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Village Independent Democrats back Dan Goldman, Trump impeachment attorney, for Congress in District 10

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Vote Dan for the save!

Feeling that “saving democracy” is the most important thing right now, the Village Independent Democrats on Thursday night voted to endorse former Trump impeachment attorney Dan Goldman in the Democratic primary election for the 10th Congressional District. The election is slated for Tues., Aug. 23.

On the other hand, East Village Councilmember Carlina Rivera may have lost votes — or dropped from V.I.D.’ers first choice in ranked-choice voting — because, among other things, she does not support the creation of 100 percent affordable housing at 5 World Trade Center.

At the end of six rounds of ranked-choice voting at V.I.D., Goldman emerged on top with 26 votes, with Congressmember Mondaire Jones coming in second place with 16 votes, along with five votes for “no endorsement.”

After the ballots were first tallied, Rivera was in second place with 10 votes, but then fell out of contention as the ranked-choice process played out. Assemblymembers Yuh-Line Niou and Jo Anne Simon each had 5 votes after the first round, and Elizabeth Holtzman, the former 1970s congressmember and Brooklyn district attorney, had 3.

Notably totally snubbed by V.I.D. members were former Mayor Bill de Blasio and Soho activist Maud Maron, who both got zero support.

Before they voted, the club members held a vigorous virtual debate among themselves on Zoom on the pros and cons of the candidates in the crowded race, which features more than a dozen contenders.

The names that came up most during the discussion were Goldman, Rivera, Jones and Niou.

Irene Kaufman spoke strongly for first-time candidate attorney Goldman. A Tribeca resident, Goldman was the Democratic majority’s lead counsel in Trump’s first impeachment inquiry.

“As a first-generation child of Nazi survivors,” she said, “we need someone to fight against the rise of fascism.”

Similarly, Alex Pruchnicki said, “We’ve got to stand up for progressive values and we’ve got to go after the Republicans. [Goldman] will be a symbol of aggressiveness against the Republicans.”

Pruchnicki said the order of his three votes would be Goldman, Rivera, Jones.

Cameron Krause, the club’s co-president, said he, too, would be voting Goldman, Rivera, Jones.

“It’s ponderous,” Krause said. “We’re at an existential crossroads of our democracy. I really think this is no joke. If we don’t do this correctly, we are in deep, deep danger of losing our democracy.”

Krause noted that Goldman has the “contacts” in Washington to give him a leg up in the House.

Nat Johnson, with his wife, Anne Heaney, seethed that he “still chafes” at some of Councilmember Carlina Rivera’s actions. The couple are committed environmentalists. (Photo by The Village Sun)

Similarly, District Leader Jen Hoppe said voting for someone experienced in Washington politics who could hit the ground running is critical right now.

“Elizabeth Holtzman blew me away,” she said. “I really wish I’d been in the district when she was in her prime. … Abortion rights don’t matter, voting rights don’t matter, gun laws don’t matter if we don’t have a democracy. It has to be Dan or Mondaire,” she said, though adding she regretted not being able to support a woman in the hotly contested primary.

However, Mar Fitzgerald, the other V.I.D. co-president, argued forcefully for Rivera while also knocking Jones.

“I am wholeheartedly going to rank Carlina No. 1,” she declared. “She is a member of the V.I.D. family. … She gets things done.”

Fitzgerald said Rivera had been a very active lawmaker, having “her hand in over 1,000 pieces of legislation the last five years,” ranging from issues like making abortion pills accessible to affordable housing.

“Carlina grew up, [raised by a] single mother in NYCHA,” she said, referring to public housing. “We want to talk about someone who’s grounded, someone who pulled herself up by her bootstraps — that’s Carlina.”

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald said, in talking with Jones, who currently represents Westchester and Rockland Counties, she found “he could barely answer a single question about our district.”

In addition, she knocked the idea of Goldman as a dragon (or dog) slayer, noting that the job against Trump — who was twice acquitted of impeachment in the Senate — was not finished.

