Primary School 4/11
It's Brandon's world now and we're all living in it
Results
Chicago Mayor
After a competitive, highly charged runoff campaign, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson defeated former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas by a margin that currently stands at four percentage points, and may widen to 5% when all mail ballots are counted. Johnson assembled a multiracial coalition of Black voters on the South and West Sides, Latino voters on the Southwest and Near Northwest Sides, and left-leaning white voters on the Near Northwest Side and the Far North Side lakefront, with youth turnout through the roof compared to the first round. Progressive movement politics won—not just with Johnson, himself a Chicago Teachers Union organizer, but also with a slate of aldermanic candidates who won runoff elections in Johnson-voting wards.
Chicago City Council
On the South Side, community organizer Desmon Yancy eked out a narrow victory over tough-on-crime crusader Tina Hone in Ward 5, and pastor/organizer William Hall comfortably defeated police officer Richard Wooten in Ward 6; along the lakefront, DSA-endorsed housing activist Angela Clay easily beat Walgreens executive Kim Walz in Ward 46, and Johnson-endorsed progressive activist Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth narrowly won over machine- and labor-backed developer Joe Dunne in Ward 48. More traditional machine-friendly candidates Lamont Robinson and Ronnie Mosley won the open South Side Wards 4 and 21 over Prentice Butler and Cornell Dantzler, respectively, but both winners were the clear preference of Chicago progressives and both made commitments to progressive policy priorities like the Treatment Not Trauma campaign. Conservatives gained one seat with Peter Chico’s victory in Ward 10, but centrist Alds. Nicole Lee in Ward 11 and Timmy Knudsen in Ward 43 fended off challenges from their right in wards even more conservative and Vallas-friendly than Ward 10. Sadly, they weren’t the only incumbent alderpersons to survive runoffs; every incumbent who was forced into a runoff won. That means nepotism case Monique Scott in Ward 24, squishy moderate cop Chris Taliaferro in Ward 29, failed centrist congressional candidate Gil Villegas in Ward 36, and absolutely unhinged conservative Jim Gardiner in Ward 45 will also be returning to the council. Finally, in what might have been the most confusing runoff of the night, Vallas-voting Ward 30 was won by college administrator Ruth Cruz, the choice of organized labor and outgoing Ald. Ariel Reboyras, over Jessica Gutiérrez, the daughter of former Rep. Luis Gutiérrez who challenged Reboyras four years ago. Despite the Reboyras connections, Cruz became the choice of progressives in the runoff (DSA endorsee Warren Williams placed third) and made plenty of policy commitments to match her newfound allies on the left, while Gutiérrez…did not, so it’s good that Cruz won.
Mayor Johnson will not have a progressive majority on the city council; he’ll still need the votes of more moderate alderpersons to implement the bolder parts of his agenda. However, the progressive bloc on the incoming city council is larger and more cohesive than the outgoing council’s fractious, disorderly progressive grouping, and plenty of the council’s returning moderates are transactional types who might be persuaded to vote for Johnson agenda items like increased social services, nonviolent first responders, and taxes on the rich—so long as they and their wards get something out of the deal. Chicago progressives are feeling great for good reason: they have a larger share of the city council than they’ve had in decades, and one of their own as mayor.
Suburban Chicago Mayors
In the Chicago suburbs, mayoral elections did not live up to the standard set by the big city. De facto Republican Scott Wehrli won the open, nonpartisan mayoral race in Naperville, where Joe Biden got 62% of the vote in 2020, defeating de facto Democrat Benny White, a city councilman, 53%-45%. Car dealership owner Terry D’Arcy, who was backed by a very odd coalition of nurses, firefighters, and police unions, beat incumbent Mayor Bob O’Dekirk in Joliet 61%-30%; the race was nonpartisan, and focused less on policy differences than on O’Dekirk’s…personal issues, which ranged from the time O’Dekirk, a former Joliet cop, assaulted two Black Lives Matter protesters; to the time his opponents on the city council cooked up an elaborate scheme to frame him for leaking an opposing councilman’s nudes. And in Elgin, moderate Democratic incumbent Mayor Dave Kaptain held off a challenge from City Councilman Corey Dixon, who had advocated for police reform in his time on the council.
