Weekly Member Update - May 18, 2026
Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) burns a Confederate flag as he walks through the Tennessee Capitol on May 7. Credit: Martin B. Cherry / Nashville Banner
We’re not usually the ones with an unduly optimistic take, but something about the behavior of the Republican Party in the wake of Callais v Louisiana has us feeling like we’re witnessing a party running scared, if not in outright death throes. The Orange King is about as popular as a deer tick, and falling. The economy is teetering on rising gas prices, foolish and illegal tariffs and supply chain interruptions borne exclusively of Trump’s policies and wars of choice, and all the soon-to-be-80-years-old Narcissist-in-Chief can talk about is his gilded ballroom, his triumphal arch, his Lincoln Memorial swimming pool, and his statuary garden (we all know that Trump will erect the hugest statue of himself there, right?). Not only does he not give a shit about the economic plight of everyday Americans, his policies are making things worse and everybody but the most foolish victims of GOP tribal epistemology know it. Meanwhile, he plunders our own government for his own enrichment, plays the stock market with companies his own policies are meant to benefit and posts AI slop about personally meeting with captured extraterrestrials. It ain’t good.
And yet, the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump Inc. now more than ever. Because most national Republicans have already gerrymandered themselves into safely red districts, all they have to fear electorally is a Republican primary. Since Trump will sponsor primary challengers against anyone he deems “disloyal,” elected Republicans who want to keep their jobs must lick Trump boots, no matter how deranged or brazenly corrupt he becomes. There is no bottom, just an ever-deepening toilet swirl of elected Republicans trying to pretend that their favorite President isn’t dragging them under.
So the Republicans gerrymander more. Turn Tennessee from an 8-1 GOP advantage in Congress to 9-0. Move to eliminate Jim Clyburn from the South Carolina delegation. Eke out every seat possible to try and build a dyke against the coming Blue Tsunami. Hold Congress at all costs to spare Dear Leader the ignominy of a stalled agenda, persistent investigation and probable impeachment. If we can just win this one last election, Republicans say, we will have another two years to tear the democracy apart irretrievably and banish our opponents into permanent minorities.
Well, for once, we agree with Hakeem Jeffries; the redistricting wars will not work as intenmded. So long as we on the left take nothing for granted, and work like we never have between now and November, gerrymanders will reveal themselves as Dummymanders. Places like NY-17 — or, dare we say, NY-21 — could become bellwethers. So, for the next several months we’re going to focus on elections quite a bit. Regrettably, we don’t have a good number of contested primaries on 518 ballots for June 23, but we’ll feature the races that are, as well those races where Republicans could be vulnerable this fall. We’ll talk about contests across the state that have candidates we wish we could vote for, and important battles across the Country which could make Republican gerrymanders all for naught.
As our focus this week, and much to the consternation of certain local elected officials and the clubs that love them, we’re going to keep beating the drum for Ranked Choice Voting in the City of Albany. RCV Albany is circulating a petition to get a citizen-led initiative on the ballot which would amend the City Charter, and RCV needs, by our calculation, about 2,500+ signatures by City voters to secure a ballot spot in November. If enacted, the Charter amendment would put into place a “single unified election” for all City offices; that’s right, no more Party primaries under the control of Party bosses and, instead, anyone who can accumulate the requisite number of signatures for his or her desired office, regardless of party, would be on the ballot for November. In the November contest, voters would get to rank their personal top five candidates in order and, when the ballots are counted, contestants receiving the fewest top-choices are eliminated and their supporters’ ballots are then counted toward the voter's next favorite candidate, round after round, until only the winning candidate remains. RCV Albany has a more detailed explanation here but, in sum, ranked choice voting ensures that only the candidate with majority support gets elected, incentivizes voters to support the candidates they actually prefer — instead of the lesser of two evils — and makes elections more civil by discouraging negative campaigning. It’s the system that permitted the rise of Zohran Mamdani to become Mayor of New York and it has worked to similar democratic effect from Maine to Minneapolis to Alaska. Opponents of ranked choice voting in Deep Blue Albany will complain that it would benefit Republicans — it doesn't benefit any party, it benefits voters — but we read these complaints by elected Democrats and their supporters as a worry that they will lose control of the process and may actually need to work hard to persuade people to continue to support them. The current system is broken, and even the electeds know it. It’s time for ranked choice voting in the City of Albany, and if you are registered voter in the City, we strongly encourage you to sign this petition today.
