From left, Campaign Manager Aaron Carr, Field Director Rachel Harris and volunteer Sandra Cordero strategize Sept. 7 at Michael Blake’s campaign office on Home Street and Boston Road in Morrisania. (DANNY FUNT / The Bronx Ink)

When The Bronx Ink asked Assembly hopeful Marsha D. Michael about following her for a day on the campaign trail, her response was atypical of someone two weeks from a hotly contested primary election.

“How did you hear about me?” Michael’s email began.

Indeed, the race to fill the vacant 79th District Assembly seat has received scant coverage from local news media, to the extent there are any. One can walk for blocks in the district — which includes the South Bronx neighborhoods of Claremont, Concourse Village, Crotona Park, East Tremont, Melrose and Morrisania —without finding newspapers for sale. This scarcity reflects the severe political disengagement in these beleaguered communities, where an intriguing race for state office has been met largely with shrugs.

Six candidates will face off in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary. The winner will vie in the general election on Nov. 4 against the Republican candidate, Selsia Evans. Evans ran for the same seat in 2012 on the Conservative Party line, garnering less than 1 percent of the vote in the overwhelmingly liberal district. In 2010, the last 79th District race without an incumbent, the Republican candidate mustered just 3 percent of the vote.

The seat has been vacant since January, when then-Assemblyman Eric A. Stevenson, elected to the office in 2010, was convicted of taking $20,000 in bribes in exchange for helping to build an adult day care center in the South Bronx. He is serving a three-year prison sentence. He was the second representative from the 79th district to face corruption charges. In 2003, the Assembly member occupying that seat, Gloria Davis, resigned after pleading guilty to bribery.

The perceived frontrunners this year are Michael, a State Supreme Court law clerk, also running on the Working Families Party line; George Alvarez, CEO of a Bronx-based political consulting firm; and Michael Blake, a prominent aide on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign who then worked in the White House on minority-owned small business development. Also on the ballot:  longtime community resident Lanita Jones, entertainer Frederick Ricks and school aide Raul Rodriguez.

A map in Michael Blake’s office of the 79th Assembly District, which includes the South Bronx neighborhoods of Claremont, Concourse Village, Crotona Park, East Tremont, Melrose and Morrisania. (DANNY FUNT / The Bronx Ink)

Aaron Carr, Blake’s campaign manager, said he expects between 4,000 and 4,500 primary ballots to be cast in a jurisdiction of 60,000 registered voters. The 79th District is consistently near the bottom for election turnout in the state, and, as with most electorates, seniors will be a dominant force on Election Day, Blake staffers predict.

Voters here have strikingly little to go on by way of campaign platforms. Whereas candidates vying for the open 52nd District seat — which includes downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights — outline robust policy goals on their Web pages (candidate Pete Sikora, for example, offers 10 issue areas detailed in more than 4,000 words), Michael’s website lists “solve problems” as her first priority in Albany. The site elaborates, “She will be our full-time Assembly Member with a full service community office to help people and solve neighborhoods problems.” In total, Michael’s online platform is 138 words. Blake’s is 188.

Asked to identify the biggest policy divide between Michael and his candidate, Carr said, “I mean, it’s a Democratic primary. There are a lot of similarities. I think the real question is who will be most effective.”

Blake, however, contended that substance is on his side.

“I think we should be clear: There are significant policy differences,” Blake said in an interview on Labor Day. “I am the most qualified in this race, and no one else is talking about policy issues. They’re saying, ‘I’m going to fight for you,’ but there’s nothing behind that.” When pressed to define this substance advantage, Blake and Carr do not cite proposals, but rather point to experience like Blake’s work as a consultant for the non-profit  job developer Green For All.

“They are basically proposing the same things I’m proposing,” Alvarez acknowledged. The difference, he said, is emphasis: He and Michael prioritize education, Blake focuses on job creation, he contended. “I completely disagree with the idea of producing jobs if the community isn’t prepared for them,” Alvarez said.

In Bronx Community Districts 3 and 6, roughly equivalent to the 79th District, 60 percent of residents have a high school degree and just under 12 percent have completed college. Third graders in the geographic district covering the 79th seat had a 33 percent average pass rate on standardized tests in 2012, compared to a 60 percent state average. July unemployment in Bronx County was 11.2 percent, outpacing the city and state rates of 8 percent  6.6 percent, respectively.

Michael and her campaign manager, Bennie Catala, did not respond to repeated interview requests.

District 79 is conducive to “machine-style politics,” giving Democratic Party leaders considerable clout, according to Ben Max, executive editor of The Gotham Gazette, a news website that specializes in local politics in New York City. Michael has Democratic Party backing, with endorsements from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx County Democratic Party Committee and more than a dozen unions, political groups and elected officials.

New York City Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson, whose district overlaps with much of the 79th, is among Michael’s backers. Gibson did not conduct a formal review of candidates before announcing her endorsement, according to her communication director, Jamie Gilkey. Gilkey said Michael and Gibson became close after Michael supported Gibson’s winning 2010 Assembly campaign and her successful 2013 bid for the city council.

“Part of why the 79th is struggling is because it has had leaders who have had problems,” Gilkey said. “So when it comes to making an endorsement, you can’t just look at an issue checklist.”

Gilkey rejected Max’s characterization of South Bronx politics.

“It’s not just a matter of union and party bosses — that old image. It’s more than just a smoke-filled room. A lot of people have come together and have confidence in what Marsha would do in the Assembly,” he said.

Blake’s opponents challenged his eligibility to run for office, charging that he did not meet state residency requirements: candidates must have lived in New York State for five years prior to the election and in the district in which they are running for office for the 12 months immediately before the election. Though Blake was born and grew up in the Bronx, he spent nearly a decade in Chicago and Washington working for Obama. A Bronx Supreme Court judge ruled Aug. 15 that Blake met the requirements to remain on the ballot, putting a legal close to four months of carpetbagger allegations.

Still, other candidates have continued to paint themselves as more authentic Bronxites than Blake. A tweet posted on Marsha Michael’s Twitter account on Aug. 13 used the hashtag “#residentvoter = me,” subtly reminding followers that Blake was registered to vote in Washington until last year.

Blake has attempted to emulate the historic Obama 2008 campaign, using “hope” and “change” slogans on campaign posters and aggressive door-to-door canvassing. Like Obama, he has also raised vastly more money than his opponents — about $230,000 by Sept. 1 compared to roughly $67,000 for Michael and $41,000 for Alvarez. Of 702 donations disclosed by the Blake campaign, 22 percent give an address in New York State. Public records indicate Blake received contributions of $500 in April from David Axelrod, a chief strategist of both Obama presidential campaigns who is based in Chicago, and $250 in July from Jon Favreau, the president’s former chief speechwriter who listed a Washington  address.

George Alvarez campaign posters are ubiquitous in 79th District storefronts, including this corner store on Prospect Avenue in Morrisania. (DANNY FUNT / The Bronx Ink)

The Alvarez campaign has gone after Latino voters, who outnumber black residents in the 79th District by more than two-to-one but are traditionally less inclined to vote. Many storefronts in Morrisania and Melrose display “Elect George Alvarez” posters in their windows, although numerous shopkeepers said they don’t know much about the candidate and would not equate the poster placement with their backing.

With the 79th District’s recent troubles, Blake argued that diminished weight ought to be given to endorsements for Michael.

“We have to remember, this seat is open because of corruption,” he said. “Why would you want to elect people that are tied to the system?”

Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that Vanessa Gibson lost a 2010 Assembly race and won a City Council race in 2013. She was victorious in both elections.