Mamdani Town Hall
Thursday, September 18
6:15 – 7:30 pm
Democratic Candidate for Mayor Zohran Mamdani will be participating in a Town Hall exclusively for members of the downtown Democratic clubs.
Mamdani Town Hall
Thursday, September 18
6:15 – 7:30 pm
Democratic Candidate for Mayor Zohran Mamdani will be participating in a Town Hall exclusively for members of the downtown Democratic clubs.
Rep. Goldman Virtual Town Hall
Tuesday, September 16
6:30 – 7:30 pm
Join Representative Dan Goldman for a September town hall to discuss the Trump Administration’s policies and orders that have continued to impact nonprofits, education, citizenship, immigration, health care, LGBTQ+ rights, federal employment, and more.
Fall Fundraiser for Brad Hoylman-Sigal
Tuesday, Oct. 14
5:00 – 7:00 pm
Fairfax Tavern & Bar, 234 W. 4th St. (at 10th St.)
Please join us for a Fall Celebration in support of Democratic nominee Brad Hoylman-Sigal for Manhattan Borough President. Tickets start at $75 for the event in the West Village.
In 2024, the New York State Legislature passed and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill to quadruple the number of automated red light cameras in NYC from 150 to 600 by 2027. New locations for red light cameras are being identified by NYC Department of Transportation with help from local representatives and community boards.
This month, with help from Councilmember Chris Marte and Assemblymember Grace Lee, NYC DOT announced that a new automated camera would be placed in the vicinity of Delancey and Clinton Streets to help prevent automobile drivers from running the red lights onto and off the Williamsburg Bridge and make the long crosswalk there safer for pedestrians.
Based on votes by the membership, GSD recommends:
NYC Mayor: Rank 5 candidates
Public Advocate: Jumaane Williams
Comptroller: Mark Levine
District Attorney: Alvin Bragg
Borough President: Brad Hoylman-Sigal
City Council: Christopher Marte
NYC’s ranked choice voting is an instant runoff — if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote right away, then counting continues in rounds.
At the end of each round, the last-place candidate is eliminated and voters who chose that candidate now have their vote counted for their next choice.
Your vote is counted for your second choice only if your first choice is eliminated. If both your first and second choices are eliminated, your vote is counted for your next choice, and so on. (You can vote for up to five candidates in ranked choice races.)
This process continues until there are two candidates left. At that point, the candidate with the most votes wins.
https://vote.nyc/page/ranked-choice-voting
There are eleven candidates for Mayor in the Democratic primary. You can rank up to five of them.
Polling indicates there is one clear front-runner, former Governor Andrew Cuomo. In a traditional primary, his lead would probably be enough to win, because in a traditional primary a candidate only needs to win a plurality — more votes than any other candidate.
But with ranked choice voting, it’s possible for a runner-up in the first round to gain enough second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-choice votes from other voters to become the eventual winner.
Because GSD specifically recommends not voting for Cuomo, it’s important to vote for the five candidates most likely to be the last person standing against Cuomo in the final round.
Obviously that’s your choice. But you run the risk of voting for candidates who are eliminated before the final round, and then you won’t have a say in the final matchup.
Ballots that don’t rank enough candidates to make it to the final round are called exhausted ballots. The last mayoral primary is a great example of how voters who don’t rank more than one or two candidates relinquish their chance to have a say in the eventual winner.
In 2021, Eric Adams defeated Kathryn Garcia in the final round by just over 7,000 votes, while there were over 140,000 exhausted ballots. That’s 140,000 voters who hadn’t ranked either Adams or Garcia, but who, if they had ranked one or the other, could have helped determine (and possibly change) the outcome.
The other races have fewer candidates — only three or four — with really only two viable candidates in each race. So the candidate endorsed by GSD in those races will certainly be either the winner or runner-up in the final round. Since our endorsed candidate won’t be eliminated until the very end, our second- and third-choice votes won’t end up being counted.
The District Attorney for Manhattan is technically a state office, and ranked choice voting has been legislated only locally for NYC offices (in primaries and special elections).
Yes.
Ice cream social in support of Brad Hoylman-Sigal for Borough President
Monday, May 12, 5:30 – 7:00 pm
Join Caroline Laskow, Ella Leitner, Kate Nammacher, and Melissa Shiffman in support of GSD’s endorsed candidate for Manhattan Borough President, Brad Hoylman-Sigal.
With NYC matching funds, your contribution is matched x8!
Phone Calls and Postcards
Every Tuesday until Primary Day, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Seward Coop Community Room, 266 East Broadway
To help get out the vote for our endorsed candidates, GSD is sponsoring phone banks and postcard-writing for District Attorney Alvin Bragg and City Councilmember Christopher Marte.
To make calls, bring a laptop, mobile phone, and headphones.
At our May meeting, voting members of the club will have a chance to vote on a series of bylaws amendments proposed by a special bylaws committee and the Executive Committee.
Below, Jeremy Sherber describes the proposals and explains the reasoning behind them.
Update: All proposals passed at the general meeting on 5/22/2025.
Thanks to all for joining us on Tuesday night for an active, packed meeting.
April General Meeting
Tuesday, April 29, 6:30 pm
Seward Coop Community Room
266 East Broadway
Join us for pizza and cake celebrating the successful end to our spring petitioning!
We have a full agenda Tuesday with in-person and remote guests starting at 6:30 pm:
We will also be discussing local, political, and club issues: