New York City women who support Barack Obama held a rally at City Hall yesterday, ostensibly to counter the post-Palin storyline of female voters moving to John McCain.

At the end of the rally, I asked some attendees if thought Palin was being treated fairly during the campaign, or if, as Hillary Clinton asserted during her campaign, sexism is still an issue on the campaign trail.

“I can’t speak for Ms. Palin,” said City Councilwoman Letitia James.

“Nor do I think that we need to waste much time on it!” shouted actress Kathleen Turner.

The crowd roared. Afterwards, Representatives Nydia Velazquez and Yvette Clarke took turns at answering the question.

Bill Clinton will speak at a fund-raiser tonight for Representative Ed Towns, whose challenger, Kevin Powell, is trying to frame Towns' support of Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary as a political liability.

The event is taking place at the home of attorney Sanford Rubenstein, on East 64th Street. Clinton is expected to speak around 7:30 p.m. Others expected to attend include Representatives Anthony Weiner and Yvette Clarke, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

The invitation, which was forwarded to me by a reader, also lists notable figures like Governor David Paterson, City Comptroller Bill Thompson and Representative Charlie Rangel, although it doesn't say whether they will attend.

Yesterday afternoon at City Hall, Congresswomen Yvette Clarke and Nydia Velazquez announced jointly that they are endorsing Bill de Blasio for Brooklyn borough president.

These early endorsements follow announcements of support for de Blasio from UNITE-HERE and The NY Hotel Trades Council. Combined with the campaign's announcement yesterday of having raised "nearly $1 million dollars" ("$177,454 this filing period and $621,891 this cycle"), de Blasio is looking a bit like a foregone thing. (It's unclear at this point exactly who else is running.

The endorsements were announced on the City Hall steps, with about 25 or so supporters standing behind the congresswomen and de Blasio, squinting into the sun and holding "For Brooklyn '09'" signs.  read more »

The Democratic club home to Representative Yvette Clarke and her mother, Una Clarke, a former City Council member, will hear presentations tonight from State Senator Kevin Parker and one of the Democrats trying to unseat him, City Councilman Kendall Stewart.

Una Clarke said the presentations will be made to the executive committee of the club and are not open to the press. She also said the third Democrat in the race, City Councilman Simcha Felder, has not asked to speak to the club. Felder announced his candidacy for the seat only a few weeks ago, and Clarke says, "There is still a lot of unknown about him in the community.”

When asked which candidate she was leaning towards, Clarke replied, “I am not leaning -- I am standing straight until I get a level playing field and figure out what exactly is happening.”

Clarke said she thinks this primary shares some similarities with the 2006 Democratic primary in Brooklyn's 11th Congressional district-- the contest won by her daughter -- when there was considerable speculation that the district’s African-American voters would be divided among the three black candidates, giving the only white candidate a victory. Clarke thinks Felder poses a threat if he “gets a solid vote in his community, and the other votes are split in many ways.”

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David Paterson spoke with Barack Obama around 2 p.m., he told reporters in Midtown during the New York State Democratic Party’s meeting.

“He asked me how the first two and a half months were going," Paterson said. "And I told him it might have even been more difficult than your campaign.”  read more »

Here's a brief moment of disunity at a unity rally in support of Barack Obama on the steps of City Hall this afternoon.

Representative Ed Towns was answering a question about the fact that Christine Quinn and other City Council members weren't there, and then, well, State Senator Bill Perkins and Representative Yvette Clarke kind of got in each other's way.

Representatives Greg Meeks, Yvette Clarke and Ed Towns put out a joint statement just now endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

They are planning a 1 p.m. press conference at City Hall on Friday. There's another press conference happening in D.C. at 1 p.m. today.

All of them they previously endorsed home-state Senator Hillary Clinton, although Obama won their districts on the February 5 primary.

According to an aide for Meeks, Charlie Rangel, Bill Thompson, Helen Marshall, Malcolm Smith and Adolfo Carrion, Jr. will also be there.

Here’s the statement:  read more »

Unlike David Paterson, Representative Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn is staying on message for the Clinton campaign, and just told me she thinks it’s a little early to write off Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid.  read more »

Citizens Against Government Waste published its annual list of congressional earmarks (they actually call it the Congressional Pig Book list).

Of course, what one person calls wasteful spending, another person calls bringing home the bacon, and now that Democrats are in the majority, New York was supposed to be getting more federal money.

The state made out with a good portion, particularly in the Catskills, where Maurice Hinchey brought in $43.7 million.

Here is a list of what some members from New York, and a few from elsewhere, brought their districts, according to the list. (It's in numbers of millions):  read more »

David Paterson was just sworn in as governor here in the Assembly chambers on the third floor of the Capitol building in Albany, to cheers of "David! David!"

Paterson acknowledged distinguished guests, including his "good friend" Joe Bruno.