Espaillat: We had to beat up the Board of Elections to give us some level of answers, that 70 Electoral Districts came in at zero? That’s totally unacceptable in New York State. I thought that stuff happened in Florida or Mississippi somewhere, but not here…I believe it was 23 ED’s that were reported as zero in the Bronx. There were 24 ED’s right here in my original 72nd Assembly District where I represented for 13 years, 13 in the 71st. And only 7 in Harlem and East Harlem…I think that’s highly irregular.
Gate: The culprits are obviously those boss-controlled District Leaders who appoint the election inspectors and get them to do their will. Take the 72nd AD, where mush of the trouble lies; three of the four District Leaders there are controlled by the same faction. Obviously, they tried to steal the election for Charlie Rangel.
The names of these three thugs thwarting the will of the people are Mannie De Los Santos, a longtime supporter of a very partisan local pol; Aniery Batista, that pol's Chief of Staff, and the pol himself.
The pol's name?
Adriano Espaillat. Espaillat Compares Election to Florida; Vows to Go to ‘Final, Final Round’ politicker.com
Rangel: totally clueless (and this time, he seems to mean it).
Prouder than ever of my Clyde Williams endorsement. Charlie Rangel Says He’s ‘Completely Baffled’ by Disputed Vote Count in His Congressional Race politicker.com
A neutral source (closer to Vito than to Nydia) did an analysis on the impact of reapportionment on the 7th CD race:
When Vito first started saying that adding the Hasids would doom Nydia, I thought the additional White liberals would make up for it.
I used the definitions "Brownstone" & "Hasidic Williamsburgh" used by Nydia's campaign to do a comparison and only chose Election Districts that were added to the district.
As you can see, Nydia lost the new Hasidic EDs 4437 to 3153, with some of her votes being Latino. She won the won the Brownstone belt by 1891 to 80, a bigger margin than Erik won the Hasid section, despite less votes being cast there.
I think this analysis leaves out the newly acquired Hasidic EDs in Bed-Stuy, but the point is clear; reapportionment was little better than a wash for Dilan, and probably less than that.
If we take into consideration the votes he received from the public (both of them), faux 99%er George Martinez is more accurately called a 3%er.
In 2001, George's campaign was found to have committed fraud. In 2012, the perjury continues.
George: "Against all odds—the giants of corporately controlled, political machines, and the ballot challenges and attempts at voter suppression that come with them—we forged through and created a new space for transformational hopefulness with measurable results."
The Truth: What ballot challenge? No one filed specific objections against the Martinez petitions; he was not required to defend them either at the Board of Elections or in the Courts. And the only attempts at voter suppression involved efforts by both major candidates to prevent Hasids who opposed them from casting fraudulent votes, none of which would have gone to George.
George: In two months, we raised approximately 1% ($7,000) of the total amount spent by the winner ($659,000), a 20 year democratic incumbent, and obtained 3% of the vote to her 58%. Our dollar to vote ratio is significantly better and we were by far the most efficient and engaging campaign.
Translation: He spent no money and got no votes.
George: With a Village Voice cover story, major media appearances, and a grueling street effort, we influenced 20-year democratic incumbent, Nydia Velazquez, to use the language of Occupy despite her overwhelming corporate backing; Rep. Velazquez sent out a mailing that read, “My job is to represent the interests of the 99%.
Translation: I suckered a naive reporter and claim credit for making one of the most liberal members of Congress, running in one of the most liberal districts in the country to say something liberal in her own interest.
The one useful thing about George's letter: It provides empirical proof that we have not successfully eradicated the crack problem. A Letter From George Martinez occupiedmedia.us
Juan Reyes, handpicked candidate of the Queens GOP County Leader, complains about bossism.
Up next, Charles Barron complains about Anti-Semitism. Reyes Mails Against “Albany Political Bosses” | City & State www.cityandstateny.com
The Haggerty Family faction of the Queens GOP is accused of stealing Juan Reyes' doormat, and putting plastic forks on his lawn.
