Competitive Local Primaries

Brigid Bergin: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom filling in for Brian Lehrer, who is off today. On today's show, we're going to talk about a case of polio that popped up in Rockland county last week. This is a disease that has been fully eradicated in the United States for years. My guest will explain how it happened and whether there's anything to worry about, then we'll have a psychiatrist, who's done a lot of research into PMDD.

If you're not familiar, PMDD is a super intense PMS. She'll talk about her work and take your calls. Plus, can you ever just not deal with dinner, but you're still hungry and maybe you've got a family to feed? Do you fend, do you scrounge? You know what I'm talking about, you're tired, it's hot. You cobbled together leftovers and an egg or some cheese and crackers and call it a meal. We'll take your suggestions for dinner when you just cannot cook and share some ideas from a food writer and recipe developer.

First, we turn our attention to that second summer primary, where voters will pick their nominees for congressional and state Senate contests. Primary day is August 23rd with early voting beginning on August 13th. Reminder, the deadline to register if you are a new voter, is this coming Friday. Oh, Hey, did you hear about that quirk where thanks to the redistricting decision and election law this is suddenly a defacto open primary?

Meaning any registered voter can change their party up until, and on primary day itself to cast a ballot in whatever race is most interesting in their neighborhood. Are there enough people paying attention for that to even matter? Last week Brian spent a full segment focused on that open seat for the 10th congressional district. You know the one where more than a dozen Democratic candidates running minus former mayor, Bill de Blasio, as of just last week. We're going to touch on the latest there, but there are other high profile congressional contests in the city.

In the 12th congressional district, two veteran lawmakers, Congress members, Jerry Nadler, and Carolyn Maloney will take each other on, and attorney Suraj Patel who's hoping third time's a charm when it comes to winning a primary race, and a fourth candidate Ashmi Sheth is also on the ballot. Plus what are the state Senate primaries to watch here in the city? Here to help us unpack all of that are two great political reporters, Emily Ngo from Spectrum NY1 and Jeff Coltin of City & State. Welcome back to WNYC, Emily.

Emily Ngo: Hi, good morning, Bridget. Good morning, Jeff.

Brigid Bergin: And you, Jeff, how are you?

Jeff Coltin: Good morning. You were just talking about dinners that aren't dinners. I'm a political reporter. It's primary season. I am a master at making dinners that aren't really dinners.

Emily Ngo: One's going to joke that Jeff and I should come back for that segment. It's popcorn for dinner very often.

Brigid Bergin: Well, I'm going to definitely ask you both. Before the end of the segment, you get to give us your suggestions on the dinners that aren't dinners. Listeners, if you have a question for the upcoming August 23rd primary, we want to hear from you. Note, as I said early voting begins August 13th through the 20th.

What do you want to know about any of these races before casting your ballot or what do you want to tell other listeners about things maybe we haven't heard going on in your neighborhoods? Tweet @BrianLehrer or call us at 212-433-WNYC, that's 212-433-9692. Before we get to our dinner conversation, guys, Emily, let's start with that 10th congressional contest. There are still a dozen candidates on the ballot there, but there does seem to be a top tier within that based on fundraising and name recognition, who would you put on that list?

Emily Ngo: This response is going to get me in trouble because there are a dozen candidates still running. I don't envy any voter in the 10th congressional district who goes to the polls and sees 13 bubbles on their ballot. I would say the top tier judging on fundraising, judging on some of the ads they're starting to put out, endorsements would be Congressman Mondaire Jones, who currently represents the Hudson Valley, the 17th congressional district, the only incumbent running in this race, but he's on the incumbent for the 12th district.

Carlin Rivera, who is a city councilwoman, now assemblywoman, and state assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou would be in that top tier as well. I'd say, Dan Goldman, who served as the house Democrats' lead counsel for then-president Donald Trump's first impeachment. He has a tremendous amount of family wealth and certainly has helped [unintelligible 00:04:56] certainly has helped catapult him into the top tier as well.

No lacking of unfamiliar names in this race, Jo Anne Simon, the AssemblyWoman's always almost in here as well. Liz Holtman, who is 81 years young served in Congress already and hoping to make a comeback and was [unintelligible 00:05:14] on a number of other fronts there. That's just some of the names on the ballot.

