At 11:30 p.m., I went with a friend who volunteered for David Yassky today to the post-election Yassky party at 200 Fifth.
The mood at the sports bar on Fifth Avenue was subdued and glum. A friend of a friend, who is a friend of Yassky’s walked out saying, "It’s over for Yassky. This may be the end of David’s political career."
There’s no doubt Yassky is a good, trustworthy guy; he’s a smart, political wonk, who, at least at election time, gets things done for his constituents. He may have waffled on the Atlantic Yards issue, but he does seem to support a reduction in its size.
Yassky still has two years left on the City Council. Some said that he’s alienated his fellow City Council members. But what do I know.
Yassky wasn’t conceding. He thanked his campaign workers, his extended family, his mother and father, his children and most effusively, his wife.
But it looks like Yvette Clarke is the winner – at midnight the numbers were : 31 % Clarke to Yassky’s 26%. Chris Owens is in fourth Place. That was a big surprise to me.
Personally, I think Yassky ran for the wrong congressional seat, a seat
long held by black politicians. It was a tough, contentious race from the start. I didn’t believe he could win for that reason.
Activists who oppose the Atlantic Yards put their votes behind Chris Owens, which may have cut into Yassky’s percentage points in some neighborhoods.
At 200 Fifth, Yassky said to the crowd of campaign workers, family, friends, newsmedia and bloggers: “I almost wish it were over. But we owe it to the voters to make sure every vote is counted.”
He was referring to the absentee ballots and affidavit ballots. My friend who volunteered as a poll watcher today said there were problems with a few voting machines in Prospect Heights and some at PS 321.
It started when a Yassky supporter accidentally voted for Carl Andrews. Apparently, the alignment was off on some of the voting machines, which made it hard to tell which name went with which lever. My friend said the Yassky campaign contacted lawyers and representatives of the Board of Elections.
There were no such problems in my voting booth at John Jay High School.
The unofficial returns, with all precincts reporting, showed Councilwoman Yvette Clarke led with 31.2 percent of the vote to Mr. Yassky’s 26.2 percent.
State Senator Carl Andrews and Chris Owens, the son of the incumbent, Representative Major R.
Owens, who is retiring, received 19.6 percent.
–1 a.m. September 13th
I am a white liberal middle aged guy who lives in the Midwood Park-Fiske Terrace area and I voted for Yvette Clark. Some pundits may see this as the election year where there were many examples of “right guy-wrong election”, maybe in someway Mr Yassky miscalculated and was a victim of that as well, I don’t know. But in this contest, Councilwomen Clark has been a terrific representative of our community and I had no hesitation in supporting her. In someway, for me, maybe race was less an issue than an opportunity to counter the attitude of political superiority and hegemony of the Brownstone Brooklynites..face it folks, there are progressives and liberals of varying ages and backgrounds throughout our borough, even among us who live further down the line (the Q train that is) … progressivism is not just the province of Park Slope and the Heights. While of course Mr Yassky had a right to run, perhaps had he been more sensitive to the conflict his entry into the race had created, he could have taken different course. In retrospect his decision to run in the race as well as his 11th hour reluctance to concede probably has ignited some resentment against the white liberal-progressive community and put the kibbosh on his future political prospects… Bridges urgently need to be formed among all communities and all ethnic and racial backgrounds to ensure a strong progressive liberal base. It seems Mr Yassky smelled the scent of victory and continued to forge on, but it may have been more beneficial for him politically and for the need for Democrats to forge coalitions had he said “not my year” and stepped aside.
Congratulations, Ms Clark.