By Carol Tannenhauser
Micah Lasher won the Democratic Primary election for the 69th District New York State Assembly seat on Tuesday, garnering 53% of the 13,210 votes cast, according to The New York Times.
Eli Northrup ran second with 34.4% of the vote, while Carmine Quinones earned 5.8%, Melissa Rosenberg 4.8%, and Jack Kellner 2%.
Lasher, the former policy director for Gov. Kathy Hochul, was endorsed by many local elected officials, including Rep. Jerry Nadler, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and City Councilmember Gale Brewer. Northrup had the nod of Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell, who has represented the 69th District for more than 20 years, before announcing in November that he would not be seeking reelection.
Lasher acknowledging Rosenberg.
Class act, super-smart, true mensch: Melissa Rosenberg. pic.twitter.com/jc5clthIVO
— Micah Lasher (@MicahLasher) June 26, 2024
Read more about Micah Lasher — HERE.
More information to follow as it is released.
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In the article referenced about Micah Lasher he states that he looks forward to working with Linda Rosenthal on housing policy “as she is the Assembly’s leader on housing issues”.
It should be noted that Linda Rosenthal pays $1.5K per month for a 5 room apartment on the UWS. She’s hardly an objective source when it comes to housing policy.
It seems to me that the election of Lasher is just another example of corrupt and unethical politicians looking out for each other rather than the greater community.
this is really an inappropriate comment on several levels:
1) what evidence is there of “corruption” or lack of ethics from Lasher? Why did WSR allow an anonymous comment accusing Lasher of corruption with no evidence whatsoever?
2) Linda Rosenthal has to live somewhere. I’m not sure how you know her rent or number of rooms, but would she be more “objective” if she lived in an expensive condo or coop?
Assembly members are not rich, and good ones, like Linda (and like Micah will be), work hard for the community. While I’m a condo owner, I think it’s good that Linda has first hand experience with rent stabilized apts. Also, I look forward to talking to Micah about some condo issues that can be addressed through legislation.
I remember when Linda passed a law against declawing cats, and iirc she owned one or more cats. Did that make her “unethical”?
Please curb the anonymous snark!
There are serious concerns with UWS elected officials.
Right on, Murray!
Micah Lasher is one of the Big Boys and that is why they all supported him. Look at Lasher’s record on Charter Schools. He claims to be sorry about his support for that privatization of public schools. What else will he be sorry about in the next few years?
We lost a true champion of all New Yorkers when we failed to elect Eli Northrup. Hopefully, he will run again.
“…another example of corrupt and unethical politicians…” Based on his willingness to work with another elected official who is rumored to have a good deal on an apartment.?
Wow… That is a pretty big jump.
Possibly we give our elected officials a chance and support them, they are taking on jobs most of us would rather not.
It’s great that the WSR included Micah’s tweet about Melissa in this article. I’m lucky to know both and they’re both real class acts.
Thanks to Eli Northrup and his campaign staff and volunteers for giving the 69th Assembly District a choice!
Micah Lasher had J. Nadler and R. Messinger appear on a mailer that criticized Eli Northrup for supposedly distorting opponent’s record: heavy on accusation, it was dirty pool. Also the Lasher campaign mailed out unsolicited personalized absentee ballot applications with recipient’s birthdate. Too aggressive by far for me.
This primary result is a consolidation of traditional power with the already electeds having lined up with the candidate who has been government adjacent for his adult life.
Maybe it would have made a difference if Danny O’Donnell had endorsed Eli sooner.
What will Micah Lasher work on and how will he include the thousands of voters who did not support him?
(Summarized from late last night comment on yesterday’s article.)
Thank you WSR!
hochul has low approval ratings and yet her policy director wins a primary. most of nyc incumbents won in the primary. i hear and read people doing lots of justified complaining, but they elect the same politicians.
Hochul did pretty well on the UWS
This was a tight race in a district that was very divided. Micah was supported by the “machine” on the Upper west Side. Eli had O’Donnell’s support too late.
It’s sad that we can’t seem to elect new and better candidates.
And more of the same. Has Albany done a great job for us over the last 5 years? Everyone loving all our state taxes that are the highest in the nation? Feel like we are all fairly benefiting from those hard earned tax dollars?
More of the same.
Micah Lasher lost my vote when he put my personal information, including my social security number in an absentee ballot in a flimsy mailer sealed with a dime sticker. All was done without my permission and put me at risk of identity theft. This is the level of judgment and lack of respect we will now have to deal with.
What?? Really?? How did he do that??
Ho, hum.
Sadly this is more business as usual with the election of Micah Lasher. We’ve had a slew of deeply unpopular legislation in NYC supported by the Mayor in a deeply autocratic way which showed City Hall’s allegiance to private interests over the people-all the people living here. Many of those supporting Lasher are also responsible for these proposals. And Lasher will fall in line with his big real estate funding to do the same. As a Democrat it concerns me that Republicans are becoming popular in this town because of the way this city government has turned its back on the taxpayers. Look out in November-
Really sad to see Lasher win…
I got bombarded with Lasher propaganda over the past few weeks. One of his supporters called me and couldn’t answer a single question about his stance on congestion pricing.
Ultimately Lasher is a Democrat backed by well-to-do corporate interests, wealthy UWSers, and machine politics. A Hochul stooge, if you will. It felt disappointing to see his election essentially bought.
I don’t look forward to the continued demise of the UWS under Lasher’s reign.