I was studying these maps I made up the other day of the top of the ticket candidates in New York State from 2006-2010, e.g. Spitzer-Faso, Obama-McCain, and Cuomo-Paladino. One could easily to come to conclusion that Democratic Gubernatorial candidates of recent are more popular in Upstate NY then Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama who ran in 2008.
In the 2006 Spitzer-Faso race, Spitzer did very well except in Western NY, especially in the Southern Tier of NY. Most of the eastern half of state he won, often with 60% plus of vote, except for the most Republican areas of Adirondacks and places were John Faso once represented as Assemblyman — parts of Columbia County, Greene County, and Schoharie County.
Andrew Cuomo did comparatively poorly in much of Rural New York, while winning many rural communities, losing far more then his predecesor Eliot Spitzer won in 2006. Many of the anti-rural community policies persued by Eliot Spitzer probably did not win the Democratic Party friends in those areas. Andrew Cuomo did increase his strength in the North Country, most notably winning by strong margins in parts of Franklin County and South-Western Clinton County, not known for electing Democrats in the past.
Western NY outside of urban centers, is solidly Republican, and if anything is becoming more solidly Republican. It seems likely that Democrats will have a hard time making inroads in this area, if state and national trends continue.
Commuting is a big consumer of time in people’s lives. For every ten minutes added to a person’s daily commute, each way, takes 43 hours per year out of a person’s life, that could be spent doing other activities. Moreover, as most people commute by private automobile, time spent in cars, is time not doing physical exercise or getting outdoors, promoting obesity and poor health.
From this map of Albany County, you would think rural people all have long commutes to work. Indeed, people who live in Renselearville, where there are few jobs, often commute to downtown Albany, leading to a very long commutes, that are particularly challenging in the winter.
However, that is not the norm in NY State. Indeed, the Adirondack Mountains, have some of the shortest commutes in the state. Residents of the North Country and Southern Tier also have very short commutes. Many work in the small towns they reside in, or farm the land they live on.
Also of interest is that commutes, in general are much shorter upstate then downstate. In some areas — like Albany — commutes from suburban areas to jobs are shorter then in more urban areas, due to the use of private automobiles over mass transit.
No current legislative district in Albany County recieved less then 50% a 2010 Average Democrats Performance. That said, with swing and other factors (e.g. candidate quality, local issues), certain Democrats are expected to lose races that a Generic Democrat could have won in the same location.
…However, In Many of Those Districts, Swing Is Very High.
In the suburban districts, while many may have gone strongly for Governor Cuomo, many chose to vote for Republicans for State Assembly or State Senate. This suggests things may not be as rosy from Democrats in the County as the Average Democratic Performance makes it seem.
Here is a list of safe districts, marginals, along with the swing and average ADP for Voting Tabulation Districts in each Legislative District.
The 2010 Average Democratic Performance (ADP) is based on US Senate, US Congress, Governor’s Race, State Senate, State Assembly, State Comptroller and State Attorney General Races, broken down by voting tabulation district, then all Democrats added together and divided by the total number of Democratic and Republican votes. Swing is a caculation of Maximum Statewide Democratic Candidate Preformance, subtracted by Minimum Statewide Republican Candidate Preformance.
Election Districts have changed in Albany County since the redistricting by the County Legislature. The data used to compute Average Democratic Preformance is based on Census Standard Voting Tabulation Districts, which have in many cases changed with redistricting. The largest geographic portion of the Census Standard Voting District was counted in the legislative district it exists in.
I computed safe seats as those with a 2010 ADP – 2010 Swing greater then 50%. Marginal districts, are those where Democrats recieved a less then 55% ADP. Normally one would use less then 50% to define marginal, however Andrew Cuomo polled so highly in many districts that he distored the statistics used. The lowest 2010 ADP Standard Voting Tabulation district in all of Albany County was only 43% ADP, which is remarkably high for anywheres in Upstate NY that is not highly urbanized.
This an automagically generated list of recent the maps I’ve uploaded to my blog. Click on map to display a high resolution version of the map for printing and download.
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Across New York State, bigger and meaner children are stealing the lunch money from smaller and weaker children. It happens every school day, and while it may not be fair or right, it’s likely to continue for the forseeable future. As it would be almost impossible to stop — we should do next best thing — license schoolyard bullies.
Licensing schoolyard bullies could bring in a sizable portion of revenue to the state. Nobody knows how much lunch money is stolen every year, but figuring there are millions of kids in Public Schools, there is the potential for millions of untapped revenue. Licensing schoolyard bullies could be a potential goldmine to tap to reduce the state’s yearly deficit.
Understanding the problem of bulling in schools, the state could dedicate a portion of funds coming from licensing and taxing bullies go to bullying prevention. A 50% tax on profits by school bullies could do a lot for all children. It would make the bullying business theoretically less profitable, and discourage bullying. It also would provide funds to monitor the actions of bullies to ensure that actions are appropiate — extracting funds from weaker children — while making sure their actions aren’t too abusive or harmful.
The fact is we are never going to get away from bigger and mean kids bullying weaker kids, and stealing their lunch money. It’s just part of growing up for the most unlucky of children. Yet, if this insitution is to exist, then at least their should be a kind of public function to schoolyard thief of lunch money, specifically funding of government.
… and remember, school yard bullies are not organized, and are too young to vote.
New York State has the well known Forest Preserve in Adirondacks and Catskills (provided for in Section 1) and State Forests and Wildlife Management Areas (provided for in Section 2) outside of the Blue-line designated Forest Preserve Boundaries. Yet, on November 4, 1969 the voters of New York State admended the consitution to add a new section that called for a new type of land — The State Nature and Historic Preserve — now managed by the new Department of Environment Conservation.
Article XIV Section 4:Protection of natural resources; development of agricultural lands.
The policy of the state shall be to conserve and protect its natural resources and scenic beauty and encourage the development and improvement of its agricultural lands for the production of food and other agricultural products.
The legislature, in implementing this policy, shall include adequate provision for the abatement of air and water pollution and of excessive and unnecessary noise, the protection of agricultural lands, wetlands and shorelines, and the development and regulation of water resources.
The legislature shall further provide for the acquisition of lands and waters, including improvements thereon and any interest therein, outside the forest preserve counties, and the dedication of properties so acquired or now owned, which because of their natural beauty, wilderness character, or geological, ecological or historical significance, shall be preserved and administered for the use and enjoyment of the people.
Properties so dedicated shall constitute the state nature and historical preserve and they shall not be taken or otherwise disposed of except by law enacted by two successive regular sessions of the legislature.
Since 1969, only 35 facilities have been added to the State Nature and Historic Preserve. While most of these properties are not contigous, they consist of some the most interesting public lands in NY State.
