Knickerbonkers

There was a "red wave" in one part of the United States - ultra-Democratic New York, where bad decisions and plain damn hubris may have been instrumental in giving control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans.  The two top Katzenjammers responsible for the Empire State Screw-Up were former governor Andrew Cuomo and future former U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney.

Cuomo (above) set the stage by appointing justices to the state Supreme Court in a transactional move to reward those who had done favors for him or who had been loyal to him.  Many of these judges were center-right, appointed by Cuomo in an effort in get back at progressives in the state legislature.  It was these same justices who ruled a redistricting map for the 2022 midterm elections unconstitutional because it created gerrymandered districts favorable to Democrats - but liberal justices might have ruled it constitutional for correcting excesses of Republican gerrymandering from the previous redistricting.

Even worse, Cuomo allowed a U.S. House district to be eliminated when the 2020 census count came of 89 people short - 89 people! - of the minimum number of residents needed to preserve that seat.  The governor could have asked for a recheck on that count that could have saved that district, but he couldn't be bothered. 

Maloney screwed things up just as much - if not more so, in part because he pushed for the gerrymandered House district map that got overruled.  Stingy with his support for Democratic House candidates as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (the name suggests a committee aimed at all of Congress, but it just concentrates on the House), he was generous to his own campaign while collaborating with New York Republicans to further his own political career.  (Alexis Grenell explains it in The Nation better than I could.)   

To hold on to power, he chose to run in another district rather than his own, forcing Democratic Representative Mondaire Jones out of the way.  Alessandra Biaggi, a New York state senator who is the granddaughter of a revered New York congressman, challenged Maloney as a progressive but lost to the dyed-in-the-wool centrist incumbent.  Maloney had hoped to take advantage of liberal voters in counties east of the Hudson River.  The problem was the district's constituents who live west of the Hudson River - in Rockland County.  To give you an idea of how conservative Rockland County is, I have a friend who lives there and grows her own vegetables, has supported the Green Party, sent her kids to a Waldorf school, and keeps chickens for fresh eggs.  She's practically an organic-farm hippie.  She's also a Trump fan.  

Oh, yeah, Rockland County is also known for being home to New York City police officers and ultra-Orthodox Jews.  It was this conservative bloc that helped Republican House candidate Mike Lawler defeat Maloney in the general election by a narrow margin.  By all accounts, Biaggi - who was endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - could have saved the seat for the Democrats by arousing their base, but the Democratic base in this district was clearly cool to (to, not with) voting for Maloney for his past conniving.

Andrew Cuomo and Sean Patrick Maloney lied and cheated to get to the top.  They now know what a downfall looks like.  Hopefully a certain developer from Queens will find out as well.

New York State of Mind

Although New York State had gubernatorial and senatorial primaries last week, the focus was mostly on U.S. House primaries, particularly Democratic primaries, where competition was fierce.  (Senator Schumer and Governor Hochul won their primaries easily.)

Representative Carolyn Maloney, above, was pitted against Representative Jerrold Nadler in the same U.S. House district in New York City thanks to redistricting.  It turns out that the two Democratic House members can't stand each other ,and the fight was bitter between the two powerful Democrats, Maloney chair of the House Oversight Committee and Nadler chair of the House Judiciary Committee.  Nalder won, and many of Maloney's supporters blame her loss on sexism.  Right. And if Nadler had lost, someone would blame it on anti-Semitism.

While one Maloney lost, another Maloney won. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democratic congressman representing an upstate district and the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, fended off a challenge from Alessandra Biaggi, a progressive Democrat backed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who decided that the gay Maloney wasn't "woke enough" and wanted an outsider to replace him. Outsider, hell: Alessandra Biaggi's grandfather was a New York congressman.  

In the 19th U.S, House district, Democratic Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan won a special election to complete an unexpired term running on the need to preserve legal abortion, which suggests that abortion my be a really big issue in the midterms after all.  Ryan's hometown of Kingston, however, will be shifted to the 18th U.S. House District come January; he won the primary to run for that seat in November. 

It'll be very interesting to see how things work out in the midterms.  One thing we don't have to worry about as far as the Republican side is concerned: Noted fascist Carl Paladino lost his bid for the House seat of the 23rd House district.  

The Other Alex Is Back

Oh, Uncle Albert and Admiral Halsey, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is back!

Yesterday on CNN, Dana Bash asked Alex is she'd endorse President Biden for re-election in 2024.  Her response went something like - no, it was - this:

"You know, if the President chooses to run again in 2024 – I mean, first of all, I’m focused on winning this majority right now and preserving a majority this year in 2022. So we will cross that bridge when we get to it. But I think, if the President has a vision, then that’s something certainly we’re all willing to entertain and examine when the time comes."

In other words, she doesn't want to endorse him yet.  Maybe not at all.

Also, Alex is endorsing the primary opponent of Democratic U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York's Eighteenth U.S. House district.  

She finds the 55-year-old Maloney, the openly gay chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a rising star in the Democratic Party - too centrist, too moderate and too "meh," his sexual orientation checking only one of the boxes so-called progressives look for.  Alex is  supporting his opponent - and possibly causing a serious rift in the New York State Democratic Party at a time when Democrats have to hang together or else the coming MAGA dictatorship will have them hanging separately - because his opponent, a young female state senator, would provide more excitement and draw young voters looking for a new generation of lawmakers.

Such a comment would have more resonance coming from someone who didn't endorse Democratic U.S. Senator Ed Markey's 2020 re-election bid in Massachusetts, as Alex did despite the fact that the 75-year-old Markey is about as exciting as straw.