It’s rare to have such a wide open field for a local representative, with six candidates vying for Sheldon Silver’s old Assembly seat in Tuesday’s primary. All six are Democrats, and if you’ve been to any of the candidate forums, you know that they all agree, more or less, on a lot of issues. So how is a discerning voter to decide whom to vote for?

One way is to look at endorsements from familiar faces — other Democrats you trust, editorial boards, unions you have some affinity for. Here, too, there are a lot of mixed signals. See what you can make of it.

Local representatives

• Councilmember Margaret Chin endorses Gigi Li
• Councilmember Rosie Mendez endorses Paul Newell
• State Senator Daniel Squadron endorses Yuh-Line Niou

NYC officials

• Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito endorses Gigi Li
• City Comptroller Scott Stringer endorses Yuh-Line Niou

Other political figures

• Former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green endorses Paul Newell
• Former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger endorses Paul Newell
• Congressional candidate Zephyr Teachout endorses Paul Newell
• Former Florida Governor (and former Republican) Charlie Crist endorses Jenifer Rajkumar

Clubs and unions

• National Association of Social Workers (NYC) endorses Gigi Li
• Pride Democrats and Stonewall Democrats endorse Paul Newell
• NYSUT and UFT (teachers unions) endorse Paul Newell
• Downtown Independent Democrats endorses Paul Newell
• Working Families Party endorses Yuh-Line Niou
• Citizens Union of NYC endorses Jenifer Rajkumar

Editorial boards

• The New York Times endorses Yuh-Line Niou (with a big shout-out to Paul Newell)*
• The New York Daily News endorses Paul Newell (with a big shout-out to Yuh-Line Niou)

*One remarkable note about the Times’ typically lukewarm endorsement: “Any of Ms. Cancel’s five challengers would be an improvement.”

If you’re keeping score, Paul Newell has clearly racked up the most number of endorsements, only a few of which I’ve listed here. You can see his full roster of endorsements on his website, and decide for yourself if they are relevant to your decision.

I have no endorsements listed here for Alice Cancel or Don Lee, because they list none on their websites and have yet to send mail to voters in East River. (Cancel had the endorsement of both our NYC Council representatives, Chin and Mendez, for the special election in April when she was the only official Democratic nominee; for this more meaningful race they have given their support to two of Cancel’s challengers.)

If I missed anything significant, please leave a note in the comments.

The race for Sheldon Silver’s seat in the NYS Assembly has been getting a lot of press in the days ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

The Wall Street Journal had a lengthy look at the candidates, focusing on how they stand up to Silver’s tarnished legacy. Paul Newell, who challenged Silver directly in a primary eight years ago, accused Alice Cancel, the special election winner in April, of being too close to Silver’s “old-line machine background” that is “not the world we live in anymore.” Cancel’s supporters have always disputed the notion that she is Silver’s hand-picked successor, despite the high-profile support in April of members of Silver’s inner circle including his chief of staff, cooperator Judy Rapfogel.

The WSJ also reveals the fact that Silver, according to board of election records, did not vote in April’s special election. (Now sentenced for federal corruption, Silver is ineligible to vote on Tuesday.)

The New York Times ran an article last week highlighting the diversity of the six Democrats and how that might play out with the many ethnic groups in the district. If identity politics win out, the three candidates born in Asia — Don Lee, Gigi Li, and Yuh-Line Niou — could split the growing Chinatown block. Cancel, the only Latino candidate in the race, indicated she was counting on affinity groups playing a big part in the outcome. Though an analysis by a voter data expert said that by far the largest block of prime voters (who are more likely to come out for a primary) are of European descent, which could favor Paul Newell, the only white male in the crowded field.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a bit of information on each candidate to help you make up your mind, read this article from Gotham Gazette, which does a good job of providing a 10,000-foot view of the race.

Two weeks ago we asked cooperators to send in their personal endorsements for candidates for Tuesday’s primary. We also reached out to each of the six campaigns for endorsements from East River Cooperators. We got one response, from cooperator Susan Levinson, who sent in the following endorsement for Paul Newell:

Several weeks ago, I attended a Meet and Greet event at East River for Paul Newell and Lee Berman. Previously I hadn’t known too much about Paul, although I’d certainly heard good things about him. It’s a huge understatement to say that I was *incredibly* impressed with Paul, to the extent whereby I’ve been volunteering for his campaign ever since (and it’s been many years since I last devoted serious time to a candidate’s campaign). What impressed me the most — aside from Paul’s tireless efforts as our district leader, his work on various issues and his genuine earnestness — was his innate kindness. I really think that combination is quite a rarity in politicians and therefore I think Paul would make a *superb* State Assemblyman.

Agree? Disagree? If another candidate has your support, let us know at hello@cooperativelyyours.org.

Want to follow the campaigns of the six Democrats running to succeed Sheldon Silver? Below is a dynamic lists of posts from their Twitter feeds.

Alice Cancel: @Alice_Cancel
Don Lee: @DonLee_for_NYSA
Gigi Li: @gigi_k_li
Paul Newell: @NewellNYC
Yuh-Line Niou: @yuhline
Jenifer Rajkumar: @JeniferRajkumar

A Twitter List by coopyrs

If you missed last week’s forum on Mott Street, here’s a much more proximate chance for you to hear from the six Democrats vying to succeed Sheldon Silver as our Assemblymember:

Tuesday, August 23
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Abrons Arts Center Playhouse
466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street)

The Democratic primary is September 13. Because of the overwhelming enrollment advantage of Democrats in this district, the winner of the primary is expected to win the seat after the general election.

The organizers ask that you RSVP to election2016@henrystreet.org if you expect to attend. (Though they tell me you’ll still be welcome if you decide to come last-minute.)

Expect to see a lot of campaign mail from Jenifer Rajkumar over the next four weeks.

Though Rajkumar’s fundraising has dried up over the past month of the campaign, she still leads all candidates with cash on hand with $182.826 according to campaign finance reports filed over the weekend — almost twice as much as her nearest competitor, Paul Newell, who shows $92,347 on hand.

There are six candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for Assembly District 65. Given the heavily Democratic makeup of this district, the winner of the September 13 primary will most likely win the general election to succeed our convicted former Assemblyman Sheldon Silver.

Alice Cancel, who currently holds the seat after winning a special election this past April, comes in dead last in fundraising and cash on hand. Cancel raised nothing through the beginning of July and only $7,000 since, almost all of which comes from PACs and other campaign committees. Cancel has only $9,151 on hand for the final stretch of this race, though in April she defeated Yuh-Line Niou despite being heavily outspent.

Rounding out the candidates: Gigi Li has $72,554 on hand, Yuh-Line Niou has $67,936 on hand, and Don Lee, who raised a huge amount to start the year, has already spent heavily — his campaign signs are visible everywhere in Chinatown — and now has only $22,171 on hand.

Money, of course, is not everything. But in a low-turnout primary for (essentially) an open seat, direct mail and other printed material will be essential for candidates to gain name recognition and get out the vote.