Brigid Bergin: Emily, you recently looked at how some of these candidates are, are vying for the progressive lane in this race. Who's making the pitch, and does anyone have a clear advantage?

Emily Ngo: I wouldn't say that anyone has a clear advantage. The thing about asking candidates and voters and the general public, what it means to be progressive is there is a number of different answers. What does that mean to be left-leaning? What does it mean to be left-wing? The word progressive itself has been used in so many different ways by Democratic politicians, even those who could lean more centrist.

Then there's also people trying to make the distinction between progressive voters, everyday progressive voters, and then progressive activists, those who make a little bit more of a scene, but Mondaire Jones is known progressive in Congress. Yu-Line Niou has the backing of the Working Families Party. That can be a force to be reckoned with if you are a progressive, and Carlina Rivera as well is seeking that mantle.

Brigid Bergin: Jim, how are you seeing the race shape up right now?

Jim: My gosh, Emily hit every point. I agree that that is the top tier. It's a lot of candidates, six of them that are really having a big impact on this race. Yes, the who is the real progressive is one of the major questions here. Mondaire Jones is getting a lot of national progressive attention. Of course, he has the endorsement of the congressional progressive caucus.

That's more of a national organization that's based in Washington at the capital and it's going to be interesting to see basically who the voters really decide is the real progressive here. Of course, they're also voting on so many other different issues here from everything from the boycott divest sanctions movement to who will be the most likely to support development, residential housing development in the district.

It's just a fascinating race. It's so rare that we get a truly open congressional seat in the heart of New York in Wall Street to Park Slope, to Brooklyn Heights, some very engaged, active voter bases that live there. Of course, now I have to also add that a big question for this one will be whether that engaged, active voter base does show up on an August primary.

We haven't had an August primary and I don't know, maybe never. Of course, that's prime time for people to be on vacations, especially in a very high-income district like this one. It's really gonna be reliant on who can turn out their own voters, make sure that their voters are casting ballots, whether it's absentee or in person for this 10th district race.

Brigid Bergin: Absolutely, turnout seems to be the real question across all of these races. Jeff, as we've been talking about this district does have some really Uber liberal pockets and some of the highest voter turnout in the city in more traditionally timed elections. They're also part of the district that are more conservative.

I'm thinking of portions of Borough Park, which includes one of the largest pockets of Jewish voters in the city, including a big community of Orthodox Jews. There was a forum among the many just last night at Congregation Beth Elohim. Are the candidates speaking to this community in specific ways?

Jeff Coltin: Oh, definitely. One of the interesting subplots of this 10th congressional district race has been the interviews that the candidates have done with the Hasidic Press, the Orthodox Jewish newspapers. We've seen a number of them kind of get called out for apparently giving different answers to the more conservative, Orthodox Jewish press than they might give to a more progressive political club or something like that. I won't get into the nitty-gritty specifics, but it's been very interesting to see that as these candidates do try and appeal to democratic voters, yes.

Across the political spectrum from your Working Families Party, aligned Democrats, all the way to much more conservative Democrats all over the district, of course, Borough Park does get a lot of attention. I'll say that Borough Park is actually basically split in half in this district. It's part of the neighborhood is yes. In the 10th part of the neighborhood is in the ninth. It's not going to be a huge factor, the population there because of that. It's a relatively small percentage. Still, when we're talking about 13 names on the ballot and at least 6 really serious candidates that could be getting big percentages here, every single vote counts and every percentage point. Borough Park has been a big attention grabber. Look, of course, there were conservative-leaning Democrats across the district.

Like I said, this includes Wall Street, this includes the financial district. There's conservatively new Democrats all across New York, even though the progressives have been getting a lot more attention, they're going to have a big say in this race too. It's not just a run to the left, as candidates are going to be looking for votes wherever they can get them.

Brigid Bergin: Well, let's talk about that look for votes wherever they can get them. As you mentioned, turnout is going to be a big issue, every single vote would count. This is obviously a solidly blue district. I have to admit, I reported this yesterday, still it blows me away to learn that we essentially have an open primary in New York in August, meaning any registered voter could opt to join whichever party, has the most interesting race in their district in this 10th District specifically.