Denver
Denver contains multitudes. The mayoral race is set for a runoff between former state Sen. Mike Johnston, who placed first with 24.4% of the vote, and former Denver Chamber of Commerce CEO Kelly Brough, who placed second with 20.0%. Johnston and Brough were two worst credible candidates who weren’t open Republicans; Lisa Calderón, the candidate with the clearest claim to the progressive mantle in the race, came in third with 18.2%, less than two points from overtaking Brough, while open Republican Andy Reugeot and vaguely progressive state Rep. Leslie Herod were the only others to crack double digits with 11.5% and 10.7%, respectively. Bleak!
But at the same time, in the at-large city council race, progressive state Rep. Selena Gonzales-Gutierrez and DSA-backed labor lawyer Sarah Parady came in first and second with 20.6% and 16.6%—sending them straight to the city council, because the two at-large city council seats are elected without runoffs, unlike other Denver municipal offices. In more bad news, incumbent moderates Amanda Sandoval (District 1), Kevin Flynn (District 2), and Amanda Sawyer (District 5) fended off challengers of varying degrees of seriousness and progressiveness, and moderate Diana Romero Campbell beat DSA- and labor-backed opponent Tony Pigford in District 4. Progressive-ish tech startup guy Nick Campion and moderate developer Flor Alvidrez are headed to a runoff in District 7; Alvidrez placed first with 38.5% and starts as the favorite over Campion, who came in a distant second with 19.2%. In District 8, DSA-backed RTD Director Shontel Lewis placed first with 35.7%; she’ll face extremely annoying, vague-beyond-parody moderate Brad Revare, who got 33.5%, in a runoff. In District 9, socialist incumbent Candi CdeBaca placed first with 44.2%; she’ll face baggage-laden moderate Darrell Watson, who got 42.9%. And in District 10, incumbent Chris Hinds, squeezed by challengers to his left and his right, collected a weak 35.6%, with DSA-backed opponent Shannon Hoffman taking second place at 27%.
Wisconsin
The incredible surge in Democratic turnout caused by the state Supreme Court race (won by liberal Janet Protasiewicz in an 11-point rout) had a very neat side effect of absolutely wrecking moderates and conservatives running for unrelated local offices. Bill Brash, the conservative, de facto Republican chief judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, originally appointed to the bench by Scott Walker, lost 68%-31% to Democratic Party-backed labor lawyer Sara Geenen in District 1, coterminous with Milwaukee County. His attempts to fool voters with appeals to the election’s technically nonpartisan nature went nowhere. Republican-collaborating Democratic state Sen. Lena Taylor lost her race for a Milwaukee municipal judgeship to progressive legal aid attorney Molly Gena by a narrower 51%-48% margin. And special elections for three seats on Milwaukee’s city council ended in victories for teachers union-backed city employee Andrea Pratt over former Assemb. David Bowen in District 1, tough-on-crime moderate Lamont Westmoreland over small businesswoman Annette Jackson in District 5, and repeat candidate Larresa Taylor over war-on-drugs enthusiast Odell Ball in District 9. Not a perfect sweep for progressives, who didn’t really have a candidate in District 5 (or District 9, for that matter), but a pretty bad night for moderates, who managed to fumble District 9 and the Taylor-Gena contest, races where they had clear advantages.
Kansas City, MO
The first round of Kansas City, Missouri’s municipal elections produced few surprises; many races were essentially meaningless, as all races in Kansas City go to a second round, even those with only two candidates. The biggest surprise might have been in one of those beauty-pageant races: progressive incumbent Brandon Ellington was far, far behind challenger Melissa Patterson Hazley for his at-large council seat, trailing her 63%-37%. Patterson Hazley ran as a progressive and had organized labor’s support, but she also had broad backing from business and the city establishment; the race for this at-large seat seems to be more about Ellington’s personality than any sort of ideological divide. KC Tenants Power, a coalition of tenants’ unions that has emerged as the leading left-wing force in city politics, stayed out of the race entirely, finding cause for concern in neither candidate’s issue positions but objecting to Patterson Hazley’s backing from big business and objecting to Ellington’s unwillingness to work with anyone but himself.