“Trump is alive and kicking,” she stressed. “He can still disrupt the election. Until you put that dog down, you haven’t done anything — don’t even talk about it.”

Derided by some as a “carpetbagger,” Jones recently moved to Carroll Gardens in the Brooklyn part of District 10. In Jones’s defense, Krause, who grew up in Jones’s suburban district, said the congressmember, after the recent redistricting, had basically been bullied into not running for reelection by fellow Congressmember Sean Patrick Maloney and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Yes, he could have run against Sean Patrick Maloney,” Krause said, “but you’re just asking him to run a race that’s he’s going to lose.”

He noted that Maloney, who became chairperson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last year, “is very powerful.”

State Committeeman Ben Yee spoke in favor of Brooklyn Assemblymember Simon, who was recently endorsed by the Downtown Independent Democrats. Meanwhile, like others, Yee slammed Rivera for not supporting 100 percent affordable housing at 5 W.T.C., noting that when local elected officials don’t back affordable housing, “it gives ammunition to Open New York.”

He noted that Niou has not won political club support.

Yee scoffed at the idea of supporting Jones because “he didn’t feel like toughing it out” in his own District 17 but checks boxes as a Black and gay man as “absolutely nonsense.”

“I think Jo Anne [Simon] is the most viable — a solid progressive,” he said.

Shading attorney Goldman, Yee said, “Litigators don’t make democracy, organizers make democracy.”

Yee said he would be voting Simon, Goldman, Rivera.

Rick Braun said he was voting for Dan Goldman for his No. 1 choice. (Photo by The Village Sun)

However, David Siffert, a former V.I.D. president, touted Rivera as “the most viable” candidate.

“I think we should focus on local politics — politics are local,” he said, adding of Rivera, “I think she gets things done.”

Of Niou, Siffert said, “I’m a little upset she cleared the state Senate field against [Brian] Kavanagh and then dropped out [to run for Congress].”

In her remarks, Lois Rakoff said Rivera “would be good for kids and she’s a Latina.”

Melissa Carty, a V.I.D. corresponding secretary, reported that she had reached out to Rivera, asking why she was the only candidate in the District 10 field not to support 100 percent affordable housing at 5 W.T.C. Carty said she received a response back from Jamie Rogers, Rivera’s husband.

“His comment is that $500 million could be spent in better ways — like investing in NYCHA,” Carty said.

V.I.D.’er Nat Johnson also had harsh words for Rivera.

“I still chafe at the Tech Hub,” he seethed of the upzoned E. 14th Street project that Rivera approved without zoning protections for the surrounding area. “I still chafe at East Side Coastal Resiliency. I still chafe at Open Restaurants. She’s never met a real estate deal she didn’t like. She’s decided that upzoning is appropriate.”

Johnson said he would be voting Niou, Simon and Pete Gleason. A Tribeca attorney and former firefighter, Gleason is running on an anti-de Blasio platform.

Rick Braun said he was voting for Goldman for his No. 1 choice. He added that he had concerns about Rivera over issues like the Tech Hub and E.S.C.R., noting, “A lot of community members over there are upset.”

V.I.D. Co-president Krause, for his part, said the opposition to the East River Park-razing E.S.C.R. resiliency project, which Rivera supports, is not uniform throughout the East Village and Lower East Side.

“I run on that bike path every single day and I did not see any NYCHA residents at the protests,” he noted.

Lily Zhou said, while she liked Rivera as a candidate, she felt Niou “isn’t ready” to make the jump to the federal level.

Some club members advocated earnestly for Jones, who is in his second year in Congress after winning an eight-person primary to fill the then-open seat formerly held by Nita Lowey.

Tony Hoffmann, another former V.I.D. president, noted that Jones is “the first openly gay, Black member of Congress.” He added that Jones, who grew up in Section 8 low- and moderate-income housing, went on to attend Stanford and Harvard.

