Sept 18 is the New Primary Day - Dates to Know
by: SteveWFP(Good stuff here. - promoted by lipris)
Now that the Governor has signed legislation moving New York's Primary Election to September 18, here are some new key dates:
- June 12: First day to sign petitions
- July 16 - 19: Days when petitions can be filed
- July 23: Last day to file "Wilson Pakulas"
- September 18: Primary Election
- September 20 - 28: Judicial District Conventions
The Board of Elections has an election calendar (pdf) with more of the dates candidates will need to know.
Here's a quick explanation:
Candidates need to petition their way on to the ballot. Those petitions need to be collected within a specified time period that starts June 12th and ends July 19th. If a candidate wants to be cross endorsed by a party that they're not a member of, the appropriate committee of that party needs to issue a "Wilson Pakula" to that candidate (this is what allows fusion candidates). Then the primary election happens on September 18.
Supreme Court Judges, interestingly enough, aren't nominated directly. Instead, delegates are elected on primary day, and those delegates nominate the party's candidate for Supreme Court Judge at the party's Judicial District Convention, which now takes place between September 20 and September 28. This process for nominating Supreme Court Judges has been challenged in court, so there may be more changes next year.
Working Families Party Chapters are interviewing candidates now. More information on the WFP nomination process here.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Room 8 and The Albany Project 5/30/2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The Albany Project 5/29/2007
Family Leave Roundtable on Long Island
by: SteveWFP(Very cool. - promoted by lipris)
"We don't live in the 1950s anymore. With both parents working, we need policies in place that support couples when they decide to start a family or need to take time off to care for an ailing parent. That's what the Working Families Time to Care Act would do."That's Suffolk County Legislator Kate Browning (D-WFP), speaking at last Friday's Family Leave Roundtable in Mastic on Long Island. The roundtable was put together by the Working Families Party to give working parents who have wrestled with the decision of how soon to return to their jobs after having a child the chance to talk about the need for better state family leave policies to care for new kids and ailing relatives.
Here's retired probation officer Regina Corby-Graham of Mastic speaking at the roundtable:
Ann Seifried of South Huntington, an economic development officer for manufacturing jobs, added,
"I shouldn't have to choose between my responsility to my job and my responsbility to my daughter. I have to do right by both, and our policies should reflect that."Here's more from Ann:
The Working Families Party supports the Working Families Time to Care Act, which would allow working families to take care of each other in times of need without risking financial hardship.
Suffolk County Legislator Kate Browning (D-WFP) spoke about her own experiences and about the Working Families Time to Care Act:
Show your support by signing our card with a message. This is your chance to tell your state legislators it's time to give paid time off to parents of newborns (or newly adopted children) and adults who need time to care for ailing relatives.
Monday, May 28, 2007
NYC IndyMedia 5/28/2007
Report Back: 5/23 New York Is Our Home Rally and March
An estimated 7,000 people from dozens of community oganizations rallied and marched from Stuy-Town to Union Village on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, May 23rd, and estimated 7,000 people, representing over 90 community and tenant organizations tenant rallied outside of Stuyvesant Town for the launch of the New York is Our Home Affordable Housing Campaign.
The rally started at 5pm with groups taking positions in the streets surrounding Stuyvesant Town and Peter Copper Village (14th Street to 23rd Street, between 1st Avenue and Avenue C). The goal of the “Hands Around Stuy Town” rally was to gather enough people to form a human chain around the housing complex. I stood with a group on 18th Street and Avenue C, where there was a shortage of demonstrators until 5:30 or so. At approximately 5:45, the demonstrators joined hands, achieving the human chain.
Demonstrators then marched across 14th Street to Union Square Park. Signs reading "Save Our Homes" were plentiful as well as chants of "Affordable Housing Now!" and "Si Se Puede" (Yes We Can!). The range of groups represented at the event became much more clear during the march, as the participating groups intermingled. Groups representing each borough and dozens of neighborhoods were present: the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association, GOLES, ACORN, the Working Families Party, and many, many more.>
The scene was relatively calm as marchers filed down 14th Street, with two lanes of the north side closed to car traffic. The police were, as far as I saw, well behaved and only interfered with demonstrators who seemed to wander toward the south side of the street. I reached the end of the march, at 17th Street and Union Square East, at 6:30pm.
The New York is Our Home Campaign website (
http://newyorkisourhome.blogspot.com) includes a summary of the event and details some of the Campaign's upcoming actions including a project to map rent hikes across the city and a trip to Albany on June 5th to lobby for statewide housing reform legislation.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Housing Works AIDS Update 5/25/2007
RING OF IRE
Activists surround Stuy Town to save affordable housing (but where's the media on the HIV rent-cap demand?); HASA for All campaign keeps on going
What a shame! What a pity! We can't live in New York City!