In races where the first round did matter, the results were as follows. In the At-Large 1 race, incumbent Kevin O’Neill got 65% and a runoff with conservative realtor Ronda Smith, who got 20%; the remaining 15% went to Republican former Clay County Commissioner Pam Mason. In the At-Large 2 race, centrist Lindsay French got 47% and progressive tenant organizer Jenay Manley got 34%; third-place finisher Mickey Younghanz, a Republican who spent all his time attacking Manley, got 18%. French is a clear favorite in the runoff. In the At-Large 4 race, centrist prosecutor Crispin Rea and centrist businessman Justin Short made the runoff with 36% and 21%, respectively; the other three candidates were even more conservative, making this outcome the best-case scenario. In the At-Large 5 race, establishment-favored retired union steward Darrell Curls, progressive urbanist Michael Kelley, and Republican Theresa Cass Galvin all finished in the thirties: 36% for Curls, 33% for Kelley, and 31% for Cass Galvin. In the At-Large 6 race, liberal incumbent Andrea Bough got 61% and a runoff with retired teacher Jill Sasse, the less-funded of the two conservatives who challenged her; Sasse got 21%, while Mary Nestel, the better-funded conservative with police union backing, got 17%. In District 4, liberal incumbent Eric Bunch won 55%; his runoff opponent will be conservative former Democratic state Rep. Henry Rizzo, who got 25%, and not liberal ex-Bunch staffer Crissy Dastrup, who got 20%. In District 6, anti-abortion conservative former Jackson County Board member Dan Tarwater was able to ride his existing name recognition to 46%; progressive KC Tenants Power organizer Johnathan Duncan got 24%, and should be able to pick up most of the eliminated candidates’ voters, since all of them were liberal to progressive.
St. Louis
Progressives had a great night in St. Louis. Progressive incumbent Ald. Anne Schweitzer fended off conservative Tony Kirchner in relatively conservative Ward 1, progressive Ald. Bret Narayan beat centrist fellow Ald. Joe Vaccaro in Ward 4, progressives Daniela Velázquez and Alisha Sonnier easily won the open Wards 6 and 7, progressive Ald. Shameem Clark Hubbard beat realtor Emmett Coleman in Ward 10, and progressive state Rep. Rasheen Aldridge defeated conservative realtor Ebony Washington, the latest scion of a local political dynasty, in the open Ward 14. Moderate incumbent Tom Oldenburg beat Republican Phill Menendez in Ward 2, moderate incumbent Joe Vollmer beat progressive Helen Petty in Ward 5, moderate-ish Ald. Cara Spencer crushed former Ald. Kenneth Ortmann in Ward 8, Ald. Laura Keys crushed perennial candidate Carla Wright in Ward 11, moderate Ald. Sharon Tyus sadly fended off progressive Tashara Earl in Ward 12, and Ald. Pamela Boyd beat fellow Ald. Norma Walker in the incumbent-on-incumbent battle in Ward 13. Progressive Ward 3 Ald. Shane Cohn was unopposed.
Despite Ald. Tina Pihl’s past as a candidate on progressive Board President Megan Green’s 2021 “Flip the Board” campaign, it’s her defeat in Ward 9 that gives progressives their eighth vote, and the majority, on the board—we described Pihl as a progressive in our preview, but we missed that in the late stages of the race against challenger Michael Browning, Pihl leaned hard into defund-the-police fearmongering, attacking Browning for wanting to disarm traffic cops and reallocate police funding. Voters rewarded her for her sudden conversion from progressive to centrist by voting for Browning, 63%-36%.
Los Angeles City Council District 6
Marco Santana, the leading progressive candidate for this San Fernando Valley seat, missed the runoff after taking 19% of the vote. Instead, the next member of the Council will be either Imelda Padilla, who finished first with 26% of the vote, or Marisa Alcaraz, who got 21%. Alcatraz is chief of staff to Councilman Curren Price, and has the support of both him and Councilmember Heather Hutt, while Padilla is a former staffer to Nury Martinez, the disgraced City Council President whose resignation kicked off this election.
