Brendan Cheney: I feel like on those liberal issues, on LGBTQ rights, and choice, they seem to be
big barriers when he was running for speaker the last two times on the city
counsel. And you can imagine them being a barrier now, but the New York
Times endorsement was very strong, and said he's taken votes that support
both of these positions, and we think that he's supported these positions. To
anyone who is reading that, and had any doubt, I think the goal was to wipe that
doubt away.
 
Dr. Greer: Right. And also the fact that he's running with Cynthia Nixon. I mean, if she had
any issues with his stances, we probably wouldn't see this very strong alliance.
In the Amsterdam News endorsement writeup, it made reference to something
Councilman Williams said, essentially one of the questions posed was, "If you
have to work with Cuomo, it's going to be tense. It always has been tense, and
so how will you be effected?" And it seems as though he's been able to make
the case, not just to editorial boards, but to voters, where he said, "I have a
Metro Card. I'll take Metro North. I'll be on the bus. That's what I've been doing,
as far as my campaigning, so why would that change? It doesn't matter if he
takes my budget away."
And the Times endorsement mentioned that Hochul couldn't come up with one
single issue where she had acted separately from the governor, which I think
your point, Azi, is political, if people are looking for a foil to the governor, we're
gonna talk about the AG's race, and that's definitely one way to do it. But the LG
seems to be a new strategy.
 
Azi Paybarah: And one of the things is, we have to talk about those candidates because they
are not talking to each other in a debate. Kathy Hochul, amazingly, reneged on a
commitment she gave to New York One, to debate.
 
Dr. Greer: And keep in mind, Kathy Hochul and Jumaane Williams did debate on this
network, and it's online, if voters want to go-
 
Azi Paybarah: Thank God they did-
 
Dr. Greer: Watch it, okay.
 
Azi Paybarah: Because, she reneged on a very public, very clear, very unambiguous promise to
debate. Now, debates, how much do they matter in the grand scheme of public
life? That's one thing. But when you can so easily take back a promise you made
on television, that you made, that may call into question other commitments
you make going down the road. And I think what she did may haunt her going
forward, when people say, "Well, you gave us your word, but how good is your
word?"
 
Dr. Greer: So this is a perfect segue, because-
 
Azi Paybarah: I like to offer those.
 
Dr. Greer: Now that we're thinking about the AG's race, the attorney general's race, we
weren't expecting an exciting race. We know that Schneiderman had to resign
pretty quickly, and almost within 24 to 48 hours, Tish James was the heir
apparent. The front runner, and has been up until say, maybe two weeks ago, or
so. But, going back to your point, Azi, do you think voters, as we see sort of
some of the support for Tish erode, we see major newspapers not endorsing
her, but choosing instead to endorse Zephyr Teachout. Is it because she turned
her back on the Working Families party, and that's where she got her start? Is it
because she had certain strong progressive issues in the past, and seems to be
moving to more of the Cuomo land? Is that what editorial boards and voters are
picking up on, or is it something else that you all think?
 
Azi Paybarah: I think the Cuomo coattails are working against her in some ways. I think the
campaign she is running may not as good as she is. I think putting under more
scrutiny, her record as public advocate. She had eight lawsuits against the
mayor, and if you scratch the surface, they're not entirely all, very impressive
lawsuits, although the work she does on behalf of people who need attention, in
terms of criminal justice, are very laudable, for people who are directly effected
by them. But, when Zephyr Teachout came out and said, "We need someone to use the
job of attorney general to check the president, the emolument's clause, and all
these other investigations, people started re-imagining, "What should that
attorney general do?" And I think one very small point, but a stinging point, at
one of their debates, they were at John Jay College of Criminal Justice-
 
Dr. Greer: And keep in mind for viewers, they also debated on this network, that it is
online if viewers want to check out this debate as well, on MNN.
 
Azi Paybarah: One of the things that Tish James had done, is refer to Zephyr Teachout
derisively as "Professor," and saying that this is not an academic exercise.
 
Dr. Greer: I did hear that.
 
Azi Paybarah: And denigrate academia and professionalism, and to sort of denigrate that, it
sounded very much like what Donald Trump and republicans do, with elites and
expertise. And I think that soured some voters, in terms of who they're looking
for. And when it's a low information race, when people agree on a lot of issues,
they take cues on these smaller things that happen.
 
Brendan Cheney: I think you're right. I think her alignment with Cuomo could hurt her because
you might have voters who don't really want to vote for Cuomo, but feel like
they have to, using the same logic that the New York Times endorsement did for
Cuomo, but might feel like the way to punish him is in the lieutenant governor's
race and the attorney general's race.
The other thing I'm thinking about though is, if you look at where voter's bases
are, Tish James, for me, has a really strong base in New York City, has a lot more
name recognition there. Zephyr Teachout did well upstate when she ran for
governor. She also ran and lost a congressional race two years ago in the
Hudson Valley, and one of the competitors in the race is Sean Patrick Maloney, a
congressman from that neighboring district in the Hudson Valley. If he wasn't
running, she might be able to have much more of that Hudson Valley, and
upstate region, but now she's competing with him for that area.
 