Similarly, Kate Linker said of Jones, “It would be an acute loss to lose him. This is one of the most acute legislators in Congress at this time. We should not underestimate the importance of having a Black, gay man represent the district, a person who is fully intersectional and who will argue for people who are marginalized in the Trump era.”

At the meeting’s end, after the votes were tallied and Goldman was announced the winnner, Krause told the club, “Get ready. This is going to be a tight race. I think the sentiment is there are a lot of good candidates in this race. … Let’s win some races and save our democracy.”

V.I.D. recently teamed up with other Downtown Democratic clubs to do virtual interviews of most of the candidates in the District 10 race, which are still viewable on the V.I.D. YouTube channel.

In other endorsements, V.I.D. was underwhelmed by the winners of two judicial races in the June 28 Democratic primary elections, Carmen Pacheco for Civil Court and Hilary Gingold for Surrogate Court. It was noted that Pacheco had made a “worst landlords” list. The club voted “no endorsement” in the November general election for both races.

29 Comments

  1. Lily Carver Lily Carver July 25, 2022

    Oh, my bad, you only wrote “lots’ not “tons,” claiming Mondaire Jones took money from developers. Yep, 3 whole developers in the whole country and one in NYC gave him a grand. I mean, gosh he is really in the pocket of real estate. Goldman and Rivera did in fact take LOTS from developers, as shown in the rest of the article. You are so anxious to prop up Niou that you are sliming someone with an extraordinary progressive record in Congress.
    FYI, City and State just did an article on candidates’ donations in the race and what do you supposed they found? “Niou took a limited amount of money from real estate developers such as Bernard Chiu of Upland Capital and Gary Spindler of Park-It Management. Niou also received a max-out $2,900 donation from Jason Ortiz, whose firm Moonshot Strategies has lobbied the city on behalf of real estate interests.” Wow, looks like she got at least 3 donations from “real estate” people, so obviously she gets “lots” too.

  2. JF Hyer JF Hyer July 24, 2022

    I completely agree with Patricia Melvin, above. Yet I wonder — would it be crazy to vote for Rivera in order to get her out of here? Would her replacement be as hell-bent on destroying our architectural heritage and crowding our skies with glass towers? Who would replace her?

  3. Andrew Chang Andrew Chang July 23, 2022

    I believe that Maud Maron is the best candidate for CD-10. She’s the only one focused on public safety as the top issue, and that activates even nonpolitical people like myself. I understand people will disagree, but I hope you understand that people who are seeing their life become harder near their home are not being served by our current local leaders.

    • lily carver lily carver July 23, 2022

      Maud Maron is regular on Fox News where she routinely spouts her right-wing views. Thanks but I’ll skip her and Simcha Felder, who are both Republicans pretending to be Democrats. However, considering she got 9% of the vote when she ran for City Council last year and lost a lawsuit she filed against the Legal Aid Society where she used to work, she is not much of a threat. I can’t wait to see what office she runs for next

  4. Patricia Melvin Patricia Melvin July 22, 2022

    Carlina Rivera has she has sold out since day one in office. What a snake in the grass she is, using her LES upbringing as her big selling point when in fact she has sold out the neighborhood to big real estate interests. I hope Ms. Schindler’s fears of a split vote benefiting Rivera do not come true!!

    • Georgette Fleischer Georgette Fleischer July 22, 2022

      Not sure what the basis is for thinking that low voter turnout will benefit Rivera.

      Certainly there’s been robust dissatisfaction expressed in The Village Sun with her relentless development enabling, regardless of the wishes of–and campaign promises to–her constituents.