You could be a Republican and join the Democratic Party for the day at Working Families Party voter and Unaffiliated voter, you could all register as a Democrat during early votingon primary day and have a say in this hotly contested 10th congressional primary. Emily, Jeff, are either of you seeing any signs that campaigns even know this and are trying to reach out voters beyond Democrats in this race?

Emily Ngo: I'd say that I don't immediately see signs of [unintelligible 00:11:46] The voting public should be grateful to you, Brigid, for shining a spotlight on this quirk. There is a candidate in the New York 10 primary who might gain from this loophole, and that's Maud Maron who is, for all intents purposes, more conservative Democrat.

She does have an audience on Fox News when she speaks about vaccinations, about masking. It's not all progressives on this ballot by any stretch of the imagination, there are some people who lean a little more centrist including Brian Robinson, or [unintelligible 00:12:24]. I'm sure we'll talk about this more when we look to the State Senate race as well, the role that Republicans might play. The campaigns don't seem aware of it. Now that they have become aware of it, I'm sure some will take advantage.

Jeff Coltin: I think the campaigns are aware of it now thanks again to your reporting, Brigid. Look, I got to say as a friend, but also a competitor, I was jealous of you finding this quirk in election law. It was impressive. Again, that said, I don't think this is going to have a big impact on the primary. There's very few people at all that are registered with the Working Families Party, the Working Families Party discourages people from even registering with them for various reasons.

Republicans, yes you can register as a Democrat to vote here, but then you're registered as a Democrat, you're stuck with it. You can't just go right back to being-- I guess you could go right back to being a Republican after six months or something. I think this is an interesting quirk. I think that at the absolute margins, this might have an effect of some independents decide to go and register.

This is going to be such a low turnout primary anyway. I don't foresee a groundswell of Republicans or independents or Working Families Party, Democrats registering as Democrats to vote in this one. As I said before, this could be a very close race. Maybe I'll be eating my own words if this race is decided by 50 votes, and it happens to be 50 Libertarians who decided to register at the last minute.

Brigid Bergin: Well, thank you for your feedback. I also want to credit a listener who was really the person who flagged this for me when I actually said something wrong on Monday and had sent me down this fascinating rabbit hole on Monday. Dale Barberia works for Amy Paulin, lives in New Rochelle, shout out to you again Dale for tweeting at me after our segment on Morning Edition.

To your point, Jeff, I think that it is one of those things that it's a real kind of have to shrug your shoulders and throw your hands up and say, "Maybe it'll make a difference because there's so many candidates, and a party change could actually influence," but is anyone paying attention? I certainly know that there are a lot of people who've been following these things for a long time that are very dubious of whether or not people are.

Listeners, again, I just want to let you know if you have a question about the upcoming August 23rd primary, please give us a call at 212-433-WNYC, that's 212-433-9692 or maybe you want to tell us something about what's happening in the race in your district, in your community that we haven't touched on yet. We'd love to hear that too. Again, the number 212-433-9692 or you can tweet @BrianLehrer.

Before we pivot to the other races, I need to ask you both, what are you going to be watching for in this 10th race between now and primary day? Is there a major endorsement that we're waiting to see? Could Mayor de Blasio who has since dropped out of the race play any role, supporting any of the candidates who are continuing to run? What's on your radar between now and really, I guess, August 13th, that's when people start to vote? Emily, how about you?

Emily Ngo: If we're talking about New York 10, again, I think it's amusing that here we are, the three of us colleagues, but also competitors trying to scoop each other and different stories from one another as well. In the 10th congressional district race, I'm looking to see what influence House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi might have. I know that Mondaire Jones is heavily dependent on the support of his colleagues in the House as it were as Jeff noted, the Progressive Caucus backing him.

I like to look into the Asian American electorate, as well as the Latino electorate. You would think that Asian Americans would get behind Yuh-Line Niou. Certainly she has a lot of that vote locked up in lower Manhattan. You would think that Latino voters, Latina voters would get behind Carlina Rivera, she has actually got the endorsement of Congressman Adriano Espaillat that came yesterday.

