Tuesday, September 3, 2013

The Thompson Pension Scandal Goes Deeper Than the NYT Wants to Examine


This morning's piece at all driven by NYT endsmnt of CQ not mentioning term limits roll back?* A transcript of the term-limit section of interview with Quinn is on Metropolis, WSJ's blog
Christine Quinn's NYC mayoral rivals slam push for 3rd Bloomberg term(NYDN) * Quinn defended her support of rolling back term limits as a 1 shot deal because of the hard economic times
  1. 10m
    Wow, I missed that: supports summonses for 7 Wmsbg Lee Ave stores for dress codes
  1. Tho not story's focus, think it lets her off way too easy on the slush fund scandal.

     If Quinn Folds in the Polls de Blasio Can Avoid the Runoff
Quinn Hits de Blasio
New Quinn hit on BBD on worst landlords list: "In Mr. de Blasio’s world bad landlords are good, so long as they’re raising him money" * Quinn asked re Thompson & pension oversight, & she adds swipe at de Blasio & questions whether he can "add."* If you haven't watched yet, how long do you think it takes until Dante appears in the new ad? * Asked about NYT story critical of Thompson, Quinn answers by pointing to NYT story on de Blasio's pre-K plan

Democratic Mayoral Candidates Make Bid For Votes As Primary Draws Near(NY1)

 
Quinn to File Court Papers Supporting a Police Monitor(NYT)
The announcement by Christine C. Quinn, in response to a ruling on the department’s stop-and-frisk policy, drew criticism from one of her mayoral rivals.* Quinn all in against stop-and-frisk(NYP)


We Know Where the Candidates Stand On Stop and Frisk, But How Are They Going To Stop the Murder of A Dead Baby on the Streets of Brooklyn From A Gun? 

  Tuesday Update: Father of 1-year-old boy fatally shot in Brooklyn not helping police track down killer (NYDN) *Baby-slayer hunt(NYP) *Boy's Death Draws Political Focus(WSJ) *SHADY DAD NO HELP: Father of 1-year-old boy fatally shot in Brooklyn, who's been busted 23 TIMES on gun and drug charges, clams up as cops hunt for killer(NYDN) * After 1-Year-Old Is Killed, Father Is Silent About Suspects(NYT)Baby shot dead(NYP) A 1-year-old boy died Sunday night after being shot in the head in NYC, the second such shooting...in 8 days * Nabe leaders blame 'beef between boy's dad, gunman's brother'(NYP)'He was screaming his baby got shot': 1-year-old child fatally shot in the head in Brooklyn, cops say(NYDN) * 1-Year-Old Boy Is Fatally Shot in Brooklyn(NYT) * Community leaders will gather today in to demand suspect come forward in shooting death of 1-year-old boy. At least five shot across NYC early Sunday * "Today, we are all grieving," Mayor Bloomberg says of one-year-old Antiq Hennis, shot to death Sunday.(WSJ) * The is offering a $12K reward for information leading to arrest in shooting death of 1-year-old boy.  

Catsimatidis Pandering Cats
‘Cats’ loves cats(NYP) retired Port Authority cop in ad has a Facebook page "filled w/ anti-Muslim rants." via * Some Republicans are miffed that state GOP Chairman Ed Cox hasn’t called on his son’s father-in-law, mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, to tone down his attacks on Republican mayoral frontrunner Joseph Lhota.

Caribben Parade Politics
 Stringer  at the at the
On Parade, Candidates Get Exposure and Advice (NYT) New York City’s mayoral candidates marched in the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn yesterday, courting voters, showing off dance moves, and soldiering through unbearable humidity, The New York Times writes: 
Is the only candidate this year to not speak in any of his ads? 
Comptroller candidate Scott Stringer touted his establishment support, endorsements from major papers and his government record in a new television ad called “Rock Solid,” State of Politics writes: http://bit.ly/15AJs0W 
    1. 15m
      Former Sen. Carl Andrews leading around

      "Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson played whack-a-de Blasio at the West Indian Parade today."

      1. now
        . and family attracted huge crowd when they arrived at West Indian day parade breakfast

        Anthony Weiner trying to fit in at the West Indian Day Parade (Video)



'Anybody here from Jamaica?' Weiner uses silly Caribbean accent to impress voters from high atop his dancehall-inspired float at West Indian Day Parade(NYDN)

Inbox: "Bill Thompson ... Endorses Mark Treyger for City Council." Hasn't endorsed in Vito Lopez's race, though. 

New 60-second ad by on the steps of Park Slope home he grew up in:

Reynoso for Council (NYDN Ed)

The Daily News endorses Antonio Reynoso. The Democratic voters of Bushwick and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Ridgewood, Queens, must throw their support behind City Council candidate Antonio Reynoso on primary day, thus ending the political career of the loathsome Vito Lopez.Vito Lopez built a seemingly impregnable power base by channeling taxpayer money into the district for housing and social service programs. Dumping him carries the threat of losing future grants.
Eliot Spitzer Says He Did ‘Great Things’ With Vito Lopez




Is The Moreland Commission For Real?
Team Cuomo Calling Moreland Commission Runaway, Is That A  Good Sign
Bracing for a potential bruising battle with Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption Moreland Commission, the Assembly has hired a prominent outside law firm to push back. Cuomo aides fret that bigwigs on Moreland anti-corruption panel are publicity hounds

Fredric U. Dicker Cuomo duo runs amok(NYP)
Senior aides to Gov. Cuomo are increasingly worried that the Moreland Act Commission named by the governor two months ago to investigate corruption in state government is getting out of control. Sources describe commission co-chair Kathleen Rice, the Nassau County district attorney and failed candidate for state attorney general in 2010, and executive director Regina Calcaterra as “loose cannons” directing the operations of what one called a “runaway commission.’’ Some aides to Cuomo were described as “furious’’ that a series of subpoenas were recently issued by the commission for campaign-finance records without any advance notice to the governor’s office. ast week, despite the behind-the-scenes tensions, Cuomo publicly declared that the commission could investigate him or anyone else in his administration if it decided it had reason to do so.* Ex-senator, AG Commish Aubertine reportedly set to resign, tired of being told what to do by . The beginning of a look inside the term limits decision that is as damning of Michael Bloomberg as it is of Christine Quinn. BTW, Quinn promised a lot more than committee chairs -- for example, she got Darlene Mealy reelected by supplying Mealy with top staffers and holding fundraisers.


We can see how anyone might regard our state Assembly the same way you would organized crime. 
The full Nelson(NYP) Castro, you may recall, was a state assemblyman who wore a wire as part of US Attorney Preet Bharara’s investigation into corruption in Albany. Castro’s cooperation helped lead to the arrest of fellow Assembly member Eric Stevenson this year.

Independent groups have dropped $7.2 million so far
1.45M independent spending for ; 656K for ; 8K for . See charts:
NYC 2013 Roundup: Following The Money(NYDN)
Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $69,309 since 8/5 supporting Laurie Cumbo
Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $21,731 since 8/5 supporting Margret Chin * Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $81,228 since 8/5 supporting Inez Dickens * Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $23,922 since 8/5 supporting Sara Gonzalez * Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $74,705 since 8/5 supporting Alan Maisel* Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $38,168 since 8/5 opposing Mercedes Narcisse Who is funding these independent expenditures? A list of all contributions of $100k or more:  * Outside Groups Have Spent $3 Million on Mayor’s Race(NYT)
With the majority of candidates abiding by spending caps in exchange for participating in the city’s matching-fund program, any outside financing could make a difference.
Jobs for New York, Inc.: ind expenditures of $8,850 on 8/31 opposing John Lisyanskiy
Jobs for New York, Inc.: ind expenditures of $7,325 on 8/31 supporting Ari Kagan

NYP Says Jobs Before Class Warfare
New York has always had a special affinity with Labor Day. After all, the first Labor Day parades were held here. And many of the battles for better working conditions were fought and won here.
But this Labor Day, the outlook for the New York worker is not nearly as good as it ought to be. At 8.4 percent, our city’s unemployment rate is higher than the national average — and would be higher still, except that so many people have given up looking for jobs altogether. Others find themselves in jobs below their skill level, or working part-time when they want to work full-time.

A Campaign and Labor Movement of  Distraction of Substance
The 2012 Labor Day Parade with UFT President Mike Mulgrew and Mayor Bloomberg There are many lessons from this. But in an election year when so many New York candidates are campaigning on some promise of class warfare, we’d like to hear people start from the obvious: Nothing you do to help workers matters if they don’t have jobs. “Fresh air and ideas are floating into New York nooks and crannies where they’ve rarely been before,” wrote Ms. Steinem, appraising the effects of Mailer’s campaign.* For Labor Day: a long-term view of why things have turned bleak for workers. (Wash Post)






Pleased With the City’s Progress, but Wary of the Price(NYT)
Residents of Windsor Terrace said New York City is safer and more attractive thanks to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, but the improvements have come at the expense of those who scrape by.


Quinn Leadership: NYT OK's Buying Votes to Maintain Order

If the NYT Thinks Getting things done is a key qualification for electing a mayor maybe they should endorse Mussolini or John Gotti or Bernie Madoff they all got the job done while breaking the law. So Did the NYT's pick to become New York's next mayor.  Unless the NYT has changed their minds that member item slush funds are a good way to govern and lead.  Two weeks after the council member items slush fund scandal broke in 2008, Quinn in an attempt at damage control held a news conference to unveil a plan to allocate member items through a competitive process. When word got out  that she was taking away councilmembers member item slush funds, they planned a rebellion to dump her as their speaker. Immediately after Quinn got word of  her members reaction to her reform she back down completely. Quinn begged for forgiveness, telling he fellow members she had blundered badly in her response to revelations about the Council’s appropriation of money to fictitious organizations.  In 2011 the NYT wrote an editorial End the Slush. In that editorial the old gray lady explained how Quinn rewarded her friends and supporters with more member item $$$. The NYT demanded member items be ended.

NYT Editorial  "Ms. Quinn inspires the most confidence that she would be the right mayor for the inevitable times when hope and idealism collide with the challenge of getting something done."  







Thompson Has A Lot of Campaign Consultants
Has the Campaign Bureaucracy That He Created Hurt His Efforts to Get Out A Clear Message
  
Consultant Gridlock
No Clear Message

Thompson Must Count On A Big  Black Turnout Which Most of  His Consultants Have Nothing To Do With



Bedford Grove LLC $ 300,000 Bedford Grove LLC is the consulting firm sending out Thompson's public schedule and statements. It's home to former public advocate Betsy Gotbaum and her former aide, Ian MacDonald. Others members of the firm, Michael Giaccio, Kristie Stiles, worked on Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson's statewide campaigns. Another member of the shop, Marius Muresano, was once Spitzer's photographer.  Mirram Group, LLC  $75,000  Eduardo Castell from the MirRam Group is Thompson’s lead campaign operative.   Mirram Group, LLC   $400,000 including radio and TV ads.  Consultant Marla Klinger $100,000 is helping out with fundraising, while Butler Associates $ 54,000, handles his public relations. Hank Sheinkopf $80,000 announcement came in a rollout of new members of Team Thompson -- including new Communications Director John Collins, $24,000 a former staffer for Anthony Weiner.   1,000,000. Metro Strategies, LLC  Campaign Lit  $300,000. Particle $130,000. Peeler Allen Consulting, LLC $40,000. Peter D. Hart Research Associa $150,000. Pitta Bishop Del Giorno at al $75,000. Prince, Jonathan $90,000. Renaud, Monique $50,000. Schenker, Jonathan $20,000. Corning Place Communications $32,000.

Many Of Thompson Consultants Are Lobbyists. Is There Enough Money in the City Budget to Take Care of All of Them?
Policy Director Amber Green is joining the campaign from GMMB in Washington, a firm whose partners include former Weiner media guy Jim Margolis. Thompson is also bringing on more Obama veterans, including Senior Advisor Karine Jean-Pierre $20,000, who's worked on both the campaign side -- helping run battleground state ops -- and in the White House. Another ex-Obama staffer, Will Leaverton, who ran GOTV ops, will serve as Thompson's field director. More additions to the team, which already includes Jonanthan Prince and Bruce Gyory: Deputy Campaign Manager Frank Thomas, who managed Rep. Kathy Hochul's re-election bid last year, and Political Director Kim Ramos a strategist and lawyer with a network of contacts particularly among Latino electeds in the city and state Legislature. The campaign paid more than $170,000 to Suri Kasirer, a lobbyist and fund-raiser; more than $160,000 to Marla Klinger, another fund-raiser; some $140,000 to Monique Renaud, an expert in campaign finance regulations; and $40,000 to Andrew Grossman, a political strategist. (Andrea Cukier, who tutors Mr. Thompson in Spanish, was also listed as consultant, and she received at least $5,500.) The Campaign Group TV Ads

Black voters favor de Blasio over Thompson
What do Al D'Amato, Randi Weingarten, and Meryl Tisch all have in common?"


Some Political Consultant is Calling All the Reporters Attacking de Blasio

3m
Phone just rang with anti-de Blasio robocall. Woman citing DN story sez "BdB sides with rich slum lords." Who paid for it? Call didnt say

  


 DN Lhota "superbly qualified" & "offers a clear vision" - All Three Papers for Lhota, Quinn and  Stringer

EDITORIAL: Daily News endorses Joe Lhota in GOP primary for NYC mayor(NYDN Ed)

Go for Joe: Lhota knows the city, has shown superior management skills, and proven he can handle a crisis. Joe Lhota brings to the campaign an unparalleled record of high-level, government service and private sector experience. In terms of executive management under pressure, he has been there and done that — successfully. He also offers a clear vision of a city government that is compassionate, cost-effective and dedicated to delivering measurable results. The Bronx-born son of a New York police lieutenant, Lhota was the first in his family to graduate from college.* The NY Observer endorses Joe Lhota for Mayor

He served as budget director and deputy mayor of operations during the mayoralty of Rudy Giuliani. Behind the scenes, he was the key figure in keeping services and dollars on track, was pivotal in the post-9/11 crisis and survived lymphoma, a cancer possibly contracted at Ground Zero. He holds for law and order while promising greater communications between the NYPD and citizens on issues like stop-question-frisk. He insists that the schools must raise achievement and states with bracing clarity,
“To keep a failing school open is immoral.” To the displeasure of municipal unions, he describes retroactive raises as unaffordable. Lhota envisions a major housing construction program and describes universal all-day pre-kindergarten education as “critical.” He pledges that he could finance the groundbreaking school program by finding savings of less than 1% in the budget. His odds of accomplishing that appear to be better than chances that Democrat Bill de Blasio would convince Albany to hike taxes on the wealthy in order to get to the same end. * Citizens Union Board Members Have Ties To Lhota, Thompson Campaigns: Citizen Union Board Member Randy ... * Are family ties preventing Chairman Ed Cox from stopping the nasty tone of GOP's NYC mayoral primary? (NYDN)
* Charles Moerdler, a Holocaust survivor and MTA board member, who was once told to “be a man” by Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota, is furious that Lhota’s rival John Catsimatidis is exploiting that incident in a campaign mailer, the Daily News reports: 


The Daily News Says Catimatidis Not Credible
John Catsimatidis, a billionaire who asks voters to take on faith that a good heart, good intentions and business savvy would translate into the next coming of Fiorello LaGuardia. Up from humble roots, Catsimatidis has proven that he cares about New York while failing to draw a credible sketch of a mayoralty.* "He has even created his own eight-page newspaper, The Cats Chronicle, which includes no fewer than 27 photographs.."













Who is Bill de Blasio?
  1. 8h
    w intriguing piece on Bill de Blasio, a lot more Machiavelli than Eugene Debs:
    De Blasio’s empty promise (NYDN Ed
    His grand plans to offer universal pre-kindergarten need a rethink
    Bill de Blasio, development pragmatist --  
    Bil de Blasio helped landlord with code violations — after campaign donations were steered his way(NYDN)
    Blasio offered his help to Michael Shah, who owns two buildings on Staten Island, with more than 200 code violations — but not before records show he got a fat check. Weeks before Shah met with de Blasio, the building owner donated the maximum $4,950 and began acting as an 'intermediary' to raise $11,850 more.

    The Afro, Man
    One final note, back to de Blasio. By now, you must know that his son’s hairdo is getting a lot of (positive) attention. And as Dante de Blasio exited the First Baptist Church of Crown Heights, Rev. Daryl G. Bloodsaw called out: “Brother Dante! Keep wearing that Afro, man!” After the laughter died down, Bloodsaw rubbed his own (bald) head and said, “I’m gonna grow mine on the inside.”


    Stop and Frisk Fight
    Quinn told a City Hall news conference Sunday afternoon: “Too many innocent New Yorkers – hundreds of thousands of innocent New Yorkers — are getting stopped, where there’s no evidence they did anything wrong. and then when they’re stopped, they’re not arrested. there’s no gun, there’s no knife, there’s no contraband.”But rival Bill de Blasio countered her move is “a desperate attempt to distract attention from her eight year record of standing with Mayor Bloomberg and Ray Kelly.” Outside de Blasio told me: “People are looking for consistency, and people all over the city want the stop and frisk era to end. And I have proposed I think the only way to really fundamentally change the situation -a new police commissioner, strong implementation of the racial profiling ban, and an independent inspector general.”

    Bill Thompson also visited churches Sunday. “I am confident that in the end that black voters are going to support my candidacy and do that strongly — not based on the fact that I’m black – but based on the fact that I’ve been there on the issues — issues of employment, issues of job creation, issues of safety, issues of education.”* . backs Thompson & Lhota, refers to "Quinn's extreme liberalism" & says De Blasio is "hopelessly liberal"

    What Will Rev Al Do?
    Rev. Al Sharpton says he's torn between two Bills for mayor: Thompson and de Blasio(NYDN)







    Sir David Frost dies: Revered journalist and broadcaster suffers heart attack aged 74(independent.co.uk/)  Sir David is thought to have died from a suspected heart attack while aboard the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship on Saturday night * David Frost, Known for Nixon Interview, Dead at 74(NYT)





    Aggressive Anti-Charles Hynes Mail Hits the Streets(NYO)
    RT : will not be defending his record - refuses to debate on Up Close. I'll be on at 11AM





Wall Street Insider Wimp Out In Efforts to Get Spitzer

They don’t want their names to be disclosed. They’re afraid of retribution from Eliot. I’m sure he would retaliate.”
‘Steamroller’ Spitz cows $kittish Stringer backers (NYP) Terrified of “Steamroller” Eliot Spitzer, heavy hitters on Wall Street have abandoned their ambitious plan to inject millions of dollars into the race for city comptroller to help elect Scott Stringer, The Post has learned.  One group formed by the financial titans, Forward NY, has spent only a paltry $2,000 in “independent expenditures.” Forward NY was supposed to raise huge sums — up to $150,000 per individual — from corporate executives who abhor Spitzer for targeting them and their industry when he was state attorney general.  A union-backed anti-Spitzer group, Progress NYC, has fared better. The group raised $450,000 and spent about $300,000 on mass mailings and campaign ads promoting Stringer and attacking Spitzer. Progress NYC is backed by the Hotel Trades Council, the United Federation of Teachers and Health Care Workers/Local 1199 East. *

The Spitzer Family Real Estate Empire
How  the  Campaign Commercials Were Paid For?
Spitzer family’s prime real estate holding prime the pump for controller race(NYDN)

For much of his life, Eliot Spitzer had shown little interest in his father’s portfolio of trophy real estate holdings in New York and Washington, but it only takes a few well-placed properties to amass a family fortune large enough to finance a political race.* Spitzer: “I like to think life can be bifurcated."
: Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer discusses his bid for city comptroller: * “We focused on upper-income parcels ... anybody could build affordable housing. That’s not what we did.” * Controller candidate Scott Stringer voted to let a pro-pedophilia group keep its tax break(NYDN)
The 's editorial page is also backing :  
  1. 2m
    Despite 98 scandal, Spitzer won't say how he's funding race. "It's my own money. I'm using my own money."



The Few Who Elect the Mayor for All(NYT)
1/6 of the city’s electorate and 1/10 of its population could in effect be choosing our next mayor."
As conventional wisdom has it, New Yorkers are seeking a striking change in tone in the coming mayoral election, one that makes the selection of a Democratic mayor seem almost inevitable and the party’s primary process likely to represent the conclusion of the story rather than the plot-escalating middle. As we’ve also been made to understand, a relatively small number of voters will determine the outcome of the primary race. 


The Small the Vote the More Corrupt Party Leader, $$$  and Special Interests Win
The City's Falling Turnout The City's election results from a half-century ago look like misprints. 3.46 million out of the City's 3.53 million registered voters, a staggering 98%, cast ballots in the 1952 Presidential election. One year later, 93% of registered New Yorkers voted in the Mayoral election. Today, the bottom has fallen out for the City's electorate. Only 27% of the City's registered voters cast their ballots in the last mayoral election in 2005. 39% of registered voters took part in the Mayoral election of 1997. Voter turnout was less than 20% for City Council elections in 1999. NY's Falling Voter Participation New York's Sinking Vote 1. 337,110 more New Yorkers voted in 2004 than 2008. 2. New York Ranked 42 of 50 in Voting Age Turnout 50.7% 2008.

Vote the Rascals In Mailer Breslin, No More Bullshit

When City Elections Were Fun(NYT)

When Vision Was King 
The 51st State
When Norman Mailer ran for mayor, the race was fueled by the outsize talent that powered New York itself. IN 1969, in the midst of devastating strikes, rising racial conflict, sinking finances, terrifying crime rates and an expanding, dysfunctional city bureaucracy, the pugilistic writer Norman Mailer made a quixotic bid for mayor of New York.

Today Galvanizing visions? Hey, maybe there’s an app for that
The columnist Jimmy Breslin campaigned alongside him for City Council president. Far from being a gimmick, the pair electrified the electorate with bold plans and even bolder political theatrics. “People,” Mailer said, explaining his plan to harmonize the city’s neighborhoods into self-ruling municipalities, “are healthier if they live out their prejudices rather than suppressing them in uniformity.” Imagine any of the current candidates talking like that. Gloria Steinem, one of the organizers of Mailer’s campaign, wrote at the time, “The possibility of inserting any ideas at all into the primary seems better than leaving it to the professionals.”Mailer wanted to put free bicycles in city parks and to ban cars from Manhattan. He proposed subsidized day care, giving methadone to addicts, requiring the police to live in the neighborhoods they served and converting dilapidated waterfronts to affordable housing.


Now candidates drone on, carefully recalibrating their positions until they all seem to be speaking in a single voice
Back then, the race for mayor was fueled by the outsize talent that powered New York itself. In contrast, in the current campaign season we have the spectacle of figures whose substance consists of embarrassing character defects, fiery (yawn) rhetoric and patient waiting for a rival’s implosion. The Air and  the Candidates Stink Today “Fresh air and ideas are floating into New York nooks and crannies where they’ve rarely been before,” wrote Ms. Gloria Steinem, appraising the effects of Mailer’s campaign.

Bloomberg's Help Wall StreetTake Over of NYC and Kill the City of Neighborhoods With Luxury Housing and  High Rents
New York used to produce mayoral candidates like Mailer, figures who exemplified the city’s vaunting dimensions. There was James J. Walker, the glamorous delinquent of Prohibition. Fiorello H. La Guardia, the funny-papers Machiavelli. John V. Lindsay, the bleeding-heart patrician. Edward I. Koch, the Coney Island tout. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the law-and-order hood. Even the unassuming Abraham D. Beame could quip, in 1965, that William F. Buckley Jr., a rival candidate, was “the clown prince of politics.”But then Michael R. Bloomberg slipped into office, in the numb wake of 9/11, with all the spirit of a hostile takeover. Technocratic micromanagement and passive-aggressive triangulation became the norm. Their timid uniformity reflects the city’s general atmosphere. In Mr. Bloomberg’s hyper-rational New York — control the citizenry and let the bankers run free — standing out has about the same status as cigarette smoke.

