Shafran not conceding to Vallone

From the Daily News:

City Council hopefuls Paul Vallone and Austin Shafran are separated by just 144 votes in a Democratic Primary race that is still too close to call.

The two are leading a five-candidate battle for a shot at the northeastern Queens seat currently held by disgraced Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran.

Vallone, the son of former speaker Peter Vallone and the brother of City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., claimed victory Tuesday night when unofficial tallies showed he had 2,723 votes. But Shafran, with 2,579 votes, refused to concede until the voting machines are checked and paper ballots counted, a process that begins on Monday.

“Protecting voting rights is the foundation of our democracy so we will use every legal option possible to ensure every vote is fully and fairly counted,” he said Wednesday.

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Lopez could represent Ridgewood on Council

From the NY Times:

A criminal investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed subordinates did not deter him. Nor did civil suits accusing him of groping and other unwanted intimacies. Nor censure by the State Assembly, nor the clamor of fellow Democrats that forced him to resign as the party’s chairman in Brooklyn and step down from the Legislature.

The former assemblyman, Vito J. Lopez, is running again, this time for City Council, and despite the lingering scandal, he has at least a fair chance of winning. He is campaigning in Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, and in Ridgewood in Queens, working-class neighborhoods where many people have known him for four decades, since he arrived as an energetic young social worker, and where many are grateful for the thousands of apartments and the centers for the elderly and other social services that blossomed during his 28 years in the Assembly.

Frank Carone, a leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, which is supporting Mr. Lopez’s chief rival, Antonio Reynoso, admits that Mr. Lopez’s chances are “extremely strong” in an off-the-radar election in which he can, the old-fashioned way, turn out beneficiaries of his largess to cast ballots in the primary next Tuesday.

“He’s pulling out every trick in the book to hold onto some semblance of power,” said Lincoln Restler, a founder of the progressive New Kings Democrats, a group that is also focused on defeating Mr. Lopez.

As evidence, Mr. Restler points out that 6 of the district’s 34 polling places are in properties managed by Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a nonprofit organization which Mr. Lopez founded in 1973 and which sponsored many of his housing projects. One building has a bronze bust of Mr. Lopez and another a permanent sign over the entrance: “Thank You Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez.”

Mr. Restler and Mr. Reynoso said that when campaign workers tried to knock on doors at Lindsay Park, a 2,700-unit co-op complex and beneficiary of Lopez assistance, security guards warned them that only workers for Mr. Lopez could enter.

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And then there were 3

From the Daily News:

The once-packed Democratic race for Queens Borough President is turning into a duel.

State Sen. Tony Avella, the maverick politician who cut his teeth as a Queens civic leader, has dropped out of the contest.

“I will never stop fighting and advocating for all residents of Queens,” Avella said in a statement released late Wednesday afternoon. “Yet, at this time, I believe I can best serve the people of Queens by remaining a state Senator.”

Avella’s departure leaves City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. and former City Councilwoman Melinda Katz in a battle for the Democratic nomination. Businessman Everly Brown will also be on the Sept. 10 primary ballot.

Despite "dropping out", Avella's name will still appear on the ballot September 10th.

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Paul Vallone plans to use Independence line as a bartering tool

Remember the revelation that Paul Vallone's name is on a list of potential judges even though he alleges that he's been focused since 2009 on running for City Council? Well, as expected, the judgeship is plan B. As per Crains:

If Mr. Vallone wins a hotly contested Democratic primary in September, the Independence Party ballot line would be a major leg up in a battle against Mr. Saffran, as Republicans often rely on votes from the Independence line in Democrat-heavy New York City. But if Mr. Vallone does not win the Democratic primary, his presence on the Independence line in November could split Democratic votes between his supporters and those of the Democratic nominee. Mr. Vallone's main opponent in the race appears to be former Empire State Development spokesman Austin Shafran, who has lined up the bulk of the labor support in the race, as well as the Working Families Party endorsement.

As an attorney who has been a member of the New York bar association since 1992, if Mr. Vallone lost the Democratic primary, he could be nominated for a judgeship and cede the ballot line in the council race to the Democratic nominee. Asked if Mr. Vallone would definitely run on the Independence line in November, a campaign spokesman answered obliquely.

"When Paul Vallone wins the Democratic Primary in September, he will occupy both the Democratic and Independence Party lines in November," the spokesman said.

The Independence Line almost always goes to the Republican in the race. Last time Dennis Saffran ran, he got their endorsement, so it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't give it to him this time. Therefore, Joe Crowley must have made a deal with the Party. As he made a deal with the Vallones. Let's not forget that the GOP was once considering giving Paul Vallone their line and he was once considering accepting it.

Best quote ever: “Paul is really like a kindred spirit,” said Halloran.

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Term limits and temper come back to bite Quinn in the ass

From the NY Times:

In the Bayside section of Queens, a volunteer had barely begun her sales pitch for Christine C. Quinn’s mayoral campaign when the middle-aged man who answered the door cut her off. “She was the one responsible, in the City Council, for giving Bloomberg a third term,” he barked. “I hold that against her.”

The volunteer calmly countered that it was New Yorkers, not Ms. Quinn, who “voted the mayor back in.”

In Astoria, Queens, a woman in her 30s told another Quinn volunteer that the candidate’s sometimes brash personality had rubbed her the wrong way.

The volunteer gamely explained that Ms. Quinn’s flashes of temper “come from a place of love and passion.”

For all its financial might and political firepower, Ms. Quinn’s once high-flying bid for mayor has suddenly plummeted back to earth, shedding its coveted front-runner status and foreclosing the possibility of a painless path to City Hall. So with two months left in an increasingly unpredictable Democratic primary, she is dispatching a volunteer army unlike any in the race to every corner of New York City, determined not just to promote her campaign, but also to systematically ferret out and rebut voters’ reservations and resentments toward her.

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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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CD19 palm card poll

Just thought you might want to see the literature that is being handed out about each candidate. Some are clearly done quite professionally, and others, not so much. I'll let you vote on which is the best.

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

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