FORUM
NY’S 13TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Organized by:

Democracy for NYC • Stonewall Democratic Club,
Three Parks Democratic Club • Village Reform Democrats, truth 13

Vito Fossella, New York City’s only Republican member of Congress, has been a rubber-stamp for the Bush-Cheney White House. The NYC progressive community is determined to replace Fossella, and two Democratic candidates are running against him.

Join us for a candidate forum
to discuss issues of importance to the people of the 13th CD and the entire city.

April 15, 2008
6:30 PM

Lafayette Grill and Bar 54 Franklin Street

Take the N,R,Q,6, C and A trains to Canal Street
or the 1 train to Franklin Street.

Both Democratic candidates have been invited to attend:

Steven Harrison Dominic Recchia

(As of April 10, Steven Harrison has confirmed his attendance. Councilmember Recchia has not yet confirmed his attendance.)

The 13th Congressional District covers Staten Island and part of southwest Brooklyn. This event is being held in Manhattan to make it possible for many people to attend.

We can defeat Vito Fossella!!!

The Drum Major Institute's meeting at Baruch College yesterday was important and remarkable as much for who was there as for what was said. Three elected officials who may run for Mayor in 2009 spoke and gave those of us in the audience a side-by-side view of them as policy makers as well as campaigners. While there's a lot of substance to write about the meeting, mayoral electoral politics was on the minds of many. Diane Cardwell's NY Times article also focused on the men who would be Mayor My post on the substance will follow later today.

NYC Comptroller William C. Thompson, Congress Member Anthony Weiner and Bronx Borough President Adolpho Carrion spoke and worked the room which was filled with lobbyists, consultants, non-profit executives and policy-junkies like me. What I saw surprised me.

Judging only by their focus and remarks Monday Comptroller Thompson and Bronx Beep Carrion do not intend to run against Mayor Bloomberg's record. This was a surprise to me, since of late, a firestorm of criticism against the Mayor has been burning over Mr. Bloomberg's education policies and practices. Indeed Mr. Thompson has sometimes been one of those setting the anti-Bloomberg fire alight.

Listening yesterday, however, the only potential candidate who clearly articulated a progressive platform against Mr. Bloomberg's record was Congress Member Weiner. As in his previous run for Mayor, Mr. Weiner was focused, smart and informed. On a panel with Council Member John Liu and Carrion, Weiner wit sparkled. On health care for employees of small business, for example, Weiner proposed that NYC bring the cost down by forming a small-business buyers' cooperative. It's well known that those entities able to deliver big pools of insured people (Big Corporations, NYC) get better insurance for lower prices. It's not the best solution (single payer, universal health insurance, as I see it), but its better than what we have now for small business. Carrion and Lu were skeptical and critical without any thought out reasons. I guess I'm also a fan of Mr. Weiner's Schumer-style sharpness and repartee.

New York State Assemblyman and Staten Island Democratic Party chair John Lavelle died 10:20 pm in Richmond University Medical Center last night from stroke related complications . He would have turned 58 on Friday.

Lavelle suffered the stroke shortly after midnight last Friday morning in the bathroom of popular Staten Island Democrat hang out Jody's Club Forrest, just after addressing the Young Democrats of Richmond County.

Lavelle, a former Met Life executive, became party chair in 1999 and was elected to the Assembly in 2000. He is also a former president of the borough's most progressive Democratic political club, Staten Island Democratic Association (SIDA), which I belong to.

He is survived by sons, John, Christopher, and Daniel and three grandchildren.

The wake will be at Harmon's Funeral Home, 571 Forest Avenue, Saturday, 7:00 - 9:00 P.M., and Sunday, 2:00 - 4:00 and 7:00 - 9:00 P.M. The funeral will be Monday at 10:00 A.M. at St. Peter's Church, 53 St. Marks Place.

One of Lavelle’s kidney’s was used to save someone else’s life just before his death.

Concern about issues such as poverty and civil rights fueled his political activism.

