When I participate in a Zoom session with folks from other parts of America, as they express irritation with their representatives, I almost gloat that my state remains pretty mainstream. We do not elect racists, idlers seeking entitlements, or people who think green everything should get mandated by law. I've not even encountered public hostility ot Jews or our attachment to Israel as a place of Jewish sovereignty, something that has no bearing in our local elections beyond the positions of those we send to Congress. My state has a single dominant statewide party, the Democrats, with legislative majorities, though not quite supermajorities. For the most part, our officials function as technocrats, people who understand economic growth, the importance of favorable bond ratings, and an element of sensitivity to those segments of the public that have not fared well. Divisive issues are settled by primaries, not general elections. This biennial expression of citizens' preference took place this week. Nationally, I sense a desire to hit the reset button, throw the rascals out. And to some extent the registered Democrats did that.
Statewide we returned incumbents and replaced a vacancy for State Treasurer with a professional finance expert. For the legislature, many office holders got their termination notices, including my State Senator. I've known him for some time. A competent, decent fellow. An administrative career professional rising to a position of prominence with my state's largest employer. I voted for him. He lost his primary, as he had been ousted from the State Assembly in a primary a few years before. I got to know the Assemblyman who beat him, another very worthy fellow who seems more empathetic than my more businesslike friend.
This round of primaries saw an upstart sub-party. The Working Families Party seemed loosely organized, adequately funded, and probably made themselves more visible than some of the incumbents. They turned over eight seats, cominng within a few votes on another. They will have a presence in the legislature, though I am not sure what type of legislation they will either create or insert provisions into. They do not seem woke, as in gimme what you deprived me of through history, but they set a divide between those who have prospered and those who have not. Since only 22% of registered Democrats voted, they likely targeted neighborhoods where they would generate motivation. Their candidate came to my front door early in the campaign season, as did my friend who lost. I was not home for either, but they left their advertising.
And elsewhere, Democrat voters expressed a desire for change, or at least avoidance of impropriety. My wife's hairdresser's husband had held an elected county office for decades. He got voted out, probably more related to unfavorable publicity that he could have avoided than any dissatisfaction with his performance in office.
And another familiar face enters. One of my students from my synagogue teen classes finally won a seat somewhere. He made it to County Council by about 30 votes. He promotes himself as an environmentalist. He seems a bit of a luftmensch, that type of fellow who sort of has a job but not one with responsibilities and advancement. He does have engineering degrees from well-known places but I suspect his classmates have advanced in their careers more than he has. And I've not seen him or his twin or his mother at shul in recent years. But he got enough voters to go his way. And his engineering degrees will likely pay off, as our county legislative business seems dominated by various forms of land use and construction. We seem less focused on his issues of Green Space, though I can understand why his campagn to protect our county from endless suburban sprawl would have its appeal.
Might I have a unifying assessment? Like much of America, my locale has its share of people dissatisfied with their circumstances. They cannot accurately blame their legislature as much as scapegoat them, which they did. I saw people who could be moved to acting by somebody knocking at their door or engaging them in some sympathetic way. The removal from office of my wife's friend suggests that people have become more intolerant of impropriety, or even those who enable impropriety while remaining personally reputable. Our statewide office holders have represented us adequately, getting returned by big margins. And those sideshows of woke and blaming Jews did not get tested in my district as they have elsewhere.
I'm currently enrolled in a course on The Federalist Papers at the state university's senior division. In explaining the proposed Constitution to the skeptics of New York State, our national founders highlighted how they needed to restrain factions. They did this in part by imposing term limits of various types. I saw the plus and minus side to their reasoning this week. We definitely had a faction, this time Working Families. We also had incumbents who could only continue representing us by getting majority votes. Statewide we avoided factions, as the founders predicted the outcome of a big electorate. Locally where the number of voters were few, promotion of niche interests prevailed. These candidates could go on the attack, while incumbents had to defend. Indeed, my friend ousted in the primaries, campaigned on what he did in office, not what he would seek if returned. The foters understood the difference. They opted for people who would look for a future, not having a past to defend. For many wage earners, the past did not fare well. They opted for something else. The new people will have to define more clearly what that something else is. They will also have to engage in coalitions to bring their agendas to the voters next time.
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