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New York's 5th Congressional District elections, 2012
2014 →
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November 6, 2012 |
June 26, 2012 |
Gregory Meeks  |
Gary Ackerman |
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The 5th Congressional District of New York held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 6, 2012. Gregory Meeks was re-elected on November 6, 2012.[1]
| Candidate Filing Deadline | Primary Election | General Election |
|---|---|---|
Primary: New York had a closed primary system, meaning only registered members of a particular party could vote in that party's primary.
Voter registration: Voters had to register to vote in the primary by June 1, 2012. For the general election, the voter registration deadline was October 12, 2012, or October 26, 2012 in person.[2]
- See also: New York elections, 2012
Incumbent: Heading into the election was incumbent Gary Ackerman (D), who was first elected to the House in 1982. He did not seek re-election in 2012.[3] Instead, due to redistricting, 6th District incumbent Gregory Meeks ran in the 5th.
This was be the first election using new district maps based on 2010 Census data. New York's 5th Congressional District was located in the southeastern portion of the state and included part of Queens.[4]
Fusion voting
New York is one of eight states that have "electoral fusion" -- which allows more than one political party to support a common candidate. This creates a situation where one candidate will appear multiple times on the same ballot, for the same position. Electoral fusion was once widespread across the United States, but is now commonly practiced only in New York.
Opponents of fusion voting argue that the process results in dealmaking to ensure that patronage is rampant.[5] Proponents maintain that fusion voting allows for minor parties to actually make a difference during the election, allowing voters the opportunity to vote for a minority party platform but still affect the general election result.[6]
Candidates that appeared in the general election are listed below with colored dots corresponding to any party they represented on the ballot.
Candidates
Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals were added after official election results had been certified. Click here for more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan. Please contact us about errors in this list.
General election candidates
June 26, 2012 primary results
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Election results
General Election
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Gregory Meeks Incumbent |
89.7% | 167,836 | |
| Republican | Allan Jennings Jr. | 9.6% | 17,875 | |
| Libertarian | Catherine Wark | 0.7% | 1,345 | |
| N/A | Write-in votes | 0% | 85 | |
| Total Votes | 187,141 | |||
| Source: New York State Board of Elections, "NYS Board of Elections Rep. in Congress Election Returns Nov. 6, 2012," accessed September 1, 2021 | ||||
Race background
Democratic primary
Three candidates challenged incumbent Gregory Meeks in the Democratic primary. Former city councilman Allan Jennings Jr., small-business owner Joseph Marthone, and recent law-school graduate Mike Scala all hoped to be the one to receive the party nod over Meeks.[10]
Jennings also ran in the Republican primary, where he was unopposed. He considered himself to be willing to "work with anybody who’s going to help this district," which he says sets him apart from Meeks.[10]
The 29-year-old Scala graduated from law school on June 1, 2012, just a few weeks before the June 26, 2012 primary. He said he was most concerned with helping the lower and middle class.[11]
Marthone said education was the way to solve the nation's problems.[12]
At a forum in early June 2012, the three challengers and a representative of Meeks discussed issues of importance. Jennings called for an end to the NYPD "stop and frisk" policy. Marthone pledged to fight hydrofracking and airplane noise pollution. Scala criticized Meeks for supporting the Budget Control Act, which took away subsidized loans for graduate students.[10] Meeks was busy in Washington at the time of the forum, but his representative said that most of the issues brought up were city and state issues, not national ones -- indicating that the challengers were not prepared for federal politics.[10]
Impact of redistricting
- See also: Redistricting in New York
Following the results of the 2010 Census, New York lost two congressional seats, bringing its total number of representatives down from 29 to 27. According to a report in the Washington Post political blog "The Fix," New York was one of the top 10 redistricting battles in the nation.[13]
