AD65 endorsements: pols, ed boards, and unions

It’s rare to have such a wide open field for a local representative, with six candidates vying for Sheldon Silver’s old Assembly seat in Tuesday’s primary. All six are Democrats, and if you’ve been to any of the candidate forums, you know that they all agree, more or less, on a lot of issues. So how is a discerning voter to decide whom to vote for?

One way is to look at endorsements from familiar faces — other Democrats you trust, editorial boards, unions you have some affinity for. Here, too, there are a lot of mixed signals. See what you can make of it.

Local representatives

  • Councilmember Margaret Chin endorses Gigi Li
  • Councilmember Rosie Mendez endorses Paul Newell
  • State Senator Daniel Squadron endorses Yuh-Line Niou

NYC officials

  • Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito endorses Gigi Li
  • City Comptroller Scott Stringer endorses Yuh-Line Niou

Other political figures

  • Former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green endorses Paul Newell
  • Former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger endorses Paul Newell
  • Congressional candidate Zephyr Teachout endorses Paul Newell
  • Former Florida Governor (and former Republican) Charlie Crist endorses Jenifer Rajkumar

Clubs and unions

  • National Association of Social Workers (NYC) endorses Gigi Li
  • Pride Democrats and Stonewall Democrats endorse Paul Newell
  • NYSUT and UFT (teachers unions) endorse Paul Newell
  • Downtown Independent Democrats endorses Paul Newell
  • Working Families Party endorses Yuh-Line Niou
  • Citizens Union of NYC endorses Jenifer Rajkumar

Editorial boards

  • The New York Times endorses Yuh-Line Niou (with a big shout-out to Paul Newell)*
  • The New York Daily News endorses Paul Newell (with a big shout-out to Yuh-Line Niou)

*One remarkable note about the Times’ typically lukewarm endorsement: “Any of Ms. Cancel’s five challengers would be an improvement.”

If you’re keeping score, Paul Newell has clearly racked up the most number of endorsements, only a few of which I’ve listed here. You can see his full roster of endorsements on his website, and decide for yourself if they are relevant to your decision.

I have no endorsements listed here for Alice Cancel or Don Lee, because they list none on their websites and have yet to send mail to voters in East River. (Cancel had the endorsement of both our NYC Council representatives, Chin and Mendez, for the special election in April when she was the only official Democratic nominee; for this more meaningful race they have given their support to two of Cancel’s challengers.)

If I missed anything significant, please leave a note in the comments.