I love Facebook, I really truly do. People send you requests asking to be your friend, which tickles the hell out of me every time; you keep abreast of the large and small developments in the lives of said friends; you get emails about and invitations to stuff that's nearly always somehow relevant. It's dangerously addictive in the networked life.

I logged on yesterday morning, and noticed that someone in my network had become a supporter of Kristen McElroy, running for State Senate in SD-6 against Kemp Hannon.

Compare the two web pages, and you can see this year's fight in a nutshell. On the one hand, you have a young mother - McElroy has three kids under four - on the other, another decades-long incumbent whose bio doesn't even give a date of birth. To quote her Facebook page,

As a mother of three young children Kristen knows how hard it has become to raise a family in Long Island, NY. With the rising property taxes, soaring fuel prices and rapid increase of healthcare and prescription drugs costs; Kristen wants to hold the line on taxes, funnel education money back into the classroom rather than high administrative costs and bring the people’s voice back to Albany rather than lobbyists and special interest groups.

I suspect you'll be hearing a lot more about Kristen McElroy.

Oh wow: State Senate challenger Dan Squadron's campaign just released their petitioning numbers.

Standing in front of the Board of Elections, he announced that his campaign collected over 8,000 signatures on individual nominating petitions – more than eight times the number (1,000) required to be placed on the ballot for the September 9th primary.

"It's wonderful to see the incredible excitement for the type of energetic representation I hope to bring this district," Squadron said. "In every neighborhood, in Brooklyn and Manhattan, people are saying the same thing: it is time to demand more."

Squadron's opponent, Martin Connor, who works part-time as an election lawyer, has knocked countless candidates off the ballot, and has pursued legal challenges against every serious opponent he has faced since 1980—from a lengthy court battle that he ultimately lost against Luis Osorio in 1992 to a residency challenge against Ken Diamondstone that was decided in Diamondstone's favor by the State's highest court.

What's interesting here is that 8,000 signatures is just south of the number of actual votes (9,238 to 11,459) that challenger Ken Diamondstone received in 2006.

Over at Open Left, David Sirota makes a seamless transition from his perma-hawking of his new book into a diagnosis of why taking the New York State Senate matters to, literally, all Americans.

(Not as much as it would matter to buy his eminently prescient new book, but it matters).

[T]hat battle has national implications because of the size of New York's economy. Getting Democrats full control of the New York legislature and governorship means that one of the largest economies in the world - the one that encompasses Wall Street - would be regulated by a Democratic (and hopefully progressive) government. Bruno's retirement brings Democrats one huge step closer to that goal.

He's right. New York has the third-largest economy in the country, after California and Texas. Democratic control of the government gives us a chance to set regulatory standards that would, because of this state's sheer size, have impact far beyond our borders. The clustering of key industries - banking, finance, media, advertising, technology, transportation - would make that impact even more keenly felt in those sectors.

Joe Bruno's retirement throws open the settled nature of New York politics, so it's worthwhile speculating on some possible developments.

His departure from the scene breaks the all-but-statutory requirement for GOP Senators to seek re-election as long as they're tolerably animate wide open. It's not unreasonable to expect Senators who have continued to serve at Bruno's request to now head for the exits; names being floated are Caesar Trunzo (born 1926), Owen Johnson (no birth date given, but first elected in 1972), Kenneth P. LaValle (no birth date given, again, but first elected in 1976), and Hugh Farley (first elected to public office in 1970, elevated to the Senate in 1976). It's an open secret in Albany that several of these lawmakers had wanted to retire for some time, but were kept in the fold by a majority leader anxious to preserve his majority. That's over, and no one would blame them for seeking retirement.

It's also reasonable to expect other Senators from the soon-to-be minority to seek greener pastures in other legislative bodies. For example, George Maziarz would probably be the strongest candidate for his party in NY-26, just as Andrew Lanza would be for the race in NY-13, where there is presently no GOP contender. I would take bets that the NRCC is on the phone with both Maziarz and Lanza right now to save something from the wreckage that republican fortunes in this state will likely become in November.

Wow. And on a Monday, too: Bruno won't seek re-election.

"He will not run for re-election. It's still open as to whether he will serve out the term until Dec. 31 or leave early."

UPDATE: Another GOP Senate source tells DN Capitol Bureau Ken Lovett that Bruno will definitely remain in the Senate through the end of the year because if he leaves, the chamber will be tied. The fate of his leadership, however, remains unclear.

This source told Lovett Bruno decided to tell his members today because it's the last day of session and he wanted to inform them of his decision when they were all together.

