There's an election today. Didn't you know?
You probably didn't. Nobody faults you for that. You for some reason know that Mitt Romney's wife dresses horse ballerinas up for fun but have no idea who your Congressman is. That's a bigger problem than simple voter apathy.
Regardless, many New Yorkers can vote today in a handful of Congressional primaries. We've already told you about the contest between Charles Barron and Hakeem Jeffries, and might have mentioned one of the two praised Gaddafi and trashed Israel. You'll have to click to find out.
Bob Turner is running in the GOP primary for US Senate. Charlie Rangel is running to retain his seat, despite all that about being censured by the House.
The prevailing sense around the office is that folks did not really know that there was a primary Tuesday. Why? The New York Times explains:
For decades, New York has held its primaries in September, but a federal court moved the state’s Congressional primary to Tuesday to ensure that people in the military using absentee ballots were not disenfranchised, creating a campaign season that defied the usual rhythms.
These off-season primaries sort of fall below the radar, don't they? So we roamed the 8th District in Brooklyn in search of would-be voters to find out what, if anything, people knew about their Congressional race. Most people had no interest discussing the primary (mostly because they had no idea there was one) but a few friendly Brooklynites stopped to talk shop with us -- including (spoiler alert) a relative a certain member of the Rent Is Too Damn High party (who apparently is just not that into family dinners). Watch above! And find your polling place here.