I had a friend was a big baseball player back in MLB, he could hit that speedball by you, saw him the other night in the State Capitol, I was walking in, he was walking out, all he kept talking about was … DMAA, will the Senate pass that ban, DMAA, in the blink of Jeff Klein’s tan, DMAA. Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight, to hear a press conference about restoring budget cuts, and I… [More]

Four of New York City’s Republican candidates for mayor and one Independence Party candidate touched on a wide range of issues Wednesday morning at a breakfast forum hosted by Crain’s New York Business, the first panel this election cycle to not include a single Democratic candidate. The candidates began the debate by assigning Mayor Michael Bloomberg a numeric grade, on a scale of 1 to 10, and despite Bloomberg’s moderate politics, most gave the mayor high marks, with Independence Party… [More]

  Mr. Independent, Mr. Self-sufficient, Mr. Keep-your-distance. Mayoral candidate Adolfo Carrión snagged the Independence Party’s endorsement this week, keeping his heart protected so that he’d never feel rejected by the Republican or Democratic parties. But what is that feeling taking over? It’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo opening the door to, surprise! A state-imposed teacher evaluation bill that’s real for New York City. But Cuomo miscalculated on a Medicaid rate change delivering a $500 million hit to the state budget, leaving us… [More]

  What does Mayor Michael Bloomberg do on his birthday, which also happens to be Valentine’s Day and the day he addressed the city in his 12th and final State of the City talk? Does he put on a tuxedo and throw himself a classy yet staid black tie party at the Waldorf Astoria like Jack Donaghy did once? Does he pop a copy of Annie Hall into his 90-inch television and curl up on his animal print sofa with… [More]

From Chris Bragg at the Fidler-Storobin ballot trial: Assemblywoman Grace Meng was handed a mixed bag of news from the Board of Elections today: she was kicked off the Independence Party’s ballot line, but will now be the only Asian candidate in the NY-06 congressional race, after Juan Sheng was removed from the ballot altogether. Meng needed 314 signatures to remain on the Indy Party line, but only turned in 105 valid ones, a BOE spokeswoman said. Joseph Tiraco was… [More]

Rep. Michael Grimm has been kicked off the Independence Party’s ballot line, possibly endangering his re-election prospects, according to several sources. The Staten Island Advance reported yesterday that the city Board of Elections found that Grimm had not submitted enough signature to qualify for the party’s ballot line. Grimm, who is facing a federal investigation into questionable fundraising practices, described the Independence Party’s endorsement as a “game changer” back in March after he received the party’s nod. Grimm is facing… [More]

The state Independence Party threw its support behind Assemblywoman Grace Meng’s congressional candidacy earlier this week, but that doesn’t mean she’ll definitely be running on Row E in November. A member of the state Independence Party from Queens, Joseph Tiraco, is himself gathering signatures to run on the Independence Line, setting up the possibility of a primary in June. Tiraco has already gathered some 400 signatures and is likely to qualify for the ballot, according to fellow IP member Michael… [More]

The Independence Party is set to throw Row E to Assemblywoman Grace Meng in the 6th Congressional district race, according to a member of the party’s executive committee. Michael Zumbluskas, who does a lot of the state Independence Party’s downstate work, just told me that party leadership had recently decided to give its Wilson-Pakula endorsement to Meng over Assemblyman Rory Lancman and Councilwoman Liz Crowley — though the line has not yet officially been granted. Zumbluskas said the close relationship between… [More]

The grand larceny and money laundering charges against John Haggerty will finally go to a Manhattan Supreme Court jury this morning, but after weeks of testimony and 4-1/2 hours of closing arguments yesterday, one mystery remains unanswered. It goes back to 2008, when the City Council extended the two-term limit for city politicians so Mayor Michael Bloomberg could run for a third term. Many of Bloomberg’s top aides were personally opposed to the idea, but they got behind the boss… [More]

Twice yesterday in the trial of former campaign aide John Haggerty, his lawyer asked Mayor Michael Bloomberg to read the names at the top of old campaign memos – but not from the memos themselves. It was a curious arrangement. The contents were not entered into the record, so the documents were not entered into evidence. They simply seemed to confirm that pollster Douglas Schoen wrote to deputy mayors Kevin Sheekey and Patti Harris. Yet one hint came later yesterday… [More]