      Rivera, Goldman and Jones have all taken lots of money from developers:

      https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-real-estate-industry-exerts-influence-in-high-profile-congressional-race

      Yuh-Line Niou, who has not, has a strong shot at winning the August 23rd primary and defeating Rivera, between the Working Families Party endorsement and the bundling of two Asian communities in the redrawn 10th Congressional District, Chinatown in Manhattan and in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

      • lily carver lily carver July 23, 2022

        Georgette, I read the Gothamist article and it is very unfair to claim Mondaire Jones has taken “tons of money from developers.” According to the article, he had exactly ONE donation of $1,000 from an NYC developer and 3 from developers in other parts of the country. I suspect all of them were actually personal donations with nothing to do with business. I have been torn between Jones and Niou and I don’t think you do her any favors posting false attacks on Jones.

        • Georgette Fleischer Georgette Fleischer July 24, 2022

          Lily, I wrote “lots,” not “tons,” of money from developers, and to call my post “false attacks [notice the plural!] on Jones” hyperbole would be an understatement.

          Here are excerpts from the article:

          Donations from the [real estate] industry [according to a Gothamist analysis of federal campaign data] were mostly spread among several of the top candidates in the newly drawn 10th Congressional District: ex-prosecutor Dan Goldman, Westchester Congressman Mondaire Jones and Manhattan City Councilmember Carlina Rivera.

          Overall, Jones leads the pack with more than $3 million raised, although most of that money came from a prior campaign in his Westchester County district.

          All four [Rivera, Goldman, Jones and de Blasio] received checks from prominent developers and property owners.

          Although Jones comes in with the biggest war chest, New York City real estate donors appeared to take a back seat. But the congressman, who last month moved from Westchester County to Brooklyn after announcing a run for the new district, did receive $1,000 from Justin Elghanayan, president of Rockrose Development, a residential and office developer. Other real estate donors included George Krupp, one of the founders of the Berkshire Group, a Boston-based real estate investment firm that previously donated to Jones, and Yuval Bar-Zemer, an LA developer and property owner. The donations came after May 21st, when Jones officially entered the race for the 10th district.

  5. Susan Schindler Susan Schindler July 21, 2022

    My concern is that voter turnout will be very small. That would probably benefit Rivera, who has done nothing to benefit her community, but has sold us out to developers.

  6. Harry Pincus Harry Pincus July 18, 2022

    Along with the other misrepresentations of my words, I never said that I am a “progressive,” because I obviously do not want society to “progress” in the same direction as this cast of characters. I am an artist. It’s a different thing. An artist looks at what is and tries to understand the meaning of it, and create something lasting and beautiful, which is beneficial to all. We artists take a lot of guff, but we keep on creating art.

    I’m sorry if my comments were misunderstood to be hateful. I was trying to point out that a candidate who wants to represent everyone in our district should not run a divisive “us” vs. “them” campaign, no matter who is meant by “us” or who is meant by “them.” It is my opinion that out of the entire city of New York, there ought to be at least one single Jewish representative in Congress. But if “straight men” and Jews are “disgusting” to “progressives,” then you have every right to vote against “them.”

    I also think that we, meaning people of goodwill, are in a lot of trouble if this kind of thinking is going to rule the Democratic Party. This hateful and divisive “progressive” thinking is exactly what elected a fascist, criminal president and delivered a reactionary Supreme Court.

    By the way, I do appreciate the representation of my friend Erik Bottcher, even though he may be considered to be a progressive.

  7. Lily Carver Lily Carver July 17, 2022

    Oh, you had a good friend who was African American and need to give us all the details, so that makes it OK for you to have slimed Mondaire Jones in again what is exactly the language used by Fox News et al. You also called Arthur Schwartz a racist for recounting what has happened in Ramapo, which was literally exactly what was reported in the Times of Israel (as well as New York Times and many other publications).

    Of course I never met you but I don’t hate you. I feel sorry for you, I am sure you were a progressive back in the day but you seem to have become blinded by an obsession for Israel over all other issues and you make no attempt to check your facts.

    On my end, I will end this thread since I really don’t need any more “some of my best friends were Black or I have lived here 50 years” as a discussion of what the actual positions and backgrounds of the candidates are.

