Daniel Squadron - NY State Senate: My Local Politics Heats Up

Despite my unhealthy addiction to politics, and my fondness for pushing local groups like those that compose The Bus Federation, most of what I do is at the national level, and I know precious little about my local politics. I live in Brooklyn and what little I do know boils down to this:

• NY has one of the most gridlocked state legislatures in the country.
• Most people seem to think this is due to the fact that obstructionist Republicans control the legislature, and lazy, incumbent Democrats do a poor job organizing against them.
• The system is rigged to maintain this dynamic, which has been unchanged for about as long as I've had even an inkling of an interest in politics.
• NY has an interesting system for third parties that actually works, but it hasn't been enough to alter the fundamental dynamic in Albany.

All that makes it a bit hard to get motivated about local politics in NY (for me at least). Three men in a room and all that. Mostly what I do at the ballot box is vote for the "lefty" candidate using the Working Families party line (that's NY's major third party). Usually WFP endorses the Democrat in the race and the vote is tabulated in such a way that ticking the WFP line gives them political leverage without siphoning votes away from the Democrat in the race. There are no Nader/Florida upsets here in New York.

All that (gridlock) may be about to change. For the first time in a long time, the Democrats have a chance to take over the State Senate and break the gridlock. Friends of mine who are much more involved locally tell me that this is causing a lot of fresh young faces to come out of the woodwork to bring in not just more Democrats, but better Democrats and toss out some of the dead wood incumbents so that when we take the chamber, actual progressive policy can get through.

Turns out that all of this is happening in my backyard. Literally. Last night I attended a meet and greet for Daniel Squadron, a 28 year old former staffer for Chuck Schumer who is running a primary challenge to my state senator, Martin Conner. Conner is a 30 year incumbent (in office before Squadron was even born) and former Democratic Leader. From what I hear, he's not a terrible Senator, but he hasn't done all that much in recent years for the district or the party. Squadron is looking to replace him.

To do that, he says he needs to pull in 10,000 votes for the Primary in September. That sounds doable in a district that encompasses almost all of Manhattan below Houston St., Downtown Brooklyn through Cobble Hill and into Red Hook, and a tiny sliver of Williamsburg where they are building all the new condos by the waterfront.

These are young neighborhoods, and there's a lot of potential for youth in the community to get out those votes - as well as a number of students in the district from universities like Pace and Brooklyn Law. The primary is only a short few weeks away, though, and a vast majority of people probably don't even know there is a primary. That seems to be one of the biggest hurdles - turnout. Making sure people know when to vote. I was just on the Squadron site, and didn't see any info about when the primary was taking place. If I were running that web site, there would be a big button announcing it or a big clock counting down the minutes. I'd also try to hook it up with MoveOn's Vote Poke as a way to register and remind folks about the primary. There's also a ton of work you could do at local bars . . .

During his talk, Squadron described the race as being between a young turk and an old bull. Conner has the backing of a lot of incumbents, but Squadron has a few key endorsement as well so he's competitive. A lot could be done to create buzz around that dynamic in the neighborhoods of DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Carol Gardens . . .

Anyway, I won't armchair quarterback them anymore this late in the game. It's exciting to have something interesting happening at the local level in my community. Doubly so that it's such a young candidate making things happen. Squadron's got my vote.