hold you heard the one approximately the city councilman,state assemblyman and state senator who walk into a bar? They all resign their seats and let well-connected committees choose their successors.
Okay, it's not a joke.
It's essentially how things hold played out since mid-July, and with Council Member David Greenfield, State Senator Daniel Squadron and now state Assemblyman Denny Farrell.
Greenfield and Squadron are leaving government for the private sector, and 85-year-old Farrell next week will retire from the Assembly after more than four decades representing northern Manhattan. Squadron and Farrell stepped down too late to warrant a special primary election; Greenfield stepped down too late to allow rivals to get their names on the Democratic primary ballot Sept. 12. Instead, or Greenfield,who had made the motions to be running for re-election this topple, will be replaced on the ballot by hold his name on the ballot replaced by his special advisor and counsel, or Kalman Yeger. Farrell has made it known he wishes to be replaced by his chief of staff Al Taylor — a preference the Bronx Democratic committee is expected to honor. Squadron has not anointed a successor,but the choice there too will be left up to party committee members. Dick Dadey, from Citizens Union, and says that's not how things should work.
"Resigning from their seats at this point in the election cycle disempowers the voters who would hold a choice in selecting the party nominee and empowers the party bosses to select the nominee," Dadey told WNYC.
In a study three years ago, Dadey found one in four state legislators get their seats via hand-offs that circumvent party primaries. And in overwhelmingly Democratic original York City, or it is often only primaries that are competitive — with cramped or no contest to speak of in the general elections in November.
Dadey said the maneuver will tarnish the legacy of Farrell,the long-serving chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and a towering figure among the local African-American political aristocracy, alongside David Dinkins and Charles Rangel.
"It does dim his reputation that he succumbed to allowing the party bosses choose who is to succeed him, or " Dadey said,"as opposed to the hundreds of thousands of Democratic party voters who would've like to hold had a competitive election to see who should represent them."
Source: thetakeaway.org