All those who bleed green and might despair now that the Jets will not be in the Super Bowl can take heart because there is another important contest in early February – the special election to fill the Assembly seat vacated by Mark Weprin on February 9.
The race pits Bob Friedrich, president of the Glen Oaks Village co-op, against former City Councilmember David Weprin, who ran unsuccessfully for City Comptroller last year.
There are many similarities between this special election and the one last week for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.
First, like the Massachusetts seat, the 24th Assembly District has been held by one political family for decades. Former Assembly Speaker Saul Weprin was first elected in 1972 and held the seat until his passing in 1994. His son Mark had occupied the seat since then until last year when he was elected to David’s City Council seat.
Second, as in Massachusetts, Democrats outnumber Republicans three-to-one in the 24th District. Over 21 percent of registered voters in the district are not enrolled in a party.
Third, this campaign is turning out to be much more competitive than some political observers predicted and will be watched as a potential bell-weather of the current political climate of the new year.
Weprin has not hid from his family’s name, while Friedrich has touted his service as a civic leader and criticized Weprin for voting for double-digit property tax hikes, raising cell phone, utility and sales taxes, and authoring the largest tax increase in city history.
These special elections this winter are examples of the cyclical nature of politics and voter dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Indeed, Republican Scott Brown’s surprising victory in deep-blue Massachusetts to capture the Senate seat first won by John Kennedy in 1952 was considered impossible just two weeks before, when polls had the little-known lawmaker down by double digits.
But it is too simplistic to interpret the Massachusetts results as nothing more than a repudiation of President Obama. It is more nuanced than that.
There is a deep strain of discontent in American society today, spurned on by 10 percent unemployment and a loss of faith in established institutions, whether it’s government, business or the media. When people are unhappy with how things are going, they turn against incumbents and the party in power.
According to a Washington Post poll, 63 percent of Massachusetts special-election voters say the country is seriously off track, of which two-thirds voted for Brown. In 2008, Obama won decisively among the more than 80 percent of Massachusetts voters seeing the country as off-course.
People voted for change in 2008 and, evidently, many still want change in 2010. Whether and to what extent this strain of discontent reaches Queens will become clearer when the Weprin-Friedrich race is decided on February 9.
Daniel Egers serves on the staff of Councilmember Dan Halloran, is Executive Director of the Queens County Republican Party, a Trustee of the Bayside Historical Society and President of the Friends of Oakland Lake. The views expressed in this column are his own.
