Information For Library Defenders About Thursday, September 13, 2018 New York Democratic Primary Election

Here is a link to our event with Ms. Teachout, including video.  Although CDL helped Ms. James become Public Advocate, the results have been very disappointing.

    

THURSDAY,  September 13, 2018.
Election Day!  (This Thursday election day date may take you by surprise)
The New York primary election for state and local candidates will take place on September 13, 2018. 

The upcoming Thursday September 13, 2018 election day date may take you by surprise.  It’s the date for the primaries and in New York City and New York State the Democratic primaries are very important in terms of how they determine the flow of later events.

NYS Attorney General Race
    
The race that is especially important for the defense of our libraries this election (and also important for keeping checks and balances on the federal government) is the race for New York State Attorney General.  Library defending Zephyr Teachout has received the endorsement of the New York Times, the Daily News, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and now Bernie Sanders- Who would have predicted these bedfellows?

The polls say that the race is very close with a huge number of voters in the last polls still ranked as “undecided” voters.  If you are still wanting to decide you may want to listen to or watch the debate that was held between the candidates last week.  The other three candidates all went on the attack against Zephr Teachout, each of them seeming to believe that her qualifications, among them writing a book about solving the problems of political corruption, made her the number one threat to their own candidacies.  That made the library defending Ms. Teachout seem like the clear frontrunner in the race.

In the debate, Tish James was asked why her very well-funded campaign (along with Sean Patrick Maloney’s) is hauling in vast amounts (over a quarter of a million dollars, 19% of her funds) from big real estate developers and what they expect from her.  Her response was not satisfactory to us, especially given that what the donors could get from her could be from her in the NYC Public Advocate position she now holds or the NYS Attorney General position she wants to old.

Sean Patrick Maloney was asked why, as a lawyer running for NYS Attorney General, he didn’t seem to understand campaign finance law limitations he’s likely violated in transferring funds to himself from another of his campaigns, nor the status of the legal case that Ms. Tecahout has brought to hold him to account on the matter.

Leecia Eve was asked about why she wouldn’t, as a candidate, release her tax returns when she had criticized candidate Donald Trump for doing the same thing and she hemmed and hawed obfuscatorily about the not very revaling information she had released instead.

Library defenders, let’s get out and vote!  Let’s get a library defender as the NYS Attorney General, its one of the offices that matters most to the protection of the libraries.  By the way, if voter turnout is low, the vote of every library defender then counts all the more!!

Race for Governor

Cynthia Nixon

Cynthia Nixon is challenging Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.  She may get it.  Four years ago, with less lead time and less publicity, library defending Zephyr Teachout did surprisingly well against Cuomo.  If you want to learn about the candidates and the issues and an awful lot of important information about how New York State is run, we suggest you listen to the one debate Nixon and Cuomo had.  It was very educational.  An easy way to listen to it is to go to the web to listen to the rebroadcast on the Brian Lehrer Show.

We should also mention that people voting for Cynthia Nixon will probably want to vote (its an independent separate vote) for Jumaane  Williams for Lieutenant Governor whom the New York Times endorsed (interestingly, another such split ticket governor’s race election endorsement- will this get to be Times habit?).  Lastly, everyone, including the New York Times editorial board is reacting with extreme negativity to Cuomo's extremely dirty tricks fighting Ms. Nixon -  This level of desperation on Cuomo's part may be interpreted as clue that Cynthia Nixon could possibly win.

Relative to Race For AG: The Popularity of  Alexandria Oacasio-Cortez and Zephyr Teachout and Their Views and Why It Makes The Success of Libraries Threatening To Certain People In Power

WNYC’s On The Media ran an hour of subjects headed by a picture of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with library defending Zephyr Teachout about the shifts in public opinion that has made their views so increasingly popular.  Part of the discussion in one of segments was consideration about why successful libraries are a threat to people who want the precepts of private market capitalism to take over and run everything.

We have more available about it here:

Libraries As A Threat To The “Perspective” That Virtually Everything Should Be Dictated And Run By The Forces of Market Capitalism

 
Democratic Candidate for NY Governor Zephyr Teachout at Citizens Defending Libraries News Conference, Sept.6, 2014 from Michael D'Elia on Vimeo.

Watch our web  Citizens Defending Libraries Facebook page and Twitter feed (@Defendlibraries) as you can share this page and other things we post about the election choices. . . . Once again:  If voter turnout is low, the vote of every library defender then counts all the more!!