Bruno, who has served in the Senate since 1976 and has been leader since early 1995, when he took power from Ralph Marino in a coup with then-newly-minted Gov. George Pataki's support, has been coy of late about whether he would run this fall.

Here's what's fun: this morning, Albany Project noted that it sure looked as if Bruno was clearing the gangways.

Several people will have their situations drastically altered by Bruno's retirement. One, the older republican Senators, the Trunzos of the world, will now head for the exits. Bruno's kept them in office to preserve his majority. That's over, and this will not be the last retirement to come.

Two, Sheldon Silver in the Assembly, first elected the same years as Joe Bruno, 1976, now faces the near certainty of a Democratic Senate that will operate under different rules than Silver's own chamber.

Three, New York republicans might as well hand in the towel. It's over for them. Done.

This is nice: the WFP just endorsed Don Barber, who's running for Senate in the 51st District. The 51st is a tripod-shaped district covering roughly the center of the state and branching out from there a hundred miles or so north, west and south-east towards the City.

State Senate candidate Don Barber (D-Caroline) received a strong boost today when the Working Families Party threw its considerable resources behind Barber's campaign. "The Working Families Party fights every day to make sure government works for hardworking families," said Barber, who will appear on the Working Families ballot line. "I'm delighted to have their endorsement, and I look forward to their help getting out our message."

Noting that his opponent, Jim Seward, opposed raising the minimum wage above $5.15 an hour, Barber added, "Struggling New York families needed that raise. I supported increasing the minimum wage then, but more importantly, I support a real living wage now. I don't think the hard-working people in our district deserve any less."

In a separate release, the Working Families Party noted that their endorsement "could be a crucial element in finally ending Republican rule in the state senate. The WFP played a critical role in recent special elections in the North Country and on Long Island, helping to narrow the Republican Senate majority to just two."

There are a lot of those crucial elements coming together, it seems. Barber is a netroots-friendly candidate with an ActBlue page; show the man some love. We need upstate Democrats, too.

With the fall of Eliot Spitzer, one question nobody in the press is likely to ask is what financial effect this will have on the state Democratic party and campaign committees.

A recent article in the NY Times talks about Spitzer's ability to raise large donations for the state party. With his departure, will that money dry up, or will he continue to work behind the scenes?

The other question that we'll probably never get an answer to (partly because nobody will ask) is whether Spitzer's decision to resign was based in any part on input from his donors.

Not to harp on one topic, but the only way to get past this pestilential money chase is full public funding of elections, known as "Clean Money, Clean Elections." Stay tuned for major announcements on this topic.

The emails started after the New York Times piece came out on February 16th. Aptly titled In State Senate, Aging Fingers Cling to Power, authored by Danny Hakim, it was a fairly standard meditation on the challenges facing Joe Bruno's caucus as the blue tide washes over New York's last republican bastion.

Problem was, in an article that started with a reference to an aging state senator, Caesar Trunzo, there was no reference to Trunzo's actual, declared Democratic candidate, Jimmy Dahroug. Instead, Hakim featured an undeclared former Nixon/Bush/McCain republican who may or may not run for the seat as a Democrat.

Christopher Bodkin, an Islip Town Board member and a Democrat, is considering challenging Mr. Trunzo, who is 21 years his senior. Mr. Bodkin likened the situation with the Senate Republicans to the United States Senate: “Look at Strom Thurmond: They just kept him going and going because they needed to hang on to a slim majority.”

“I certainly won’t challenge Senator Trunzo on his age,” he said. “He’s there and going back and forth to his district and so forth. I will run on the theme that it’s absolutely time for a change.”

The last significant change in Bodkin's life was his switch from republican to Democratic affiliation.

In politics, it's the small things that can sometimes make all the difference; look no further than what was once called a butterfly ballot, used in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Witness, say, this. Readers of the New York Times front page this morning were treated to a piece by Danny Hakim - awesomely titled In State Senate, Aging Fingers Cling to Power - on the efforts by New York Democrats to liberate the State Senate from its unnatural state as the last republican bastion in New York. This is a big deal for anyone who cares about how New York is governed.

Problem is, on the day the Senate Democrats get some major frontpage mojo, their site kind of doesn't work. Here's the front page:

This is what you get when you click on the link that offers to tell you more about the New York Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee:

Awesomeness: apparently, the DSCC has no mission. Come on, people. This is ridiculous.

In the State Senate special election taking place in the upstate 48th District on February 26th, Democratic contender Darrel Aubertine has been running this banner ad since January 24th:

His opponent, republican Will Barclay, just started running this banner ad a day or so ago:

Clearly, original ideas do not flow from the republican side of the aisle.

On the web: Darrel Aubertine for State Senate