She has Nydia Velázquez in her corner, which is no small feat. These racial populations, they're not monoliths, they might vote a little more centrist, they might stay at home [unintelligible 00:17:09]. In general, on the same page as closely, just general outside influence, outside money, outside endorsements definitely want to take a look at that.

Brigid Bergin: How are you, Jeff?

Jeff Coltin: I'm waiting to see if the New York Times endorses. We all think that the New York Times had a big influence in the mayoral primary last year. They backed Kathryn Garcia, which was a real validator for her campaign. Kathryn Garcia did very well in this district in the primary after being endorsed by the Times. It'd be interesting to see if yes, that the paper's editorial board decides to endorse.

I think this is a very Times-heavy district, especially among the Democratic primary electorate. Looking to see where they go. Agreeing with Emily, interested to see if we get some outside money, if there's some Super PACs spending here. The Working Families Party might be throwing in a little bit of outside money for Yuh-Line Niou.

They're not a huge spender, but there's definitely some influence. I'm definitely interested to see where else the money could be coming in from outside influencers in this race. We haven't seen any spending yet as far as I know. We are about four weeks away from the primary, that spending will definitely ramp up in the last two weeks if we're going to see a lot of money coming in trying to influence voters.

Brigid Bergin: Absolutely. We're going to have to take a short break. We'll be back with more on this race and a look to Manhattan's 12th congressional contest [unintelligible 00:18:42], a few State Senate races, and your calls coming up. Stay tuned.

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Brigid Bergin: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, I'm Brigid Bergin from the WNYC in Gothamist newsroom, filling in for Brian Lehrer who is off today. My guests are New York politics reporters Emily Ngo from Spectrum NY1 and Jeff Coltin of City & State. I want to talk about the other big congressional race, New York 12, which since redistricting is now includes all of Manhattan, basically above 14th Street from East to West. Jeff, you were out on the first primary day back in June and happen to find yourself with two candidates in this race. Tell us who you were with, what that was like, and what you were hearing from voters.

Jeff Coltin: Yes, this is the battle of Titans. This is Carolyn Maloney versus Jerry Nadler. They have both been in office for 30 years, been in Congress for 30 years. Both were elected in 1992 which I will just note was before I was born,

and they are now running against each other. This is crazy. Neither of them have ever expected this. That was always traditionally, there was an east side district represented by Maloney and a west side district represented by Jerry Nadler, but redistricting chaos put them together and they are now running against each other.

As you mentioned at the top, also with Suraj Patel and Ashmi Sheth in the mix. With Suraj Patel, definitely a factor here. He has run the past two cycles against Maloney and gotten a good percentage of the vote. I should note. It's really not a two-person race, Patel is absolutely going to be getting a percentage here. Yes, I saw those two, the both of them Malone Nadler were joining up with Kathy Hochul on the first primary day. We should note if you were paying attention.

Yes, there was already a primary in June. We're having another primary in August for congressional and state Senate races. Malone and Nadler were both out with Hochul. Honestly, it was funny to watch. I have to say it was actually funny to see the two of them literally competing to talk to voters. One of them would shake a voter's hand. The other would kind of loom right behind them.

If there was a lull in conversation, jump right in and try and talk to the same voter. It's just a fascinating race to see these two long-tenured, highly regarded top of their careers, elected officials now having to run in a very competitive primary against each other. Yes, fascinating race here. This is upper east side, upper west side, all of Midtown Manhattan, basically down to 14th street, it's going to be a big money race.

Maloney has put in $900,000 of her own money, nearly a million dollars of her own money into this race. Nadler has a lot of money as well. Patel also fundraising. This is a big race and an interesting one to see as it also will come down to who can bring out their voters, who can bring out their base. They've got devoted voters on both sides of the park.

Brigid Bergin: Emily, identity politics seems to be a key factor in this contest in particular with Maloney, Nadler, and Patel, each making a pitch along those lines. How would you describe their different approaches? Do you get the sense that anyone is resonating over the other?

Emily Ngo: The question on who's resonating more than the other entirely depends on where in the district geographically, you're talking with voters and the prevailing sentiment among voters, among their fellow elected officials, whatever level of government is that it's sad that it's come to this, that one, or both of these Titans of Congress is going to no longer be in office next term.