The 2018 Race For NYS Attorney General Could Be Absolutely Critical To Saving NYC’s Libraries From Sale And Plunder

Two rallies, at one Zephyr Teachout and at the other Tish James, each speaking against selling our libraries and each now a name on people's tongues as candidates for NYS Attorney General

With the extraordinarily abrupt resignation of Eric T. Schneiderman as New York State Attorney General, there are already three very well known names already on people's tongues as the likely candidates to replace him: Zephyr Teachout (who ran a surprisingly strong race for governor against Andre Cuomo), Tish James (current NYC Public Advocate), and Preet Bharara (fired by Trump from the position of U.S. Attorney and current WNYC podcast host).

Who holds the office of NYS Attorney General is important to libraries for two important reasons:

1.)  The NYS Attorney General  regulates charities, thus the libraries, and is charged with preventing the kinds of abuse that are now ongoing.

2.)  The NYS Attorney General has the power and duty to investigate fraud and abuse generally.

The issue of the sale of NYC libraries and the need to investigate is already charged as the names of several potential candidates involve prior history.  It is also charged because Eric Schneiderman, the NYS Attorney General did not step up to meet these obligations when Citizens Defending Libraries requested that he do so and informed him about what he needed to take action on.  See:

Wednesday, July 27, 2016, Open Letter to US Attorney Preet Bharara, NYS Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, et al: Use Your Staggering Powers as Law Enforcers & Public Guardians To Immediately Halt the Corrupt Sale & Shrinking of  Brooklyn Heights Library

All the possibilities are going to require greater reflection in the days going forward.  Among other things, candidates cannot always be counted upon to keep their campaign promises when elected.  An example in point: When first running for NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman made strong statements with respecting his intention to investigate the Atlantic Yards mega-project and abuses of eminent domain.  When elected, he didn't. . . .

Similarly, when Bill de Blasio was first running for mayor he stood with Citizens Defending Libraries in July on the steps of the 42nd Street Central Reference opposing the sale of libraries, but by October was taking money coming from the development team to whom he would soon give the second biggest library in Brooklyn. 

As for the libraries and the candidates in this race, we should note that Zephyr Teachout did a campaign event with us (Citizens Defending Libraries) when she was running for governor.  See:

Saturday, September 6, 2014, PHOTO & VIDEO GALLERY: September 6, 2014 Halt Library Sales Rally (42nd Central Reference Library) With Zephyr Teachout/Tim Wu Campaign- Barry C. Lynn Speaks on Amazon

Citizens Defending Libraries put huge effort into helping Tish James get elected as Public Advocate when she campaigned that she would use that office to oppose NYC library sales.  We even forced Senator Daniel Squadron, her main opposing candidate in the election to change his position to keep up with her.  We are, however, still waiting for Public Advocate James to take the truly significant action she could use the office of Public Advocate for in fulfilling her promises.  As U.S. Attorney for the Southern District it was understood that Preet Bharara was understood to be investigating Mayor Bill de Blasio's sale of the Brooklyn Heights Library (Once Brooklyn's second biggest) amongst other pay-to-play deals.  We still don't know what it means that de Blasio got off the hook days after Trump fired Mr. Bharara.  See:

Wednesday, July 27, 2016, Open Letter to US Attorney Preet Bharara, NYS Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, et al: Use Your Staggering Powers as Law Enforcers & Public Guardians To Immediately Halt the Corrupt Sale & Shrinking of Brooklyn Heights Library

Stay tuned. . . And when you run into the candidates, think about donating to them, ask them about what they intend to do to save our libraries from plunder and be ready to document what they say.

UPDATE:  Here is one more possible candidate for NYSAG: Tim Wu, who candidate for Lieutenant Governor was  Zephyr Teachout's running mate when she ran for governor of New York, tweeted (May 18, 2018) that he is considering running for the office too.  Tim Wu actually got more votes than his running mate in that election and the New York Times endorsed him while not endorsing Teachout in that race.  Tim Wu, considered the father of Net Neutrality as a principle to defend, has written a couple of very important books about the monopolization and control of media and its ability to influence culture and commandeer our attention, plus a number of New York Times op-eds, including one (that we definitely noticed)  excoriating the privatizing take-over of the public sphere, libraries included!  And Tim Wu took a position working in the Attorney General's office so he has that extra experience.