Elections

Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam is a biking mayor. He shows up almost every year to Bike to Work Day. The small-government Republican has allocated $20,000 for bike improvements.

Last week, we profiled Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's transportation platform, which tended in the direction of airy platitudes. In contrast, his Republican opponent Carl Paladino has probably never been accused of playing things too safe, and on transportation policy, he's true to form. Paladino's been blitzing the campaign trail with a no-holds-barred anti-toll, anti-transit message.

The votes have been counted in the 2010 primaries, humbling three of the state legislators who killed major transit funding initiatives the past few years.

The early returns are in, and Pedro Espada is going to have to make up some ground to retain his seat in the State Senate. Other incumbents don't seem to be in as much jeopardy.

So the big day is here and several seats in the state legislature are in play. Leave your analysis, predictions, and stories from the polls in the comments.

This year's election coverage at Streetsblog is mostly focused on the primary races where seats in the state legislature are up for grabs, but we've also got some competitive congressional contests where the Democratic nomination is at stake. One of them is the 10th congressional district in Brooklyn, where 13-term incumbent Ed Towns faces a challenge from Kevin Powell, in an intense rematch of two candidates who squared off in 2008.

Last night's 33rd Senate District transportation debate pitted two candidates against each other who are unlikely to ever appear on the same ballot: Democrat Daniel Padernacht and Green John Reynolds. Padernacht is running a distant third place in polling for the September 14 primary, after incumbent Pedro Espada Jr. and challenger Gustavo Rivera. Neither Espada nor Rivera showed up at last night's debate: Espada refuses to debate his opponents and Rivera chose to attend an NAACP forum instead.

UPDATE: Strike the original post (formerly titled: "Challenger Nunes Reportedly Backs Out of Transportation Debate"). Lynn Nunes did answer questions at tonight's District 10 transportation debate, while longtime incumbent Shirley Huntley did not attend. We'll have details from the event tomorrow.

This November, New York voters will elect the occupants of every seat in the State Senate and Assembly, as well as their next governor, attorney general, and comptroller. For many races in heavily Democratic New York City, the deciding moment will come a lot sooner -- on primary day. That's just two weeks away on Tuesday, September 14.