As the returns came in tonight, my wife cheered the trouncing David Yassky received in the race for Comptroller. This is the second time Yassky came in second in a major race. Both times Yassky's own inability to hold to his own values or to the interests of his constituents doomed his chances. This young man had so much potential when he first ran for City Council. Many of us thought he'd go far...as he himself thought. But he started to feel entitled to higher office and gave in to his ambitions. Yassky sacrificed all his idealism in his ambition to reach the highest offices possible. Now for most politicians this is no hindrance to success. But Yassky still tried to maintain the facade of an idealistic young man and the discrepancy between his facade of idealism and honesty and the reality of his complete amorality when it came to ambition was too obvious for voters to ignore. So he lost in 2006 when he ran for Congress. And he lost tonight in his bid for Comptroller. I was convinced in 2006 he had set his sights on the highest possible offices with Congress a mere stepping stone. This year his ambition, I suspect, was set on mayor of NYC.  read more »

Watching Kieth Olbermann tonight I notice there are many ads by local politicians running for office. John Liu had a pretty good ad, but honestly it seemed a cookie cutter ad much like any other politician's ad complete with a voice-over voice I could swear I have heard in many other political ads. I think John Liu is his own best advocate and I suggest his campaign cut an ad that has John making his own case rather than a cookie cutter ad. But the ad that got my wife yelling at the TV was David Yassky's weasely ad. Utter bullshit.

Yassky is claiming he will close loopholes and watch every dollar the government spends, yet those of us who are actually in his district knows he has NEVER watched where dollars went unless they bought him endorsements. I think, in honor of Yassky's latest ad, I should remind people of a couple of sleazy moves Yassky has done that shows he either can't keep track of dollars at all or knows very well where dollars go and uses them to buy political favors. Let me repost what I wrote about Yassky's ties to scandals back in March:  read more »

I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of my City Councilman, David Yassky. Then again, there are episodes when he atones for his weaselry by simply being hilariously funny, usually unintentionally. He has an endearing streak that occasionally breaks through the constructed persona of any perpetual office-seeker.

Case in point: this (via the estimable Liz):

Now tell me that's not hilarious and utterly charming.

The piece is apparently a handout that his campaign made for the upcoming Harry Potter movie premiere, where they plan to do visibility. No word on whether the candidate will be in costume with a big, pointy hat.

Back when David Yassky ran for Congress, he was seen as primarily a supporter of Bruce Ratner, though with more reservations than Ratner supporter Yvette Clarke. My wife took particular notice of how he would always begin any discussing on development in general and Atlantic Yards in particular with the assumption that developers would get their way and that it was up to government to get as much as they could out of developers in return. This was a defeatist view but was a consistent message from David Yassky.  read more »