Now that we've vanquished the Slasher, we can turn to the next pathetic embarrassment that calls himself a legislator: Pedro Espada.
Espada's challenger, community organizer Desiree Pilrgim-Hunter, is having a fundraiser on March 22:
Please join us in supporting Desiree Hunter's campaign to bring integrity and accountable leadership to NY's 33rd Senate District. Join with residents of the district and others to support this important campaign for progressive change in Albany. Meet Desiree, hear her vision, ask questions and meet other supporters.
* 6:30pm-8:30pm, Monday, March 22, 2010
* At the home of Miriam Ford and Jack Marth
3853 Cannon Place, Bronx NY 10463 -- Link to Map
RSVP by making a contribution below or email jmarthbx@gmail.com or call (718) 549-4415
If the media is going to take Desiree's challenge seriously, she needs to start raising some cash. I suggest everyone attend if you can afford it. Defeating Pedro is going to be a lot harder than defeating the Slasher was, primarily because it appears he is going to have the support of the corrupt Bronx Democratic Party (please prove me wrong, Carl Heastie). So Desiree is going to need all the help that a truly insurgent campaign needs- please show her some love.
The health reform vote is coming in the House. Representative Scott Murphy (NY-20) needs to listen to us, not the insurance companies.
In Murphy's district, the House's improvements to the Senate health reform bill will [pdf]:
Improve coverage for 459,000 residents with health insurance.
Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 151,000 families and 15,500 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
Improve Medicare for 117,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
Extend coverage to 29,000 uninsured residents.
Guarantee that 8,600 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
Protect 1,200 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
Allow 51,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents' insurance plans.
Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 25 community health centers.
Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $26 million annually.
A vote for health reform is a vote to stand with these people. A vote against health reform is a vote for the status quo, where insurance companies make record profits by raising rates by double digits (29% in New York in the last few months) and dropping millions of customers from their rolls.
The House may vote on health reform as early as this weekend. When the vote comes, Representative Murphy has a chance to show us that he's on our side.
Azi Paybarah at the Observer has a list of what he believes to be winners and losers in the SD-13 special election.
The winners:
Fight Back P.A.C: Whether or not voters really did chose based on the issue of same-sex marriage, advocates get to claim their first win.
Rep. Joe Crowley: The Queens County Democratic Leader delivered a must-win victory in his backyard, and may now start to regain the county's control of this part of the borough.
Parkside Group: They've been with Peralta since his first election in 2002, and did 14 pieces of mail for the guy. Queens is still their turf.
Julissa Ferreras: The former Monserrate aide went against her old boss, solidifying her ties with the Democratic organization, fellow lawmakers and union activists.
Francisco Moya: He's a candidate for Peralta's Assembly seat and an ally of Crowley and the Democratic establishment, which just demonstrated they can, in fact, win an election in the district.
John Sampson: The Democratic Senate leader now has one more seat on his side of the aisle.
I would add that Queens won. New York State won too. You also can't dismiss the muscle of the Queens Democratic Party. They wanted to make a statement by crushing Hiram. They did that. Peralta beat the slasher better than 2-1. Total domination.
And the losers:
Ruben Diaz Sr.: He "lost an amigo," as one reader put it.
Monserrate's clergymen: The clergy that supported Monserrate on his opposition to same-sex marriage seem to have not much electoral muscle in the district. They also have one less friend in the State Senate.
David Paterson: Voters almost surely factored Monserrate's domestic violence incident into their decision, which means they're not so forgiving of an elected official tangled up with the issue.
Diaz definitely was a loser, as were all the hatemongers, the ones who were spreading those fliers that were trying to scare people about "rich gay fanatics" that want to force good, God fearing latinos to marry other dudes.
The churches lost too. Diaz and his preacher buddies from all over the city talked a good game, but they could barely move the needle out here in Queens. Epic FAIL with the fundies.
What about you? Who are your winners and losers? And again, if you came out to Queens over these last few weeks, thanks a million! You are ALL winners today!
Finally, a dedication to the disgraced and thoroughly deposed Slasher. See ya, Hiram! Goodbye!
In 2008, when I first came to The Albany Project (and ever since then) my own personal project has been to make sure that State Senator Neil Breslin's term in office as Albany's representative ends with all due haste. I volunteered incessantly that year for a fantastic man named David Weiss, who was the first person ever to primary Breslin, the only person who ever had the guts to do so.
The video below shows the major role my state Senator, Neil D. Breslin, D-Albany County, played in the June 2009 State Senate coup that he's never, ever been held accountable for.
