December Club Meeting

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024

The Youth Hostel, 891 Amsterdam Ave. at

W. 103rd St., Ballroom

 *** 7:30 pm ***

2025 Primary Election

Candidate for Manhattan

District Attorney

President's Report

By Lorraine Zamora

As I write this, it is December 1. The Presidential election is over, but our work as Democrats, locally, statewide and nationally, has just begun. We know that the task ahead is to defend and strengthen our democracy and our progressive ideals, and in another two months we will have a clear idea of exactly what we are up against.

For the moment, though, I have decided to enjoy the month of December and look forward to the holidays with family and friends. That includes everyone at Three Parks. At our club meeting on Wednesday, December 11, we have invited our good friend Alvin Bragg, whom we endorsed for DA four years ago and who is running again, to start the endorsement process for the June 2025 primary. It will be good to see and hear from DA Bragg again.

On Sunday, December 15, Three Parks will hold its annual Holiday Party at Abigail’s Restaurant on 102nd Street and Broadway, from 4:00-6:00 pm. It’s an opportunity for all of us to be together and be grateful to Three Parks for bringing us together. I have often said that ever since Donald Trump entered the presidential race nine years ago, Three Parks has kept me sane. I mean that more than ever.

So, let’s take time to enjoy the holidays. The new year will be here soon enough.

Thanks again to everyone who makes Three Parks Democrats such a wonderful and supportive community.

Three Parks

Holiday Celebration

Sunday, Dec. 15

4:00 to 6:00 PM

Join us for food, drinks, and good cheer

appetizers ● tacos ● wine, beer, soft drinks

Abigail's

2672 Broadway (at W. 102nd Street)

2025 Primary Election

Coming Up: Candidate

Endorsement Votes

What You Need to Know

Starting in December and continuing in the early months of 2025, Three Parks will be holding endorsement meetings for candidates running for local offices in the primary election scheduled for June. Also included will be candidates for local Democratic Party posts. Candidates for each office will be invited to the meetings to speak and to take questions. Then at follow-up meetings in February, eligible club members will vote their choice by secret ballot.

Offices Up for Election in 2025

NYC Mayor

NYC Comptroller

NYC Public Advocate

Manhattan District Attorney

Manhattan Borough President

City Council Member, District 6

City Council Member, District 7

Civil Court Judge (if there is a vacancy)

Judicial Delegates

The schedule of candidate presentations for these offices is currently in the process of formation, except as shown below. Candidates will speak at the following club meetings:

• December 11: candidate for Manhattan District Attorney
• January 8
• January 22 (extra meeting): candidates for NYC Mayor
• February 12
• February 19 (extra meeting)

Watch your email and the Three Parks website for further information about specific offices and candidates as this schedule develops.

Following the endorsements and starting on February 25, we hope you will join us out on the sidewalks to do the vital work of petitioning to get our endorsed candidates on the June primary ballot.

Make Sure You Are Eligible to Vote!

In order to vote to endorse candidates, you must be a member of Three Parks Independent Democrats. In addition, you must have met the dues payment and meeting attendance requirements listed on the Rules page of the Endorsement Center on the Three Parks website here.



Winning NYS Democratic Congressional Seats: Takeaways from Our Canvassing

By Wendy Diller

This fall, Three Parks Independent Democrats, along with Broadway Democrats and supported by the New York State Coordinated Campaign, did great work helping to secure Congressional House victories. We led canvassing trips to New York Congressional Districts CD-4, CD-17, and CD-18, and we held multiple phone banks for CD-17 and CD-19. We sent out thousands of postcards supporting House candidates in these districts. Scores of our volunteers participated in these activities.

Although Republicans will continue to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives, New York State played a key role in ensuring that the margin will be extremely tight—and it is realistic to expect that the House can serve as a bulwark against the most extreme Trump administration policies.

Democrats flipped three Congressional seats in New York State in 2024, bringing the total number of House seats the party holds in New York to 19 out of a total of 26.

Almost all the House candidates that Three Parks Democrats actively supported won their districts.

While it is early, post-election analysis based on interviews with grassroots groups and field organizers has yielded a number of takeaways that may be useful going forward ...

Read More.

(above) At the November Club Meeting: NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman and Crains's NY journalist Ross Barkan addressed the Nov. 13 Three Parks club meeting in the wake of the General Election.

To listen to an audio recording of the meeting, click here.

Letter: Isn't It Time for the New York Health Act?

How Chickens Aided Trump

By Steve Max

Of course there is no single cause of the Harris defeat, and probably not even one main cause. There was a confluence of many negative factors, but inflation played a large role. This is a story of money, corporate greed, old and new opportunities and, above all, chickens.

The Presidential Myth. Americans have long believed that the economy is controlled by the President. If prices go up, jobs go down and family income stagnates, blame it on the President and get a new one. This belief is widely held because when prices go down, jobs go up and family income rises, every President has taken credit for it^.[1] If it were they who made things better, then it must be they who are making things worse.

Now, if you are Franklin Roosevelt, who put over 20 million unemployed workers on the federal payroll, passed the minimum wage, instituted the eight-hour day, created Social Security and imposed price controls to prevent war-time profiteering, then you could genuinely take credit for the economic upturn that followed, although Roosevelt also got blamed for the late recession dip. Lyndon Johnson also made a lasting change with Medicare and Medicaid.

There are rare moments when a President can make a significant change. The Eisenhower era act creating the Interstate Highway System was one, and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act went in the right direction but was far too small. But most of the time, Presidents are just along for the ride as the economy follows its own internal laws and responds to such forces as monopoly control, COVID or foreign competition. Only Sen. Bernie Sanders says that the problem is really capitalism, and we all know what he is.^[2]

It’s The Economy. In one exit poll after another, voters said that the economy influenced their choice, but how they viewed the economy is a bit of a conundrum as this CNN exit poll shows. ..

To continue reading on a cellphone, click here.

To continue reading on a laptop, click here.

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^[1] Manufacturing Booms Thanks to Biden-Harris Administration Investments

^[2] Please read Bernie’s book It’s OK to be Angry About Capitalism.

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