[BwayDems] Heads Up: You Won't See a 'Democrat' or a 'Republican' in the Public Advocate Race

[Paula Diamond Roman]

EverythingYou Need to Know About the Special Election for Public Advocate

January 04, 2019 | by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, GothamGazette

Next month, New Yorkers willhave the opportunity to cast a ballot for a new public advocate in thefirst-ever special election for a citywide office. The current vacancy wascreated when the most recent officeholder, Letitia James, was officially swornin as the state’s attorney general, a position she won in the November generalelection.

The public advocate is thepeople’s representative, a watchdog and ombudsperson, with a post that haslittle direct influence over city policy but a strong bully pulpit from whichproposals can be made, grievances can be amplified, and the mayor and the restof local government can be held to account. The office is charged with hearingcomplaints from New Yorkers about city services and can investigate the work ofcity agencies though with limited ability to enforce reforms. The office holdercan also introduce legislation in the City Council but cannot cast a vote.

The special election to fillone of just three popularly-elected citywide positions has a crowded field anda short timeline. Here’s what you need to know.

When is the election?
Mayor Bill de Blasio officially proclaimed on Wednesday that the election wouldbe held on Tuesday, February 26.

Who is running?
There are roughly 30 people who have said they are running for public advocate,but it is likely that not all of them will actually be on the February ballot.Once the mayor signed the city proclamation, the many candidates had 12 days tocollect the 3,750 petition signatures they will need to get on the ballot.Signatures can come from any registered voter in the city, and candidates willlikely pursue far more than the minimum required in order to protect themselvesfrom challenges of invalid signatures.

Special elections in New Yorkare nonpartisan -- no candidate can run on an existing party line like that ofthe Democratic or Republican Party -- and each candidate will have to createtheir own ballot line that cannot resemble another political party’s name.Another quirk in the system is that ballot position is decided by the order inwhich petition signatures are submitted, making the mad scramble to get on theballot that much more frantic.  

The number of candidates, evenin a narrowed field, could test the limits of modern ballot design since half adozen sitting and former New York City Council members, several State Assemblymembers, and a number of activists and others outside of government arerunning. They include former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, whosubmitted her petition signatures first and will likely be at the top of theballot; sitting City Council Members Jumaane Williams, Rafael Espinal, YdanisRodriguez, and Eric Ulrich, the lone Republican office-holder in the race;Assemblymembers Michael Blake, Latrice Walker, Ron Kim, and Daniel O’Donnell;activist and journalist Nomiki Konst; Columbia University professor DavidEisenbach, who ran against James in the 2017 Democratic primary for publicadvocate; attorney Dawn Smalls; entrepreneur Benjamin Yee; and consultantIfeoma Ike; among many others.





The actual field will becomemuch clearer once petitioning is over and the first campaign finance filingsare due -- but as with any competitive election in the city, there could beseveral ballot petition challenges, whereby candidates can have their ballotaccess denied due to faulty petitions. Candidates often file suit to get othercandidates kicked off on technicalities -- something as small as a missingcover sheet on a petition can ensure that a candidate does not qualify.

How much campaign cashcan they raise and spend?
Along with his announcement of the date of the special election, the mayor alsosigned into law a bill sponsored by Council Member Ben Kallos that immediately putsinto effect new campaign finance regulations that were approved by votersthrough a ballot referendum in November.

The new rules allow candidatesto choose between two tiers of participation in the city’s public matchingfunds program, administered by the New York City Campaign Finance Board, whichmonitors campaign fundraising and spending. The program currently givesparticipating candidates a 6-to-1 match for the first $175 of every campaigncontribution. Those who choose to abide by these old rules would be limited toa maximum campaign donation of $2,550, and can receive a maximum of $2.5million in public funds.

The second, new tier allowscandidates to opt for a $1,000 contribution limit and receive an 8-to-1 matchin public funds for the first $250 of each contribution, allowing them toreceive up to $3.4 million in public funds. To receive public funds, acandidate would have to meet the dual threshold of raising a total of $62,500from at least 500 individual contributors.

Those that choose to participatein the public funds program will have to abide by a $4.5 million spendinglimit, though any candidate is unlikely to reach that astronomical number injust seven weeks. They will also have to complete a mandatory campaign financetraining at the CFB.

The first round of campaignfinance disclosures are due by January 15, which is also the deadline forcandidates to certify whether they will participate in the public funds programand which version.

Will the candidatesdebate?
Many of the candidates have already appeared and are regularly appearing at aseries of public forums and debates organized by advocacy groups, politicalclubs, and others to lay out their platforms and positions on specificpolicies. But there will also be two official debates organized by the CFB and,presumably, broadcast on television and/or radio.

To qualify for the firstdebate, candidates will have to raise and spend at least $56,937 by thecampaign finance disclosure deadline just prior to the debate. The seconddebate, for “leading contenders” will have greater thresholds which will bedecided by the debate sponsors and the CFB. The sponsors are likely to beannounced before the end of January as the CFB is accepting sponsorapplications till January 7.

