By William Lewis
With most of the national political attention being focused on the presidential race, interest in the mayor’s race next year is starting to materialize. The incumbent Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio is very likely to face Democratic primary challenges before next year’s city fall election. If he should be defeated in a primary election, it will be the end of his career as New York City’s mayor.
On the Republican side there seems to be considerable interest in running Republican City Councilman Eric Ulrich for mayor. Ulrich is the only Republican officeholder in Queens. He represents a councilmanic district in southwest Queens. He is now completing his second four-year term in office. His elected office is term-limited after two terms. Therefore he will not be eligible to run for a third term as city councilman.
Ulrich seems to have support among various Republican Party leaders. He is a good public speaker and after eight years in the City Council he is knowledgeable about issues affecting New York City. The question is, if he runs will he be able to raise the necessary campaign funds for the important citywide race for mayor? Ulrich did run for a New York State Senate seat, but was unsuccessful. He has had plenty of experience in running for public office as well as working on other races besides his own.
Ulrich may be facing a Republican primary if he runs. There may be other Republican candidates interested in running including a clergyman from upper Manhattan, Michael Faulkner, who has been campaigning during the past year.
The results of the 2016 election will have a profound effect on election 2017 in terms of whoever wins the presidency is able to carry state and local candidates into office including U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, state Senate, state Assembly, governors, and city councils.
In the United States we have a large number of elections at all levels of government. Voters are constantly being called upon to render election judgments. This year seems to have brought out more people to vote than in recent years.
There seems to be an angry mood among the people. This is causing an increasing interest in the election, especially the presidential election. Years ago we did not have the amount of independent voters that we have now, especially in the Western states. Most people years ago joined one of the major political parties. Voting seems to have increased in recent years due to early voting, absentee voting, and changing party affiliation before voting.
Hopefully, voting this year will be widespread and a majority of citizens will choose to vote.
We want our officials who are elected to office to feel that they have the strong support of our people. In terms of people voting, 2016 should improve the electoral process.
