A Good Run with Daniel Feldman

With less than a month to Election Day, a new Supreme Court justice nomination on hand, and political turmoil around every turn, Dan and Asher sit down to discuss what it’s like to be a close follower of the political news cycle in 2020. Spend the better part of an hour with us as we try to navigate the entirety of the world of politics today, what it means, and what it could result in. Note: This episode was recorded before last weekend’s news that the President had contracted COVID-19.

Twenty-two years ago today, Daniel Feldman, Melina Katz, Noach Deer and Anthony Weiner participated in the Democratic Primary for the 9th District Congressional seat in New York. Early Pollsters gave Dan’s campaign cigars after conducting its first run of polls in the 9th Congressional District in New York. Dan was clearly the favorite — but there was an issue. Hear how the 1998 Congressional Primary to replace Chuck Schumer ultimately played out and how New York and national politics was forever changed by this one, hotly contested, four-way race for the Democratic nomination for Congress, a sure-fire bet to ultimately be elected. Deer, Katz, Weiner and Feldman all vying for the seat until Election Day.

The long-serving Congressman Schumer has set off to pursue a seat in the U.S. Senate. Who will replace him? Hear the foundational elements of the 1998 Congressional Primary to fill the Congressional seat for the 9th District of New York and the intense four-way race between Anthony Weiner, Melinda Katz, Noach Deer and Dan himself. What did the race look like at the outset? Why did Dan choose to run now? What is it like running in a Congressional primary? Dan and Asher explore it all.

As the 1980s turned into the 1990s and the political landscape in New York continued to shift, Dan exits his largest-profile race to date with a new perspective and an appreciation for what’s to come. Hear how, even in the span of less than a decade, the political map of New York changed, in its elected officials, its ideology, law making and understanding of the system itself. All of this as the city, state and nation gears up for the turn of the millennium. Note: There is a small factual error made in the middle of the episode, corrected at the end — make sure to listen all the way through!

New York City’s most populous borough needed a new District Attorney in 1989. Who better to pursue the seat than Dan Feldman? After a few consecutive terms of success in the New York State Assembly, hear the trials of the 1989 District Attorney race in Brooklyn from the runner-up’s perspective, and what could’ve gone differently. This is no Assembly race, this is a Brooklyn-wide race with all the complications that brings — hear directly from Dan what that means.

Dan recalls his dozen-year stint as chair of the Correction Committee and the massively complex and evolving relationship the state of New York has with the prison and correctional systems. Learn about motivations, changes, undertakings and reforms pushed throughout the system over the course of two decades and how that came to shape the current version of the system in New York. As Dan himself points out: “I was fond of saying that I spent more time in prisons in New York than any other legislator who was not actually convicted of anything.”

Being a politician makes a person accountable too many groups simultaneously. But few politicians experienced the multifaceted nature of political responsibility like New York City politicians of the 1980s and 1990s. While Dan’s making headway in Albany, changing laws and fighting for his people, find out what it took to stay afloat the ever-changing political landscape of New York City politics, a beast all its own.

Sure, elective politics appears to be glamorous and making important laws feels like the kind of fulfilling work anyone could want for themselves. But what are the ins and outs of the game that politicians need to keep in mind? How do you balance the cavalcade of characters, interests, schemes and interests that are constantly at play in the political realm? Listen as Dan and Asher talk through some of the ‘inside baseball’ of the New York State political system and how Dan was able to navigate them on this week’s episode.

Making laws in any context is difficult, but when it comes to organized crime and New York state, the pressure is especially tense, and the “tinkering” is especially vital. Hear about the “hundreds” of hours it took to help get the New York State Organized Crime Control Act across the finish line and the impact it ultimately had in the state. Then Dan and Asher round out this Making Laws in New York 101 session with a few final stories of the legislative process, in both its successes and failures.

So Dan’s an Assemblyman! How does a legislator make laws in Albany? What drives that desire to make specific laws? Hear Dan and Asher discuss some of the inner workings of making laws in the ‘80s in New York State and how the approach changes depending on who’s involved, what’s at stake, and what is meant to be achieved. This is part one in a two-part series on this integral topic, stay tuned for next week’s conclusion of this discussion.