Early Q1 2023 Fundraising
It’s not yet FEC Week, but fundraising numbers are starting to trickle out ahead of the April 15 filing deadline.
Adam Schiff (CA-Sen): $6.5 million
Katie Porter (CA-Sen): $4.5 million
Barbara Lee (CA-Sen): $1.4 million
Lateefah Simon (CA-12): $300,000
Mike Feuer (CA-30): $657,000
Nick Melvoin (CA-30): $550,000
Sandra Cano (RI-01): $125,000
Sabina Matos (RI-01): $105,000 + $20,000 self funding
Nick Autiello (RI-01): $93,000 + $12,000 self funding
Allen Waters (RI-01): $3,800
Pervez Agwan (TX-07): $100,000
News
AZ-03
Last week, both of the anticipated progressive candidates, state Sen. Raquel Terán and Phoenix City Councilmember Yassamin Ansari, officially entered the race for Phoenix’s open 3rd Congressional district. As we detailed when the district first opened up, both represent progressive factions of their respective corners of politics, but, while Ansari often butts heads with Phoenix’s establishment, Terán was on good enough terms with state party leaders to be elected party chair. Where progressives will flock to is hard to say as of now. Terán seems like the sure bet, but Ansari reads to most as to Terán’s left. Neither candidate has unveiled a platform or announced any endorsements yet, and the yawning expanse of time ahead of us until the primary late next summer incentivizes everyone to put themselves into a holding pattern as the candidates strike out clearer ideological positions. Ansari will likely have to show a clear distinction between herself and Terán to convince progressives to drop a sure thing.
CA-31
State Sen. Bob Archuleta is a 77-year-old moderate with a weak electoral record: he advanced as the only Democrat out from the primary by scraping together 55% of the Democratic vote as an incumbent, and that was a commanding performance compared to 2018. In most districts with a Democratic incumbent, him filing to run, as he did in the 31st this week, would be a curiosity, but that incumbent is Grace Napolitano, a checked-out incumbent of 26 years who would be 90 at her next inauguration should she run again. We hope this is just Archuleta idly laying the groundwork in case Napolitano retires, and not a sign there’s about to be a primary where we’re going to have to root for her.
NJ-Gov
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop announced his long-expected campaign for governor in 2025. Fulop isn’t exactly a progressive, but given the field of alternatives he’s likely to be one of the better options on the ballot. He’s off to a rocky start: his launch video, which is terrible, opens with 9/11 footage. Fulop quit his job at Goldman Sachs to join the Marine Corps because of 9/11, which is why it’s in the video, but using 9/11 footage in campaign materials is in unbelievably poor taste, especially when you’re running for governor of a state where plenty of primary voters were working in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. Just don’t do that shit. It’s never a good idea.
RI-01
Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera has taken herself out of contention. Though there was speculation about her intentions, she hadn't publicly said anything about running before this, and, while there isn't any Central Falls politician in the election currently, state Sen. Sandra Cano represents neighboring Pawtucket and is married to Rivera's immediate successor, James Diossa. In a crowded special election like this it's important to have a unified geographic base, and Rivera probably wasn't going to be able to.
Former state Rep. Aaron Regunberg made his campaign official, something he stopped just inches from doing recently. Investor Don Carlson is planning on jumping in as well on April 16. Carlson is a venture capitalist and former Goldman Sachs legal department chief of staff, from during the runup to when they helped destroy the US economy. We’re going to take a wild guess that his politics lean moderate.
CA-SD-39
Now that Nathan Fletcher is no longer running for the 39th Senate district, all bets are off for this open seat in San Diego. The first major candidate to announce is Assemb. Akilah Weber. Weber is a nepotism case, practically inheriting her mother Shirley's Assembly seat in 2021 when Shirley was appointed Secretary of State. Despite the context of her entry to the Assembly, her actual voting record in the body has been quite progressive. While not the best progressives could do in San Diego, the city doesn't exactly produce lefty firebrands on the regular, and she's a huge improvement on former Republican (and currently not allowed near female staffers) Nathan Fletcher.
