NYaltnews Reports: Rockland County Republican Chair Vincent Reda says the GOP will field a strong State Senate candidate to run against David Carlucci in New York’s 38th State Senate district. Reda recently told City & State that three well-known local figures, Rockland County Legislator Ed Day, Clarkstown Town Councilman Frank Borelli, and recently ousted Orangetown Supervisor Paul Whalen have shown interest in entering the race.

However, a local Republican insider told NYaltnews that… “We understand that Carlucci is extremely popular, and it’s hard to find issues with his many of his votes. Even his liberal votes—like LGBT marriage—might not be battles worth fighting.”

“Ed Day is the future of our party,” said our GOP source. “Many of us think he’ll make an excellent [Rockland County] exec when that time comes, and it may be sooner than you think. And that’s a race we know he can win.”

Indeed, several other political sources have told NYaltnews that Day covets the Rockland County Executive’s seat, and they claim he’ll even enter a primary against incumbent Republican C. Scott Vanderhoef in 2013 if needed.

The GOP insider we spoke to indicated that a State Senate run in 2012 would be a distraction, if not a small setback for Day when the time comes to run for County Executive. “People think of Ed Day as a winner…personally I’d like it to stay that way. Win or lose, he’d be bloodied in a race with Carlucci.”

As for Borelli, our source said, “Frank’s name is well-known throughout the county, he’s got a lot of cash, and he’s one likeable guy. But do I think he’s interested? Well, I think Vinnie is interested for Frank. Again, what issue would Frank challenge Carlucci on? Indian Point? Utility rates? Hydrofracking? Carlucci’s vote on gay marriage? And ruin all the goodwill he’s built up in this town?”

If Democrat Lois Frankel and Republican Adam Hasner end up facing each other in the race for a Palm Beach-Broward congressional seat, Hasner can count on the support of Frankel’s first campaign manager.

Judy Hasner, Adam’s mom, ran Frankel’s first state House campaign in 1986, then went to work for Frankel as her legislative aide. Adam Hasner was a teenage Republican at the time. While his mother was helping send Frankel to Tallahassee, Adam Hasner said he was helping send a Republican to Washington by volunteering on former GOP Rep. Tom Lewis’ 1986 reelection campaign. – Report by Palm Beach Post

The State Column Reports: Rasmussen Reports released a survey of 500 Ohio voters Friday, that showed Senator Brown  garnering 44 percent of the votes, leading Mr. Mandel who finished the survey  with 40 percent of the votes.

Mr. Mandel, the current Ohio State Treasurer has not yet formally announced  that he will be running against Mr. Brown, however he did file with the Federal  Election Commission recently.

Ohio is considered to be a battleground state in the upcoming presidential  election, and both Democrats and Republicans will be watching the Senate race  there closely.

Mr. Brown’s Senate seat is seen as one that would give the Republicans a  majority in the Senate if they are able to obtain it from him in the fall.

The Rasmussen survey was conducted on February 8th, and has a margin of error of  plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

(Exclusive Interview Audio: Ohio’s GOP Senate Candidate = State Treasurer by Day; Telz Yeshiva at Night)

Politicker Reports: At a heated debate Thursday night between Councilman Charles Barron and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, both of whom are attempting to unseat Brooklyn Congressman Ed Towns, Mr. Barron leveled a big charge against Mr. Jeffries over his campaign contributions from the Police Benevolent Association, calling them “blood money,” a phrase he repeated to The Politicker this afternoon.

“You can’t criticize stop-and-frisk while taking money from the PBA,” he said, chastising the NYPD for some of their controversial shootings.

Reached for a comment, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries didn’t take kindly to the harsh criticism.

“My legislative record of accomplishment on stop-and-frisk and police reform issues is unimpeachable. The ‘blood money’ reference is strange and perplexing coming from someone who is an unabashed apologist of Muammar Gaddafi, Robert Mugabe and other rogue international dictators who have ruled with blood-soaked hands,” Mr. Jeffries said, referring to Mr. Barron’s strong support for the regimes of Mr. Gaddafi and Mr. Mugabe.

