Defeating Tsar Bloomberg and his Trained Surrender Monkeys
Just came across a Facebook site dedicated to defeating Tsar Bloomberg and the Bloomberg 29 (his trained surrender monkeys). So far it is just a sattement of purpose and a list of possible challengers to the 29 City Council members who voted to overturn the will of the people on term limits.
Here is their statement of purpose:
On October 23, 2008 the New York City Council passed Mayor Bloomberg's proposal that extended term limits from 2 terms to 3 terms for the Mayor, City Council, and other city officials without a voter referendum even though New Yorkers voted in 1993 and 1996 to keep term limits at 2 terms. The final vote was 29 YES and 22 NO.
According to a Quinnipiac poll, 89% of New Yorkers believe that the issue of term limits should be decided by voters in a referendum, not by an act by the City Council.
This was not an issue about whether you supported term limits or not. This was not an issue about whether you believed Mayor Bloomberg was a good mayor or not. This was an issue about whether the New York City Council had the right to overturn the will of the people.
Mayor Bloomberg deserves blame for bringing about this undemocratic proposal, but the City Council Speaker Christine Quinn along with the 28 City Council members are to blame for advocating and enabling this undemocratic proposal. Mayor Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and every City Council member who voted YES to the Mayor's proposal are unfit to continue serving the people of New York for overturning the will of the people.
This group will be used as a tool to identify and campaign for primary opponents of all 29 City Council members who voted YES to the Mayor's undemocratic term limits proposal. There will be a heavy focus on unseating City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
The site has a list of known and suspected primary challengers to these city council members. So far, the most likely challenger to Tsar Bloomberg himself is Anthony Weiner. My prediction is Weiner will team up with the Working Families Party and put on an excellent challenger to Tsar Bloomberg, but that remains to be seen.
I also want to mention there are two other races that I, at least, want to see a good push on. Defeating Angry Clown Marty Markowitz (developer lackey and one of the four main people pretty much openly bribed by Bloomberg), and electing Norman Siegel for Public Advocate, since Siegel has been effectively our public advocate for 30 years (since the Civil Rights era).
As to the city council challenges, here is a video of some of them giving a statement on term limits (I got this from Maria Passannate Derr's website):
I want to highlight a few of the potential races for the 2009 primary (from the Facebook list):
Lead Surrender Monkey Christine Quinn (Manhattan) Council District 3
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Maria Passannante Derr http://www.mariaforcouncil09.com/
Yetta Kurland http://yettakurland.com/
Simcha Felder (Brooklyn) Council District 44
Fleder was one of the four main people pretty much openly bribed by Bloomberg in the OTHER Slushgate scandal.
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Joe Lazar http://friendsofjoelazar.com/
David Greenfield(?)
Alan Gerson (Manhattan) Council District 1
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Margaret Chin http://www.margaretchin.com/
Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. (Brooklyn) Council District 47
I want to note that Recchia is among the worst City Council members. He is being investigated for some of the Slushgate earmarks he made. He supported an unqualified, homophobic man who had never practiced law in his life for a judgeship as part of a backroom political deal. He was also was another one of the four main people pretty much openly bribed by Bloomberg in the OTHER Slushgate scandal. And that is just a sampling of the antics of this Vito Lopez lackey.
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Todd Dobrin http://dobrin2009.com/
Brian Gotlieb http://www.briangotlieb.com/
John Lisyanskiy http://www.johnforcouncil.com/
[Note I have heard another name thrown about for this race: Mark Treyger. But I have no confirmation of his running]
James Sanders (Queens) Council District 31
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Marquez Claxton http://marquezclaxton.com/
Jacques M Leandre http://www.votejacques.com/
Frederick A. Lewis II http://lewisforcouncil2009.com/
Michael Duncan (?)
Jerwaine Gorman (?)
Helen Sears (Queens) Council District 25
[Among the most vulnerable of the Surrender Monkeys?]
