It’s Primary Day in New York today. On the Lower East Side, registered Democrats will go to the polls, choosing a replacement for former State Assemblyman Sheldon Silver.
You can vote until 9 p.m. To find your polling place and to look at a sample ballot, click here.
Alice Cancel won a special election in April and has been serving out the remainder of Silver’s current term in the 65th Assembly District. The election was made necessary after the former speaker of the assembly was found guilty on federal corruption charges. She faces five challengers today. They include: Yuh-Line Niou, Gigi Li, Jenifer Rajkumar, Don Lee and Paul Newell. Given the Democratic Party’s dominance in Lower Manhattan, today’s contest is far more important than the General Election in November.
You’ll notice another contest on the ballot today. Dodge Landesman, Christopher Marte and Lee Berman are running for a State Committee member position. As you might recall, the members of the Democratic State Committee in the 65th Assembly District chose Cancel to run in the special election this past spring. Most voters overlook these low level elections, but it was proved this year that the state coomiittee can have a major influence.
We’ll have election returns when they come in this evening.
