One of the congressional races that are shaping up to be interesting is #NY17 which covers part of Westchester, NY (North of the Bronx) and Rockland County which is across the Hudson River. This secure-Democratic seat is held by @NitaLowey who is retiring. I had here my start in
political campaigns which later moved to Brooklyn and statewide elections too. I worked on about two dozen campaigns from School Board and Town Supervisor/Council to DA, US Senate and Governor. At times I was an aide under a senior operative and other times I worked directly with
candidates. My work was usually based on the communications/community relations front. Recently, I stepped back from such accounts because my work now for OJPAC involves reaching out to or calling out people from either political party. At any rate, the Dem primary here has
eight candidates on the ballot but one essentially gave up. Of the rest, the field is quite strong. There is State Senator @DavidCarlucci on the Rockland side and Assemblyman @DavidBuchwald on the Westchester side. Then you have candidates who are not in office: @AdamSchleiferNY
from Westchester is a former prosecutor in a US Attorneys office who is also from a family very influential in Democratic politics. @MondaireJones from Rockland worked in the Obama DOJ. Evelyn Farkas also worked in the Obama Administration and she makes sure voters know it in the
blitz of mailers that land every other day or a few times a day. In this district, many voters R Jewish but it’s quite complex. In Rockland, there is a huge base of Haredim which is a wing within Orthodox Jedaism. This includes Hasidim who wear long suits that people wrongly call
black coats. It’s not a coast nor is it necessarily black (see my profile as a sample). Haredim often move countywide elections; especially primaries due to strong turn out and organizing. Rockland also has many non-affiliated Jews who are less active in Jewish life than Haredim
and they tend to be politically liberal but old school liberal (not progressive) as they are mostly older. On the Westchester side there is a huge base of Modern Orthodox Jews and Conservative Jews (the latter is a denomination within Judaism). This voting base is more centrist.
In the current Coronavirus time - coupled with the strong field - it is tough to know how many people will vote. I am not making any predictions, but voters who are Jewish on either side of the Hudson have the pull to decide this race. Some candidates behave this way but others
do not. For example, Assemblyman @DavidBuchwald, newcomer @AdamSchleiferNY and State Senator @DavidCarlucci have been working overdrive on their outreach to organizers, activists and voters within the Jewish community. Other candidates not so much. Farkas for exemple is MIA which
may possibly be because her strategy is that mailers funded by insiders will carry the day. It may also be because she is a machine candidate to whom direct outreach is not much in the toolbox. I don’t know. But quite a surpirse is @MondaireJones because his campaign has an
image as being grassroots and activist-based but it does not seem to involve Orthodox Jews much. I have heard from organizers and activists about outreach from Carlucci, Buchwald and Schleifer but not so from Jones which should have been seen more than all those combined
due to the image of his campaign. Interesting is that 2 of the 4 members of “The Squad” (Congresswomen AOC and Ayanna Pressley) endorsed Mr. Jones. There is not much love lost between the Squad and centrists Jews of Westchester and Liberal Jews of Rockland. But maybe the thinking
by Mr. Jones is that he just needs to lock up and lock in the progressive lane while the rest of the district - Jewish or otherwise - does not matter. Here I am opining, but I want to keep this factual to help observers understand this primary which is set for June 23.
Monday, June 15th, Dem voters in my area of #NY17 received 3 mailers:

1) From @electprogress for @MondaireJones.

2) From/by @AdamSchleiferNY for Schleifer.

3) By Women Vote for @EvelynNFarkas on one side; against Schleifer on the other side.
You can follow @YossiGestetner.
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