New York State Moves Primary Date

Yesterday Gov. Cuomo signed a bill to move New York’s primary to Thursday, September 13th. Because from now on we can’t do anything official on any September 11th.

“I believe that Sept. 11 is a day that people should reflect on what happened,” the assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said last week, as the issue was being discussed. He added that “people should focus on that, rather than being bombarded with telephone calls” encouraging them to go to their polling place. The state’s primary is traditionally held on the second Tuesday after Labor Day, which this year falls on Sept. 11. The State Senate approved legislation last week to move the primary, and the Assembly followed suit on Monday.

On September 11th, 2001 I’d been a New Yorker for less than six months. I started the day by voting in my first ever New York primary. But my choice for NYC mayor, popular Democrat Mark Green, was narrowly defeated by Bloomberg after “Mayor Of The World” Rudy Giuliani handed over his post-attack endorsement. (But not before Giuliani lobbied for an “emergency extension” of his tenure.)