This is the script of the robo call made available by the Lew Fidler campaign:

“Hi, this is Ed Koch.  I’m calling to let you know that I’m supporting Lew Fidler for the State Senate.  Far too often politicians disappoint us.  In fact, that’s exactly why we have a vacant State Senate seat.  But I know Lew Fidler and he’s nothing like those others guys.  Lew Fidler has the honesty and the integrity that we desperately need in Albany and he’s got good common sense.  The election will be on March 20th and you’ll hear a lot of things during this campaign, so I want you to remember this: Ed Koch — that’s me! — I’m for good, honest government, and Ed Koch — that’s me! — I’m for Lew Fidler.  I support Lew Fidler for the State Senate because I trust him.  And if you trust me, you’ll support him too.  This Ed Koch.  Thanks for listening.”

Senator Eric Adams at a Press Conference

Politicker Reports: State Senator Eric Adams put an end to speculation about which office he would seek, announcing in an email to supporters this afternoon, “At the behest of many of you, Eric has decided to pursue his dream to run for the office of Brooklyn Borough President in 2013. ”

Mr. Adams had been rumored to either be a  BP candidate in 2013 or make a run for Public Advocate, but the email today–sent by his chief of staff, Ingrid Lewis-Martin–makes plain that he has decided to go with the former.

“The road to Borough Hall is long and can be rocky, but with your continued support we can pave the way and set a smooth course,” the email reads. “I will send you periodic emails and news updates to keep you informed and abreast of all of the ways in which you can be a part of our journey to Brooklyn Borough Hall.”

The campaign for BP will kick off with a fundraiser next month.

Mr. Adams would be a formidable candidate. A former police officer, he is well-liked by his colleagues and by labor and progressive groups and has generated lots of attention for his sometimes provocative efforts to stop teenagers from wearing low-riding pants and to get parents to search their children’s rooms for hidden guns. He is closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader John Sampson and his opponents are likely to try to tie him to Albany dysfunction.

So far however the race to replace Marty Markowitz is fairly light. Mr. Markowitz’s top deputy Carlo Scissura, is an all-but declared candidate, as is Brooklyn Assemblyman Nick Perry. State Senator Daniel Squadron is also contemplating a run.

Mr. Adams got drawn into a new district in the initial drafts of the new redistricting maps, but that could actually give him a boost in 2013 as he has to introduce himself to a new set of constituents.

The full email is below:

Greetings:

Thank you for your continued support and unwavering commitment to Team Adams.

We have some exciting news! Prior to sharing our new political goal, please be reminded that NYS Senator Eric Adams is up for re-election and we will need your assistance with our petition effort and, of course, your vote at the polls.

Now, for the new and exciting news!  At the behest of many of you, Eric has decided to pursue his dream to run for the office of Brooklyn Borough President in 2013. We appeal to you for your continued support and know that we will be able to count on you in a variety of ways.

The road to Borough Hall is long and can be rocky, but with your continued support we can pave the way and set a smooth course.  I will send you periodic emails and news updates to keep you informed and abreast of all of the ways in which you can be a part of our journey to Brooklyn Borough Hall.

On Thursday, March 8, 2012, we will host our first fundraising event. I have attached an invitation and the donor contribution form.

Remember, if you live within the 5 boroughs,  your contribution of $10.00 – $175.00 can be matched 6 times by the City.  All contributions must be made from personal accounts and must be accompanied with a signed and completed form, see attached.

Again, thanks for your support and see you on March 8th at 6 pm at Da Nonna Rosa, 140 7th Avenue (between Carroll Street and Garfield Place), Brooklyn, NY.

Warmly,

Ingrid

The Brooklyn Paper Reports: Veteran Rep. Ed Towns (D–Fort Greene) raised almost a quarter of a million dollars in the last three months of 2011 — building an impressive war chest that proves that the 76-year-old lawmaker isn’t retiring and will fight for his job.

Towns pulled in $233,472 after boasting a bank account of just $11,240 last fall — a figure so low that some political observers thought the longtime legislator would hang up his hat and let state Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D–Fort Greene) and Councilman Charles Barron (D–Canarsie) duke it out for his seat.