GA-HD-56
Meisha Mainor isn’t quite the worst Democrat in Georgia’s state legislature, an honor that goes to anti-choice hardliner Mack Jackson in rural Central GA, but she is a solid second. Mainor, whose support of charter schools we highlighted in 2022’s Georgia primary preview, has drifted further and further from the party’s mainstream on not only schooling, but criminal justice reform as well. Recently, an effort to bleed public schools dry by providing every child with a $6,500 private school voucher very nearly made it into law, failing only after a small number of rural Republicans voted against it. Mainor was to their right on the issue, proudly voting for the effort, saying that "[p]arents in my district are fed up." The “with public schools” was implied. Mainor’s vote was so outrageous that state Sen. Josh McLaurin posted a $1,000 check, filled out in all but name to be given to Mainor’s next opponent.
Not everyone wants her gone. Multiple Republicans have signaled their support for Mainor, of course. Beyond them, state Rep. Eric Allen, the Cobb County Democratic Party Chair (Mainor’s district is entirely in Fulton County) has taken the position that criticism of this vote is misogynistic, and argued that her critics should be silent about her votes, reasoning that Mack Jackson was the deciding vote for an abortion ban and didn’t receive this kind of backlash. Allen is lying through his teeth: when Jackson made that vote, party leaders immediately pledged to support a primary challenger, and Jackson did have to fend one off the next year. Additionally, Jackson was not the deciding vote as Allen claims, but that point is almost immaterial compared to how false the larger point is. Mainor is leaning into her new-found notoriety, spreading around a Change.org petition to fire the head of Atlanta’s schools.
Allegheny County Executive, DA
This cycle, progressives in Allegheny County have been excited about two candidates for county office: Sara Innamorato for Executive and Matt Dugan for District Attorney. Last week, that became official at a press conference where a wide array of progressive unions and other political groups endorsed both, including the SEIU, Working Families Party, One Pennsylvania, and PA United.
Our first polling of the race comes from a conservative consortium of business and building trades groups, Pittsburgh Works Together. WESA's Chris Potter got his hands on a copy of the poll, which, by the sounds of it, PWT wasn't trying to make public. Performed a month ago by Public Opinion Strategies, the poll shows County Treasurer John Weinstein leading with 28%, Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb at 24%, and Innamorato taking 17%. Immediately it's clear why this poll hasn't seen the light of day until now: PWT are supporters of John Weinstein, who has a huge financial advantage in the race and was already running TV ads when the poll was fielded, while Lamb and Innamorato only started recently. Indeed, the poll recorded her name recognition under 50%, while Weinstein and Lamb were both over 75%. From that perspective, 28% is a weak lead and, even worse, suggests that the appetite for Weinstein just isn't that strong.
Houston Mayor, City Controller
Chris Hollins, member of the Houston Metro Transit Authority, has exited the mayoral election and moved over to the Controller race instead. Hollins raised over $1 million in his campaign, but never found much traction, and there was apparently pressure on him to leave once U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee entered the race, owing to fear that Hollins, who is Black, would split the Black vote. His exit leaves Jackson Lee with only one Black opponent, City Councilor Amanda Edwards.
While Hollins may have entered an election with less competition, that doesn’t mean he’s going to get it handed to him, since City Councilmembers Michael Kubosh and Dave Martin are already running. Hollins’s entry does at least add a Democrat to the pack, since both are Republicans.
Los Angeles City Council District 14
The recall attempt against City Councilmember Kevin de León has failed in its signature gathering efforts. While another could technically be begun, the logistics of it would require time for a new effort to file, gather signatures, go through a verification process, and only then could an election even be scheduled, which would then need more time as a buffer. Realistically, this would place the recall close enough to the regularly scheduled primary for this seat next summer that activists are probably just going to prefer beating de León there.
