Senator Gillibrand's campaign to win over the left-leaning Democratic primary electorate continues unabated. See her endorsement by Howard Dean, datelined yesterday and apparently released late in the PM.

Now-Senator Gillibrand could have been deeply politically damaged by the circumstances of her appointment; the collapse in Paterson's poll numbers dates to his mishandling of the appointment process to fill Clinton's seat. But she hasn't been, and unless Carolyn Maloney can make a case for why she'd do a better job - and why upstate's only real power player needs to be replaced by another Manhattanite - a year out, Kirsten's looking pretty good.

Some quotes, via press release, after the break.  read more »

Yesterday Howard Dean came to the new CBID office in Park Slope specifically to endorse Josh Skaller for City Council. He then proceeded to campaign with Josh to kick off petitioning. Howard Dean also announced that Democracy for America was endorsing Josh. Here's the video:

An odd thing happened, though. Working Families Party somehow is turning this visit to personally endorse Josh (where Howard Dean says outright that he thinks Josh can win) into an endorsement for their candidate, Brad Lander. In a letter from Brad Lander's campaign, Dan Cantor of WFP says:

This morning at a press conference in Park Slope, Brad picked up the backing of none other than former Governor, DNC Chair, and Democracy for America founder Howard Dean.  read more »

Heard about this earlier, but got confirmation this evening.

This coming week Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont, Presidential candidate, founder of Democracy for America and recent head of the Democratic National Committee during the 2006 and 2008 victories, will endorse Josh Skaller for City Council for New York's 39th Council District. He joins State Senator Eric Adams and Assemblyman Jim Brennan in supporting Josh for City Council.

UPDATE: Here's the press release:

HOSTED BY:
Josh Skaller for City Council

SPEAKERS:
Josh Skaller, City Council candidate
Gov. Howard Dean, former presidential candidate

DATE:
Tuesday, June 9, 2009

TIME:
9:00 a.m.

LOCATION:
Office of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID)
548 10th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues in Park Slope

Governor Dean will join Josh Skaller at a press conference at the campaign office of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats. After the press conference, Josh Skaller and Governor Dean will greet subway riders at the 7th Avenue stop on the "F" Train (7th Avenue & 9th Street).  read more »

According to several reports (the AP, C-SPAN, the NY Times), Barack Obama is keeping Howard Dean on as Chairman of the DNC. While many people will have problems with this move, especially as fundraising at the DNC has not been what it should be, I think it's an excellent move, for two reasons.

The first reason is that, as I wrote in February, Obama owes his success in large part to Howard Dean. The movement that lifted Obama to the nomination began five years ago with the Dean campaign. It should not end with this election, and keeping Howard Dean on is both a symbolic and a practical statement to that effect.

The second reason is that Howard Dean's 50-state strategy is working, both short-term and long-term. It not only provided a tremendous boost to the effort that led to Democratic control of both houses of Congress, but it has also engaged and energized many people nationwide who will be the next generation of political leaders in America.  read more »

(my great thanks to Bouldin for allowing me the forum from which to tell this tale) [Ed. note MB: You're very welcome. Folks, this is an important race for symbolic reasons alone, and Andrew's a fine man who deserves our support.]

My Dear Friends,

I am running for the office of Town Supervisor in the town of Stephentown, Rensselaer County, NY.

It's all Howard Dean's fault.

Here we are three and a half years later and we are preparing to turn control of ostensibly solid republican Stephentown over to Democrats. Good things start with just those first few steps.

We have a blog web site for the Stephentown Democratic Committee (contributions gratefully accepted).

And I've just created a candidate page over at DFA-Link.  read more »