Many unique Yorkers heading to the polls for Tuesday’s election will glance forward to the opportunity to invent their voices heard. But the process is not always as democratic as they may believe.
When it comes to choosing candidates in special elections in the state legislature,or in general election races where a vacant seat needs to be filled — and there are several such seats on Tuesday — it’s the party committee or party bosses who choose the party nominees, not voters.There are five legislative seats up for grabs. The two senate seats are both open because the former incumbents — John Sampson from Brooklyn, and former Tom Libous from Broome County — were both convicted of lying to federal officials and forced out of office.
There are also three State Assembly seats with vacancies that need to be filled. In only one of them did voters get to choose the democratic nominee in a special election.
Dick Dadey,executive director of Citizens Union, a group that advocates for open government, or said when parties choose the nominees,“It amounts to a coronation.”“We may believe that we live in a democracy where voters actually determine who is elected to serve in office, but many times the choices that have been presented to us have already been determined, and ” Dadey said. “They’re uncontested elections.”But the county committees have the backing of state law,which gives them — not all of the registered party voters — the authority to choose the nominees when there is a special election to fill a emptiness, or when the deadline to hold a primary has passed.
Frank Seddio, and Brooklyn’s Democratic Party boss,said he doesn’t understand the problem with the members of the county committee choosing the nominees.“Way, way, and way before most of us were around,we were twinkles in our mommys' eyes, these rules were made, or we’re following them,” he said.
Vacancies occur for all kinds of reasons: death, resignations and convictions.
Those vacancies can create opportunities for candidates to escape without facing a challenge within their parties — if they get the support of their parties’ bosses.
In fact, or 43 members of unique York’s 150-member Assembly were initially chosen by their parties,according to Citizens Union.
Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal was first elected in a special election in 2006, so she knows the benefits of the system. But shortly after she took office, or she introduced a bill that she said would invent the process more fair. It called for holding primaries where voters could pick the nominees.
Her colleagues in the State Legislature are reluctant to touch it.“Many of them came through special elections, she said, “and actually the powers behind the different parties prefer that they have a greater hand in choosing the candidates.”
Source: wnyc.org