  8. Harry Pincus Harry Pincus July 16, 2022

    If you are going to compare me to Tucker Carlson, and call me “vile,” “disgusting” and a racist, then perhaps you can understand why I am not going to support your “us” versus “them” candidate.

    One would hope that whoever prevails, and represents this district, will try to help and understand all of his or her constituents on equal terms, and not as “us” or “them.” I never saw a primary candidate who divided his or her constituents along the lines of us versus them, but I fear that your candidate will relate to me just as you do.

    Admit it…you’ve never met me, but you hate me. You hate me, and you will not stop until you can fully misrepresent what I have said, and malign me as a racist. If that is what the future will look like with Congressman Moindaire Jones, I think I’ll vote for someone else.

    It’s too bad that you say I don’t think African Americans belong in the Village, because I had a very dear African American friend named Jones who defined Greenwhich Village for me. He called himself Ted Joans, and he was a great poet, who lived for a while with Charlie Parker. Ted was the guy who wrote “Bird Lives” when Charlie Parker died. Once I was walking along Fourth Street near Sheridan Square, when Ted stopped to look in a restaurant window. “I remember eating here with Bird and James Dean,” said Ted. I was dumb enough to say, “What was James Dean like?” and Ted just said, “He was here to see what we were like.”

    I realized then, and I understand now that I have a lot to learn. We all have a lot to learn about each other, and and we need too look for the things that we all have in common. If we continue on as a nation of “us” and “them” we will only be marching into a dystopian future that no person of good will would ever want to see.

    • LES3025 LES3025 July 17, 2022

      Harry, just take the L on this one. You saw a Black, gay man using standard issue “Us vs. Them” rhetoric and assumed that you, because you are not Black or gay, were a part of “Them.” It implies that you don’t see commonalities with those communities and says more about you than it does about Jones. No need to keep digging in.

  9. Lily Carver Lily Carver July 16, 2022

    Oh please, “Us Vs Them” is literally a standard of nearly every progressive politician in the Country. “Them” is not someone who grew up poor and black and gay and has one of the most progressive records in Congress. To quote your description of Mr. Jones: “Although Jones boasts about growing up poor on public assistance, as if that’s a qualifying accomplishment, he neglects to mention that he was also a beneficiary of the system who was accepted into Harvard, presumably on a scholarship.”

    That is literally straight out of the Tucker Carlson /Fox News playbook. Guess what? Growing up poor and black and going to Harvard and becoming a member of Congress is a HUGE accomplishment and significantly harder than growing up white from a family with a billion dollars, though Mr. Goldman is clearly very accomplished.

    The “presumably on scholarship” is in fact exactly the kind of phrase used not to applaud his academic accomplishments but to imply that in fact he got a scholarship because he was poor and black and not because he was academically qualified.

    You have admitted you basically made it up that he did not support the “existence” of Israel, so you clearly know absolutely nothing about his very impressive Congressional record.

    How is Arthur Schwartz a racist for pointing out that Jones grew up in a district where the Orthodox Jewish Community, which does not send its children to public schools, gutted the funding for them, destroying an excellent school system that is almost 90% black and Hispanic. I would not have used the phrase “rape,” but the facts are true unless you think The Times of Israel is also racist for reporting this. https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-a-ny-town-increasing-haredi-influence-turns-a-school-board-into-a-battleground/

  10. Harry Pincus Harry Pincus July 16, 2022

    I was wrong about Mondaire Jones’s policy toward Israel. Sorry, I didn’t do my homework, and the job of hating on Israel is already being taken up by some of the respondents here.

    Beyond that, Lily Carver’s attempt to label me as a racist, and call my comments a “vile racist attack” is a pretty good example of the “us” vs. “them” mentality that I am opposed to. I’m not a corporation or any of the things that Ms. Carver rightfully attacks, yet she is willing to put me in the “them” column as opposed to her “us” column.

