This is Bal­lot Watch. Today is the eleventh in the series of arti­cles on the upcom­ing bal­lot ini­tia­tives and some key local elec­tions. Some of these will cover top­ics in com­mon with mul­ti­ple states, while oth­ers will look at a state level.

Last week, I cov­ered most of the North­east­ern states. For today’s Bal­lot Watch, I’m cov­er­ing the remain­ing two, the small­est and the largest in this region — Rhode Island and New York. There’s quite a num­ber of vacant seats in New York, mostly due to redis­trict­ing. Rhode Island has a bevy of bal­lot ques­tions. Jump into the com­ments and give us your thoughts. Any­one who lives in the area is par­tic­u­larly wel­come to give on-​​the-​​site reac­tions and reportage.

New York

The Con­gres­sional dis­tricts in New York have been sub­stan­tially redone. Here is the map for 2008; and you can see the one for this year below (and you can click on it to zoom in). Redis­trict­ing has meant there are no fewer than eight “open” seats, those in which nei­ther can­di­date is the incum­bent for that dis­trict. Many can­di­dates are incum­bents, but from dis­tricts other than the ones for which they are running.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 1 occu­pies the east­ern end of Long Island. The new extent of the dis­trict is slightly larger than the old. The incum­bent is five-​​term Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tim­o­thy H. Bishop (D-​​Southhampton). He’s fac­ing Repub­li­can busi­ness­man Randy Altschuler, who ran against Bishop — and lost — in 2010. The can­di­dates have exchanged charges of cor­rup­tion and out­sourc­ing. The dis­trict has a Cook PVI rat­ing of EVEN, and Real­Clear­Pol­i­tics rates this rematch a “Tossup”.  Even their fundrais­ing is fairly close — $1.9 mil­lion for Bishop; $1.4 mil­lion for Altschuler. With the dis­trict bal­anced on a knife’s edge, this seems to be a metaphor for the nation in microcosm.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 11 is Staten Island, which used to be Dis­trict 13, the south­ern­most tip of New York State. The old Dis­trict 11 was Queens; the incum­bent there is Demo­c­rat Yvette Clarke, now run­ning in the new Dis­trict 9 (she has also been a guest on the Col­bert Report). The can­di­dates in the new Dis­trict 11 are Repub­li­can Michael Grimm (who is the incum­bent in the old Dis­trict 13) and Demo­c­rat Mark Mur­phy. Gromm is a for­mer FBI agent and Marine, and is an Gulf War vet­eran. He was first elected to Con­gress in 2010, with sig­nif­i­cant Tea Party sup­port, after defeat­ing the Repub­li­can establishment-​​preferred can­di­date Michael Alle­gretti in the pri­mary elec­tion. Mur­phy is a real estate busi­ness­man and Staten Island native, who has been active in Bor­ough pol­i­tics for many years. RCP rates the race as “Leans Repub­li­can”. A recent Siena Col­lege poll shows Grimm favored over Mur­phy 48 per­cent to 38 per­cent. Grimm is also rais­ing far more money than his Demo­c­ra­tic chal­lenger, $1.8 mil­lion to $370,000.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 18 is at the bot­tom of the “fun­nel”, where the bulk of the state chan­nels down toward New York City, cov­er­ing all of Put­nam and Orange Coun­ties, six towns in north­east­ern Westch­ester County and the south­east cor­ner of Dutchess County. It occu­pies the geo­graph­i­cal area that used to be Dis­trict 19. The old Dis­trict 18 com­prised the bulk of Westch­ester County, and the incum­bent there is Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nita Lowey (D-​​Harrison), who is now run­ning in Dis­trict 17. Run­ning in the new Dis­trict 18 are Dis­trict 19 Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nan