City & State’s biggest hits of 2018

From profiles of heavy hitters like Corey Johnson and Andrea-Stewart Cousins to coverage of news that shakes the New York political world to its core – like the downfall of Jeff Klein and the IDC – City & State covers the most consequential, game-changing stories in New York politics.

These are not those stories.

When we sat down and compiled a list of our most popular stories of the year, based on web traffic, our editorial team had just one question: Really? Packed with minutiae about people most New Yorkers never heard of, like Chele Chiavacci Farley and Rich Schaffer, we were happy – if perplexed – to discover that our readers are detail-obsessed political geeks – just like us!

The following are City & State’s 10 most clicked-on stories of the year. We hope you find them as inexplicably illuminating as we do.

This was far and away our biggest story this year. As questions first started cropping up regarding then-state Senate hopeful Julia Salazar’s past, staff reporter Zach Williams got to the heart of the matter, interviewing Salazar’s mother and brother about her dubious autobiography. From her claims of being an immigrant (she was born in the U.S.) to having a working-class upbringing (we ran a photo of what can only be described as the small mansion she grew up in), even her own family shot down her tale. In the end, the voters of District 18 decided to embrace the Democratic Socialist over incumbent Martin Dilan anyway, proving just how hungry New Yorkers are for fresh blood in the Legislature.

As New Yorkers went to the polls this year, one question was on everybody’s Google search history: Who the hell is Chele Chiavacci Farley? City & State had the answers on U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s Republican opponent, on everything from her financial experience to how to pronounce her tricky name. (“Shell Kee-a-VAH-chee FAR-lee.”) Googlers came, they saw, they said “Eh” – and Gillibrand crushed her, with the AP calling the race literally the minute the polls closed.

All our stories should just be “5 things to know about [previously obscure GOP politician].” In a world of hyper-partisan politics and vicious tweets, enter … a guy who acted nicer than Mr. Rogers. A politician seemingly from another age, Molinaro’s biggest stumbling block was that most people outside of the mid-Hudson Valley had just never heard of him. That, and it didn’t matter how many strangers he rescued off the sidewalk, being a Republican in the Trump era was just never going to fly with New Yorkers.

Speaking of unexpectedly nice politicians, staff reporter Rebecca C. Lewis’ feel-good story about a young lawmaker who adopted a man with developmental disabilities was wildly popular on our site. But, like Molinaro, being a do-gooder didn’t cut it for jaded New Yorkers. Ari Espinal lost her primary election to Catalina Cruz not long after the story was published.
 

Ah, hindsight. Rep. Joe Crowley didn’t bother attending a debate this year with some no-name candidate Alexandria something-something. Instead, he sent former New York City Councilwoman Annabel Palma, whom City & State ranked as one of the worst lawmakers in New York City back in 2017. Good thing for Crowley this move never came back to haunt him.

From running seminars to teach women how to be more ladylike to mocking gay people, fat people, trans people and Muslims to championing fellow reckless drivers after literally killing a pedestrian (click for the full list), it’s really a surprise that Marty Golden remained in office as long as he did before being defeated by Andrew Gounardes this year.

 

Back in May, we had the audacity to ask: What if Republican control of the state Senate isn’t just because of Jeff Klein or Simcha Felder? Digital reporter Grace Segers laid at least part of the responsibility at the feet of Rich Schaffer, the Suffolk County Democratic Committee chairman and Babylon supervisor. Critics said that Schaffer let Republicans keep control of winnable Suffolk state Senate seats by withholding support for competitive Democrats. Schaffer said he was just reaching across the aisle and doing what’s best for his constituents, statewide politics be damned. Now that the blue wave on Long Island helped usher in a decisive Democratic majority in the state Senate, Schaffer had better hope that the Democrats are a forgiving bunch.

Look, we get it. The whole point of the IDC was to hold onto a shred of power long after losing it, so it only made sense that it would take some of the defeated conference members a little while to concede. Eventually, they came around to acknowledging what Democratic primary voters told them: that they couldn’t be their party’s nominee after siding with Republicans.

Snark? Us? Our Brooklyn-raised senior editor, Ben Adler, took a New York mag piece to task for managing to attack both the #MeToo movement and Kings County simultaneously. Adler graciously pointed out that, sure, Andrew Sullivan’s critique of Brooklyn made a certain amount of sense … if by Brooklyn, he meant the most hackneyed stereotypes of Williamsburg. But when you actually look at the borough beyond its gentrified northwestern quadrant, you’ll find it’s a more racially, ethnically, socially and politically diverse than Sullivan’s hometown of Washington, D.C.