NY1 ItCH: A Special Mess in New York

By Bob Hardt New York City

PUBLISHED 9:58 AM ET Mar. 06, 2015

While New York’s 43^rd Assembly District in central Brooklyn has one of the highest enrollments of Democrats in the state, there will be no Democratic candidate on the ballot in a special election in May.

Through some bungling by the people who are now nominally in charge of the broken-down Democratic machine in the borough, a perennial gadfly -- Guillermo Philpotts – was poised to seize the party’s nomination. But rather than let Philpotts get on the ballot – and very likely win the Assembly seat – party leaders failed to file some necessary paperwork with the Board of Elections.

Crashing their plane into the mountain and hoping that the Working Families Party candidate wins the race is the best that Brooklyn Democrats can hope for this year. But it’s a sorry testament to how special elections work in New York.

The other race set for May – a Congressional battle on Staten Island -- has also been purged of drama because party leaders pick their nominee rather than voters in a primary. Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, a rising star in the Republican party, was shoved to the side by GOP leaders in favor of Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan.

Democratic leaders had the opposite problem, desperately searching for a candidate before finally settling on Brooklyn City Councilman Vincent Gentile.

It’s hard enough getting voters to head to the polls in an unfamiliar season but the sorry events in both campaigns over the last month have effectively taken the air out of the tires in both races.

It could be time for an overhaul of how special elections for the State Legislature and Congress are held in New York. It would be smart to follow the lead of the City Council – which holds non-partisan special elections with ballots that sometimes get very crowded. (Eight candidates ran for a Queens seat in 2013.)

Party leaders may not like that idea – but they haven’t exactly done a stellar job with their role in this year’s races. If we truly want to increase voter participation, this could be a special way to start.

Bob Hardt