Now that last Tuesday’s election returns have been tabulated, what are the enduring electoral lessons? Let’s explore that question by analyzing the four major contests in New York.
First, in New York City, the fulcrum point in the electorate now lies with Latino and Asian voters. Shane Goldmacher wrote a splendid piece in The New York Times exquisitely capturing the narrative of the mayoral campaign, but I believe that Goldmacher missed the arithmetic at the core of New York City’s electoral equation.
Goldmacher accepted the central assumption of de Blasio’s political team: If they won three-quarters of the black vote, the mayor would win because any opponent would face the nearly impossible mission of garnering 61 percent from the rest of the electorate. But that calculation misses the fact that no one or even two voting blocs dominate New York City politics.
Read the article here.