Several people sent me this article from Daily Politics. Seems city council candidate in Queens, Michael Cohen, was caught in corruption charges against former Liberal Party boss Ray Harding. There seems to have been a corrupt bargain wherein Harding worked with Gov. George Pataki's office to get Cohen a well-paid job in exchange for Cohen giving up his Assembly seat so Andy Hevesi could run for it. Cohen also endorsed Pataki at the same time, making it like so many other corrupt deals in NYC where favors, money and endorsements change hands.

There are several interesting threads in this latest scandal to hit a city council candidate. First off, I can't help but be reminded of the DiBrienza scandal in Brooklyn. Cohen is vowing to stay in the race despite the scandal...much like DiBrienza did. I suspect Cohen's continuation of his campaign will end up much like DiBrienza's as well: rapidly ended.

Second, this is a reminder what a nest of corruption Queens is. I usually write about Brooklyn corruption, but Queens clearly has its share as well.  read more »

I was surprised to find out that even after Michael Tobman managed to badly bungle a Brooklyn judicial race in 2008 (against a friend of mine, I will note) despite a massive money advantage, someone would hire him for a 2009 campaign. Tobman ran a very well funded, sleazy, Karl Rove style campaign on behalf of Roger Adler for a civil court seat and yet lost. The fact is that had Tobman run a cleaner, more mature campaign, he may well have won. But instead he took the nasty route and lost. I can't tell you how many people on primary day told me how turned off they were by the mailers on Adler's behalf that presumably Tobman approved. Dozens of people pointed out to me that Adler's mailers said nothing positive about Adler, merely smear attacks on Cohen. Bottom line is Tobman flubbed it.  read more »