Big Apple Politics

'Private Benefactor' Funds Funeral for 4-Year-Old Lloyd Morgan

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:14:07 -0400

'Private Benefactor' Funds Funeral for 4-Year-Old Lloyd Morgan:

“An anonymous donor has come forward to pay the funeral bill for 4-year-old Lloyd Morgan, who was killed by a stray bullet in the Bronx, Assemblyman Eric A. Stevenson’s office announced on Tuesday.”

Larry Seabrook

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:47:04 -0400

We hardly knew ye.

Terrible ideas afoot! (Housing edition.)

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:52:00 -0400

OK, here’s a silly thought experiment.

Let’s say we put a rule in place that says the United States is only allowed to use X amount of cows to make milk. A farmer can milk his cows as much as he wants, but if a cow dies, we can not replace it with another cow. We are forever limited to that amount of cows.

Now, milk is a desirable thing. Not Rolex or flat-screen TV desirable, but a lot of people buy milk. So now there’s a limited milk supply that isn’t meeting a high milk demand. As a result, maybe the prices of milk go up.

So we have to find ways to meet that demand. Maybe we start cutting the milk with water, maybe we add something else. And for a time that works. People are still buying their milk, even though the quality has gone down a little.

But how long does that last? Well, until the cows all die, which could be a long time from now, or could be next year. But the point is there is a system in place that limits the amount of milk we are able to process, which is making it harder for us to provide quality, affordable milk to people. The answer is to get rid of an arbitrary rule.

Does that make sense? OK.

Here is something that is happening in New York. No, the Mayor is not saying we’re only allowed to buy certain amounts of milk. But what is happening is that the Mayor and the city planning commissioner are toying with the idea of making smaller apartments for a new lifestyle of New Yorker. What that means is that there are more and more single young professionals moving to the city who don’t need a ton of space to live. They can live comfortably in a small studio space.

And this is true: more and more, New York, while I’d argue still a place for families to settle, has become a less-desirable place for families. And so it makes sense to build places that accomodate them.

But here’s where my little analogy comes into play: we’re still using a limited number of cows. We can make the apartments smaller and smaller — cut it with as much water as we’d like — but the reality is we have a limited housing stock, and a limited area to build more housing.

And there are rules in place that make this so, as Matt Yglesias points out in his excellent ebook, The Rent is Too Damn High:

A quick visual guide of the impact can be seen in any picture of the New York skyline. There’s a cluster of skyscrapers in Midtown, and another cluster in the Financial District, and then a broad valley of shorter buildings in between. What explains this valley? The phenomenon is so noticeable that an urban legend has grown up that holds it’s caused by the varying quality of Manhattan’s bedrock. The real answer is simpler—the buildings are tall where you’re allowed to build tall buildings and they’re shorter in places where you’re not.

The reality is we are causing a shortage of housing by enforcing overly-restrictive zoning policies that don’t allow us to build ‘up.’

These often-antiquated rules are the real problem with housing in the city, and make everything from the effects of gentrification to real estate prices worse. This is a city of 8.2 million people, and those people all need to live somewhere. We need to increase the amount of housing available to people.

And while land may be sparse, height is not.

Start Today: Bad Espaillat mailers, coercion and Mitt Romney's pessimism.

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 10:37:15 -0400

I’ve been busy writing things, Internet! Here is a review of the new Curren$y album that I wrote for AudioCred. It’s less a “review” than a response to recent Lil Wayne comments, and how they fit into a larger context of misogyny in hip hop and oh god I’m just now realizing how boring that sounds hey read it anyway thanks.

I’ve also been doing some reporting for DNAinfo. My latest is about the seizure of a T. Rex skeleton that was apparently smuggled from Mongolia. It’s a short one, but it also contains a shout-out to FRIEND OF THE BLOG Laura Griffin, who was all over this story for the Observer.

Here’s some things other people wrote! (Short one, since I’m out the door.)

Speaking of FRIENDS OF THE BLOG: Jordan Moss has the scoop on error-filled Super PAC mailers supporting Adriano Espaillat. (One mailer appears to have stolen an apostrophe from another mailer.)
And speaking of DNAinfo: Murray Weiss’ “On the Inside” column has another big story. Four Orthodox Jewish men were arrested for allegedly offering a molestation victim $500,000 to drop the charges. This comes amidst criticism of Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, who has made it a policy not to reveal the name of sexual offenders in Orthodox communities. The reason, he says, is to make it more difficult to find the identity of the victim.
Romney to Republican Governors: Stop being so optimistic!

