The ballot breakdown: When voters go the polls on Tues., April 19, for this epic New York presidential primary, they won’t only be voting for president, but can also vote for which delegates will go to the political convention to represent the candidates. Voters will of course pick their preferred candidate, Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, but then can also select up to six delegates. For example, in the West Village’s 66th Assembly District, the Bernie delegates include the likes of gay political activist Allen Roskoff, District Leader Arthur Schwartz and former state Senator Tom Duane, while the Hillary delegates include
Assemblymember Deborah Glick, Comptroller Scott Stringer and former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. Let’s say, for example, Bernie wins two-thirds of the vote in the 66th A.D.; he would then get four of the delegates and Hillary would get two. Voters’ choices among the delegates would then determine which Bernie and Hillary delegates would go to the Democratic National Convention to represent them. “In 2008, when Obama ran, I got more votes than Corey Johnson as a delegate,” Schwartz noted of the current councilmember. “So I went to the convention and he didn’t.”
Schmear campaign? Supporters of Alice Cancel, clearly sweating the fact that Yuh-Line Niou may well pull off an upset in Tuesday’s special election for the 65th Assembly District, are focusing on the…bagels. Like a smoking gun — call it the smoking bagels? — they point to a heaping spread of them, cream cheese and cookies that Niou’s people were offering at the Democratic County Committee vote in February that saw Cancel win handily after Niou dramatically pulled out of the running, blasting the process as “flawed.” It turns out, Niou’s team had planned a meeting just hours before the County Committee vote with members of Sheldon Silver’s Truman Democratic Club. Niou and Virginia Kee, president emeritus of Chinatown’s United Democratic Organization, were desperate to swing Truman’s members over to Niou’s side, in hope of winning the vote. The bagels, while not exactly an incentive, were going to be a nice touch for the meeting. But we’re told that Judy Rapfogel, Silver’s former chief of staff and obviously a power in Truman, walked into the community room in Grand St.’s Seward Park Co-op at 264 East Broadway, where the political powwow was to be held, and simply said, “We’re backing Alice,” and walked out — and apparently didn’t take even one bagel. We’re told that former Councilmember Alan Gerson, a key Kee ally, was there — no, of course, not for the bagels! — but to try to help persuade Rapfogel and Co. to back Niou. Anyway, the traveling ring-shaped rolls re-emerged at the County Committee vote, and, yes, we admit, we had one or two of them. So did Alan Flacks, the Upper West Side politico and famed connoisseur of politcal noshing. But, tellingly, Flacks must have found his bagel somehow distasteful, because after taking a bite, he promptly put it right back down on the platter. Flacks told us he had been enjoying The Villager’s coverage of the special-election race, but clearly the same didn’t go for the controversial bagels. However, a U.D.O. member who was manning the spread was outraged. Eeewww! That was totally disgusting, she berated Flacks, adding that it cuts across all cultures — you don’t put a half-eaten bagel back in with all the rest of the food. We pretty much have to agree with her on that one. Anyway, we digress… Matt Rey, Niou’s spokesperson, said the meeting in question had been planned to occur about a month in advance, but kept being postponed, and wasn’t some sort of intense endorsement affair, but just a mere “meet and greet” for Niou to get to know the Grand Streeters better. Anyway, all the “evidence” was eaten long ago, so Niou’s critics better come up with something more substantive — and fast! — or Cancel could be the one getting her lunch eaten in Tuesday’s election.