The failure of the recall may have bought Kevin de León another year, but his reelection prospects remain bleak. The first politician attempting to take advantage of this is Miguel Santiago, a termed out state Assemblymember who represents part of CCD6, namely Boyle Heights and Chinatown, and lives near Kevin de León (which is to say, outside of the district.) Santiago has a progressive voting record but isn’t a leader in that regard, having used his decade in the Assembly for nothing special. Santiago would be better in the Council than de León, but in a district like this with a promising track record in recent elections, the clock is now on for the grassroots left to put up a candidate.
Minneapolis City Council District 5
DFL Caucuses are underway for City Council races. Despite being nonpartisan elections, all districts are heavily Democratic, and DFL endorsements matter greatly because they unlock party resources. While these caucuses have been the site of drama before, this year’s may already have reached a high water mark. Conservative pastor Victor Martinez ran against progressive Jeremiah Ellison (son of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison), coming in third with 25% of the vote, and getting knocked out of the RCV tabulation in third round, doing barely better, at 29%. He’s running again and is trying to win the party endorsement, by any means possible. Martinez signed up a massive slate of 514 caucus delegates, only to immediately be questioned as to why 358 of them all signed up using the same IP address, and how he managed to “throw out” the paperwork for all of them. After the party voted not to seat those delegates, Martinez went nuclear, emailing the phone number and email address of Minneapolis party chair Briana Rose Lee to all of his supporters, causing her to receive dozens of phone calls and at least one death threat. She has successfully obtained a restraining order against Martinez as a result.
NYC Council District 9
Have you heard? Florida Man Arrested. Donald Trump, currently unemployed and living in a country club, is now in legal trouble in Manhattan. We don’t blame you for missing this news story, it got buried. However, it has been pretty big news locally in Manhattan, which has turned the spotlight on one Manhattan running for office: Yusef Salaam, best known as one of the falsely convicted and imprisoned Central Park 5 (Salaam now prefers “Exonerated 5”), was the target of a vicious public smear campaign in the 1980s, including by Donald Trump, who took out a full page ad in the New York Times calling for the arrest of the five. Trump’s arrest, and for crimes he actually committed (allegedly, in our opinion, etc.) is a moment of vindication for Salaam, and has shined a spotlight on his campaign for the 9th City Council district, currently held by Kristin Richardson Jordan.
Richardson Jordan ran as a socialist for the Council, but lacked the DSA’s endorsement, and has since feuded with the group, preferring to align herself more with Councilmember Charles Barron. She’s also received criticism for blocking a proposed apartment complex of 900 units, half of which were affordable, citing concerns that it was too tall and had too many apartments, an outcome that she still finds worse than the parking depot in its place, taking a stance that less market rate housing was itself a positive good. Richardson Jordan barely defeated an incumbent in 2021 who had advanced dementia, and it is by this point common wisdom that she’s a rare incumbent in the Council vulnerable this year. Two state assemblymembers are running against her, Al Taylor and Inez Dickens, both of whom would return the seat to establishment hands. If Richardson Jordan can’t keep this seat, then Yusef Salaam is the only candidate who can keep it out of moderate hands. Kristin Richardson Jordan has dismissed his candidacy, saying "I think we have enough millionaires in office already. That is part of the problem," apparently referencing the $41 million settlement given to the Exonerated 5 after they were released as compensation for the time they spent imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit.
Philadelphia Mayor
Philadelphia has had a rollercoaster of a week. The biggest news is, of course, City Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez dropping out of the race. Quiñones Sánchez was struggling with raising money, but has represented most of the city’s majority-Latine neighborhoods since 2007 and was the only candidate running ads in Spanish. While Quiñones Sánchez may no longer be running, March 22 was the last day she could have chosen to take her name off the ballot, so she will remain.
Last week was also the point where Phildadelphia’s Black establishment really coalesced around Cherelle Parker. Rep. Dwight Evans, along with the leaders of mostly Black Northwest wards, endorsed Parker, joining four Black state representatives and two (Sharif Street and Vincent Hughes) of the city’s four Black state senators (progressive Art Haywood and 2019 mayoral candidate Anthony Williams did not join them). Parker is also getting support from some of the city’s white, moderate, northeast establishment, including both of their state senators, and trade unions (Electricians Local 98 added to the stack this week).