Towns still has $162,407 to spend, but he lags behind Jeffries, who has $235,962 left to spend, making him one of just two congressional challengers nationwide to have more cash on hand than the incumbent.

Towns’ people say he’s just getting started.

“The Congressman is committed to running, he’s going to raise the money, and we expect to do better than we did the last quarter,” said Towns campaign spokesman Al Wiltshire. “We are aggressively raising money, we will raise whatever it takes.”

But Towns’ biggest rival says he’s looking for money in all the wrong places.

A Jeffries spokeswoman called out Towns for collecting $112,228 more from political action committees than from individual donors.

So far, Towns has raised $226,441 from individuals and $338,669 from lobbying committees.

The Jeffries campaign is quick to point out that Towns has netted about $132,000 from telecommunications companies since 2007, and last year sponsored a bill that would make it easier for telemarketers to call people on their cellphones. The bill died in Congress.

“The Congressman has done a lot of good for the district but we believe that it is time to move this district into a positive and new direction,” said Jeffries spokeswoman Lupe Todd.

Jeffries, for his part, has not refused cash from lobbying committees, but has only brought in $1,700 from five groups since he started raising money. Two of the groups were pushing for medical marijuana reform.

Towns said that Jeffries’s charges amount to “negative campaigning.”

“Now all of a sudden Hakeem is running and Ed is a bad guy?” said Wiltshire. “That’s Jeffries decision to run the way he’s running. Our intention is to run a clean campaign.”

Read Full Article: The Brooklyn Paper

David Freedlander Reports: It is now the second week of February and due to some colossal inertia in Albany, if you were a citizen who dreamed of service in the Legislature, you would likely not know a) which district you live in b) whether or not that district has a sitting lawmaker and c) when, precisely, election day is.

In other words, New York is about to embark on an election season as chaotic and unpredictable as any in memory…

The first is that last year the Department of Defense denied the State of New York a waiver to hold its primaries in September. The waiver had been granted ever since Congress passed a law three years ago mandating an earlier election day to help military personnel stationed overseas with voting.

The Department of Justice sued to force the state to move up the September primary, and after several months of delays, a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that the primary for congressional seats was to be held June 26.

As soon as that news broke, those considering a run for Congress—and those consultants and staffers helping them—broke into a sprint, as election day went from a comparatively leisurely eight and a half months away to now only five months off. (Privately, some politicos still doubt that this will really be the election day, perhaps expecting the power brokers in Albany to somehow defy a federal order or being so inured to chaos that they refuse to believe the state could actually have settled on a date when the elections are supposed to be held.)

But even if candidates for Congress at least know that they will face voters on June 26, this news does nothing for those in the State Assembly or State Senate and those who hope to join that club. The judge’s order applies only to federal races, so the state primary date remains unsettled. Republicans in the State Senate have argued that the June primary is too close to the end of the legislation session (which is slated to be completed the week before) and could thus lead to unnecessary politicking (ahem) during what are supposed to be business hours. They have pushed for having state races decided on the old election day in September, or, possibly, pushing the primary to August—when, Democrats point out, most New Yorkers are away, or at least tuning out politics.

Colin Campbell does the math of the NY redistricting: The conventional wisdom has long been that Mr. Turner’s Queens-based district would be chopped up and handed to the surrounding Representatives. However, if the district is kept largely intact, some of those surrounding seats could easily be significantly impacted.

With relatively anemic growth in Queens and Nassau counties compared to the rest of the state, it could be very difficult to avoid eliminating at least one district in the region. Although there are nine Congressional districts touching either of those two counties, some of them are particularly challenging or impossible to erase.

The two minority-majority districts, belonging to Representatives Nydia Velázquez and Gregory Meeks, are likely protected by federal law (and wouldn’t really be possible to eliminate anyway).

Three Representatives are likely too influential to see their districts eliminated and are not thought to be anywhere near the chopping block: Joe Crowley, who leads the Queens County Democratic Party; Peter King, who’s the most senior Republican in the New York delegation; and Steve Israel, who heads the electoral arm of the House Democrats. Eliminating any of these Congressmen’s districts could technically be done, but it would likely be de facto eliminating someone else’s district by placing a powerful incumbent’s electoral base in their seat.

