Domenic Recchia, go home.

Brooklyn City Councilman Domenic Recchia has been making the rounds on Staten Island in recent weeks. Some speculated that the Daily News Knucklehead award winner( http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2006/12/26/2006-12-26_how_stupid_can...) was visiting the forgotten borough because he was seeking citywide office. Others correctly speculated that he was contemplating running a primary against Steve Harrison for the right to attempt to unseat Vito Fossella, New York City's only Republican member of Congress, who represents all of Staten Island and a portion of Brooklyn. Crains' and the Staten Island Advance confirmed his potentially disastrous for those wanting to Veto Vito, ambitions.

Brooklyn attorney Harrison ran a gallant campaign last year, losing by a smaller percentage of the vote than any of Fossella's opponents since he supplanted the Molinari dynasty in 1997. Harrison accomplished this despite being out spent 12-1 by Fossella, largely because people like Recchia, who represents a tiny portion of the Congressional District in the Council, did squat for Steve.  read more »

Azi "Wolfman" Paybarah howls at the proverbial moon while we're waiting for Bill Richardson to arrive.

I wonder if when people talk about "those crazy bloggers" they have an image like this in mind.

I've been meaning to post this for a while now. This item on NYP's Page Six made me laugh because it happened to me just days before.

Michael, David and I were invited by Dave Pollak (grok, please tell me I go his last name's spelling right or I'll have to rend my shirt and gnash my teeth) to a fundraising event with Nancy Pelosi the same day John Edwards came into town.

Now, mind you, I'm poking fun at Dave and Eliot because ... well ... do I have to have a reason?

I arrived at Cipriani's early to scope the room and get a feel of how I was going to photo & video blog the place. So I'm checking my camera's batteries and find out the dang rechargables are dead. On my way to the corner store I find Eliot Spitzer already pressing the flesh. I nod a hi and run out. On my return, I have about 8 packs of batteries, just to make sure my darn camera doesn't go dead (it did, days before, during a John Leguizamo interview).

Eliot notices the mess of cells and asks incredulously, "Why do you need so many batteries?" As non-minxish as I could (the man is gorgeo although not as tall as I thought he would be) I responded, "So I can film you saying The Daily Gotham is the best blog in New York City."  read more »

The City Board of Elections denied Independence Party candidate to replace the late John Lavelle representing Staten Island's North Shore in the March 27 Special Election Kelvin Alexander's bid to place his made up Family First line (Not to be confused with Working Families which supports Democratic opponent Matt Titone ) as an additional line on the ballot. The board ruled that 611 of the petition's 1616 signatures were invalid, leaving him short of the 1100 he needed for that additional line.

Alexander, a Staten Island Democratic County Committee member, is running on the Independence line and potentially turning a potential easy Democratic win into an opportunity for Republican Rose Margarella, because the party chose Titone over him. He is undecided if he'll fight the ruling with the state Supreme Court.

Alexander has accused any challenge of his fabricated party petition as marginalizing minority voters. I find that a stretch since he's already on the ballot as a better known party's candidate.  read more »

Life used to be so simple.

Back in the good old days of hazy memory – what, maybe six weeks ago? – when you wanted to browse a blog devoted to New York City politics, you basically had The Politicker, and that was pretty much it.

OK, that's a gross oversimplification in the service of nostalgia, because there are many other fine blogs out there. That said, it's also fair to say, fellow bloggers, that Ben Smith set benchmarks for the local blogging scene. There was one place you could go to and find out what was going on in the Imperial City and its surroundings. Hence, the Ben-Smith-osphere.

No more. Ben's now at The Daily Politics under the Daily News masthead; further, some of his commenters now have their own platform at Room 8; and now, with a flourish, and as recently previewed on The Daily Gotham, the New York Times enters the fray with The Empire Zone. That one-stop-shopping simplicity is a thing of the past.

Oy. Just how many people care about this stuff, anyway? Or are we all collectively, perhaps, creating a new audience to take an active interest in the decisions of our state and local governments and the players who make them?

Stay tuned.