The campaign finance reports of the first quarter have been filed, giving us a glimpse of the health of various campaigns. As expected, the leader in the money race was rich guy Allan Domb, whose $2 million of self funding allowed him to end the quarter with the most money in the bank ($1.7M) despite spending more than anyone else. Surprisingly, second place goes to Helen Gym, who has $1.4M on hand, thanks to raising $767,000 and spending less than all other major candidates except for Derek Green, whose status as a “major” candidate is dubious. Rebecca Rhynhart, who raised $642,000, spent over $800,000 and wound up well behind Gym, with $853,000 in the bank. Trailing only slightly, at $609,000 raised and $607,000 in the bank, is Cherelle Parker. Jeff Brown is an odd case, raising $2,000,000 and not even self funding, but burning through money so quickly that he has only $408,000 in the bank, which is especially problematic for him given the next paragraph. Derek Green rounds out the pack at $303,000 on hand.
We expected the biggest campaign finance news of the week to be the Q1 reports coming in, but then the Philadelphia Board of Ethics alleged that Jeff Brown was illegally coordinating with the multi-million dollar PAC supporting him, and has asked a court to prohibit the PAC from spending in the election. That PAC is Brown’s entire strategy, so blocking it could functionally kill his campaign should the court agree with the Board of Ethics, which says it has emails between the PAC and Brown’s campaign manager discussing the PAC’s strategy to ask for money from individual donors. State Rep. Amen Brown, the election’s other Brown, was admonished by the Board of Ethics for not disclosing donors, but, given he has a much lower chance of winning anyway, it won’t shake up the race as much.
In Philadelphia Magazine, Victor Fiorillo chronicles the efforts to get Republicans to switch parties in the city so they can vote against Helen Gym for mayor. The overall efficacy of this effort is undercut by the data: only 615 total Republican->Democrat Party switches have happened in Philadelphia this year, and Fiorillo could only find 3 that would tell him they did it to stop Gym. Color us unimpressed: by this point in 2021, over 3,000 Republicans had switched to a Democratic registration, coinciding with a much better-hyped effort to stop Larry Krasner, who won in a 67%-33% rout anyway.
Queens DA
George Grasso, a retired cop and retired judge, is running for DA as the reactionary backlash candidate against Melinda Katz, herself no progressive. While the party establishment has lined up behind Katz, Grasso has still received attention from conservative press like the NY Post and the endorsement of 11 law enforcement unions, as well as from former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. Now, City & State’s Jeff Coltin reports that Grasso has been campaigning at Republican political clubs in Queens. It suggests a certain desperation on Grasso’s part, especially because he claims to have only done so after all the Democratic clubs rejected him.
Westchester County Supreme Court
The New York Supreme Court, despite its name, is the lowest level of state court in New York; it’s a general-jurisdiction trial court which has 171 justices, elected by county. Due to their relative anonymity, these offices often become de facto patronage jobs, a phenomenon that is only slowly reversing in the city of New York. However, in suburban Westchester County, controversy is brewing. Charles Wood, a Republican until 2019, issued a bizarre and plainly unconstitutional ruling to protect right-wing propaganda mill Project Veritas in 2021. Justice Wood is now attempting to run for reelection as a Democrat, a move that comes with obvious controversy. Some party activists have become incensed, especially since, should he win, he will serve a term of 14 years and see thousands of cases in that time.
Wood, however, has friends in high (Democratic) places, and the party is sticking by him. NY state party chair and known waste of space Jay Jacobs is fine with his candidacy, while the county party chair is going further, calling the criticism "a lynch mob, a cancel culture", something she defined as, in a moment of pure NY Dem party official contempt towards their voters, “I mean sending press releases out to the press which have a point of view.” While Westchester County Dems have not made official endorsements in this race, they list fundraisers for Wood on their website. His campaign manager, a member of the Conservative Party, contends that Wood is not running for a "political seat". At the moment we're not aware of any challengers who are running here because, surprise! this isn't a primary—Supreme Court nominees are chosen by party convention. We just felt this particular action by the NY Democratic Party was so egregious as to be worth highlighting.