The New York Post printed a few columns this week criticizing the political career of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

That’s fair enough. A conservative paper shouldn’t change its views about the issues because of a death.

But something that two of the columnists wrote stood out to me, as just another example of conservatives claiming to speak for the working class without evidence.

Howie Carr, a Boston Herald columnist and talk radio gas bag, a prep school graduate, who masquerades as the voice of the working class and Kyle Smith, a regular Post reviewer and columnist, both made the argument that Kennedy, in Carr’s words – “When it came to the white-ethnic working class from which his father came, Kennedy just plain didn't get it”.

I attended most of the recent hearings on petition challenges at the New York City Board of Elections.

Some cases will now be heard in court. So the list I will be posting of the remaining Primary contests may change.

This year, it seemed to me, that there were many less challenges involving “technicalities”. Most candidates who were removed from the ballot simply did not file enough signatures from registered voters. A few candidates from the major Parties (Ruben Diaz, Jr., Leticia James + others) lost minor Party cross-endorsements over incorrect filing of paper work.

A number of candidates actually remained on the ballot even though the Board reported that they did not have enough signatures because of “technical” violations in the objections submitted by their opponent.

Like most informed observers, I was pleased when the NY Times replaced William Kristol as their back-up conservative pundit with Ross Douthat, largely because I figured Douthat, unlike Kristol, would not make the numerous errors that I & others pointed out Kristol did.

On Thursday, July 16, Party designating petitions were filed at the New York City Board of Elections.

The following is a report listing the upcoming contested Primaries, based on the petitions filed. The list will be modified as candidates withdraw and/or removed from the ballot. There also may have been some errors made in compiling the list.

I am including some commentary where I know something about the races. I apologize to all candidates who I might be shortchanging in my description or lack of a description of them. I encourage anybody who knows more about these candidates to add something via the comments.

The 2009 printed edition of Prime News, Prime New York’s annual compilation of New York City election results has been mailed.

Continuing a very irregular series on who are the voters in upcoming "hot" elections, I turn today to the 23^rd Congressional District, where there will be a Special Election sometimes this year. The seat is being vacated by Republican John McHugh, who President Obama has appointed Secretary of the Army.

Ben Smith reports that conservatives are responding to the fact that Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whom they are painting as a dangerous left-winger, was originally appointed by the first President Bush–

The usually perceptive Steve Kornacki of the NY Observer has already written off Governor David Paterson’s chances of getting re-elected.

Sunday’s New York Times reported that the MTA, in order to save money, has discontinued the Long Island Railroad express train to Belmont Raceway.

One paragraph in the story jumped out at me:

“Racing association officials, who lobbied against the elimination of direct train service, estimate that the park will lose more than $5 million this year because of the cut, while the authority says it will save about $112,000.”

A person doesn’t not to have to have the business expertise of a Warren Buffet to propose a winning bet to the New York Racing Association  - give the MTA $112,000 so they keep running the train so you can keep $5 million you say you will lose if the train stops.

Every Presidential Election brings new voters to the polls – voters who have never voted before.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/20833.html

A little over a year ago, I wrote on this blog about my theory of the electorates.

The extremely close election in the 20^th Congressional District has partisans on both sides predicting their candidate will win after all the paper ballots are counted. Each side seems to have already determined who received the most votes among the 6,000-10,000 paper ballots that none of them has seen.

The possibility that Congressman Anthony Weiner might not run for Mayor has stirred up speculation about how this might negatively impact turnout in this year’s Democratic Primary. And that has led to talk about which candidates would be helped and hurt by less people voting.

There will be three Special Elections for City Council on Tuesday and I’m willing to guess that very few voters who are not active in politics are even aware of them.