Petitioning is wrapping up. Petitioning is not only the way people get on the ballot, but it often is a first chance for a candidate's campaign to connect with the voters. It is hard to overemphasize the importance of petitioning.

The petitioning period to qualify for the September 13 primary ballot officially ends on Thursday, July 14. However, most campaigns want to have petitions turned in by July 11 so they can check them and bind them to be filed on July 14. There is still time to help candidates gather signatures this week and this weekend to ensure their ballot status in September. And if you have witnessed petitions for any candidate, please turn them into the candidate's campaign.

Why should we petition for candidates? Simple. The best, most grassroots candidates are often not supported by big money or by a party machine. They are supported only by you and me. Without our involvement in petitioning, the only candidates that make it to the ballot are those who are rich enough to be able to fund their own campaign, those who are supported by the political machine, or those who are supported by big money. If we want grassroots candidates we have tp supply the grassroots.

You have about one more week to give the grassroots the help they need. I can help you hook up with a campaign if you want to petition for an individual candidate. You can also petition through Democracy for NYC. If you want to petition for Norm Siegel, Paul Wooten or Anthony Weiner, I can hook you up with Marjorie Gersten. Or you can find your local Dem club and petition through them.  read more »

From DavidNYC's FP post at DailyKos

Whatever happens with the Supreme Court nomination battle that is about to ensue, it's going to happen fast. Here are some things you can do right now:

• If you have a cell phone, sign up for People at the American Way's Mass Immediate Response site. This way, you'll be able to receive text message action items instantly as events break. (If you signed up during the nuclear option fight, you'll need to re-sign up.)

• Also sign up with the Save the Court, another PFAW website devoted specifically to this issue.

• Recruit friends and family members to the cause.

• Write to the President, telling him he should choose a consensus candidate to replace O'Connor.

• Contact your Senators to tell them the same thing.

If you have any other action items, please post them in the comments below, with links.

Update [2005-7-1 11:33:32 by DavidNYC]: If you have a blog, please post these action items on your site. If you don't, e-mail them to your like-minded buddies and relatives.  read more »

Ben at The Observer found out he will be having competition soon from Newsday.

[via The Politicker: Competition?]:

Well, I hate to blow Newsday's cover, but I hear preparations are underway for a new city politics blog and Politicker rival to be run out of the Kew Gardens Death Star.

The more the merrier, I think.

Heh.

I guess races are all the rage these days. For one, did y'all notice there's another "open-source" NYC blog called, onNY turf. I noticed the other day --and yes, they seem to have opened after us.

It gets better. Guess who is diversifying his political portfolio and starting a ... ahem ... [ cough, cough ] ... and I quote :

[via how open is the source | CivicSpace]:

By the way, you're the target competition of my coming site, and I'll be sure to steal ideas from your site regularly

Mr. Scott Sala of SlantPoint, which seems to be the only NYC Republican blog worth reading, is starting a CivicSpace run community site for NYC Republicans. And given I am active in the CivicSpaceLabs community, trying to find ways to simplify the use of the technology for grassroots organizing, yours truly here will be actually giving some open-source love to Mr. Sala.  read more »

In the 1980's, the elected President Bush tried denegrating the ACLU as a way of gaining votes during a debate with Dukakis. The result was that the ACLU had a HUGE boost to their membership in the month following Bush's stupid comment.

Last week, Karl Rove, servant of the dubiously elected little Bush, tried to gain political points by denegrating MoveOn.org (or at least that is what Fox News claims). To me what is worse is that he exploited the memories of our 9/11 dead to do this. I am so disgusted with the Republican misuse of 9/11. My outrage at Rove and Bush knows no bounds. And I am increasingly disgusted with NY Republicans like Bloomberg and Pataki and Fossella who don't stand up for our city against the Republican exploitation of our 9/11 dead. The absolute best way we can show Rove what we think of his comments is to turn this into a massive fundraising boon for MoveOn.org.

From MoveOn.org's PAC:

Polls show that Americans are losing patience with the Republican leadership's radical agenda, making three of their top leaders vulnerable to defeat in 2006. This week's critical fundraising deadline is a terrific opportunity to stand up to these extremists and support the courageous Democrats taking them on.

Rep. Tom DeLay is the worst, from his corrupt politics, to his threats against judges, to his exploitation of Terri Schiavo's personal tragedy. Former Rep. Nick Lampson, a leader on education and labor, is a strong challenger.

Sen. Rick Santorum, number three in the Senate Republican leadership and key in enforcing their hard-right message, is nearly as bad as DeLay and is THE most vulnerable Republican senator. And everyone remembers Rep. Katherine Harris, the former Florida election official who helped secure George W. Bush's 2000 election--she's now running for Senate.

It's early in the election cycle, but in politics, early money often makes all the difference. Please support Lampson and the other strong Democratic candidates in opposing these radical Republicans today. In order to beat the contribution deadline, we need your donation by tomorrow (Tuesday) night! Click here to chip in:

DeLay, Santorum, and Harris have all demonstrated their allegiance to big business and fringe groups:  read more »