Dr. Greer: So let's bring him up, because I've been very vocal about his entry into the race.
Seeing three qualified women, and then deciding, or having someone convince
him that he should run, and possible change the composition of democratic
control in Washington D.C.
 
Azi Paybarah: Sitting in a swing district seat that was held by republicans, he wins it, defends
it, and he's apparently putting it up.
 
Dr. Greer: Yeah, and it could very easily go towards a republican. And so, essentially
choosing his own individual goals over the party. That being said, can you all
tease out a little bit more about what some of the math could look like for a
win, for Sean Patrick Maloney?
 
Azi Paybarah: In terms of the math, I'll leave it to Brendan. He's much smarter about that stuff
than I ever will be, but there is something I think he's doing, in terms of very
simplistic math, and you're speaking to it very directly. There's three women
who are running, and him. He is an openly gay man. He and his husband have
adopted children who are of different ethnicities, and there's something very
beautiful about that kind of image it presents.
But when Sean Patrick Maloney, when he speaks directly to the camera in some
of these videos, he performs an identity of masculinity that is very hard to
imagine isn't strategic in some ways, when he's running against three women.
He very much talks about winning. He had, I think, a baseball bat in one of his
ads, and he sort of mimics the language of Trump in a way, and talk about,
"Winning, winning, winning. We gotta get back to winning," kind of thing. It
sounds sort of like what I hear at sports games, when people are rooting for
their team. It's hard to imagine that being something that a person does, if the
gender ratio is different than what it is now.
 
Brendan Cheney: It's interesting. I mean, I haven't seen that side. I think I've been looking at the
numbers, and assuming that since he's in third place, and I haven't seen a path
for him, and he hasn't gotten the big endorsements, I figured that the most he
can do is maybe prevent Teachout. But I feel like that's an interesting point, and
that could be something that really helps him.
 
Azi Paybarah: And he's also gotten a lot of money from real estate, and he's transferred
money from his congressional campaign into his real estate, and the republican
who's in this race, who's Keith, uh-
 
Dr. Greer: Wofford.
 
Azi Paybarah: Wofford, thank you. His media buyer gave me, and I put it out online, the
amount of money that the democrats are using to run ads. And Sean Patrick
Maloney, up until about two weeks ago, had over a million dollars of ads
running statewide. He was the only one doing it at that time. So even though
he's the only guy in the race, he doesn't have the kind of institutional support,
he is putting money on TV ads, and the other candidates, at this point, had not.
Leecia Eve had put a-
 
Dr. Greer: One-
 
Azi Paybarah: Small.
 
Dr. Greer: But where does Leecia Eve factor into this conversation? Does she factor in at
all, besides possibly taking away black voters from Tish, either upstate, or in
Harlem? Or is she just a complete non-factor? I mean, she too though, was not
endorsed by the New York Times, but they did have a pretty favorable
paragraph about her in Zephyr Teachout's endorsement.
 
Brendan Cheney: It's just hard to see how she breaks through. I think she starts off with lower
name recognition, and without a big endorsement. If she's not spending a lot of
money on ads, it's hard to see how she can break through, and get voters to
know who she is, and then choose her.
 
Azi Paybarah: I think she acts as a spoiler, in some respects. There's this notion that, anytime
you attack a person in a multi-candidate field, it's a murder/suicide. You look
bad, the other looks bad. The person who benefits is the person who wasn't
engaged at all. Well, if Zephyr Teachout is the front runner, and receives all the
incoming attacks, there will be some diminishment in, probably, her support.
The people who are launching the attacks look bad, and Leecia Eve could
potentially benefit by not being part of it, being above the fray.
The other thing where I think she might benefit is also, if there's a person who's
acting like an incumbent, Tish James running with Cuomo, is sort of having that
establishment present, all of the other candidates will pick up the
antiestablishment vote, anti-incumbent vote, and if that's split three ways, that
diminishes Zephyr Teachout. Zephyr Teachout is looking for the Anti-Cuomo
vote. If that anti-Cuomo vote goes to any other candidate other than her, it
benefits Tish. Leecia Eve potentially is taking votes from Zephyr, because
anyone who is looking at that side of the ledger, could have potentially voted
for Zephyr, because they know who Cuomo is, and who Cuomo's preferred
candidate is. I think in that respect, she could be siphoning votes away from Zephyr, just by
her present of being a non-Cuomo candidate.
 