John was a man of integrity and stood by Steve Harrison when the national Democratic Party began trying to promote Brooklyn Council member Bill de Blasio as a candidate to oppose Vito Fossella for a Congressional seat in a district he neither lived in nor represented a single person in, several weeks after the Island party executive committee unanimously endorsed Harrison. Lavelle would have none of this and successfully helped convince Bill not to challenge Steve.

I've been involved to a limited degree with Manny Innamorato's special election campaign to fill Andrew Lanza's usually empty Southshore/Mid-Island council seat (Marchi's successor and Titone's State Senate opponent had the worst attendance in the Council)against State Assemblyman Vincent Ignizio, a Vito protege.

Manny, the head of IT for the City of Yonkers (Talk about bad commutes), held a fundraiser last night on the Island. Steve, Janele and most Staten Island Democratic officeholders, activists and operatives were there.

Daniel is right, that a win here would help Democrats win other races in the forgotten borough (Although I appreciate Daniel not forgetting us). Ignizio, who ran unopposed for his Assembly spot, is being groomed to eventually succeed Fossella. Iggy defeated Manny for the Assembly seat in 04. Beating him in the council race will dampen his ambition and possibly give a Southshore Democrat the courage to oppose him when he runs for reelection to Albany.

The Council district is slightly more Democratic than that of the all Republican dominated Southshore Assembly because it includes New Springville which is mixed (New Springville became slightly less Democratic two days after election day when my wife and myself moved to the Northshore.)Manny should do better than he did against Iggy for City Hall than for Albany just based on that.

I am both a big fan and a big critic of the progressive grassroots. I think at their best, it is the progressive grassroots that can bring out the best in American government. And this recent election showed the worth of such grassroots movements like Act Blue, Progressive Majority and MoveOn.org. But one of my main criticisms of the progressive grassroots is their lack of unity and ability to stick it out for the long haul.

Chris Owens, a favorite grassroots progressive in Brooklyn and favorite bugbear of City Councilman David Yassky, is doing his best to make the grassroots in Brooklyn both more unified and more effective with a new initiative (and organizing base for future campaigns) called New Brooklyn Leadership.

What could bring together Michael Bouldin, Daily Gotham coiner of the term "Green tools of the right" and members of the Green Party?

Chris Owens can do it.

Last night was Chris' thank you party for those who helped him in his recent run for Congress, and his announcement of the New Brooklyn Leadership movement.

At its root, this is an attempt to keep together the very active, very dedicated grassroots coalition that rallied around Chris Owens' candidacy and to hone that coalition into a more effective and lasting tool. And it was a good start. Members of both IND and CBID were there, representing the area's two best known "reform Democratic" clubs. Members of the Green Party were there, including former Brooklyn BP candidate Gloria Mattera. Daily Gotham's own anti-Green enthusiast Michael Bouldin was there. Members of Develop, Don't Destroy Brooklyn were there. Bigwigs from New Democratic Majority were there. It was, in short, a pretty good cross section of the recent Norm Seigel (2005) and Chris Owens (2006) campaigns and probably the most active participants in Brooklyn's sometimes thin grassroots. There were over 100 people in the room at one time, and people were coming and going, indicating that many more were probably there at some time or another.

Yvette Clarke's City Council seat will be vacant as soon as she is sworn in January 1st as the new Congress Critter from NY-11. The race to replace her will be a very hotly contested one with probably a huge number of candidates getting in on the game. At last night's Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats meeting last night (where more factional fighting provided the same kind of entertainmen as a bombing stand up comic) two candidates for the 40th City Council spoke. Both came off well. These are my impressions of them.

Jesse Hamilton:

Jesse Hamilton is fresh from a great win against the corrupt Brooklyn machine when his grassroots campaign beat the machine by about 2:1. For those of us who want to see the end to Clarence Norman/Vito Lopez corruption in Brooklyn, Hamilton's win was sweet. When running for district leader he says he was endorsed by both David Yassky and Chris Owens, though I should note there was also controversy over his first endorsing, then un-endorsing Yassky then campaigning for Chris.

