Cuomophobia (Or, Hail Zohran, Our Fearless Leader!)

Not since Samuel Tilden prosecuted Boss Tweed and proved him guilty of corruption has there been a political earthquake of such great magnitude in New York City.  New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who is 33 years old and a Muslim of South Asian origin, won the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York.  Mamdani is a democratic socialist who is so progressive he makes Bernie Sanders look like a Tea Partier.  Among his policy proposals are municipally owned grocery stores for underserved communities, a "30 by '30" minimum wage increase - $30 an hour by 2030 - free bus service for the poor, and sanctuary for non-heterosexuals.

Well, all of the establishment leaders in both parties in New York State are appalled since Mamdani defeated former New York State governor and political hasbeen Andrew Cuomo - called the future of the Democratic Party by Defector columnist David Roth, who clearly hasn't been paying attention to Cuomo's past - for the Democratic mayoral nomination.  Top Democrats who supported Cuomo are second-guessing themselves and predicting impending doom for the party.  Republican leaders in New York State and in Washington, D.C. fear a hostile Islamic takeover of the city fueled by state socialism that would make the Big Apple a lemon for business owners, middle-class taxpayers, and Jewish residents (Islamophobia always takes precedence with Republicans over their own anti-Semitism).  

Progressives looking forward to the general election in New York City had better not get too confident - not yet, anyway.  Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams is still standing for re-election as an independent, and there is a precedent for a New York City mayor winning a second term as an independent after being dumped by his own party - John Lindsay, who was disowned by the Republicans but managed to win re-election without party backing in 1969.  Also, Republicans and center-right independents could pull off the same hat trick that Republicans and center-right independents pulled in Connecticut in 2006.  When U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman failed to win the Democratic nomination for a fourth Senate term that year, losing to Ned Lamont, the Republicans put up a token nominee while backing Lieberman's independent general election campaign.  Lieberman was re-elected, and Connecticut progressives who backed Lamont had to lick their wounds.  Substitute "Adams" for Lieberman and "Mamdani" for Lamont, and you get the GOP/establishment Democratic Big Apple playbook.  True, Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels vigilante group and conservative talk-radio host, is no token candidate, but a coalition of Republicans and establishment Democrats might pivot to Adams if they think Adams can prevail in a three-way campaign.

(Aside:  Ned Lamont was elected governor of Connecticut in 2018 and re-elected in 2022.  He is the rarest of birds - a Democrat who was allowed to make a comeback after an electoral defeat.)

So what do I care, right? I mean, this won't affect the gubernatorial election in my state of New Jersey, right?  But it may.  Don't think that Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli won't exploit the Mamdani nomination against Mikie Sherrill, his Democratic opponent, for his own purposes, when many commuters to Manhattan live in the state's northern counties and a Mamdani administration might have an effect on commuters through issues like congestion pricing.  Ciattarelli already has a head start by having the opportunity to ask voters to imagine a Sherrill administration working in concert with the mayor of New Jersey's largest city, Newark - Ras Baraka.  Imagine how many times Jack will mention the mayor of Newark - "Ras Bar-AKA!"  By the time November comes, Mayor Baraka will wish his father hadn't changed the family name from Jones.  So think of how Jack can exploit the name of Zohran Mamdani.  

It's very easy to demonize anyone whose surname ends in a vowel, as Ciattarelli's immigrant forbears realized when they came here from Italy.  But in New York City, the only person with a vowel at the end of his surname that got rejected was Andrew Cuomo.  Cuomo was rightly seen as an aging political warhorse out on one last pillage for power in an effort to redeem himself after his sex scandals and the COVID nursing-home scandal by asking to be elected the chief executive of five of New York State's counties (the NYC boroughs) after having been chief executive of all 62 of them.  He is a tried-and-true centrist and a transactional politician, unlike his revered and esteemed father, and he's as megalomaniacal as his brother Chris is self-important.  He offered nothing for New York City's beleaguered residents suffering from the high cost of living and the higher cost of Mayor Adams' stupidity.  Zohran Mamdani did offer something.  

