Millman Easy Winner in Assembly Race

By on September 15, 2010 1:09 am in Election 10, Government

Incumbent Assembly Member Joan Millman easily withstood a challenge from Heights resident Doug Biviano to win the Democratic nomination for the 52nd Assembly District. With all precincts reporting, according to NY1, Millman has 6,828 votes, or 73.59% of the total, to Biviano’s 2,450, or 26.41%. In other significant local races, PolitickerNY reports that incumbent female district leader Jo Anne Simon appears to have won her race against challenger Hope Reichbach, and, in the three way race for male district leader, the winner appears to be Chris Owens. If these results hold, in both instances candidates backed by Kings County Democratic Party leader Vito Lopez–Reichbach and Stephen Williamson–lost.

Update: PolitickerNY (follow link above) now says it has confirmed Simon’s and Owens’ victories. Results of statewide races follow the jump.

Despite being a newcomer to politics and running a very low key, underfunded campaign, Brooklyn Heights resident Gail Goode managed to capture nearly 25% of the vote in her challenge to incumbent U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. In the general election on November 2, Gillibrand will face former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi, who won the Republican and Conservative Party nominations. Incumbent U.S. Senator and Brooklynite Chuck Schumer will face GOP primary victor Jay Townsend, a political consultant.

In the race for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General, State Senator Eric Schneiderman emerged victorious in a field of five. Incumbent AG Andrew Cuomo was unopposed for the Democratic nomination for Governor. Perhaps the most startling result of the night was the convincing victory of Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, the “Tea Party” candidate, in the GOP gubernatorial primary to oppose Cuomo. The loser in the Republican primary, former Congressman Rick Lazio, has the Conservative nomination, which means there may be a three way race for Governor, in which Cuomo is now heavily favored.

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  • http://deleted Anon

    Easy victory? You kidding? Getting 75% for an incumbent against someone without any real credibility? Millman is so over. Watch her fall in the next round! Just like what Squadron did to her mentor Martin Connor. Bye bye Joan!

  • Slope a Dope

    Anon: Are you kidding? That’s some nice attempt at spin, but Biviano has absolutely nothing to brag about here. He completely blew this thing. Millman was vulnerable to a real challenge this year. Beating her would have been difficult if not impossible but if we had a smart candidate running a solid campaign, the final tally would have been closer to 55-45. Unfortunately, in Biviano, we did not have a smart candidate running a solid campaign. Biviano’s 25% is not a win. It’s a landslide for Millman. If anything, Biviano left 15 to 20% on the table and strengthened Joan’s standing and her ability to pick her successor. There is just no way to spin this as a win for Biviano. He was an awful candidate and he ran an awful campaign and he got crushed. And that’s too bad because Joan Millman really has got to go.

  • Anon2

    What do you think Mr. Biviano could have done differently? More negative campaigning against Millman? Do people want negativity, or do they want truth?

    I don’t give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it is hell.
    -Harry Truman

  • soulman

    I didn’t consider voting for Biviano after his ridiculous “double dipping” argument. A game ender for many, I think.

  • Anon3

    I agree with Soulman. That attack on the so-called “double-dipping” (Millman receiving her pension for many years of service as a teacher) really made a lot of people, including me, question Biviano’s character.

  • Obama?

    With Albany corruption running rampant, what do the voters do? They endorse the status quo!

  • voter

    Can you post the actual District Leader vote results, and maybe the judicial delegate results, too? I looked on the NYC Board of Elections website and couldn’t find them there or elsewhere.

  • http://inklake.typepad.com Peter Kaufman

    Harry,
    I think Millman’s answer at the debate was panicked and unfortunate, and perhaps a legitimate thing for Biviano to attack.

    He didn’t do that. Instead, he accused her of “double-dipping”, and I really have to characterize that as a lie, and one that he never retracted.

    He’s a smart guy, but genuinely seems to have no real ideas, which is a shame.