Hey, the G.O.O.D. Music album comes out on August 7! Rejoice!

Start Today: GOP Senate debate, the broken budget and a silent march..

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 09:53:24 -0400

I spent part of this weekend at my sister’s high school graduation party, which included a bunch of teenagers playing beer pong against my dad and uncles. The oldies had some game, I have to admit.

Three GOP Senate-hopefuls faced off last night in a debate moderated by Errol Louis and Liz Benjamin. The Times’ Thomas Kaplan has a nice recap here. I didn’t get a chance to watch the debate, but simply from reading Kaplan’s piece it appears that Turner is positioning himself as (relatively) moderate: he didn’t waiver on raising taxes, said he “probably” wouldn’t report an undocumented immigrant working in his home and, while against gay marriage, said “the ship has sailed in New York,” and wouldn’t focus on repealing last year’s legislation. All of these were positions his opponents— well, opposed.
A judges ruling temporarily blocking a plan to issue 2,000 new yellow taxi medallions is putting the city’s budget process in jeopardy, reports the Times’ David Chen. July 1 is the start of the next fiscal year. The medallions were supposed to raise $1 billion, and highlight the mayor’s hastiness in tying the budget process to a not-at-all-definite revenue stream.
Bill de Blasio is planning to sue the city if they go ahead with cutting child care programming for thousands of kids, the Erin Durkin reports. Interestingly, his partner in the cause is none other than Letitia James, who plans to run for the Public Advocate position after de Blasio leaves.
Thousands of people marched silently to protest the city’s stop-and-frisk policy this weekend. From the Times: “As many marchers dispersed, police officers at 77th Street and Fifth Avenue began pushing a crowd that defied orders to leave the intersection, shoving some to the ground and forcing the protesters to a sidewalk, where they were corralled behind metal barricades.” How nice.
David Storobin, who, after a seemingly decades-long race finally secured a State Senate seat last month, has introduced a bill to repeal same-sex marriage, Capital Tonight reports. The bill has no sponsors or Assembly counterparts.
The Post endorsed Adriano Espaillat in his race against Charlie Rangel, then wrote a story in which they allege he’s involved in a “charity caper.” To paraphrase Mario Puzo, it’s nothing personal, Adriano. Just business.
The Empire blog has a cool map detailing the shift in demographics in the sixth congressional district.

Start Today: Music and also news.

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:20:00 -0400

FRIEND OF THE BLOG Katie Honan’s excellent “Around the Borough” posts have been so good and thorough that they’ve inspired me to get back to work on this tumblog. I’m currently working three non-full time jobs, but what’s one more (albeit non-paying) gig?

Before we get to it: I’ve been doing some music writing, and subsequently, listening to a lot more music. Here are my favorite albums from the first half of 2012, in no particular order.

Action Bronson and Party Supplies // Blue Chips
Joey BADA$$// 1999
Japandroids // Celebration Rock
Mount Eerie // Clear Moon
Off! // OFF!
Grimes // Visions
Mean Jeans // On Mars
Killer Mike // R.A.P. Music
Schoolboy Q // Habits & Contradictions
Beach House // Bloom
Death Grips // The Money Store
Liars // WIXIW
King Tuff // King Tuff
Cheap Girls // Giant Orange

Now to the nerdy stuff.