With these five officials probably safe, only four Congressional Members remain: Bob Turner, Carolyn McCarthy, Gary Ackerman, and Carolyn Maloney.

Ms. Maloney, who’s a senior member of the House’s Financial Services Committee and whose district is overwhelmingly based in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, would probably be hardest of the four candidates to eliminate. In addition to the difficulties of carving up a district containing only a small piece of Queens, Manhattan’s many important political leaders would likely strongly object to the chaos the move would cause in their borough.

And if Congressman Turner’s district is indeed kept mostly intact, the most obvious remaining option would be to combine the Nassau portions of Ms. McCarthy’s and Mr. Ackerman’s districts into a single seat.

AP Via VIN Reports: A bill that would allow religious congregations to continue renting New York City public schools for worship services has passed the state Senate, but it’s unclear whether the state Assembly and Gov. Andrew Cuomo will approve it.

The city has told congregations that this coming Sunday, Feb. 12, is the last day they can worship in its public schools.

The legislation blocking that decree is supported by the Rev. Fernando Cabrera, a New York City Councilman and pastor. His church has its own building, but he’s afraid scores of other congregations will soon be homeless.

Cabrera calls that an attack on all religious New Yorkers, and he’s urging them to contact their elected officials.

Duane Jackson

AP Reports: A Times Square street vendor who alerted police to an attempted car bombing in 2010 said Tuesday that he is running for Congress.

Duane Jackson said his brush with terrorism and celebrity taught him that it made sense to get involved.

“It was kind of an epiphany for me,” he said. “I had a call from President (Barack) Obama. I had people from all over the world come and thank me for, you know, seeing something and saying something. I can tell people, especially young people and people in the minority communities, it’s OK to get involved in the running of this country.”

The 59-year-old Jackson is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Nan Hayworth in his home district north of New York City.

A Navy veteran, Jackson said he has 15 years of experience in city planning and housing, including posts with New York City’s education and housing departments. He sees his years as a vendor as “small-business experience.”

Politicker Reports: Last night, The New York Times reported Assemblyman Rory Lancman will be announcing his campaign against Republican Congressman Bob Turner today, and this morning, Mr. Lancman told The Politicker his campaign will be quite different from the special election waged last summer when former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s Twitter scandal left the seat suddenly vacant.

Mr. Turner famously used Israel as a wedge issue in that campaign, driving the conversation in his favor in the heavily Jewish district, but Mr. Lancman was unconcerned about the same thing happening to him.

“He can try,” Mr. Lancman responded. “But my Israel advocacy credentials are outstanding. It’s not just me talking the talk, but walking the walk.”

Mr. Lancman then ticked off a list of his pro-Israeli accomplishments and recognition, including a recent bill he co-sponsored to impose state-level sanctions on Iran. Mr. Lancman has previously criticized Mr. Turner over Iran policy.

“With Bob Turner, I’m happy that he talks the talk,” Mr. Lancman continued. “But on Israel, Iran and other elements of our foreign policy, he hasn’t walked the walk.”

Asked specifically about lessons from the Democrats’ unsuccessful efforts against Mr. Turner last summer, Mr. Lancman simply said every campaign is unique.

“I think each race is its own dynamic and in its own moment of time.”

“All I can say is that I know there were people in the district that wanted to send a message in September of 2011,” he added, referencing a call former Mayor Ed Koch and others made to “send a message” to President Barack Obama over Israel by electing a Republican in a Democratic-leaning district.

Read Full Article: Politicker

Congressman Ed Towns

Reid Pillifant Reports that Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, who is challenging NY-10 Congressman Ed Towns in a three-way Primary, is hitting Towns over the fact that corporate PACs are bankrolling Towns’ political life. In exchange, the Towns Camp is hitting back:

“For 30 years, the incumbent has overdosed on special-interest dollars and taken money from the tobacco lobby whose products are likely the biggest cause of preventable death in the district,” said [Jeffries Campaign Spokesperson] Lupe Todd in an emailed statement.

Todd also cited Towns’ contributions from the pharmaceuticals industry and called the robocall bill a “unwarranted invasion of privacy.”

