An overlooked nugget in the reporting on Charlie Rangel's speech to the New York Congressional delegation about Spitzer's budget is this:

Mrs. Clinton, according to people who were in attendance, did not take sides. But she did joke that if the matter could not be settled now, she would “fix it” in 2009.

That's from the 'I may have just gotten re-elected to one job, but don't expect me to actually work for you while I'm angling for my promotion' doctrine. You may recognize it from last year's race in the Eleventh Congressional District, specifically the Yassky and Clarke candidacies. Both of these jumped out of the gate within days of their re-election to a four-year term in the City Council in November 2005. It's quite normal, expected even, for New York politicians to royally shaft their existing constituents as they work for that advancement their shining talents so richly deserve. You poor creature are just a voter, and guess what: you don't really matter so much to the caste of your professional overlords. Now spread 'em; there, that's a good little peon. It may be uncomfortable, but you can certainly vote for Hillary in that position, you know; perhaps more easily so, even.

A variant on this principle is currently playing out in the 40th City Council District, where the Clarkes, mother and daughter, found and backed some pitiable schmuck, a 'doctor' who has never practiced medicine in this country and did not even have the simple, baseline good sense to establish the in-district residency required to take office. The end result is that there's now the need for a new election – no, thank you, Una. We liked the first one so much we're all just thrilled at the repeat – twice the cost, sure, but twice the fun, too.

I've been involved to a limited degree with Manny Innamorato's special election campaign to fill Andrew Lanza's usually empty Southshore/Mid-Island council seat (Marchi's successor and Titone's State Senate opponent had the worst attendance in the Council)against State Assemblyman Vincent Ignizio, a Vito protege.

Manny, the head of IT for the City of Yonkers (Talk about bad commutes), held a fundraiser last night on the Island. Steve, Janele and most Staten Island Democratic officeholders, activists and operatives were there.

Daniel is right, that a win here would help Democrats win other races in the forgotten borough (Although I appreciate Daniel not forgetting us). Ignizio, who ran unopposed for his Assembly spot, is being groomed to eventually succeed Fossella. Iggy defeated Manny for the Assembly seat in 04. Beating him in the council race will dampen his ambition and possibly give a Southshore Democrat the courage to oppose him when he runs for reelection to Albany.

The Council district is slightly more Democratic than that of the all Republican dominated Southshore Assembly because it includes New Springville which is mixed (New Springville became slightly less Democratic two days after election day when my wife and myself moved to the Northshore.)Manny should do better than he did against Iggy for City Hall than for Albany just based on that.

2009?

Ok I know what your thinking "Spitzer just got in to office,we have three special elections coming up in the next month, and 2008 is a Presidential year. What about 2009?"

2009 represents the year when truly a cast of thousands well seek the numerous City Council seats that will become vacant. My count has 41 City Council seats that will be open due to those pesky term limits that Speaker Quinn may want to remove. That leaves only 10 seats that may not see a new face after the primaries in 2009.

Now how about those 41 who may be job hunting soon?

Will one of the remaining ten that survive re-election will become speaker of the House? (i.e. Letisha James)

Well is my "unfinished painting" for 2009. Be mindful its early but then again we are picking Presidential winners and losers(Guilani) already.

City Council List (Who is Staying, Going, and Not Knowing)

1. Christine Quinn – Term limited in 2009- Expected to run for Mayor or Public Advocate
2. Council Member- District: 32
Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr.- Democrat 1/1/02-12/31/09 (Term Limited)
3. Council Member- District: 17
Maria del Carmen Arroyo- Democrat 3/21/05-12/31/2009 (Not Term Limited-Up for Reelection 2009)

Some day a legislative leadership with a sense of humor will push through both houses resolutions calling for the abolition of their own legislative bodies and the speedy execution of the members.

If read in the usual mumbling tone by the clerk and voted on in the usual uninquiring manner, the resolution will be adopted unanimously.

Warren Moscow, Politics in the Empire State, Alfred A. Knopf 1948

Due to sustained public pressure, exercised in part by Progressive activists from NDM and DFNYC, both houses of the New York State legislature finally adopted, in early 2005, a somewhat watered-down version of the reform package proposed by the Brennan Center for Justice. However, these reforms have not sufficiently addressed the reform needs of this state.

