{"id":3926,"date":"2022-06-19T07:42:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T11:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/?p=3926"},"modified":"2022-06-19T13:16:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T17:16:39","slug":"re-endorsements-and-redistricting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/?p=3926","title":{"rendered":"RE-ENDORSEMENTS…AND REDISTRICTING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sheldon Ranz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EMILY GALLAGHER FOR NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Emily Gallagher wasn\u2019t supposed to win her contest back in\n2020. Up against a long-term centrist Democratic incumbent, Joseph Lentol, she\nwas depicted in the press as a flake for mooning her noisy neighbors back in\ncollege But that\u2019s what was appealing about her: her tendency to make good\ntrouble. Despite her membership in DSA, it was not endorsing her for bizarre,\nsectarian reasons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we in SDUSA liked her enough to endorse her to represent\nAssembly District 50 -Greenpoint, Brooklyn (Nine for New York<\/a>). But we\ndid more than that: we committed money, resources, and volunteers to her\ncampaign. Gallagher needed them because it was a close race that went down to\nthe wire. It was a matter of accurately counting mail-in ballots and examining the\nexpiration dates stamped on those mail-in ballots that turned the tide in her favor.\nIronically, it is in those close races that smaller organizations like SDUSA\ncan play outsized roles!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since her election, Assemblymember (AM)\nGallagher has been exemplary. She has kept her promise to her constituency to pursue\ntheir best interests. A recent example is the following: A few months before she took office, a group of tenants contacted\nher. Their building was falling apart, and they tried to get in touch with\ntheir landlord to enact repairs, but they couldn\u2019t find him. Instead, all they\nfound was an anonymous shell company, a LLC (limited liability company) with a\nPO box. To hold landlords accountable, AM Gallagher introduced The LLC Transparency Act<\/a> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the Gallagher 2022 re-election\ncampaign: https:\/\/www.emilyforassembly.com\/<\/a>       <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——————————————————————————————————————–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RON KIM FOR NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ron Kim, the Assemblymember from the 40th<\/sup>\nDistrict (Flushing, Queens), became well-known statewide \u2013 and deservedly so \u2013\nas one of the key figures in ending the reign of Governor Andrew Cuomo. Kim exposed\nthe corruption in New York State\u2019s nursing homes, where neglect was rampant and\nCovid-19 needlessly took the lives of countless residents. Cuomo\u2019s sputtering,\nout-of-control public responses to Kim\u2019s probe revealed an abusive Nixonian\npersona that needed to be removed from office, and he eventually was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kim is also a social democratic innovator who is sponsoring\nan Inclusive\nValue Ledger<\/a><\/em> bill in the NYS Assembly .Designed to include more\npeople into the economy who don\u2019t have bank accounts, it would create the country\u2019s first publicly owned electronic\nbanking platform, as well as a digital currency that can be exchanged for goods\nand services within the state.  A\nstatewide complementary currency would encourage the recirculation of money in\nlow-income communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are as pleased to support Ron Kim now as we were two years ago<\/strong> (Nine for New York<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the Kim 2022 re-election campaign: https:\/\/www.ronkimnewyork.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For those of you who have been paying attention to the inner\nworkings of New York State (NYS) politics, after you get a respirator and are\nsufficiently coherent  when trying to\nmake sense of it all, you might have noticed, that NYS\u2019 outgoing corrupt Governor,\nAndrew Cuomo, had appointed a number a non-Democratic judges to the New York\nState Court of Appeals . These judges\u2019 overturned the NYS Democratic Party\u2019s\nattempt to maintain its Congressional seats, as well as changing the boundaries\nof state assembly and senate districts well after many local election campaigns\nwere already underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ensuing chaos had a deleterious effect on various\nprogressive candidates, including several endorsed by SDUSA. Rana Abdelhamid<\/strong>\nwas running a strong race for Congress against incumbent Carolyn Maloney, uniting\nthe progressive bloc. We liked the human rights-oriented foreign policy approach\nthat she would have brought to Congress if elected. But redistricting removed Brooklyn\nand Queens \u2013 Abdelhamid\u2019s home base \u2013 from the redrawn district, forcing her to\nsuspend her campaign.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE RANA ABDELHAMID<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another casualty of redistricting was public defender Alana Sivin, <\/strong>who was in a four-way race in State Senate District 26 (and then in State Assembly District 65, post-redistricting, until she had to withdraw.). Sivin\u2019s race was challenging, not only because she was facing an entrenched incumbent, but also  because all of her fellow challengers were,  like her, members of DSA. SDUSA has a general policy of not making endorsements in electoral contests in which where there are multiple progressives, since it is a waste of valuable energy for the Left to be engaged with each other in this manner. However, we made an exception because Sivin approached us for an endorsement. After checking her background and that of the other candidates, we endorsed her due to her greater legislative experience working for members of the New York City Council. She is also sympathetic to our Democratic Zionist support for BDS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PUBLIC DEFENDER ALANA SIVIN<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Without this freakish incident of redistricting, who knows how far Abdelhamid and Sivin would have gotten? But both already achieved a lot, beyond name recognition. Abdelhamid, one of whose whose goals is to establish a lasting political power base for Arab-Americans in New York City, did at least expand that sphere of influence beyond the Palestinian-American enclave of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Sivin established herself in the debates as the candidate most likely to hit the ground running, knowing how the system works and using that to make it work best for those most in need. We look forward to working with both of them in the future on ventures of common concern! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheldon Ranz is Director of Special Projects for Social Democrats USA and the editor of Socialist Currents<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sheldon Ranz EMILY GALLAGHER FOR NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY Emily Gallagher wasn\u2019t supposed to win her contest back in 2020. Up against a long-term centrist Democratic incumbent, Joseph Lentol, she was depicted in the press as a flake for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3926"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3939,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926\/revisions\/3939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialistcurrents.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}