In terms of identity politics, I'm not sure about that question, but I would say that it's very clear from their first television ads that they are both-- I'll speak for Maloney and Nadler vying for women voters or those who hold abortion rights and women's rights as priorities of theirs and see them under threat as the rest of the country might because Nadler has its ad narrated by Senator Elizabeth Warren. Maloney has an ad that serves pretty much as a review of her bio and talks about some of her early fights for women's rights.

Nadler is the last remaining Jewish member of Congress in the city. We could have another one depending-- We could have more depending on how some the other races shake out. He has a very loyal voter base on the upper west side, but Maloney also on the east side, and Suraj Patel, he is making the case that he's neither of these older members of Congress that even if they're in house leadership, it's time for fresh blood and he has his own platform to sell.

Brigid Bergin: I want to put in a plug, next Tuesday night, I'm going to join NY1's Errol Louis to moderate a debate among these three leading candidates in New York 12. It will be cosponsored by WNYC and Spectrum NY1, so you'll be able to hear it here on WNYC next Tuesday night, starting at seven. I think that will tell us a lot. I want to go to you Jeff quickly, just in terms of this pitch, that Patel is really making, Emily touched on it.

He's really leaning into this idea of generational change that these incumbents, who, again, as Emily mentioned, these are ranking members of Congress, the chair of the judiciary committee from Congressman Nadler, chair of house oversight and reform from Congress member Maloney. These are people who are in important positions within the party, within the delegation within the house itself, and yet his argument is that they had their chance. Are voters connecting with that, to the extent you've been out there talking to them?

Jeff Coltin: It is an interesting pitch, right? It's generational. Look, the electorate in this district is quite old you might say. This is the upper west side and the upper east side, they're naturally occurring retirement communities. It's fascinating to see him make this argument. Then again, this also does include voters who might be receptive of that, this district. It's an argument to make. Maloney is 76. Nadler is 75. Patel is somewhere around 40. I don't know exactly. He's significantly younger.

I think that this could be an argument that is receptive. You do hear a lot of criticism about the Democratic leadership being so old if we're talking about Pelosi and Biden and Schumer. I think that voters could be receptive here. Now I should note Patel is not only making the age argument. As you've said in fact recently he's coming out very harshly against Maloney accusing her of being anti-vax.

She really does have a record in the past of kind of questioning the efficacy of vaccines and whether they cause autism, they don't and Maloney has definitely moved away from that type of rhetoric in the past few years, no longer pedals in that but she certainly did. There's a real record of her being a vaccine skeptic.

Patel is going back into the archives and pointing towards that, and then also trying to knock Nadler for that saying, "Well, look, Nadler endorsed her all these years." Interesting argument to see her. Yes, of course, Maloney and Nadler are getting all the attention in this race but again, Patel is very much going to be a factor here.

Brigid Bergin: Lots to watch for in that debate next Tuesday night. I'm sure you will both be tuning in. I want to turn in our-- since we don't have too much time left to those state Senate contests, and I want to turn to a caller Charlie from Astoria, Queens who has really observed that there's been money pouring into the local state Senate race where he lives and has a question about that. Charlie, welcome to WNYC.

Charlie: Hi, thanks. Yes, so I live in Astoria part of this new district SD 59, which is kind of along the waterfront. It's got some Queens, it's got some Brooklyn, it's got some Manhattan. I have seen that this is a district I'm really proud to be in because it's very organized. We fought Amazon, we fought RNG, we fought in Sky Town against Blackstone, trying to build polluting stuff in Greenpoint.

They bought Exxon, who's got this huge oil spill. In the 59th district, one candidate Elizabeth Crowley seems to have raised $500,000, which is pretty bonkers. I looked into it and according to the city, something like $44,000 of that is from Republicans. That does not seem like normal for a Democratic Senate race. She's running against Kristen Gonzalez, who I know is like endorsed by AOC.