    She misquotes me and says that I claimed Jones “only got into Harvard because he was Black and poor.” That’s not what I said. I said he was a “beneficiary of the system who was accepted into Harvard, presumably on a scholarship.” A scholarship presumably means that he demonstrated academic ability. By the same token, his billionaire opponent is a beneficiary of the system, as well. Good for both of them. I’m not a Corporation or a beneficiary of the system.

    She also misquoted me by saying that I claimed to have lost jobs for supporting Israel. That’s not what I said either. I lost jobs for opposing some of the same things that I suppose Ms. Carver would have opposed.

    Perhaps if Mondaire Jones had not chosen to create a divisive “us” versus “them” campaign, I would have supported him. For that matter, I would prefer to support Tobi Bergman or Arthur Schwartz for the endorsement, because they have both been hard-working advocates for this district for many years.

    • LES3025 LES3025 July 16, 2022

      Harvard doesn’t give merit scholarships. Only for financial need.

  11. Tobi Bergman Tobi Bergman July 16, 2022

    I don’t get it. New York famously opens its arms to the world, but we won’t vote for a guy because he just moved here, and instead we think electing a billionaire to Congress best expresses the heart and spirit of our progressive communities.

    Papa may have. Mama may have. But god bless the child that’s got their own. Until they don’t. I would love to send someone who grew up in public housing on the Lower East Side to Congress, but roots only get you so far.

    Mondaire quickly proved his value in Congress and then was forced out in the redistricting shuffle. His move to the new 10th District showed commitment and guts. We should welcome him with our votes.

  12. Harry Pincus Harry Pincus July 16, 2022

    I figured I’d get called a racist, but I’ve never seen a more divisive ad than Jones’s current big-bucks campaign bragging about working for “us” and not “them.” Are we supposed to know who “us” is? If I am not black and gay, does that mean I am one of “them”?

    I too was poor, and from a broken home, but I never thought it qualified me to run for Congress!

    I apologize for “deriding” Mr. Jones on his scholarship to Harvard, which he doesn’t mention in his ad, but I’m confused. Perhaps the “us” that he wants to work for are his ambitious friends at Harvard.

    Of course Arthur Schwartz is not a racist when he claims that a Hasidic School Board “raped” another school system, and Carol Yost is not a racist when she claims that Israel is “murdering Palestinians daily.” This reminds me of a comment made by a former friend who told me that Israelis break babies heads against walls. I feel compelled to oppose people who are expressing their base anti-Semitism in the guise of social justice.

    Lily Carver, who called my comment racist, wants to know what jobs I lost for “supporting the existence of Israel,” which is not what I said. I lost jobs for walking into an ad agency and making a speech against cigarette advertising, and I turned down thousands of dollars by refusing to advertise South African tourism during apartheid. I was proud to win a national award for my drawings of homeless teenagers in the Daily News, and I was privileged to represent Lincoln Center Classical Jazz. Anyone who hired me knew that I could be counted on to oppose social injustice and racism.

    So if it’s okay for Mondaire Jones to ask for my vote because he is black and gay, why is it not okay for me to hope for a single Jewish congressperson in the entire New York City delegation? Is it because we Jews are all rapists and baby killers?

    • Lily Carver Lily Carver July 16, 2022

      Wow, you can’t be that dense, so yes. “US vs. Them” is a common theme among progressives you claim to be. You can’t figure out that “Them” are the corporations, healthcare “industry” and, especially here, real estate interests who tore down our only hospital. The ones who want to give billions in tax breaks to wealthy developers and an NFL football team, the ones who oppose spending “more” on healthcare, etc. I could go on but you don’t care about facts. You smeared Jones with a flat-out lie regarding “not wanting Israel to exist,” which is being done now against progressives around the country and, in your case, you one-upped it by mentioning a bill he voted FOR while insinuating he voted against it. You want to explain that?

