I know that there are fifty days left to the general election, and I know that many would say that it is way too early to make an endorsement; but here I go. I am going to endorse Jeanine Pirro for Attorney General. I am going to vote for her and I am also going to try to get everyone I know to vote for her.

Why endorse Pirro? The answer is simple: she is much better qualified for this job than Andrew Cuomo. Case closed. And yet it’s more than that. We have never had a woman as AG in New York’s history; and here we have a highly qualified, highly successful, and very articulate woman, so let’s make history. In this male-dominated world (state) we don’t know when next we will get this opportunity. So let’s do it now.

While I think I know much more about politics than the average voter, I admit I’m as clueless as anyone as to who is qualified to be a judge. So I have never and never will say X is more qualified than Y.

The editorial writers at the Daily News are not as humble.

In Monday’s edition, they attacked Brooklyn County Leader Vito Lopez for supporting for Supreme Court “an attorney whose chief qualifications include being the brother of Lopez’s girlfriend”

When I told everyone that Charles Barron will win the “black” vote from Ed Towns, most thought that I was on crack. Now many ask me how I made that call. It was a simple call to make really (maybe at another time I will get deeper). Observe that I never endorsed anyone in that race. Observe also, that I predicted Ed Towns as the winner. When I endorsed Hiram Monserratte for the 13th Senatorial, many called and said that I was really losing it here. I went a step further; I predicted that he would win. On election night Hiram was a couple hundred votes behind. I still predicted that he would win. Now they are counting. I am predicting that when it’s over Hiram will win.

I recently wrote a series of essays on what I consider to be phony or exaggerated economic issues in New York State. Now I’m going to write a series of essays on the real problems, as I see them. For New York City, perhaps the biggest problem is the low share of its adults who work, or look for work. The support of the non-working is a burden the working have to carry, and to the extent that burden is concentrated on those who live in their proximity, it is a particular burden in New York. But that liability is small compared with the impact of the absence of employment on the non-employed themselves. It is one of several ways New York’s poor are less well off now than in the 1950s – though, as we shall see, better off than in the mid-1990s.

The saga of the cash cow known as the Independence Party (IP), which I’ve religiously documented here and here continued on primary day when a number of votes important to the party took place.

In the 13^th Congressional District (Staten Island/Brooklyn), the party forfeited its one opportunity for usefulness, when it rejected its homegrown lunatic, Anita Lerman, and re-nominated the repugnant Vito Fossella, who shares with both factions of the IP leadership a predilection for spending taxpayers’ money in manners inappropriate, whether it be on matters small (photos for his campaign literature) or large (the war in Iraq).

“One of the real issues in the campaign (on the Brooklyn side of the district) is the proposed construction of luxury housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP). Connor's for it. Diamondstone's against — and so is the community. It's not Atlantic Yards. Call this story "on the waterfront." But this primary election is shaping up as a referendum on an issue. And isn't that what they're supposed to be about.” 

Alex Navarro – Working Families Party (WFP) Blog (9/6/06)

Although Marty Connor beat Ken Diamondstone 55/45, these numbers are deceiving. About 65% of the the 25^th Senatorial District is in Manhattan, about 10% in Williamsburg/Greenpoint; Connor won those areas handily; although a 36 year resident of Brooklyn Heights, with 28 years representing the area in the State Senate, Connor  lost the Brownstone Brooklyn area by a resounding margin, taking less 40% of the vote. While there were other issues, Mr. Navarro is exactly right. Atlantic Yards, which Mr. Navarro and the WFP support, is not in the 25th SD, and the intensity of opposition to it drops exponentially with every block. The proposed park is at the edge of the prosperous areas of Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill, and has inspired intense, albeit uninformed, opposition.  If this was a referendum on the Park, and I think it was, the Park lost.

The news broke earlier this week that the latest planning process for the redevelopment of Governors’ Island has been scrapped, and the agency charged with the redevelopment of the island would start over.  Again.

The latest plans called for a variety of uses, including hotels, condos, conference centers, and an amusement park.  Mayor Bloomberg’s earlier plan called for moving the CUNY campuses there, and using the existing campuses for public schools.  Mayor Giuliani’s plan called for a casino.  The next failed plan, which will no doubt provide positive publicity (and that is the point isn’t it?), will be the fourth.  Under the circumstances, you may be interested in what I suggested, while working at the Department of City Planning, when the first plan was being cooked up – moving the United Nations and all related embassies to the island.  That proposal may be read after clicking “read more.”

People like me who think Al Sharpton is more a creation of the media than an authentic leader of the African-American community were hopeful that Rev. Al’s truly pathetic vote totals when he ran for President would cause people to stop taking him seriously.

In that year, Sharpton lost the black majority District of Columbia primary to Howard Dean, finished 3^rd with less than 10% in South Carolina where Blacks were 50% of the turnout and lost badly to “soul brother” John Kerry in both of Central Brooklyn’s Congressional districts.

Since the New York Observer has anointed me as an expert on New York Times endorsements, I feel compelled to point out what’s wrong with these comments in Tuesday’s New York.

First, not even New York City Democrats listen to what New York Times editorials tell them to do. The Times endorsed three candidates in closely contested races: David Yassky in a Brooklyn congressional race; Ken Diamondstone in a race to represent a Brooklyn district in the state Senate; and Mark Green in the race for attorney general. All three candidates — Yassky, Diamondstone, and Green — lost. The New York Observer ran a 2,000-word article last year claiming that "It’s a given among the city’s political classes that an endorsement from The Times in a race for City Council, the State Legislature or a judgeship is tantamount to election in affluent, Times-reading neighborhoods." Not anymore.

"And Coppolla, jr. won the Senate seat in Buffalo. The Times saw a story here that wasn’t. Look, however, for young Cop to be the second in his family to take the seat in a special and lose it in the next primary."

Posted by: Gatemouth | March 1, 2006 05:06 PM on The Politicker

"Perhaps all of DDDB’s superheroes: [Bill] Batson, Major Minor, The Black Barron, Diamondhead, and Super Cop can all meet together in Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude to offer a victory toast to Super Cop, who, in solitude, will likely be the only one holding a new elected office come January."

Posted by: Gatemouth | August 21, 2006 08:26 PM  on The Politicker (Note: the quote is far funnier, and less offensive to those with delicate sensiblites, in its original context, here.