We will have a lot of opportunity to influence our Local, State, and Federal Governments next year. There will be three separate primary elections along with the National General Election. Throw in School Budget and Board votes and possible village and city votes and you can see that we can spend a lot of time reading up about the candidates and the issues, making sure we are knowledgable.

Get out your calendars:

Tuesday, April 19—Presidential Primary Elections (Noon-9 PM)

The only people on the ballot will be those running for President. New NY23rd recently had an article about this election.

Tuesday, May 17—School Budget and Board Vote (Most Districts) Times vary by school districts.

New York State determines when School Districts have their budget vote and elects their board members. Usually school budgets are passed. The real interest will be to see if the schools that increase their budgets more than the allowed Tax Cap will receive the needed 60% Super Majority.

Tuesday, June 28—Federal Primary (Noon-9 PM)

Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Tom Reed’s terms are both up in 2016. No Democrat has yet announced their attention to run against Sen. Schumer and probably won’t. The Republicans will need to have two candidates who want to run for the New York Senate seat for them to have a primary. As of yet, none have stepped forward.

Democrat John Plumb has announced that he will run against Rep. Reed. If another Democrat decides to run for the seat there will be a Democratic Primary. If a Republican decides to run against Rep. Reed, there will be a Republican Primary.

There is a small chance for a minor party to have a need for a primary for a House or Senate seat. Remember a last year when a former Reed campaign worker got petitions signed for two unannounced green party candidates, trying to force a primary. Luckily the unknowing candidates got wind of the scam and were able to stop the primary before it began.

Reminder for your political calendar–Republican Presidential Convention–Cleveland, July 18-July 21, Democratic Presidential Convention–Philadelphia, July 25-July 28.

Tuesday, September 13—State & Local Primary (Noon-9 PM)

If there is a need for a primary for State Offices (NYS Senate or Assembly, and maybe judges) there will be another primary on September 13. This election could, if the state officials wanted to, have included this vote with June 28 Federal Primary. That would save our countries money. Local election officials also point out that having a September Primary creates a tight schedule to get the General Election absentee ballots printed, sent out and return in time to be counted. It is  especially tight for out military to get their ballots from Afghanistan or other battle fronts back to NY 23rd in time to be counted.

The Democrat-led Assembly would rather combined the primaries, but the Republican led Senate doesn’t, and they need to agree if the date is going to change.  Of course, we don’t know if any of the NY 23rd incumbents will be primaried, nor who their opponents will be.

Tuesday, November 8–General Election (6 AM-9 PM)

Which Party will hold the Executive Branch of the government for the next four years?

Will the Republicans keep their majority in the Senate?  There will be 34 Senate races in 2016. The Democrats have to defend 10 of them; the Republicans 24. The Democrats will need to win 15 seats to regain control of the Senate. See the list of the Senators who have to defend their seat here.

Will the Republicans hold on to the House? Each House member is up for re-election. Thirty present Republican House members would have to loose for the Democrats to have a majority.

Roll Call has an updated list of congressional members who will be leaving their seat by retirement, running for another office, resignation, or death.