Unlike in the past, the debateswill also be simulcast by the city-run NYC Media, making them freely andpublicly accessible even if they are broadcast on cable television.  

What will the electioncost?
The New York City Board of Elections estimates that the special election willset the city back at least $15 million, a price that is nearly five times theactual annual budget of the public advocate’s office.

But, unlike a regular citywideelection, there will be no costly runoff if a candidate does not meet a certainthreshold. The candidate with the most votes wins, even if a large field meansthe winner takes a small percentage of the vote.

Who can vote and whowill vote?
Every registered voter in the city can vote in the special election but turnoutis likely to be low, though it is hard to predict since the city has never helda citywide special election before.

In City Council specialelections, turnout tends to be severely depressed owing to several factors -- alack of awareness of the election, an election date outside of the expectedSeptember-November window, voter apathy.

In the 2017 election, whenJames was reelected to a second term, a total of 1.1 million New Yorkers votedfor public advocate, only about 22 percent of the total registered voters inthe city at that time.

Who will win?
Who knows. But, we do know that the winner of the special election will, if heor she wants to keep the office, have to run for reelection in the fall. Bycity law, there will be a typical set of primary and general elections inSeptember and November to decide the public advocate for the rest of thecurrent four-year term, which runs through the end of 2021. The winner of thespecial election will only be guaranteed the office through the end of thisyear.

Democratic and/or Republicanprimaries will be held as needed in September before a November generalelection. There could also be a run-off if there is a crowded primary orgeneral election field and no candidate earns 40 percent of the vote initially.In 2013, James won the Democratic nomination in a primary run-off before easilywinning the general election.




Below is a running list ofcandidates, either declared or exploring as of December 12, for the Public Advocate specialelection (in alphabetical order):

-Manny Alicandro is an attorney whorecently sought the Republican nomination for attorney general. @Manny_Alicandro

-Assemblymember Michael Blakerepresents part of the Bronx and is also a vice chair of the DemocraticNational Committee. @MrMikeBlake

-Theo Chino is a bitcoinentrepreneur and county committee member. @theochino

-Daniel Christmann is a radio host. @EcallerTh

-David Eisenbach is a professor ofhistory at Columbia University, who unsuccessfully challenged Tish James in the2017 Democratic primary for Public Advocate. @Eisenbach4NY

-City Council Member Rafael Espinalrepresents part of Brooklyn. @RLEspinal

-Peter Gleason is an attorney andformer police officer and firefighter, who once represented the infamous“Soccer Mom Madam.” @PeterGleasonEsq

-Gwen Goodwin is a communityactivist and past candidate for City Council.

-Tony Herbert is a communityactivist who was a candidate for Public Advocate in 2017. @herbert4nyc

-Ifeoma Ike is an attorney andco-founder of consultancy Think Rubix, LLC. @IfyWorks

-Walter Iwachiw is a perennialRepublican candidate for various offices, such as mayor, state Assembly, CUNYStudent Senator, and even U.S. president.

-Assemblymember Ron Kim representsparts of Queens. @rontkim

-Nomiki Konst is a journalist,activist, and member of the Democratic National Committee. @NomikiKonst

-Abbey Laurel-Smith @The46thPOTUS_

-Danniel Maio is a former candidatefor state Assembly.

-Melissa Mark-Viverito is formerSpeaker of the City Council who helped lead the Latino Victory Fund after beingterm-limited out of office at the end of 2017. @MMViverito

-Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnellrepresents part of Manhattan. @DannyforNYC

-Jared Rich is an attorney fromBrooklyn. @JaredRichNYC

-City Council Member YdanisRodriguez represents part of Manhattan. @ydanis

-Ralph Schweizer is a Bronxactivist. @RealRalphNYC

-Diane Signorile is a real estatebroker from Staten Island. @kittydat2

-Curtis Sliwa is a radio host. @CurtisSliwa

-Nancy Sliwa is an attorney and realestate broker who ran for attorney general this year on the Reform Party line. @SLIWA4NYAG

-Dawn Smalls is an attorney whopreviously worked in the Obama and Clinton administrations. @DawnSmalls2

-John Tabacco is the New York StateReform Party secretary. @HTBExperts

-City Council Member Eric Ulrichrepresents part of Queens. @eric_ulrich

-Assemblymember Latrice Walkerrepresents part of Brooklyn. @WalkerForNYC

-City Council Member JumaaneWilliams represents part of Brooklyn. @JumaaneWilliams

-Ben Yee is a technologyentrepreneur, member of the Democratic state committee, and secretary for theManhattan Democratic Party. @yben

-Mike Zumbluskas is the former chairof the Manhattan Independence Party. @MikeZumbluskas


Ben Max, Gotham Gazette









 




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