Candidates want to be anybody but Bloomberg

From the NY Times:

Michael R. Bloomberg is a data-loving, health-enforcing nonpartisan who defined what it meant to be a mayor over the past 12 years, mentoring big-city chief executives from New Orleans to Philadelphia.

But closer to home, the major candidates vying to succeed him at City Hall in New York are not pleading for his pointers, or pressing for a place in his photo ops: none of them, Democrat or Republican, have even asked for his political blessing in the primaries next week.

They instead describe polls showing that Mr. Bloomberg’s endorsement, once deemed a coveted prize, would now dampen their appeal to the party faithful, not burnish it, and they fret over lashing themselves to his divisive policies on policing, not to mention his soured relationship with municipal unions.

It is a humbling and alien experience for the relatively popular mogul turned mayor, who is unpracticed in humility: in the race to lead a post-Bloomberg New York City, there is profound wariness of being viewed as, well, too much like Mr. Bloomberg.

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Tony Avella explains why he dropped out of BP race

Click here for audio.

I got the below literature with this note:

"Is it just me, or does this latest mailing from Peter Vallone, Jr., all but imply that he has Tony Avella's support?" - anonymous



Someone's got a really big pair.

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Fake crowds following Weiner

From the NY Post:

Anthony Weiner is having such a hard time generating support for his limp campaign that he has resorted to paying a rent-a-crowd firm to provide “supporters” for his events, The Post has learned.

Some of the gung-ho Weiner crowds, including at the Aug. 11 Dominican Day Parade in Manhattan, were really actors who were paid $15 an hour by the California firm Crowds on Demand, according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal.

The source said surrogates for Weiner approached the Santa Monica-based company days after Indiana-native Sydney Leathers came forward to say that Weiner had continued his digital dalliances after resigning from Congress.

The campaign asked the company to have actors seem “like either supporters or people who met him and became supporters as a result of that encounter,” the source said.

“The people would initially be skeptical and then they ask him various questions but would appear then to be convinced by his spiel,” according to the source, who said the campaign used Crowds on Demand “several times.”

Initially, Weiner’s associates asked the company to try and confront hecklers, but the company — fearing liability if there was violence — refused, the source said.

Crowds on Demand had no comment.

Weiner’s camp denied employing the company.

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Astoria candidate doesn't play by the rules

Astoria attorney John Ciafone is running for City Council District 22 (Astoria) to replace outgoing Peter Vallone, Jr. He has run previously for the council as well as for the assembly. He dropped out back in 2010, and he may have dropped out this time around as well since there are no CFB filings from his campaign on file.

What you may not know is that Ciafone currently appears on Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio's slumlord list. To his credit, he is on the "most improved" list, having reduced his violations from 195 to 2. He tried to donate to DeBlasio, but it was returned. Local council member/Vito Lopez protege Steve Levin and Queens BP candidates Peter Vallone and Melinda Katz apparently have no qualms about keeping his money, however.

Ciafone currently has ads on residential buildings in the Williamsburg-Greenpoint area.

They appear on 202 Franklin Street, 119 Freeman Street, and 199 Green Street, among others.

No permits are on file, so far as I can tell, that allow commercial signs on these buildings.

It's all about who you know, and who you give money to.

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Hit piece sent out by Vallone supporters

The FBI didn't exactly arrest these two for betraying Queens, but whatever.
While not untrue, these 2 candidates were never implicated in any wrongdoing. This hit piece had to have come from either John Duane, Paul Graziano or Paul Vallone. Of course, it doesn't identify on which candidate's behalf it was sent.

Jobs for New York is the Real Estate Board of New York's PAC. Jobs4NY endorsed Paul Vallone.
When you have skeletons in your closet, such as being poker buddies with one of the accused, you might want to think twice about giving your blessing to literature such as this.

By the way, Paul Vallone gave one excuse to the organizers of Monday night's Bayside Historical Society event: "A client of mine passed away, and I am helping with funeral arrangements." And another excuse to the Queens Courier: "He was comforting the family of his 'good friend and mentor' Judge Joseph Risi, who had just passed away, a campaign spokesperson said."

The judge actually passed away on Saturday and his son is an attorney and likely does not require the legal services of Mr. Vallone.

Whoops.

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Paul Vallone a no show at preservation debate

At #CD19 forum in Bay Terrace. Told @PaulVallone will not be in attendance. Tonight's topics: overdevelopment and preservation.

— Phil Corso (@philcorso) August 19, 2013

Henry Euler says @PaulVallone missed forum because a client of his passed away, he is helping with funeral arrangements. #CD19

— Phil Corso (@philcorso) August 19, 2013

It was very convenient for Mr. Vallone's client to expire right before he was scheduled to participate in a debate about preservation and development. Interestingly, he had been seen an hour before the debate campaigning at Bay Terrace. This is the second personal conflict that Mr. Vallone has had after agreeing to attend a candidates' night.

Should he be elected, he'll probably end up on this list.