Even though the city gained 25,000 jobs in May, the unemployment rate in New York rose to 9.7 percent, reports the Times’ Patrick McGeehan.
In what will come as a surprise to absolutely no one, Russian-Jewish voters seem to dislike an anti-Israel ex-Black Panther, the Daily Politics’ Alison Gendar reports.
Meanwhile, FRIEND OF THE BLOG Chester Soria has a nice recap of the Charles Barron/Hakeem Jeffries mini-debate on Brian Lehrer yesterday.
And according to Buzzfeed, the Obama campaign has given its blessing to Jeffries.
~*EMBATTLED*~ Congressman Michael Grimm has spent twice as much on legal fees as he has collected in campaign contributions, according to Gendar.
Yet another politician running for city-wide office has come out against stop-and-frisk, according to Politicker’s Colin Campbell.
Also by Campbell: Adriano Espaillat and Charlie Rangel get into it on Inside City Hall. I’d have linked to the NY1 page, but then I wouldn’t get to quote this, from Campbell, in response to Espaillat’s charge that Charlie Rangel’s censure is the reason the Tea Party came to power: “‘As a result of that, we lost 60 Democratic seats in Congress,’ [Espaillat] rather exaggeratedly added.”
Melissa Chan of the Queens Courier reports that two Korean candidates in the race to replace Grace Meng in the State Assembly could split the Korean vote and “give the Chinese candidate a golden ticket to the general election.”
And finally, Dick Cheney is still trying to convince people he has a heart.

Start Today: Chris Quinn, not Chris Quinn and Fresh Direct.

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:27:13 -0400

Chris Kreider celebrates after scoring his first NHL goal. The goal would end up being the game winner against the Ottawa Senators, sending the playoff series to Game 7. (Photo Credit: blueshirtsunited.com)

Back to it, then.

Good news for Christine Quinn: the council speaker is enjoying her largest lead in the polls yet. A NY1/Marist College poll shows that Quinn’s support in the race for mayor has risen 10 percentage points since September, and she now holds 32 percent of the vote. In second (despite this Dana Rubenstein headline that would imply otherwise) is former comptroller and 2009 mayoral candidate Bill Thompson with 12 percent. Meanwhile, the Daily News surveyed 600 people and found that about half of them would want Ray Kelly to run. Wonder if those are the same New Yorkers who approve of Muslim surveillance and stop and frisk?
Speaking of Dana Rubenstein, she reports that Bloomberg says it’s too soon to judge Walmart, after a Times report this weekend revealed a scandal involving the bribery of Mexican officials and its cover up. Meanwhile, Greg David says this recent scandal may have cost Walmart a spot in NYC.
The Supreme Court has refused to hear a case brought on by an Upper West Side couple who want to have the city’s rent stabilization laws revoked.
More twists and turns in the race to replace Carl Kruger: a judge has signed a subpoena for a former David Storobin consultant after the Lew Fidler campaign accused the consultant of election fraud.
Michael Powell writes about the imminent closure of Bushwick Community High School and the positive effects that the school had on its students.
Despite having investigated him in the past, corruption-hater Andrew Cuomo has appointed former-Governor David Paterson to the board of the MTA.
John McCain wants Mike Bloomberg to support Mitt Romney, the Post reports.
In response to mounting criticism against its subsidized move to the South Bronx, Fresh Direct has created a website, FreshDirectFacts.com, to help improve their image.

Let’s go Rangers!

A very important request: Please help a grieving father.

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:48:52 -0400

In 2002, Jordan Moss reported a story about a Bronx fire that killed an eight-year-old boy. The work that he did would eventually become the centerpiece of the “The Phantom Landlord,” CUNY’s investigative report that was featured in City Limits magazine.

You can read Jordan’s great City Limits story about the fire here, but the abbreviated version of the story goes like this: according to the FDNY, faulty wiring sparked a gas leak at 3569 DeKalb Ave. The building was mostly evacuated. But Jashawn Parker, the eight-year-old son of Paul Parker, was trapped inside.

Remembering a fire-safety lesson he was taught in school, he filled a bathtub halfway with water and got inside. But that didn’t stop the smoke from getting in under the doorway.

By the time firefighters arrived, Jashawn Parker had died of smoke inhalation while Paul Parker stood outside helpless.

3569 DeKalb had hundreds of violations, a bulk of which were class “C,” the most severe. According to a report by the welfare inspector general’s office, one apartment’s “structural stability [was] in question due to rotten floor beams,” while another apartment had a five-foot hole in the bathroom ceiling. And just a day before the fire, tenants called in a complaint about “flickering lights” in the building.

The building’s landlord never paid the fines associated with the violations, the report says, and never did anything to correct them. Ten years later, that man lives in a posh Westchester neighborhood in a million-dollar home.

Jashawn Parker doesn’t even have a headstone.