Hay­worth (R-​​Mount Kisco), and for­mer Clin­ton admin­is­tra­tion West Wing Senior Advi­sor Sean Patrick Mal­oney (who has the most Irish name in the his­tory of Ire­land). Hay­worth is a fresh­man Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, hav­ing been elected in 2010, run­ning on the Repub­li­can, Con­ser­v­a­tive, and Inde­pen­dence Party bal­lot lines. Maloney’s cam­paign ads por­tray her as a Tea Party Repub­li­can, hardly a stretch from the rhetoric on her web­site. Real­Clear­Pol­i­tics rates the race as “Leans Repub­li­can”, and a recent Siena Poll has Hay­worth up by 13 points. She has raised about three times as much money as Mal­oney, $2.1 mil­lion to $645,000.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 19 is now north of where the old Dis­trict 19 was, occu­py­ing the north­ern two-​​thirds of the “fun­nel”. It includes por­tions of what used to be Dis­tricts 20 and 22. Retired Army colonel Chris Gib­son (R-​​Kinderhook) is the first-​​term incum­bent for Dis­trict 20. He is a vet­eran of the First Gulf War, Kosovo, and Iraq. His web­site says his Con­gres­sional pri­or­i­ties are “grow­ing the econ­omy to cre­ate jobs, work­ing toward a bal­anced bud­get, and pro­tect­ing free­doms.” He says Social Secu­rity and Medicare should be pro­tected for “cur­rent recip­i­ents.” He opposes Oba­macare, and the major “free­dom” he appears to be defend­ing is the Sec­ond Amend­ment. He is chal­lenged by Demo­c­rat Julian D. Schreib­man, a lawyer who worked at the CIA and received the Attor­ney General’s Dis­tin­guished Ser­vice Award. He has also worked as fed­eral pros­e­cu­tor and as Ulster County Senior Assis­tant Dis­trict Attor­ney. Gib­son has raised about $1.4 mil­lion com­pared to Schreibman’s $500,000. Real­Clear­Pol­i­tics and Elec­tion Pro­jec­tion both give the edge to Gib­son; a recent Siena poll gives Gib­son 52 per­cent to Schreibman’s 36 percent.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 21 used to be a small clump around Albany. It now encom­passes the major­ity of the large bump on the north of the state, which used to be occu­pied pri­mar­ily by Dis­trict 23. The new area is mostly rural and Repub­li­can — one of the few red New York Con­gres­sional Dis­tricts. The incum­bent of the old Dis­trict 21, Paul Tonko (D-​​Amsterdam), is run­ning for elec­tion in the new Dis­trict 20, which occu­pies much the same geo­graph­i­cal area that was for­merly Dis­trict 21. The incum­bent of the old Dis­trict 23 is Bill Owens (D-​​Plattsburgh), and he is run­ning in the new Dis­trict 21. (Get all that?) Owens was elected to his seat in a spe­cial elec­tion in Novem­ber of 2009 when the posi­tion was vacated by Repub­li­can John Hugh, who retired from the House to serve as Pres­i­dent Obama’s Sec­re­tary of the Army. Owens won that elec­tion when Tea Party can­di­date Doug Hoff­man split the con­ser­v­a­tive vote with Repub­li­can Dier­dre Scoz­zafava. Scoz­zafava with­drew from the race days before the elec­tion and endorsed Owens. This area of New York had been rep­re­sented by a Repub­li­can since 1873, mak­ing it his­tor­i­cally one of the most reli­ably Repub­li­can dis­tricts in the nation. Owens was reëlected in 2010, and is now run­ning for reëlec­tion to a sec­ond full term. His oppo­nent is Repub­li­can Matt Doheny, who ran unsuc­cess­fully against Owens in 2010. A recent poll shows Owens open­ing a lead over Doheny, 49 per­cent to 36 per­cent among likely vot­ers, though Real­Clear­Pol­i­tics rates it a “Tossup”. Owens is out­rais­ing Doheny by almost 2-​​to-​​1, roughly $1.3 mil­lion to about $760,000.