With 17 candidates on the ballot and turnout expected to be low, Tuesday's special election could come down to a few thousand votes. As they sprint through the finish line, the candidates were doing all they could Monday to win that extra sliver of support — including bringing in celebrity power.
During his 16 years in office, Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell has rarely relied on public support from his famous sister.
But on the eve of Tuesday's special election for public advocate, O'Donnell was pulling out all the stops.
Rosie O'Donnell joined the campaign's phone-banking operation Monday. It's an unglamorous assignment. Her first voter, an 84-year-old woman named Myra, promptly hung up.
"I am a complete failure at phone-banking," Rosie O'Donnell said in response.
Meanwhile, some of the other candidates were getting an outside boost in the race's final days.
Spanish-language TV ads for Melissa Mark-Viverito began airing this weekend courtesy of the Latino Victory Fund, where Mark-Viverito worked as a senior advisor prior to the campaign. At $50,000, it's the biggest so-called independent expenditure of the race, though not the only one. The Lexington Democratic Club sent out mailers in support of Queens Assemblyman Ron Kim.
Meanwhile, Eric Ulrich, the only prominent Republican in the field, has now scored the endorsement of both the New York Daily News and the New York Post, which called him a voice for sanity and the obvious choice, noting, "With the officially nonpartisan field packed with left-wingers, Ulrich has a shot."
Indeed, with so many names packed on the ballot, there is no telling how the vote might split, especially with so current and former elected officials who already have built-in support.
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