By Bob Tannenhauser
The polls closed at 9:00 pm and by 9:30, CNN projected that Jerry Nadler had defeated his colleague of thirty years, Carolyn Maloney, in the hotly contested Democratic primary for the newly drawn 12th District Congressional seat. Suraj Patel came in a distant third. Nadler will face Mike Zumbluskas, the Republican candidate, in the November general election.
In the Democratic primary for the new 47th NY State Senate district, incumbent State Senator Brad Hoylman triumphed over challenger Maria Danzilo by a substantial margin. Hoylman will also be on the ballot in November as the Working Families Party candidate.
Update:
In his acceptance speech, Jerry Nadler said some people asked why he wanted to run for this particular redrawn district seat. “This place is my home,” he said. “Why would I want to be anyplace else?”
Nadler said he had spoken with Patel and Maloney, “both of whom have graciously conceded.” He called Patel “exceptionally bright” and said of Maloney, “I thank her for her decades of service to this city.”
Nadler read his remarks, sometimes a bit haltingly, and, except for his wife, was surrounded, perhaps deliberately, by markedly young supporters. He ticked off issues he prioritizes, including: “a stacked Supreme Court [that] has bulldozed our rights” and “the scourge of gun violence in America.”
NY1 showed a bit of Patel’s speech to his supporters, though they cut away mid-sentence. He called New York “the most inspiring city in the world, except for its politics,” and said his “call for generational change isn’t about age. It isn’t just a slogan. It’s a fact of life.” He added that new leaders are needed for today’s new challenges.
At around 11 pm, Carolyn Maloney spoke. She called Nadler “a distinguished member of Congress” whose “progressive values” she shares. “I wish him every success.” Of Patel, she said she hopes his campaign “will inspire other young people” to get involved.
Then, as she did repeatedly during her campaign, she ticked off some of her accomplishments: a credit card bill of rights, funding for the Second Avenue subway, getting the ERA on the agenda.
Maloney quoted former U.S. Reps Shirley Chisholm (“We must continue to be unbought and unbossed”) and Bella Abzug (“A woman’s place is in the House, the House of Representatives”).
“I’m really sad that we no longer have a woman representing Manhattan in the Congress,” she said, but women must continue to fight, and must “work for a big Democratic win in November,” or else we will be “watching [the country] be set on a forced march back to a darker time.”
“It has been the joy of my life, the privilege of my life, to work for you,” she concluded.
Underscoring how extraordinary this race was, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi released a statement praising both Maloney and Nadler.
“During her three decades in the House, Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney has been a deeply respected leader in our Caucus and a champion for integrity,” Pelosi wrote. “House Democrats are grateful for Chairwoman Maloney’s tenacious leadership. Her longtime public service will be profoundly missed in the Congress and by her constituents and the country.”
Pelosi called Maloney “a prolific and effective legislator. Americans will continue to benefit from laws she authored to protect credit card users. New York families salute her fight to secure full health benefits for the heroic first responders on September 11th.”
The Speaker closed by offering “Congratulations to Chairman Jerry Nadler on prevailing in the election. For three decades in the House, Chairman Nadler has been a commanding force for freedom and justice: whether protecting our children from gun violence, fighting for civil rights for all or defending our Democracy.”
Danzilo seems to be at around 30%. With more time and attention to the race she could have done better. I hope she keeps trying, her voice and views are needed.
Very happy that the scaremongering Danzilo went down. I’m sure she’d be much happier running as a Republican next time. Or, you know, getting a job from our mayor..
Good call. Voters saw through her demonIzing of homeless, which all began at the Lucerne. She’s done.
We shouldn’t have demonized the homeless during the time they were housed at the Lucerne, after all they have to go somewhere and we are in Manhattan. This isn’t Nassau County where there’s limited transportation and limited opportunities. But that is no excuse for the bike lobby and progressives to run roughshod and unilaterally dictate people’s commuting, living choices either and put pressure on unwanted people to leave NYC. While pro-shelter folks are good at calling shelter opponents NIMBY’s, the pro-shelter folks have their own NIMBYism too, but it’s much more subtle.
Yes, disappointing. No one I talked to who doesn’t follow WSR knew who she was.
She ran a bad campaign. Hopefully another Democrat will champion her positions and unseat head-in-the-clouds Hoylman.
Agreed. We’ll continue seeing high levels of crime thanks to the policies Holyman supports.
And it will be the poor, minority class paying the price as the frequent victims of the high crime.
Vehemently disagree. Brad Hoylman continues to do an outstanding job.
It will take NYC becoming San Francisco for Manhattanites to tire of progressive policies. Our politicians may bring us close to that to get rid of unwanted constituents, but they’ll never let it actually get there and screw themselves.