WNBC which has made million on TV ads political candidates Will Not Air the Full 90 Mayoral Debate Tuesday Night

WNBC only airing two-thirds of climactic Democratic mayoral debate on Tuesday? Quinn, Thompson, Liu, Weiner demand fix // via
The 8PM Hour on WNBC Will Be Taken by Hollywood Game Night THE STARS BRING THEIR A-GAME TO FINAL NIGHT OF COMPETITION – Two contestants will lead their respective teams of three celebrities, which include Tom Arnold, Terry Crews, Emilie de Ravin, Jerry Ferarra, David Giuntoli and Hoda Kotb, and in a series of unique party games in hopes of winning the $25,000 grand prize. The games will bring out the best, funniest and most competitive sides of some of Hollywood’s most beloved stars in this hilarious no-holds-bar competition hosted by Jane Lynch.
 Four mayoral campaigns pen open letter to news channel WNBC4 demanding that it air upcoming debate in full  (NYDN) Campaign managers for Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Anthony Weiner and John Liu signed the letter to WNBC4, which is scheduled to only air one hour of the 90-minute debate. Bill de Blasio notably did not co-sign the letter.

 
NYT Pick Up A 2009 Story On Thompson Pension Pay to Play
As Pension Chief, Thompson Gave Work to Donors(NYT) Interviews and an examination of campaign finance reports and other documents suggest frequent overlap between William C. Thompson Jr.’s political ambitions and the comptroller’s operation.  At the same time that Thompson is hitting de Blasio on meeting with lobbyists the NYT publishes a story that lists the former comptroller meetings with pension lobbyist, consultants some of who are crooks.
Bill Thompson Has His Own Pension Pals(Tom Robbins, Village Voice 2009)

The Wolf at Thompson's Door(True News, 2009)

True News: Wolf at Thompson Door, Part II . Avella Opens A Cut(2009)

Thompson, Quinn attack front-runner de Blasio over lobbyists(NYP)
The UFT has spent nearly $2 million in independent expenditures to get Bill Thompson into City Hall.* Harlem's Rev. Butts Hints at Running for Congress, Endorses Thompson (WSJ) * Leading black minister Rev. Calvin Butts' gets behind Bill Thompson fo...(NYDN) * Thompson has also been criticized for not auditing CityTime, the city's payroll project that ballooned from $73 million to $700 million. Yesterday, his campaign launched a website attacking de Blasio called "Bill de Bliar." *Pay To Play? Bill Thompson Invested City Money In His Donors' Funds(Gothamist)
 

Thompson Has Paid Lobbyist Sheinkropf $80,000 So Far As His Campaign Manager,  While He Attacks de Blasio for  Meeting with Lobbyists
Thompson, Quinn attack front-runner de Blasio over lobbyists(NYP)
How Sheinkropf Controls Government and the Press by Deceit
"Sheinkopf copped a memo, (Barrett, Village Voice, 2010) too, obtaining it from an aide to the top Senate staffer, Angelo Aponte, who Sheinkopf personally installed in the key spot. He had the power to do that because the skillful Sheinkopf doubles as a lobbyist and as a political consultant, and had advised Senate Democrats in the elections that led to the 2008 majority, helping to make Malcolm Smith majority leader. Sheinkopf collected $356,741 in consulting fees from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee at the same time that he was representing AEG and its precursor with Senate Democrats. Having worked for Bill Thompson and Mike Bloomberg most recently, Sheinkopf makes kings so he can then make deals with the kings he’s made."  
A King's Pension Deal For Sheinkopf Partner
While Sheinkopf Worked for Thompson His Partner Norman Levy Did Well With the Pension Funds  "Norman Levy “received a half-million dollars” in 2006 payments from Bill Howell, a major pension fund placement agent, and “appeared sometimes to be Howell’s partner” in controversial deals with the fund, according to a source familiar with the transactions. Investigators concluded that they were splitting fees, and not disclosing it. The payments to Levy - whose conviction for running a parking-ticket-fixing-scam decades ago was also overturned on appeal - were allegedly tied to his introduction of Howell to a principal of Global Strategies, a consulting firm whose client, Intermedia, was seeking millions in city and state pension fund investments. Howell made the placements and shared the fees with Levy, who appeared to be listed as an employee of one Howell entity. Sheinkopf received payments from Levy shortly after Levy was paid by Howell." (Voice)

To the Media Morality and Honesty Gets In the Way Of the Spin
NY1 Reporter Grace Rauh listed corrupt lobbyist Hank Sheinkopf as one of the 50 relatives, pals, colleagues and clients who wrote character letters on his Lipsky's defense successful to avoid a long prison sentence The NY1 reporter failed to mention the absurdity of a Sheinkropf send a letter of character to a judge.  Rauh should have told her views that Sheinkropf took the 5th 56 times when the NYS questioned him about the AEG bidding process.  Sheinkopf took the 5th when asked questions by the NY former state Inspector General Joseph Fisch about the AEG scandal which is still being investigated by the feds as part of the AEG investigation.  The Feds are also investigating a Board Of Election (the cesspool of political corruption) contract for new machines that Sheinkopf was a lobbyist for. Feds investigate switch by Board of Elections ... - New York Post  
  1. 5m
    Carolyn Ryan at doing her part to knock into third place, to help
    2. 9m
      Steve Rattner paid to play NY Pensions, paid to not go to jail, paid to not plead guilty gets oped pieces NYT explain to kids
What Happen to the Pension Reforms Announced in 2011 and Killed When Lui Investigation Became Public?
In 2011 the mayor and the comptroller, backed by the leadership of several unions representing city workers, said they would seek to merge the pension plans’ five boards, which have 58 directors, into one far smaller board that would oversee the plans’ combined $120 billion in investments.The consolidated investment strategy could save the city at least $1 billion a year.  When cities or states replaced old-fashioned, inefficient, often politicized pension management plans with ones that call for independent, professional managers who oversee large plans, that generally improves their investment returns by 1 percent to 2 percent a year. With $120 billion in the city’s pension funds, such an increase could mean an additional $1.2 billion to $2.4 billion. NYC Pension Chief Seeks $500,000 Managers to Cut Out Wall Street New York City will pay $8 billion this year toward retirement benefits, a cost that has risen more than fivefold since 2002.  While the papers write about Spitzer whores not one clear question or editorial has been written about how the pension funds can save money.


Contributions with Fries And Then On to the Fast Food Protests Over Pay
Hopefuls Quinn and Wiener, who stood with fast-food workers, got cash from local fast-food big(NYDN)
A day before a rally in support of higher wages for fast-food workers, Christine Quinn accepted $14,850 from eatery impresario Dennis Riese and his wife, Randi Riese, according to city campaign finance records. Weiner’s got $4,950 from Riese back in 2007.* Mayoral Candidates Sling Criticism Over Campaign Cash, Contributions






De Blasio Campaigns Less as Quinn Steps Up Her Pace(NYT)
Bill de Blasio, who averaged from 35 to 40 public events per week since mid-July, has made only 9 appearances since Monday, while Christine C. Quinn made 41. What is he, chopped liver? Bill de Blasio's Atlantic Yards problem(Atlantic Yards Report) * Bill de Blasio, development pragmatist(Capital) * “: Tale of Two deBlasios: 'There is no difference between him and the mayor on development schemes' "
De Blasio Sees Surge in Fund-Raising(NYT)
In the last three weeks, the mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio collected more than $279,000 from 1,838 donors, tripling what he received in the previous three-week period.
* Advocate’s Post Gave de Blasio Platform for Political Ambitions (NYT)
Always thought BDBs vague opposition to outer boro taxis seemed at odds w brand. Interesting to see it bubble back up(NYT)

[image]For Ex-Frontrunner, Doubts Close In(WSJ)
Recent polls showed Christine Quinn trailing Public Advocate Bill de Blasio—in one survey by 15 percentage points—and competing neck-and-neck with Bill Thompson, a former comptroller, for second place.* Quinn Vows 'More People to the Table'(WSJ) *  .: needs to dramatically distance herself, from MRB & . * Quinn sits down with to discuss what's next for her campaign.



Quinn, in Times Square, Offers Plan for Veterans(NYT)
Christine C. Quinn said she would create a “welcome home” center that would offer services for veterans, as well as satellite support centers in each borough.* anti sign on Bway & 109 St.


Endorses For the New York City Council

Manhattan
Corey Johnson District 3
Over Yetta Kurland, Johnson helped tenants faced with eviction, been involved in bringing public schools to the neighborhood and fought to scale back growth in commercial developments that threatened to overwhelm the area


Ben Kallos District 5
Over Assemblyman Micah Kellner facing sexual harassment charges. allos has government experience as a legislative aide in Albany, where he worked to begin putting voting records online. He has impressive proposals to help students who attend the City University of New York by forgiving college loans to those who work and stay in the city, and to require developers to build more affordable apartments to get tax abatements. He wants to expand broadband service and revisit congestion pricing.



Mel Wymore District 6
Over Helen Rosenthal, a former official in the city budget office; Marc Landis, a lawyer and Democratic Party leader; the education activist Noah Gotbaum; Debra Cooper, an advocate for women’s issues; and Ken Biberaj, a businessman  Mel Wymore, who in recent years has headed the local community board and the West Side Y. Mr. Wymore, a systems engineer and entrepreneur, was instrumental in persuading a developer to build a large school as part of a housing project, and he helped develop new zoning regulations that limited the ground-floor width of stores to help small shops survive. 




Brooklyn
Antonio Reynoso 34 
Over disgraced former Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who resigned from the Assembly after he was accused of harassing women on his staff. The son of Dominican immigrants, who has the credentials, enthusiasm and independence needed in City Hall. He is a former community organizer who has also helped unionize child-care providers, and he has been the chief of staff to City Councilwoman Diana Reyna, so he knows how the Council operates. * Ever shameless(NYDN Ed)  It's time for Brooklyn voters to put an end to Vito Lopez' political career
Ede Fox  District 35
 Of the three women who are the top candidates for this seat, Ede Fox, formerly a top aide to two Council members, is the strongest. Her knowledge of the Council and her command of complicated issues involving development and education put her above Laurie Cumbo, an impressive cultural leader who developed the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, and Olanike Alabi, a well-known advocate for housing and other issues in the area. In 35th District, Jobs for New York spending provokes "No 2 Cumbo"; video shows candidate saying "blow the whistle" on PAC spending (though she didn't until pushed)

Carlos Menchaca 38 
Over incumbent, Sara González. Carlos Menchaca, a 32-year-old Mexican-American who has worked in city government over the last decade. Ms. Gonzalez has had a spotty attendance record and very few legislative successes in her 11 years on the job. Mr. Menchaca, who grew up in public housing in Texas, promises to work for better public housing in his district and to improve schools, especially after-school programs. When Hurricane Sandy flooded much of this district, Mr. Menchaca energetically organized volunteers.


Cats
DIE, KITTIES, DIE! Joe Lhota, ex-MTA chief, says he would let the trains keep rolling instead of causing delay to rescue kittens from getting electrified by third rail(NYDN)
. endorses Joe Lhota for mayor!!!

John Catsimatidis @JCats2013
"Lhota would have let kittens get run over" @JoeLhota wants to run over kittens...Cats will get revenge on 9/10 bit.ly/16XjJnh @peta
New York Needs A Mayor With The Resolve To Let The Subway Kittens Die(Business Insider)*Nine lives left, Joe: 'Lhota’ grinch says trains shouldn't have been stopped for kitties(NYP)
Trains vs. Kitties? The Candidates Answer(NYT) * 10 days RT New Catsimatidis Mailer Accuses Lhota of 'Bullying and Embarrassing' A Holocaust Survivor
Another endorsement for . Lhota the choice of 5 Towns Jewish Times  
  1. 34m
    Remember Bloomy? Bad bad month w/ low test scores 12 yrs later, stop-frisk unconst, next mayor a Bill. NYT says legacy 'WSt mayor'.3d term!!

The latest installment of where NYC mayoral candidates stand on The Big Issues: CITY SPENDING: 
Candidates for Mayor Update Fundraising Figures(WSJ)

How NYC Mayoral candidates feel about the Bronx: has visited 96 times-- + + + = 124


Hynes Is Attacked by Rival on Felony Conviction Rate(NYT)
Kenneth P. Thompson, who is running against the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, has seized on a statistic that has barely improved since Mr. Hynes took office.
Charles "Joe" Hynes Rolling Trio Of TV Spots In Fight To Stay District Attorney | NY Daily News



Secret Business PAC That  Help Cuomo Folds
Committee To Save New York Closing Up Shop(NYDN) The controversial business-backed group that quietly raised $17 million to advance Gov. Cuomo's agenda during his first two years in office is declaring its mission's accomplished and is closing up shop.  CSNY has drawn plenty of criticism since its inception, both for the secrecy surrounding its creation and subsequently for what critics called a serious lack of definition of its ties to Cuomo.
 Last summer, CSNY drew fire again when it emerged that gambling interests chipped in $2 milllion shortly before before Cuomo came out in favor of a state constitutional amendment legalizing Vegas-style casinos in New York.*Business Leaders’ Committee That Backed Cuomo Finishes Its Business and Shuts Down(NYT)
Pro-Governor Donor Group Disbanding(WSJ)
  1. 5m
    Complete puff piece by NYT. The committee shut down for 1 reason: they would hve had to now disclose donors.


From the Bronx to Queens, Deals Defined Quinn's Council Leadership(Barrett, WNYC)




 __________________________________________________________________________________
Polling


The Polls are Crack for the Media and Candidates, Not Much Demand  for Accuracy By the Press
Get Ready For Surprises on Primary Day
Voter Turnout is Expected to be Very Low.  The public is not impressed with any of these candidates.  It is impossible to do voting samples when nobody knows who will vote or where it  will come from.  This morning on NBC Chuck Todd said he would not be shock that if the poll were off by double digits.
A New York Times/Siena College poll finds that 32 percent of likely Democratic voters support Bill de Blasio in the mayoral race, compared with 18 percent for Bill Thompson and 17 percent for Christine Quinn. In that same poll, Eliot Spitzer leads Scott Stringer 50 percent to 35 percent in the race for comptroller, The New York Times reports. Leading Democrats, de Blasio Has Broad Support as Primary Nears http://nyti.ms/1dVKnAGNYT/Siena poll of likely D voters: Term limits bad (68-27) Stop & frisk excessive (59-36) Bloomberg meh (47-48) http://nyti.ms/194tEHu  * New @nytimes poll shows @Quinn4NY in third place and unfavorable higher than favorable rating #trouble http://nyti.ms/1dvJXDs Last NYT poll obsv: 60 percent of union members say their union's endorsement matters "not much" or "not at all."* Latest Poll Conflicts With Others and Shows Spitzer Still Ahead(NYO) * John Catsimatidis Suggests Newspaper Rigged Its Poll(NYO)

 __________________________________________________________________________________
Comptroller Polls


One Poll Shows Steamroller Down 19 Points Another Shows Him Way Ahead

Eliot losing steam(NYP ED)Stringer and Spitzer Seek Votes of Women (NYT)Both Spitzer and Stringer made efforts to reach out to women on Thursday, with Stringer holding an event with his female supporters and Spitzer launching an ad touting his advocacy for women’s issues
Great Scott has Spitz all tied up(NYP)
New Polls Show Slip in Support for Spitzer(WSJ)
Spitzer’s $ scam (NYDN Ed)
He'd always been a vocal proponent of the campaign-finance system, until it stood in his way.
AM New York encourages New York City voters to vote for Stringer in the comptroller’s race, citing his “practical” view of the job and his talent for “working well with others”:
Poll: Eliot Spitzer way ahead of Scott Stringer - James Arkin -


Waiting for the Rev
What Will Rev Sharpton Do in the Comptroller Race Where Each Candidates Has Strong Black Support.  A Sharpton Endorsement for Stringer would give him the race by cutting into to Spitzer lead in the black community. And the Rev still has not pick a mayoral candidates. * Al Sharpton says he’s "pretty much" deciding between endorsing and for NYC mayor.


Spitzer Almost Buys Liu for His Flushing Mailings
New York pols Eliot Spitzer, John Liu abandon short-lived collaboration

Each candidate had something the other needed. The deep-pocketed Spitzer would have helped Liu get his message out after the denial of public funds due to fundraising irregularities. And Spitzer wanted to tap into Liu’s popularity among Asian-Americans. This is strange: After condemning ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer‘s comptroller candidacy as “a huge affront to women,” current Comptroller John Liu was in talks with him to campaign together. Liu supporter Norman Seabrook, who reportedly helped broker the arrangement, said talks broke down when Mr. Spitzer only wanted to send out joint mailings to Asian American voters. “My response to that is, ‘No fucking way,’” Mr. Seabrook explained. * New York City Comptroller John Liu’s mayoral campaign, which was denied matching funds, may get help in the form of an independent expenditure from AFSCME, a public sector labor group, Crain’s Insider writes:

 __________________________________________________________________________________
Quinn


Skip First Day of School Will Not Help Quinn Find the Women's Vote
Quinn campaign tells students: skip school to work for us(NYP)
Christine Quinn’s mayoral campaign is encouraging her interns to skip the first days of school so they’ll be available for the critical get-out-the-vote drive before the Democratic primary. Quinn’s campaign sent an email blast to its high school and college-age interns, encouraging them to skip their first days of school in order to help with a get-out-the-vote drive before the Democratic primary *  For Quinn, bleaker data: nearly half of likely Democratic voters have an unfavorable opinion of her:  * Christine Quinn Admits She's In A Tough Fight, But Says She'll Make The | New York Daily News * Quinn’s Collapse(Washington Monthly)

  1. 2m
    Most surprised at CQ's low polls aftr NYT-DN. Is her embrace of Bloomy-term limits a ball-chain like Ford's pardon of Nixon? No escape?1/3

 __________________________________________________________________________________
Thompson


Thompson, the only black candidate in the race, finds himself in an unexpected fight for the African-American vote 
Thompson is enlisting the support of several prominent African-American leaders across the country to assist in his mayoral campaign, including South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, and Georgia Rep. John Lewis
Black heavy-hitters for Bill Thompson(NYP) South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn — who was an ally of Martin Luther King Jr. — will stump across the city with Thompson the weekend before the Sept. 10 primary, sources said. he star-studded cast may even include Georgia Rep. and civil-rights icon John Lewis, the last surviving speaker from the March on Washington who worked alongside King.* Hoping to shore up support with black voters, to announce endorsement of Rev. Calvin Butts. Details:  
Update * 2h
. No one has asked me to endorse anyone in the NYC Mayor’s race and I have no plans to campaign for anyone
 The website has a disclosure now: PAID FOR AND AUTHORIZED BY BILL THOMPSON FOR MAYOR.
‘The City Needs the Right African-American’: Rev. Butts Endorses Thompson This Time(NYO)

 __________________________________________________________________________________
de Blasio



What Does de Blasio Really Believe (Newsweek)
'FROS AND CONS: Top dog Bill de Blasio catching flak from critics for trying to cash in on son's iconic hair and nab mayoral title(NYDN)
The Post’s Bob McManus attributes de Blasio’s sharp rise in the polls to harping on themes of “class warfare” and pushing other hot buttons, such as race, “like he was playing a video game” *  The Daily Beast profiled Public Advocate Bill de Blasio‘s front-running mayoral bid. “Bill de Blasio is much closer to Machiavelli than to Marx. He is not a left-wing crusader or ideologue,” says one unaligned Democratic operative in the piece. “He lives for the game.”* Bill de Blassio's strategy - class warfare and race baiting (NYP) * Thompson Calls Out ‘Bill 
de Bliar’(NYO) * Trailside: De Blasio Sees Surge in Fund-Raising: In the last three weeks, the mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio... * A Day On The Campaign Trail With Bill De Blasio (NY1)


In a  city where  11 hospitals have been closed the mayoral candidates pander to cats
Tellingly clever (and plodding) answers to question of whether mayoral candidates would save subway cats:









Scottish castles now cheaper than NYC apartments. Implications for mayor's race unclear:


Weiner Alone More Now These Days
For Weiner These Days, Crowds Aren’t Easy to Find(NYT)
 
Showing a Lhota love for late Lab Joe Lhota is now without one of his most faithful supporters — his dog, Harmony.  The GOP mayoral candidate’s 15-year-old black Lab had to be put down Monday. “Losing Harmony was really hard



Since Jefferson Attacked Adams  Negative Campaigns Work
Let’s go negative! (NYP) Attack ads serve voters
Ever since Thomas Jefferson financed a newspaperman who trashed John Adams during the 1800 presidential campaign as a “hideous hermaphroditical character” bent on crowning himself king, even our most genteel statesmen have gone negative when they thought they had to.
Vito Lopez Send Out His Own Negative Ads
Vito Lopez Hits ‘Opponents’ in New Mailer(NYO)

State Sen. Eric Adams went to bat for second criminal: source (NYDN)
One day after report that he helped government aide after domestic violence case, new allegations that Adams helped sex criminal after he got out of jail.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ felony conviction rate has not improved significantly during his long tenure in office and lags three other boroughs, a statistic a rival has attacked, The New York Times writes:

 __________________________________________________________________________________
IE PACS


The Key to City Hall Has Always Been for Sale For Sale. The PACS Have Up the Price
When Money Shouts(NYT Ed)

Outside political action groups are spending heavily in New York City races without much notice.A tsunami of outside political money is cresting and crashing on the New York City primary election. The debris is all around: glossy leaflets, harsh TV ads, robocalls and pseudo-grass-roots events like the rally Wednesday in Greenwich Village denouncing the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, who is running for mayor. The event was sponsored by a group called NYC Is Not for Sale, a creation of one union boss and two wealthy business executives, who have channeled their antipathy — and about $1.4 million — into an all-negative campaign for the notional candidate they call Anybody but Quinn. Jobs for New York was set up by the Real Estate Board of New York, which includes the city’s biggest developers. It has raised almost $6.3 million, spent $1.35 million and pledged to spend $10 million, all in the service of building a more business-friendly City Council. 

Big Money Has Given Special Interests  Mover Control Over the City Council and Nobody Notices
Jobs for New York has placed its thumb heavily on the scale in some districts. It has matched, doubled, even quadrupled the amounts that candidates themselves have raised and spent. In the 38th District, in Brooklyn, it has spent about $167,000 to support Sara González, nearly matching the entire spending limit — $168,000 — imposed on candidates who participate in New York’s campaign finance system. 



Good Government Plan Late in the Game and Not Going to Happen, But It Got Them A Headline
The good-government group Common Cause is also on the case. It has urged candidates to follow the example of the 2012 United States Senate race in Massachusetts, where both candidates signed an innovative “People’s Pledge” to discourage outside spending — and succeeded.


he Mayoral Candidates on the Parks, via


Gov. Andrew Cuomo made assurances that the special anti-corruption investigative panel that he convened has the power to investigate anybody they want, including him, in order to restore the public’s faith in government, the Daily News writes: Gov. Cuomo's anti-corruption panel can even investigate him(NYDN) * Assemblyman James Brennan wrote a letter to Empire State Development Corporation President Kenneth Adams urging the Cuomo administration to give up its luxury suite at Ralph Wilson Stadium, where the Buffalo Bills play, the Times Union writes: http://bit.ly/18pyrRS


 Bronx Soccer Stadium?
Major League Soccer Eyes Bronx(WSJ)
A new Major League Soccer team, in its search for a site of a grand new stadium in New York City, is looking at developing the site of a financially struggling parking garage built for New York Yankees games.



  • Bloomberg Adds Chopper to the Fleet(WSJ)
    Mayor Michael Bloomberg, known for his love of flying and his penchant for privacy, has a new state-of-the-art chopper at his disposal, according to federal records.




The Kings of the NY Media Have No Clothes, de Blasio Unleashes New York Anger At the Rich

Latest Poll: NYC Media Disconnected With the Public

NY Media's Deviant Elite Subculture
The once powerful NY Newspapers has become a subculture that the public no longer believes.  The editorial boards and newsrooms are in shock that their over the top endorsements of stringer and Quinn are being rejected by the voters of New York. A media revolution is going on in New York.  And its Tea Party moment (we are talking about the Boston Tea Party of 1773) was de Blasio standing up to those trying to close two Brooklyn hospitals. Not one newspaper editorial has backed Bill in his efforts to keep the hospitals open.  In fact the NYT in their endorsement of Quinn said that de Blasio efforts were hopeless. New Yorkers are tired of the Bull Shit words coming out of the newspaper and candidates. They know they are being priced out of the city and those that they elected don't care.
.
.

