Words and Updates from Brad Lander

It has become a maddening refrain, every time she drops a new policy proposal, grounded in a compelling vision for a more just and compassionate country. Thoughtful about race, gender, and class. With the details worked out and the new spending paid for in a fair and progressive way.

Yes, Elizabeth Warren has the best policies, but…

I’m done with the “but.” I’m endorsing Elizabeth Warren for president of the United States

It's no secret that I'm a long-time supporter of Jumaane Williams. Though the neighborhoods we represent are pretty different, he’s one of my closest friends in the City Council. Being his partner on the Community Safety Act -- establishing the NYPD Inspector General's office and strengthening the city's ban on discriminatory profiling in the wake of the stop-and-frisk crisis -- is one of the things I’m proudest of in my career in public service.

The very worst and the very best of our democracy had all-nighters in Brooklyn last night … at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, and the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch at Grand Army Plaza.

Last year, as we observed the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, we also commemorated passage of the Fair Housing Act, adopted in Congress one week after he was killed, to confront the stark and ongoing reality of segregation. Fifty years later, New York City, like most of the United States, remains starkly segregated.

I’m in Foley Square for the Women’s March this morning, along with my daughter Rosa, my Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, friends at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, and many more.

Like many of you, I’ve read more Op-Eds & articles on this year’s Women’s March than any other protest event I can remember (including two discussion guides & at least one new ritual). You probably don’t want to read any more about it -- and I know for certain you don’t need to read something about the women’s march written by a man. So: please feel entirely free to ignore this post entirely. But given the controversy, I thought I should explain my choice for constituents asking about it.

Whatever you choose to do today, I hope you’ll use it as an opportunity to reconnect with the spirit of the Women’s March 2017 and the extraordinary possibilities of its rage and hope, to remember how terribly far we have to go to deliver a world of genuine equality for & with our daughters (all of whom deserve it), to think about how we build organizations and relationships that model the principles of that more equal world, and to recommit to activism in the coming days that will help us get there.

NYC’s current voting laws mean that most of the time, candidates win primary & special elections without majority support. They require high-cost, low-turnout runoff elections for citywide offices. They encourage negative campaigning. And they disenfranchise military & overseas voters (since the Board of Elections can’t get them ballots in time for runoff elections).

There is a simple fix to all these problems: Ranked Choice Voting

As we wind down the year, I’m glad for the chance to reflect on some of the work we’ve done together, in NYC and beyond.

Some years, it’s a little harder to see the things we’re grateful for. Thanksgiving came fast after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and even faster after the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Those years, it was harder work to dig down into gratitude. No less important, but harder.

This year, for me at least, it’s a little easier.

Two years ago, about this time, I wrote you an e-mail quoting labor organizer Joe Hill, bravely facing execution on trumped-up charges a century ago: “Don’t (just) mourn. Organize.”

Wow, did you organize. A week later, we gathered thousands-strong at Congregation Beth Elohim, where #GetOrganizedBK (and its incredible set of working groups) was born. What we’ve done together over the past two years is extraordinary -- we held down our part of a national movement to build power and solidarity, to fight back against bigotry & corruption & white nationalism, and to insist that the values of equality & inclusion & compassion & justice are the only ways forward for our country.

We’ve canvassed together, knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors, made phone calls, sent texts, recruited friends and families, and, ok, even chewed our fingernails bloody in our efforts to take back the House, win the New York State Senate, defeat some real villains, elect some real heroes … and get our democracy on a far better track.

Here are my recommendations for tomorrow, for state & federal races in Brooklyn, judges, the NYC ballot propositions, and even where to watch results together tomorrow night: