When I began my anti-Jack Schlossberg campaign in April, all polls of New York’s 12th congressional district showed Schlossberg way ahead of the pack (with Republican-in-Democratic-garb George Conway second!). I recommended that voters wait until just before the start of primary voting and see who was ahead in the polls at that time—Alex Bores or Micah Lasher—and vote for the leader between the two of them; I discounted Nina Schwalbe because she had no chance of winning. It was a modified “anyone but Schlossberg” strategy.
I had three reasons for advocating both Bores and Lasher:
1. Bores and Lasher are far more experienced and competent than Schlossberg
2. Schlossberg has often displayed a disturbing immaturity in many contexts.
3. Voting for a celebrity, especially after the Trump debacle, is harmful to democracy and Schlossberg is nothing more than a celebrity.
The polls open tomorrow, so the time has come to make my recommendation—Bores or Lasher. But over the past two months the race has turned upside down. Both Bores and Lasher are far ahead of Schlossberg (and Conway):
• An AARP/Siena College poll of voters aged 50 and older released two days ago has Lasher—32%; Bores—21%; Conway—13%; Schlossberg—9%; Schwalbe—2%; Undecided—21%
• An Emerson College/PIX11/The Hill poll released in late May of voters of all ages in the district has Lasher—22%; Bores—20%; Schlossberg—11%; Conway—10%; Undecided—32%
Even with the large numbers of undecided voters still out there, it appears certain that the race is going to come down to two very competent people, Bores and Lasher. Both were successful in their chosen career before running for office. Both have served admirably in the New York State Assembly. Both have progressive, leftwing views on virtually every issue—immigration, affordable housing, mass transit, healthcare reform, the environment, control of AI, and protecting the rights of women, minorities and the LQBTQ+ community.
My recommendation therefore is to vote for whomever you like between Alex Bores and Micah Lasher.
But my endorsement—and my vote—is going to Alex Bores, and it comes down to one issue: charter schools. As a good union supporter and true progressive, Bores has always been firmly on the side of traditional public schools and of public school unions. By contrast, Lasher once led a pro-charter school advocacy group and while serving in the Bloomberg administration, aggressively lobbied lawmakers in Albany to allow more charter schools in New York City. Lasher is in favor of charter schools and I am vehemently against them as a failed innovation whose original purpose had nothing to do with education and everything to do with union-busting.
Charter schools were created with one goal in mind—to break teachers’ unions. The big money behind the charter school movement has always been right-wing billionaires who hate unions.
The funny thing is that as an educational innovation, charter schools have been an abject failure. Studies show that about one-third of charter schools produce lower-performing students than the regular public schools in their service area; a little more than one-third of charter schools show no difference; and a little less than one third of charter school perform at a higher level. But when we take a close look at these so-called “higher-performing” charter schools, we see that they are selective in which students they allow in and that they shed students they don’t like along the way; for example, a charter run by the Tucson-based, for-profit BASIS Charter Schools—considered at one time by U.S. News & World Report to be one of the top-ten schools in the country—starts on average with 125 students in sixth grade but has a mere 21 in the graduating class. The administration assuredly weeds out low performers, who then return to their traditional public school. For more information, see my lengthy article in a 2017 issue of Jewish Currents on the superiority of public schools to private and charter schools: https://jewishcurrents.org/unionized-public-schools-do-a-better-job.
In most areas, Lasher would make a fine Congressional representative, especially when compared to the celebrity nepo baby Jack Schlossberg or the GOP retread George Conway. But I’m voting for the more union-friendly Bores and I hope you do, too.