The de Blasio Revolution: New Yorkers Have Reject the Media- Class Warfare
When de Blasio campaign  went to court to keep the hospitals open the voters saw action not words. Every candidate this year has said they were going to say the middle class.  That issue must be pollng high.  There  are other reasons that voters are turning to de Dlasio, his son TV ads, but the main factor is that New Yorkers are mad what has been done to their city.  They think their pols have turned against them. Taking cash from developers who luxury building are pushing them out of the city.  By standing in front of Long Island College  Hospital  in Brooklyn Heights with a court order to keep the hospital from closing and being given to developers they saw someone who would protect their interests. Well NYT with 46% of NYers living in or near poverty and where apartments sell for $3 million or rent for $3000 a month in Brooklyn how long did the NYT think the public would go without rebelling?

 __________________________________________________________________________________
New Comptroller Poll

Comptroller Dead Heat

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The entire political and media world has jumped on Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's bandwagon, helping him poll-vault from 19 points down to dead even in just two weeks." – Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll on the latest New York City comptroller poll

Polls: Comptroller’s Race Now a Dead Heat(NYO)

Eliot Spitzer’s Huge Lead in the Polls Has Vanished; His 19-point lead from 2 weeks ago is down to ... zero.(NY Mag)
New poll has Stringer and Spitzer in dead heat in race for Comptroller(NYP) * SHOCK POLL: Scott Stringer erases Eliot Spitzer's lead in NYC Controller race; tied at 46%(NYDN)
Scott Stringer Credits ‘Disciplined’ Strategy for Poll Gains(NYO)
A Democratic operative from the Bronx is featured on a Spitzer mailer. 

"Stringer beating Spitzer 2-to-1 among white voters, according to an -News 12 poll" via
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is tied with Eliot Spitzer in the latest Quinnipiac poll on the city comptroller race, with both at 46 percent, reversing a 19-point gap, the Daily News writes: http://nydn.us/142KGI8  The much hyped anti-Spitzer super PAC ForwardNY, billed as a coalition of business and women’s groups, reported raising only $1,200 and was criticized by a source as a “scam to get press,” Crain’s Insider reports: http://bit.ly/12PObyH  * Got College then you're For Stringer if Not you're For Spitzer New poll shows dead heat for comptroller
John Liu bashed Spitzer's political comeback -- but posed for pix with him for possible joint mailing
Scott Stringer V. Eliot Spitzer: Yeah, It's War(NYDN

 __________________________________________________________________________________
Who On First?


Nobody Knows Who is Running for PA
Nobody Knows Who’s Running for Public Advocate(NYO)
nly 20 percent of likely Democratic primary voters were able to correctly name a single candidate running to be the city’s next public advocate, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.
* Public Advocate Redux(YNN)The new Quinnipiac Poll finds that 72% of likely Democratic voters can’t name a single candidate in the race for Public Advocate.

Bigger Tax Increase for the Rich, The 1%
Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio said he would seek a slightly larger tax increase on wealthy New Yorkers than he originally indicated, raising questions as to how he would win approval for his plan from state lawmakers, The New York Times reports: 


The Daily News Harry Siegel Reads True News
    1. 14m
      If de Blasio & Spitzer numbers hold, it'll be a striking rebuke of editorial boards (including mine).


De Blasio 15% Lead and Today's Mayoral News
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is starting to learn what being a mayoral front-runner is like. From stories on undisclosed meetings with lobbyists to a city planning representative agreeing an “odd” amount of the time with the Bloomberg administration to an in-depth New York Times look into the challenges faced by his pre-K plan–including that his math was 0.1 percent off in the revenues needed to fund it–the heat has been turned on.* Opponents Batter Bill de Blasio With Lobbyist-Related Criticisms(NYO)
* BDB "raked in the 2nd largest amount of $ from real estate donors, just behind Ms. Quinn" v Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who faces criticism over a proposed tax to fund pre-kindergarten, attacked Council Speaker Christine Quinn for thinking “too small” in dealing with big problems, Politicker writes: http://bit.ly/15Bn8Iz * Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson vowed to get rid of school trailers “on day one” if he is elected, saying they are in “despicable condition” and are “mold-ridden,” the Daily News reports: http://nydn.us/1duZao0 *Defending De Blasio’s Tax-The-Rich Plan (Updated)(YNN)

 __________________________________________________________________________________
True News Thursday PM Update

New Poll Quinn in 3rd
Christine Quinn slips to third in mayor's race, amny-News 12 poll finds via
 

Moreland Commission
MT "deserves the most scrutiny from the spec.commission investigating corruption is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver." 

Calls Look for Ways to Attack de Blasio
Attacking the MT ": Just got called w/ poll testing 9 different attacks on "
* De Blasio Pushes Back Against Opponents' Doubts Over Pre-K Plan (NY1)

 Assemblyman Pleas Not Guilty
Assemblyman Eric Stevenson pleads not guilty to new corruption charge(NYDN)

Stevenson is already accused of taking $22,000 in bribes to help developers of adult daycare centers, and now he faces yet another corruption charge.


Joe Lhota Poll
RT: JoeLhota4Mayor: / poll: Joe winning 2-1. Voters responding to Joe's vision for NY  

Thompson School No Trailers
Thompson Pledges To Remove Hundreds Of Trailers Serving As City Classrooms (NY1)


_______________________________

Quinn Feeds the Lopez Machine


Quinn Lopez and the Brooklyn Machine
Tangled Dealings Link Quinn, Lopez and His Brooklyn Machine(Barrett, WNYC)
City Council cuts funding to Vito Lopez Brooklyn nonprofit - NYPOST ...





One Year Ago True News Wrote  Quinn Who Still Funds Grope Vito Lopez Machine Says She Has Nothing to Do WithVito's District

Vito Lopez backgrounder needs: state contracts with Lopez-connected Ridgewood-Bushwick Council  The Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council got $873,589,
In 1993 the NYT wrote an article about Vito Lopez's New Age Political Machine. Lopez has been using his government funded political machine to get himself and a lot of other politicians elected through the years since.  Lopez's machine the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council is what he is counting on to get himself elected this year to the city council. Lopez's machine employees almost 2000 people in his council district.  Those 2000 people service thousands of other voters in Lopez's council district, especially seniors who vote. Ridgewood Bushwick has also built with Lopez's political help thousands of low costs apartments for residents in the city council district Lopez is running in. Lopez using his political skills and genius has included powerful pols and even Wall Street Tax Shelters guys in his housing programs not only in Bushiwick but throughout the city and state because of his control of all the housing in Albany and City Hall.

Candidates Buying the Jewish Vote With School Aide

Candidates embrace cause of religious schools(NY World)
Seeking Orthodox Jewish support, mayoral contenders promise aid




Jobs For New York is Not the Only Business PAC Helping Council Candidates

Small Business PAC Targets More Tight Races(NYO)


: easily beats in a run-off; also leading Runoff: deBlasio beats both handily, but stronger VS 59-30; than Thompson 52-36. also loose to Thompson 57-33 RT
de Blasio gets 43% of men, 30% of women. Quinn: 18% of men, 25% of women. Meaning: BdB outperforms Quinn among women. 's Mickey Carroll credits 's rise to being the "most liberal" candidate in the field.  Who would you not vote for under any circumstances? 47% say Weiner. 29% say Quinn. Only 6% say Thompson or de Blasio. Q poll asks if people want a new direction from Bloomy or to stay same - 65 percent say new direx, 25 percent say stay same. * . endorses ! Cue the air horn!

 __________________________________________________________________________________
Thompson Plan

Team Thompson Reach to de Blasio Polls By Saying They Will Pull the Black Vote Out 
Aides for Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson say they are focusing on turning out voters in 19 minority-heavy Assembly districts, and supplementing that with a canvassing operation aimed at black and Latino voters, the Journal writes:



.

Interactive Feature: Where the Mayoral Candidates Stand on Key Issues(NYT)


All the King's Men And All The Kings Horses Couldn't Put Humpty Dumpty Quinn Together Again

De Blasio surges to 15-point lead in latest mayoral poll(NYP)

Quinn Biggest Hedge Fund Collector
Democratic mayoral candidate Christine Quinn has received $170,336 in campaign donations from the hedge fund industry, more than twice the amount of the next closest recipient in the mayoral race, Republican Joe Lhota. N.Y. Mayoral Race, Small Checks From Hedge Fund Giants (NYT) * "Mr. McDonald admitted he once had a longtime crush on...Christine Quinn, a married lesbian."

Anti Quinn PAC Breaking Election Law
The anti-Quinn group New York City Not For Sale has shifted around hundreds-of-thousands of dollars in recent weeks after breaking state election law, but continues to take over-the-limit contributions, Crain’s Insider reports: 

 __________________________________________________________________________________
de Blasio Real Estate $$$


Bill de Blasio fails to go public about all meetings with lobbyists (NYDN)
De Blasio said he would go above and beyond in reporting lobbyist contacts. But according to a Daily News review of his schedule, there have been undisclosed meets between 47 lobbyists and the candidate from January 2010 to February 2013, and at least 10 later gave to his campaign. Of the 47 undisclosed lobbyists who de Blasio met with from January 2010 to February 2013, at least 10 later donated to his campaign — a windfall worth more than $10,000 to de Blasio’s war chest. The cash included money from lobbyists for Related, a real estate giant building the Hudson Yards Project, and Extell, the developer behind the controversial One57 luxury high-rise tower on 57th St. * Cuomo Says Moreland Can Look At His Donations (Or Anyone Else’s)(YNN)



The De Blasio difference(NYP ED) One lone of the candidates of either major party, de Blasio has offered voters a vision. Contrast this approach with that of his two leading rivals, City Council Speaker Chris Quinn and former Comptroller Bill Thompson. Each is running on a standard New York Democratic mix of select union endorsements and a grab-bag of feel-good proposals, with a dash of identity politics thrown in for good liberal measure. 

NYP Calls His Policy Rip From Detroit's Playbook, Thompson and Quinn Will Attack For the Final 12 Days
 His policy proposals sound as if they were ripped from 1974 Detroit, with “solutions” that will only make life worse for all — especially those they purport to help... Quinn and Thompson no doubt will spend much of the next 12 days before the primary pointing out that a cash-strapped Albany won’t go for de Blasio’s pie-in-the-sky proposals. If we read the poll numbers correctly, however, many Democrats prefer a leader with vision — no matter how ruinous — to a manager without one.

 Wall Street Thru NYP Takes More Shots At the Steamroller

CHARLES GASPARINO: Spitzer’s delusions(NYP) Gasparino, a Fox Business Network senior correspondent, takes issue with New York City comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer’s claim that he predicted the financial crisis before it actually hit* Worse than an absentee trusteeThe spat between Eliot Spitzer and Scott Stringer over who would do a better job of attending meetings of the New York City pension system is something to behold. * Mr. de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, and Ms. Quinn may have had their sharp disagreements recently in the mayor’s race, but in the comptroller’s contest, they’re both on Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer‘s team–as are various female politicos and actresses, some of whom are rallying later today. Rival Eliot Spitzer‘s rep responded, in the Post‘s words, “(without irony), ‘No one’s record on women’s issues is stronger than Eliot’s.’”

Polls were way off in 09 -- and coverage that had Thompson dead in water almost certainly affected outcome.

The fact that all other candidates are targeting de Blasio indicates private polls confirm Quinnipiac's numbers.

If de Blasio wins without UFT's endorsement, what does that mean for first contract?

 __________________________________________________________________________________
Brooklyn DA


Hynes  Sorry For Calling the Community Mafia
. Hynes after apologizing 2 Satmar Grand Rabbi Aron 4 rude remarks, is now Apologizing 2 Wmsbg Community:  


With Quinn At 21% Do the NY Times, NY Post and Daily News Have An Juice Let?
  1. 3m
    If de Blasio should win w/out runoff in NY mayor's race, it'd tell us that papers' endorsements (Post, Times, News backed Quinn) mean zip.
Two smaller newspapers have also weighed in on the mayoral election yesterday. The Villager endorsed Ms. Quinn while taking a critical look at both her record and Mr. de Blasio’s. The Jewish Press enthusiastically backed Mr. Thompson, who impressed them “with his calm demeanor, deliberative style and self-deprecating humor.”


de Blasio was the only candidate that fought to keep hospitals open

is surging WITHOUT a major union IE, while UFT/BJ/HTC all raising for other candidates. 



These people really don't want to be the city's next mayor.
    1. 17m
      "We'll see what happens when all the rich people get back from the Hamptons and start answering phone calls from pollers," sez a friend.
      1. 3m
        Let's see what happens when vote on Sept. 10 since they're not included in * De Blasio surges into lead for mayor - now 4 points away from avoiding runoff vote: poll(NYP)


         __________________________________________________________________________________
        GOP Debate 


GOP mayoral hopefuls vigorously defend NYPD at debate (NYP) The Republican mayoral contenders vigorously defended the NYPD at their debate last night — with John Catsimatidis implying that if his son were ever stopped and frisked, it would be his own fault. “I would say, ‘Well what did you do to provoke it?’...* The Republican mayoral candidates squared off at a televised debate Wednesday where they answered questions about the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy and how they would feel if their children were stopped by law enforcement, The Wall Street Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/1dp7ViD * GOP mayoral debate lacks fire of Democratic matchup — while each candidate would name landmark after Bloomberg if elected *G.O.P. Rivals Weigh In on Police’s Stop-and-Frisk Tactics(NYT)
 

Candidate for Speaker Hires Paterson Aide  With Domestic Violence History
City Councilwoman Inez Dickens campaign brings on former Gov. Paterson aide with domestic violence history: sources (NYDN) Sources say David Johnson, whose second-degree harassment case almost took down the Paterson administration, is now coordinating logistics for Dickens and is her point person in her Harlem district.

 New York City Council candidate Igor Oberman has received nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions from several businesses he hired to work in the Trump Village apartment complex, where he is co-op board president, the Daily News reports: http://nydn.us/18mQt74

 

 

THE NEWS CYCLE: A Citi Bike ride with mayoral candidate Adolfo Carrion (NYDN) This is a new Daily News feature, The News Cycle. Reporter Justin Rocket Silverman - and his GoPro camera - will join newsmakers for a ride on Citi Bikes. Destination? Wherever they want to take us. His first bike trip was with former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, the


NYC mayoral contenders Sal Albanese, Erick Salado and George McDonald are behind in the polls but don't give up


 NYCHA Overtime Workers Raking It In
NYCHA plumber rakes in extra $140G as city doles out a billion overtime dollars(NYDN)The city Housing Authority continues to give out massive quantities of overtime to plumbers and other tradespeople, the Daily News found.





Uncuff the cops(NYDN Ed)

A state appeals court hands down a horrible ruling restricting policing in city Housing Authority developments
Stop the frisk case(NYDN Ed)


The good news that New York has suffered 77 fewer murders in 2013 compared to the same time last year has touched off celebrations — for all the wrong reasons.

Richard Brodsky vs. Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins in 2014? The former assemblyman met with IDC leader Jeff Klein and isn’t ruling anything out.

 __________________________________________________________________________________
True News PM Update

Next de Blasio Ads Will Have Dante Reading the Comics?
"Bill de Blasio is a candidate in the LaGuardia mold." - Katherine LaGuardia.

Quinn Needs Votes, Not Endorsements (Washington Monthly)
De Blasio said he hasn't spoken to the governor about his plan to tax wealthy New Yorkers to pay for expanded early education but believes public pressure will get it to pass. [Reid Pillifant] * Stringer allegedly cursed at a lawmaker for supporting Eliot Spitzer. [Carl Campanile] * A lot of identity politics are at play in the race for the seat Councilman Michael Nelson is vacating. [Ross Barkan]



Hotel rooms for homeless cost city more than luxury apartments, lawsuit claims(NYP)
For this price, the city could put the homeless in doorman buildings. The Department of Homeless Services pays a nonprofit run by a former commissioner of the agency an astounding $3,700 a month for..



Catsimatidis Learned From Bloomberg Charity Donations Help A Billionaire Campaign
Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis’ recent charitable donations have come under fire from his opponents, who say the supermarket billionaire is sprinkling donations throughout New York City to get votes, Catsimatidis Donations Rile His Rivals(WSJ)

Weiner Uses Street Actors
Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner paid a California rent-a-crowd firm to provide “supporters” for his events, with actors being paid $15 an hour to feign their support, including at the recent Dominican Day Parade in Manhattan, the New York Post reports:  Rejecting a New York Post report alleging he hired fake supporters for events, Mr. Weiner mused, “Lets see if reporters from other papers who were there call BS on them.” Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner is having such a hard time generating support for his campaign that he has resorted to paying a rent-a-crowd firm to provide “supporters” for his events * The Ad Campaign: Speaking in Support of Weiner(NYT)
  1. 6m
    Ah, source of fake NYPost story becomes clearer. Staff just spoke to company that pulled hoax. Let's see if they retract.



First Weiner Then Debates With Lightening Rounds, The Press Champions Distractions Over Issues That Voters Need to Know

Covering Stickball Stunt in Brooklyn While Hospitals Close
Mayoral candidates take swings and misses at Brooklyn stickball tournament (NYP) He’s spending millions in the race for mayor, but John Catsimatidis couldn’t buy a hit yesterday at a charity stickball match. The GOP mayoral contender missed five pitches and fouled off three at the annual stickball contest sponsored by Brooklyn...Several New York City mayoral candidates, including Republican Joe Lhota and Democrats John Liu, Erick Salgado and Bill Thompson participated in City & State’s candidate stickball challenge, with mixed results, the Times writes:  * Late in Game, Candidates Still Hope to Connect(NYT) * Stickball is the Latest Challenge for the Mayoral Candidates(WSJ) * Catsimatidis appeared to be sleeping at a candidate forum in Boro Park. His spokesman insisted he often closes his eyes as he’s listening to people talk.* "There are no metaphors between playing stickball and being mayor." — Bill Thompson



 Serious Questions Not Being Asked by the Media to the Mayoral Candidates
Union Contracts The city will face a $2 billion deficit next year on a $56.3 billion budget. Every labor contract is expired. Retroactive raises, which could cost $7.5 billion. Yet union leaders demand back pay. What would you do if a union threatened an illegal strike? Would you fire striking workers?

Pensions for city workers will cost $8.3 billion this year. Police pensions are $2.5 billion. The city has more retired cops (or surviving spouses) than active cops. Did Gov. Cuomo’s 2011 pension reform — which raised retirement ages and worker contributions, but only for future employees — go far enough? Can New York keep itself safe if police officers can retire after 22 years? Should city workers have 401k-style pensions instead? * State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said that for the first time in five years, the state and local governments will see a slight reduction in their pension contributions, while the pension rate for police and firefighters will also drop, Gannett Albany writes: 

Luxury Tax Breaks  Do you think the tax breaks and credits to luxury developers and the campaign contributions (bribes) they funnel to politicians are pushing the middle class out of the city? * Bloomberg’s Plan for Bigger East Midtown Towers Is ‘Zoning for Dollars,’ Group Says(NYT) Bloomberg’s proposal, developers seeking to build towers larger than zoning rules allow would pay $250 for every extra square foot into a fund.* . previews tonight's GOP debate with a wish list of questions via

BS Lifestyle Story By the NYT
Preparing Gracie Mansion for a New (Live-In?) Mayor(NYT)
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has never lived in the official mayoral residence, but he is making repairs for his successor.

Thompson Makes A Deal A Big Piece of the Hasidic Williamsburg Vote
Hasidic Power Broker Promises Bill Thompson 11,000 Votes(NYO)  A power broker in the Hasidic Jewish community boasted today that his endorsement would deliver more than 10,000 votes to his chosen candidate, former comptroller Bill Thompson, who is now locked in a tight mayoral race with just two weeks to go until primary day. “People trust the leadership in the community and people understand they have been here for years,” said Rabbi David Niederman, leader of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, at a press conference this afternoon touting his support. But the round of hand-clapping and back-slapping that followed the remarks was broken up when a Hasidic protester barged into the event, shouting in Yiddish that Rabbi Niederman didn’t represent the community, which is bitterly divided between the Aroynim and Zaloynim sects following a 2006 succession feud. * And here’s video from former Comptroller Bill Thompson‘s press conference yesterday, where he was endorsed by Rabbi David Niederman:

Quinnberg and Thompson Attacks de Blasio
Tables turn in mayoral race as Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson launch attacks on Bill de Blasio(NYDN) * Bill Thompson derides Bill de Blasio's pre-kindergarten expansion plans as 'pretend' as Democratic mayoral primary approaches(NYDN) * Dante de Blasio (and his infamous Afro) is his father’s not-so-secret weapon in this campaign.* NYC Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio had an unscripted moment on the campaign trail with actress Kathleen Turner. * Bill de Blasio said Christine Quinn's support for keeping Ray Kelly and having an I.G. for the NYPD is "the greatest contradiction in the world." [Azi Paybarah] *. says it's "offensive" that labeled her "Quinnberg." "I'm my own person." * . hits for waffling on transaction tax. She doesn't give definitive answer on it -- but doesn't rule out* He's taking page from Rafael Alequin, who calls her "BloomQuinn"* Christine Quinn Proposes Plans For Seniors, Hits Bill de Blasio's Flip Flops But Defends Her Own(NYDN)

Great to meet with Grand Rebbe Moshe Leib Rabinovich in #Brooklyn tonight. - Spitzer
Stringer funds Harlem project. Says it has nothing to do w lack of support among African-Americans for comptroller bid. NY1 at 7. 







Lhota Not Pushing MTA Job But Hitting Cats Dinkin$
Candidate Ran M.T.A. (He Doesn’t Dwell on It.(NYT)Joseph J. Lhota, a Republican candidate for mayor, cites his work on Wall Street and as a deputy mayor as relevant experience, but seldom trumpets his tenure managing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.* Joe Lhota Mailer Hits John Catsimatidis For Funding David Dinkins Over Rudy Giuliani(NYDN) *After a barrage of negatives attacks on the airwaves, Joe Lhota is hitting mayoral rival John Catsimatidis back in a mailer attacking the former Democrat for once supporting Mayor David Dinkins. “Vote No! To Catsimatidis: HE’S NOT ONE OF US,” it declares. “You can tell an awful lot about a man by the company he keeps.”


Kellner Touts Maloney’s Endorsement Despite Condemnation(NYO)
Just like magic, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney can disappear and reappear again–at least on campaign mailings. When Assemblyman Micah Kellner, now running for an Upper East Side City Council seat, confessed last month to sexually harassing a former staffer years ago, many of his endorsers bailed. His campaign then awkwardly removed the supporters’ names, including Ms. Maloney’s, by covering them with white stickers. But now she’s back.


 Why the Moves From Albany to City Hall
“People would rather work with a thief than with a snitch.”
Gotham Gazette looked at why so many state legislators are seeking New York City offices this year. While better pay, a less top-down oriented power structure and a job closer to home come to mind, so do other concerns, such as fellow lawmakers wearing wires to bust their colleagues for corruption. “It makes people really nervous,” said one legislator who requested anonymity. * Nearly a dozen state legislators are looking to exit Albany by getting themselves elected to the NYC Council or a citywide office.

Nelson Castro, assemblyman who made recordings for prosecutors, pleads guilty to lying to the feds
Former Assemblyman Nelson Castro pleads guilty to making false statements to feds back in June 2013
Nelson Castro's revelation as undercover agent shocks state pols
For more than three years, Bronx Assemblyman Nelson Castro quietly worked for prosecutors trying to root out political corruption. The revelation Thursday had politicians sweating. Assemblyman Michael Benedetto said, 'Assume your conversation is being taped.’* Legislator Who Informed on Others Admits Lying to Authorities(NYT) Castro has been charged with one count of making false statements to federal officials after allegedly lying about a YouTube interview he gave discussing his cooperation with federal authorities * Guilty Plea by Former N.Y. Assemblyman(WSJ) * Speaking of legislators wearing wires, one such person, former Assemblyman Nelson Castro, is being charged with lying to federal prosecutors about a publicly available YouTube interview he gave: “… he first denied having given it; then he claimed to have forgotten that he participated; and then he said he had not discussed his cooperation on the show — all lies, he admitted to a federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday.”

