One of the central elements of Mayor Bloomberg's plan for a sustainable New York City is to improve mass transit and get people out of their cars and into busses and subways. In addition to better and more frequent transit service, the city also needs to ensure that the price of mass transit is kept under control. In the aftermath of the defeat of congestion pricing, we see that mass transit in this region is under greater financial stress than at any time since the fiscal crisis of the mid 1970's.

State and local tax collections are in decline, and the MTA bears the burden of the Pataki philosophy of borrowing to fund transit infrastructure.  read more »

Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr.--who is running for re-election on both the Republican ticket and the Democratic one--wants to clear the air about a few things.

He called to say that his August 13 fund-raiser features Democratic State Senate Leader Malcolm Smith and conference co-chair Jeff Klein, but they are not behind the event.

“They are not organizing it,” Diaz told me. “They never organized nothing for me.” Diaz said his paid fund-raiser for the event is Anne Noonan, and that he is calling contributors himself.

Diaz also said of the party, “I’ve been there when they needed me,” and added that he contributed money to help his conference pick up seats.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg just spoke to a room of environmentally minded business people at a daylong event hosted by George Pataki at the New York Athletic Club.

Bloomberg heaped praise on Pataki, referring to the former governor's “remarkable three terms in office.” He described Pataki as “great,” and added that at one point after he become mayor, his goal was just trying to do for New York City what Pataki had done for the state.

The thrust of his speech was that taxing carbon emissions would be a more effective system of limiting pollution than a voluntary cap-and-trade system, which some business folks like.  read more »

Out on the campaign trail, town hall-style meetings are often held in barns, or factories or high school gyms. John McCain's "Town Hall Meeting in New York" on Thursday night took place under the vaunted marble dome and pillars of Federal Hall, where the audience mostly looked like they had wandered in directly from their Wall Street offices. Men wearing dark suits and long power ties and women, most of them blond, surrounded a wooden podium, next to a thigh-high speaker. In the quiet, show's-about-to-begin minutes before McCain arrived, Tony Carbonetti, the former chief political adviser to Rudy Giuliani and a good friend of McCain, twisted in his second row seat to chat with Senators Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman behind him.  read more »

The top Democratic presidential candidates brought out some of their more powerful symbolic stumpers this weekend. To counter Barack Obama’s breathlessly awaited Oprah event in Iowa, Hillary Clinton campaigned with both her generally press-shy daughter Chelsea and her mother, Dorothy Rodham.

Clinton also sent her husband, who arguably has as much star power as Oprah, to South Carolina. In New Hampshire, the Clinton team dispatched the former secretary of the Navy to deliver a speech in Portsmouth.

The New York Times Magazine published a long profile exploring Hillary’s sometimes opaque emotional landscape, while the Washington Post considered her early life.

In a column this morning, Dan Balz wrote of the Clinton candidacy, "all talk of inevitability is gone," and added that no one knows this better than the candidate herself.  read more »

After hisa press conference on Rudy Giuliani and the presidential race in midtown yesterday, I asked former congressman and Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari about the Republican Party here in New York.

“We are struggling for survival--that’s how serious it is,” he told me.

To save it, it’s going to take “strong leadership, people that have access to money. Money is necessary to rebuild the party to where it was, and good candidates. So a lot of recruiting has to go into the future. And it can be brought back.”

But Molinari isn’t too excited about John Catsimatidis, a late addition to the Republican Party and likely 2009 mayoral candidate.

(After the jump.)  read more »

This has a déjà vu quality to it.

On Sunday, there was a story in the Albany Times Union about Joe Bruno’s use of state aircraft. And just a few minutes ago, state Democratic Party Chairwoman June O’Neill issued a statement saying that she is “extremely troubled” by the “gross abuse of the public trust” and demanding “further investigation.”

“We now know that for years Senator Bruno has misused state police aircraft for political fundraising and meetings with special interests seeking the Senator’s assistance,” O’Neill said in a statement.

It’s sort of what happened a few months ago at the start of the Troopergate controversy.

The difference is that the itineraries of Bruno’s travel on which Sunday’s story was based were compiled while George Pataki, a Republican, was governor.

I wonder whether any Republicans will join O’Neill in calling for an investigation into that.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg is doing robo-calls for Republican Assembly candidate Greg Camp, who is running in a special election tomorrow against Democrat Micah Kellner.

Below is a script of the call that voters on the East Side have been receiving all week, according to Camp’s campaign.

“Hi, this is Mayor Mike Bloomberg. There’s an important election in your community this Tuesday, June fifth. And I’m calling to tell you about my choice in the race, Greg Camp. Greg Camp has superb qualifications to represent you in the state Assembly. He’s been a banker, a long-time prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office and he was Deputy Director of Criminal Justice for New York State. But most of all, Greg Camp is independent, and that’s what I like best about him. I’m supporting Greg Camp this Tuesday, June 5th and I ask that you do too. Thank you.”

Camp’s endorsement from Bloomberg, like his endorsement from the New York Times, will certainly help him in this district.

Speaking of which, note that there’s no mention of the words “Republican” or “Pataki” anywhere in Bloomberg’s message.

Here's a shot of some of the people biding their time at the Sheraton in midtown as they wait for New York GOP chairman Joe Mondello and most of the state party to announce their endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for President.

Republicans notably, and deliberately, steering clear of today's festivities include Mike Bloomberg, Al D'Amato, George Pataki and former state chair Stephen Minarik aren't particpating.

But who's counting?

Emily Pataki, daughter of the former governor, passed the Bar exam, her family announced today.

Emily came up a bit short on her first try. After the announcement, George Pataki told the AP, “Once she set her mind to it, I had no doubt she would pass.”

Congratulations.