The Back Room

No, not a sex club. Where New York political business is still done.

MARK Green, former public advocate and would-be attorney general, is doing so poorly in his battle against Andrew Cuomo that he may be shut out of next month's Democratic nominating convention, key party insiders have told The Post.

The Democratic insiders said Green, who is running second to former federal Housing Secretary Cuomo in every public-opinion poll, appears unable to win the minimum 25 percent convention vote that's required for an automatic spot on the September primary ballot.
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While Green has been within striking distance of Cuomo in some polls, he's being crushed in the battle to win crucial Democratic Party and labor-union backing, the insiders agree.

I'm no great fan of Green's (no great hater, either, as Solomon is), but neither am I a particular fan of lame-ass scion Cuomo's. The point is simply that New York's ballot-access laws are so arcane and obnoxious, voters may not even get the chance to decide between the top two contenders.

As the DLC (!) of all groups opined two years ago:

[T]he real issue is the local Democratic Party's uncanny ability to undermine the public's will to participate in the system, in part by throwing challengers off the ballot and making elections meaningless. It is telling that, while just 2 percent of the nation's population lives in Gotham, the city manages to generate more than half of the country's ballot access lawsuits.

In other news, while I have given Fredric U. Dicker a hard time in the past, I have to give the man a nice pat on his shiny bald head for a job well done with this article. Good job, Fredric, U. Dicker!

Tags: new york, politics, Mark Green, Andrew Cuomo