A tad belatedly, here is John Liu's announcement for his run for Comptroller, the position I always thought he should run for and urged him to run for when he came to talk to Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats. Glad he listened to me

Visit John's website and check him out. To me he is by far the best candidate in the race. Only John Liu and David Weprin have any relevant experience for the job of Comptroller, and Weprin seems far more conservative than Liu.

I recently wrote about (based on a good analysis from True News from Change NYC) how lawyer and developer money is dominating the NYC Comptroller's race. As background I will also refer you to the corrupt sweetheart deals developers routinely get in NYC. Basically, when I wrote that earlier article the Comptroller's race looked pretty lousy with Melinda "Developer's Quisling" Katz, David "Weasel" Yassky, and David Weprin who I don't know well enough to give the kind of nickname I hear from a new State Senator that I have become known for. Weprin had been my choice by default because he a.) wasn't such a clear developer shill as Katz, b.) hadn't supported the Bloomberg Putch like Weasel Yassky, and c.) actually had considerable experience in regulation of banking and financial industries.  read more »

Devin Cohen, candidate for Broklyn's 1st Civil Court in the September 9th primary, has announced two new endorsements: Congresswoman Yvette Clarke and City Councilman David Yassky. All he needs is a Chris Owens endorsement and Devin will have three-of-a-kind from the 2006 CD-11 Congressional race that divided the district so much. Since Devin already got the endorsement of CBID, the club that Chris is now the president of, in some ways Devin already has unified the CD-11 candidates behind him. This brings Devin's endorsement list to the following:

# Congresswoman Yvette Clarke
# Assemblymember Joan Millman
# Assemblymember Jim Brennan
# State Senator Velmanette Montgomery
# State Senator Martin Connor
# Councilmember Letitia James
# Councilmember David Yassky
# District Leader Alan Fleishman
# District Leader JoAnne Simon
# District Leader William Saunders
# Independent Neighborhood Democrats
# Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats
# Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn
# 57th A.D. Regular Democratic
Organization  read more »

One thing I'd like to note, lest it get lost in the ruckus surrounding Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno's Comptroller stupidity: new Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith stood up on the right side here. As described in the Albany Times-Union editorial:

But then there was the Democratic minority leader of the Senate, Malcolm Smith of Queens. He attempted, albeit in vain, to have Martha Stark, the New York City finance commissioner, chosen as comptroller. The Assembly minority leader, James Tedisco of Schenectady, also supported Ms. Stark, who was one of the three entirely qualified candidates shunned by the Legislature.

"We want the people of the state to know that we are not only prepared to govern the way they want us to, but when we make agreements, we are prepared to keep those agreements," said Mr. Smith.

Let his words serve as a battle cry in the war to change the legislative culture.

I've mentioned before that Senator Smith, as Majority Leader-in-Waiting, will be under great scrutiny from progressives.

So credit where credit is due: in the Comptroller battle, at least, Senator Smith sided with reform and with the voters of New York State. Kudos.  read more »