So came across Cesare Bonizzi on BBC's website. Fra Bonizzi is a monk of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, an offshoot of the Franciscan order dating back to the 16th century. Fra Bonizzi is also lead singer of a Heavy Metal band that regularly shows up at the Gods of Metal festival in Italy:

Of course it's not only Catholics who can be hip to the latest scene. Matisyahu is a Hasidic (specifically Chabad-Lubavitch branch of the Hasids) that I came across on Current TV some time back:

In our quest to win the State Senate SD-11 is a district that I have been pushing for, though many have thought it is too much of a long shot. Well, it looks like it might not be such a longshot! It may well be one of the top pick up chances. Democrat Jim Gennaro's campaign reports some excellent numbers.

First, the latest figures from the state Board of Elections show that in the SD-11 district 85,860 registered Democrats to 32,669 registered Republicans. Come on folks. THAT should make this winnable right there!

Second, it looks like Gennaro is raising money quite effectively. Here's the latest press release from the Gennaro campaign:

Gennaro Raises Well Over Half-Million Dollars,
Has Over $400k On Hand

...Councilman Gennaro, who is preparing a challenge to Senate District 11's Republican incumbent Frank Padavan in Eastern Queens, has raised a total of $615,497.35, including $233,479.02 since the last such scheduled filing in January. The Gennaro for New York committee has a total of $406,965.01 cash on hand.

Email from feminist leader Gloria Steinem discussing Steve Harrison vs. Mike McMahon for NY-13 Congressional race:

We have one big reason to be grateful for George W. Bush. He has taught us that who's in the White House and Congress really matters -- in every area of our lives, from the safety of our food to our place of respect in the world and our own human rights.

That's why I'm writing you in support of Steve Harrison, a candidate for Congress from New York's 13th District. He is committed to justice in all its forms, from our right to universal health care and women's rights to make our own reproductive decisions to the right of the huge majority of Americans who oppose the war in Iraq to bring our young people home. He opposes the growing division of this country into the poor and jobless, the struggling middle class, and the mega-rich. He is an honest man who tells you where he stands.

Before I get into this column, let me preface it a bit. At this point in time, I am strongly leaning towards supporting Bill Thompson in next year’s mayoral race. I finally got to that place while I was in Miami for a wedding, about two weeks ago. Some political friends that I respect convinced me to come aboard the Billy Thompson train; so I am heading there. I must also confess that although I still have a weak spot for councilmember Avella, I am realistic enough to recognize when a candidate will not be competitive unless he can raise much more money than Avella has. I have had my share (and fill) of symbolic runs at public office, if I support a candidate now he or she must have a realistic shot at winning. I am getting too old for all that insurgent “protest” shit.

So with all that as a backdrop, why am I writing a column about Marty Markowitz? Only because I hate when political people talk crap, that’s why. I hate when elected officials and political activists (black, white, brown, whatever) with big mouths, try to denigrate my political opinions.

You see over the last couple years, I have had some heated discussions with quite a few people (I wouldn’t name them here) that Marty Markowitz is a viable mayoral candidate. And before you go deep on me, let me say that I know if Marty runs, he will hurt both Billy Thompson’s and Anthony Weiner’s chances a bit; but that’s not the point. Since 1984 I have worked to unseat Markowitz; I stopped in 2001 after he won Brooklyn’s borough presidency. I was never a Marty fan -unlike many of my Caribbean-American brothers and sisters; but again that’s another story. When he ran for Boro Prez in 2001, I supported one of his opponents (Ken Fisher). Marty has a long memory/lol.

In 2004, I was running for district leader when both he and I happened to be on a podium in front of thousands of people. It was an event in Brooklyn’s Pakistani/Asian-American community on Coney Island Avenue. I leaned over to Marty and said; “how about endorsing me for district leader right here and now (at the East-Indian /Pakistani event)”.
He replied: “Hackshaw, did you endorse me when I ran for Boro Prez?”
I said: “No”.

Then with typical Marty scowl he gave a one-word reply: “Well!”
No endorsement for me kids. LMAO.

Senator Chuck Schumer loves to hold press conferences on Sundays, whereby he gets decent coverage in near all local newspapers the next day; it has been an effective media strategy. It sure helped him get to the US Senate. The question however is this: after the press leaves are the issues raised eventually resolved? What about the follow-up? Maybe a media outlet would apply some of its resources into researching Schumer’s success rate. And there is a reason why I say this.

I have lived in New York for the past 35 years, and it seems to me that every year or two, some politician, news outlet, university or think-tank, comes up with some study showing how blacks and Hispanics get screwed by mortgage brokers, real estate folks, insurers or banks. No kidding. And I recall Senator Schumer holding quite a few of his Sunday press conferences, to highlight this and other ancillary problems over the years.

Then yesterday it was announced that New York’s Attorney General Andrew Cuomo had secured nine hundred thousand dollars in restitution, for 270 black and Hispanic homeowners, who were ripped off by higher charges, fees (some hidden) and rates, by Green Point Brokers -a subsidiary of Capital One Financial Corp.

Cuomo claims to have used information developed through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, in order to bring Green Point to the bargaining table. He says to expect more developments in this area. It is expected that Cuomo will go after other companies who practice this type of racial discrimination on a daily basis. Score one for Andrew Cuomo. This is long overdue.