      On what do you base your disgusting claim that Jones does not want “Israel to exist” and why did you bring up a bill he voted AGAINST to imply he voted for it? Oh, and thanks for your nonapology for claiming Jones only got into Harvard because he was Black and poor. I am sure the fact that Goldman comes from a family of billionaires had no effect on his ability to get into Yale?

      Arthur Schwartz is 100% right regarding the Hassidic community “raping” the Ramapo school system (though I think he should have used a different phrase). What else do you call people who do NOT send their kids to public school gutting the funding and using it for services for private religious schools?

      Mondaire Jones is not asking for your vote because he is Black and gay. I am neither but I am Jewish and I am almost surely voting for him. As any real progressive would.

  13. Arthur Schwartz Arthur Schwartz July 15, 2022

    To me the endorsement of Goldman by VID is a low point. Goldman doesn’t support Medicaire for All. He opposes the NY Health Act. He opposes the Green New Deal. He favors public funding for religious schools. And he is an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune. For someone to state the word “progressive” with his name in the same sentence is perverse. And, he is another white, male, straight candidate.

    Mondaire Jones has been one of the most effective legislators in Congress over the last two years. He is the lead congressmember on Supreme Court reform legislation. The freshman class of 2020 picked him as the liaison to congressional leadership.

    And for the person who derided him because he got a scholarship to Harvard? Shame. Mondaire attended the grossly underfunded Ramapo School system, a system raped of its ability to provide a decent education by a Hasidic School Board that used the money to fund Yeshivas.

    He was the child of a single mother. But he worked hard, and his brilliance and perseverance carried him through. He was actually redisrictricted into Jamaal Bowman’s district and would have had to move to run against Sean Patrick Maloney in a district which favored Maloney (a white carpetbagger from Chelsea). So he came down here.

    He is the only Black candidate in the race, a challenge for him since our lily-white CD has 7% Black residents. He is one of three LGBT candidates in the race; VID couldn’t pick one? But worse, to choose an opponent of the progressive causes VID is supposed to favor?

    As I said, a new low, even worse than VID endorsing Biden in 2020.

    Arthur Schwartz, male Democratic district leader, 66th AD, Part A

  14. Carol Yost Carol Yost July 15, 2022

    I’m not quite sure what you mean by “us” or “them.” I haven’t seen Jones’s ads because I don’t watch TV, but by “us” I think he means everyday people like you and me without any special powers, vs. the “them” of the powers that be. It looks as if you wanted a Jew representing you, as if lacking that, you might find a Representative who’s anti-Semitic.

    You need to be aware of what’s really happening in Israel. Nobody should support Israel for murdering Palestinians daily and stealing their land, and then lying about it. It has nothing to do with anti-Semitism to say this. I could refer you to a lot of Jewish scholars, such as Norman Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky, and Jewish historians, such as Ilan Pappe, an Israeli, and Josh Ruebner. You could also check out the web site of the Jewish Voice for Peace. To love the Jewish people, to hate and be shocked by what happened to Jews in the Holocaust, to love the principles of justice and devotion to God that Judaism embodies, is to hate what Israel is doing now. I am proud and grateful to know many Jews who feel that way.

  15. Barbara Kahn Barbara Kahn July 15, 2022

    My comment is not based on the winner of the endorsement. I live just outside the newly created district, and there is a difficult-enough decision to make in mine. My comments are about the voting method. Whoever created the Rube Goldberg-like system of ranked voting has done a disservice to our attempts at democratic elections. What’s the point in using it? IMO, figuring the best way to rank from among a number of candidates is confusing. I believe I’m a fairly intelligent person, but I spent a great deal of time deciding on how to rank the candidates during the recent Democratic mayoral primary election and was surprised at the final outcome. The traditional system has worked well: The person who got the most votes won. I believe that ranked voting is as dangerous as the Electoral College has been in presidential elections.

    • Lily Carver Lily Carver July 16, 2022

      This is a congressional race, so there is no ranked-choice voting; that is only for races specific to New York City. The problem with this race is that NY does not require the winner to get 50% or have a runoff; so it is more than likely that whoever wins will get 20% or less of the vote but will still be the person who gets the most votes, Barbara.

