Eli James
E5DFA4F2-9955-4171-A861-C2454CA14FB9.jpg

Voting in the Dark

AN NYC BLOG

This blog and my podcast, “Strong Reception,” are here to shed light on New York’s draconian voting system and what we can do to bring it into the 21st century. I also talk about music history because that’s super important too and I love it.

STRONG RECEPTION Ep. 11: Sandy Nurse: Return to the 37th District

Sandy Nurse, Democratic candidate for City Council District 37 in Brooklyn, spoke on “Strong Reception” about how the city can prevent a total gap in leadership like the one visited on this underserved district in 2020, as well as about the city’s matching funds program and the implementation of ranked-choice voting. The primary election takes place in New York City on June 22, 2021.

Sandy Nurse, Democratic candidate for City Council District 37 in Brooklyn, spoke on “Strong Reception” about how the city can prevent a total gap in leadership like the one visited on this underserved district in 2020, as well as about the city’s matching funds program and the implementation of ranked-choice voting. The primary election takes place in New York City on June 22, 2021.

This week on Strong Reception, take a listen to my interview with Sandy Nurse, who is running to be the next City Council Member for the 37th District in Brooklyn. This is part of my series of interviews with candidates in this all-important primary election, which takes place June 22 in New York City, along with the races for mayor, comptroller, public advocate, borough president and hundreds of City Council seats.

(For more info on the candidates in this race, check out my interviews with Misba Abdin, Rick Echevarria and Chris Durosinmi.)

Sandy and I talked about what the city can do going forward to prevent what happened to this district last year — when this underserved area was left without a Council Member during one of the worst crises in the city's history: COVID-19.

Sandy Nurse has a history of organizing and activism in New York, starting with her encampment at the Occupy Wall Street protests in the fall of 2011, and her co-founding of MayDay Space in 2014. She ran for this City Council seat last year, but was removed from the ballot by the Board of Elections, as were several other candidates hoping to beat the heavily favored party-backed candidate, Darma Diaz. Sandy is back in the mix, running to unseat Diaz for the 2022 term.

Subscribe to “Strong Reception” wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a comment for the show on Twitter at @strongpod. Let me know what you think of my convos!

Eli James