This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Rep. Tom Reed was already on track to wrap up his term at the end of this year. But just to add a little more chaos to an already chaotic election season, he decided to resign early and set off a frenzy among Republicans in the Southern Tier and Western New York. The ongoing redistricting snafu – along with the timing for a special election –leaves candidates uncertain about jumping into the race, but these Republicans’ names have been floated as strong possible contenders who could snag the seat. Sempolinski, a former staffer to Reed, is already running with his old boss’ blessing.

Can Reid go from Zero to Hero? Just like that, the Assembly candidate got some muscle in the upcoming special election with a key endorsement from the Zeus of the Big Apple, Mayor Eric Adams. I Can’t Say Central Brooklyn residents are in love with the mayor … but he did get a whopping 72% in the 58th Assembly district in the 2021 primary. And Reid will need all the help he can get if he wants to Go the Distance against the Democratic titan Monique Chandler-Waterman and her Hydra of supporters including Jumaane Williams and Nick Perry. 

The United Federation of Teachers boss won reelection for a fifth term, the union announced Wednesday, but by a narrower margin than in previous elections: 66% of the vote. And just about a quarter of the union’s 200,000 members submitted their ballots. After two particularly rocky years of pandemic teaching in New York City, it’s no wonder some members were ready for a change. 

Albany has a lot of unspoken rules, but one that seemed so obvious that need not even be unspoken perhaps should have been clearly enumerated to Assembly Member Andy Goodell. If someone had told him the rule of “don’t leave your keys in your car,” he may still have his BMW. In what must be a first for even the unpredictable state Capitol, someone managed to steal Goodell’s ride from the garage, drove it around a bit and ultimately totaled it. Now, Goodell has to live with the consequences of his lack of security foresight from his small-town upbringing.

Steuben County Judge Patrick McAllister holds a lot of power these days. This week, he shot down the attempts of two men, political gadfly Gary Greenberg and New York Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax, to have the state Assembly maps redrawn and the primary moved to August. McAllister, who agreed with Greenberg and Wax that the Assembly maps were effectively unconstitutional, said it was too late into the primary schedule to draft new maps, and that the June election date could proceed. 

If a pen is thrown at a video screen in City Council chambers, but no one sees, hears or remembers it, did it really happen? It seems unlikely. But Republican Council Member Vickie Paladino nonetheless alleged that her progressive colleagues “threw objects” at a video screen that she Zoomed in on when she voiced her support for law enforcement after last month’s subway shooting. Several council members and staff came out this week saying that the event never happened, though. And Republican Council Member David Carr – who Paladino’s staff said was one of the people who informed her of the pen-throwing – also said he had no memory of saying that. Sounds fishy, but maybe the council should launch a task force to investigate the matter just in case.