New Yorkers deserve a real choice in every election

One thing you can count on while watching a Republican primary debate for any office, from dogcatcher to president, is that you’ll hear the word “competition” repeatedly. If you were to take a shot every time a candidate said the word in the context of the economy, health care, state’s rights, school vouchers, taxes or trade, you’d be drunk by the first commercial break.

On the Democratic side of the ledger, a favorite phrase among every candidate seeking to appeal to a left-of-center electorate is “a level playing field,” generally in the context of wages, income inequality, labor issues, education, protecting the rights of women and minorities or regulating big business. But in spite of the repeated use of “competition” and “a level playing field” as partisan buzz words, the elections for state Legislature produce no real competition and offer anything but a level playing field. For instance, the one borough of New York City that could genuinely be referred to as bipartisan is Staten Island. There are six members of the state Legislature from that borough – three Republicans and three Democrats. All of them (at this point) are without a major party opponent in the general election. As you might expect, this holds true in nearly every other borough as well, with few incumbents facing even nominal opposition. Even in communities that aren’t dominated exclusively by one party, including Westchester County, Long Island and parts of upstate, the lack of opposition is pretty alarming.

The reasons for this are far from a mystery. Very few bright, ambitious and talented would-be politicos want to spend the time, energy and effort on a race in which they’re almost certain to lose. There have been and continue to be numerous measures considered by the state Legislature to address some of the disparities. We frequently hear talk of public campaign financing and there’s already been a constitutional amendment that attempts to address some of the problems with gerrymandering, but I suspect these and other reforms will do little to address the lack of competition for state legislative seats year after year. The sad reality remains that officials are far more likely to be indicted while in office or die while in office than to lose re-election. As just about every New Yorker can tell you, this isn’t because our state Legislature is doing such a stellar job. Our legislative elections make the Soviet politburo look competitive.

So how do we fix this problem? While some reforms may help (including term limits, which at least at the state level appears unlikely to be adopted anytime soon), the surest way to address this travesty of democracy in the short term is to demand that the party leaders themselves take responsibility for running a full slate. It should be an expectation that a county leader (or district leader) makes candidate recruitment a priority. I know this can be tough for a Republican in the Bronx or a Democrat on the south shore of Staten Island, but that’s what leadership is. It seems the primary interests of party leaders these days are fundraising and making deals. If you can’t get folks to run for office in the party you’re leading, you’re not a leader and the members of your party deserve better. So do New Yorkers.