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 24 used to be a long swipe across the mid­dle of the state, with an arm reach­ing deep into the north­ern bulge. It’s now a small clump around Syra­cuse. The old District’s incum­bent, Richard Hanna (R-​​Barneveld), is run­ning in the new Dis­trict 22, which reaches south­ward from what used to be the mid­dle of the old Dis­trict 24. The cur­rent can­di­dates in the 24th are Repub­li­can Ann Marie Buerkle (who is cur­rently the incum­bent in the old Dis­trict 25) and Demo­c­rat Dan Maf­fei. Maf­fei pre­vi­ously served one term in the U.S. House, being elected in 2008, but Buerkle defeated him in 2010. 2012 is a rematch (we’re see­ing a lot of that this year). Buerkle was a nurse before obtain­ing a law degree from Syra­cuse Uni­ver­sity School of Law. She then served as Assis­tant New York State Attor­ney Gen­eral. Maf­fei per­vi­ously worked for Sen­a­tor Bill Bradley, Sen­a­tor Daniel Patrick Moyni­han and U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Char­lie Rangel. He’s also been fea­tured on the Col­bert Report. Maf­fei and Buerkle have each raised about $1.1 mil­lion for their campaigns.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 25 now sur­rounds Rochester. It used to run across the heard of what is now the 24th. The cur­rent incum­bent of Dis­trict 25 is run­ning in the Dis­trict 24 (see above). The cur­rent can­di­dates for this seat are Demo­c­rat Louise M. Slaugh­ter (cur­rently rep­re­sent­ing the old Dis­trict 28, which occu­pies the north­ern edge of the new Dis­trict 27) and Repub­li­can Mag­gie Brooks. Slaugh­ter was first elected to Con­gress in 1992, and has an exten­sive leg­isla­tive career. Brooks was a broad­cast­ing per­son­al­ity, who moved into pol­i­tics, serv­ing as Mon­roe County Exec­u­tive. The New York State Demo­c­ra­tic Com­mit­tee has given her its first ever Con­gres­sional Can­di­date Duck­ing Issues Award for allegedly declin­ing to dis­cuss sub­stance. Slaugh­ter has raised just over $1 mil­lion to Brooks’ $800,000. Real­Clear­Pol­i­tics rates this race as “Leans Democrat”.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 27 used to be a squar­ish area around Buf­falo on the west­ern edge of the state, with another rough square from the south­west cor­ner of the state tacked on. Dis­trict 27 is now the Buf­falo square, plus what used to be Dis­trict 26, plus most of what used to be Dis­trict 28 — minus Buf­falo itself, which is now Dis­trict 26. The incum­bent of the old 27th is Demo­c­rat Brian Hig­gins, who is run­ning in the new Dis­trict 28. The can­di­dates in Dis­trict 27 are Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kath­leen Hochul (D-​​Buffalo) and Repub­li­can Chris Collins. Hochul is the cur­rent incum­bent for the old Dis­trict 26, which she won in a 2011 spe­cial elec­tion when the seat was vacated by Repub­li­can Chris Lee. He resigned because of the fall­out from flir­ta­tion includ­ing emailed shirt­less pic­tures. Hochul is the first Demo­c­rat to rep­re­sent the dis­trict in forty years. Real­Clear­Pol­i­tics rates the race a “Tossup”, and Elec­tion Pro­jec­tion recently switched it from “Weak Collins” to “Weak Hochul.” Collins bragged in late August that a Buf­falo News/​WGRZ-​​TV/​Siena Col­lege poll showed him lead­ing, when it actu­ally showed a sta­tis­ti­cal tie. In a strange coun­ter­point to the pres­i­den­tial race, Collins has crit­i­cized Hochul for being rich. Busi­ness­man Collins is far wealth­ier than Hochul; though her fam­ily was poor in her early life, her father later did quite well, and she was a suc­cess­ful attor­ney before going into pol­i­tics, but she’s not in the same league as Collins. Hochul has raised more than twelve times as much money as Collins, $3.2 mil­lion to a mere $260,000.