“In the face of tremendous public opposition, the bill failed but he apparently has been rewarded for his efforts,” Todd said. “The incumbent continues to take positions that undermine the best interests of the community. His behavior is unacceptable and represents the worst in pay-to-play politics.”

Through a spokesperson, Towns responded with an emailed statement of his own.

“Negative campaigning has turned off many voters, yet my opponent’s first comments about me dredges up an issue that is decades old,” said Towns. “I was a major advocate for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and its reauthorization—bipartisan legislation that provided health insurance coverage for 11 million children, especially the lowest-income children. This was paid for by a federal tax increase on cigarettes and other tobacco products that some estimates made would keep almost 2 million kids from taking up smoking.

“As a long time member of the House Telecom committee I have worked with government and industry to create the framework that has fostered the incredible advancements and innovation in communications that we all—including Brooklyn residents—have benefited from in the last decades.”

Towns also criticized Jeffries’ spokewoman, making reference to the fact that Todd’s employer, George Arzt Communications, worked on his 2008 campaign for re-election.

“I had hoped this campaign would be about the issues and who would do the better job of representing the 10th district,” Towns said. “Ironically, his spokesperson not long ago defended me against some of the charges she is now leveling. I guess she has no objections to getting paid to play on that level.”

Todd said in response that although she worked for Towns in 2008, she has known Jeffries for more than a decade, and worked for him as a spokesperson during his campaigns in 2002 and 2006.

Assemblyman Lancman

NYT Reports that  Assemblyman Rory I. Lancman plans to announce on Tuesday that he intends to challenge Representative Bob Turner, a freshman Republican, in the November election.

The decision by Mr. Lancman — a lawyer who is known as an aggressive campaigner — underscores the growing belief that Mr. Turner’s seat, which covers Brooklyn and Queens, will not be eliminated in redistricting, even though state legislative leaders and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo are still squabbling over where to draw Congressional lines.

Several other candidates around the state have also indicated that they cannot wait for the Legislature to act, especially since the Congressional primary, which was recently scheduled for June, is just four months away.

In the city, for instance, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and Councilman Charles Barron are challenging Representative Edolphus Towns in a Democratic primary in eastern Brooklyn, while several Democrats are bidding to unseat Representative Charles B. Rangel in northern Manhattan.

But Mr. Turner’s seat — the Ninth Congressional District, a predominantly white and heavily Jewish area stretching from the Rockaways to Forest Hills — has long attracted outsize interest. The seat had been held by Representative Anthony D. Weiner, who was forced to resign in June after his admission that he had sent sexually explicit messages to women he met online.

Mr. Turner, a retired cable TV executive, capitalized on voter angst over President Obama and concern over the administration’s Israel policy, defeating Assemblyman David I. Weprin. Conventional political wisdom held that Mr. Turner’s stint would be brief because legislators, who need to reduce New York State’s number of Congressional seats by two, would eliminate the seat, as well as another upstate.

But the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, indicated recently that he was inclined to keep the seat, because he believed Mr. Turner could be beaten, and because Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, a 10-term Democrat from the mid-Hudson Valley, announced last month that he would retire.

H/T @BKcolin

If you wondered why few NY Republicans are rushing into a fight with New York’s Junior U.S. Senator, you should look at her political bank account.

She ended 2011 with $8.12 million cash on hand, and raised during the year more than ten million dollars. In other words, her campaign is almost fully funded, going by the math the an average U.S. Senate race (per candidate) in recent elections years had a price tag of $11 million.

If on March 20, Democratic City Councilmember Lew Fidler wins the senate seat formerly held by Carl Kruger, who resigned in December after pleading guilty to influence peddling, he will likely find himself fighting to hold a markedly different senate seat come November.

That’s because the new district lines released last week by the state senate’s Republican majority divide the district into three parts – putting a portion (including Fidler’s residence) into the district currently represented by Senate Democratic leader John Sampson, another portion into a majority Orthodox Jewish district spanning Boro Park and Midwood, with the third part married to the district currently represented by 10-year State Senator Marty Golden.

