Who I'm voting for in New York's dramatic primary election

Big money backfire

Welcome to a Monday night edition of Progress Report.

It’s Election Day here in New York — again — and I find myself in the center of the storm. Here’s what that looks like.

Also, I’ll write about it more later, but a judge today blocked Donald Trump’s plan to allow states to use a deeply flawed federal database to purge and disenfranchise voters, a key component of his recent executive order.

Note: The far-right’s fascist takeover of this country is being aided by the media’s total capitulation to Trump’s extortion. It’s never been more critical to have a bold independent media willing to speak up against the powerful. That’s what I’m trying to do here at Progress Report.

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Over the past few months, my three-year-old son has gotten hardcore into kaiju and tokusatsu cinema, delving ever deeper into the more than half a century of Japanese monster suit movies and TV shows. I’ve got all the Godzilla blu-rays dubbed in English, but some stuff is only available in Japanese, including the Ultraman TV app, which is all-Nihongo — except for the ads.

At some point, the pitter-patter of indecipherable conversation becomes background noise, so it took a few seconds for it to really register when I heard Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a confident Nuyorican voice hype up “Darializa for Congress.”

Now that the Knicks have finished their magical playoff run, Democratic primaries have a monopoly on New York’s TV and streaming ad slots, mailboxes, and street corners. Ubiquity is putting it mildly, and though being inundated by political ads is hardly unique to NYC, the cost of buying time and space in this media market means that incomparable sums are being spent on the noise and detritus that have become ubiquitous.

These last few weeks have seen PACs pour tens of millions of dollars into four Congressional primaries. And as much as I’d like to ignore them, it’s a close examination of the paid media — and who is paying for it — that’s been most informative indicator of who’s worth supporting.

Enemies of my enemies, allies of my allies

Admittedly, that doesn’t necessarily apply most to the race that’s become forever connected to Tsuburaya Productions‘ most iconic property. That race, for NY-13, encompasses parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx, and features Darializa Avila Chevalier’s spirited challenge to sitting Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the powerful chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Still, it’s worth discussing because of what it represents here in New York. It’s a full circle moment for Espaillat; once the political outsider with the audacity to challenge Harlem icon Rep. Charlie Rangel, Espaillat, the 71-year-old incumbent is now the avatar of the establishment, enraged that he’s being pushed by a 32-year-old leftist newcomer who has the support of the mayor. She’s backed by Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America, who are banking on significant demographic shifts to usher in generational change.

Chevalier is an avowed critic of Israel who has spent much of her career focused on the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, which helps explain the fine print on the attack ads against her; many of them have been financed by a front group for AIPAC, which has long been on of Espaillat’s most enthusiastic patrons. He’s hardly the most conservative Democrat, but there is a real ideological gulf between the two candidates, one much more pronounced than the race that has rendered my mailbox all but unusable since mid-May.

I live right along the border between NY-13 and NY-12, the district immediately to the south. Geo-targeting on the internet is rough enough that I see endless ads from both races online, but my exact address has kept the mailer deluge to the NY-12 race, which consists of most of Manhattan and is frankly one of the most vexing contests I’ve ever witnessed.

There’s no real viable leftist candidate here — I did work for Cameron Kasky, who sought that lane before dropping out this winter — and the frontrunners are all pretty ideologically similar. You won’t find many conflicting beliefs between the two front runners, Assemblymen Alex Bores, who represents the Upper East Side, and Micah Lasher, who was sent to Albany by people on the other side of Central Park. For what it’s worth, they both seem like smart and decent guys.

If not clones, their issue pages at least share DNA: both Bores and Lasher, at least while competing in a Democratic primary in a super-blue district, say they support Medicare for All, want to abolish ICE, stand with labor unions, will always back LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, have plans to rein in inflation and jumpstart new housing, and hold really every other good liberal position you can think of. They also both have taken half a step back from the absolute support of Israel that you’d expect from Jewish uptown Democrats, crafting careful rebukes of the genocide of Palestinians while maintaining preference for a two-state solution.

Even politicos on either side have told me that they are remarkably similar, in terms of their philosophy. And if there isn’t much daylight between what the two lawmakers believe, you have to then look at their enemies and allies, and that is where the contrast really emerges.

There have been a few ads in this race that really stick out to me. Bores has been the target of a nasty character assassination campaign, packed with digs about his career and insinuations about his personal conduct. It has been relentless and ubiquitous, and you can get a feel for the vibe and extensiveness of the effort from the cover wrap of this local free newspaper.

Pretty explicit for a print ad in a newspaper mostly read by seniors, but take a look at the disclosure at the bottom and you’ll understand why: this thing was paid for by Think Big PAC, an arm of Leading the Future, a dark money group fueled by a founder of Open AI and other titans of Big Tech, including the Trump supporters at Andreessen Horowitz.

The group has dropped over $8 million against Bores because he had the audacity to sponsor some very basic and unremarkable AI regulations. This issue has utterly dominated the race locally and attention nationally, and you can tell the direction of travel by the fact that these ads have mostly accused Bores, a computer engineer before becoming a legislator, of being a tool of Big Tech and too soft on AI and firms like Palantir, where he once worked.

Bores has sought to use the attacks themselves as proof of his anti-establishment streak and progressive credentials, backed by just as much money from a Super PAC funded by Anthropic and tech founder Chris Larsen. Those two tend to come down on the side of stronger oversight of AI, and it’s really this fight — again, sponsoring a modest regulation bill that Kathy Hochul weakened — that has most earned Bores the support of most of the progressive organizations (like Our Revolution), much of organized labor, and left-leaning lawmakers.

Lasher has presented himself as a tough nerd, a gentle mensch and legislator with a nasty technocratic left hook, who has taken on Trump from Albany. It’s an interesting duality; he boasts of his legal acumen and wonkiness while simultaneously trying to project a sort of rumbler persona, with an expertise honed by working for the most establishment Democrats. As a recent mailer details, he went to Minneapolis during the ICE occupation in January, which apparently licensed him to send mailers with featuring Renee Good and Alex Pretti, promising to avenge their deaths.

If I sound cynical, it’s more likely a product of exhaustion than anything else. Pro-Lasher (and anti-Bores) commercials have been playing on a loop, flyers and mailers are piling up across the district and on my dining table (I try to read them and there is a significant backlog). The campaign’s closing ad features Hochul, his former boss, and other local establishment Democrats repeating the line “Get me Micah Lasher” like he’s some kind of PI in a ‘70s detective film. Another former boss and top patron, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has also been front and center: Bloomberg has publicly disclosed giving $10 million to get Lasher elected.

Those ads and endorsements had a big impact, at least on me: in a year in which Democratic voters are demanding radical change, a break with old and out of touch leaders, and a turn away from an oligarch-dominated society, such a stark contrast in the allies and enemies of these two candidates made the decision relatively easy: I’ll be voting for Alex Bores.

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