Election 2009: No Big Surprises in Brooklyn
You’ve probably seen them by now, but just in case (and just in case you feel like discussing), we’ve post the results of all the Brooklyn City Council races yesterday on the jump. In some of the races most relevant to Brownstoner-land, Tish James, Brad Lander, Al Vann, Charles Barron, Sara Gonzalez, Vincent Gentile and…
You’ve probably seen them by now, but just in case (and just in case you feel like discussing), we’ve post the results of all the Brooklyn City Council races yesterday on the jump. In some of the races most relevant to Brownstoner-land, Tish James, Brad Lander, Al Vann, Charles Barron, Sara Gonzalez, Vincent Gentile and Mathieu Eugene all emerged victorious.
2009 NYC General Election Returns [NY1]
Photo by Susan NYC
District 33: Steven Levin (91%)
District 34: Diane Reyna (60%)
District 35: Letitia James (92%)
District 36: Al Vann (64%)
District 37: Erik Dilan (86%)
District 38: Sara Gonzalez (82%)
District 39: Brad Lander (70%)
District 40: Mathieu Eugene (94%)
District 41: Darlene Mealy (96%)
District 42: Charles Barron (93%)
District 43: Vincent Gentile (60%)
District 44: Simcha Felder (uncontested)
District 45: Jumaane Williams (77%)
District 46: Lewis Fidler (79%)
District 47: Domenic Recchia (88%)
District 48: Michael Nelson (90%)
Slopefarm, I was almost exactly one of the people you suggested. The little bit I tuned into the race, Thompson often seemed to be on the defensive. It was only when I read more about his endorsements that I felt I wanted to vote for him, but I think he suffered from a number of forces: 1) Bloomberg juggernaut of advertising and a general perception that he can “steer” the city well during moments of financial crisis: 2) lack of strong charisma; and 3) media playing up “slam dunk” probability of Bloomberg victory. I truly think the race could have done the other way if a small sliver of people like me did what I did at the last moment: voted for Thompson. I’m listening to mayor’s reaction to the results and frankly, find myself more irritated by him since he’s trying to spin things to his favor, instead of being humbled by the results and vowing to learn a lesson from them.
I was shocked at the low number of voters yesterday! Why don’t people come out and vote? For the life of me I’ll never understand that!!!
On another note…I to disagreed with Bloomy running for a 3rd term BUT up against Bill Thompson he was the better candidate (in my opinion).
I know a bunch of folks who just couldn’t pull the trigger for Thompson because he seemed to have nothing positive to offer in the way of skills or vision, but didn’t feel like rewarding Bloomie due to the term limits thing or because of being generally fed up with the bullying. Voted either third party protest or skipped the mayoral ballot.
All I have to say is:
Yeeesssssss!!!!
I would have voted if the Dems would have offered an alternative that was appealing in any way. But since they didn’t, and since I wasn’t interested in voting for a 2rd term, I stayed home for the first time in a long time.
Well, Bed Stuy/Crown Heights, don’t expect anything to trickle down from the largesse of the City Council. Al Vann(ished), with the 2nd worst attendance record in the CC, will be with us for 4 more years. During that time, he will rest on his laurels, and sit in his office on Kingston Ave, holding court with his buds. The Putnam Armory will continue to have problems regarding their homeless shelter, the Bedford Armory will inch towards becoming the city’s intake center for homeless men, Fulton St and Atlantic Avenue will continue to lag behind the rest of the area in upgrades and services, and Bed Stuy, especially, will continue to be plagued with out of context and fugly construction. Crown Heights will continue to be the dumping ground for every halfway house, rehab program, and shelter that is looking for a home. Our communities will not be on the receiving end of job creation, or increased police protection. If anything good does manage to happen, we can be confident that Al will be on hand to take credit for it.
So, that means we, the citizens of Bed Stuy and Crown Heights, are going to have to work twice as hard to control the direction of our own futures. Elections over, time to get to work. We’ll work with Tish James, our other elected officials, and continue what we’ve been doing for the last 8 years anyway, which is looking out for ourselves. We have a great example to follow.
I’m with you there Miss Muffet. I don’t actually hate him either, but I know a lot of people who do for various reasons. The only reason he didn’t get my vote was due the the term limits issue.
Had I known things were that close, I would have given my vote to Thompson instead of the Rent Is Too Damn High dude.
I should also say that perhaps unlike others who voted for Thompson, I don’t “hate Bloomberg with a passion”. I have a lot of respect for him as a good manager, and do think he’s done a lot of good things for the city. That said, I am disaffected by his policies on public schools and real estate development, and agree with Thompson that he is “out of touch” with many ordinary New Yorkers, and the city feels increasingly to be pushing out the middle class. So, there might have been lots of people like me who felt apathetic since they did NOT hate Bloomberg, but just assumed he would win.