The video shows Sen. Breslin serving as Temporary President. He first appears in the top left corner of the video at 0:17. He's bobbing back and forth and doesn't seem to know what's going on. Around 0:24, he can be heard stuttering "I...I..." At 0:32, he appears in the center of the frame, addressing Sen. Libous. At 0:44, he reaches for the gavel and stammers, "Senna...senna libba...wouldju be quiet!" At 0:51, Sen. Breslin raps the gavel. A second later he growls "We adjourn!" At 0:59, he can be seen walking away from the podium.
Let me ask you: does that look and sound like an experienced, effective State Senator to you?
Me neither. There's more (oh, so much more) below the fold...
The SEIU is putting a full-page version of this ad in tomorrow's Staten Island Advance to pressure S.I. congressman McMahon to vote for the final HCR bill. The implicit message is a threat to leave McMahon out in the cold in future elections if he votes against HCR. Let us double-down on this threat. Don't expect to find any love from the NY progressive blogosphere in the form of funds or boots on the ground this November if you vote nay on health care.
No results yet, but I will post them as soon as I get them!
Peralta: 9,563 66%
Beltrani: 1,051 7%
Slasher: 3,953 27%
151 of 158 precincts reporting.
Looking good, people!
Update! The NY1 site is slow reporting the numbers but Liz Benjamin says Peralta wins in a "landslide!"
With about 15,000 votes cast and roughly 100 pecent of the vote in - unofficially, that is - Assemblyman Jose Peralta had won the 13th SD special election in a landslide, according to his campaign, netting 66 percent of the vote to Hiram Monserrate's 27 percent and Republican Robert Beltrani's 7 percent.
Bye Bye, Hiram!
Update 2: Thanks so much to all the people who came out to Queens to help us get rid of the Slasher. I sure hope Hiram doesn't want to be my Assemblyman and we have to do it all over again.
Harold Ford Jr and wife look on as Iggy Pop performs up close and personal at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria, March 15 2010
The incongruity of Iggy Pop and the Stooges performing "I Wanna Be Your Dog" to a black tie crowd at the Waldorf is just too funny (to me anyway) not to pass along. The crowd sat stone faced throughout, perhaps stunned and/or appalled at what they were witnessing. Doubtless Harold chief among them.
The Child Victims Act (A.2596) was pulled from the legislative calendar on June 23, 2009 as Assembly leaders found they did not have enough votes to pass it. This bill would have extended the statute of limitations from 5 to 10 years for childhood sexual-abuse victims to bring cases against their abusers. A.2596 would have also created a one year window from the time the bill was enacted that would have allowed anyone to file a claim alleging sex abuse, no matter how old the victim now was or how long ago the alleged act occurred. After the one year period ended, the statute of limitations period would have reverted to the expanded 10 year period.
In the past few weeks, more and more information is coming to light about the role the leaders of the Catholic Church have played in their efforts to conceal abuse by pedophile priests and protect them from prosecution, thus maintaining the Church's reputation and good standing.
In light of these new revelations, it is time for the NY state legislature to revisit A.2596 and finally give the victims of the sexual abuse and systematic cover-up their day in court to face their abusers.
How bad must it get for an 85-year-old former mayor of the City of New York - not an easy job, that - to leave retirement and start rattling the cage?
Pretty bad.
The following is an op-ed that went out by email to the mayor's list.
The New York Uprising Begins
Last Friday, at the New York City offices of my law firm, Bryan Cave LLP, for a group of us, the New York Uprising began.
A hundred men and women came together to commit themselves to the overhaul of the New York State legislature, which the Brennan Center for Justice appropriately called "dysfunctional" six years ago, and which has alarmingly deteriorated since. The legislature in Albany is an abysmal failure and a disgrace to the Empire State.
The New York Uprising was convened by Dick Dadey of the Citizens Union, Henry Stern of New York Civic and myself. The purpose for the meeting was a brainstorming session aimed at developing a strategy for reforming the state legislature, both the Assembly and Senate.
Compounding New York's government problem is its non-functional governor who is beset with allegations that he may have committed a crime by swearing falsely before the New York State Commission on Public Integrity, as well as allegations of possible obstruction of justice now being investigated by the New York State Attorney General. The latter recused himself from the investigation -- he is a perceived candidate for the office of governor in the November election -- and selected Judith Kaye, retired Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals, to oversee the investigation by the Attorney General's staff.