I can’t even imagine why would anyone vote for Hoylman and then complain about crime. You get what you voted for.
Several of us were calling on WSR to preview the Danzilo-Hoylman race weeks ago so that those voting early would be better informed. The preview WSR did was excellent and made clear the differences between the two candidates. She lost by enough that I don’t think an earlier preview would have gotten her the victory, but it might have helped to bridge the gap.
Unfortunately, I don’t think she got her name and platform out there enough so many people voted for the more familiar name. This was also partly caused by that race being drowned out by the Nadler-Maloney race. It is a shame as she had good, common sense solutions to a major issue in our neighborhood while also sticking to core Democrat values.
Rather than trying to find a compromise solution that would appease his many constituents who seem to agree with Danzilo that something needs to be done about crime and quality of life, it seems like Hoylman is digging in his heals and going further in the woke direction, which is truly frightening.
Hoylman got 75% You people supporting Danzilo have to accept she is a right wing fringe candidate who doesn’t share the values of west siders. The numbers tell the story.
The numbers do tell the story insofar that we are not at San Francisco level of decay.
10,000 = fringe… all right then. so many other candidates got their nominations with far fewer votes… Maria showed amazing growth between last year’s primary for city council and this round. Please keep running Maria, we need common sense back in politics!
I don’t think many people knew about her. I wouldn’t have known except from WSR. As a candidate, she got limited exposure.
How dare you accuse Danzilo of being “right wing fringe”. You have no idea what you are talking about. She’s a moderate and SANE Democrat who is watching our neighborhood and city crumble into pieces. What good has Hoylman done for us?? NADA!!
She’s a fringe on her desire to lower taxes for the wealthy, supporting charter schools, opposing tenant rights and allowing Republicans to vote in primaries. That’s whacko Lee Zeldin stuff.
Wouldn’t be shocked to find out she’s voted for republicans in state/local level elections. Right Wing Dems
Supporting charter schools where kids can actually get a good education, especially after the last two years, is whacko? Sign me up for the whacko train then!
@Sally
I think you have to accept the fact Hoylman’s election, and his views on what has become a very serious problem, increased crime, will, unfortunately, continue to make the West Side more unlivable. Don’t complain when crime, of all types, continues to affect all of us.
Hoylman knows what he’s doing. He helped push through Madeline Singas’ nomination to the court of appeals. Madeline Singas was the former Nassau County DA and their plea bargaining policies are something pro-cop people can only dream of. Trust me, if you are poor or a minority, you don’t want to be arrested in Nassau County.
75% of voters who voted! It would appear that the overwhelming number of registered voters on the UWS have become numb and totally disenfranchised. Business as usual.
The state senate district is much larger than the UWS.
The outcome of total district votes do not necessarily represent that of UWS voters.
Agreed – the landslide Hoylman victory makes that obvious, all these commenters on WSR blaming him for the nationwide increases in crime look foolish
Landslide. Thank goodness.
Sally, you are correct. “The nationwide increases in crime,” takes a village to occur and more often than not, progressive villages that turn a blind eye to lawlessness through loose bail reforms, decriminalizing minor crime, and demonizing law enforcement under the guise of constitutionally protected freedoms. While the UWS deserves far better, they also apparently know what works, what doesn’t work, and what they really don’t give a damn about either way. Given the burgeoning crime stats on the UWS, looking “foolish,” is in the eyes of the beholder!
It’s not a matter of smart, or foolish, or right, or wrong.
It’s more that the people who comment, and who 👍 comments, are not a representative sample of the neighborhood.
Well yes certainly the WSR commenters are not representative, no disagreement there
Won’t bother to spend time posting any longer. When you see your local small businesses and stores leave, know it is because the crime, safety and quality of life took your businesses away. It is not the rent and we survived the pandemic but can’t survive the demise of this city and especially this UWS neighborhood.
Maria Danzillo would have improved this neighborhood but people here stay in their fantasy world and their tunnel vision and never acknowledge the true challenges we face on a daily basis. Goodbye.
I completely agree and the people who actually use logic and reason, as well as their eyes, agree as well. I’m so sorry. I hope you relocate your business to a sane, safe place. The politicians here won’t really pay attention until the tax base is so eroded by residents and businesses leaving that the city is nearly bankrupt. Best of luck.
It’s Amazon killing small business, well and congestion pricing.
You act like there weren’t small business at street level in the actual bad days of the 1980s.
Thank your lucking stars for the vast improvement in inexpensive security cameras and data recorders over the last 5 years.