She's a long-time organizer in the district and really building on this movement stuff that we've been doing here like I participated a little in fighting [unintelligible 00:28:44] because I was near there in Asthma Alley. My question is, is this unusual for Republican donors who have supported anti-abortion effort to have funded people like Trump to drop all their money into these very progressive districts like this in hopes of preserving this Crowley dynasty or similar or is this like a new phenomenon that we're seeing?

Brigid Bergin: Well, Charlie, let's see if we can get some information from these reporters. Jeff, I know City & State as usual has a really great rundown tracking state Senate races to watch. What can you tell Charlie and our listeners about this open seat for the 59th state Senate district and whether this money means something?

Jeff Coltin: Appreciate the compliment. Yes, check out our state Senate primary tracker, and Charlie I think you're totally right about the dynamic here. The fact is that Liz Crowley is running against Kristin Gonzales, who is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and she

is a DSA member and that explains the Republican and more conservative money coming in here. I'm sure there's a lot of Republicans who would rather see a Republican represent this district, but that's never going to happen.

The best that they can get is a more moderate establishment-aligned Democrat like Crowley trying to keep out that DSA influence out of the State Senate. Right now, there's two DSA-endorsed state senators in the 63-member State Senate. It's small, but they have influence no doubt, Julia Salazar and Jabari Brisport. There's a lot of folks out there, conservatives, moderate Democrats who would like to see less influence, so yes, they are backing Crowley for that. It's really because of her opponent, because of Kristen Gonzalez. It's a very interesting race.

Brigid Bergin: Of course, Jeff, the DSA is the Democratic Socialists of America, which is an organization that's become really active, particularly since 2017 and 2018, backing candidates, including AOC and some of the folks you just mentioned. I noticed that Crowley picked up an endorsement from city council member, excuse me, from City Council Speaker, Adrienne Adams. That's certainly another sign that she is the county favorite, but do you think that's going to help her in this district?

Jeff Coltin: I would say no. Not really. I don't think a lot of people are taking their cues from the Council Speaker. All credit to her. That's a very powerful position, but this is a Western Queens, Northern Brooklyn, and a little section of StuyTown and the area around that in Manhattan. This isn't an area where Adrienne Adams personally represents.

This is more of her maybe helping some donors push towards Crowley again and her continuing to align herself with yes, county, the Queens Democratic Party, and Greg Meeks. Let's give credit to Crowley, it's not just Adrienne Adams, she has a lot of much more substantial endorsements, including labor unions and the Queens Democratic Party itself.

Crowley is running a very strong campaign. Kristen Gonzalez is running a very strong campaign in a district that has elected DSA candidates before like Emily Gallagher for assembly in Northern Brooklyn, Zohran Mamdani for assembly in Northern Queens, so very much a race to watch here as we see. DSA did not have a lot of success in the June assembly primaries. Only got one candidate elected in an Upstate district, so interesting to watch here and see if DSA is able to elect another member to the State Senate.

Brigid Bergin: Since we mentioned some of the coverage in city and state, we should talk about your cover story right now about the challenge facing State Senator Gustavo Rivera. That's, of course, District 33 in the Bronx, includes part of Northwestern Bronx from Riverdale to Van Nest. What's happening there?

Jeff Coltin: Sure. That's another one where we're seeing the local county organization, the Bronx Democratic Party, lining up behind one candidate. The difference here is that the Bronx Democratic Party is organizing against an incumbent. State Senator Gustavo Rivera has been in office for gosh, about a decade now, but because of redistricting, the districts changing, going back and forth, the Bronx Democratic Party is getting behind Miguelina Camilo.

She's an attorney, used to work at the Board of Elections and the Democratic Party and some union interests and some powerful elected officials, including Adriano Espaillat and Richie Torres, two members of Congress who both represent the district. They're all lining up behind Miguelina Camilo against the incumbent Gustavo Rivera.

Rivera, I should say is a progressive. He's not DSA-aligned, but he's a progressive and he's definitely been a rabble-rouser. He's definitely not always been a team player with the Bronx Dems and the establishment. They might be a little eager to get rid of him. They wouldn't mind if he lost. There's just so many dynamics going on in this race.