So here’s the request: Jordan has put together this fundraising page in order to raise money to buy a headstone for Jashawn Parker. The headstone would cost $1,500. As of this writing, Jordan has raised $155.

When Paul Parker visits the site of his son’s final resting place he has to remember which unmarked patch of grass is the right one. If you can spare it, please click this link and donate. $10, $20, whatever you can spare. Thank you.

Today in Bloombergian Hypocrisy.

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:15:25 -0400

Photo credit: nyc.gov

Mayor Mike, from the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Bloomberg, whose schools policies are grounded in competition, said making teacher rankings public as the city did earlier this year will “provide pressure to constantly upgrade.”

“We should have all of the data available to everyone,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

An interesting point, Mr. Mayor! I’m actually not 100 percent sure I agree — we’re not sure how good these rankings really are, and I don’t know that the data will really do any good for the public other than to spark a lot of unnecessary outrage — but in general, more data is a good thing. Right?

And yet:

Bloomberg insisted the analysis of New York’s emergency-response systems would be candid and unvarnished.

But as it turned out, the 216-page report, written by a Washington-area consulting firm, was so damning that it sent fear through the highest echelons at City Hall and the NYPD, which runs the 911 system.

Already a top police official has been reassigned.

“The system is as inefficient and ineffective an operation as you could get,” the source said. “Seconds count in emergencies. People are going to die.”

After learning of the report’s ugly conclusions, City Hall ordered everyone familiar with the document to shut up.

Some people call Bloomberg a technocrat, and it’s true that he’s had a very data-focused tenure as this city’s mayor. Unfortunately, much of the time we’re focusing on the data he’s tucked away.

Former Skeptic Now Embraces Divisive Tactic

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:39:10 -0400

Former Skeptic Now Embraces Divisive Tactic:

First, an apology: I haven’t been posting very much at all lately. When I started this, it was an exercise to keep myself busy while I hunted for a job. The job hunt has lasted longer than I would like, and so this has de facto been my job. But I’ve been doing the interview thing and may be headed for some full-time work. Thus, the not-even-sporadic posting. Mea culpa.

Anyway, clicking the link above will bring you to Michael Powell’s excellent Gotham column. Today’s piece is about stop-and-frisk and a surprising former opponent: one Ray Kelly. I wish every response to a questionable Mike Lupica column — including my own — could be as eloquent and insightful as this one.

Why Mayor Bloomberg’s Equivocations on Civil Liberties No Longer Cut It

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:45:25 -0400

Why Mayor Bloomberg’s Equivocations on Civil Liberties No Longer Cut It:

Via the New Republic.

Will no one step up and protect the white people?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:28:00 -0400

Old news here, but the Daily News reported last week that white people made up 10 percent of people stopped, questioned and/or frisked by the NYPD in Williamsburg, Brooklyn last year.

I didn’t know exactly what to say about this when it came out. I don’t think the News is using this as an excuse for the NYPD tactic, although there is some bit of ridiculousness in using the quotes “it matters what you wear, just don’t look like a hoodlum” and “maybe if we dress nicer people will leave us alone” by the one black guy in the story. But if you just look at the numbers it paints an interesting picture of where we are as a city/country.

That 10 percent figure is pretty much in line with the rate of the entire city: white people made of nine percent of the stops in New York, although precinct-by-precinct it’s often much lower. Now let’s look at the demographics of that neighborhood: according to the article, 59 percent of the 90th precinct is made up of white people.

An old stereotype we’ve had as a society is that people in the minority, by their very nature, are more prone to crime than white people. If you’re white and have grandparents you’ve probably heard all about it. Even Geraldo Rivera thinks so: he recently told the hosts of Fox and Friends, “when you see a black or Latino youngster, particularly on the street, you walk to the other side of the street.”

A variation on this has come up in the stop-and-frisk debate. People who are supportive of stop-and-frisk say that we’re just targeting high-crime neighborhoods, point to the results and proclaim its effectiveness. Hey, we’re just going after the criminals, and if they happen to live in black or hispanic neighborhoods, what are you gonna do?

But here is an example of a neighborhood — Williamsburg — where there are tons of white people walking around. And yet 88 percent of those stopped were black or hispanic. Suddenly the compelling argument by Nate Morgan, the mohawked, 20-year-old guitarist in the story, that it’s “not about race,” it’s “about class,” doesn’t really hold up.

