Two interesting details with this quote :

(1) The assumption that Fernando Ferrer will get the nomination from the Democratic Party.

(2) This poll came out right before the decision against the stadium. I think the timing on this is perfect. So the stadium is a bust but, gosh-darn-it, the mayor is still popular with New York.

[via NY1: Top Stories | With A 21-Point Swing, Bloomberg Sweeps Into Lead In NY1/Newsday Poll]:

In a dramatic turnaround, a NY1/Newsday poll released Monday shows Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken a decisive lead over former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer in the mayoral race.

Three months after Fernando Ferrer led all candidates in the previous NY1 poll, this week's poll shows all the Democrats trailing Bloomberg in the general election. Ferrer is the closest, standing at seven points behind Bloomberg, who leads Ferrer 46 percent to 39 percent.

That's a 21-point swing from the March poll, which showed Ferrer ahead by 14 points, 49 percent to 35 percent.

If Fernando Ferrer does indeed win the nomination, it would mean he has 148 days to convince New Yorkers that he would make a better mayor than Bloomberg. What should he be doing during those 148 days?

So Shelly Silver says no to the West Side Stadium, essentially killing the project.

Over at DailyKos, diarist devtob discusses some of the potential fallout for Bloomberg and Pataki.

The question is, how agile will Bloomberg be in defining his re-election campaign separately from this issue? While I agree that the death of the stadium has the potential to hurt him, he has so far been curiously skilled at selling himself independently of the very project which should be his white whale. As he unleashes his ads (just caught one last night during the Mets game - a nicely-done series of interviews with "ordinary" New Yorkers - none of whom looked like the kind of people normally likely to vote Republican), and garners praise for his efforts in education, he seems poised to sidestep the very disaster that should have brought him down.

And with the Democratic struggling to articulate any kind of compelling message, his work is that much easier.

Sheldon Silver says no.

from the Times

The financial plan for a proposed West Side stadium will be rejected by a key state panel today, appearing to end plans for the $2.2 billion project that had been the centerpiece of the city's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and the proposed home of the New York Jets.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, one of three voting members of the state Public Authorities Control Board, said he would veto the stadium's financing plan. Mr. Silver said he was concerned that new retail and office development planned for the area around the stadium would have hampered redevelopment at the World Trade Center site, which sits a few miles to the south and is part of Mr. Silver's district.

"Am I supposed to sell out the community I have fought for and I have represented?" Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, said at an afternoon news conference before the board's vote. "Am I supposed to turn my back on Lower Manhattan?"

Mr. Silver said that even if New York is awarded the 2012 Olympic Games, he would not support a West Side stadium project.

--emphasis mine

Wow. it looks as if the mayor's plan for the West Side Stadium is pretty much screwed. No state money. No stadium. And I love that Silver is going so far as to say that even if New York City is awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics, he'll still say no. That's about as firm a no as I can imagine.  read more »

Keep up the good work my fellow dailygothamers, because the Big New York City media is definitely paying attention to what we are doing.

Very exciting!

[via Lame Duckling Takes Surprising Turn as Comic Swan - New York Times]:

The Season of the Blog

At the moment, the mayoral campaign may not go down in the books as the most scintillating. But given the outcrop of Web logs, or blogs, this season the politically afflicted still want to talk about it. And talk. And talk ...

Blogs seem a natural outlet for the incessant gossiping characteristic of New York City politics. Some are run by mainstream and alternative news organizations, and a few others have more grass-roots sponsors, but they have the common purpose of adding to the overall campaign conversation, with mixed results.

The most widely read, according to campaign advisers among the major candidates for mayor, is The Politicker, a site run by The New York Observer and its political writer, Ben Smith. He and other contributors from the paper post news nuggets and invite comment. That's an invitation that posters, including image-conscious campaign advisers, accept with gusto. They dissect, and often insult, every momentous or minute move among candidates and their staff members.

Things got so heated, with sometimes racist and anti-Semitic comments, that Mr. Smith now filters out those that he deems overly offensive. Mr. Smith said he started the blog out of a sense that the passion for political talk would find an audience in cyberspace.  read more »

Standing in line behind Shelly Silver around midnight Saturday night at Kosar's Hot Bialy, I overheard a short exchange between the assembly leader and the guy working the counter.

I couldn't exactly make out what was said over the din of bialy making, but after the speaker left the counter guy volunteered that he had asked Shelly what his intentions were regarding the stadium vote. This is possibly the single most guarded and coveted piece of information in NYS today, but the bagel guy through that a bakers dozen of hot bialys might be able to pry this jucy tidbit loose from Silver.

Ahh, but the speaker demured and would not tip his hand, not even to the bagel guy....