Challenger Tries to Upend a Century of Brooklyn Politics(WSJ)
Kenneth Thompson Aims to Unseat Borough's Longest-Serving District Attorney, Charles J. Hynes
"Mr. Hynes said he was in a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' position on the issue of prosecutions of ultra-Orthodox Jews." [Michael Howard Saul]  * More on the Brooklyn D.A. race. [Mirela Iverac]
Amazing interview of in Jewish newspaper. Hynes predicts: "The black community, by and large, is mine."

Stop and  Frisk Has Already Been Tweeked
Police Stop-and-Frisk Encounters Plunged in Second Quarter of 2013, Data Show(NYT)
The number dropped to levels not seen in nearly a decade, and city lawyers cited the data in a letter requesting that a judge delay ordering any changes until an appeal is heard. * Court, Faulting Police Questioning, Overturns Gun Conviction(NYT) * Stop and Frisk Declined 57% in 2nd Quarter(WSJ)
* Stop-and-Frisk Ruling Recommendations Should be Delayed, City Argues (WSJ) * NYPD use of stop-and-frisk has dropped: lawyers(NYDN) * The total number of NYPD stop-and-frisk incidents dropped by 57 percent to 58,088 in the second quarter of 2013 from 133,934 in the same period in 2012, according to NYC attorneys, who are asking a federal judge to halt changes she had ordered in the police practice.

Comptroller John Liu‘s mayoral campaign may be limping along in the polls, but it’s still collecting endorsements. Yesterday, the New York City Sierra Club, which boasts 11,000 members, endorsed his candidacy. “The Sierra Club looks forward to John Liu’s tenure as Mayor,” the organization proclaimed in a statement touting his environmental record.


Stringer Spitzer
Scott Stringer's latest ad is mostly about values, not the newspaper endorsements. [Azi Paybarah]
Eliot Spitzer attacked Stringer's expertise by drawing attention to his attendance record. [Reid Pillifant]
Scott Stringer's latest ad is mostly about values, not the newspaper endorsements. [Azi Paybarah]
Eliot Spitzer attacked Stringer's expertise by drawing attention to his attendance record. [Reid Pillifant]
Jewish Press endorses for comptroller
Jewish Week worries Spitzer would be steamroller as comptroller, says NYC "cannot afford the luxury of more than one mayor at a time."
Legendary ad guru Jerry Della Femina has an ad in his East Hampton Independent that reads, “Are You Going To Let Eliot Spitzer Buy Your Vote The Same Way He Bought Young Prostitutes’ Bodies?”


Merryl Tisch And the Race for Mayor(WSJ)
Merryl Tisch, chancellor of the Board of Regents, gained in the NYIndex this week after commenting that candidates for the next New York City mayor would be to blame if test scores dropped.

The City Council races to watch, via : 
A rowdy debate audience yelled at Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, calling her "Gentrifier" and other insults. [Simone Weichselbaum]  There's a lot of attention paid to the mailers being sent in support of City Council candidate Laura Cumbo. [Norman Oder]

Fiscal Policy Institute Warns Of NY’s ‘Lost Decade’: New York has gone through what amounts to a “lost decade”...
Skelos To Cuomo: We’re With You On The Tax Cut(YNN)

March toward justice


On this, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the United States of America looks back at a watershed in the struggle to cleanse the original sin on the national soul.* I HAVE A DREAM... MARTIN LUTHER KING - August 28, 1963
 

Government By Fool, Crooks and Unintelligent People

A Very Foolish Situation Developing in New York’s Anti-Corruption Investigations(foolocracy)

Corruption is rife in Albany. New York state lawmakers have been carted off in handcuffs on bribery and corruption charges. In response, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the forming of a 25-member anti-corruption commission. The commission is headed by Kathleen Rice, Nassau County District Attorney, who lost to Schneiderman in the Democratic primary in the attorney general race and is a close ally of Cuomo.   

At this point, it is increasingly difficult to believe that a thorough investigation is going to be conducted on Silver or any of the other suspects in the multitude of questionable dealings going on in Albany. All this points to the real problem of politicians investigating politicians. They have a vested interest to sweep things under the rug unless the media keeps the spotlight of public attention on it. While we can’t target a fool at this point, although Silver is a likely candidate, this is a setting with multiple actors auditioning. All the pieces are together for a whitewash before this is over.

By Endorsing Quinn, The NYT Gave Thompson A Great Shot At Winning the Primary
Team Thompson was very worried the NYT would endorse de Blasio.  They felt that with the strong black support the PA is getting in the black community, the endorsement of the times would give him enough votes in the white community knock the former comptroller out of the runoff. Thompson people are very happen now because they and a lot others think Quinn has a voting ceiling that will prevent her from winning any runoff. It looks to Thompson insiders that  the NYT, NYP and Daily News endorsement will backfire on Quinn.   .Thompson people are also worried that Quinn will not make the runoff and that a NYT endorsement of  de Blasio will give him the democratic primary victory.


 Thank you Vito Lopez

Polling site inside ‘Thank you, Vito Lopez’ building must be moved, former Assemblyman’s rival says (NYDN)








Cuomo Pushing Elected Officials to Push for Stringer
  1. Mark Green Speaks
  2. 1m
    Spitzer fading in pol circles? IMHO, more talking to selves, like LBJ wld be nominee over JFK bc of his big endrsemts.* City comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer’s record suggests he could be just as reckless with public money as he was in spending his personal fortune on prostitutes, the Daily News’ Bill Hammond writes: http://nydn.us/19JwO4v * A Confident Spitzer Looks for Jewish Votes to Win ‘Bucking Bronco’ Race(NYO) * Eliot Spitzer attacked rival city comptroller candidate Scott Stringer for touting his role as a trustee of the city’s retirement fund while attending few meetings, though Stringer showed up more than other trustees, the Daily News writes: http://nydn.us/17hR1y3 “If Scott Stringer thinks 15 out of 160 is a strong ratio, that alone should disqualify him for a job where analyzing numbers is a primary part of the job description.” – A spokesperson for New York City comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer on rival Scott Stringer’s attendance record as city pension board trustee, via the Daily News.  *  While he has apologized for his prostitution scandal Spitzer said he has nothing else to apologize for during his stormy 14 months as governor, including budget shortfalls after he resigned, State of Politics writes: http://bit.ly/14Bh9ng * EXCLUSIVE: Stringer Didn't Pay Taxes On Failed Bar For Years via   *Spitzer lunges accusation of Stringer overselling his role(NYDN)
     

      
    Wall Street Strikes Back At Spitzer
    Anti-Spitzer poll underway (CrainsNY)  A telephone poll being taken Monday night begins innocently enough, asking New York City voters for their opinions of the Democratic mayoral and city comptroller candidates, and which ones they expect to pull the lever for in the Sept. 10 primary. But toward the end of the 8-minute survey, recipients are read highly negative statements about comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer and asked if each one would make them less likely to vote for him.
    2. 5m
      Anti-Spitzer poll taken last night made several racial claims, not all of them true. 


      Cuomo Skips NYC for the Summer During The Heated Campaigns

      has not appeared at a public event in New York City in 55 days
      Mayoral race swirling, Gov. Cuomo cuts back on downstate days(NY World)
       




    Battle for the Black Vote
    Essential A1 read about war between Thompson & de Blasio for black voters. BdB ads working, interviews show   Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s denunciation of stop-and-frisk policies has helped him challenge Bill Thompson for the black vote, prompting Thompson to push back with a new ad   

    THE CELEBRITY VOTE(Huff Post)
    * "In interviews on Monday with African-Americans across Brooklyn, where Mr. Thompson and Mr. de Blasio both have roots, there was a clear gap in perception of the candidates’ positions, with many residents saying that they felt uncertain about where Mr. Thompson stood, and that they supported Mr. de Blasio because of his forceful statements and his persuasive advertising." [Michael Grynbaum]

    Bertha Speaks for Bill
      to feature ACORN leader Bertha Lewis in new campaign ad.

    A campaign strategist for mayoral candidate Bill Thompson is calling on the Campaign Finance Board to investigate discounts rival Bill de Blasio received at a restaurant run by a convicted felon, the Daily News writes: http://nydn.us/16IuxC1  * Is "wishy-washy"? Is 's Dante ad a "ploy"? Black voters torn, via *Bill Thompson derides Bill de Blasio's pre-kindergarten expansion plans as 'pretend' as Democraticmayoral primary approaches * After Thompson attacked de Blasio's education plan, de Blasio announced he was endorsed by "education historian" Diane Ravitch. [Celeste Katz]* Williamsburg, NY - Satmar, Zalmen Group Endorses Bill Thompson For NYC Mayor (video)

    Boosting his outreach to the Latino community, former Comptroller Bill Thompson received El Diario‘s enthusiastic endorsement this morning. “Bill Thompson is the most qualified among the candidates,” declares the editorial, which does not mention Mr. Thompson’s mayoral rivals, according to a translation. “In a career that has been anything but boring, he has been a constant source of common sense and seriousness.”

    Term Limit Responsibility 

    Thompson, de Blasio and Council Speaker Christine Quinn all stepped attacks of each other on the issue of extending term limits as the three mayoral candidates fight for two spots in a likely runoff, The Wall Street Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/16IzWck * Public Advocate Bill de Blasio countered attacks from Council Speaker Christine Quinn that he flip-flopped on term limits, saying it was Quinn who “gave Michael Bloomberg a backroom deal for a third term,” Politicker reports: http://bit.ly/1aN6NEt *‘She Wants to Throw Stones?’: Bill de Blasio Plays Defense as Rivals Charge(NYO)
     
    De Blasio and Interfaith 
suit blocks Brooklyn hospital closure 
.: "I want a New York where hospitals stay hospitals — they don't turn into condos."

Bloomberg's Attack Dog Sicks de Blasio - Dean Calls Howard Greatest Spinmaster
Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson all but called Bill de Blasio a flip-flopper on term limits and said he hasn’t ruled out endorsing in the mayor’s race, State of Politics writes: http://bit.ly/19W50NP
"Consistency on the campaign trail is important," Wolfson said. "I have been confused as a voters, as a citizen, about his position on term limits."* Bloomberg Deputy Goes After Bill de Blasio on NY1 The Wolfson interview. [NY1] updated w/ response from @HowieWolfson, after called him "one of the greatest spinmeisters"

2 DAYS IN A ROW NY1 ALLOWS ATTACKS ON DE BLASIO ON TERM LIMITS
Thompson Attacks De Blasio's Position On Term Limits (NY1)


Syrian Free Army suspected of hacking NY Times and Twitter websites

Quinn Targets Women's Vote
Quinn proposed creating five all girl technology schools, one in each borough, to help bridge the gender gap in science and math achievement and participation, the Daily News writes: 
Christine Quinn proposes five all-girl tech schools
 While the Times also looked at Council Speaker Christine Quinn‘s pitch to female voters: “In a Fifth Avenue apartment, women in jewel-toned dresses sat drinking coffee and nibbling little scones while firing questions about her plans for parks and public spaces, and how she would negotiate with ‘masters of the universe’ who were not used to dealing with a woman.”



Daily News Campaigns For Their Endorsed Candidate
GROUNDED: Coffee vendor gets help from Christine Quinn to not be moved from the spot he's had for 16 years(NYDN)





One Day Soon Lopez Will Be Making the Plates for the State

Vito Lopez resigned from the Assembly months ago — but his car still bears state plates

 

 

 New Ads With Weiner Interns

Anthony Weiner features current and former interns as the ‘regular New Yorkers’ who speak on his behalf in new TV ad(NYDN)



 Post Praises Squadron But Does Not Endorse
Paper which has had racial problems does not want to endorse 3 white candidates
Squadron’s dollars & sense(NYP Ed)

:we don't really have a middle class in this city any more, do we? It's because of politicians & their deals with developers.








Ex-AG Koppell may challenge Jeff Klein(cRAINSny)








Like They Did On Extending Term Limits the Three Newspaper Speak As One

For NYP It is Quinn, But Not Enthusiastically
New York Post endorses Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota in city's mayoral primaries(NYP)

The Post of the town! Quinn 'thrilled' to be endorsed(NYP)

If we were seeing today the Chris Quinn that we saw a few years ago, this would be a more enthusiastic endorsement. As speaker, Quinn often showed courage and responsibility by siding with Mayor Bloomberg, as well as by opposing the dangerous proposals of her far more radical council members.
Ever since her mayoral campaign kicked in, however, she has lurched hard to the left, embracing the kind of ridiculous nostrums for which she had previously shown considerable and rightful contempt. . .* New York Times' Endorses Status Quo in Christine Quinn
Christine Quinn releases new TV ad highlighting endorsements from NYT, Daily News and NYPost. * Christine Quinn Scores Tennis Champ Billie Jean King’s Endorsement(NYO)
* Unions Launch Spanish Radio Ad Campaign Touting Quinn(NYO) * The Ad Campaign: Quinn Highlights Endorsements(NYT) * MayoralRace Hits Bitter Note As Candidates Ratchet Up Attacks (NY1)
Mayoral Race Hits Bitter Note As Candidates Ratchet Up Attacks - See more at: http://origin.ny1.com/content/news/187769/mayoral-race-hits-bitter-note-as-candidates-ratchet-up-attacks?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#sthash.zHMTyZU5.dpuf


NYP Said This Morning About Another Story: "When NY’s entire political class lines up on one side of an argument(Quinn), you can bet they’ve chosen the wrong side"
The hope for Quinn is that her recent disappointments are a function of the election-year silliness that getting ahead in today’s Democratic Party sadly seems to demand. The Democratic race comes down to a question of leadership and sensibility. Unlike her rivals, Quinn has shown both over the years. There is reason to hope that a Mayor Quinn, free from election-year pressure, would revert back to her more moderate and sensible judgments.

NYP Calls Quinn in the Editorial Endorsing Her That She Aided and Abetter Member Item cheats and Chiselers (You Get the Feeling They Are Going With Lhota in the General)
She further remains deaf to the dangers of pork spending, known as member items, which she used to control the council — but led to rampant corruption. Her so-called reforms are inadequate; by lavishing taxpayer money on the pet projects of council members — even those under indictment for member-item fraud! — she made herself an aider and abetter of cheats and chiselers.



NYP Thinks Thompson Union Puppet/de Blasio Frightening
Basically, the Post just doesn’t like the other people running for the job. Former Comptroller Bill Thompson is accused of being a teachers’ union “puppet” and “is now the candidate who is directly beholden to the union.” While Public Advocate Bill de Blasio “is so far out of the mainstream that even the thought of him as mayor should frighten every New Yorker.”


NYP Endorses Lhota Enthusiastically
The choice among the three Republican candidates is clear: In the GOP primary for mayor, The Post enthusiastically endorses former Deputy Mayor and MTA Chairman Joe Lhota. Lhota stands head and shoulders above the field. He has valuable know-how and experience, in both the public and private sectors. By any measure, Joe Lhota is the leader best equipped to take on a bloated city government and make it work for the people who pay for it. Lhota further understands — and campaigns on — something the candidates in the other party prefer to obscure: just how easy it would be for this city to slide back into crime and decay. * : New York is not Detroit...yet * Not your average Republican: Joe Lhota favors 'fiscal discipline' - as well as abortion, same-sex marriage and pot legalization(NYP)
 Lhota Says Catsimatidis Ads 'Piss Me Off'




__________________________________________________________________________________
Cuomo Trying to Help Stringer

Will Cuomo Come Out for Stringer, Will It Matter?

Fredric U. Dicker ‘Neutral’ gov goes on anti-Spitz blitz(NYP)
Cuomo remains officially neutral in the race for city Comptroller but has been working behind the scenes to help Scott Stringer defeat Eliot Spitzer, the New York Post writes. Cuomo and aide Joe Percoco are trying to help Scott Stringer defeat Eliot Spitzer


__________________________________________________________________________________
NYers Minds Not Made Up

Our Greatest Fear Is That One of the Candidates Will Win

Gracie Madness(NY Mag)
Why is it hard for so many New Yorkers to make up their minds about the next mayor? The tension of these next two weeks won’t merely decide the undecided voters. It will make the two Democrats who reach the runoff feel like survivors as much as winners. (Chris Smith has to many anonymous insider to be creditable) * For ads they planned to film on Sunday, Quinn wanted children and Bill Thompson wanted public school parents. [Azi Paybarah] * Bill de Blasio "has run the best tactical campaign," but "The question about de Blasio is whether he's more than just tactics." [Chris Smith]
Weingarten Defends Thompson As the NYT, Post Attacks His UFT Connection

Randi Weingarten: On Pre-K, Bill de Blasio's A Dreamer, But Bill Thompson's A Doer(NYDN)

 

 

__________________________________________________________________________________
NYT Never Cared for de Blasio

NYM Says Quinn's Surrogates Redefine De Blasio, NYT's Chen Tries to Redefine Bill as Indecisive
Quinn’s challenge is trying to redefine Bill in the last two weeks for people who aren’t avid watchers of this race. You might see her surrogates going after De Blasio as an untested radical, based on his lefty roots.”
Surrogate NYT
In 2000, a War Room Didn’t Fit de Blasio’s Style(NYT)
Bill de Blasio was the campaign manager for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2000 Senate race, and his leadership style, easygoing but indecisive, could be inefficient, aides said.

Daily News Back of Quinn Hits de Blasio Also
De Blasio’s plan to tax the rich to fund education is unlikely to get state approval next year with Gov. Cuomo and the state legislature up for reelection, the Daily News writes: http://nydn.us/15p4e7B

Thompson The Unknown Man, Within Striking Distance
Bill Thompson has avoided talking about his lucrative business career on the campaign trial, which included lobbying state agencies with which he was deeply connected, and operating in the securities industry in the 1990s without passing the state-required exam, Crain's New York Business reports: http://bit.ly/15a0uCN 
* "Thompson within striking distance for NYC Mayor" [Jonathan Lemire] 


__________________________________________________________________________________
NYT Always for Quinn

 Breaking: The New York Times Endorses Christine Quinn for Mayor of New York City: 

Ms. Quinn has been an impressive leader since her days as a neighborhood advocate and her early years on the City Council. We endorsed her for the Council in 1999 as someone “who can both work within the system and criticize it when necessary” — a judgment she has validated many times since. She has shepherded through important laws protecting New Yorkers’ health, safety and civil rights, including measures banning public smoking, protecting tenants and small businesses, and battling slumlord.  Quinn fought, for example, for a Bloomberg plan to keep a year’s surplus as a rainy-day fund. There was fierce opposition from Council members who wanted to spend the money. Ms. Quinn was right, and the city had a cushion when the recession hit. We admire her staunch support for the city’s solid-waste management plan, which is good for the whole city but bitterly opposed in some neighborhoods.

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Moreland Ethics Problems

Moreland Commission Head Rice Got $300,000 From Silver Law Firm

Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice, the co-chair of the Moreland Commission investigating public corruption, has received nearly $300,000 in campaign donations from Sheldon Silver’s law firm, the Daily News writes: http://nydn.us/18eUHh7
Critics question how deeply corruption panel co-chair Kathleen Rice would probe Sheldon Silver after campaign contributions




DiNapoli Whi Drafted Lopez Silver's Hush Fund Now Says the Speaker Moved Quickly to Address Sexual  Harassment

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said that embattled Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had moved quickly to address sexual harassment scandals, but he wouldn’t speculate on Silver’s future, State of Politics reports: http://bit.ly/18YHQSD

Comptroller DiNapoli's office drafted Vito Lopez 'hu$h' - New York Post

  


 Education
  2. 37m
    NYS ed commissioner sends own kids to private school - 13WHAM - Top Stories:

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NYPD Drifting

More Winds of Coming NYPD Problems

NYPD faces loss of 3,000 cops hired under Safe City, Safe Streets program (NYP) Nearly 3,000 veteran cops who flooded the Police Academy 20 years ago as part of the NYPD’s seminal Safe City, Safe Streets program are eligible to retire this month — a loss that threatens to reverse the city’s historic crime drop. * Family members of slain NYPD officers slam stop-and-frisk decision(NYP)
Are Cops Worried About More Guns on the Streets?
New Surge in Shootings by Officers(NYT)
A burst of four police shootings over three days — three on Saturday and one on Thursday — was atypical of recent years.* A fast ‘frisk’ appeal(NYP) City can hope for rapid action


NYT  Editorial "A common complaint is that this year’s candidates look small, like dots on the slopes of Mount Bloomberg"
A common complaint of the candidates this year was they were giving headline talking point and not explaining how they would fix education, rising pension and health care costs, expired union contracts, etc.  They including Quinn are just saying trust us.

NYT Editorial  "Bloomberg has managed to make the unpredictable city of New York work astonishingly well."  
The rich and Wall Street are doing great.  But the middle class are being driven out of the city.  Minorities and the poor are being gentrified our of their neighborhood and the city.  There are more poor and homeless in this city than ever before

NYT Editorial " As NYT succinctly points out, CQ has a clear goal as mayor of New York: making sure more people wind up in the middle class."
CQ did  not save the middle class during her 8 years as council speaker, the second most powerful job in NYC government. 


Assemblyman Keith Wright Sent Letter Acknowledging Developer Tax Breaks In Bill(NYDN)
A letter Assemblyman Keith Wright signed suggests he knew more than he has acknowledged about a housing bill he sponsored at the behest of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver that gave five developers juicy tax breaks. Sources said last week that Wright was unaware of the details of the bill and furious with Silver for asking him to sponsor it.


__________________________________________________________________________________
  Which Lobbyist Will Cash In

The Lobbyist and Consultants Who Win If Quinn Wins

Benenson Strategy Group   $200,000
DeLoach, Michael  $100,000
Fundraising Allocation $400,000

Mark Guma Communications $670,000 (Also Works for the Manhattan DA) Mark Guma is the former partner of Hank Morris.  Before Morris when to jail he and Guma contributed money to the Governor of New Mexico who somehow give pension funds to Morris and his partner Steve Ratner.  Guma also forgave some of the campaign funds he was owed by the Manhattan DA.  Guma wife worked for Bloomberg campaign along with Haggerty who DA Vance has indicted for stealing a million from the mayor.

SKDKnickerbocker $65,000

Josh Isay’s  How former liberal operative Josh Isay became the default paid-media guy to the New York establishment

Jennif\r Cunningham   top New York lobbyist  Pol pays lobby big in AG bid - New York Post

SKDKnickerbocker back in the news; chief-of-staff in NYC office was FCR flack; firm produced misleading Atlantic Yards brochures
The Real Hilary Rosen SKDKNICKERBOCKER Scandal | The Nation
Quinn's Friendship With Lobbyist May Pose Test in Mayor Bid(NYT)
They met as eager activists who leafleted for candidates and demonstrated against antigay violence outside the Stonewall Inn. Young, female and gay, Christine C. Quinn and Emily Giske became such close friends that Ms. Giske moved into Ms. Quinn’s building in Chelsea and introduced Ms. Quinn to the woman who is now her fiancée. 


NYT Editorial  "Ms. Quinn inspires the most confidence that she would be the right mayor for the inevitable times when hope and idealism collide with the challenge of getting something done." 
Quinn used member items and the slush fund to keep her members in line by paying them off.  Three member of her council have gone to jail for abusing funds she gave them.  More should have. Vito Lopez's non profit got millions from Quinn's Council. Even the NYT is against member items. *  A judge rejected a request from former NYC Councilman Larry Seabrook for a new trial on his corruption conviction that included evidence that he doctored a receipt to increase the price of a $7 sandwich and Snapple to $177.

NYT Editorial  "Quinn sponsored the sweeping 2007 legislation that made the city’s exemplary campaign-finance laws even stronger."
Quinn is taking PACS like "Jobs for New York" and other special interest PACS that have destroyed the city's public financing system.  The Jobs for New York PACS is funded by the Real Estate Board of New York and the Partnership two groups not try to keep the middle class in the city.