Now, I don’t think Morgan was trying to make some broad statement about how racism doesn’t exist. And classism is an issue often confused with racism. But his assertion — “white people get messed with too!” — came to mind when I saw this cartoon:

That was published in the Daily Texan, a publication printed by my girlfriend’s alma mater, the University of Texas in Austin. She was a reporter there, and as she said, the Texan has a long history of fighting the good fight, running articles about integration on the sports teams, in the dorms, school-wide. And now they’re running thoughtless nonsense like this.

Let’s analyze this cartoon. First, the artist (Stephanie Eisner) spells Trayvon Martin’s name incorrectly. And it’s obviously race-baiting: white has arrows pointing at it, stressing the importance. The liberal media, its clear, just can’t help vilifying white people— except that George Zimmerman is not white, and no one in the media reported it that way. Finally, the use of the word colored is a nice touch, and a clear indicator of this artist’s mindset before drawing the cartoon.

But what is the cartoon really trying to say? By putting so much emphasis on white, Eisner is trying to make a very specific point that is central to much of what conservatives have believed over the last 20-30 years: white people are under attack. Is it by affirmative action? Al Sharpton? The Black Panthers? Liberalism? Eisner doesn’t say, but I’d imagine it’s any or all combinations of those things.

This isn’t the only racial controversy to come out of U.T. this year. Last month the Supreme Court agreed to take on a case about affirmative action that started when Abigail Fisher, a white woman, said she was denied admission to the university based on her race.

This, too, is an old refrain: affirmative action allows less-qualified minorities to achieve something that a white person deserves. But this is only actually true if you believe that, overwhelmingly, a white person is more qualified than any other person for literally any job or school. That is the only way you can make work the staggering numbers of white people in these institutions.

And what is U.T.’s admissions policy? Well, to start, if you place in the top 10 percent of your Texas high school class, you’re automatically in. Clearly, Fisher did not qualify. Once those spots are filled, there are a number of other factors that come into play, including academic achievement and, yes, race. But to imagine the University of Texas accepting so many minority students that white people have no shot at getting in? It just doesn’t stand up to even ten seconds of scrutiny.

As late as 2010, there were 25,662 white students at U.T. The next closest demographic was hispanics, who numbered 7,781 (a 4.1 percent increase from the year before and surely a reflection of Texas’ shifting demographics as a whole.) Black students numbered a whopping 2,146.

So what does this mean? Is it in any way possible that Fisher just wasn’t qualified enough to get into the University of Texas, a very good school with high standards? Or how about the possibility that she was borderline qualified, but the school happened to choose an equally or more qualified person based on the desire to make their learning environment more diverse?

No, the answer for Fisher is that she didn’t get in because she’s white. The answer for white conservatives is that affirmative action is unnecessary, and unfair to white people. The answer to conservative pundits and politicians is that mentioning race in any way actually makes you the racist, because, hey, we don’t see race, we think everyone should have a fair shake, ignoring the fact that we see white as the default in any situation.

The answer, to small-minded white people, is that we are the real victims. Will no one protect us?

Start Today: The budget, lobbyists and prisons.

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:04:57 -0400

Dear hearts, we had a rough start.

We got ourselves a budget, folks. The $132.5 billion budget marks two straight years of on-time budgets — a rarity in Albany — and the first time in decades that spending will decrease for two straight years.
The lobbying industry is-a-boomin’. And the number one spender is a group that supports the governor’s agenda, according to the Times Union and the Times.
The governor’s “close to home” initiative is about to start taking effect, gradually migrating downstate about 400 city youth serving sentences upstate.
City Limits magazine (donate!) reports that solitary confinement is on the rise at Rikers Island.
The MTA will pay $599 million and receive 300 new cars.

Anti-Grimm ads appear on Staten Island Ferry.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:14:00 -0400

Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm is trying to drive home the message that there’s a smear campaign gunning for him. The democrats and their evil henchman, the dreaded New York Times, are using fabrications to try and push him out of office, because he’s an effective republican. Can’t give up, can’t stop fighting for Staten Island and Brooklyn: this is the narrative Grimm is pushing.