So cheered some 5,000 to 7,000 New Yorkers at the "Hands Across Stuyvesant Town" rally that launched the New York Is Our Home affordable housing campaign on Wednesday, May 23. It's not clear whether the rally's gimmick—forming a human chain around the massive middle-income Stuyvesant Town complex—really happened — but the event attracted a diverse crowd of passionate tenant's rights, housing, and homeless advocates, including HIV/AIDS organizations like Housing Works and the New York City AIDS Housing Network. A handful of pols turned out, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, City Comptroller William Thompson, HIV-positive State Senator Tom Duane and State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried.
The march called attention to the problem of the shrinking supply of affordable housing in New York and demanded a handful of reforms, including ending rent destabilization and protecting and expanding Section 8 and Mitchell-Lama housing. Unfortunately, mainstream press failed to mention one of the campaign's other demands: a statewide cap of 30 percent on the amount of money low-income HIV-positive people must put toward their rent. (Then again, the New York Times didn't even cover the demo.) New York is Our Home hits Albany on June 5 to push for Mitchell-Lama reform and is creating a map of rent increases (help 'em out with it).
[post edited for length; read the rest here]
Thursday, May 24, 2007
From the Frontline 5/24/2007
Affordable Rent March and Rally A Success
Staff from Strycker's Bay attended yesterday's March and Rally organized by a coalition of housing groups, the NYC Central Labor Council, & the Working Families Party -- New York Is Our Home -- Affordable Rent Campaign is working to
- Repeal vacancy decontrol
- Preserve Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 housing
- Stop unfair rent increases and harassment
- Ensure adequate State and City funding for public housing
- Limit rental payments for all people living with AIDS to 30% of income
For more information about New York Is Our Home go to:
http://newyorkisourhome.blogspot.com/
Politicker 5/24/2007
Ed Ott Gets Going on Affordable Housing
Practically every major Democrat in the city was at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue yesterday afternoon to announce the formation of a what they say is the largest housing coalition in the city’s history.
The group, New York Is Our Home, includes labor and tenant groups, the Working Families Party and others.
The most heated rhetoric (video here) came from the Central Labor Council's Ed Ott, who said, "The price of housing in this city is effectively theft" and that affordable housing units, like the ones in Stuyvesant Town behind him, "are being stolen by the greed of developers and the market."
Which drew applause and energetic head nods from the crowd of elected officials behind him.
In attendance at the rally were Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Betsy Gotbaum, Tom Duane, John Sabini, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Keith Wright, Jonathan Bing, Linda Rosenthal, Dan Garodnick, Eric Gioia and Charles Barron, among others. Most of them spoke but none matched Ott’s directness.After the speeches, the group formed a human chain around Stuy Town, which is several blocks long, and marched down to Union Square.
UPDATE: Adolfo Carrion, Brian Kavanagh and Adam Clayton Powell IV also attended.
Daily Intelligencer 5/24/2007
Hands Across the East Village
Proving that everything eighties is hot again, an estimated 7,000 New York City tenants and tenant activists formed a human chain around the massive, recently sold, increasingly rent-destabilized Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village apartment complex last night — it's Hands Across the East Village! — to protest rising rents and demand state laws to protect affordable housing. But did they really, really ring that big old thing, which stretches from 14th to 23rd Streets and First Avenue to Avenue C?
"It wasn't exactly even, but we did pretty much get a full encirclement, or circle, or whatever," reported Chloe Tribich of New York Is Our Home, a new campaign that kicked off with the rally. "I ran around it." Another organizer, Jennifer Flynn of New York City AIDS Housing Network, credited a few last-minute busloads of folks from Brooklyn ACORN with filling in the major gaps near 23rd and C. And the activist-y Rude Mechanical Orchestra provided marching-band accompaniment.
Everyone then marched toward Union Square, led by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and a gaggle of council members. (Other boldfacers on hand included Comptroller Bill Thompson, teachers' union chief Randi Weingarten, Central Labor Council titan Ed Ott, and state legislators Tom Duane and Richard Gottfried.) Organizers say the shindig came off without incident — apparently so, because, when contacted, the NYPD media desk said it hadn’t even heard about it. New York Is Our Home's next effort will come on June 5, when the gang is scheduled to descend on Albany to get the Senate to vote for a law protecting Mitchell-Lama affordable housing, according to organizer Julie Miles. (Another goal: stripping landlords of the ability to de-control units once they’re vacated.) "We're at a boiling-point moment," Miles said. "I think people are ready to make this issue a litmus test for officials."
John Marsh certainly is. One of the 2,000-odd complex residents at yesterday’s ring-in, the data-security consultant has lived there all his life and suspects that Tishman-Speyer, the new owner, wants to separate him from his $1,250-a-month, rent-stabilized apartment. Now that even market-rate tenants are seeing 33 percent rent hikes, the whole complex is uniting against fear of a co-op conversion, he said. "It's completely out of control," he added, noting that, in a fantasy, he inhabits an 1800s converted townhouse in the West Village. Don't we all?
