This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated December 22, 2023
This is the time of year that tends to bring people together. In our home, Christmas abounds, not just in the decorations but in the spirit that you see depicted in the litany of Christmas movies that air throughout the season, which can also be found on a T.V. in our house most nights.
It may sound a tad cliche, but Christmastime does tend to live up to its description as the season of peace and goodwill, with people finding opportunities to give to others and help in ways they do not always think to do. Hanukkah, which ended on December 15, also lives up to its moniker, the season of miracles and light, imbuing a sense of hope, even in the darkest of times.
Sadly, the iconic symbol of the eight nights of Hanukkah was vandalized not once, but twice in Sunset Park just before the holiday began. Two nights before the first candle was to be lit, a menorah on Fifth Avenue was vandalized. The following night, another menorah was stolen from the park that shares its name with the neighborhood of Sunset Park.
Chabad of Sunset Park, which sponsors both of the menorahs, has started a GoFundMe to buy two new menorahs to replace the ones that were broken and stolen. On their fundraiser page they write, “it is crucial that we respond with hope and resilience.” If you would like to help with a donation, you can search “Help restore the light of two vandalized Menorahs” at the GoFundMe website.
At the same time, we see so much light and goodwill throughout southern Brooklyn, which far outshines the darkness. From coat drives to toy drives to food drives, our schools, non-profits, faith-based organizations, and everyday community members pitch in to make things a little better for those in need.
Though this time of year usually allows us to take a break from discussing campaign politics, with the past election nearly two months behind us and the ensuing primary season still months away, a ruling last week by the state’s highest court has brought the topic back to the fore. When the New York State Court of Appeals ruled in favor of redrawing the state’s congressional maps, it became a reality that we will go through another round of redistricting, of which we have had many the past two years.
The quick recap of the New York congressional redistricting saga is that during the last go-round, Republicans filed a lawsuit objecting to the lines that the legislature had approved nearly two years ago. After a series of appeals, the ultimate decision was in favor of throwing out those lines and, since it was so late and already nearing the primary season, a court-appointed special master established the lines for the 2022 election. It was also so late in the cycle that an additional primary needed to be added in August, with the other unaffected races still having their primary in June.
Flash forward to December, 2023 and the court has now ruled that although having one man draw all the congressional lines for the state in a short amount of time was needed so that we could have congressional elections in 2022, as per the state constitution, the process of having the Independent Redistricting Commission create the full set of maps that lasts through multiple cycles until the next census in 2030 must be adhered to, touching off the need for what can be described as re-re-redistricting.
The thing is, this process will again be under a time crunch. The court’s decision set a February 28, 2024 deadline for the maps to be submitted to the legislature, but the petitioning period, when candidates obtain the necessary signatures to get their name on the ballot, begins one day earlier.
New York did well in recent years to consolidate multiple primaries into one at the end of June. With 2024 being a presidential election year and the state having moved up its primary for the office of president to April to avoid its history of being very late and typically irrelevant, we have known for some time that we would have two primaries this year. However, with the congressional maps likely to not be finalized for two months or more, the talk is that another primary will be added in August, just as it was in 2022, for just these congressional races.
“Vote early and vote often” has been a silly saying for many decades; a joke that absurdly exaggerates the importance of voting into a comedic suggestion to do it multiple times. In 2024, with primaries in April, June, and potentially in August, as well as a general election in November, New Yorkers may actually get to vote often. About every other month or so, in fact.