Here is what democrats are doing in response:

Per Politicker:

“Staten Island voters deserve to know that the FBI is looking into Congressman Grimm’s potentially illegal fundraising tactics,” Josh Schwerin, Northeast Press Secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement announcing the ferry campaign. “These ads are holding Congressman Grimm accountable for his on-going scandals, and highlight the fact that the more voters learn about Congressman Grimm’s checkered past, the less there is to like.”

Good approach? Maybe. Then again, if you’re trying to galvanize your base with conspiracy theories, a bunch of quotes from the “Lamestream Media” in an attack ad printed by democrats may just do the trick.

Mitt Romney gives the impression that he has committed murder in the past.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:54:43 -0400

Talking Points Memo points out Romney’s latest blunder on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. Asked whether he is, as David Plouffe put it, the “godfather of Obamacare”:

If I’m the godfather of this thing, then it gives me the right to kill it. And if I’m the president, I will get rid of Obamacare. I will stop it in its tracks on Day One, and get it repealed.

Worst godfather ever.

Romney also calls Plouffe “the Rumpelstiltskin of trying to turn straw into gold,” but I think Rumpelstiltskin is probably the Rumpelstiltskin of trying to turn straw into gold.*

*I’m verifying this with my sources now.

Not politics: David Brothers on Trayvon Martin and being black in America.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:44:26 -0400

If you read comics, David Brothers is one of those bloggers you should most definitely be following— equal parts insightful, clever and socially conscious. Here, though, he isn’t talking about comics:

I’m constantly being reminded of the fact that I’m black and how terrible being black can be almost every time I take in something. Music, movies, real life, love, friendship, whatever. It affects everything. You can’t be race-blind. Not when every movie with a black star is the tipping point for black cinema, or when the cool new way to say a woman has a nice butt online (“DAT ASS!”) is explicitly satirizing somebody’s fake idea of a black rapper (specifically Rich Boy), or when a discussion on white British soul singers somehow turns into a referendum on who “owns” a certain type of music. Not when, in America, white is always going to be treated as the default. There’s gonna be that twinge, that feeling of “Oh, this is talking about me or people like me,” and it’s stupid. It’s absolutely stupid.

It’s long, but worth the read.

What can popular politicians learn from the curious case of Charlie Rangel?

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:11:52 -0400

(Photo Credit: Rep. Rangel’s Flickr account.)

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this Times story about Charlie Rangel. Basically, Rangel, who was found to have used a rent-controlled apartment as an office, now has to pay a civil fine of $23,000 to the Federal Election Commission. Some fine was expected, and it was just a matter of time before we all found out what it was. But the larger issue for Rangel is that it’s an election year, and most politicians dont want this kind of bad press in an election year.

Charlie Rangel, however, is not “most politicians.” Charlie Rangel is the kind of politician who takes to the House floor to explain that he won’t be forced to retire amidst such allegations, despite legal advice to the contrary. He’s also the kind of politician who walked out of an ethics committee hearing that found him guilty of 13 ethics charges. And he’s the kind of politician that, despite all of this, trounced his competition for a 21st congressional term.

Here’s the thing: people like Charlie Rangel. Or anyway, his constituency does. And even though the redistricting process created a more heavily-Hispanic district than the one he currently sits in, there’s just no counting Rangel out. Just last week Rangel received the endorsement of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., despite the latter calling challenger Adriano Espaillat a brother.

This got me thinking about Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner, whose troubles were personal rather than professional. Now, while what Spitzer did was also illegal, Weiner was just stupid (if I may editorialize.) But both politicians were popular before their scandals. Weiner, extraordinarily so.

A quick glance at the city’s Campaign Finance Board website shows that the former congressman still has more than $4.8 million available for his would-be mayoral run. How impressive is that? Current frontrunner Christine Quinn’s war chest is only about $100,000 larger than Weiner’s, and his campaign was over before it even started.

Both politicians were eventually pushed out of office. Spitzer, by threats of impeachment; Weiner, by the House’s democratic establishment. But what the curious case of Charlie Rangel proves is that if enough people like you they’re also willing to forgive your indiscretions. And while Spitzer might not have survived impeachment, Weiner certainly could have remained in the House while still being the mayoral race’s No. 1 contender.

