Ed Towns’ fellow elected Democrats are doing their best to spare him the fate that Hillary Clinton suffered this year.

"We don't want to have Barack Obama in the White House, and all of a sudden lose the seniority that Ed Towns would bring to us," said City Comptroller Bill Thompson at a reasonably well-attended tribute to the 13-term congressman this weekend at the Berean Baptist Church just south of Atlantic Avenue in Crown Heights.

Thompson warned some 200 attendees that they would "lose all the benefits of the years that Ed has put in.”

That Towns, a longtime incumbent in an overwhelmingly Democratic district, should need saving at all is somewhat remarkable.  read more »

A former press guy for Howard Dean and Mark Green endorsed Assembly challenger Paul Newell, surrogate candidate Nora Anderson, and incumbent State Senator Marty Connor.

Brooklyn Papers endorsed Kevin Powell for congress, Dan Squadron over Marty Connor for State Senate, and Mike McMahon for congress.

Newell attacked Sheldon Silver’s spokesman for trashing a mailing sent by a Republican-funded organization.

And Streetsblog offers its own spin on what Silver has done for lower Manhattan, which they say isn’t much.

Here’s a shot from last night's fund-raiser for Representative Ed Towns, which took place at the home of attorney Sanford Rubenstein and featured a slate of very prominent Democrats.

From left to right: City Comptroller Bill Thompson, Bill Clinton, the Rev. Calvin Butts, Governor David Paterson, Towns, and Assemblyman Darryl Towns (the congressman's son).

Towns is facing a primary challenge from community activist and former MTV Real World star Kevin Powell, who has critisized Towns for supporting Hillary Clinton during the primary.

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.

An interested reader sent in this photograph showing how Representative Ed Towns, a Hillary Clinton supporter who faces a primary challenge this year, has embraced Barack Obama's campaign. The picture was taken this afternoon and is of the building at 203 Ralph Street in Brooklyn, not far from Towns' office.

Towns has lately been trying to demonstrate his association with the campaign, rolling out the endorsements of several central Brooklyn elected officials earlier this week, and noting that they all supported Obama during the primary. Towns needs to avoid a scenario in which the droves of Obama supporters who showed up in February  read more »

Here’s a shot from an event in Brooklyn yesterday where central Brooklyn lawmakers who supported Barack Obama in the February 5 primary announced they’re endorsing Representative Ed Towns for reelection.

“I made the decision to support Senator Obama because of his message of change,” said State Senator John Sampson, in a public statement. “I made the decision to support Congressman Towns for this same reason. Towns’ seniority in Congress enables him to build strong relationships and alliances in order to bring the change needed that will move our great borough forward.”

The other elected officials included Towns' son, Assemblyman Darryl Towns; State Senators Eric Adams and Kevin Parker; State Assemblymen Hakeem Jeffries and Karim Camara; and Borough President Marty Markowitz.  read more »

Democratic Congressional challenger Kevin Powell has been linking himself to Barack Obama in one way or another for some time now. But his effort to compare himself to the presidential nominee may suffer after tomorrow.

At 2 p.m. at Brooklyn Borough Hall, a number of local elected officials who are also Obama supporters--State Senators Eric Adams, Kevin Parker and John Sampson, along with Assembly members Karim Camara and Hakeem Jeffries--will be endorsing incumbent Ed Towns for re-election.

UPDATE: Powell fund-raiser Arthur Leopold responding by first noting that the Towns campaign put the wrong district number in the release--it says the 13th, but Towns represents the 10th Congressional district.  read more »

Courtenay Semel (daughter of former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel) and heiress Casey Johnson are no longer an item after Ms. Semel spent an  evening partying with Tila Tequila, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson. [P6]

Michelle Williams is reportedly officially dating her close friend director Spike Jonze, who was previously married to Sofia Coppola. [Daily Mail]  

Vogue intern and New York Ranger Sean Avery, 28, is dating 51-year-old Kelly Klein, ex-wife of Calvin. [P6]   read more »

At a fund-raiser in Williamsburg last night, a Kevin Powell supporter tried to allay concerns about Powell’s violent past with a little humor, and stoke enthusiasm for ousting 13-term incumbent Representative Ed Towns.

Isaac Abraham, a Hasidic store owner now running for City Council, criticized Towns for being unresponsive to a housing issue in the late 1990's from behind a podium, next to Powell, and front a group of about 50 other Hasidic men.

He went on, “And just touching on a sensitive issue--I must bring it up because obviously some people are trying to take advantage of it.”

(He was referencing Powell's much-discussed past which includes domestic violence.  read more »

Democratic Congressional candidate Kevin Powell is trying to make an issue of that fact that a recent fund-raiser for his opponent, Representative Ed Towns, was thrown by former Republican Representative J.C. Watts.

Here's a video the Powell campaign just put out, which features footage of Watts explaining his support for Towns, and title screens with less flattering information (and the Golden Girls theme song playing in the background).

The video ends by saying, “Ed Towns' friend, conservative J.C. Watts, is not a friend of Brooklyn.”