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Weiner first in polling

From NBC:

Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner has surged ahead of his opponents in a new NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal poll, transforming himself in just a few weeks from disgraced has-been to mayoral front-runner.

Weiner, who entered the race two years after resigning his congressional seat amid a sexting scandal, now leads City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in the crowded Democratic primary, setting up a new phase in what could end up being a remarkable political comeback.

Weiner leads Quinn 25 percent to 20 percent among registered Democrats, the poll by Marist found. That's a flip-flop from the last survey in May, when Quinn, the longtime front-runner, led Weiner 24 percent to 19 percent.

Just as telling is the number of registered New York voters who said they might vote for Weiner. Forty-nine percent said they’d consider it, up from 40 percent two months ago, before Weiner entered the race. Those who said they wouldn’t consider voting for him dropped from 52 percent to 45 percent.

The next closest contender in the Democratic primary is former Comptroller Bill Thompson, with 13 percent of registered Democrats saying they'd vote for him, up 2 percentage points from May. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio follows with 10 percent, who dropped 2 points. Then comes current Comptroller John Liu at 8 percent, Staten Island minister Erick Salgado at 2 percent and former City Councilman Sal Albanese at 1 percent.

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Some bikers backing Comrie over Vallone

From the Times Ledger:

...Comrie was also perched atop a motorcycle — albeit a parked one — outside Borough Hall for a campaign rally.

The lawmaker, while not a motorcyclist himself, earned the respect of other bikers after opposing a 2008 bill proposed by Vallone that would have regulated exhaust noise and allowed police to confiscate bikes after a certain number of infractions.

“Comrie, he was trying to help us fight it,” said Mark Brown, president of the Power Movez Motorcycle Club, where he is known by his nickname “Lunatic.”

“He would be a good borough president because he supports people,” Brown said, going beyond his support for Comrie by questioning Vallone’s riding credentials.

“I heard he just started,” Brown said. “There’s not much of a biker there if he tried to make a law against us and then learned how to ride.”

Vallone’s campaign said the lawmaker rode when he was younger, took a break and returned to the road about five years ago.

In the end, the councilman scrapped the proposed legislation anyway because he could not find a fair way to regulate the exhaust noise, which he said is excessive in some cases.

This post could also double as a caption contest, so be my guest.

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Too much info!

From the Daily News:

Is this the mayor’s race? Or the Oprah Winfrey show?

On Monday, Democrat Bill de Blasio shared intimate details of his life, releasing a campaign ad in which he revealed that his troubled childhood and father’s alcoholism led him to doubt that he’d ever have a committed relationship.

The disclosures followed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s revelations that as a young woman she suffered from alcoholism and an eating disorder.

Anthony Weiner has discussed the state of his marriage in interviews apologizing for the sexting scandal that forced him to resign from Congress two years ago.

The confessionals might seem like cries for help — but what the candidates really are seeking is love from voters, political analysts said Monday.

“No one knows them. This is how they introduce themselves to a disinterested public,” said Christina Greer, an assistant political science professor at Fordham University.

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Shafran carries on a proud Halloran tradition

Shafran & Krinsky

From the NY Post:

Months after beautiful news anchor Molly Rokasy and Queens power broker Austin Shafran married, she claims, he left her for a state employee who’s steadily risen in the government ranks.

Shafran, a City Council candidate, fell in love with then-news assistant Rokasy after meeting her at a 2006 press conference. Three years later, he proposed to her with a 2.5-carat diamond ring.

Shafran, 33, vowed a lifetime of love to the gorgeous journalist, 30, now the news anchor at The Bronx and Brooklyn’s News 12.

The cable-TV anchorwoman and the politician married at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Aug. 21, 2010, then headed to Times Square for romantic snapshots.

At a lavish reception held at the towering Terrace on the Park in Queens, the Rockettes kicked their long gams to welcome the glittering guests, including state Sens. Malcolm Smith and John Sampson, local Teamsters President Greg Floyd and Chaz Bono.

But Shafran’s commitment didn’t last long, his ex-wife alleged in divorce documents.

Shafran met fellow Democratic operative Jennifer Krinsky when they both went to work on Queens state Sen. Tony Avella’s campaign in the summer of 2010.
By March 2011, just eight months after the nuptials, Shafran, then the spokesman for state Senate Democrats, began working with Krinsky, the office’s new social-media coordinator.

“They were working much closer together,” a political source said.

Krinsky went from making $37,986 annually as a community liaison for state Sen. Liz Krueger to earning $44,980 as the person in charge of new media for the Democrats.

A source said Rokasy discovered lengthy late-night calls between her husband and Krinsky.

In October 2011, Shafran packed his bags and moved out, court papers say. He initiated the divorce.

Shafran says he began dating Krinsky only after the separation.

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Crop of candidates doesn't want to be like Helen

From the Daily News:

All five candidates for Queens Borough President promised at a candidates forum Wednesday night not to use a personal driver when they take office.

That pledge marks a departure from the routine of current Beep Helen Marshall, who is driven to events in a sedan with custom plates.

All five also said they would not continue Marshall's practice of using a personal photographer.

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