Dr. Greer: In both scenarios, either she can siphon votes away from Tish, or she can siphon
votes away from Zephyr. Okay, so before I let you all go, the IDC, Albany, you
know, we've talking about these, sort of, eight rogue democrats that have been
caucusing, and behaving republicans. All those races are quite interesting, but I
think the one that is fascinating a lot of folks is Alcantara versus Jackson, just
because she's been running some literature saying, "We really do need a Latina
in Albany. I came in the race late. That's why I sort of hitched my wagon to the
IDC. I was never really with them, the way you all might thing of it, and so
obviously, my representation, my intellect, all of these things are needed in
Albany." And Jackson is saying, "No. She had her chance. We see what she did, and I
would like to serve you all again." What do you all think about that particular
IDC/anti-IDC race in particular?
 
Azi Paybarah: I'm so glad you mentioned that, the racial element of it, because what Alcantara
is not commenting on is the fact that she is currently the only Latina in the state
senate, which means that that demographic is underrepresented in the state.
What she is not referencing is that there are other women of Latin and Hispanic
descent, who are currently running, that she is not supporting.
 
Dr. Greer: Jessica Ramos, and-
 
Azi Paybarah: Jessica Ramos, Julia Salazar, who may have some other issues. But there are
other candidates who are stepping forward, that if she makes the argument,
"Support me because of these-"
 
Dr. Greer: "I will be the only one, or not-"
 
Azi Paybarah: She's currently the only one, but if her argument is to elect because of that,
there are other candidates who are not IDC members, who she would
potentially be supporting, and she does not reflect that in her ads.
 
Brendan Cheney: I mean, I think these IDC races are interesting because last time around, there
was this same thing, where there are people challenging the IDC in the
democratic primary, and none of them won, ad the IDC won reelection
relatively easily. I mean, they did put up a fight, but they won.
The question is whether it's different this time. If no polling in the race, it's
really hard to figure out, to get a sense of it. To get a sense of whether or not,
again, this like liberal spark is going to carryover in these races. Whether or not
there's enough knowledge and anger about what the IDC did. Whether or not
people feel like, "Well, they did it, but they're back with the democrats now,
and we trust that they'll stay with the democrats."
So there's a lot we don't know about whether or not this time is different than
last time. Robert Jackson has some stuff going for him. He's a former council
member. He knows how to run a race. He probably has a good amount of name
recognition in the district. I think he could put up a strong fight.
 
Azi Paybarah: Alcantara just released a mailer featuring Barack Obama on the mailer. On one
side it's attacking Robert Jackson for being dishonest, and the other side, it has
all these flattering things about Alcantara, and it showed the picture of Barack
Obama, who is obviously not endorsing this race.
 
Dr. Greer: Right. Wow. Well, thank you all so much. Any very quick last minute races that
you all are watching, besides the AG, the lieutenant governor, and the
governor's race? Any other races that our viewers might be interested in?
Brendan Cheney: I'm interested to see, similar with the IDC, to see if Jeff Klein is easily reelected,
or if his challenger defeats him.
 
Dr. Greer: Okay.
 
Azi Paybarah: Jessica Ramos, IDC challenger, running against Jose Peralta in Queens, who
joined the IDC shortly after Trump's election, but also Jesse Hamilton in
Brooklyn, IDC member-
 
Dr. Greer: And Zellnor Myrie.
 
Azi Paybarah: Zellnor Myrie, where the issue of gentrification and newcomers in the district,
seems to have a lot of tentacles, into other conversations about race and
identity and class. I think that's a debate that a lot of people are following.
 
Brendan Cheney: I should say, Kline's challenger is Alessandra Biaggi.
 
Dr. Greer: Yes, whose grandfather was a congressman.
 
Brendan Cheney: Right.
 
Dr. Greer: Right. Well, thank you all so much for joining me, and hopefully our voters will
remember to vote on Thursday, September 13th.
 
Brendan Cheney: Thanks.
 
Dr. Greer: Great. That's all the time we have today. Thank you Brendan and Azi, for being here.
And thank you for watching this election edition of Race to Represent on
Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Please remember to vote. A closed primary
election will be held on this Thursday, September 13th, and the general election
will be held on November 6th. For more information on voting, locating your
poll site, and all of the candidates, visit our website, racetorepresent.com. Bye-
bye.
Program
Race to Represent
About the Program

Race to Represent

Race to Represent is your go-to source of information for all the latest news on New York City elections, including your local Manhattan elections, the NY State Assembly, NY State Senate, NY Governor, NY Lt. Governor, NY Attorney General, and NY Comptroller.

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Race To Represent 2018: Your Guide to New York Elections!

Race to Represent

Manhattan Neighborhood Network has partnered with the League of Women Voters of the City of New York and Gotham Gazette to be your go-to source of information for the 2018 New York City elections. Learn more about New York's 2018 elections at racetorepresent.com

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