    • LES3025 LES3025 July 16, 2022

      Ranked choice voting really isn’t that complicated. You just rank the candidates in your order of preference and if your first choice gets eliminated, your vote goes to your second choice, and so on. This election would be perfect for it. There are a lot of candidates and someone is probably going to win with less than 25% of the vote if no one drops out.

      Say you vote for Goldman but he comes in third, with Rivera and Niou in first and second in some order. You may have liked Goldman the most but also have a strong preference as between Rivera and Niou. Under the current system you don’t get to express that preference because you only get to vote for one candidate.

      The current system also forces voters to try to be strategic. Maybe you like de Blasio the best (hey, there’s someone out there who does). They have to decide whether to vote for him or pick one of the candidates who actually has a chance to win. In RCV, that voter can just rank de Blasio first and then the other candidates and when he gets eliminated their vote goes to someone else.

      • The Village Sun The Village Sun Post author | July 16, 2022

        LES, yes, that strategizing applies to how, say, Village Independent Democrats conducted their ranked-choice vote for who the club endorsed for Congressional District 10. Club members could pick their top three candidates. However, in terms of the general public going to the actual polls, the congressional primary and general election do not have ranked-choice voting in New York. So voters will only be able to vote for one candidate — or one write-in candidate — in this election.

        • LES3025 LES3025 July 16, 2022

          Yes, I am aware that this congressional election does not use RCV. That it why I said it “would be” perfect for it and that in the current system “you only get to vote for one candidate.” I was responding to OP’s criticisms of RCV as a system and explaining how this specific election we are discussing shows why RCV is better than the current first-past-the-post system.

          There is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about RCV. It is good and there should be more of it.

  16. Lily Carver Lily Carver July 15, 2022

    Wow thanks for the racist comment, Harry. Since Mondaire Jones grew up poor and Black and got into Harvard I am sure he was totally unqualified but just got a free pass because of the “system.” Unlike Goldman, Jones did not come from generations of money but he went to Harvard, the horror.

    We should vote for Goldman so New York has a “Jewish” member of Congress but an African American is not one of “US” here in the Village?

    Please enlighten us as to the jobs you lost for “supporting the existence” of Israel? Also please show any evidence Jones does not believe in the “existence of Israel” or what the votes of the “Squad” have to do with him. He voted FOR the Iron Dome but hey let’s just throw in some false news against the black guy.

    No, he has not lived in the district but he more closely aligns with my views than any other candidate, and members of Congress are not elected to fix potholes. There are a lot of reasons to support or not support candidates but vile racist attacks should not be part of this race.

  17. Harry Pincus Harry Pincus July 15, 2022

    The endorsement of Dan Goldman seems reasonable enough, not only in light of his work as the Trump impeachment attorney, but quite frankly, because a Jewish congressman, Jerrold Nadler, has been gerrymandered out of this district, and there may not be a single Jew in New York City’s next congressional delegation.

    Mondaire Jones, who has had nothing to do with this district, but appears to have a lot of campaign money for television ads, has been saying that he represents “us” and not them.

    I have lived here for nearly fifty years, and I am wondering if he will identify me as an “us” or a “them.” I have always fought for social justice, and lost many jobs as an illustrator because of it, but I support the existence of Israel, which Mondaire apparently does not. In fact, some members of “The Squad” recently voted against the protective defense system known as Iron Dome for Israel, which would have protected Arabs and Jews from incoming missiles.

    Although Jones boasts about growing up poor on public assistance, as if that’s a qualifying accomplishment, he neglects to mention that he was also a beneficiary of the system who was accepted into Harvard, presumably on a scholarship.

    So what has Candidate Jones ever done for this district, and who does he define as “us” and as “them”? Perhaps something’s happening, and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?

    • Steven Hill Steven Hill July 15, 2022

      I will support Goldman

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