It remains to be seen how NYC independents will vote in November, as New York is a closed-primary state that allows only registered party members to participate. And Curtis Sliwa will still likely garner a lot of support.  But the Democrats ought to remember that not every election campaign for office should have the same type of nominee.  Whether progressive or moderate, all Democrats are pretty much to the left of the GOP these days.  As a center-left Democrat, Mikie Sherrill, who has been blessed with extreme-right Republican electoral opponents that make her look more liberal than she is to progressive voters, is a perfect fit as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee for New Jersey.  As a Democrat more firmly in the middle of the road - so much, she can stand in the middle of the road without touching either yellow stripe with her feet - Abigail Spanberger is the perfect Democratic gubernatorial nominee for Virginia, a former Confederate state becoming more Northern than Southern thanks to an influx of newcomers from the Northeast and a growing realization of the state's geographical position north of 36°30′.  And as an arch-liberal, Zohran Mamdani is the perfect mayoral candidate for New York City, a city populated by immigrants, artists, models, photographers, progressive white women, black women, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, non-heterosexuals . . . I think I just described the guests I always meet at model Nancy Donahue's and hairdresser Harry King's annual parties.  😊

Primary Day

The primary election in New Jersey for Democrats and Republicans to choose their gubernatorial nominees for the general election in November is today.  Usually, it's on the first Tuesday after June 1 but Governor Phil Murphy, who is term-limited and cannot run again, signed a bill moving it back one week this year because June 3 coincided with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, a holiday Gentiles usually don't know exists and one even Governor Murphy himself hadn't heard of before.  Shavuot doesn't allow Jews to go out and vote or do anything else.  If a similarly restrictive obscure holiday that was celebrated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or the Nation of Islam, or the Rastafarians, coincided with primary day, Governor Murphy would have moved the election back a week for that too.  He's that kind of guy.

Be that as it may, no one knows who's going to win the Democratic primary for governor of New Jersey.  There are six candidates, each one getting about 17 percent, of one-sixth, of the vote in various polls - with no clear front-runner - while 2021 Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli should win the 2025 GOP gubernatorial nomination going away against two token opponents.    

What? Jack Ciattarelli is getting a second bite at the apple after having lost the governorship in an election as close as the 2024 presidential election, yet Kamala Harris is persona non grata now?  How is that possible?  Because Ciattarelli is a Republican.  It's Republicans who get to try again after losing a close election.  Democrats get sent off to internal exile.  Also, Ciattarelli is Italian, and, well, it is New Jersey. Yo! 

I am torn about the candidacy of Democrat Mikie Sherrill, because while I think she would be a good governor, I want her to remain my congresswoman.  I have no opinion of the other candidates, except that all of them would make a better governor than Ciattarelli, who has the support of Donald Trump.  However, I am not voting for anyone today, because . . . I don't vote in primaries. New Jersey has a closed primary that does not allow independents like myself to vote as an independent. I refuse to register as a Republican because they are the party of fascism. But I also refuse to register as a Democrat because I am one of the overwhelming majority of voters who have a low opinion of the party, and also because, as Groucho Marx once said, I would not like to join any club that would have me as a member!

Let's see what happens.

Keystone Kops

Crazy things are going on in today's Pennsylvania primary elections.  On the Republican side, a racist black female conservative - she sounds like a Jerry Springer guest - has thrown a monkey wrench into things in the Senate nomination contest, while on the Democratic side, a tough guy with bad fashion sense and a heart of gold could beat a mainstream Democrat for their party's U.S. Senate nomination.

