Dear friends,
The special elections in the Bronx this week will not have complete results for a few weeks because the ranked choice voting (RCV) process has to play out. In District 15, the leader in the field of ten candidates is Oswald Feliz, who is a child of Dominican immigrants, a community college professor, and a housing lawyer and tenants’ rights advocate. Feliz got 28.42% of the vote and there are two other candidates in the race who each got a little more than 20% of the votes cast. The votes of the other seven candidates will have to be distributed before anyone could possibly get a majority of the vote.
The progressive candidate in District 11, Mino Lora, is trailing the machine candidate, Eric Dinowitz by 1200 votes, but there were two other progressive candidates in the race who garnered 1900 votes between them. If their voters ranked Lora second at a significant rate, a reversal is possible. This promises to be interesting.
Read this if you want answers to your questions about Ranked Choice Voting.
Meanwhile, the Working Families Party is organizing and training its Election Committee to review candidate questionnaires, prepare for interviews, and ultimately endorse one or more candidates in the June primary.
Sign up to join the Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan WFP Chapters for a discussion on Monday night of the 2021 Mayoral Endorsement process.
If you’re already committed to working for Dianne Morales, her campaign has organized a Moralethon, to train folks in storytelling, phone-banking, canvassing, and a wide range of policies. I like the coinage and admire the approach.
Sign up here to register for Moralethon teach-ins and skill sessions this week!
The wave of anti-Asian hate crimes has not abated in NYC. New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools are organizing a rally on Saturday at City Hall Park at 1 PM. The purpose of the rally is to recognize and build on “cross-racial solidarity between Asian, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities, and their white allies.”
The specific short-term demands, which are included in the letter below, are that the Mayor
Commit NOT to increase the presence of police or the use of carceral solutions.
- Provide support and resources for community/neighborhood led solutions to anti-Asian violence
- Provide a plan for addressing the needs of survivors of anti-Asian hostility, harassment and violence through a culturally responsive lens, including language accessible support services, mental health access, and economic assistance if needed.
- Fund a public education campaign led by New York City youth, parents, and educators, on the history of anti-Asian discrimination in the United States and New York City, as well as the contributions of Asian American people to civil rights, solidarity movements, and other innovation in our society.
- Train NYC educators and school staff immediately on the history of anti-Asian discrimination, the racialization of Asian Americans, the contributions of AAPI people, and how to interrupt and intervene in anti-Asian hostility and harassment in schools
- Fund community-based organizations to provide in-language bystander/upstander training specifically focused on intervening to stop violence against Asian-Americans .
Please sign this letter to the mayor and our new schools chancellor, Meisha Ross-Porter, calling for a strong response to anti-Asian hostility, harassment, and violence in our schools and our communities.
As anxiety is running high in communities around the city and the nation, there is a great need for to “normalize and de-stigmatize mental health within the Asian community.”
Support the Asian Mental Health Collective.
And finally, a piece of good news (those Tuesdays are far apart): Yesterday, Rachel Levine was confirmed as the assistant secretary of health. As the top health official in Pennsylvania, Levine guided PA through the pandemic, and has published work about “the opioid crisis, medical marijuana, adolescent medicine, eating disorders, and LGBTQ medicine.” She has the public health chops that the moment requires. Dr. Levine is also transgender and the first openly transgender person to be confirmed to a position in the federal administration. Dr. Levine is already making me feel better.
Have a good day!
with love,
L