I'm sorry, but in the contents of things the Haggertys have been accused of, this would seem to rank relatively low on the list. Stick a plastic fork in it Juan. Rep. Senate Candidate Accuses Opponents of Vandalizing His Home nypress.com
Schoenberg: Rumor du jour: Michael Nelson promised Ben Akselrod support if he musters enough support and money.
McGonnigle: I'm going to have to consider this rumor groundless unless you can provide evidence that Michael Nelson does anything
Linda Sarsour and I mostly disagree about Israel, and mostly disagree about the NYPD's counter-terrorism efforts.
The first should never come up at a Community Board, while the second quite legitimately should, and a little hostility directed towards it might actually help to keep the program within constitutional limits, which is fine by me (as long as we keep doing it).
But the efforts by right wing bigots like Andy Sullivan (a deranged extremist who objects to religions he dislikes having a place to pray) to deny Palestinian-American Sarsour a seat on a body which monitors local zoning and service delivery in an area containing NYC's largest Arab community is a stone disgrace.
The lame excuse?
Some of Sarsour's relatives are criminals and Jews haters. By that measure, Rudolph Giuliani (son of a mobster) should not have been Mayor, and Jews would have been better off electing Charles Barron to Congress than Hakeem Jeffries (nephew of a notorious Jew-hater).
Even worse is than Sullivan's irrational ravings is Shavana Abruzzo's vile screed, which is about as disgusting an example of hate speech as has ever been printed in a non-fringe newspaper.
Abruzzo actually cites in her bill of particulars of the Islamic plague an incident involving a swimming pool in England (a nation which, unlike ours, does not have a first amendment establishment clause) and Sarsour's wanting Arab music to be included in a July 4th celebration in a neighborhood which is home to many American-born Americans of Arab extraction, and who might want a public expression of the undeniable fact that they too are America.
Why does this bother Ms. Abruzzo (not an American herself) so much?
Funny thing is one of the quotes Ms. Abruzzo cites as evidence of Ms. Sarsour evil, “Israel is there, and it is going to be there whether we like it or not, we have to learn to deal with that,” consists of exactly the words Israelis have been waiting for a Palestinian leader say to their people for eons.
They might also like "I do not support suicide bombers or anyone else who harms innocent people, regardless if they are Palestinian or Israeli.”
After having heard Sarsour proudly declare how she refused to vote for Mike McMahon’s re-election because of his failures of liberal purity, I doubt I could ever support Ms. Sarsour for office, but as a leader of one of Bay Ridge's leading communities, it is preposterous to say she does not belong on CB#10.
Congratulations to Marty Markowitz for having the backbone to appoint her. Controversial Arab-American activist appointed to community board www.brooklyndaily.com
Hamas think Assad is worse than Israel. Hamas Official Endorses the Mossad's Assassination Methods www.theatlantic.com
Chait: "I should explain why I call the decision shocking and bizarre. There were numerous arguments for the constitutionality of the law. The argument that it could be uphold under the power to tax struck me as convincing (Jack Balkin made the case a month before the decision) but not completely airtight. You could plausibly deny the mandate was a tax, whereas the arguments denying it as a function of the Commerce Clause were insanely tendentious. Liberal lawyers were unanimously supportive of the Commerce Cause justification and divided on the taxing arguments. Conservative lawyers were divided on the Commerce Clause and united on the taxing authority. The overlap of legal minds willing to accept the fantastical right-wing arguments against the law but also to accept the weakest liberal argument for it contained nobody at all, until Roberts himself stepped forward to claim this unoccupied territory." John Roberts Writes His Own Law nymag.com
Romney site still says he will nominate judges in the mold of Roberts.
This may be a first. Romney's accidentally repositioned himself to the center without changing his position. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/07/02/509665/romney-website-still-says-he-will-nominate-judges thinkprogress.org