The following two stories show that the NY State Senate Republicans are breaking new ground in their use of taxpayer’s money to fund their campaigns.

Times Union and The Journal News

I was amused by a story in the Buffalo News about an attempt to do away from some tolls on the thruway up there.

John Faso pledged to eliminate with the tolls (an idea that has merit) but his explanation of where the lost money would come from is the amusing part: 

Faso said he would end the tolls and replace the lost toll revenue by separating the New York State Canal Corp. from the Thruway Authority.

The canal agency, which oversees the state’s sprawling canal system upstate, had its budget transferred to the Thruway Authority in 1991 to save money in the state’s general fund. Since then, the canal office has been a financial drain on the Thruway.

I find the Sun indispensable for its lack of respect for the conventional wisdom, and its willingness to poke into areas the other dailies chose to ignore. But every once in a while they get a “talking points” memo from the RNC, and turn over their news pages to the “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”. Today’s page one featured a headline “Democrats Plan Race-Based Campaign Against Black Candidate in Maryland”. The article features excerpts from confidential memos from the Maryland Democratic Party and the DSCC which purport to outline this pernicious strategy. How do the Dems plan to discredit black Republican Michael Steele? “Connecting Steele to National Republicans, especially on issues such as Medicare Reform and Social Security privatization, can turn Steele into a typical Republican in the eyes of voters, as opposed to an African American candidate”.

Andrea Peyser has a column in the Post supposedly explaining how Mark Green’s arrogance doesn’t let you like him.

But if you deconstruct the column, it’s not clear what Green did wrong.

Here are parts of the column and my comments:

I was running [for mayor] after 9/11 in the face of $74 million" spent by Mike Bloomberg, a lean Green told me yesterday over eggs easy …

"If I told you I ran for election in Hawaii and the date was Dec. 7, 1941…, would you say the attack had nothing to do with the election?

As both readers of my blog know, I recently concluded that only two candidates for Congress in the 11^th CD, David Yassky and Christopher Owens, met the minimum standards to be fit for service, but while I found Yassky more promising, I was reluctant to support him because he is a white candidate in a black majority district. I sort of feel ashamed about this, but my reluctance to support him is a pragmatic judgment, not a moral one.

Yassky's whiteness is going to hang from him like a target and every two years he is going to face another racial crusade. This presents several problems. The first is that it does little for community comity. The ugliness of this race has already been damaging to community relations in Brooklyn, and will become more so as the primary approaches. This animosity is fueled by other candidates (especially Chris Owens), free lance community opportunists, and parasitical institutions of the Fifth Estate like Ed Weintrob’s repulsive collection of Brooklyn Paper rags.

Here is an article from the Staten Island Advance about potential candidates for the now open State Senate seat.  

There are things that happen in this city, that elicit an immediate outcry from black leaders, once they occur. And then there are things that happen, where  these same leaders  stay awfully quiet, when they shouldn’t. Last week we saw this play out once again.

On  East 125th Street in Harlem, a young white male was struck by a car, while running to avoid being robbed and beaten by a group of young kids of color. The young man  subsequently died from the injuries he suffered. He happened to be a student of New York University on his way home.

In honor of retiring Senator John Marchi and because this might be the first time since 1978 there could be a serious contest here, the 2^nd installment of who votes is about Marchi’s 24^th Senate District.

These percentages are based on data in the Prime New York voter file and these reports come with the usual caveats – ethnic data is based on last names so are not 100% accurate, past voting behavior is not always predicative, etc.

Estimated Percentages

Democrats            40%

Republicans            36%

The Sacramento Bee published an editorial criticizing local Congressman John Doolittle for, paying his wife a 15% commission on contributions to his campaign committee. The Bee points out that they can find only 1 other Congressman doing that – NY’s own John Sweeney who pays his wife 10%.

The Bee makes a strong case that this may violate House ethics rules. Read the editorial and see but wonder why no NY paper (to my knowledge) has criticized Sweeney for this action.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and true to form -like on most holy days – the "Christian" volcano within me started rumbling again. I must be truthful in saying that I have been long estranged from my christian roots. In fact, I presently consider myself  a non-conformist. However, on days like these ( significant in religious lore), perspicacity seems to always set in, and before you know it, I am off  on some excrutiating mental journey. Yesterday was no different. And yes, my religious mama did say that there would be days like this. She did.