NYT Editorial  "Ms. Quinn has no specific plan to require the richest New Yorkers to pay more in taxes in service of important civic goals (she says she will raise taxes as a last resort), but neither has she made a long list of unrealistic promises."
The NYT readers love the fact their taxes will not be raised

NYT Editorial  "She wants to repair crumbling public housing, providing “quality conditions” for 600,000 people."
Quinn  had 8 years as council speaker to fix the problems in public housing


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Katz's Media

Melinda Katz Was A Paid Lobbyist For @nypost @FoxNews @newscorp At Greenberg Traurig http://ny-popculture-politics.blogspot.com/2013/08/Melinda-Katz-Was-A-Paid-Lobbyist-For-NYPost-Fox-News-News-Corporation-At-Greenberg-Traurig.html …


Times praises Quinn for "push[ing] successfully for a state law" while knocking for "need[ing] support in the State Capitol." * ": "the city needs a mayor who is willing to say no." Ah yes. But say no to who? * NYT Quinn endorsement praises Bloomy and says, "excellent news is ... there is a candidate ... ready to carry on at least as well as he did" * Fun fact via Quinn endorse: City council now a 'forceful and effective legislative' body. Did not know that.

Newspaper that endorsed extending term limits endorses term limits extender. 
do u even know any of the new city laws that the refers to as CQ accomplishments? It's pathetic, real joke. 

NYT Gives Examples of the Bad Quinn
Some positions Ms. Quinn has supported are unwise or objectionable. She has been too strong in supporting Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the architect and stoutest defender of stop-and-frisk. She has supported, too blindly, Mr. Kelly’s practice of spying on Muslims at prayer, a similar false choice of public safety over the Constitution. She can become mumbly when talking about things that the real estate industry opposes, like changing zoning laws to require construction of affordable apartments. She has a reputation for shouting, but has shown a capacity to listen, and to be persuaded to change her mind — attributes we will count on seeing more of if she is elected.  


 NYT On De Blasio
Breaking ***BREAKING: DE BLASIO LEGAL ACTION LEADS TO 16-DAY REPRIEVE FOR INTERFAITH, EXPECTED AUGUST 26th SHUTDOWN POSTPONED*
"NYT: "Once a Mayor de Blasio saw his boldest ideas smashed on the rocks of Albany, then what? De Blasio campaign immediatley slams edit board for endorsing term limit extender. NYT (and all major edit boards) backed Bloomy third term. * My take: exemplar of prosperous liberalism rejects candidate who wishes to raise taxes on prosperous liberals!" . fundraises off NYT endorsement of - saying it would be a fourth term of Bloomberg. * If a Bloomberg backlash is powering De Blasio's rise, the opening of the NYT Quinn endorsement may help him. * As Hillary Clinton's campaign manager De Blasio was seen as indecisive and miscast. Eventually, he was nudged aside: * At COJO of Flatbush celebration speaks about restoration of child care vouchers
  1. 8h
    If a Bloomberg backlash is powering De Blasio's rise, the opening of the NYT Quinn endorsement may help him.

NYT On Thompson
"NYT, not the tabs: Bill Thompson's UFT endorsement "not always a friend of needed reforms, give us pause." "A former president of the old Board of Education, Mr. Thompson argues that he is the best candidate to fix the city schools, but his close ties to the United Federation of Teachers, not always a friend of needed reforms, give us pause. The teachers’ union is one of the municipal unions itching for retroactive pay raises in contracts that expired under Mr. Bloomberg and need renegotiating." * 17m
$40 million has been allocated to install cameras in public housing. Very little has been spent! That is outrageous!*In the first critical ad of the Democratic primary, Bill Thompson slammed NYC Public Advocate de Blasio’s TV ad, saying it “lies” by claiming de Blasio is the “only” candidate who will “end a stop-and-frisk era that targets minorities.”
  1. 2m
    Startling: the sole knock on is endorsement by the . Support by 1 union renders candidates unfit?

    The NYT is going to help Christine Quinn win by running more fluff pieces about her new luxury condo, her week-end home, her cooking skills, her favourite café, and her love of animals.


. receives the other NYT endorsement:
Mr. Lhota is more than the sum of his years as Mr. Giuliani’s top deputy, and he is the best qualified of the three men seeking the Republican nomination for mayor.* The Ad Campaign: Lhota Brings In a Big Gun

RT : not what you were paid to say in 2000 was it? Wasn't Rudy the last mayor to dump Kelly?
The NYT says may regret his loyalites to Rudy Giuliani. I disagree. Rudy was his meal ticket. 
New York Times endorses Joe Lhota. Calls him the best qualified candidate  * The New York Times praises Joe's ability to come up with ideas to keep NYC great * New York Times: "Few people know better than Mr. Lhota how city government works" I give credit to WJC for 100k cops & Dinkins/Vallone for Safe Streets program. Shouldn't the NYT give Rudy credit? * In 2011 and 2012, he ran the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which, under his leadership, recovered amazingly quickly from the damage done by Hurricane Sandy.

NYT Holds Catsimatdis' Grocery Store Against Him
In endorsing in GOP primary, the NYT takes a shot at the way runs supermarket chain Gristedes. * Oh my. NYT on Catsimatidis: "We won’t take him seriously until he shows he can do that at Gristedes."NYT says of Cats pledge to make NYC clean and well run: "We won’t take him seriously until he shows he can do that at Gristedes." Ouch. Did Cats sell a NYT edit board member sour milk? Or was there a mess in aisle 3 that offended? Give the NYT edit board credit for humor. :) * Is NYT accurate when it says Catsimatidis "likes to call his fund-raisers 'friend-raisers.'"? Does Cats have fund-raisers? * Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis released a new ad attacking his rival Joe Lhota for referring to Port Authority police officers as “mall cops” featuring a retired PAPD inspector, the Daily News writes: http://nydn.us/12ExNRH


McDonald
. criticized for dissing .
. Times says he's not qualified "and we wish he would do better at hiding his contempt for some of his opponents."* The NY Post wants answers from Hillary Clinton “before we elect her president” on Huma Abedin’s outside employment during her time at the State Department.
  1. 10m
    only the NYT cud criticize McDonald for voicing what clearly most NYers feel
  1. 28m
    . Both of your selections will lose their primaries. Your endorsement will once again not be the choice of Democrats & Republicans.

    NYP: Who is Protecting Public Housing Tenants
    Fingering Bloomberg(NYP Ed)
    Mayoral candidates attack Bloomberg idea of finger printer in public housing, but do not come of of their own way of keeping tenants safe.  20% of all the cities crime is committed in public housing.


    NYP's Goodwin Gives Up On Stringer
    Says Lucky Spitzer Headed to Victory
    Spitzer gets lucky(NYP Ed) Ever since Eliot Spitzer jumped into the city comptroller race, I’ve had some sympathy for Scott Stringer. The Manhattan borough president is authentically genial and self-effacing, rare qualities in the political class. Yet as I watched the two men face off in a debate, I felt something else: anger. Stringer’s lumpy presentation and tired recitation of canned talking points made me want to grab him by the lapels and give him a good shake. That might have changed the dynamic of the race. Stringer’s hapless performance certainly didn’t. Face it, New York: Spitzer is headed for victory.
    * Some q's for Eliot Spitzer on the hypocrisy of never being charged with breaking the law he signed, from


    Albany's Women's Wrongs

      1. 5h
        Can't make this stuff up:"Today the celebrates Women’s Equality Day by continuing...fight for full women’s equality."
        Expand
      2. 1m
        The Assembly makes stuff up all the time. They've employed a whole staff of maker uppers led by Whyland.

    Hogan Pushes Miner On Silver(YN
























































































































































































































































    Bill Thompson's not-so-risky business (CrainsNY)

    __________________________________________________________________________________
    What A Bunch

    3 of the 4 Candidates Don't Vote in Local Elections, Yet They Want New Yorkers to Vote for Them

    Public Advocate Candidates Clash on Qualifications, Seek to Defend Spotty Voting Records(WNBC) The four leading Democratic candidates for NYC public advocate gave deeply populist and liberal answers to questions during a debate today, but clashed over a range of issues, including their past records, campaign finances and even their identities.Only James has a good voting record in local electionsm(WSJ) * NYC Public Advocate Hopefuls Face Questions About Spotty Voting Records In Debate | New York Daily News *  Seeking Role Unknown to Many, Public Advocate Candidates Spar in Debate(NYT) In a televised encounter, by turns fiery and personal, the four hopefuls sometimes seemed to focus on whether the position should exist at all. * The four leading Democratic candidates for Public Advocate gave mostly populist answers during a televised debate, including supporting retroactive raises for city workers, the Wall Street Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/15bjack\ * Democratic candidates for public advocate grilled over failure to vote in city elections(NYDN) * Asked why her work on Wall Street wasn't noted on her campaign, Reshma Saujani replied with a joke. [Michael Grynbaum]* The Post praised state Sen. Daniel Squadron for being the only public advocate candidate to admit the city cannot afford to pay out all retroactive pay raises for city workers, in a recent debate: http://bit.ly/14Y6PC0

    The PA Office Does Not Give Them the Power To Raise Salaries
    Every candidate would conside giving unions retroactive raises. [Andrew Grossman]


    Tax Delinquents 
    Owe, no! City Council candidates have poor financial history (NYP) These council candidates want to help manage a $70 billion city budget, but their history as delinquents on taxes and other personal obligations raises serious questions.  The worst offender is Joel Bauza, a candidate in The Bronx’s 15th District...* Council candidates rack up tens of thousands of dollars in back-rent judgments(NYP)

    Christine Quinn rescued another teenage girl who passed out at a campaign event(NYP)




    City candidates spending big on wacky freebies - including Frisbees, sunglasses and golf tees(NYP) City candidates are shelling out thousands of dollars for Frisbees, bow ties and other wacky freebies to win over voters, a review of campaign expenditures shows. Councilman David Greenfield (D-Brooklyn) spent $1,480 on Frisbees bearing his name.  ..While running for Staten Island borough president, Richard Luthmann bought $129.87 worth of bow ties and stamped his logo on them. GOP City Council hopeful Lisa Giovinazzo of Staten Island spent $270 at Carmine’s Cigars in the borough. Councilman Steve Levin (D-Brooklyn) spent $1,106 for “turkey donations” last fall, and Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan) spent $1,057.35 on turkeys in January.

    Disclosing Time
    This is how openness works in Albany: An ethics committee set up in secret held a secret vote to determine that a lobbying group may keep its donors secret.  Once more, the flaws of New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics are apparent.  Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature created JCOPE in 2011 to police Albany. At the same time, they broke with the federal government and all other states by requiring “social welfare” lobbying organizations to disclose the identities of their donors who give more than $5,00


    __________________________________________________________________________________
    What is the Real Rapfogel Story

    The Daily News Looks At the Campaign $$$ Rapfogel Gave Out But It Does Not Look At the Building Met Council Did and the Tax Credits They Gave Out to Luxury Developers
    Sheldon Silver ally recently fired as CEO of Met Council under investigation for shady donations to politicians (NYDN)  Investigators are looking into whether William Rapfogel overpaid the insurance provider for the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and then directed the provider to make political donations to politicians who funded the Met Council. Investigators are looking into whether Rapfogel overpaid the Met Council’s insurance provider, Century Coverage of Valley Stream, L.I., and then directed Century to make political donations to politicians who funded his organization. They’re also looking into whether William Rapfogel pocketed kickbacks from the insurance provider.
    An investigation by the Daily News has uncovered new evidence of Rapfogel helping politicians, apparently skirting a law that bars charities from getting involved in politics.

    1. 2m
      I respect & for saying Shelly Silver must go. I hope & will do right & join them.


      The judge has no robe(NYDN Ed)



      In a display of judicial activism on stilts and steroids, a Brooklyn Supreme Court justice took an uninvited leap into the fight over closing Long Island College Hospital only to create turmoil and make a fool of herself. Having presided over the rather ministerial matter of the hospital’s takeover by SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 2011, Justice Carolyn Demarest was outraged to read in the news that the bailout had failed and the state, with the okay of Gov. Cuomo, was cutting its multi-million-dollar losses and shutting LICH.
      Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion#ixzz2d5FVUcaG asset order scaled back on Friday by Judge Demarest. will keep LICH assets so long as they don't...

Campaigns Down to the Wire 
The Undiscovered Candidates

It is not two weeks to go. With the Labor Day weekend and the Jewish New Year the campaign really has only 6 days to go.  That means newspaper endorsements, which the NYT did today and tons of commercial ads that make money for television stations whose coverage of the campaigns are limited to headlines and lifestyle features.  Unfortunately the newspaper which usually can be counted on to provide new information about the candidates is limiting itself to repeating campaign consultants press releases.  So the public who knows all about Weiner sexing and nothing how the candidates will pay for the new union contract and rising pension and health care costs will be force to vote with incomplete knowledge of the candidates. For the first time in at least 2 weeks the NYP is not blasting Spitzer today. Did they finally get it that the attacks are not working.  Is that why Col Allen is coming back to NYP to take over and fix the newsroom.  Everyone in the mayor campaigns are on edge today waiting for the NYT mayoral endorsement which will come this afternoon. All the major candidates are in Washington today with the Rev. Sharpton for the 50th Anniversary of the Dr. Kings March on Washington. 

__________________________________________________________________________________
NY1 Offer Correction to Missing Debate Questions


True News Wags NY1 Debate Team
On Thursday True News said the mayoral debate was poorly run by the moderator and reporters asking questions.  We said the many important topic were not covered, union contracts, rising pension and health care costs and nothing was said about housing, education and homelessness.

Errol Lewis and NYT's David Chen On Last Nights Road to City Hall Agreed

"Lewis: I do not want to bore everyone with the difficulties of time management when you doing a live debate, like we were handing before. We prepared more questions than we had time ito ask … what was one of the topic that you would like us to get to David Chen from the NYT (who was a questioner at the debate)."
Chen: "We wanted to ask them how they would deal with contracts and pension. . .
We wanted to ask more about education, housing and homelessness."


.
Thursday's True News on the Mayoral Debate
No Hard Hitting Questions From Debate Moderator the Candidates Tag Team Mud Fight About Nothing
At times, taken aback by the intensifying barrage, Mr. de Blasio appealed to the moderator to intervene. “In professional wrestling,” Mr. de Blasio moaned, “they allow tag teams.”  The Moderator who many believe did not show up for the debate not only let the mud fight go on he and his fellow journalist did not ask on question that got the candidates go beyond their talking points.  No questions were ask about how to pay for new union contracts, rising pension and health care costs. No questions about affordable housing and homelessness and no questions about education. They did for the dumb lightening round questions when we found out the important information that the candidates would not want to be mayor of any other city.

__________________________________________________________________________________
Breaking NYT's Saturday Endorses

Daniel Squadron For Public Advocate
Mr. Squadron has shown himself to be a strong advocate for ethics reform in Albany. He helped pass tough gun laws earlier this year; forced the Bloomberg administration to stop charging rent to homeless families; proposed an alliance to get wealthier park lovers to help fund poorer parks; and helped end the interminable negotiations over Brooklyn Bridge Park, now a celebrated part of the city’s waterfront. He promises to fight for the city’s “overlooked orphans in our political system” — just what a public advocate should do. 


Melinda Katz For Queens Boro President
The two front-runners are a former Assembly member and City Council member, Melinda Katz, and City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. Mr. Vallone has sometimes acted with refreshing independence in his votes on the Council, but Ms. Katz has a more thoughtful concept about how to work within the limits of the office to make a difference. Her priorities include an economic master plan for development in the borough — important because the borough president advises the city about such issues. She also wants a better plan for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where a soccer stadium is being considered. We endorse Melinda Katz. 

Gail Brewer for Manhattan Boro President
Gale Brewer stands out, even in this impressive field. Ms. Brewer most recently was the guiding force behind the city’s humane new sick leave policy of five days a year for most workers. She promises to focus the office on helping constituents, like those who will almost certainly be confused next year about health care reform, and to work for more affordable housing in new developments. As she has in the past, she plans to hire interns who go on to become more responsible leaders or simply better citizens. Ms. Brewer is too rare a public official to retire. We endorse her for Manhattan borough president.  

NYT Rainbow?
 How much will this be a factor? RT : Stringer, Squadron and Quinn (or de Blasio)? Will the NYT go with an all-white slate?



__________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday Mayoral Race Update
 
Aug. 24: Where the Candidates Are Today(NYT)
Attack of the Attack Ads
The Ad Campaign: Catsimatidis Goes on the Attack(NYT) * John Catsimatidis has his very own newspaper.


Lhota takes out big guns, enlisting Giuliani in a new TV ad rebutting attacks from Catsimatidis:
Whole Lhota love by Rudy (NYP) Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota is pulling out his biggest gun — Rudy Giuliani — in an escalating TV ad war with rival John Catsimatidis.  The former mayor stars in a 30-second campaign commercial being released today to counter two attack...Giuliani goes on TV to back after "desperate" Cats attack

Anthony Weiner: Changing the Conversation(WSJ)
For much of the past three months, Mr. Weiner's campaign for New York City mayor has been an exercise in trying to change the conversation from a sexting scandal to his ideas for the city. * Car Crash Anthony Weiner in minor car crash on FDR; no injuries: New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner was not ...
. launches new "Home Stretch" website that looks shockingly similar to previous website.

 


NYC voters: The Times has a single place to watch, analyze & truth-squad all the mayoral campaign ads. Worth a click







Advocates, Mayoral Candidates Head To DC To Mark 50 Years Since March On Washington (NY1)





__________________________________________________________________________________
An Evil Lobbyist

George Arzt is a political adviser, lobbyist, spokesman, public relations consultant, and a very generous campaign contributor. . .   He makes Kings by electing them to public office and then uses his kings to Make $$$
One of George Arzt's clients is Extell, and Extell is the sponsor of the exclusive, luxury condo called One57 that is the target of an investigation for possible corruption. Extell has funneled approximately $75,000 in campaign contributions to Christine Quinn. According to this report, generated moments ago from the New York City Campaign Finance Board Web site, Mr. Arzt has contributed $90,500 in political donations to municipal candidates.2013-08-23 George Arzt Campaign Donations - Master List - Quick Search - New York City Campaign Finance Boa...






AG Trumping The Donald's university: Schneiderman slaps mogul with $40 million fraud suit(NYDN)

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's lawsuit against Donald Trump's university offers compelling evidence of a bait and switch offering a false promise of getting rich to too many, the Times writes: http://nyti.ms/1djp7Gl


Union edict to avoid running risks of ‘frisk’
NYPD cops won't go above and beyond the call of duty over 'stop-and-frisk' lawsuit risks(NYP)
Nypd beat cops posted a police-union warning in every precinct yesterday instructing officers not to go above and beyond the call of duty — or risk losing their jobs because of the new stop-and-frisk laws.* \Detroit’s frisk lesson(NYP) * Mayor to Fight Police Law in Court(WSJ)
* Bloomberg Hopes No Mass-Retirement Of NYPD Officers Is Coming
*When cops pull back(NYP)  A columnist explains what P.B.A. president Pat Lynch's warning to cops means for the city's safety. [Bob McManus]* Data Show Steep Decline in Police Stops in New York City This Year
 
Shooting off their mouths: Gun-carrying criminals taunting NYPD cops after stop-frisk ruling(NYP)

3 Year Old Shot

Why Are Jobs Not Coming to New York?
Despite 110,000 New Jobs In Last Year, State Now Lags Behind Nat'l Rate(NY1)
According to the state comptroller, New York added 110,000 jobs between June of 2012 and 2013, but for the the first time in six years is now lagging behind the national rate in nearly every major sector.


Bloomberg's: Don't Piss Rule to Success
Bloomberg Shares a Few Secrets to Success: Be Early, Stay Late and Hold It In(NYT_
Bloomberg's key to success: Don't go to the bathroom(NYP)
Bloomberg's recipe for success? Stay at your desk, be the last to leave, and DON'T go to the bathroom(NYDN)
Bloomberg Shares Success Secrets(WSJ)








Bike Share: Less Problems More Riders

  • [image]Bike-Share Gripes Drop, for Now(WSJ)
    Since Citi Bike launched in late May, the number of complaints about the nation's largest bike-share system have decreased sharply—even as ridership increased, according to city data.


Is the NY Post Leaving the Door Open for An Endorsement of Speaker Quinn?

Quinn Newspaper Endorsement Dream
The Post Said That de Blasio Charges That the Bills Stopping Racial Profiling Were Rightly Counted by the Speaker Who Said That Racial Profiling is Already Against the Law
Big bad bill(NYP Ed) It wasn’t enough for de Blasio to support the council’s overrides. In a bid to paint himself as the most anti-stop-and-frisk candidate, he’s misrepresenting the lawsuit bill by characterizing it as a ban on racial profiling.  That was too much for Chris Quinn, who voted yea for the inspector bill, nay on the lawsuit bill. In Wednesday night’s debate, she pointed out — to cheers — that racial profiling is already against the law.*


Remember David Yassky Got All Newspaper Endorsement in 2009 for Comptroller and Lost


NYT mayoral endorsement puts city on edge?
    1. NYT edit board divided on mayoral endorsement, reports:
      27s
        The divided story sound like a spin to cover their ass with progressives with there coming Quinn endorsement.
      1. 31m
        Don't ever change, True News.


        A War For Control of the New York Times
The Suit in the Newsroom (NY Magazine)

An unusual Times executive— for unusual times.
Mark Thompson, the still relatively new CEO of The New York Times, has taken an aggressively hands-on approach to managing the paper's editorial resources, a move that has frustrated Executive Editor Jill Abramson, according to a new report from New York magazine. Thompson "told a Times executive that there was no job at the paper he couldn’t perform, including Abramson’s."* "Times communications staff objected" to Thompson/Abramson Silicon Valley trip: Previously:

'Times' editor Jill Abramson opens up about layoffs, the time she almost quit, and loneliness at the top(Capital) * Jill Abramson 'Isolated' At New York Times, Clashing With Mark Thompson: Report(Huff Post) * HUGE: NY Times Joins Edward Snowden Game(Huff Post) * NYT CEO Mark Thompson to on keeping Nate Silver: “I would not say it was an overwhelming priority.* NY Times to help Guardian publish more Snowden stories on UK surveillance, as gov pressures Guardian not to print: * NYT on the central role Pentagon is playing in Silicon Valley (NYT) * NYT editor Jill Abramson says she has a "taster" to read articles about her first before she has to read press about herself * "Are you a bitch?" First question asked to Jill Abramson during a recent TNR interview  
Yikes. NYT CEO Mark Thompson's turnaround plan way heavy on the jargon. He talks of "form factors" and a new "skills mix." 

Hearing that board made an endorsement decision today for mayoral etc...some say it influences NY Times decision



Mayoral Campaigns Updates
Interesting graphic treatment: Tracking the Mayoral Candidates Across New York City
You think the NYC mayoral candidates disagree now? Wait until October.
* Lupica: After Michael Bloomberg and Ray Kelly, city may be ran by opportunists like Christine Quinn(NYDN)
* What mayoral candidates have revealed about the secrets of campaigning in 5 months and 3200 combined events
* inbox: "Reps. Rangel & Meeks to Call on Bill de Blasio to Take Down Untruthful Ad." 
* NYT mayoral endorsement puts city on edge (Politics)
The sharp divide between mayoral candidates on raising taxes on wealthy, visualized.
  1. 2m
    I'm no fan but his español in this ad is better than some of our own Latino politicians.

    1. 1m
      . said he would keep Ray Kelly. "I’m not sure he wants to stay… his integrity has been impugned by people who have no right."
      New in : "Would you raise NYC taxes on the wealthy?"
      Quinn, De Blasio Continue To Attack Each Other  
__________________________________________________________________________________
Stop and Frisk


Both overrides passed: IG bill 39-10; profiling 34-15; Vallone & Halloran were absent. Bloomberg: "It is a dangerous piece of legislation and we will ask the courts to step in before innocent people are harmed.  Today’s vote is an example of election year politics at its very worst & political pandering at its most deadly."