Rhode Island

There is a new law in Rhode Island this year which requires vot­ers to show a photo ID, bank state­ment or government-​​issued doc­u­ment before they are allowed to vote. The list of accepted forms of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion will become more restric­tive in 2014, when only photo IDs will be accepted. This is one of the few states with new voter ID laws that actu­ally allows for a tran­si­tion period.

Con­gres­sional Dis­trict 1 is shaped like a back­wards and inverted L, cov­er­ing the north­ern and east­ern por­tions of the nation’s small­est state. It has a Cook Par­ti­san Vot­ing Index of D+15, so one might think the incum­bent, David Cicilline (D-​​Providence), would have a dis­tinct advan­tage over his Repub­li­can chal­lenger, Bren­dan P. Doherty. Until recently, Doherty seemed to be ahead, but recent polling appears to have tight­ened, or even given Cicilline a lead; it may depend on who you believe. Cicilline was accused by pri­mary oppo­nents of being involved in a voter fraud scan­dal, but he won the pri­mary any­way. Doherty is run­ning on a plat­form of fight­ing fraud, waste, and abuse (though it seems dif­fi­cult to find a can­di­date who favors these things). He is a for­mer state police offi­cer, and has a degree in Admin­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice from Roger Williams Uni­ver­sity, along with a Master’s in Crim­i­nal Jus­tice. Cicilline served in the Rhode Island state leg­is­la­ture after being elected first in 1994. In 2002, he was elected Mayor of Prov­i­dence, and became the first openly gay mayor of a U.S. state cap­i­tal, where he served until his elec­tion to the U.S. House in 2010. Cicilline has been rais­ing more money than Doherty, $1.7 mil­lion to $1.1 million.

Rhode Island bal­lot ques­tions are a mix­ture of eco­nomic devel­op­ment and pub­lic infrastructure.

Ques­tions 1 and 2 ask vot­ers if they want state-​​operated casino gam­bling at two Rhode Island slot casi­nos  — Twin River in Lin­coln, RI, and New­port Grand in New­port, RI. Sup­port­ers of one or both Ques­tions insist these mea­sures would bring income to the state, and fur­ther warn that moves in nearby states to allow casino gam­bling will soon make the currently-​​profitable Rhode Island sites no longer lucra­tive. Oppo­nents argue that related ques­tions have come up before (as recently as 2010), and have always been rejected; at some point, the leg­is­la­ture should sim­ply accept the voice of the peo­ple on the mat­ter. Cit­i­zens Con­cerned About Casino Gam­bling seems to argue against the mea­sure, at least in part, on reli­gious grounds.

Ques­tions 3, 4, 5, and 7 ask whether the state should “issue gen­eral oblig­a­tion bonds, refund­ing bonds, and tem­po­rary notes” to finance spe­cific state projects: Ques­tion 3 would raise money for aca­d­e­mic build­ings at Rhode Island Col­lege (up to $50 mil­lion), Ques­tion 4 for a new Vet­er­ans’ Home and ren­o­va­tions to exist­ing facil­i­ties (up to $94 mil­lion), Ques­tion 5 for both waste­water ($12 mil­lion) and drink­ing water ($8 mil­lion) infra­struc­ture projects, and Ques­tion 7 for “afford­able hous­ing” ($25 mil­lion). Much of this would be coör­di­nated with fed­eral pro­grams, and any fed­eral monies received would be used to reduce the amount needed to be raised by bor­row­ing. The results of these bal­lot ini­ti­ates could indi­cate pub­lic atti­tudes toward the need for infra­struc­ture spend­ing, a will­ing­ness to finance it through pub­lic debt, and a part­ner­ship between states and the fed­eral gov­ern­ment — at least, atti­tudes of peo­ple in Rhode Island.

Ques­tion 6 is sim­i­lar to the infra­struc­ture bond­ing Ques­tions described above, but deals with a vari­ety of envi­ron­men­tal and recre­ational pur­poses: Nar­ra­gansett Bay and Water­shed restora­tion, open space for state land acqui­si­tion (appar­ently, there is still some open space in tiny Rhode Island), farm­land devel­op­ment rights, local land acqui­si­tion grants, local recre­ation grants, and his­toric and pas­sive parks. Each of these cat­e­gories would be given between $1 mil­lion and $5.5 mil­lion. In addi­tion to the issues raised above relat­ing to a will­ing­ness to acquire pub­lic debt in order to fund infra­struc­ture projects and to engage in coöper­a­tion between lev­els of gov­ern­ment, this ques­tion addi­tion­ally raises these con­cerns in the con­text of the envi­ron­ment. Are we will­ing to do all this sim­ply to care for our land and water and air? Are parks and recre­ation and pub­lic lands worth going into debt over?

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