The key to solving the lack of small-d democratic transparency is to abolish the incumbency protection racket that is the redistricting system. Presently, both houses of the legislature – Senate and Assembly – draw their own districts. Not surprisingly, given the seemingly permanent party majorities in both houses, this has led to an exquisite refinement in the art of gerrymandering; witness this map of City senate districts.

Note how the districts of republicans – Padavan (11), Maltese (15) and Golden (22) – snake around, literally from block to block, in an effort to capture as many friendly voters as possible. The exception to that rule is the 24th district, which is republican enough to dispense with the kind of electoral filigree that sustains the three others. Another notable example of partisan craft is the 31st district, represented by Eric Schneiderman, which was re-drawn by the Senate majority to make the district far less demographically friendly to the Senator.

The same methodology applies, needless to say, to the Assembly. In a very real way, this chicanery is illustrative of the larger ill that besets American democracy. For example, Democrats won 52% of the popular vote in House races in 2004, versus the republican's 44%; however, due to clever redistricting engineered in 2000 and later, the other side was able to expand its representation in the House.

Partisanship aside, it is not a good thing in a representative democracy when legislators don't need to worry about their re-election prospects, since that worry is directly tied to their responsiveness to the expressed will of their constituents. It's also arguably not a very productive way of doing business when a given natural community of interest – say, a neighborhood – is divided between several legislative districts. Take, for example, the blocks that abut the 19th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 27th districts in Bay Ridge. It's difficult to see how that area can secure adequate representation and a voice in its own affairs, to put it mildly.

Democrats are already determined to make government reform a major issue in the 2006 state elections. Obviously, in a solidly blue state, this issue accrues to our partisan benefit. But that does not diminish the fact that it's also the right thing to do. New Yorkers deserve better than we're getting from Albany these days.

New York City Progressive activists are looking beyond the five boroughs to winnable legislative races around the state. The reason for this is simply the enormous local disparity between the resources available and the small number of targets.

One such winnable race is in the 19th Congressional district, currently represented by Sue Kelly.

Kelly is vulnerable on a number of fronts. The 19th district, when it was drawn in 2000, was already trending Democratic; today, the republican registration advantage has shrunk to under five percent, due in part to an influx of new voters from the City and to general disaffection with republican rule. On that issue, Kelly is perhaps most vulnerable: her votes are cast in lockstep with Tom DeLay's in 90% of cases, and she has taken $12,020 from ARMPAC, the indicted Texan's primary fundraising vehicle. Kelly's race, along with those of the other downstate House republicans being targeted – Fossella and King – is a prime candidate for issues nationalization.

One leading indicator of winnability for this race is the number of contestants on the Democratic side. There are presently five candidates in the primary:

- Judy Aydelott
- John Hall
- Jim Martorano
- Darren Rigger
- Ben Shuldiner

The 19th district race is going to be interesting on several levels. The local Progressive coalition has established a blog dedicated solely to this race, Take 19, which will make it a test case for the use of grassroots blogs as information and activism platforms in local races. On another level, Kelly's district overlaps with other districts featuring vulnerable, targeted incumbents – "Landslide Nick" Spano comes to mind – which in turn likely will create synergy effects between the various campaigns being run in the area in 2006.

Stay tuned.

Nathan's post at War and Politics on machine politics brings up a lot of good points regarding the domination of urban politics by Democratic Machines and their less than desirable effects on innovation with in the party. New York City seems to be rather different in this regard. The Democratic party is so fractured in the city with its power spread amongst the numerous clubs and really it becomes more like a collection of fiefdoms with their own agenda that doesn't collectively advance Dems in the city.

A lot of this problem lies in that their is no charismatic leader that has appeal citywide. We need someone to bring people together and to slap people upside the head (*cough* Denny Farrel *cough*) when they make ridiculous power plays that serve no one.

But I digress. Up here in the Bronx this dysfunction has been on full display for years. Until a bit more than a year ago, my neighborhood was represented by the "esteemed" Guy Vallela who has just finished a turn at Riker's Island for corruption. His incarceration led to a knock-down fight for his seat which feature two Democratic Assemblymen, Steve Kaufman and Jeff Klein and one retired Republican policeman, John Fleming. What was interesting was that Kaufman ran under the Dem, GOP and Conservative Party lines in the primary. His funding was primarily coming from big GOP donors and even Bloomberg was making frequent trips up here to campaign for Kaufman.