Hamilton came off endearing but a bit unpolished, but this fits his description of his self as being a "community activist, not a politician." He now adds district leader to his resume of serving on Community Board 8 and being elected to the school board in the Crown Heights area where he served as president. During his stint on school board he claims that district's preformance improved by 12%. He attributes this to a better connection between the school board and ALL segments of the district, reaching out to every school and setting up awards for students to encourage better performance. By better engaging parents the school board better served the students.

The New York State Board of Elections website has got to be one of the worst government sites in the nation. Can you believe these people don't use HTML for their updates? No. They publish their updates in PDF files.

I would love to know who is the dishonest web developer/consultant or IT Director who is squandering my tax money on that piece of electronic crapulence. In terms of usability that site sucks at all levels. Who the hell is earning $100K + a year for doing nothing but putting up PDF files of some of the most important information all New York voters ought to have readily available.

Anyhow...

More for my benefit that yours I will be publishing all throughout the weekend the lists of candidates we will be faced with come Tuesday.

The primary source is that awful site, but I would like to also give a hat-tip to Democratic Underground's effort in putting together a voter's guide for the state.

Last night was the Brooklyn New Democratic Majority meeting. These meetings, which are co-hosted by Michael Bouldin, election protection advocate Marjorie Gersten, and myself, often leave me a bit disappointed because we often have a small turnout. But they also leave me excited because those who do show are very active and are good souruces of info for what is going on inside campaigns.

To give you an idea of the dedication, among those who came last night (and who are die-hard regulars), one person had vertigo, one person's mother went to the hospital earlier that day, and one person had suffered a fall earlier in the week...while on her way to help the Harrison campaign. And they all came...tired and sore, but they came.

Mostly we all just talked amongst ourselves, largely because most of us see eachother all the time and are already involved. The few newcomers did get some info on various events and resources around the city. Even introduced a couple of them to Daily Gotham!

One thing I got from the meeting was a sense of how things are feeling within two local Congressional campaigns: those of John Hall (NY-19) and Steve Harrison (NY-13).

Act Now has added to their phonebanking efforts to retake the NY State Senate. Let's let Spitzer start with a friendly legislature and let's kick out the bums who have been blocking funds for NYC schools despite lawsuits that have decided NYC has the right to those funds.

Act Now's Seize the State Senate Landline Phone Banking
Every Mon, Wed, and Thurs Evening

6:15 - 8:45 PM
420 Lexington Ave (at 43rd St), Suite 360
Bring photo ID to sign in at front desk.

What will we be doing? Low-pressure calls via landlines to dramatically increase Democratic voter turnout in the most competitive State Senate races. This is a great way for first-time callers to get started.

Why care about the State Senate? Fair elections, education, transportation, the environment, healthcare, security, and others are state issues. But, if we want anything to happen, we need to give our future governor, reformer Eliot Spitzer, a Democratic legislature.

Can we win? Yes, we can. We’re just four seats from Democratic control for the first time since the mid 1960s. No, that’s not a typo: the 60’s.

Monday, October 16th: RSVP at this Link

If you want to win back Congress and our democracy, remember that there are two Congressional races nearby that need our help. If you aren't helping Steve Harrison in Bay Ridge and Staten Island, you can be helping John Hall in Westchester.

This is a message from a DFNYC organizer friend of mine about John Hall and two trips she is organizing to canvass for Hall:

Me and a my Democracy for New York City friends have decided to adopt one congressional candidate to work for. Having one candidate to work for makes it much simpler for us to contact our friends and encourage everyone to get involved.

The candidate is John Hall. John is running for congress in the 19th congressional district which covers Northern Westchester county and much of the Hudson Valley.

Why John Hall?

* He is a person who has a history of involvement in causes that we care about. He was active in the campaign to close down the Indian Point and Shoreham nuclear power plants.
* He has been strongly endorsed by people I really trust - Robert F Kennedy Junior and Pete Seeger as well as many labor unions AFL-CIO, SEIU.