This, one Democratic source says, could result in Fidler challenging Golden, who had his first opposition in 2010 since winning the seat in 2002 against the area’s former State Senator, Democrat Vincent Gentile, who now holds Golden’s old City Council seat.

“The districts overlap 25 to 30 percent,” said the insider. “I don’t see him running against Sampson or in a primarily Orthodox district. The only other option is to take on Marty Golden.”

But, others say that is unlikely, especially given the fact that Bay Ridge resident Andrew Gounardes has already launched a campaign against Golden. “Andrew is not doing this on his own,” said another pundit. “The Senate Dems who are supporting Lew are also supporting Andrew.”

All this, of course, supposes that the lines as proposed by Senate Republicans remain unchanged. And that, sources say, is unlikely. Governor Andrew Cuomo has already indicated through his spokesperson that he would veto them because of their partisan nature.

Read Full Article: Home Reporter News

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/06/is-there-a-fidler-vs-golden-match-up-in-the-making/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/04/7852/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/04/7852/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 04:48:21 +0000 Mark Hirshberg http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=7852 Rabbi Shmuley Boteach  The Star Ledger Reports: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an author and former spiritual adviser to Michael Jackson, has filed for a possible Congressional run but reportedly hasn’t yet made a final decision. PolitickerNJ reported recently that Boteach is seeking the …

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Star Ledger Reports: The event is scheduled for Monday, March 19th. The exact time and location are to be determined.

The invitation does not list the minimum donation required to attend.

Menendez faces reelection in November. Thursday, state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) kicked off his campaign for the Republican nomination to take on Menendez. Anna Little, a former congressional candidate who used to serve as mayor of Highlands and as a Monmouth County freeholder, is also considering a run for the GOP nomination.

A Jan. 18 Quinnipiac Univeristy poll found New Jersey voters say Menendez deserves reelection by a 45 to 38 percent margin and give him a 42 percent positive to 39 percent negative approval rating.

Politicker Reports: At a press conference announcing Senator Chuck Schumer’s endorsement, Councilman Lew Fidler, who’s campaigning for the New York State Senate, addressed the dust-up over his comments that his opponent, Republican David Storobin, has “ties to skinheads, and neo-Nazi groups and white supremacist group.”

“I want to answer that, and my campaign folks would probably tell me that I shouldn’t,” he began. “I never, ever, ever did, or would have, called David Storobin a neo-Nazi.”

“I’m not so internet savvy … I used the word ‘ties’ instead of ‘links,’” he explained, adding that he “never once raised it in public,” while Mr. Storobin “continues to raise it in public.”

However, his campaign appeared to be strongly, and publicly, doubling down on the comments after they were made at a Brooklyn Young Democrats gathering. They sent out a press release earlier this week entitled, “Councilman Fidler’s Campaign Calls on Mr. Storobin to Come Clean on Ties to White Supremacist Websites.”

Apparently with no other time to spare, New York’s Senior U.S. Senator Charles Schumer will campaign Friday afternoon with NYC Councilman and State Senate candidate Lew Fidler. Both are Democrats.

According to the Media Advisory released by the campaign to the media, the event starting 12:00 at Pizza Time will bring a “major announcement” from Senator Schumer.

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY)

silive.com Reports: Rep. Michael Grimm yesterday issued a full-throated self-defense amid allegations that he took illegal campaign contributions.

“I never took any illegal cash contributions. Ever,” Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) told the Advance during an exclusive Capitol Hill interview. “I never conspired or coordinated or ever in any way discussed funneling illegal contributions. It is absolute nonsense.”

Grimm said that the allegations would have no impact on his re-election bid this year.

“I’m not running — I’m winning,” Grimm said. “And I will win by a big margin. And at the end of all this, there’s going to be a lot of apologies owed.”

Grimm declined to put a number on his “big margin” to come.

Grimm’s comments to the Advance were the first extended remarks he has made about the allegations since a story in The New York Times last weekend said that Grimm took illegal cash contributions for his 2010 race from followers of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto.

The story accused Grimm of taking over-the-limit cash donations and taking donations from foreigners without green cards, who are barred from donating to political campaigns.

He has not officially been accused of any wrongdoing.