I'll just add one more dynamic and that is that Gustavo Rivera is Puerto Rican, born in Puerto Rico whereas Miguelina Camilo is a Dominican American. We've seen Adriano Espaillat, member of Congress, a Dominican immigrant himself, really working hard to elect more Dominican Americans in Upper Manhattan and the Western Bronx. This is just his latest race here where he's really throwing in a lot of political capital and trying to build Dominican political power. It's an interesting subplot to this race as we see a longtime incumbent try and hold on.

Brigid Bergin: We're, of course, running out of time and there are so many more races that I prepared to talk to you about, but let's give listeners just some top lines. Emily, what are some of the other State Senate races that you've kept your eye on that you think are races to be tuning into whether or not you live in the district?

Emily Ngo: I want to pick up on Jeff's Espaillat thread very quickly and note that in the 31st District State Senate, Espaillat has endorsed Angel Vasquez and so we'll see how the Congressman's clout shakes out. He's endorsed Vasquez against Robert Jackson, the incumbent there who has the backing of the UFT, the United Federation of Teachers. That could turn out to be an interesting one to watch in terms of how the racial demographics break down among the electorate.

There's also the 26th State Senate race, which is a Southern Brooklyn where Andrew Gounardes is facing David Yassky, the former city councilman, and whoever wins this Democratic primary is likely to go on the face of Brian Fox, the Republican who gave Justin Brannan, the city council member, high ranking now, a bit of a scare in the general election last year, almost unseated him and Gounardes, of course, is closely allied with Brannan. A lot of dynamics to watch in that race as well.

Brigid Bergin: Jeff, anything you'd add to that list?

Jeff Coltin: Sure. Another DSA race where DSA-endorsed David Alexis is trying to unseat State Senator Kevin Parker. That's Senate District 21. That's in central Brooklyn. Very much a race to watch there as, again, DSA tries to grow its influence. Kevin Parker, though, longtime incumbent. He's been in office since 2003 and has a lot of establishment backing, including the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, and a lot of money. It'll be definitely a difficult race for Alexis, but one to watch.

There's that one and of course, look, we got to look statewide as well. Down Long Island, there's some interesting races like Monica Martinez taking on Phil Ramos in the Democratic primary in the South Shore of Suffolk County. Then there's also a race in the North Shore of Staten Island. Diane Savino is retiring and we've got a bunch of candidates facing off there. There's interesting State Senate races really across the state.

Brigid Bergin: I want to just acknowledge. We had a couple of callers who had some election process questions that we weren't able to get to. Anne in Riverdale was asking how you can get an absentee ballot. Anne, you can go online to the New York City Board of Elections @vote.nyc and they have an absentee ballot portal where you can apply for one. The deadline to do that is August 8. You can also apply in person at the Board of Elections Office up through August 22nd, which is the day before primary day.

Those are the two dates to know for applying and receiving your absentee ballot. August 8th, the deadline to apply online or by letter or telefax, as the State Board of Elections still says on their website or to apply in person, August 22nd. I also want to acknowledge that I have seen this on Twitter and a caller called in to report to us that there appears to be a quirk on absentee ballots where on one side it says it's postage paid and on the other side, it says to apply postage.

We'll get you an answer on that. I don't have one right now, but I'm sure the New York City Board of Elections will have one for us and the New York State Board of Elections and we will get that out on our air and on our website and I'm sure would be other places in the media, so that you have the answer to that question. Jeff and Emily, I cannot let you go until you tell me, what do you scrounge for dinner?

Emily Ngo: I get home pretty late from work and usually my kids are already in bed, but I'll just eat whatever leftovers they left out on their little plastic table that they haven't eaten.

Brigid Bergin: That sounds delicious. Jeff?

Jeff Coltin: I am committed to a good New York meal of an apple with some sharp cheddar cheese. That is my go-to.

Brigid Bergin: That sounds delicious. Apple, sharp cheddar cheese, perhaps some chicken nuggets, and mac and cheese, Emily, I don't know. That sometimes is what's left over for my daughter. Thanks to you both for being here. So much more to do between now and August 13th and August 23rd and I can't wait to read all your reporting and talk to you again soon. Thanks to you both for being here.

Emily Ngo: Thank you.

Jeff Coltin: Thanks for having us on.

 

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