Author: Jerry Skurnik

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-29/poll-shows-americans-don-t-know-economy-expanded-with-tax-cuts.html

As part of the US Justice Department’s indictment of Former Councilman & State Senator Hiram Monserrate, it is alleged that Monserrate had LIBRE; the non-profit the feds allege Monserrate controlled spend @$31,000 on a voter registration as part of his 2006 Primary campaign for State Senate.

During the overheated press coverage of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, some cynical observers of the press (like me) said this was a classic “summer story”. That is, a minor event or controversy that gets enormous attention in the media because there is less real news happening in August. Previous examples include shark attacks and Chandra Levy. Others said no, this is a major issue that will resonate with voters in November and affect American relationships around the world.

In last Tuesday’s Democratic Primary elections, two winning candidates for State Assembly were Francisco Moya in the 39^th AD and Robert Rodriguez in the 68^th.  Both are overwhelming favorites to take office as their districts are safely Democratic.

Moya and Rodriguez will join an interesting group of present and former New York City state legislators – those who were unsuccessful candidates for City Council and then were elected to the State Senate & Assembly.

Both Moya and Rodriguez ran in 2009, Moya in a Special Election to replace Hiram Monserrate (the person he defeated last week) and Rodriguez against incumbent Melissa Mark Viverito (in a district that had previously been represented by Rodriguez’ father).

From the Primary Day edition of the Wall Street Journal –

http://arkansasnews.com/2010/08/29/lincoln-should-have-started-spending-sooner-observers-say/

From the Huffington Post –

One sentence in Maureen Dowd’s ridiculous column attacking Michelle Obama in last Sunday’s NY Times explains what’s wrong with Dowd.

At the risk of receiving comments that I’m once again subtly defending the indefensible, I’m presenting a report on the first 3 days of hearings on petition challenges at the New York City Board of Elections.