With only a small select group of attorneys specializing in election law in New York City and an overabundance of candidates seeking office in 2013, the demand far outstrips the supply. As a result, election lawyers can amass a stable of clients who may find each other strange bedfellows. Much of this legal work falls on the old guard of mainly white male attorneys who were around City Hall in the 1980s when the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Board was established… [More]

With Election Day rapidly approaching, the devastation from Hurricane Sandy could have residual consequences that may alter the outcome of local and federal elections. With many polling sites still without power and thousands of residents displaced due to flooding and damage to their homes, the New York City Board of Elections has been scrambling to come up with solutions that would allow voters to cast their ballot. With its Lower Manhattan offices incapacitated due to power outages and flooding, the… [More]

Lincoln Restler may have done it again. Two years ago, Restler trailed his opponent by 97 votes in a Democratic district leader race before surging ahead with a 120-vote margin in a nerve-wracking recount. On primary night this year, the Greenpoint district leader thought he had lost his race by 180 votes to Assemblyman Vito Lopez-backed challenger Chris Olechowski. But election workers tabulated the count from the voting machines and sifted through absentee and affidavit ballots on Friday, giving Restler a tentative 53-vote… [More]

When politicians face a deadlocked election, an indictment or an arrest warrant – who do they call… [More]

The 5.8 earthquake in Virginia that shook New York on a blue-sky day last month naturally brought back memories of the terrorist attack 10 years ago, as people streamed into the street with their cell phones not working. Days later, Hurricane Irene literally shut down the city, Long Island and the northern suburbs. As if this were not enough, a 2.9 earthquake jolted upstate in the middle of the hurricane, and Tropical Storm Lee brought massive flooding and destruction throughout… [More]

Two new polls of the 2013 mayor’s race should have provided grist for this week’s Winners & Losers list, but when the top candidates aren’t even running (Ray Kelly? Marty Markowitz?), they just showed the futility of polling two years out. Here’s our much more scientific assessment of who’s up and who’s down this week. Greg Ball – The Hudson Valley lawmaker raked in nearly $337,000 in campaign cash during the first half of this year, more than any of… [More]

In the end, there was just a small makeshift podium in a sparsely filled, small campaign headquarters on Park Avenue South as Mark Green arrived to give what he swore would be the last, last concession speech of his life.… [More]