LEAVE IT BLANK: Two former candidates for office in New York City this week launched the Leave it Blank NY campaign to encourage voters to cast blank ballots in New York’s primary election in protest of President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. “Tell Biden ‘Count me out for genocide,’ submit a blank ballot on April 2nd,” the website said. New York does not have the option of write-ins on its ballot, so the workaround is to cast blank ones. The campaign is paid for by Hesham El-Meligy, a Democrat who ran for New York City comptroller in 2013, and Brittany Ramos DeBarros, a House candidate in Staten Island under the Working Families Party in 2022. “As Democrats, we know how much is at stake in the upcoming general election, and are deeply concerned by the thousands and thousands of voters who we know are very upset about the fact that Biden has continued to block international efforts for a cease-fire,” DeBarros told Playbook. DeBarros, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, warned that Biden’s position on the war in Gaza could cost Democrats in November. “It was devastating to be on the ground in war and to watch families and people flee me and people with me out of absolute terror because of what had been a decade of war,” she said. “And when I look at the videos or the photos that I've seen in Gaza, I remember those looks that people had when fleeing or getting gunned down as they are just trying to get flour to survive or humanitarian aid.” DeBarros hopes that in the next two weeks or so they will have an operational phone bank. She said she has talked to organizers in Minnesota who ran successful phone banks for similar campaigns and spent around $15,000, which is what she is aiming for with Leave it Blank NY. The campaign has been modeled after ones for voters to cast their votes as “uncommitted” in places like Michigan, Minnesota, Washington and Hawaii. — Shawn Ness MEDICAID CONCERNS: Nearly 100 patient groups and community health advocates sent a letter to Hochul demanding she address what they deem as a Medicaid funding crisis. They are calling for her to raise the reimbursement rate for hospitals and nursing homes. Nearly 4.2 million New Yorkers are on Medicaid. According to the NY State Alliance for Healthcare Justice, the state is paying hospitals 30 percent less than the actual cost of care and 24 percent less for nursing homes. The push comes as lawmakers and Hochul are at odds over Medicaid funding ahead of the April 1 start of the fiscal year. Medicaid is the largest piece of the state budget when federal funding is included. “For decades, Medicaid underpayments have created unacceptable health disparities among the vulnerable people we serve, especially in the Latino community, where we face worse health outcomes, shorter life expectancies, and higher rates of infant mortality,” Roxanne Marin, the regional director of Centro Civico in Albany, said in a statement. The groups said Medicaid’s underfunding negatively impacts those of Black and Latino communities, in particular. — Shawn Ness MIN WAGE LAMENT: Advocates who are pushing for a change in the state’s minimum wage law were disappointed the Democratic-led Legislature did not include a raise for tipped workers in their budget resolutions this week. The lack of support for the provision from the state Senate and Assembly likely puts a damper on the measure being included in a final budget agreement by the end of month. But supporters are still holding out hope. “We urge Governor Hochul to support the inclusion of the bill in the final budget,” Saru Jayaraman, the president of the One Fair Wage coalition, said in a statement. “New Yorkers deserve predictable and stable wages for their hard work.” Business organizations have pushed back on efforts to hike the minimum wage this year, including for counties north of Westchester. The tipped wage in New York ranges from $10 cash wage plus a $5 credit for food service workers upstate to $10.65 cash wage and a $5.35 credit in the New York City area. — Nick Reisman
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