    As I wrote yesterday, this was Biviano had on his campaign website:

    This is from his Biviano’s campaign website:

    Problem: New York unemployment is over 10 percent and climbing, much of it to do with corruption, waste and incompetency.

    Solution:Eliminate Albany corruption, waste and incompetency with active representation of the people.

    Pathetic.

    Peter
    inklake

  • bklyn20

    So it’s admirable that newbie Gail Goode hit 25 percent in her race and totally irrelevant that also-newbie Biv got 25 percent of his race? Admittedly not a low-key campaign on his part, but certainly an achievement. He took 1/4 of the vote from a 10 + year incumbent who has a solid record in some ways and is lacking in others. Love him or hate him, Biv has altered the status quo around here.

  • resident

    Biviano actually lost me when he was running for City Council and all he kept talking about was the need for universal health care. I didn’t disagree, but that isn’t something that could be accomplished by local government.

    He continued to talk about it though and all it demonstrated that he wasn’t a serious candidate. Spouting ideas that have support in liberal brooklyn heights, regardless of the applicability of those ideas to the job he’s running for, seemed to be his only strategy. To me, he confirmed that image when the only issue of “substance” I can remember bringing up in the Assembly campaign was his ridiculous video about the DANGER of pier 6.

  • David on Middagh

    I voted for Biviano despite the harping on the double-dipping. When in doubt, throw the bums out!

  • http://inklake.typepad.com Peter Kaufman

    #Resident,
    Thanks, I forgot about the ‘universal health care’ thing. Why not have the council make a manned Mars landing a priority too? Everything in the city works so perfectly, we should be thinking big.

  • Publius

    @Brooklyn20: It’s an unrealistic stretch to stay that in a 2-person race, garnering ~25% is an achievement. Frankly, Mickey Mouse would have “achieved” ~25% as the anti-incumbant.

  • carol

    Biviano failed to present any cogent plan aside from cleaning up the mess in Albany. Millman could point to many programs and initiatives she provided for her district. Yes, she didn’t clean up Albany but she is far from the ranks of Espada and our Democratic County leader/ State Assemblyman (see Tom Robbins’ Village Voice piece on Vito Lopez of last week).

  • Big Dave

    Someone, please, get a better picture of Joan Millman…

  • bklyn20

    Publius and friends, I was mainly pestering Homer and Claude by pointing out that Biv had achieved the same percentage of the vote as Gail Goode had against Kirsten (sp?) Gillibrand. Sadly, Mickey Mouse wasn’t in the running — but I would have put money on Popeye had he thrown his can of spinach in the ring!

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Actually, Biviano got a slightly higher percentage of the vote than did Goode. Nevertheless, there is a bit of an apples to oranges quality about the two races. Biviano vs. Millman was local and got a lot of coverage in the local media, including here. Also, Biviano was not unfamiliar to voters, having run for City Council a year ago. Goode was, as far as I know, running for office for the first time ever, and her campaign was virtually invisible (though we did give her some a coverage, along with other local media). Granted, a lot of her votes no doubt came from generalized anti-incumbent feeling, and Gillibrand was facing a statewide, and New York City, electorate for the first time. Still, I felt that Goode deserved recognition for having done better than I, for one, expected.

  • ~30th Responder

    Claude,

    This link puts the Biviano (and Reichbach) percentage in perhaps a better perspective:
    http://www.r8ny.com/blog/gatemouth/beware_of_dead_dogs.html. By the way, if you’re into local politics, may I recommend this blog–top notch facts, history and analysis (and its written by a lawyer under the nom de blog “Gatemouth” but his real name is sprinkled throughout if you read the prior postings).

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com Claude Scales

    Thanks. I’ve recently become a reader of Gatemouth’s posts, which I find very informative. Still, I’ve seen enough instances of relatively unknown candidates not making the so-called “dead dog” threshold that I don’t regret having given Ms. Goode a good word.