It's really rare that the three major metropolitan dailies agree on anything, but in the Newell-Henry-Silver race in the 64th, they're unanimous: Dump Sheldon Silver. Yesterday, the Daily News rounded out the trifecta of The New York Times and The New York Post.

The New York Daily News:

The time has come for the voters of lower Manhattan to turn Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver out of office.

After 32 years in his seat, including 14 years as the Assembly's maximum leader, Silver embodies the insider's game that has captured the state Legislature, to the detriment of 19 million New Yorkers.

Silver's constituents would serve the cause of open, responsive government - and rock Albany to its foundations - by pulling the lever in Tuesday's Democratic primary for challenger Paul Newell.

Across America in this election year, people are demanding change. Let's have it in Albany, too.

Such a vote could mark the start of a revolution. For dumping Silver would send the unmistakable message that the people of this state want a responsible, deliberative Legislature rather than a boss-run fiefdom....

When they go to the polls Tuesday, Democratic voters of the 64th Assembly District - perhaps 15,000 strong - have the opportunity to bring desperately needed change to all New York. And they have a solid choice in Newell, who displays impressive passion about the quality of life in neighborhoods across lower Manhattan.

Elect Newell. Dump Silver.

The editorial boards of the Times, Post and News probably would have a hard time agreeing that hot and cold running water are a good thing. That they all came out and endorsed a challenger - one of two challengers, to be precise - is noteworthy. At a minimum, the issue of Albany reform has now been raised in the only language Albany incumbents understand, in a challenge at the ballot box to their cushy tenures.

Well, holy poop. Via an emailed press release, available on the web as well.

Paul Newell's grassroots fundraising outpaces Silver's lobby money by two-to-one.

New York , NY- Paul Newell, the insurgent Democrat challenging Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, has raised more than twice as much money as Silver in the most recent filing period -- and has done so without taking any money from the lobbyists and PACs that fill Silver's coffers.

"The momentum is shifting rapidly in this race," said Newell. "Downtown voters understand that change is very much possible in New York State and they have shown that by re-upping their support of an Albany unswayed by corporate contributions."

Newell, who was recently endorsed by The New York Times and the New York Post, raised $40,015 in the most recent filing period compared to Silver's $19,575.

"It is not just the total numbers that are important" explained Evan Hutchison, Newell's campaign manager, "but where the money came from that matters. This is truly a grassroots campaign and these filings bear that out.

Has that even ever happened before, that a challenger for an Assembly seat outraised the sitting incumbent in any time period?

Fascinating piece on the contested primary in the 54th AD yesterday by The Daily News' Errol Louis, which unfortunately, copyright law forbids from re-posting here whole and entire. But here are the key grafs:

The single most important political contest in New York this year is the reelection race of Manhattan Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, a Democrat who doubles as speaker of the state Assembly - the second most-powerful post in state government after governor.

For the first time in 22 years, Silver is being challenged - by a pair of political newcomers - in a primary for the seat that is the bedrock of his power.

Fewer than 12,000 voters are expected to cast ballots in the 64th District, which covers all or part of the lower East Side, the East Village, Chinatown, Wall Street and Battery Park City.

But their choice will affect New York's 19 million residents.

...and:

But the residents of Chinatown, the lower East Side, Battery Park City and the rest of the district need to take this race seriously and choose wisely. And they would do New York a great service by turning out at the polls in large numbers.

They will be voting - for the 19 million of us who can't - on the record of a powerful pol who has, for too long, been accountable to nobody.

Think about this for a moment: one elected official, with power equal to or greater than that of any statewide elected official, has gone over two decades without a challenge. When Silver was last challenged, Gorbachev was running the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan was President, and a guy named Barack Obama had just moved to Chicago to become a community organizer.

If you had ventured, say, at New Year's, to entertain the possibility that in 2008, Eliot Spitzer would resign in disgrace after being caught in a hooker sting, that Joe Bruno would be retiring, and that Hillary Clinton would not be this year's Democratic nominee, you would have been dismissed as mildly eccentric even by blood relatives. But here we are, and now, you can add one more improbable occurrence to this year of the unexpected: Tom Golisano is going to spend literally millions of dollars to shake things up in this state by targeting incumbent legislators.

That's potentially an earthquake.

The New York Sun (a rightwing fishwrapper characterized by bad writing, a rightwing editorial slant they don't even the decency to try to hide, but one redeeming virtue, their stubborn opposition to Speaker Shelly Silver) today speculates that among Golisano's targets may be Silver himself.

Mr. Golisano, a three-time gubernatorial contender who is forming a PAC to spread his wealth to candidates across the state who pledge their support for his movement against Albany's establishment, is considering bankrolling an effort to topple Mr. Silver, the longest-serving Democratic speaker in state history.

The possibility that one of New York's wealthiest residents, a sharp-tongued, politically unpredictable businessman who has a history of saturating the state airwaves with his self-financed political ads, may target Mr. Silver has provoked some concern within the speaker's political operation, according to a knowledgeable source.

There's even a rumor that Golisano may be looking at Marty Connor's seat, where the incumbent is facing a spirited challenge from newcomer Daniel Squadron. Having had a conversation about upstate economic development with Squadron myself, I'd suggest it might be worthwhile for Golisano to have the same.

Back in February, Bouldin observed that this year may be the year of challenging the entrenched and out of touch political establishment in NYC. Bouldin focused primarily on Paul Newell's challenge of perhaps the most entrenched politician in New York State, Shelly Silver. I want to expand upon what Bouldin wrote by covering some other races as well.

There is no question that Paul Newell is going up against the biggest bully in NY State, something that takes considerable guts. Let me let Paul introduce himself to you (though he has already done so here on Daily Gotham several times):