An If-You-Must Primary

Four Democrats go to a polling station

On Sept. 15, at a senior center off Grand Street, some old people doing tai chi and waiting for lunch were visited by Robert Morgenthau, Sheldon Silver, Cy Vance and Alan Gerson.

Mr. Gerson, a 51-year-old Democratic Council incumbent facing a competitive primary, at one point was heard telling one of the residents, “I’ll get reelected, then I’ll get married.”

Mr. Gerson, who lives at home with his parents, repeated the line to me, and said, “My mother is still hoping.”

Mr. Silver, the powerful, inscrutable Assembly speaker, predicted that turnout may be light because there wasn’t much of a mayoral primary to speak of. (Expectations were that Bill Thompson would kill and then, in November, be killed.) When I asked whether the Council’s vote to extend term limits would drive some indignant voters to the polls to express their displeasure—as a number of Council challengers are hoping—he said it probably wouldn’t.

“I don’t think it’s significant,” he said. “I haven’t heard that on the streets. I think last April, May, June, there was more of that sentiment.”

The other main factor in the elections has been the labor-backed Working Families Party, whose Get Out the Vote operation (to say nothing of their ability to account accurately for it) was being put to the test.

Mr. Silver paid respect to the WFP, telling me, “I think they’re good at organizing voters and constituents. There’s no question they have issues. They’ve stood with their issues and they’ve done a good job.”

Mr. Morgenthau, who is retiring after running the Manhattan district attorney’s office for 34 years, told me “it feels good” not being on the ballot. When I asked him about the Working Families Party, which is not supporting his hand-chosen successor for district attorney, Mr. Vance, he deadpanned, “Who are they?”

On our way out of the senior center, all four men surrounded one woman who was walking into the building, politely reminding her to vote.

—Azi Paybarah

Bill Thompson on letting people finish

Comptroller Bill Thompson was standing on Montague Street near Brooklyn Borough Hall, not far from where, several weeks ago, he officially kicked off his mayoral campaign.

“Good luck to you,” said a bearded man in a green t-shirt.

Before the candidate could nod his head and say thanks, the man--John Cooper, 60, of Park Slope--added, “I just want to say one thing: The single most important issue in the entire world is middle-class people cannot afford to live here because they can’t pay their rent. That’s it. Do something about it! Thank you.” Mr. Cooper turned and walked away.

“Thank you,” Mr. Thompson said to Mr. Cooper’s back.

Later, while Mr. Thompson chatted with reporters, Mr. Cooper returned to say, “I’m going to vote for you. I met you before.”

“Good,” Thompson said, turning back to the reporters. But the man was not finished.

“Term limits. That’s it. That’s your—”

“Yes,” Thompson said, laughing.

“Yes. O.K. Let’s do it,” said Mr. Cooper, growing visibly excited.

“We’re doing it. We’re getting ready for the general,” Thompson said.

“I would have voted for Bloomberg, but I like you better,” Mr. Cooper said. “We just got to get you elected.”

Mr. Thompson replied, “I’ll tell you what. You’ll start to see—we’re moving toward the general election after today. You’ll see a number of things.”

Later, as Mr. Thompson led the gaggle of reporters to the train station near Borough Hall on his way to greet voters by the Staten Island Ferry, he was asked about rapper Kanye West. (Mr. West had caused a scene at the MTV music awards show the night before by taking the microphone from Taylor Swift and saying that Beyoncé should have won, an act that prompted President Barack Obama, in a secretly recorded meeting, to call Mr. West a “jackass.”)

“I think he was an idiot,” Mr. Thompson said.

Mr. Thompson said Mr. West’s actions were “uncalled for, unnecessary. Go trample on someone else.”

The comptroller had praise for Beyoncé, who eventually invited Ms. Swift onto the stage to finish her interrupted speech. “The one thing about it,” he said, “Beyoncé showed a lot of class.”

—A. P.

Stan Davis, at least, cares about the primary

Union Square is usually a hotbed of political activity (often of the paranoid sort), but this primary day there was hardly any evidence that the Democratic nomination for the office of mayor was at stake.

Late in the afternoon on primary day, the guy who paints his face silver and stands still for money said to no one in particular, “Life’s beautiful, O.K. Here we go.” And then he froze. A few seconds later, he fell out of his pose and walked around. A booth marketing Ann Taylor’s new, less uptight look (“Ann Is Tired of Being All Work, No Play”) attracted a few curious women, most of them dressed for work in something resembling Ann Taylor. Dozens of models, fresh off their Fashion Week catwalking, glided around.

In the middle of it all, Stan Davis, a 45-year-old volunteer wearing a blue windbreaker with a Local 79 insignia on the back tried to hand out palm cards touting City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and comptroller candidate Melinda Katz. Not a lot of people were taking what he was giving.

“Here you go gorgeous,” he said to one model, who did not take a card.

“Extra, extra, extra. Read about it today. It’s going to be on the news tonight,” he said.

Instead, most people in the area turned to watch a girl in short shorts playing the guitar and singing on the back of a black Escalade pickup truck that along the side read “Where in the Truck is Chloe’? Between Day & Dream, debut CD.” 

Mr. Davis said that things weren’t that bad. “One guy just tried to take all my cards,” he said. But he did not let him, he said, “because I got to do what I got to do.” A few yards away, a young woman had much more success handing out cards. They were for the Equinox gym.

—Jason Horowitz