MD is a rightist, who would not have improved the UWS had she won election to the State Senate.
we didn’t have industrial level shoplifting back then. We do now. And that’s because of the progressives. Progress I suppose
People are using Amazon now more than ever in our neighborhood because they don’t even want to walk the sidewalks. You are not a small business owner so don’t tell me what affects us. There was no Amazon in the 1980’s so people HAD to walk the sidewalks no matter how bad. And it doesn’t matter if a security camera records a robbery when the crime is lessened to a misdemeanor because this Manhattan DA’s office can’t handle the volume or wants to lessen the crime for his own philosophies. Clean safe sidewalks people want to walk and safe subways people want to ride bring us walk-by traffic which is what we need. So save your comments as you do NOT know what affects your Mom and Pop stores in this neighborhood, I do.
I voted Nadler and Danzilo, later realizing both are from my neighborhood.
Danzilo seems ready to take charge, may run again for office. Nadler’s passionate concern surpasses politicking.
The rest of the country is under ideological seige. It’s painful. We need strong minds and hearts here.
Thought the race for the 12th Congressional district would be closer. Did Maloney’s use of the gender card and attacking Nadler turn off voters or did Nadler’s westside base simply carried him to victory?
Maloney, who has undoubtedly done some good work in Congress and for the East Side, lost my respect and my vote when she came out with that heavy-handed “Don’t send a man to do a woman’s job” campaign line. I have been an active feminist at least as long as Maloney has; I’ve marched and protested and supported feminist causes for decades. But sexism works both ways and I could not support a candidate who used her X chromosomes as a cudgel. (Besides, I think Jerry’s suspenders are sort of cute.)
Hmm. Don’t know about that. I think the gender card is a good card to use when you’re holding it. But I guess ya gotta know when to hold ‘em… And she does. It drew me in, along with a few other factors, but Nadler is good.
But read the post by Carmella before you. If an active feminist was turned off by the gender card, maybe she should have folded and played another hand. I’m sure she lost many a male vote. That ad by Maloney really turned me off, not to mention her insinuating that Nadler was not for fit the job. Those tactics were signs of desperation and panic.
I think people follow the NY Times religiously in Manhattan even though they don’t do any local coverage anymore and the NY Times endorsement helped Nadler win. It certainly helped Goldman win and caused Garcia to almost be mayor (if Wiley told her supporters to rank Garcia #2, Adams would’ve lost).
I would be curious about the voting by each neighborhood within the districts (and other categories like age, gender, etc if available) . For example did the west side carry Nadler, while the east side favored Maolney but there simply were more west siders voting? Did Danzilio win the north (UWS, where she is better known) while Hoylman carried the south district (down to Village/Chelsea). How much did identity politics (geography, age religion, sexual orientation, etc) play a role? Clearly gender did not, and mysogyny remains a systemic barrier. Both contests had an equal number of men and women running. Yet men continued to be elected, overwhelmingly so.
On the one hand we can be proud that Manhattan politicians will represent important perspectives in legislative bodies, such as Jewish or LBGTQ. On the other hand, NY (and the world) is also 50% women, and none of the victors can truly represent these perspectives, no matter their intent.
Now that Hoylman is more or less assured of re election in November, UWSers need to stop complaining in WSR and redirect that energy to Albany. Inform Hoylman what his constituents want and need to make the UWS safe and livable and what are the intended or unintended results of his policy. Based on WSR comments, Hoylman is quite disconnected from this information.
Thank you; it’s good to hear a constructive suggestion instead of the usual complaints.
P.S. Looking at the old vs new state senate maps, Hoylman, although an “incumbent,” did not previously represent UWS. And he still does not, until Jan 2023, assuming he wins in November. In the meantime, due to restricting, we have lame ducks.
He represented up to UWS. Quite a bit of the UWS including Lincoln Towers and Amsterdam Houses.
I am so sad as to how few people vote – people take this right for granted and the rest of us who care about issues like how bad bail reform laws suffer…let’s not also forget how few people voted in the elections that got DeBlasio elected
I am now a registered Independent (formerly an actively voting Democrat, who got disgusted after the DNC manipulations with Clinton over Sanders) who would have happily voted if the primary was open, as some states have done. I was not motivated to change my registration to D to vote, and subsequently change back to I. I am curious as to whether the primary turnout , besides being UNREALISTICALLY scheduled for late AUGUST, would have been more representative if Independents were permitted to participate.
Being a registered Independent accomplishes nothing. Most elections are largely decided in the primary. Perhaps it makes you feel good about yourself but if you want to be part of the system, you should just pick a party. You can go back and forth between parties if that makes you feel good.
I agree that the two party system with primaries is awful and often results in candidates who are at the two extremes and freezes out the middle (I’m a moderate Democrat). But these are the rules and they are unlikely to change so you have to play by them.