Council Overrules Bloomberg on Police Monitor and Profiling Suits(NYT) *New York City Council overrides Mayor Bloomberg’s vetoes, passes bills to rein in aggressive policing(NYDN)* Overrides vetoes of NYPD watchdog bills, Bloomberg says oversight jeopardizes city safety. * City Council overrides Mayor Bloomberg’s vetoes on NYPD stop-and-frisk measures(NYP) * Council Reverses Bloomberg Veto of Policing Bills(NYT) * Dealing With Crime in New York(NYT Ed) How can the next mayor move beyond the stop-and-frisk controversy and set priorities for   criminal justice in the city?*  


The News calls the City Council’s override a “legislative crime” and predicts “there will be blood” now that police and the next mayor will be “neutered” by an inspector general: http://nydn.us/1f1Dz1X

[image]City Council Overrides Mayor's Vetoes on NYPD Bills(WSJ)

The City Council's approval of the Community Safety Act was a "stinging defeat yesterday for Mayor Michael Bloomberg" since the administration "hoped to pick off one or more council members". [Sally Goldenberg]* The override of the mayoral vetoes were "a stark reminder of his diminished ability to influence city politics in the waning months of his administration." [J. David Goodman]
  1. 2m
    Independent Mayoral Candidate Slams City Council for Tying the Hands of our Cops This veto override is unsafe for NYC

    “We believe that we have a very good case in court that state law is what determines criminal procedures and not city law, and, so, we will certainly appeal that.” – Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the City Council’s override of his veto of legislation aimed at reforming stop-and-frisk tactics, via The Wall Street Journal.
    Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that courts would likely throw out legislation that allows state lawsuits on racial profiling, one of two measures aimed at stop-and-frisk the City Council passed this week, The Wall Street Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/1797AvW 

    __________________________________________________________________________________
    Comptroller Debate


    A Friendly Comptroller Debate Hurts Stringer, But May Have Found A Baby Sitter

    Comptroller Debate Is Nearly Friendly(NYT)
    Among the usual sharp exchanges in the third and final debate between the two Democratic candidates for city comptroller were moments of levity and a little singing. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer swatted away Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s attacks about his tax returns and his family’s foundation at a city comptroller debate on Thursday night. Stringer said that he wouldn’t trust Spitzer with his pension at the comptroller debate, but he would trust Spitzer to babysit his children, although his wife, Elyse Buxbaum immediately disagreed on Twitter, the Post writes
    Stringer says he was first NYCERS pension fund trustee to demand ban on use of placement agents. *  Stringer said he doesn't believe in term limits, but he points out he campaigned for Thompson to defeat Bloomberg in 2009. * Spitzer whirls around Stringer's
    comments on claims, saying the BP was part of the establishment that allowed Bloomberg a third term. * Marcia Kramer asks Stringer how many NYCERS pension trustee meetings he personally attended. Stringer can't precisely answer.
    Stringer, Spitzer Clash in Comptroller Debate(WSJ) In their last official debate before the Sept. 10 Democratic primary, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer each played up their roots Thursday night.

    Comptroller Updates
    At minority biz roundtable, @Spitzer2013 says he can use his real estate connections to help smaller businesses #2013
    Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson and Curtis Sliwa break bread.
    Before Stringer’s Failed Run as a Barkeep, There Was Another One(NYT) Stringer took over management of a Manhattan bar called Simon Sez in the fall of 1990, but the bar closed after a dispute with the landlord.
    Spitzer Appears On Paterson's Radio Show


    A Class Act As Debate Moderator, But Drop the Lighting Round and Singing Crap
    Marcia Kramer showing why she's the queen in this business. Can she moderate all debates going forward?

    Spitzer said pension fund has underperformed. He said the performance was bad b/c leadership was inadequate. * Marcia Kramer questions Stringer about the number of pension board meetings he attended. For a moment, he looked like deer in headlights.Stringer with the cut-down to Spitzer: "You didn't make that much of a difference... You've been in your ivory tower," not real NY. * "Yes, I fought big battles. I won some. I lost some. I made a mistake, but I made a difference." - Spitzer * "I’m glad that you finally showed up at a NYCHA development," Stringer says. "I think it’s good for you to see how other people live."* Spitzer says he invited Stringer to come look at his tax returns, but he hasn't come.

    Spitzer said Silver should step  down immediately in tonight's debate 
    Eliot Spitzer called on Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to resign, while Stringer, his opponent in the city comptroller race, hedged in his reponse during a debate on Thursday, City & State reports: http://bit.ly/14q2uLx
     "You said you’d send them to me," Stringer says. * The Spitzer Foundation has made a real difference in NYC -very much a tribute to the rags-to-riches story of Bernard Spitzer.* Spitzer brings up dad's rags to riches story. "This is not a question abt your dad," Stringer says. "You have maligned my dad’s foundation" * Stringer blasts Spitzer for being totally absent on midtown zoning issue. * Spitzer says Stringer's support of midtown east rezoning was a "cave to developers" * "Spitzer's goal seemed to be to say 'third term' as many times as possible." cc


    WATCH: Spitzer Will Work For A Dollar A Year(Huff Post)

    Stringer believes in pension consolidation; Stringer says "compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world." * will work as NYC Comptroller for $1 a year. Will we get our money's worth? * Thought Spitzer was gonna say he needs that comptroller money. Then says forget it, I'll take $1 * Eliot's Debate Victory - Memorandum RE: Eliot’s Debate Victory To: Interested Parties From: Spitzer 2013...
    1. 1m
      Turns out Scott Stringer ran a second failed bar in NYC: with his latest scoop:
      endorsed on Friday by MLK's former chief of staff, Wyatt Tee Walker
      Eliot Spitzer: The Michael Corleone Of Auditors? Curtis Sliwa Wonders... | New York Daily News  



    The New Zelig Thomas Lopez-Pierre
    1. 6m
      Why writing satire about NYC politics is impossible.
    * 'YOU'RE TURNING ME ON': Pro-Spitzer race-baiting pol accused of groping woman at Stringer event(NYDN)   Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said former Council candidate Thomas Lopez-Pierre, touched her butt and whispered 'You’re turning me on.' * Stringer, Spitzer More Civil In Latest Debate (NY1)

    __________________________________________________________________________________
    Mayoral Campaign


    Russian Debate
    Mayoral Hopefuls Flaunt Their Russian Ties in Little Odessa(NYDN)







    The Battle Continues to Keep LICH Open

    Doctors Seek a Partner to Keep a Hospital Open(NYT)
    Serious obstacles are anticipated in turning around Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn.






    Nobody Watch the Mayoral Debate on NY1

     NY1 Exposed as Low Rated Cable
    That OnlyPolitical Insiders Watch

    NY1, the cable news channel that telecast the face-off on Wednesday, has a smaller audience than the network TV stations.
    Fiery Mayoral Debate Drew Few Viewers, Nielsen Says(NYT)
    The audience represented barely a tenth of the viewership of the previous televised mayoral debate, which was broadcast on WABC-TV on Aug. 13 and averaged 449,000 viewers, although it is not clear how many of those viewers lived in New York City.


    Candidate Dismisses Talk of Age(WSJ)

    New York City Council Member Letitia "Tish" James, a candidate for public advocate, didn't address questions about her age Thursday, saying she is "54 and fabulous."


    New York City spent $167,000 per inmate last year and had 12,287 prisoners on an average day, according to the Independent Budget Office’s first-ever study of the city’s jails, the Post writes: http://bit.ly/14K2UbS






DiNapoli: New York's Job Count Up, Though Growth Slows
New York’s job count exceeded pre-recession levels, with 110,000 jobs added in the past year, but the job growth rate fell behind the nation’s for the first time in six years, State of Politics reports: http://bit.ly/14pVVZl 

Despite 110,000 New Jobs In Last Year, State Now Lags Behind Nat'l Rate

 


__________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday's Mayoral Debate

No Hard Hitting Questions From Debate Moderator the Candidates Mud Fight About Nothing
At times, taken aback by the intensifying barrage, Mr. de Blasio appealed to the moderator to intervene. “In professional wrestling,” Mr. de Blasio moaned, “they allow tag teams.”  The Moderator who many believe did not show up for the debate not only let the mud fight go on he and his fellow journalist did not ask on question that got the candidates go beyond their talking points.  No questions were ask about how to pay for new union contracts, rising pension and health care costs. No questions about affordable housing and homelessness and no questions about education. They did for the dumb lightening round questions.

A Tag Team Gang Developed Because the Debate Was So Out of Control
Instead the candidates offered dozens of new services and programs with a simple way to fund the extra costs, taxing the rich. De Blasio said taxing the rich will pay for universal Pre-K.  Others said that the rich will pay to keep hospitals open, to make up for federal cuts to the NYCHA.  Others said that keeping the middle class, fixing problems in education and all the other ills in the city would be solved by getting rid of Bloomberg.  The debate moderators did not once challenge the candidates to state the obvious That taxing the rich is not enough money to cover all the promises they are making.

The Permanent Government Now Runs the Press, No Jack Newfield to Fight Them
When Weiner asked a serious question about the council slush fund cover-up of Quinn his question was cut off by a reporter saying that she said enough.  It looks like these reporters are picked to question candidates in debates because they will not ask questions challenging the control of the city's permanent government.  Not one question was ask if the candidates who all took money from Excell One57- door for the rich and one for the poor - would return the money to the developer. Or if they would return the money to the Rudin people who are build luxury co-op on the site of the closed St. Vincent's. Besides different ideas how to deal with stop and frisk not one candidate or debate journalist asked or talked about how to keep New Yorkers safe.


De Blasio: "Stop lying to the people of New York City"   
                                                              Bill Thompson
De Blasio Is Frequent Target at a Fiery Mayoral Debate(NYT)
In a prime-time rumpus, the Democratic candidates for mayor of New York mounted an attack on Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, who has captured the excitement of left-wing voters. *
 A fiery William C. Thompson Jr. told him bluntly,“Stop lying to the people of New York.”* hristine C. Quinn dismissed him as an empty suit who is really good at telling other people what to do, but not always so good at getting things done.”  *When it was his turn, Anthony D. Weiner even suggested that he might be implicated in a federal slush fund corruption investigation.  

Candidates took swings at Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s credibility in a televised debate, calling on him to take down a ad on ending stop-and-frisk policies.  Quinn rolled out a new campaign ad painting de Blasio as a flip-flopper on extending term limits and city council member items, a departure from her previous feel-good messages, the Daily News reports * a good read: In the second big mayoral debate, Quinn and Thompson 'tag team' Bill de Blasio De Blasio thanked Quinn after she defended him from Anthony Weiner's accusation of being part of the slush fund scandal. [Michael Barbaro and Michael Grynbaum] * Mayoral debate puts de Blasio in the hot seat: Barbs fly on stop-frisk, flip-flopping
Gentrification Hasn't Been Good To Black Neighborhoods, Candidate Says
  1. 43m
    . on debate moderating prep: "First, Mr. Chen said, his daughters decide what outfit he should wear."

Daily News Endorses Quinn
The News endorses Christine Quinn for mayor, arguing that she has the “clearest understanding of the difficulties facing the city with the most extensive record of getting things done” The News endorses Quinn because she combines the clearest understanding of the difficulties facing the city with the most extensive record of getting things done. Her proposals for the working and middle classes could actually come to fruition, as opposed to the many pie-in-the-sky pronouncements of her competitors. In DN's 2001 endorsed Peter Vallone Sr. While criticizing Quinn over her over stop-and-frisk and member items, the paper echoed Ms. Quinn’s campaign messaging by declaring, “Measured by delivered results, Quinn outdistances the field.”One editorial page criticized Quinn for focusing too much on issues like morning-after pills for public-school students. [New York Post]

DN Problems With Thompson
Thompson case has been less compelling than Quinn’s more specific agenda of do-able plans. Unfortunately, Thompson undermined his cause by taking the endorsement of the United Federation of Teachers at a time when the UFT is the largest claimant on back pay and is fighting to turn back the Bloomberg push for teacher accountability. Thompson also disappointed by shifting from being a public-safety-oriented candidate who claimed the mantle of sensible NYPD reforms to a candidate who leaped to the forefront on stop-question-frisk with overheated rhetoric.

Gay City News issued an even more passionate Quinn endorsement, which they said was not due to the historical nature of her candidacy: “Many, no doubt, will characterize our endorsement as a straight-up matter of identity politics. Baloney. This newspaper has never shrunk from holding the speaker accountable.” "Much of the other criticism Quinn faces from her opponents is based, in one way or another, on a factor for which she ought not be penalized — her role as the second most powerful elected official in the city, which involved responsibilities and risks far greater than those faced by any other candidate in the mix."

DEFINING AFFORDABILITY DOWN: Many candidates and elected officials used the rhetoric of affordable housing for political ends, but City Council Watch’s Seth Barron questions whether they mean what they say: http://bit.ly/151UBOJ

 



Cats Late Rent Problem
Cats $cratch fever: Landlords forced to chase rent from billionaire mayoral candidate(NYP) 
Landlords have filed 170 lawsuits against Gristedes in New York’s civil court over the past three decades — most for being late on paying rent, an examination of court records by The Post has revealed.



The NYP Can't Hack Covering the Mayor's Race
Nothing in the Post Today: Repeats Quinn De Blasio Child Care Fight, Quinn and Morning After Pills for Teens and the Daily Attacks on Spitzer
Update: The Progress NYC poll found polling found 39% for Spitzer, 33% for Mr. Stringer and 28% undecided

De Blasio’s wife questions how childless Quinn can relate to child-care issues(NYP)
 
Spitzer stumps with race-baiting activist (NYP) Eliot Spitzer has gone from cavorting with hookers to hobnobbing with race-baiting political activists.  The former governor, who is leading the polls in the race for city comptroller, toured the Frederick Douglass Houses in Manhattan Valley.Spitzer campaigned with Thomas Lopez-Pierre, whose race-baiting antics have horrified the Democratic establishment, but Spitzer’s allies said he didn’t know who he was *
A presser held by Stringer supporters denouncing Eliot Spitzer took a turn for the crazy. via

Comptroller Debate
Stringer says he was first NYCERS pension fund trustee to demand ban on use of placement agents. *  Stringer said he doesn't believe in term limits, but he points out he campaigned for Thompson to defeat Bloomberg in 2009. * Spitzer whirls around Stringer's comments on claims, saying the BP was part of the establishment that allowed Bloomberg a third term. * Marcia Kramer asks Stringer how many NYCERS pension trustee meetings he personally attended. Stringer can't precisely answer.

Marcia Kramer showing why she's the queen in this business. Can she moderate all debates going forward?

Spitzer said pension fund has underperformed. He said the performance was bad b/c leadership was inadequate. * Marcia Kramer questions Stringer about the number of pension board meetings he attended. For a moment, he looked like deer in headlights.Stringer with the cut-down to Spitzer: "You didn't make that much of a difference... You've been in your ivory tower," not real NY. * "Yes, I fought big battles. I won some. I lost some. I made a mistake, but I made a difference." - Spitzer * "I’m glad that you finally showed up at a NYCHA development," Stringer says. "I think it’s good for you to see how other people live."* Spitzer says he invited Stringer to come look at his tax returns, but he hasn't come.

Spitzer said Silver should step  down immediately in tonight's debate "You said you’d send them to me," Stringer says. * The Spitzer Foundation has made a real difference in NYC -very much a tribute to the rags-to-riches story of Bernard Spitzer.* Spitzer brings up dad's rags to riches story. "This is not a question abt your dad," Stringer says. "You have maligned my dad’s foundation" * Stringer blasts Spitzer for being totally absent on midtown zoning issue. * Spitzer says Stringer's support of midtown east rezoning was a "cave to developers" * Stringer believes in pension consolidation; Stringer says "compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world." * will work as NYC Comptroller for $1 a year. Will we get our money's worth? * Thought Spitzer was gonna say he needs that comptroller money. Then says forget it, I'll take $1 * Eliot's Debate Victory - Memorandum RE: Eliot’s Debate Victory To: Interested Parties From: Spitzer 2013...


Spitzer received his first newspaper endorsement today, in an admittedly counter-intuitive editorial in The Queens Chronicle.
\* Middle-class miss (NYP Ed) Spitzer opposes is the rezoning of Midtown East. The Post wonders why Spitzer opposes the rezoning of Midtown East since it would attract businesses and help create jobs for the middle class * Spitzer’s family trust has invested a quarter of its $40 million assets in funds incorporated in the Cayman Islands and many executives who invest on its behalf are previous campaign donors, the Times writes
Family Trust Offers Possible Clues to How Spitzer Would Invest City’s Funds(NYT) * Headline of the Day: “Paterson explains why Spitzer’s sins are forgivable.” Melinda Katz sent a mailer calling Peter Vallone Jr. "Conservative Man." [Azi Paybarah]
  1. 9m
    Katz calls me ambitious yet She's run for assemb, congress, council, comp, now BP! I've run for one office. hevesi taught her well


 
Dr. Quinn, medicine woman(NYP)
 With New Yorkers wondering about how the next mayor will address job creation, crime control and education reform, what should we make of a candidate who spends her campaign time talking about condoms and morning-after pills for pre-teens? The Post chuckles at Quinn for announcing she’d devote herself to improving the official New York City condom and chides her for her idea to give the morning after pill to 11-year-olds

  2. 59m
    When it comes to what 11-year-olds need, high on that list is education, not condoms & morning-after pills.

    Joe Lhota Pitches Himself as the Public Safety Candidate in Bay Ridge(NYO)
    Joe Lhota in Brooklyn today.
    Taking his mayoral campaign to a right-leaning church in Brooklyn, Republican Joe Lhota yesterday pitched himself to Brooklyn seniors as the candidate who would keep the city’s streets safe.
    John Catsimadtidis claims incorrectly in a new ad that Joe Lhota “created” the
    job of MTA chairman.


    Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a socially conservative Orthodox Jewish pol who drew national headlines after Politicker reported on his Purim costume, is throwing his support to former Comptroller Bill Thompson after publicly debating whether to back him or Mr. de Blasio. “Both lobbied me nonstop,” Mr. Hkind said of the two.^
    "New York City’s growing Orthodox Jewish population, the largest outside Israel, may play a decisive role in choosing the next mayor, with some votes turning on regulation of a 1,500-year-old circumcision ritual." [Henry Goldman] * Video: Assemblyman Dov Hikind Endorses @BillThompson4NYC for Mayor - 2013
Weiner
The Ad Campaign: Weiner Seeks Middle Ground on Stop-and-Frisk Issue(NYT)
Anthony Weiner sends this clip from last night's debate out to his list:

Liu PAC Knows Nothing
A union says its outside spending on campaign ads for John Liu is perfectly legal because the ads were taken from Liu’s website without his campaign’s knowledge. [Celeste Katz]

 Mayoral Debate

de Blasio: "We have to end this epidemic of hospital closings," by having leaders "step up." Doesn't say how to change economics. * Thundering applause and cheers for @quinn4nyc at start of mayoral debate * Bill de Blasio cites court victory on LICH. "Health care must be provided locally," he says. * now to St. Johns in Rockaways at risk of being closed too. as Mayor, she'd create "Public Health Infrastructure Commission" * Quinn smiles after Liu hits BDB for being great on LICH in the last few weeks. * John Liu says the hospitals should not be treated as purely private entities. 
"Speaker Quinn you were no where on scene," on St. Vincents. * Liu to de Blasio: "Where were you for first three years" on hospitals. * "I want to completely flip that script" and make NYC a single-payer, not employer-based healthcare model, Anthony Weiner says. * Anthony Weiner -- who claims unique expertise on healthcare issues -- says NYC should be a "healthcare laboratory." * Weiner calls for a single payer model for healthcare * Quinn says the leaders of St. Vincent's lied to the city, and that killed the promise of the first rezoning. * Chris Quinn: "I'm so proud of many of the efforts so many of us did that kept St. Vincent's open" as long as possible. * just put on blast  

Board of St Vincent's "lied to us" says who says it's "sad" that stands w/ people like Sarandon who opposed rezoning*  says taxing those who make $1million or more by 1pct will raise revenue * Bill Thompson: higher taxes not off the table, but last resort. * "There is no way to rule out" raising taxes says but if we can't get what we need "we'll fight for progressive taxes" * . - We've been dependent on way too long. * Next question from Grace Rauh: Many new jobs are low-paying. How do you create good-paying jobs and limit red tape? * Well said . We already have the money for universal pre-k , we need the space. * Chris partnered with CUNY to create an Advanced Software Development program helping students get jobs in the tech industry* Quinn says "on day one" she will drop lawsuits about living wage and prevailing wage bills.  *

de Blasio: subsidies to companies like Fresh Direct in Bx should go to, say, CUNY students * John Liu goes after Chris Quinn, Bill de Blasio AND Bill Thompson on what he says their late or absent support of living wage. * Thompson going after de Blasio pre-K tax hike plan hard: "Your proposal is almost a tax in search of an idea." * . (who notes was out of town for the Crown Heights riots) stresses disaster preparation * Salgado is interrupted in middle of his answer. Awkward! * "We are going to override the veto of legislation related to stop and frisk" on Thursday, Chris Quinn says. * Quinn, responding to de Blasio ? abt racial profiling bill, notes rcial profiling already illegal. Bill gives ppl right to go to state court * tonight's story: Quinn & Thompson team up to take down . * De Blasio objects to about "tag teaming" by Quinn & Thompson.  

* Liu asks Thompson why he didn't stop CityTime. "Could I have done more? Absolutely," Thompson says. * Sal Albanese question to DeBlasio about his staff members posting anti-NYPD comments. Should they have been fired? * Bill Thompson has now called deBlasio a liar twice. * Anthony Weiner asks Speaker Quinn about the slush fund scandal. He asks if de Blasio was not implicated in some report. * Quinn to Weiner: "Casting aspersions on the public advocate like that is just outrageous." Strangely shifting alliances in this debate! * And Quinn addressing the controversy du jour: BdB's wife's comments were "upsetting" to her. * "It was very hurtful in my household." – on Dowd column.   "Yes, I have sinned," Bill de Blasio on texting while driving. Weiner gets big laugh when he admits to it. * Quinn, Weiner, de Blasio say bike helmets shouldn't be mandatory. Weiner says, "Enough of the nanny state," tho Bloomberg didn't mandate. * Bill Thompson says as his legacy, if elected, he wants to be remembered for improving NYC education. * "I'm horrified all of my colleagues have demonized police officers," says in closing * says senior services should be protected, not cut, in budget discussions. * What area would you never cut? Albanese: parks. Liu: schools. Thompson, Salgado: senior services. De Blasio: aid for homeless, runaway youth*
Lots of families joining candidates on stage but no sign of Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin.

City Tries to Save School Librarians
City officials asked the state Education Department for a waiver from state regulations that require middle schools and high schools to provide a librarian for part or all of the day depending on enrollment, the Wall Street Journal reports: http://on.wsj.com/19LdRBO
 





 Sexual Harassment Victims Accuse Silver of A Cover Up

Silver was an “aider and abettor” of alleged groping that former Vito Lopez inflicted on his staff, two former employees claimed in a court filing

Ex-Vito Lopez staffers accuse Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of coverup (NYP) Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was an “aider and abettor” of the alleged groping and unwanted come-ons that disgraced former Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez inflicted on two staffers, the women claimed yesterday in a new court filing. * "In Albany, where even transparency is discussed in secret…" * Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was an “aider and abettor” of the alleged groping and unwanted come-ons that Lopez inflicted on two staffers, the women claimed in a new court filing.***Vito Lopez to sue over $300G sexual harassment fine he claims is 'excessive'(NYDN) *  In response to Silver's motion to dismiss?


