Brooklyn DA race is a toss up

Local news

• While no detailed proposal has been released yet, preliminary hints surrounding Governor Cuomo’s congestion pricing plan are worrying transportation advocates that the proposal may become a missed opportunity for real reform.
• Meanwhile, Mayor De Blasio and Governor Cuomo appear to be pitting their transit funding proposals against each other at the expense of their constituents’ commutes and sanity. De Blasio called Cuomo’s nascent congestion pricing plan “inconceivable”, and Cuomo pronounced the Mayor’s Millionaire’s Tax plan “dead on arrival.”
• Protesters rallied against New York’s “Blindfold Law,” which allows prosecutors to withhold evidence from criminal defendants until the day of the trial. While New York is one of only four states with such a law, incumbent Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez still supports the law.
• The wide assortment of opponents to this November’s State Constitutional Convention ballot question have vastly outspent supporters of the convention in lobbying and recent electoral campaigns.
• The Village Voice, the country’s first alt-weekly tabloid, will cease its print operations after 62 years. It intends to continue as a digital-only publication.
• A staffer for Republican-caucusing Democratic State Senator Simcha Felder (District 17, Borough Park) sparked outrage by suggesting that Heather Heyer’s murder in Virginia was a false flag operation perpetrated by a “Hillary Clinton supporter” and not a Nazi terrorist. Felder later disavowed the comments.
• A bill requiring the City to produce regular reports that aggregate police misconduct claims was passed by the City Council this week.

Elections

• The Brooklyn DA race seems to be wide open, with 42% of polled voters responding that they are “undecided” and only 19% supporting the incumbent Eric Gonzalez.
• Mayor de Blasio and former Council Member Sal Albanese faced off in a mayoral Democratic primary debate on Wednesday. De Blasio was attacked on housing affordability and corruption issues, but Albanese’s conservative positions on NYPD reform allowed de Blasio to present himself as a progressive on those issues even as he hinted that he would veto the Right to Know Act. Challengers who were left out of the debate, including Bob Gangi and Bo Dietl, staged a protest outside.
• District 43 (Southwest Brooklyn) City Council candidate Justin Brannan has received the endorsement of Assembly Member Peter Abbate (District 73, Bensonhurst), two district leaders, and other affinity groups in the City. DSA endorsee Khader El-Yateem received a nod from Tenants PAC, National Institute for Reproductive Health, and New York State Nurses Association.
• Gotham Gazette outlined the competitive race in the 35th Council District (Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights) where DSA endorsee Jabari Brisport, incumbent Laurie Cumbo, and Democratic primary challenger Ede Fox are facing off.
• Republican Assembly Member (District 48, Borough Park) Dov Hikind’s son, Yoni, has submitted over 4,000 signatures to run for city council on the “Our Neighborhood” ballot line in November, presenting a significant challenge to outgoing Council Member (District 44, Borough Park) David Greenfield’s handpicked successor on the Democratic line, Kalman Yeger.
• City Limits has published this useful calendar of upcoming debates in local elections throughout the city, which they will continue to update until Election Day.