The 5th District was re-drawn after the 2010 Census. The new district was composed of the following percentages of voters of the old congressional districts.[14][15]
- 14 percent from the 4th Congressional District
- 3 percent from the 5th Congressional District
- 78 percent from the 6th Congressional District
- 6 percent from the 8th Congressional District
Registration statistics
As of October 29, 2012, District 5 had the following partisan registration breakdown according to the New York State Board of Elections:
| New York Congressional District 5[16] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congressional District | District Total | Democrats | Republicans | Other & Unaffiliated | Advantage | Party Advantage | Change in Advantage from 2010 |
| District 5 | 347,932 | 261,092 | 34,400 | 52,440 | Democratic | 658.99% | 479.77% |
| "Party advantage" is the percentage gap between the two major parties in registered voters. "Change in advantage" is the spread in difference of party advantage between 2010 and 2012 based on the congressional district number only. | |||||||
District partisanship
FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012 study
- See also: FairVote's Monopoly Politics 2012
In 2012, FairVote did a study on partisanship in the congressional districts, giving each a percentage ranking (D/R) based on the new 2012 maps and comparing that to the old 2010 maps. New York's 5th District became more Democratic because of redistricting.[17]
- 2012: 82D / 18R
- 2010: 85D / 15R
Cook Political Report's PVI
In 2012, Cook Political Report released its updated figures on the Partisan Voter Index, which measured each congressional district's partisanship relative to the rest of the country. New York's 5th Congressional District had a PVI of D+33, which was the 11th most Democratic district in the country. In 2008, this district was won by Barack Obama (D), 86-14 percent over John McCain (R). In 2004, John Kerry (D) won the district 82-18 percent over George W. Bush (R).[18]
District history
| Candidate ballot access |
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2010
On November 2, 2010, Gary Ackerman was re-elected to the United States House for a fifteenth term. He defeated James Milano (R who also ran on the Conservative Party ticket), and Elizabeth Berney (Tax Revolt).[19]
| U.S. House, New York Congressional District 5 General Election, 2010 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Gary Ackerman Incumbent |
59.7% | 72,239 | |
| Republican | James Milano | 34.3% | 41,493 | |
| Blank/Scattering | 5.3% | 6,396 | ||
| Tax Revolt | Elizabeth Berney | 0.7% | 798 | |
| Total Votes | 120,926 | |||
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 2012
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2012
- United States Senate elections in New York, 2012
Footnotes
- ↑ York ABC News, "2012 General Election Results," accessed November 6, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ New York State Board of Elections, "Voting Deadline Page," accessed June 30, 2012
- ↑ Associated Press, "Feisty NY Democrat Rep. Gary Ackerman retiring," accessed March 16, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ New York Redistricting Map, "Map" accessed September 25, 2012
- ↑ Clarence Bee, "State Senate candidate calls for an end to fusion voting", accessed September 19, 2013
- ↑ Oregon Working Family Party, "What is Fusion Voting?", accessed September 19, 2013
- ↑ BLS Advocate "Mike Scala, ’12, to Run for U.S. Congress," October 16, 2011
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 New York Board of Elections "Filings for June 26, 2012 Federal Primary," April 17, 2012
- ↑ New York Board of Elections "List of Filings for June 26, 2012 Federal Primary," accessed May 30, 2012
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Queens Campaigner, "Candidates for Congress spar," June 14, 2012
- ↑ Queens Chronicle, "Scala eyes Meeks’ congressional seat," June 14, 2012
- ↑ Long Island Herald, "Four seek Democratic nod in 5th Congressional District," June 20, 2012
- ↑ Washington Post, "The Fix," "Redistricting battles hit a fever pitch," June 3, 2011
- ↑ Moonshadow Mobile's CensusViewer, "New York's congressional districts 2001-2011 comparison"
- ↑ Labels & Lists, "VoterMapping software voter counts"
- ↑ New York State Board of Elections, "District Active Enrollment 2012," April, 2012
- ↑ "2011 Redistricting and 2012 Elections in New York," September 2012
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress: 2004 & 2008" accessed October 2012
- ↑ U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 2010," accessed March 28, 2013
