why is Yvette Clarke so unpopular?

[Lognog]

She almost lost in 2018. Now she has attracted four primary challengers. Could she lose, or will the non-incumbent vote be too divided?

[Zaybay]

She has the same problem Crowley had and Engel currently has, in that she's an absentee representative for her district. It also helps that Bunkeddeko has focused his campaign on a popular issue (building more affordable housing) and has gotten support from highly regarded figures, such as the NYT.

[Nutmeg]

Why are so many NYC reps absentee from their districts? It's a large city that's just a train ride from the capital. I would understand if a representative had trouble frequently getting back to a sparsely populated state without direct transportation links to D.C., but that's not the case here.

[Babeuf]

Why are so many NYC reps absentee from their districts? It's a large city that's just a train ride from the capital. I would understand if a representative had trouble frequently getting back to a sparsely populated state without direct transportation links to D.C., but that's not the case here.

Historically these seats are safe as can be (at least that's the perception), so there was no electoral need for longtime representatives to come back home.

[Lognog]

Why are so many NYC reps absentee from their districts? It's a large city that's just a train ride from the capital. I would understand if a representative had trouble frequently getting back to a sparsely populated state without direct transportation links to D.C., but that's not the case here.

Historically these seats are safe as can be (at least that's the perception), so there was no electoral need for longtime representatives to come back home.

Also many like Crowley, Engel, Nadler, and Lowey have chairmenships on very powerful comittees

[Suburbia]

She has the same problem Crowley had and Engel currently has, in that she's an absentee representative for her district. It also helps that Bunkeddeko has focused his campaign on a popular issue (building more affordable housing) and has gotten support from highly regarded figures, such as the NYT.

She is a black woman representing a Caribbean-based district, her mother is from Jamaica. I know Flatbush. She will win reelection easily.

[SevenEleven]

Why are so many NYC reps absentee from their districts? It's a large city that's just a train ride from the capital. I would understand if a representative had trouble frequently getting back to a sparsely populated state without direct transportation links to D.C., but that's not the case here.

Historically these seats are safe as can be (at least that's the perception), so there was no electoral need for longtime representatives to come back home.

There's still no need for that. Unfortunately, rather ignorant populists have latched on to the notion that people doing their jobs in their place of work is somehow a bad thing. In this era of emails and zoom meetings there is no material gain from unnecessary, environmentally unfriendly travel. You can hear from more constituents by sitting on your laptop in DC than by holding some town hall meeting or whatever. Is rather have my Rep working in DC doing their job than spending time and money traveling "back home" to kowtow to the masses.

How much that applies to Yvette Clarke or Eliot Engel, I do not know. But I would never begrudge a Congressperson for doing their job.

[Calthrina950]

It seems like New York loves to mount primary challenges against its incumbents. Of the major NYC representatives in Safe Democratic districts, it seems like Nadler, Meeks, Jeffries, and Meng are the only ones not facing significant or substantive primary challenges this year.

[Pollster]

It seems like New York loves to mount primary challenges against its incumbents. Of the major NYC representatives in Safe Democratic districts, it seems like Nadler, Meeks, Jeffries, and Meng are the only ones not facing significant or substantive primary challenges this year.

NYC is a uniquely well-suited area for an upstart primary challenge for a variety of reasons:

1) The geographical size of the districts makes it easier to canvass on foot and be visible to the community
2) The rapid pace of people moving in/out significantly decreases incumbents' name recognition advantages
3) The mass reliance on public transit makes it easy to reach voters where they are for free rather than paying to have them come to you (i.e. shaking hands at a subway station entrance, leaving lit at bus stops)
4) It's easy to find a single unifying interest in a geographically small district (affordable housing, transportation/infrastructure, and healthcare are very common here)
5) "Electability" and "reasonable moderate" standards are not applied in these districts where Republicans have no chance of victory
6) NYC still has (intentionally) low primary turnout - a relic of the Tammany Hall days - which makes mobilizing a small base of supporters go a long way

[KaiserDave]

I live in her district

She is almost non existent here

[Zaybay]

I live in her district

She is almost non existent here

Are you going to vote for her or Bunkeddeko?

[KaiserDave]

I live in her district

She is almost non existent here

Are you going to vote for her or Bunkeddeko?

I will be supporting Bunkeddeko.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

I live in her district. I voted for her this year (by absentee ballot) but if Bunkedekko or any other candidate wins (besides Gayot because he ran as a Republican 2 years ago) then I won't care. She really does very little if anything.

[Badger]

Why are so many NYC reps absentee from their districts? It's a large city that's just a train ride from the capital. I would understand if a representative had trouble frequently getting back to a sparsely populated state without direct transportation links to D.C., but that's not the case here.

Historically these seats are safe as can be (at least that's the perception), so there was no electoral need for longtime representatives to come back home.

There's still no need for that. Unfortunately, rather ignorant populists have latched on to the notion that people doing their jobs in their place of work is somehow a bad thing. In this era of emails and zoom meetings there is no material gain from unnecessary, environmentally unfriendly travel. You can hear from more constituents by sitting on your laptop in DC than by holding some town hall meeting or whatever. Is rather have my Rep working in DC doing their job than spending time and money traveling "back home" to kowtow to the masses.

How much that applies to Yvette Clarke or Eliot Engel, I do not know. But I would never begrudge a Congressperson for doing their job.

I remember Mitch McConnell jovially giving this same argument against public campaign financing in a chuckling back and forth on the senate floor with another Conservative Republican. Why should I stand and shake hands in line at the County Fairground, he said, and only reach maybe I calculate two or three thousand people in a day, when in the same time I can raise money and read over ten times that many people via television ads?

Because, chucklehead, I thought at the time, the face-to-face contact gives them the opportunity to communicate with you rather than just the other way around. That's the point of a representative democracy after all.

When politicians like Crowley, Engler, and Clarke lose sight of that, they have no one but themselves to blame.

[Badger]

I live in her district. I voted for her this year (by absentee ballot) but if Bunkedekko or any other candidate wins (besides Gayot because he ran as a Republican 2 years ago) then I won't care. She really does very little if anything.

Just curious if you'd be willing to share your reasons for supporting her. Bunkedekko  seems like he would make an awesome Congressman, where is yevette Clarke seems just quite meh.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

I live in her district. I voted for her this year (by absentee ballot) but if Bunkedekko or any other candidate wins (besides Gayot because he ran as a Republican 2 years ago) then I won't care. She really does very little if anything.

Just curious if you'd be willing to share your reasons for supporting her. Bunkedekko  seems like he would make an awesome Congressman, where is yevette Clarke seems just quite meh.

Don't know much about him. However, like I said, I would be fine with anyone but Gayot winning the primary.