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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Closing Remarks from David Pechefsky
From David Pechefsky, Green Party candidate for City Council in the 39th, this nice wrap up and analysis of his election night numbers.
A very heartfelt thanks to all of you for your support, time, and effort. I feel very happy with the race we ran -- it was principled, engaging, substantive, and fun.
By now many of you have seen the numbers and the truth is that I cannot help but feel disappointed.
According to the unofficial count we got about 1,500 votes or 7%. (Although our own tally from the polls we closed was closer to 1,750). All day long yesterday, people -- many of whom I had never seen before - passed me giving me the thumbs up, or came up to shake my hand, or after a last minute entreaty from me or one of my team came back from the poll saying "I voted for you." And the numbers we got from MS 51 where I ended the night were closer to 20% so I really was feeling pretty good walking to our party.
How to explain it? Of course one thing is that the two-party system is so entrenched that it is very, very hard to get people to vote otherwise. But here are a couple of ways of looking at the numbers that tell a more positive story.
First there are only about 360 registered Greens in district. So even discounting for those who voted for me mostly out of personal loyalty, we probably got over 1,000 non-Greens to vote Green.
Brad Landers's (D) vote total represented the equivalent of 30% of registered Democrats. Joe Nardiello's (R) 40% of registered Republicans. But ours 400% of registered Greens!
We also gained more votes than 2 of the 5 Dems who ran in the primary, despite those two being good candidates who considerably outspent us.
And in Park Slope we beat the Republican by 957 votes to 517, gaining 19% of the total! The difference between these numbers and the overall outcome highlights that the 39th Council District, which extends from Cobble Hill to Borough Park is not a "Park Slope District" nor for that matter a particularly progressive district; although the fact that the Democratic nominee tends be someone deemed progressive makes it very hard for a challenger from the left.
I hope this puts things in perspective a little bit.
And certainly no other campaign brought more smiles to people's faces then we did with the funny t-shirts and our high spirits, nor was more fun for kids with our activity book and free puppet shows.
For a nice summary of the campaign please read Louise Crawford's piece in Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn:
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com//only_the_blog_knows_brook/2009/11/the-hardest-working-candidate-in-brooklyn-david-pechefsky.html
So, was it the right thing to do?
Absolutely, not the least because of the all the new friends I made and the old friends I reconnected with.
And in political terms? Absolutely. Many people asked me in the course of the campaign why with my strong resume etc. I wasn't running as a Democrat so I would "have a chance at winning." No way! The City Council doesn't need any more deal-making Democrats who compromise their principles to get appointed the chair of some good sounding committee etc. etc. and the political system as a whole needs to be pushed on the Green party principles of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy, and non-violence.
So keep an eye out for us Greens and consider coming to some Park Slope Greens meetings. We usually meet the second Monday of the month at the Methodist Church on 6th Avenue and 8th Street.
There is lots to be done.
Best,
David
By now many of you have seen the numbers and the truth is that I cannot help but feel disappointed.
According to the unofficial count we got about 1,500 votes or 7%. (Although our own tally from the polls we closed was closer to 1,750). All day long yesterday, people -- many of whom I had never seen before - passed me giving me the thumbs up, or came up to shake my hand, or after a last minute entreaty from me or one of my team came back from the poll saying "I voted for you." And the numbers we got from MS 51 where I ended the night were closer to 20% so I really was feeling pretty good walking to our party.
How to explain it? Of course one thing is that the two-party system is so entrenched that it is very, very hard to get people to vote otherwise. But here are a couple of ways of looking at the numbers that tell a more positive story.
First there are only about 360 registered Greens in district. So even discounting for those who voted for me mostly out of personal loyalty, we probably got over 1,000 non-Greens to vote Green.
Brad Landers's (D) vote total represented the equivalent of 30% of registered Democrats. Joe Nardiello's (R) 40% of registered Republicans. But ours 400% of registered Greens!
We also gained more votes than 2 of the 5 Dems who ran in the primary, despite those two being good candidates who considerably outspent us.
And in Park Slope we beat the Republican by 957 votes to 517, gaining 19% of the total! The difference between these numbers and the overall outcome highlights that the 39th Council District, which extends from Cobble Hill to Borough Park is not a "Park Slope District" nor for that matter a particularly progressive district; although the fact that the Democratic nominee tends be someone deemed progressive makes it very hard for a challenger from the left.
I hope this puts things in perspective a little bit.
And certainly no other campaign brought more smiles to people's faces then we did with the funny t-shirts and our high spirits, nor was more fun for kids with our activity book and free puppet shows.
For a nice summary of the campaign please read Louise Crawford's piece in Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn:
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com//only_the_blog_knows_brook/2009/11/the-hardest-working-candidate-in-brooklyn-david-pechefsky.html
So, was it the right thing to do?
Absolutely, not the least because of the all the new friends I made and the old friends I reconnected with.
And in political terms? Absolutely. Many people asked me in the course of the campaign why with my strong resume etc. I wasn't running as a Democrat so I would "have a chance at winning." No way! The City Council doesn't need any more deal-making Democrats who compromise their principles to get appointed the chair of some good sounding committee etc. etc. and the political system as a whole needs to be pushed on the Green party principles of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy, and non-violence.
So keep an eye out for us Greens and consider coming to some Park Slope Greens meetings. We usually meet the second Monday of the month at the Methodist Church on 6th Avenue and 8th Street.
There is lots to be done.
Best,
David
November 5, 2009 | Permalink
