2008 Election Snapshots

Age: 35
Neighborhood: Kew Gardens
Occupation: Lawyer
First Time Voter: No
Political Affiliation: Democrat

“What we’ve seen over the last eight years… is this idea that we can just deregulate everything, and everything will be fine, and it doesn’t work that way.”

Neighborhood: Kew Gardens
Occupation: Manager of jewelry store
First Time Voter: No
Political Affiliation: Democrat

“We need to be a little isolationist for a while, until we get our own act together.”

Age: 77
Neighborhood: Kew Gardens
Occupation: opera singer
First Time Voter: no
Political Affiliation: Democrat

“A good life for everybody – but I don’t know if that’s possible.”

Age: 79
Neighborhood: Midwood/Ocean Parkway
Occupation: Retired
First Time Voter: No
Political Affiliation: Independent

“I hope the war will end in Iraq, honorably for us, and I just feel that was a terrible tragedy because I’ve been in Iraq and it was a beautiful country, beautiful people, and I think it’s terrible what happened to them.”

Age: 26
Neighborhood: Kensington
Occupation: Audio Engineer
First Time Voter: No
Political Affiliation: Democrat

“Nothing gets done, and when nothing gets done, eventually, people throw out the government. And I think we’re kind of at that point now.”

Campaign fundraising usually evokes images of fancy parties and famous faces – but one Crown Heights woman came up with another recipe for bringing in the bucks.

Priscilla Maddox, a retired nursing home worker, has raised an estimated $2,000 for the Barack Obama campaign by selling boxes of a treat she calls “Obama Cookies.”

(more…)

While fierce rhetoric is flying across the country in the presidential race, the mud is being slung at point-blank range in a corner of Queens where two veteran lawmakers are engaged in an increasing ugly battle for a state Senate seat. (more…)

Age: 81
Neighborhood: Upper East Side
Occupation: Retired
First Time Voter: No
Political Affiliation: Unknown

“Out of Iraq, out of Afganistan.”