Q&A: Why Vote? De Blasio Will Win Anyhow

With a range of races being decided on Tuesday, most notably Democrat Bill de Blasio against Republican Joe Lhota for New York City mayor, here are some of the most frequent questions people have:

1. Who should I vote for?

Er, Hamodia does not endorse so come over to me privately. Next question.

2. Why should I vote? Everybody says de Blasio is going to win anyway.

Reached for comment, Lhota raised an eyebrow.

Just kidding. Of course de Blasio is ahead by about 40 points in every poll that came out. But voting is much more than just getting a candidate to top 50 percent.

If you are a de Blasio supporter, here’s why it’s important you show up: If elected, de Blasio will have an ambitious agenda that he says he could do based on his overwhelming support.

He wants to raise income tax rates on those making more than $500,000 a year, a proposal that must be approved by the state Legislature. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Senate GOP majority want to cut taxes in their own election year next year, not raise them. But an overwhelming — and historic — win by more than 40 points can do wonders to change their minds.

De Blasio may be the 800-pound gorilla on Tuesday, but he still needs your vote desperately.

If you support Lhota — well, it is an understatement to say he needs your vote. But a better-than-expected outcome for the Republican, who has yet to crack 30 percent in a poll, will strengthen the hands of those oppose de Blasio on police tactics, education and taxes.

So a vote for Lhota is not a wasted one; it is actually a vote for the city’s next mayor to consider your values.

Additionally, I have seen candidates for office pull out detailed maps during interviews, with color coded areas showing how Jewish neighborhoods such as Boro Park and Flatbush voted in any given election — street by street.

Vote this time, and the candidates will want to hear from you next time.

By the way, for our Lakewood readers, this is also true of Gov. Chris Christie. While he is the overwhelming favorite, a larger vote count for him makes him better presidential material, while a smaller-than-expected victory margin may doom his 2016 prospects.

3. I voted for Charles Hynes for Brooklyn DA last time. I heard he lost but he’s still calling his opponent, Kenneth Thompson, corrupt. Why?

Hynes, who led the nation’s largest district attorney’s office since 1990, indeed lost the Democratic primary. But he was convinced to get back into the race on the Republican and Conservative party lines by people who pointed out that the low turnout primary was meaningless and the vast majority of voters still want a chance to vote.

Hynes accuses Thompson of having Clarence Norman, the former Brooklyn Democratic party chief whom Hynes successfully prosecuted in 2005, run his election day campaign. Thompson denies it, and says that Hynes’s time is up.

Orthodox insiders are worried that Thompson’s talk of addressing equality and police tactics are code words for reining in the police. Thompson counters that he will make sure that innocent people are not jailed, a jab at Hynes, who had several of his defendants freed after spending years in prison.

4. Are there any other interesting elections?

Chaim Deutsch is battling David Storobin for a city council seat in Flatbush. Deutsch, the Democratic nominee, is a frum person, a grandfather, the founder of the Flatbush Shomrim and the Jewish liaison for the term-limited Councilman Mike Nelson. Storobin is a former state senator.

Also on the ballot is Igor Oberman from the Working Families Party and Gregory Davidzon, a self-described “kingmaker” in Russian politics in Brighton Beach. Davidzon, who is Jewish, mounted a last-minute write-in campaign to get on the ballot. You asked for an interesting race — you got one here.

5. Who is taking over for de Blasio as public advocate?

Both the race for public advocate and Brooklyn borough president are boring since there is hardly any opposition. Councilwoman Letitia James won the Democratic primary for public advocate, and state Sen. Eric Adams won the Brooklyn Beep contest. In both instances, the Republicans did not field a candidate, so they are shoo-ins.

6. What about the referendums? I hear something about casinos.

The Legislature has put forward to New York State voters — there are mayoral elections in other cities as well, such as Rochester and Albany — six items for approval. Some of them deal with simple land uses which are unimportant, but two of them heavily affect the Jewish community.

Before we go to them, I should say that while four of the questions do not affect anyone beyond the few people involved, it is the lives and livelihoods of real people that we decide when pulling the lever.

Such as Proposal 4, which asks voters to amend the constitution to allow the state to swap forest land to allow people living in tiny Hamilton County for more than 100 years to keep their homes. While it appears to be a dry constitutional issue, this has prevented these residents from applying for mortgages or selling their homes.

But the two questions which affect the community are Proposal 1 and 6.

Proposal 1 would allow the state to build an additional seven casinos in the upstate region. This includes four in Monticello, which is heavily populated by tens of thousands of Orthodox families during the summer.

A kol korei signed by 15 prominent Rabbanim last week explicitly urges voters to reject the referendum on casinos, “which pose great spiritual and material danger to our people.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has campaigned vigorously for the passage of this proposal. He wants to be the first governor in decades to revive the long-moribund upstate economy, and casinos — and their taxes — bring in a lot of money and jobs, at least initially.

Critics complained, and even attempted a lawsuit, about how Cuomo has handled this referendum. Although this was the last referendum question approved by the Legislature, it shows up as number one on the ballot. Moreover, it plainly promises “job growth [and] increased aid to schools,” without mentioning the well-documented social destruction and bankruptcies it causes.

I should mention that the rosy language was not officially mandated by the Legislature; it was added later in a secret meeting Cuomo had with lawmakers. But a judge threw out a lawsuit brought over the issue on a technicality.

7. I checked Proposal 6. It’s about raising the retirement age of judges from 70 to 80. How does that affect me as a Jew?

This question also has great import for the Orthodox community. Four out of the seven judges on the state’s top court, known as the Court of Appeals, were appointed by former Gov. George Pataki, a Republican. Their philosophies are conservative, and their majority has been producing more rightist verdicts, even as the state has turned leftward in recent years.

Wanting to put a liberal imprint on the court, Cuomo, who has already appointed two judges to the Court of Appeals, is waiting for these four judges to retire. He can then put up more liberal judges, changing the face of the court.

The four judges are all turning 70 over the next four years. If Cuomo wins reelection next year, he can revamp the entire court in his image. If the amendment passes, though, the judges can reasonably serve for another decade.

8. Aha. Thanks. So tell me, why doesn’t Hamodia endorse?

This question is a favorite of mine. Just make sure to vote. Polls close at 9 o’clock.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the November 5th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.