(2nd in an occasional series documenting the exploits of one of New York's most eclectic political dynasties)

If they are really serious about inflicting damage upon the national Democratic Party, there's one New York congressional race, currrently appearing on neither party's list of targetted seats, to which Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman should be directing massive Republican resources. That is New York's 10th Congressional District, currently held by Democrat Edolphus "ET" Towns. And, already there is evidence that "The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" has figured this out.

“Littlefield is a policy wonk.” That is how Erik Engquist, then a Brooklyn Politics columnist, described me when I ran as a minor party protest candidate for state assembly in 2004. While I may consider myself more of a moral philosopher, you will probably want to read posts based on my knowledge of comparative public finance, land use planning, regional economics and transportation. I will try to limit myself to pointing out things that I know that perhaps you don’t, but probably should, and to avoid topics where the reader knows more than I do.

I ran for office after years of mounting disappointment with public policy at the state level in New York, and increasing frustration that when I went to cast a vote for legislative offices, there was generally only one name on the ballot – or perhaps a second name of someone who didn’t even bother to campaign. Eventually just complaining and saying “someone should do something about this” seemed lazy and dishonest. The last straw was when my Assemblymember came to my neighborhood for a nonsense PR public meeting, I asked him if he could vote “no” if the next state budget continued contain certain very objectionable (possibly even to him) priorities, and (while not directly answering the question) he pretty much indicated that he could not. So I did my civic duty, and having done so (“sorry about the collapse of public services and the bankruptcy of the government kids, but Dad did all he could”), I can go back to complaining.

Today, news reports revealed that disgraced former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Victor Barron was once again denied parole. Apparently, the inability to receive bribes has impaired his abilty to pay his debt to society.

Sadly, Barron is almost forgotten today, his crimes eclipsed by  news of trials involving more glamorous organized criminal enterprises like the Gotti and Garson crime families. But, it was Barron's actions which opened up the floodgates on attempts to "reform" the judicial selection process.

"Reformers", in this instance, divide neatly between  those who seek to implement "merit selection", i.e, making the judicial selection process less democratic (by eliminating elections), and those who want to make the selection process more so (by having real ones). At the Supreme Court level, the current process, which involves having party nominees chosen by judical nominating conventions, combines the evils of both systems with the virtues of neither. Some "reformers" will settle for either extreme against the present muddled middle, and I have to concede that even selecting names from a hat or casting lots at Purim time would probably eliminate some of the current system's flaws.

Some recent events have highlighted how completely full of it, Mike & Doctoroff & the Jets were last year in pushing for the West Side stadium.

#1 – Cablevision has announced they want to build a new MSG near the new Post Office. Anybody want to bet on whether Mike will offer them millions in subsidies even though last year Cablevision was attacked by the Administration for not paying enough taxes.

#2 – Corzine wants to re-open negotiations on the new stadium for the the Giants & Jets and he thinks maybe it should have a dome, so it can be used more often. Both the Giants & Jets don’t want a dome and say it would be a deal breaker. The West Side stadium was supposed to have a dome and Mike & Dan & Jay Cross claimed that  the dome would make the stadium much more succesful.

#3 – Last year, the NFL pulled the NFL draft from MSG because Cablevision was an enemt of footbal fans. This year, the draft will be held at Radio City, another Cablevision property. What changed?  

Did anybody notice this quote in today’s Newsday –

Catholic leaders opposed to the measure "should spend more time protecting little boys from pedophile priests."

Who said it? Some left-wing Democrat who hates people of faith? No.  It was a conservative Republican – Congressman Peter King! I await the reports on FOX about King’s "thinly veiled" attacks on the church.  

Jerry Skurnik was the first paid employee of the Ed Koch for Mayor campaign in December of 1976 and then served for eight years as an assistant to Mayor Koch until leaving to start his firm in 1986.

He is now a partner in Prime New York, the State’s leading voter file vendor.