A Battle in the DiNapoli Cuomo War
Watching the watchdog (NYDN)

Tom DiNapoli gets a much-deserved audit of his pension management. Lawsky found deficiencies in the computer system that keeps track of the million-plus persons enrolled in the state’s $160 billion pension fund, of which DiNapoli is sole trustee. * The Times Union writes that it will be far easier to fix the outdated computer systems at the Comptroller’s office than it will be to repair the damage between the office and the Department of Financial Services after their public spat: http://bit.ly/17XEL3O
 



The NYP Does Not Ask If Quinn Will Return Her  
Contributions From Extell ($75,000)


Christine Quinn slams use of 'poor door' for subsidized-housing tenants(NYP)
Quinn blasted Manhattan developer Extell for its plan to divide wealthy residents from lower-income ones in a Upper West Side luxury building with separate entrances and asked the state legislature to stop them
The News urges the Moreland Commission to expose the dealings in the state legislature that led luxury developers to take advantage of affordable housing legislation by receiving tax breaks: 
Quinn may OK morning-after contraceptive pill for 11-year-old middle-school girls(NYP)
Council Speaker Christine Quinn pledged to host a weekly radio in Spanish if elected mayor and her rival Bill Thompson aired his first Spanish-language ads in an effort to court Latino voters, the Wall Street Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/16v6kCH * The Post bashes politicians attacking Extell’s plan to build separate entrances for low-income housing at a new building, arguing that all welfare is segregation and advocating for vouchers instead of deals for developers: http://bit.ly/12Dm2uy 

A Police Commissioner Who Made the City Save from Crime and Terrorism is A Negative Target in the Mayoral Campaign
Bozos bash city’s hero(Goodwin, NYP)
Failed strategies? Failure would be corpses piled high on the sidewalk. Bill Thompson, who started the campaign as pro-police but was cowed by Al Sharpton, fired off his me-too statement 13 minutes later. “Ray Kelly is in denial,” Thompson said. “As Mayor, I will fix stop-and-frisk to keep New Yorkers safe and protect their rights. I’ll have a new Police Commissioner with the leadership to do the same thing. Ray Kelly is not such a leader, my Police Commissioner will be.” new focuses on saying she wants to keep as police commissioner  
Thompson Rapping Himself in A Civil Rights Flag


Thompson says cops should have to explain — in writing — whenever they stop and question anyone(NYP)  * Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson asserted himself as the civil rights candidate while outlining a detailed plan on how he would reform stop-and-frisk policies if elected, Capital New York writes: Thompson Details Changes He Would Make to Stop-and-Frisk Tactic(NYT)
The Ad Campaign: Thompson Turns Attention to Education(NYT)
Mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson puts out campaign ad about his public-school teacher mother(NYDN)
Bloomberg and Kelly Aren’t Going to Like the Latest Research on Stop-and-Frisk
New Spanish-language ad "Amigo," narrated by Ferrer, features Diaz Jr., Espaillat & Ydanis  
Anthony Weiner and Bill Thompson Release Spanish TV Spots(NYO)
 

De Blasio Is Working In Court To Keep 2 Brooklyn Hospitals Alive and the NYT Writes Only Writes That He is A Red Sox Fan

That Boston Fan? He Wants to Run New York(NYP)

Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and a leading Democratic candidate for mayor, has a longtime attachment to the Red Sox.

  
Judge pulls plug on Long Island College Hospital takeover(NYP) * Judge Rejects Long Island College Hospital’s Ownership Deal(NYT) A judge ordered Long Island College Hospital be returned to its previous owners in a surprise decision on Tuesday after the State University of New York moved to close the Brooklyn hospital in recent weeks * Killing and "chaos" inside bankrupt Interfaith Medical Center, which candidates are fighting to save. * Judge Upends Long Island College Hospital Pact(WSJ)
A Tale of Two De Blasios ”
Life support: Long Island College Hospital can stay open after judge takes assets from SUNY(NYDN)
files for motion in support of .
Brooklyn’s Interfaith Medical Center received nine citations, one for failing to care for a baby girl who died, in the past three years, further hurting the case for keeping the hospital open, The New York World writes: http://bit.ly/183SPaU 

Christine Quinn releases hard-hitting "Tale of Two de Blasios" web video:

 
's new, aggressive focus on de Blasio's record earlier this week:
. launches "Tale of Two deBlasios" arguing he flip-flops on everything except for the Red Sox 
.@deBlasioNYC releases ad on Ray Kelly and @Quinn4NY, then @Quinn4NY releases this site and video about @deBlasioNYC http://t.co/xQwfZm3Zcq


27s
Really shocked by DeBlasio's wife-Chirlane's comment re: & how she can't i


Bill De Blasio galas arranged by convicted felon eyed as illegal campaign contributions(NYDN)
Here's the Maureen Dowd that has lit up the mayor's race today, with comments about Quinn and children: king care of children at a young age and paid sick leave.”
Bx2, and notified the bus driver,...   2:41 PM
Quinn hits back at de Blasio's wife after 'inaccessible' remark during interview(NYP)Bill de Blasio was confronted by "boring white guy" quote on Piers Morgan last night: via
. campaign spox says McCray was "misquoted" by the Times, and that she never attacked Quinn's family "in any way." audio of Maureen Dowd & convo: via
  1. 3m
    De Blasio campaign says his wife was misquoted in Maureen Dowd column and releases transcript. Actual quote is wrong but gist of remark same
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    Quinn: "I have spoken fondly of Ms. McCray and Mr. de Blasio’s family. It’s unfortunate that they cannot do the same about mine."

    Is the NYT Starting A Fight Between 2 Candidates or Are They Just Incompetent?
    1. 6m

      Mud Fight 
      de Blasio Vs Quinn Started By NYT's Dowd
      De Blasio campaign accuses NYT columnist of misquoting Chirlane McCray. Campaign releases transcript and audio of interview. * 35s
      And the New York Times fixed their original Chirlane McCray article, whoops:
      Sonia Ossiorio, in Quinn email: "The statement is unfair, outrageous & offensive to Chris & men & women across NYC who don't have children" not letting up. Liz Abzug, a Quinn supporter, emails: " & owe the women of New York City an apology today"

      Maureen Dowd’s Frankenstein Quote Gave a Temporary Opening on  
      . spox: "We stand by our statement, as the essence of Ms. McCray's quote is the same." 
      the pile-on continues. 20 minutes ago, supporter emailed: " should discontinue his misleading ad" 
      UPDATED: Christine Quinn Takes Offense At Chirlane McCray's "Children" Comment | New York Daily News  
      .: " should know better. She should apologize for her unwise & unwarranted criticism of Quinn." 
      Maureen Dowd’s column corrected again: “It was the Good Stuff Diner, not the Good Times coffee shop.”
      Quinn hits back at de Blasio's wife after 'inaccessible' remark during interview
      Battle Over Web Videos(YNN)
      Quinn Versus de Blasio And The Battle Over Ray Kelly And Maureen Dowd(YNN)
      City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said comments by Bill de Blasio’s wife, suggesting Quinn is “not the type of person” you can talk about child care issues with, were over the line, The Wall Street Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/16d7cIt  
      Comments by Bill de Blasio's wife lead to dispute with Christine Quinn
      1. 35m
        Hey , political comments between and are NOT a "cat fight"!
        Maureen Dowd: "I screwed up."  
       

SUNY Took Over LICH To Sell the Real Estate - Where Is the Criminal Investigation
Judge Carolyn E. Demarest of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn wrote that it was unclear whether SUNY’s intention was always to act as a kind of Trojan horse, taking over the hospital as a way of seizing its valuable assets — it is in a brownstone neighborhood in Brooklyn, and some rooms have views of the Statue of Liberty — or whether the closing happened through incompetence or circumstances beyond its control. Despite its prized location, the hospital has a largely poor patient base and has had years of Medicaid cuts. * At bankrupt Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, patients wait avg. 10 hrs to be admitted. Those with broken bones wait 1.5 hrs to receive pain meds.Interfaith healing: Bankrupt Brooklyn hospital leads city in citations for faulty care(NY World)

As New Yorkers Die From Closed Hospitals The NYT Also Writes That A Club for Clowns is Closing
Curtain Falls on a Club for Clowns and Comics(NYT)


 Battle for the Black Vote in the Comptroller Race
NYP Blasts Spitzer While the Former Gov Wants to Reform NYCHA
Shunning client 9(NYP) Eliot’s Achilles heel: character  The Rev. Floyd Flake, senior pastor of the Allen AME Cathedral of Queens, former congressman and one of the class acts in New York politics, endorsed Eliot Spitzer for city comptroller the other day.  And then he recanted. Why was that? It’s clear that Flake came under enormous pressure from Democratic Party leaders, but there seems to be more to it than that.
For it’s also said that a different sort of pressure was brought by folks with no establishment credentials at all — the ladies of the Allen congregation, a 20,000-member assembly that has engaged the African-American middle class in Queens for decades. * City comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer called for sweeping reforms to the city’s public housing system and criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s suggestion of fingerprinting tenants in his first policy plans, the Associated Press reports: http://bit.ly/19wWFN1
* In controller race, Stringer goes after Spitzer’s lead among black, Latino voters(NYDN)
Eliot Spitzer touring Douglass Houses before outlining NYCHA plan
New York City comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer attacked rival Scott Stringer for helping give Mayor Michael Bloomberg a third term, which he tied to problems at NYCHA housing, Politicker writes: http://bit.ly/19JI98f 



Will the Latino Vote Decide Who the Next Mayor Comptroller 
Seeking Latino Edge in New York City Mayoral Election(WSJ)
The leading contenders for the Democratic mayoral nomination are paying close attention to Latino voters as the Sept. 10 primary approaches.
Comptroller Battle Wages on as Spitzer Angles for the Public Housing Vote(NYO)

Will Independent Party Mayoral Candidate Adolfo Carrion Pull Latino Votes Away from the Democratic Candidate and Give the GOP Mayoral Candidate A Win?  Or Will He Be Brought Off By the Dems? 
Mayoral candidate Adolfo Carrion, Jr. promises more affordable housing, explains third-party candidacy(NYDN)




Lhota: ""Everything I've done leading to this, I've always been in charge. Now I'm the product" @joelhota2013
Wooing Republican Conservatives, 's "Cats Chronicle" features photos of "Cats with Ronald Reagan."


 Weiner Fizzled
MAYORAL ERECTION: SEE stills from the TRAILER for porno flick featuring Anthony Weiner’s sexting pal Sydney Leathers … obtained EXCLUSIVELY by THE NEWS(NYDN)
The Daily News “exclusively obtained” a porn video featuring Anthony Weiner‘s former sexting pal Sydney Leathers, apparently still enjoy her 15 minutes of fame. “People already thought I made a porno, so it was like, ‘Eh, they think I did, I might as well,’” she explained. “There is sex, but it has some really funny bits too. That’s part of the reason I agreed to do it.”
. hasn't called for to drop out of mayoral race. Here's why:


If You Do Not Want to Find Corruption Use Old Technology
State Controller Thomas DiNapoli slammed by auditor for using old computer technology to manage pensions(MYDN)


  
Bloomberg's Gave Us Same Political Party Gangs of NY
Dump Manhattan GOP Leader Isaacs Movement  Begins
 Republican Party activists said Manhattan Republican Chairman Dan Isaacs is no longer viable to lead after he considered a bribe offer in an undercover FBI tape but Isaacs said he “never accepted any retainer,” the New York Post reports: http://bit.ly/1bS2ZPU






Instead of Cleaning Up New York's Political System Bloomberg the Businessman Paid the Crooks Millions to Run on Their Party Lines and Traded Jobs and Cash for Political and Lobbyists Support - The Real Legacy
 Another Criminal Party Leader Running Campaigns

Manhattan GOP leader Isaacs responds after transcript shows him entertaining $30G(NYP) bribe Manhattan Republican Party Chairman Dan Isaacs entertained a thinly disguised bribe offer from an undercover FBI agent posing as an associate of Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith, according to a transcript of taped conversations. one of his fellow diners that day, Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran, was indicted for allegedly accepting bribes to help Smith get on the GOP ballot in the mayor’s race. Update John Catsimatidis Defends Manhattan GOP Chair After Investigation Report

Issacs Dumping On His Guy Catsimatidis
In the transcript, Isaacs offers what could be construed as put-downs of Republican mayoral candidates John Catsimatidis — whom he is backing.        “ I think Malcolm is a much better candidate than John in the general election. And I’d love to see Malcolm be our nominee,” Isaacs says.

Is Catsimatidis Saying When A Party Selling A Party Ballot Line It is Ok to Take A Bribe As Long As is Done Legally?
“There’s two ways to look at the conversation,” he argued, suggesting that Mr. Isaacs could have simply directed any cash offers legally to the party’s campaign committee. “If I was a Manhattan chairman and I was there, I’d have said to the person: ‘You want to contribute to the party?’ Which is 100 percent legal. ‘Contribute to the party.’ Right?”

Common Cause Tabulates ‘Soft Money’ Contributions(YNN)

Good-government group Common Cause in its patented “Moreland Mondays” took a look at so-called “soft money” contributions from the mega-rich and corporate interests that provide unlimited funds to the aptly ”housekeeping” accounts.  The organization found that soft money has skyrocketed in recent years.Between 1999 and 2005, donors provided $46.7 million to committees for the state parties and the Legislature.

How GOP Leader Isaacs' Bribe When Down
From FBI Transcript - The undercover says he’s “willing to retain” Isaacs for business projects as they discuss helping Smith cross party lines.  At one point, the agent says he is prepared to fork over $15,000 before and $15,000 after Smith gets on the ballot.  Isaacs responds, “Look, as an attorney, I am always looking to do work. OK? So that goes without saying. And I hope and expect that I’ll be able to do stuff. You use Jay?” — a reference to Joseph “Jay” Savino, a former Bronx GOP leader indicted for accepting bribes in the Smith case.  The undercover says “yes,” he’s paying Savino. It wasn’t clear for what Savino was being paid. “I want to do the same thing. Because I’m in business as an attorney to make money,” Isaacs is quoted as saying.  “If I can hire you now, I’d love to,” the undercover responds.  The undercover tells Isaacs he has “three, four holding companies . . . And just bill me for 10 hours. I don’t care, whatever it is . . . To be honest, send me an invoice.”

The Media Ignores NY's Corrupt Political Parties During the Worse Coverage of A Mayor's Race in History

NYC Party Leaders Hire Elected Officials to Work in Their Criminal Gangs Out of Media Sight . . .  If You Want to Know Why So Many of NY's Elected Officials Wind Up in Jail, Blame the Crooked Party Bosses Who Put Them in Office

BOE Scanner Vendor Paying Grandson of Queens GOP Leader Payoff for A Pay to Play Contract(True News)
Pay to Play BOE's Lemon Contract
GOP Queens Leader commissioner voted to approve $90 million to purchase ES&S scanners that do not work for runoff elections.
According to True News tipster Phil Ragusa has been paid over 50,000 from ES&S last year in a two month period. True News Has Confirmed From A Current Top Executive That BOE warehouse employee Phil Ragusa the nephew of the Queens GOP leader is on the payroll of ESS as A Paid Consultant.True News: Why Did NYC BOE Spend $90 Million on Scanners That  *  Queens GOP Leader Accountant PhilRagusa Loses ... - True News
Queens Crap: Dan Halloran, Malcolm Smith, Vince Tabone arrested

NY Crime Ridden Political Parties
NY Political Parties for Sale: BallotCorruption 2009 Election Probe Emerges Again(WSJ) Political opponents accused the Working Families Party of running Data and Field Services as a cut-rate political consultancy for its 2009 candidates, essentially giving those contenders an in-kind campaign contribution without disclosing it to the public. The party and the consultancy have said the rates weren't artificially inexpensive.* Working Families Party Documents Subpoenaed - NYTimes.com  * Bronx GOP Boss Jay Savino busted in bribery scheme • Bronx Times * Indy Party chief in jam over wife loan The wife of the chairman of the state Independence Party solicited and received a $10,000 business loan from a candidate who got the party's coveted endorsement days later. (NYP)* The New York Daily News’ Ken Lovett reportsIndependence Party goes along with GOP scheme to dodge campaign finance laws, insiders allege New York Independence Party has gotten major cash influx from state Senate GOP in arrangement questioned by political insiders.The state Senate GOP committee and REBNY in the last six months of 2012 donated a combined $464,000 to the Independence Party. Independence Party, or GOP annex? *Bloomberg's Recent Independence Party Donations* Independence Party Is Really A Cult(True News) * Ray Harding, former head of NY Liberal party, pleads guilty to taking $800K in pension fund scandal  Raymond B. Harding Pleads Guilty in Pension Fund Corruption (NYT) *Indictment Over Bloomberg Campaign Funds (NYT) *  * Vito Lopez Uses Government Funds to Run His Machine(True News) *  A Court, Not Votes, Sustains a Political Machine in Queens (NYT)In 1998 Newfield reported that Frank Bolz III, chairman of the Queens Democratic Party's law committee, is the single biggest recipient of assignments from Nahman - collecting $178,050 for 47 paid guardianship appointments since 1992. Bronx Republican Leader Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has been investigating the aqueduct deal all year, as he has the simultaneous $50 million voting machine contract awarded by the city election board to a company, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), also represented by Sheinkopf and Levy. * Brooklyn Boss Seddio Pay to Play Like Kruger and Sampson(True News)


The Board of Elections is the Headquarters of the Organize Crime Party Bosses
NYPIRG listings showed that Sheinkopf had the third largest increase in compensation between 2008 and 2009, while Levy was ninth. Schlein was on the opposite side of the voting machine competition, representing the losing company that’s now suing. One source said Schlein was working with John Haggerty, the Republican consultant under indictment for stealing a million in campaign funds from Mayor Bloomberg and a recent top aide to Carl Paladino. Haggerty, who was said to have periodically appeared at the board, did not file as a lobbyist on the deal. A lobbyist working with Sheinkopf and Levy for ES&S, Anthony Mangone, was arrested by the feds on unrelated bribery charges the day after the January board decision. Jay Savino, the Bronx Republican county leader who nominated Foglia to be the party’s commissioner on the Board of Elections, shares an office suite with Mangone and has already been subpoenaed in the case, just one more way these incestuous circles swirl. Foglia says his relationship with Savino is “cordial.” More on the BOE Corruption, More  * BOE Scanner Vendor Paying Grandson of Queens GOP Leader Payoff for A Pay to Play Contract(True News) * Tabone steps down as Queens GOP honcho amid corruption probe ...(NYP)

Daily News to BOE Stop Knocking Off Challengers 
The News chides the Board of Elections for “going overboard” in trying to knock candidates off the ballot and argues the State Court of Appeals should reverse the board’s decisions: http://nydn.us/13QAGMG

Seddio BJ On the People of Brooklyn

Seddio: Leave the Gun Take the Cannolis(True News)  The problem the reformers have with Seddio is that except for the Daily News warning the press has done very little to inform them who is the real Frank Seddio.  There is a lot to be learned by investigating how Seddio used the machine and government to make $$$ and remain in power in a community with dramatic racial change and his loss of ability to deliver the vote.Moderator Mark Fertig asked Seddio and the other candidates running if Planning Board 18 manager Dorothy Turano should be fired because of her involvement in the Kruger scandal.  Seddio did not only answer the question but he called Fertig a very inappropriate name.It is clear from the guilty plea of Kruger and his lobbyist Lipsky that Planning Board 18 manager Dorothy Turano was deeply involved in the Kruger corruption.  Yet astonishly she still remains as chairman of that board. 

Golden and Council Control of the BOE Led to Petition Shredding
There is evidence that since the City Council shake up Of the Board of Election’s commissioners, the Board has become more corrupt. The board is now being run by several key council members and their political pals. Led by Councilman James Oddo the 4 GOP members of the council now have more power than the GOP county leaders.  They have picked the new GOP bosses in Staten Island, the Bronx and are along with Senator Golden trying to dump the Brooklyn GOP leader. With the help of the council GOP gang of 4 Senator Golden push out GOP chairman Craig Eaton guy at the BOE and replaced him with his supporter Simon Shamoun.  Now Golden is trying to use his control of the BOE to drive out Brooklyn GOP county leader Eaton.  Since Shamoun took over at the BOE, employees put in the job by Eaton have experienced constant threats of losing their jobs.   Shamoun bullied most of the Eaton job holders to join Golden slate running against Eaton.  Getting a patronage job at the BOE has often been described as the last stop.  Meaning, that board workers have problems finding jobs. Not the Donald Trump independent type.  

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Bloomberg Has Lost The New Yorker(Gawker)
This week, the New Yorker published a long elegy of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 12-year legacy. It’s brutal. Media critic Ken Auletta paints Bloomberg as a jackbooted, power-hungry bruiser: “the biggest plutocrat in a plutocratic capital, a creature of Wall Street who, flagrantly and legally, tapped his limitless bank account to become, and remain, mayor.” Asked about it by reporters—specifically about the part where Auletta describes his secret efforts to line up police commissioner Ray Kelly as a candidate to succeed him as mayor—Bloomberg refused to acknowledge the existence of the piece. 



The Post chides Gov. Andrew Cuomo for “snubbing” President Obama during his bus tour of upstate New York and guesses that the reason is because of policy differences over natural gas drilling: http://bit.ly/173zN7F


The Taxi and Limousine Commission is proposing a rule to ban green-colored vehicles for any for-hire vehicle operator without a street-hail license because of the presence of scofflaws, the Times reports: http://nyti.ms/182HdF1

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Media Covers the Slap


How come the media does not ask why St Vincent's closed? And who benefits by the hospital being closed?
After Christine Quinn took thousands of dollars from real estate developers who owned the property, she failed to keep St. Vincent’s open, leaving thousands of New Yorkers in need of medical care with nowhere to go,” it says, over video of a sad old woman with a cane sitting alone on a bench in the snow.

Man hits state senator during rally: 'If hospital was still open, I could have spent more time with dying wife'(NYP)

CITY ROOM; Quinn and a Hospital Closing
The Corrupt Rudin Luxury Condo Conversion Plan For St. Vincent's ...(Video)
NY Pop Culture & Politics: Rudin Family paid politicians 200,000 ...




The Female Candidate’s Dilemma: Christine Quinn Softens Image in Tight Mayor’s Race(NRO)

 

 

Nobody is Saving New York Now

Nonprofits Are Balking at Law on Disclosing Political Donors(NYT)
A debate in Albany over which groups should be exempt from a law on disclosing donors is quickly intensifying, echoing disputes over transparency versus privacy in other states.* The Committee to Save New York has been dormant since a state ethics law required nonprofit 501c4 groups to disclose their donors, although other organizations are seeking exemptions from the law, the Times writes: http://nyti.ms/18Jj4FR


What Happen to the Middle Class Housing

Developers Looking to Build Luxury Housing in Brooklyn
"Bruce C. Ratner...is looking for an investor to buy up to 80 percent of the rest of the $5 billion Atlantic Yards"
Times: Forest City's trying to sell up to 80% of Atlantic Yards (and didn't extended deadlines help Ratner gain "layup"?) 
Atlantic Yards plays for sale(NYP)
 



Lt. Gov. Duffy insider home deal?(TU)

Lieutenant governor defends purchase from lobby panel chief



Man pleads guilty to bribe bid after offering sex abuse victim $500K against Hasidic counselor(NYP)



Candidate for Brooklyn Prosecutor Drew Criticism for Case That Made His Name(NYT)
Kenneth P. Thompson, a successful lawyer mounting his first campaign, is challenging the vulnerable Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes.

Brooklyn D.A. Allegedly Part Of Scheme To Label Opponent AnAnti-Semite(failedmessiah)

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Tuesday's Campaign Update


Bill Thompson to Bill de Blasio: take down that ad, now! via  


 
Provocative Proposals for New York, Missing From the Campaign Trail(NYT)  Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Mr. Robins says, “our city’s become a trading post; when you talk of public housing, public hospitals, public parks — with elite exceptions — too many are subpar.” “If the wealthy, the unions, the elite nonprofits, all feel entitled to more,” he continued, “we crowd out the common good.” New York cut tens of millions of dollars from the libraries in the past five years — and spent twice as much on the High Line, a park that ignited a luxury real estate price explosion in Chelsea. Mr. Robins rolls his eyes. “If we’re going to talk about retroactive pay, they have to talk about paying into health care,” he says. “Then talk about sick time.”