The Week in Flock:
In case you missed it, our friends in DeFlock Troy have made the papers in a big way, appearing in a lengthy Washington Post story this past Sunday. Our Trojan friends have been the tip of the spear in the Capital Region-wide fight against Flock surveillance for a while now, and we’re proud to have stood beside them from the beginning as they fight the good fight and bring national attention to the surveillance state emerging in our midst. But we agree with one of the commenters in the Post story, Flock has not “torn Troy apart” as the title of the article suggests; from our perspective across the River, Flock has brought the community together in unified opposition and threatens to overwhelm the increasingly marginalized administration of Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello. On the heels of the Troy City Council introducing legislation to try and curb the use of Flock in the Collar City — we’re skeptical how effective it would be, for what it is worth, but it’s on the agenda for the City Council’s Public Safety Committee this Thursday — news broke this past week that the City Council has sued Mayor Mantello in State Supreme Court, seeking to set aside her ridiculous “state of emergency” and cut off funding to Flock. Mayor Mantello’s response to the lawsuit is due before June 15 and we’re waiting with bated breath; the over/under on references to “defunding the police” is four…
It’s not just Troy that’s looking to DeFlock. We’re doing our latest installment of our What the Flock Forum tonight in Colonie with our friends from Colonie Indivisible, beginning at 6:00 at Celtic Hall at 430 New Karner Road.
The City of Dayton, Ohio has indefinitely suspended its use of Flock surveillance cameras upon the revelation that the data collected by Flock was being used for immigration enforcement, in violation of Flock’s contract with the City. Imagine that, Flock violating the terms of its contract; who’d a thunk it?
As the City of Berkeley, California looks to expand its use of Flock surveillance, a leaked memo from City lawyers expresses skepticism that Flock will abide by the City’s contractual limitations on data sharing. A healthy skepticism about whether Flock will honor any limitations that local governments try and place upon them is something that should inform the Troy City Council as it considers its own Local Law #3 in an attempt to reign in Flock in the Collar City.
And, even if you beat Flock, they still leave the cameras in place. More than two months after the City of Ithaca cancelled its contract with Flock, the cameras remain in place. Flock Off Ithaca is demanding that the cameras be covered until they are removed.
Municipalities in Wisconsin are playing whack-a-mole; as soon as they push Flock out, their cops start flirting with replacement vendors.
Amid reports that out-of-state law enforcement agencies accessed Connecticut license plate data millions of times in 2025 alone, the State of Connecticut severely restricted out-of-state access to its data. Now, Connecticut is looking to put limits on the use of Flock surveillance by private big-box retailers. In our view, this is the way; a multi-billion dollar enterprise like Flock needs State regulation, not piecemeal regulation by individual towns and cities. Towns and cities should focus on regulating things that it can control, like the conduct of their local police, and push Flock out of their communities as soon as possible. Let the states — with their inherent ability to control whether Flock or other ALPR vendors can even do business within their borders — regulate what the companies can or cannot do and, once those guardrails are established, the People of the various towns and cities can then decide for themselves whether to let Flock back in.
Odds & Ends:
Late overnight, the feminist socialist collective NYC for Abortion Rights posted on social media that a woman was forced to give birth in a Brooklyn courtroom while handcuffed as onlookers joked with one another. Subsequent reporting by NBC News and The NY Times give varying accounts of what happened, but the NYC defense bar has called for a protest outside the Brooklyn courthouse later this afternoon. The NY Court System has some explaining to do.
Speaking of the NY Court System, Hellgate and Type Investigations have a wide-ranging exposé on How New York's Judicial System Got This Bad.
In case you missed it, DOGE’s crusade against all-things “DEI” imperiled grant funding for the Historic Albany Foundation’s renovation of the 1728 Van Ostrande-Radliff House. Everything is so goddamn stupid.