Stay tuned-in folks.

Josh Skaller, who is a friend of mine, has reported his recent fundraising results for the 2009 City Council race to replace Bill deBlasio:

BROOKLYN, N.Y.—Officials from Josh Skaller's City Council campaign announced today that the candidate had exceeded fundraising targets for the filling period ending July 15 and is eligible for matching funds from the City.

Skaller, who is running to replace term-limited Councilmember Bill de Blasio in the Council's 39th district, raised nearly $55,000 to date. He is eligible to receive an additional $90,000 in matching funds in 2009.

"We've exceeded all of our goals for this period," said campaign treasurer Aaron Rudelson. "Josh has already qualified for the full amount of matching funds from the city, both in money raised and in in-district donations."

The campaign noted that many of the donations were raised in small amounts from voters throughout the 39th district, which stretches from Cobble Hill in the north to Borough Park in the south, and includes such diverse Brooklyn neighborhoods as Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens and Kensington.

Two key findings in the new Quinnipiac poll: one, the leading contender for the 2009 mayoral race is the term-limited incumbent (38%), and two, New Yorkers overwhelmingly approve of the concept of term limits in general (72%) and for the Bloomberg mayoralty in particular (56%).

So there's an element of schizophrenia in these results.

Asked about the actual or likely candidates to fill Bloomberg's seat on his departure, the field is remarkably evenly balanced: Ray Kelly barely leads at 12%, Marty Markowitz comes in at 11%, Congressman Weiner is next at 10%, Christine Quinn and William Thompson round out the pack at 7%. Given the poll's margin of error of 3.1%, that's substantially a five-way statistical tie (Avella and Carrion, also looking at the top spot, didn't register. Update: Duh. Carrion is running for Controller.).

So look to these five to begin to distinguish themselves. As things stand right now, any of them could be your next mayor.

The last time we visited the 10th congressional district, incumbent congressman Ed Towns was facing challenges from assemblyman Roger Greene and councilmember Charles Barron; that was two years ago. Towns won re-election with about 46 per cent of the votes cast. He wasn’t as satisfied with the victory as he should be, but in the words of a very wise person: a win is a win. In that race the missing candidate was Kevin Powell, who withdrew at the last moment in order to support Barron; this time around he is being reciprocated since Barron has endorsed him here. Powell is the solitary opponent for the congressman this year; that in itself gives him a long-shot chance, since Ed Towns has been in office for more than two decades, and many people are caught up in Barack Obama’s theme of “change”.

Towns - who is in my opinion, one of the most amiable electeds around- tends to get very serious once challenged; suddenly he stops the levity and gets focused. In a strange way this is good for democracy to have these incumbents challenged. I wonder if the congressman will agree with my assertion here. He is expected to raise wheelbarrows full of cash for this race. This will put him at a distinct advantage beyond the naturally built in incumbency factor.

Powell will have many challenges to surmount; this race will be uphill all the way. The first challenge for Powell is “mullah”. Can he raise about half a million dollars to be competitive in the ads, mail, media, on the streets and on the phones? Many are saying that he can, but this is more wishful than realistic. He has to do it to prove he can. Then there is the challenge of getting institutional support. Who amongst the elected officials in NYC will endorse/support him? Which unions will help him? Which of the local political clubs, key community activists, churches, pastors and local political operatives will cover his back? Very few. Will he get major newspaper endorsements? I doubt it.

I got into a bit of hot water recently by comparing the performance of two Democratic campaigns in a primary; and in that same spirit, let's do another comparison, this time in the 25th District.

First, incumbent Marty Connor, under a headline that reads in part Momentum Builds for Senator’s Surging Re-Election Campaign:

New York, New York – July 15, 2008: Senator Martin Connor’s campaign announced today that it has raised over $120,000 in contributions for the July filing with the New York State Board of Elections.

“We are grateful for the extraordinary financial support Senator Connor has received in the last few months from every corner of the 25th Senate District. The Senator has a long record of fighting for the families of New York, and people have responded by supporting his re-election. We will have the resources we need to wage an aggressive re-election campaign,” said Chad Marlow, spokesman for Senator Connor’s re-election campaign.

Then, challenger Dan Squadron:

Today, Daniel Squadron, an insurgent candidate for State Senate in the 25th Senatorial District, announced another round of strong fundraising numbers – raising a total of $428,440 from 750 donors with cash on hand of approximately $291,000.

Squadron today also reaffirmed his pledge not to accept contributions from lobbyists, PACs or corporations. "People are hungry for real independence and a focus on working hard to get results – exactly the reason that so many people have gotten behind this effort," Squadron said. "Without accepting contributions from corporations, PACs or lobbyists we have built a strong campaign that will bring the people of the 25th Senate District the independent, progressive representation we so sorely need."

Outraising an incumbent by a factor of over three to one is pretty remarkable, one would think; but if recent commentary is any indication, Connor probably raised vastly superior super-dollars, much as Jimmy Dahroug gathered super-signatures when he came in with 1,400 versus 3,200 for his opponent in SD-3, Brian Foley.

And no, I'm not going to pick on the regrettable usage of the word "surging", except to note that the word is, these days, associated with something of a similar concept in a place called Iraq that doesn't seem to be going all that well.

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