Rick Santorum isn't getting the Catholic vote.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:01:00 -0400

(Photo Credit: Christopher Gregory/Getty Images)

From the New York Times:

With two exceptions, [Rick Santorum] has lost the Catholic vote by a minimum of 7 percentage points (in Michigan, where Mr. Romney grew up) and by as much as 53 percentage points in Massachusetts, where Mr. Romney was governor. He has even lost among Catholics in the South, although he was nearly tied with Mr. Romney among Catholics in Tennessee and won decisively among Catholics in Louisiana.

In most of the primary contests, whether he has won or lost, Mr. Santorum has been buoyed by the support of evangelical Protestants. He has done best in states with substantial evangelical populations and they have become his most reliable base, along with some Tea Party supporters and those who call themselves very conservative.

As this article says, and as I’ve been saying to people for a long time, Santorum’s religion matters only in so far as he is a Christian. His Catholicism, far from being important, is something most people don’t even realize. His outspoken viewpoints are so conservative that most people think he’s an evangelical Christian. And as a lifelong Catholic, I can tell you that most of us do not take as hard a stance on social issues as Santorum does.

Another issue is that, as Jamelle Bouie has pointed out, Catholic voters tend to track fairly closely to your average voter. That is to say, conservative Catholics tend to share the same voting patterns as all conservatives, and liberal Catholics vote the same way almost all liberals vote, almost to a percentage point.

Which is why the Obama administration’s initial “compromise” announcement on a full contraception requirement for religious institutions was so frustrating: he was seemingly catering to a group of people that does not exist. No Catholics imagined that this was somehow a war on Catholicism except for the conservative Catholics, who weren’t voting for him anyway. And so the compromise, while not being as bad as progressives expected, is still not good enough for people on the right. And Obama’s fake war on religion is raging just as strongly in the minds of conservatives, Catholic or otherwise.

Start Today: the budget, hoodies and ACA-watch 2012.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:06:20 -0400

Morning! Lots of news today.

The budget process is coming to an end.
While the mayor has never spent a night at Gracie Mansion, chances are whoever becomes our next mayor will make themselves right at home.
Two detectives involved in the Sean Bell shooting were forced to resign, but will keep their pensions.
Crain’s Greg David argues that the Upper West Side plan to limit the size of storefronts will hurt, not help, small businesses.
The MTA has renamed the 100th St. Bus Depot after the Tuskegee Airmen.
The city is encouraging small business owners to pursue an M.B.A.
As casinos become legal, gambling will be regulated by a panel controlled by the governor, the Times reports.
The DNA bill that Cuomo signed into law last week is incomplete, argues the Times.
Dan Halloran is officially in, and his would-be opponents came out swinging.
A group of Albany lawmakers wore hoodies in support of Trayvon Martin’s family.
A similar “stand your ground” bill in Albany is receiving new scrutiny.
The Times has the details on George Zimerman’s police report.
GAFFE-ALERT: The President is diplomatic! Unacceptable! (Here’s the President’s explanation.)
Teacher evaluations will remain public, although the Post argues that the issue could come up again.
Finally, follow this excellent blog for all your Affordable Care Act news and analysis.

Start Today: Wyckoff Heights, Peter Rivera and teacher grades.

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:55:45 -0400

Morning! In case you missed it, here’s my appearance with Tom Robbins, Tamy Cozier and Harold Schultz on NY1’s “Inside City Hall,” talking about the CUNY investigative team’s recent City Limits cover story, “the Phantom Landlord.”

According to the New York TImes, people associated with politicians Ed Towns, Erik Martin Dilan and Vito Lopez have received big perks from Wyckoff Heights Medical center, including high-level staff positions.
“The Cuomo school of management.”
The Governor has named Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera to head up the state Labor Department. Writing at Jordan Moss’ “Bronx Matters,” former Daily News Bronx bureau chief Bob Kappstatter says Rivera’s “long national nightmare” is finally over.
The governor and the legislature have ironed out an MTA deal.
After some teachers union pushback, the Post reports that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is spearheading an attempt to put language in the budget banning the public from seeing teacher grades.
Dan Halloran announces his bid for Gary Ackerman’s former seat. Grace Meng kicked off her campaign yesterday.