Attending the March 12th meeting were Frank Baraff and Brian Keeler, leaders of a coalition of New Yorkers called Reboot New York, who are organizing upstate and Long Island citizens to push for reform in Albany. Other citizen-based organizations are being established around the city and state, including Unshackle Upstate, headed by Brian Sampson, as well as various reform-minded groups of business people. Five respected good government groups - the Brennan Center for Justice, Citizens Union, Common Cause NY, League of Women Voters/NYS and N.Y. Public Interest Research Group - have organized to address Albany reform. The Westchester County Association, led by former Lieutenant Governor Al Del Bello and Bill Mooney, is taking up the effort in Westchester.
Today is the big day. Peralta v. Monserrate. Consider this the official open thread for reporting any election-related news, anecdotes, or other input of import.
On the latest election news, it appears the Slasher has also broken election law- twice:
Around 11:30 a.m., he strutted into a senior center on Roosevelt Avenue in Corona that also held a polling station, violating election laws that require candidates and their supporters to stay at least 100 feet away.
(snip)
About a half hour later, Mr. Monserrate's sound truck arrived outside another polling site at Public School 89 in Jackson Heights followed by two vans with his name on them.
The vehicles parked in front of the school and Mr. Monserrate stepped out to talk to voters.
A poll worker requested that the vans be moved. Mr. Monserrate denied that their vans were working on his behalf and continued to speak with voters.
When the poll worker confronted Mr. Monserrate, he said angrily, "Buzz off, man. Buzz off. Go shave, get a haircut and get lost. Who are you to tell me who I can and can't talk to?"
Indeed. Who is a poll worker to tell a candidate about violating election law? Who has the right to tell the Slasher about any law, since no law applies to him? I think we have Stephen Colbert's latest alpha-dog of the week right here.
Koch, 85, is at the forefront of a new effort to clean up the dysfunctional cesspool of state government that is Albany World.
The former "How-Am-I-Doing?" mayor of New York City is organizing a coalition to plan the electoral takedown of incumbent state legislators who block reform. The idea is to elevate candidates who are committed to reform.
Koch correctly sees the entire state Legislature as the problem. Reading his comments to The New York Times, one comes away with the impression that he'd be happy to cashier the whole lot of them if only one could.
"I don't believe the good ones are good enough and the bad ones are evil," Koch told the Times.
Riverdale Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz certainly isn't alone in the constant Albany game of cutting MTA funding or denying it new sources of revenue year after year and then grabbing a pitchfork when his constituents express anger at the service cuts that come as a necessity because of his anti-transit votes, but he is among the most shameless:
"The people who live in the outer boroughs, especially the outer edges of the outer boroughs" are always the hardest hit, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz told the MTA officials. "There are people who work hours other than nine to five, Monday to Friday."
Rather than threatening to cut service and hike fares, which Mr. Dinowitz referred to as "scare tactics," he suggested that the MTA work with city and state officials to find additional funding, such as from last year's federal stimulus, and come up with a more reasonable budget for future years.
"You're picking on the elderly, the disabled and students," Mr. Dinowitz said. "This is not the way to improve the city."
Nice pitchfork, Assemblyman. However, your voting record and loud soapbox against congestion pricing denied the MTA of a badly-needed annual infusion of some $500 million dollars. That's on you and every other elected official in Albany who decided to side with the wealthy suburban car commuter over the vast majority of metro-area residents who take transit to work. So either put away your completely disingenuous pitchfork and start doing something about the MTA's long-term fiscal outlook or just shut the hell up.
The huevos on this guy. Not only is he trying to get back the seat his colleagues just voted 53-8 to kick him out of, not only is he brazenly stealing President Obama's logo and slogan, now he decides he's going to just show up outside Jose Peralta's campaign HQ and try to do some politicking. What happened next was both hilarious and heartening for those of us in the district.
Saturday, March 13th, 2010, isn't quite St. Patrick's Day. This matters not to the people of the City of Albany. They hold not two parades each year.
As luck would have it, the parade coincided with the Coffee Party's National Kickoff this year. I don't doubt them for not seeing this one coming. In fact, nobody saw this movement coming. From a single Facebook comment in to nearly 150,000 members in just a month, the Coffee Party was kicking off in over 300 meetings yesterday thanks to dedicated grassroots organizers...
...such as myself. I organized the Albany County Coffee Party that met at Uncommon Grounds nearby the SUNY Albany campus. Navigating the parade traffic from the Noon meeting of the Downtown Coffee Party meeting earlier, I found that luck was on my side...on our side as the Coffee Party kicked off in our state's historic capital.
Below the fold, this edition of Soundpolitic Sundays gives the whole scoop for those of you who wish to go beyond the media coverage of National Coffee House Day and get to story straight from the horses mouth...
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