If you can spare the half hour required to read it, point your browser to the web site of The Atlantic, and go read their inside account of how Hillary Clinton's team, to sum it up, lost her the nomination. If you work on or are interested in campaigns and how they succeed or fail, you can't afford to not read this piece, and the associated internal documents from her campaign.

Here's a key quote from a strategy memo by Mark Penn:

If we double perform with WOMEN, LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASS VOTERS, then we have about 55% of the voters.

Just a thought: if your plan for winning a primary relies on winning 55% of the voters, you have no margin of error. Which, as it turned out, is exactly what derailed the once all-but-inevitable campaign and Presidency of Hillary Clinton.

Danger Democrat alerts us to a very blunt City Council campaign in Plattsburgh.

Yup, we need more of that. And not just on yard signs.

Tracked down an old photo from election night 2005 when I was campaigning with my son for Norman Siegel.

In 2005 Norman Siegel started late, only got fundraising going last minute, and was up against and incumbent.

Norman is running again in 2009. And he is starting early and already is fundraising (sent in my donation already!). Guaranteed you will see an update to this photo as Jacob and I campaign again for Norm. You can read my opinion of Norm Siegel for Public Advocate in 2005 here.

If you are interested in electing the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union as NYC's Public Advocate, contact New Yorkers for Norman Siegel:
212-488-6271

One of the most disgusting tactics the Republicans have used is exploiting the 9/11 attacks for their own gains. As my wife (when she was 8 months pregnant) yelled at Republican delegates to the Republican Convention in 2004, "Shame on you for turning our tragedy into a photo op." The delegates were none too pleased being chased down the street by a very pregnant woman accusing them of exploiting our tragedy.

Well, as I reported yesterday, Rudy Giuliani (the man despised by the firefighters who were the TRUE heroes of 9/11) is the latest Republican to use this disgusting tactic. Not only was Giuliani's claim that only a Republican can prevent a terrorist attack a disgusting exploitation of a national tragedy, but it is demonstrably wrong. Clinton's administration prevented the millenium attacks. He also warned the nation that al-Qaeda was going to attack. Bush's administration ignored the warnings and the 9/11 attacks happened on HIS watch. Giuliani is wrong.

Howard Dean is taking him on and I think it is particularly important for NYC to reject "anti-firefighter" Giuliani's exploitation of the attacks on our city. This is Howard Dean's message and call to action:  read more »

A few months aback, when I first wrote about the vacancy in the 40th city council district, I had never in my wildest imaginations expected so much drama to a simple special election; but drama we had, and maybe the best is yet to come. No sense rehashing all the funky stuff of the past few months, but let me bring some of you up to date as to where we are, with just three days to the election (part two).

About 48 hours ago, a federal judge put candidate Wellington Sharpe back on the ballot, after he was removed by the NYC Board of Elections, who had upheld a challenge on Sharpe’s petitions from the Mathieu Eugene camp. Then yesterday, an appellate court held that despite the fact that Eugene had created the present vacancy in this district- by failing to take up his duly elected post- he should be still placed on the ballot, since his deceptive behavior didn’t reach the level of a felony. They arrived at this position despite the fact that the law is clear: once you create a vacancy, you cannot run for said office. The law is also clear that failing to swear in to office meant that “you” created the vacancy. So on Tuesday (4-24-07), there will be a special election in Brooklyn again, with Mathieu Eugene, Wellington Sharpe and Harry Schiffman as the candidates. So much for the law, its variations and violations; and on we go, and on we go, and we go on.  read more »