Kathy Barnette has surged in the polls for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania for the state's open seat, mainly for being farther to the right than even Donald Trump, bashing Muslims and gays while using her own circumstance - she's the result of her mother's rape - as an argument against all abortions.  Trump likes her and thinks she has a future but doesn't think she's ready for prime time now.  His choice is New Jersey resident (shh! - don't tell anyone! 😀) Mehmet Oz, a daytime TV show who says he's a doctor, though hedge-fund manager David McCormick is running a close race with him and could easily win the nomination by being more like Trump than Oz.  Now Barnette has made it a three-way tie in the polls, which means the election results could be unavailable for days.

On the Democratic side, Conor Lamb, a moderate congressman from the Pittsburgh area who looks so much like a senator that he could get away with wearing a toga, is well behind in the polls, with Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, a Bernie Sanders-style progressive so causal he campaigns in sweatshirts and gym shorts, in the lead.  Lamb, a former Marine and a former assistant U.S. attorney,  has a dream candidate's resume in his favor . . . and that's all.  Pennsylvania Democrats have decided that a safe choice is no longer desirable, simply because they believe that a Senator Lamb could go to Washington and fail to get anything done because of the way the Senate "operates" these days.  Fetterman is seen as a fighter who will fight for core Democratic values.  Lamb is seen as someone who lives up to his surname.  

Independent commentator and Pennsylvania resident Michael Smerconish worries that Pennsylvania voters will be turned off in the fall by the possibility of extreme Senate candidates in a state where only registered party members can vote in primaries and independents have to stay home, and some Republicans are looking forward to a potential Oz-Fetterman race, thinking Oz can win such a match because of middle-class familiarity with the not-so-good doctor.  I'm not sure about that. Fetterman is a working-class hero who always talks about how blue-collar voters and the middle class constantly get screwed by the system, making him a populist at a time when populism is, well, popular.  He can sell progressive populism because he's a regular guy, not some coastal intellectual or some social-media-happy showhorse.       

Fetterman has one thing against him.  He suffered a stroke a few days ago.  How that plays into today's voting remains to be seen.  One thing I'd like to note; former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley has supported both Fetterman and Lamb in earlier elections, Fetterman for his previous U.S. Senate run and Lamb for his first U.S. House run.  O'Malley is neutral this time, mainly because he can't be bothered with any political campaigns other than his wife's bid for Maryland Attorney General.  

The gubernatorial primary is more straightforward.  Far rightist state senator and 2020 election result denier Doug Mastriano is a shoo-in for the Republican nomination while Pennsylvania Attorney Josh Shapiro is running for the Democratic nomination unopposed.  Both sides agree that Shapiro will likely win the governorship in a landslide in November if Mastriano is his opponent. 

Georgia Rhythm

How could the state that managed to successfully stage the 1996 Olympics and secretly smuggle Muhammad Ali into Atlanta to light the Olympic flame screw up a primary election?

Reports of closed polling places, voting machines either broken or missing, and lines of people waiting to vote that were interminable both in length and duration plagued the Georgia primary to the point where it was obvious that nothing in the Peach State is peachy keen.  After all the dust settles (note tense), it won't (again, note tense) matter who won what.  (Although, noted 2017 U.S. House also-ran Jon Ossoff won the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, and a right-wing conspiracy theorist may end up winning a U.S. House nomination on the Republican side).

Top Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams has long complained about irregularity in access to voting in her state, much of it based on racism and voter suppression against blacks but also based on a lax, incompetent, disorganized approach to running elections - primary or general - and making them free and fair.  The increased reliance on mail-in balloting due to COVID-19 didn't help matters any either.  This fracas gave Abrams a see-I-told-you-so moment, and while it won't necessarily get her the 2020 vice presidential nomination, it does highlight how poorly run elections are not just in Georgia but in Wisconsin and several other states.  And that's a concern going into the November general election.

One thing we did learn about the Georgia primary: The Democrats have their work cut out for them in trying to win a state they haven't won since 1992.  Joe Biden and Donald Trump won their respective presidential primaries all right, but more Republican primary voters case a ballot for Trump than Democratic voters who cast a ballot for Biden.  And with so much political as well as racial division in Georgia - maybe more so than the country at large - are there even any independents there any more?