For the last month an internal contest has raged within the Democratic County Parties of New York City. When Dan Squadron resigned a month ago, he left his seat vacant and triggered a special election to fill it in November. With no primary to determine a Democratic nominee, the decision of who should be the Democratic candidate fell to the Democratic County Committees (AKA, the Parties). A recap of that race, and ultimately undemocratic outcome, can be found in the LoDown.
Today, County Leader Keith Wright cast Manhattan's votes for the Democratic nominee in the vacant 26th Senate District proportionately to the County Committee vote.
This means that with the Manhattan vote divided (72% for Paul Newell to 27% for Brian Kavanaugh) and Brooklyn Leader Frank Seddio casting all of Brooklyn's votes for a single candidate (without polling his own County Committee), that Brian Kavanaugh will proceed to the general election as the Democrat. This is due to the fact that Manhattan covers 65% of the District and Brooklyn covers 35%; giving Newell only 46% of the vote across the entire District. With this part done, we must remember this process is bigger than it at first seems. Whatever you feelings on the process of the Senate nomination, there are more players and more deals to come. When Brian Kavanaugh vacates his Assembly Seat, it will kickoff another County Committee vote - to decide who should be the Democratic nominee to fill Kavanaugh's soon to be empty seat in the 74th Assembly District.
It's almost impossible to imagine this hasn't received any consideration by those involved. The question now is who will Brian Kavanaugh install as his successor? Who will be the new Assemblymember for the 74th AD? Who is the last, unknown beneficiary of this process?