It was also alleged that Grimm took $5,000 in campaign cash in an envelope in his car while parked near the FBI building in Lower Manhattan.

As a former FBI agent, Grimm said that that allegation in particular shows “just how ridiculous this is.”

“Not only are they saying I’m a criminal, they’re saying I’m a very stupid criminal,” he said. “Everyone knows that that building is under surveillance for blocks. So why would I go where there’s surveillance to do a criminal act? That’s why I’m saying it’s preposterous.”

Said Grimm, “I am a former FBI agent. I am a United States Marine. I’ve held myself with honor and integrity always. And that’s the level I will maintain here as a congressman.”

When asked if he would be vindicated, Grimm said, “Oh, there’s no question. There’s no question.”

Read Full Article: silive.com

The Daily New Reports: Democratic state Senate hopeful Lew Filder had what Republicans complained was a mini-campaign rally on the floor of the state Assembly Monday.

Fidler, a Brooklyn city councilman taking on Republican David Storobin in a March 20 special election to fill the vacant seat of convicted Carl Kruger, was in Albany Monday for an evening fundraiser at the City Beer Hall.

Earlier in the day, he stopped by the Assembly, where he was welcomed, praised for his job as a councilman, and offered luck and help for his Senate campaign by Democratic members of the chamber.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic party leader, joked that Fidler was checking out the climate in Albany and would like to spend more time there.

He then went on to cite Fidler’s “distinguished” career in public service and the more than two dozen community groups he is active in.

Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Queens) said that Fidler “will be an outstanding addition to that other house and we welcome him here to Albany.”

Assemblywoman Joan Millman (D-Brooklyn) praised Fidler, saying “I know when he is successful, he will do the same wonderful job that he’s done as a councilman as another elected official up here in Albany.”

Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera even offered to cross borough lines to help Fidler’s campaign.

“If Vito Lopez stamps my passport, I’d gladly go to Brooklyn so I can help you in whatever you feel that the area that you might want to serve this great city of ours in the state of New York.”

He went on to say: “I just want to wish you good luck . I want to contribute to the future, but again, you’ve got to ask Vito Lopez to stamp my passport.”

In all, nine Dems got up to welcome Fidler to the chamber and praise him.

One GOPer ripped the display as “Outrageous, this is a Fidler campaign rally without the buttons and banners,” the Republican said.

Read Full Article: NY Daily News

Jeffries for Congress today announced that Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries has raised $105,487.43 from 219 contributions for the last quarter of 2011, bringing his total contributions to over $275,000 with more than $235,000 on hand. Jeffries has already raised more money than any candidate ever challenging the incumbent, who has faced almost a dozen contested primaries since first being elected in 1982.

“I am grateful for the unprecedented financial support that this campaign has already received,” said Assemblyman Jeffries. “Clearly, with the stakes in Washington as high as they are, our growing group of supporters has seen my record of accomplishment in changing the culture of Albany. They agree that we need someone who can help end the dysfunction in Washington and give the people of the 10th Congressional District and beyond the representation we deserve.”

As reported in his quarterly Federal Elections Commission filing, of the total Jeffries raised in the quarter, 48% were contributions of $200 or less; $200 was also the median contribution. Jeffries has received only three donations this quarter (a total of $1,700) from PACs – two that support drug policy reform (NORML and Drug Policy Reform Fund) and one from organized labor (Steamfitters Local 638).

Last week, Jeffries also announced that he had received the early endorsement of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500, New York State’s largest grocery workers union.

Hakeem Jeffries has represented Brooklyn’s 57th district in the New York State Assembly since 2007. During his time in the legislature, Assemblyman Jeffries has emerged as a champion for working families. He has successfully advanced a progressive agenda that has made a real impact throughout Brooklyn, including legislation to strengthen tenant regulations, protect the civil liberties of law-abiding New Yorkers during police encounters, reform state government in Albany, and facilitate the successful re-entry of formerly incarcerated individuals. For more information on Hakeem’s candidacy, visit www.JeffriesforCongress.com.

The 10th Congressional District includes the neighborhoods of downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Cypress Hills, East New York, Mill Basin and Canarsie.

Press Release