Agree with Leon. In NYC in particular (since Democrats almost always are victorious), most elections are actually decided at the primary stage.
I won’t vote for any candidate whose primary sales pitch caters to fear of crime. Not Adams, not Danzillo, and certainly not the populist Republicans. It’s an immediate NFW from me. And I’m old enough to remember when Nadler was our State Assemblyman and crime was a much bigger issue on the UWS than it is now.
The results validate that this minority opinion amongst the WSR commentariat is closer to the way voters in our district vote. Maybe the moaners here would be happier in Florida.
100% correct! Nadler and Brad were clearly the progressive choices in these races. Danzilo is a joke and clearly just a regressive agent of capital. Our cushy, affluent neighbors clearly don’t remember the 80’s and 90’s levels of crime. To blame a rep for a national rise in crime as a result of the poverty caused by the pandemic is asinine and clearly fear mongering. I feel plenty safe here.
The concern about crime is largely media driven and is a front for a Pro-incarceration, Anti homeless, anti affordable housing agenda. If these right wing democrats actually cared about homelessness and those in need, they’d vocally support safe injection sights, legalizing drugs, ending food deserts, and turning as many buildings into affordable housing as possible. All they actually care about is getting these “ugly”, “dirty” (largely POC) homeless individuals, many who are experiencing addiction and mental health issues, out of their neighborhood and out of sight.
So glad you, a man, feel safe here. Personally I do not want any drug injection sites on the Upper West Side, thanks. But you are right, I do want these individuals out of the neighborhood.
Mentally ill drug addicts benefit no one by living on the street. I am astounded that you would criticize those of us who want to stop this devastating phenomenon. Let’s bring back mandated treatment for those who cannot take care of themselves.
how many are in front of your building?
“Regressive agent of capital”! Aha-ha-ha-ha! You are few decades past the Marxism prime, comrade. I’ve got to get stuff this guy’s smoking!
Hopefully, Nadler will start grooming a successor.
I think unfortunately that might be Hoylman, though he turns 57 shortly so is no spring chicken (or perhaps on the UWS we call them spring goats?)
That will likely be Scott Stringer.
Most probably will be Stringer. He won Nadler’s state assembly seat in 1992 when Nadler went to Congress. Stringer was Nadler’s legislative assistant to Nadler for the 9 previous years. Nadler fought strongly for Stringer when he ran against Spitzer in the Democratic primary for city comptroller in 2013 and endorsed him for his unsuccessful run for mayor. I always thought Nadler was Stringer’s mentor and “rabbi”.
“…and expecting a different result.”
Just want to point out that as a resident I am sick and tired of hearing how “the 70’s and 80’s were much worse…” blah blah blah.
You have held onto that for too long. This city was amazing from the late 90’s until 2015 and then the progressives got elected and here we are. It was going bad before the pandemic
I am not conservative at all but to live like we are now with people comparing the city to the worst time ever with crime and drug use is ASININE.
For God’s sake, it should be a livable safe city for EVERYONE – especially those of us barely able to pay full rent, working hard, with no tax breaks, and paying for all your progressive programs.
Enough with the old timers claiming “you’ve seen nothing” – I’m sick of it. We shouldn’t have to see it back like that – that’s the damn point.
For info: https://www.wsj.com/articles/violent-crime-rural-america-homicides-pandemic-increase-11654864251
“Violent crime isn’t just rising in the nation’s cities. Murder rates across the rural U.S. have soared during the pandemic, data show, bringing the kind of extreme violence long associated with major metropolises to America’s smallest communities.
Homicide rates in rural America rose 25% in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was the largest rural increase since the agency began tracking such data in 1999. The CDC considers counties rural if they are located outside metropolitan areas defined by the federal government.
The rise came close to the 30% spike in homicide rates in metropolitan areas in 2020.”
A couple of thoughts in response. I agree with you that the comparisons to the 80’s are getting played out. Was violent crime and crime in general worse in the 80’s and early 90’s than it is now.? Yes, and I don’t think most rationale people would disagree. However, that does not mean that crime and the general condition of the city haven’t gotten worse over the last number of years. It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t be concerned or their feelings of being unsafe are misplaced simply because conditions were worse 30-40 years ago.
Part of the problem with politics today is that everybody wants it their way. I want this program, I want that program, I am right and you are wrong, etc.. Politics has become winner take all. There is no civility and there is certainly no compromise. You only need to look at how people speak to each other in the comments to realize this is the case……
interesting factoid that shows how poorly Carolyn Maloney did. Brad Hoylman won more votes than Maloney, even though she was running in a much larger district: 27,814 to 20,038.
If you voted for Hoylman. You have no right to complain about crime, taxes, garbage in the streets..Anything quality of life . You have forfeited it