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Daniel Dromm http://danieldromm.com/
Mujib Rahman http://votemujibrahman.com/
Alfonso Quiroz
Stanley Kalathara (?)
Peter Vallone Jr. (Queens) Council District 22
Vallone is was yet another one of the four main people pretty much openly bribed by Bloomberg in the OTHER Slushgate scandal.
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Costa Constantinides (trying to track down a website)
[Note: I have met Costa. He's a good guy who has been doing good work on the steering committee of the Democratic Lawyers Council working on voting rights]
Albert Vann (Brooklyn) Council District 36
[More about Vann here]
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Mark Winston Griffith http://mwgriffith.com/
David Grinage http://friendsofdavidgrinage.com/
Saquan Jones http://www.saquanjones.com/
Robert Cornegy Jr. (?)
Robert Waterman (?)
David Yassky (Brooklyn) Council District 33
PRIMARY OPPONENT(s):
Ken Baer http://kenbaerforthecommunities.com/
Jo Anne Simon http://www.joanneforcouncil.com
Ken Diamondstone http://www.KenDiamondstone.com
I would also like to call attention to Darlene Mealy (Brooklyn) Council District 41. From what I have heard, she was so bullied by the Bloomberg/Quinn thugs that she actually threw up twice before the vote. Given the number of fights we are facing in 2009, I am willing to give her a break.
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Bloomberg 29 | City Council | election 2009 | primary challenges | Term Limits
Markowitz
Submitted by mole333 on 16 November 2008 - 11:41am.
People keep saying Markowitz is safe, but I think this is partly out of habit. There is no question he still has support, but he has been pissing people off for his entire second term now. The gay and lesbian community is angry at him for the Noach Dear fiasco. His blind love of Ratner has alienated some plus he has made it worse by being publicly vindictive to Ratner opponents. He has had such massive anger management issues that I have heard people confide in me that he seems mentally unstable. I have had big name politicians from all over the Borough tell me that my criticisms of him are dead on. When I first moved to Park Slope people LOVED him, cheering him as he went down the street (myself included). More recently he was booed at a concert in Prospect Park.
There is no question that he starts the front runner. But he has been wasting his poltical capital over the last 4 years and, if someone can harness that discontent, his being an asshole to all and sundry will bite him in the ass.
Why Markowitz is safe
Submitted by Dan Jacoby on 16 November 2008 - 12:05pm.
At this point, nobody with the muscle to win is challenging him.
Well...
Submitted by mole333 on 16 November 2008 - 12:13pm.
Well, Duh. Obviously if no one challenges him he's safe. But my point is he is far more vulnerable than most seem willing to admit. But obviously someone has to step up to the plate and that person will need some strong allies. Some of those who have privately told me they despise the Anrgy Clown or feel he is mentally unstable will have to either step forward themselves or back whoever does.
Thoughts on primary challengers
In some of these races, the only way to knock off the incumbent will be for all the potential challengers to get together and choose one.
Don't be surprised to see Tracey Boyland try to take her old seat back from Darlene Mealy (Boyland was term-limited out in 2005).
I'd expect to see someone emerge as a challenger to Inez Dickens; there is a lot of money up there, especially since next-door neighbor Gale Brewer voted "no" on the putsch. Dickens won an eight-way race in 2005 with 28.5% of the vote; she is vulnerable, and there are several possible challengers.
I'd also expect to see a challenger for Sara Gonzalez; she was the first of the "first-termers" to back the putsch (even though she entered the Council via a special election in early 2002, she is officially in her first full term).
Meanwhile, what about the Borough Presidents? Marty Markowitz is probably safe; even Bill de Blasio has decided not to challenge him. James Oddo is considering a challenge to Molinaro. Helen Marshall is safe, as both Peter Vallone and Audrey Pheffer have said publicly that they won't challenge her. What is Adolfo Carrion going to do? And since Scott Stringer is a first-termer who will probably stay put for now, he's probably safe too. But all five of them testified in favor of the Mayor's bill, so they could also be considered ancillary members of the "Bloomberg 29."