De Blasio Fights The Closing of Interfaith, Breaking LICH
De Blasio filed a motion in federal bankruptcy court to halt the closure of Interfaith Medical Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant
Update: Continuum Says It "Cannot Reassume Management" Of LICH
SUNY Downstate must return LICH assets, Brooklyn judge rules
Judge Orders LICH Ownership To Be Taken From SUNY
De Blasio Appears In Court In Connection With Hospital Protest Arrest  

Where Candidates, Voters Meet to Air Their Opinions(WSJ)
The NYP Says Susan Sarandon Was Against the Expansion of St. Vincent's Hospital
De Blasio & Louise(NYP Ed)
It was a “Thelma & Louise” moment. It came at a rally yesterday, where mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio — standing in for Geena Davis’ Thelma — whined about The Post’s pointing out that the same Susan Sarandon who now rallies against the loss of St. Vincent’s hospital once helped kill its only real chance of surviving.

Stop and Frisk OK With Joe
  1. 2m
    New York's Stop-and-Frisk Ruling is Ripe for Appeal.

Caribbean Thompson
Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, whose grandparents emigrated from St. Kitts, is making a concerted effort to court Caribbean-American voters which he did not do when he ran for mayor in 2009, the New York Times writes: http://nyti.ms/1cWqTOe
Thompson did not make as concerted an effort to woo Caribbean-Americans during his previous run for mayor in 2009, but this year he is emphasizing his connection, highlighting how his grandparents immigrated from St. Kitts.  
Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson is presenting himself as the heir to the generation that marched on Washington 50 years ago next week.\
The Ad Campaign: Thompson Turns Attention to Education (NYT)
  in Crown Heights at the home of Rabbi Chanina Sperlin
Trailside: Thompson Details Changes He Would Make to Stop-and-Frisk Tactic  
Opponents Accuse De Blasio Of False Claim On Stop-And-Frisk  

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Developers and their $$$ Run NY Politics



How Will the Pols Save the Middle Class If They Are Taking $$$ From the Developers Who Are Pushing Them Out of Their Neighborhoods?
With Cutbacks in Publishing, Manufacturing Fiance The Only Major Player Left in Local NYC Politics is Real Estate . . .  And They Are Taking Over the City Council

 Real Estate Developers Will Soon Own the Council to Block the New Mayor From Cutting Their Tax Breaks

City Council Bully
Spinola is Major Player in the Jobs for New York Pac Which is Buying the Next City Council Speaker, While the Media Sleeps

Steven Spinola, president of the influential Real Estate Board of New York, said his group had been asking to have properties citywide that once were eligible for a decades-old 421a residential tax abatement to again qualify for the program. Spinola said City Hall and Silver’s chief counsel, James Yates, instead each asked for a list of specific properties that the organization wanted covered. Spinola delivered the list to the mayor’s office, the

Assembly Democrats and the state Senate. The city had two conditions, but was otherwise fine with it, Spinola said. The PAC effort is being by the Real Estate Board of New York, which includes some of the most influential figures and families in the industry, including Larry A. Silverstein, the developer of the World Trade Center, Richard S. LeFrak, Daniel R. Tishman, the Speyers and the Rudins.

Good Government Groups and Progressive Silent As IE PACS Destroy the City  Public Finance System
 
As the Millions in Tax Breaks to Excell Has Shown Real Estate Developers Already Own Albany and the Governor
In an interview, Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a government watchdog group, indicated that the multimillion-dollar effort was a significant shift in city politics and might alter the nature of campaigning on the local level.  “The entire point of a City Council race is to reflect the needs of the neighborhoods in a district,” Ms. Lerner said. “This undercuts the neighborhood-based nature of a district and replaces neighborhood concerns with industry concerns.”Pro-Business PAC Rolls Out Latest Round of Endorsements ... * Real estate PAC becomes a player in race for Staten Island Council ... * Say NO to "Jobs for NY" PAC - Ede Fox * Opponents go postal over Chin's real estate PAC mailings | The ..


Someone Must Inform Albany That Tax Breaks for the Rich Do Not Save the City's Middle Class

Our Elected Officials are Pushing the MC Out of Manhattan and Rising Rents in Brooklyn
Sheldon Silver aided Gov. Cuomo in sneaking through tax breaks for luxury developer(NYDN)Two developers who stood to benefit from the tax breaks gave Cuomo big donations days before his bill-signing. Several sources involved in the process identified Silver as the creator of the lucrative tax relief. One 57th St. building in Manhattan was projected to save $35 million over 10 years. Between 2007 and 2011, as the median family income in the city dropped by 6.8%, the median monthly rent went up by 8.6%. Thirty-one percent of New Yorkers spent more than half their income on rent, as those not lifted up by New York’s booming, knowledge-intensive fields felt the squeeze.



Albany's Foreign Aide for the Rich
Silver Builds Affordable Housing for the Residents of Qatar Not Middle Class and Poor New Yorkers   Qatar Prime Minister – New Owner of the $100 Million New York’s Most Expensive Penthouse
How Much Has New York Lost To Florida?
 
Wright furious with Silver over tax break bill scandal

Wright is furious at Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for dragging him into a controversy over tax breaks awarded to five city developers, the Daily News’s Ken Lovett writes: http://nydn.us/15ZsRDH  Wright inherited the bill after Silver replaced former Assembly Housing Committee Vito Lopez, who was removed because of his sexual harassment scandal. The bill is the subject of an investigation, in which high-level politicians allegedly received money from real estate developers.* Mayors Bloomberg and Giuliani Oversaw NYC's Segregation Increase
* Wright’s Quick About-Face On Spitzer(NYP)




A towering insult - NY Daily News

As the Daily News revealed last Tuesday, One57 is among five residential projects that were shoehorned into a real estate tax abatement program under language mysteriously written into legislation passed in Albany.  The companies that will benefit, their lobbyists and PACs have donated $1.5 million to Albany campaign accounts over the past five years. The bill’s sponsors — Sen. Marty Golden and Assemblyman Keith Wright — professed ignorance.* How the Rich Get a Big Real Estate Tax Break - NYTimes.com  * Atlantic Yards Report: Shades of 2007? Another 421-a carve-out to ... * EXTELL DEVELOPMENT COMPANY. Media Contact: George Arzt  at 212-608-0333  Can we expect the candidates like Katz that Arzt is trying to elect this year will help him get more tax breaks for luxury highrises. Subpoenas have gone to Gary Barnett’s Extell Development, sponsor of One57



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A NY Times' Wet Dream For the Next Mayor
 Closed Down Factories and Their Jobs to Make Way for Luxury Co-Ops
Wanted: Another Green Mayor(NYT Ed) The Times longs for another environmental steward as mayor who will execute ambitious goals that make the city’s air and water cleaner and its streets and buildings greener. Candidates for mayor should promise to extend Bloomberg’s environmental record. * The New Republic gamed out whether Public Advocate Bill de Blasio or Council Speaker Christine Quinn will eventually
earn the paper’s backing. (The Times penned a piece today praising Ms.  Quinn’s environmental policies.)
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Spitzer's and Stringer's Black Problem



Former Gov. David Paterson stumps with comptroller candidate Scott Stringer(NYP) “I’m not going to answer the question of why they should choose Scott over Eliot. That’s your question. I didn’t ask that question, and I’m not answering it.” – Former New York Gov. David Paterson at an event endorsing Scott Stringer for comptroller, Comptroller Race Leaves Paterson Tongue-Tied(NYT) * Comptroller Race Leaves Paterson Tongue-Tied(NYT)
a new ad:
Scott Stringer reveals ‘Stone Age’ city school Internet in report(NYDN)
Video: The newest ad from Eliot Spitzer touts his "historic" education funding when he was governor. [Spitzer2013]* Paterson: Press Trying To ‘Humiliate’ Spitzer(YNN)

On Tuesday the Post Keeps Hitting on the Money Laundering Issue
 Accounting for Eliot(NYP Ed) Maybe “money laundering” isn’t the right legal term for how Eliot Spitzer tried to hide his wire transfers to his escort agency. But the question the behavior raises — Should someone caught making an end run around banking laws be in charge of the city’s books? — remains at the heart of this race.* City comptroller candidate Eliot Spitzer said that his opponent Scott Stringer’s charges that he laundered money were “false” and that the attacks “speak to the quality of his campaign more than anything else,” NY1 reports:

 
Black voters preferred him 68 percent to 21 percent in surveys conduct by Marist and Quinnipiac last week.
African-American Democrats in effort to turn black voters off Spitzer in comptroller race(NYP)
Leading black Democrats, worried by polls showing that African-American voters strongly favor disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in the primary for city comptroller, are mobilizing to turn those. Stringer himself, described by insiders as “in near panic” over his poor showing with black voters, belatedly responded last week by hiring two well-regarded African-American political operatives: Patrick Jenkins, a longtime confidant of US Rep. Gregory Meeks of Queens; and Kevin Wardally, an associate of the late Bill Lynch and an official at the Cuomo-controlled state Department of Labor. . . “Black folks remember that Eliot had David Paterson as his running mate and. but for Eliot, we would not have had a Gov. Paterson, the state’s first black governor,” Wright explained, referring to Spitzer’s resignation, which made Paterson governor.

Gambling Going On In Spitzer's Campaign?

The NYP Does Not Notice That Nobody Has Been Arrested for AGE

Spitzer getting help from lobbyist with shady connections(NYP)
Carl Andrews, a key figure in the Aqueduct bid-rigging scandal, is personally calling
black community and religious leaders on behalf of the ex-governor’s campaign for comptroller. A scathing 2009 state inspector general’s report accused Sampson of leaking to Andrews internal documents about rival bidders who wanted to run a casino at the track. Andrews was then a lobbyist for the Aqueduct Entertainment Group.
 
Democratic insiders say Spitzer is being aided by disgraced former Brooklyn Democratic boss and one-time Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr., who went to jail for political corruption and who is the son of a prominent Brooklyn minister, and by former state Sen. Carl Andrews, a controversial lobbyist and longtime Norman ally. 



The Post Did Not List Eric Adams Whose Role in the AEG Scandal Was Written About in the IG Report
Among the guests were Sampson and Queens Sen. Malcolm Smith, the former Democratic majority leader who’s been charged in a federal indictment with trying to bribe his way onto the Republican ballot.

The Post Did Not Give the Name of the Lawyer Who Represented Andrews and Others in the IG lawssuit, Ken Thompson Who is Running for Brooklyn DA
Andrews sued to try to quash a state IG’s subpoena requiring him to testify and submit documents in the Aqueduct probe.

NYT No Spitzer Money Laundering
Legal experts challenged Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s claim that Spitzer engaged in money laundering when he paid for prostitutes while he was governor, the New York Times writes:

With Stringer, Not Against Spitzer(WSJ)
Stringer Gets Endorsements of Three City Newspapers(NYT)
* Eliot Spitzer Panders to Orthodox Jews in Boro Park

Scott Stringer gets spring in step after getting Daily News endorsement in race for city controller(NYDN)
Eliot Spitzer tries to hand a lottery ticket to a Post reporter because the paper is "running a deficit.”
and local mayoral hopeful Sal Albanese once endorsed GOP'er Marty Golden over Vinnie too:
: Why few people seek out Paterson's endorsement, ladies and gents
Eliot Spitzer Courts Orthodox Jews in Boro Park 
Paterson's endorsement of Stringer is not a dis-endorsement of Eliot Spitzer
Zack Fink ‏‪@ZackFinkNews: .‪@stringer2013 campaigns in Harlem with former Gov David Paterson. Those who stop, confuse spitzer w Weiner ‪pic.twitter.com/kSESwBEnmz
David Paterson Endorses Scott Stringer, But He Won’t Tell You Why
Stringer Backs Away From Claims That Spitzer Laundered Money  
Ex-New York governor follows mealy-mouthed comptroller endorsement with more mush  


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Judge Orders LICH Fully Open


de Blasio Goes To A Hospital Closed In the Speakers District to Make Room for More Luxury HousingTo Continue His Good Press on the Issue


Susan Sarandon backs de Blasio at St. Vincent’s rally despite prior opposition(NYP) * Ahead of rally, Quinn surrogates will appear at St. Vincent's site to say de Blasio did nothing to save hospital, only lately took up cause.* Since 2000, 19 hospitals have closed across New York City * Crowd at de Blasio hospitals rally  * to lead ‘Hospitals Not Condos’ rally at former St. Vincent’s site today 12 noon w Belafonte, Sarandon 


Pols Slapped for Closing A Hospitals
Christine Quinn Hospital Presser Gets Violent (NYO)
Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s press conference this morning devolved into violence, as State Senator Brad Hoylman was punched in the face and another Quinn supporter attacked during a heated showdown over hospital closings. Man who slapped Brad Hoylman: “My wife died two days ago... I had to travel an hour and a half to get to see her.”
Cynthia Nixon says there will be an even larger rally at this spot, 11th st. & 6th Ave. on Aug. 29. 
Bill de Blasio Defends Susan Sarandon’s Honor(NYO_
 

Brooklyn judge orders restoration of key services at LICH(Brooklyn Eagle)
Long Island College Hospital (LICH) supporters celebrated a victory in Cobble Hill late Friday after Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes ordered the immediate restoration of hospital services and staffing to the levels that were in place on July 19.
Yet another Queens hospital closing, another on critical list(Queens Crap)Health care in the borough continues to flatline one facility at a time, with Holliswood Hospital the latest to shutter its doors. The 127-bed private psychiatric hospital in Jamaica closed on Monday, August 12 due to financial troubles, said a hospital official. Current patients will begin to be discharged, and after an estimated one to two weeks, the site will close permanently.* An audit by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli estimates the state’s Medicaid program might have overpaid hospitals by as much as $31.1 million over a 34-month period for patients who died within a day of being admitted.

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Monday's Campaign Update



No Reporter Asked Quinn How Many Teacher and Cops Does the City Have to Cut to Make Up for the $10 Million Shortfall
New York City restaurants will see cuts in fines that will save the industry $10 million a year because of an agreement Council Speaker Christine Quinn brokered with the city’s Department of Health, the Wall Street Journal reports: Restaurants Will See Cuts in City Fines
Quinn’s spouse, Kim Catullo, said Quinn has "gotten death threats about being gay" and vowed to make more public appearances before the primary, the News writes: http://nydn.us/18F3o6q  *Quinn's Not-So-Silent Partner(WSJ) * Other outlets also spoke to Ms. Quinn’s wife, Kim Catullo, yesterday, including The New York Times, Daily News, Wall Street Journal, New York Post and NY1. In many of the interviews, Ms. Catullo discussed unspecified threats against Ms. Quinn, although her campaign declined to elaborate. She discussed other things as well. “I want to go and work on a goat farm in Vermont,” Ms. Catullo told The Times. “She says, ‘Someday … but not now.’ ” * The mayor’s race and the historic nature of Quinn’s candidacy is very personal for the speaker’s consultant, Josh Isay, whose late father was gay.

de Blasio Keeps His Son on the Air
NYC mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio turns to his son, Dante, for second TV ad that focuses on stop-and-frisk(NYDN)
. gets another endorsement from a member - Vincent Gentile - who has never really been on 's good side.* Al D'Amato (who's for Thompson): De Blasio accepting George Soros endorsement should worry Jewish voters . Has Become 's  Enemy No. 1 Since Surge to Frontrunner *de Blasio Ad Highlights Stop And Frisk Position(NYP) * Celebrity endorsements paying off: to appear on Piers Morgan Live tomorrow w/ Cynthia Nixon* The Ad Campaign: De Blasio Speaks Against Stop-and-Frisk Tactics(NYT)

Nobel Bill
Bill de Blasio ran into Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz at a subway stop in the Upper West Side and earned his endorsement after a long conversation, the Wall Street Journal writes: http://on.wsj.com/17GlyDD
de Blasio the Red Socks Fan 
 That Boston Fan? He Wants to Run New York(NYT)
 

Bloomberg: Run Ray Run
Bloomberg Paid for the Secret Kelly Poll To Convince Him He Could Win

In June, Bloomberg secretly financed a poll to help convince Ray Kelly he'd win mayor's race, Ken Auletta reports:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg shrugged off questions about a poll he reportedly commissioned to convince Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to run for mayor, saying he had “no idea where it came from,” the Daily News writes: http://nydn.us/16FZdtq



Common Cause Tabulates ‘Soft Money’ Contributions(YNN)

Good-government group Common Cause in its patented “Moreland Mondays” took a look at so-called “soft money” contributions from the mega-rich and corporate interests that provide unlimited funds to the aptly ”housekeeping” accounts.  The organization found that soft money has skyrocketed in recent years.
Between 1999 and 2005, donors provided $46.7 million to committees for the state parties and the Legislature.


New York lost more personal income from people leaving the state in the 2000s than any other state, according to the Tax Foundation.
 

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Absent Council Members

60% Foster


City Council’s worst no-show members (NYP) Here’s one way to earn easy money — be elected to the City Council and don’t show up for work. Helen Foster (D-Bronx) takes the title as the council’s biggest no-show — with a dismal attendance record of just 60.6 percent last year, according to...Following her on the “truancy” list was Brooklyn Democrat Erik Dilan, who showed up 73 percent of the time, records show. He did not respond to a request for comment.   Ruben Wills (D-Queens) and Joel Rivera (D-Bronx) had attendance records of 73.3 and 73.7 percent, respectively. Eric Ulrich — a Queens Republican who said he spent much of the year in his Hurricane Sandy-battered district — had the fifth-worst tally, attending 77 percent of his required meetings.

Questions on the Dual Role of a Clinton Aide Persist(NYT)
The State Department says it allowed Huma Abedin, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner’s wife, to consult for private clients because she had “irreplaceable” expertise. 
Weiner in the Bronx Monday: "It’s inconceivable to me that this won’t be successful,”

Bill de Blasio launched second TV ad featuring son Dante:

A Revved-Up Bill Thompson Flaunts His Caribbean Roots v



She’s Number 3! (NYDN Ed)

So far, no one is winning the race for the useless post of public advocate
For the record it must be stated that third place in the polling for the public advocate’s Democratic primary is held by Cathy Guerriero with 12% of the vote, behind none-of-the-above and a Brooklyn City Council member. This fact about the five-person field failed to make its way accurately into an editorial on Saturday that called for abolishing the advocate’s office and that was headlined “Dodos are extinct.” Guerriero felt slighted at being left out. Go figure.



Who Will the NYT Endorse?
Who Will Win the New York Times’ Mayoral Endorsement? The Kremlinology behind the Gray Lady’s process(New Republic)
Wanted: Another Green Mayor(NYT Ed) The Times longs for another environmental steward as mayor who will execute ambitious goals that make the city’s air and water cleaner and its streets and buildings greener. Candidates for mayor should promise to extend Bloomberg’s environmental record. * The New Republic gamed out whether Public Advocate Bill de Blasio or Council Speaker Christine Quinn will eventually earn the paper’s backing. (The Times penned a piece today praising Ms.  Quinn’s environmental policies.)

Searching for A Legacy
The New Yorker extensively profiled Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s legacy while noting his discontent with his possible successors: “In early June, the Mayor, according to two Bloomberg advisers, was sympathetic to an effort by some of his supporters to draw Ray Kelly into the race. Bloomberg secretly financed a poll … to help convince Kelly that he could win, but Kelly declined.”

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Met Council Fall Out

Poverty Group Appoints City Official as New Chief(NYT)
The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty named David M. Frankel, the city’s finance commissioner, as executive director to replace William E. Rapfogel, who was fired last week. * NYC charity under criminal probe getting new chief(WSJ)


Follow the money(NYDN Ed) Met Council's Rapfogel got too cozy with the politicians who fund his organization
Silver's chief of staff tarnished by hubby's alleged kickback scandal(NYP) But Shelly’s standing by loyal aide
Sources close to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver say he has no intention of firing his longtime Chief of Staff Judy Rapfogel despite her husband being the focus of a criminal investigation involving alleged kickbacks to his nonprofit

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Stop and Frisk Debate

Tuesday 

The News contends that the record gun bust yesterday by the NYPD how Judge Shira Scheindlin and the Democratic mayoral candidates have jeopardized the city's safety: http://nydn.us/tj0HSO
New York Police Seize Illegal Guns(WSJ)
Low-cost passenger buses from North Carolina and South Carolina to New York City's Chinatown were used to transport hundreds of loaded, illegal guns, officials said.

 
Thugs’ stop-and-frisk fear revealed in biggest gun seizure in city history(NYP)
  
Monday
Kelly defended the city’s stop-and-frisk policy on the Sunday talk shows, crediting the practice for helping reduce violent crime and predicting crime would rise if the next mayor does not use the tactic,

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly rips stop-&-frisk ruling in TV blitz(NYP)
The News castigates Judge Shira Scheindlin for using “corrosive numbers” in her ruling against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program and not giving an independent monitor proper criteria for achieving success: http://nydn.us/150FG4C* A Sunday show debate over stop-and-frisk, featuring Ray Kelly and the mother of Trayvon Martin. [Reid Pillifant] * Judge the judge (NYDN Ed)
Judge Shira Scheindlin’s ruling on stop-question-frisk will handcuff the cops
Mayor Bloomberg admits he might reconsider stop-and-frisk if he had a son:
Mayor Bloomberg OpEds in favor of stop-and-frisk in the Washington Post, insisting the controversial tactic is not racial profiling.  NYPD Just Made The Biggest Gun Bust In New York City History  
Announcing the largest illegal gun bust in NYC history, Mayor Bloomberg pledged to “take every constitutionally protected step at our disposal” to keep such weapons out of the five boroughs. 
NYPD: Men smuggled guns into NYC on discount buses  
NYPD Announces Largest Gun Seizure In City History

Kelly's Homeland Security Opposition
NAACP president warns that Ray Kelly would get the "fiercest opposition" if nominated for DHS secretary
 

7m
Ray Kelly is in denial. We need a Police Commissioner who can reduce crime without violating the Constitution.
  1. 1m
    "Ray Kelly's remarks show there's no way a Quinn administration can break with Bloomberg's failed police strategies."

    Quinn Attacks de Blasio on Stop and Frisk
    NYC Council Speaker Chris Quinn, locked in a dead heat with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in the race for mayor, trashed her top rival, saying he’s done nothing to put an end to the controversial NYPD stop-and-frisk tactic. 
    1. 19s
      A strong defense of by Mayor in the - he's right:



Artist creates 3-D NYC maps that build a skyline to illustrate rich and poor neighborhoods(NYP)

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Education

The Post applauds the city Department of Education’s new scorecard for education programs for teachers, which shows that even elite institutions such as Columbia Teachers College still have work to do: http://bit.ly/16BJo7a

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BOE Sucks

BOE Melt Down Primary Feared

True News Has Reported Not enough lever machines for ever ed. If voters turn out here your lines and delays guys
The possibility of “a nightmare scenario” has emerged where the results of the NYC mayoral primary are still in dispute due to chaos at the Board of Elections as the date of the final runoff approaches. 


They steal money (NYDN Ed)
The thieves at the Board of Elections must be stopped before they lavish more than $120,000 on an army of patronage drones in a preposterous boondoggle that only these people would have the nerve to dream up.

NYC Board Of Elections Moving Closer To Deploying Old Lever Machines For Primary | New York Daily News
Legacy of failed policies:New York Leads US In Income Loss | WWNY TV 7 - News, Weather and Sports for | Local News  
Gov. Cuomo signs bill to computerize election returns in New York State(NYDN)

The city Board of Elections will today count 58 ballots from the election 9 months ago prompting the Daily News to call on the city Department of Investigation’s new unit to uncover waste, fraud and abuse to probe the BOE: http://nydn.us/19U0rDL

Had lunch with new Board of Elections executive director Michael Ryan. Here's what he had to say about new gig  

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Wall Street


Back to the Future on Wall StreetBy NYTEDITORIAL BOARD
Safeguards against mixing stock research and investment banking have been weakened.
More than 60% of deadlines for Dodd-Frank post-financial crisis rules have been missed

As Upstate rots, New York voted the rudest and most arrogant state in the U.S via

Despite 10,000 New Jobs, State Now Lags Behind Nat'l Rate

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Media

Democracy May Prove the Doom of WBAI(NYT)


The New Republic on The New York Times: 'God Save the Gray Lady'(The Atlantic)

Several media experts weigh in on who they think should buy The NY Times.


Here's what front pages of local NY papers look like, with one candidate's ads: