Carolyn Maloney

So there may be a little less at stake now for the officials girding for the opportunity to succeed Upper East Side-based Representative Carolyn Maloney. That unofficial mini-contest, of course, was contingent on Hillary Clinton having a chance of becoming president, and on Maloney having a chance of taking Clinton's place in the Senate.  read more »

Geraldine Ferraro, who severed her formal ties with the Hillary Clinton campaign after saying Barack Obama wouldn’t be where he is if he wasn’t black, is still a sought-after political draw in some circles.

Ferraro will be a featured guest at Carolyn Maloney’s May 12 fund-raiser at the Princeton Club.

Names on the host committee include John Catsimatidis, a likely Republican mayoral candidate, and Chung Seto, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party (who, famously, raised money for Hillary Clinton.)

The invite, passed on to me by a reader, is here:  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 »

Scott Stringer, the guy whose 2009 intentions are still not clear, is having a fund-raiser at Butter, a chic place on Lafayette Street, on January 9, according to an invitation a reader just sent me.

Tickets range from $50 to $1,000. But, according to the fund-raising email that accompanied the invitation, “Members of political clubs and students can purchase tickets at the reduced price of $45.”

Speculation as to which office he’ll seek, can be made here for free.

Also worth noting are the members of the host committee, as outlined in the email: Jennifer Cunningham, an influential advocate for 1199, Patrick Gaspard, another influential labor leader, Risa Heller and Ryan Toohey, both consultants at Global Strategies, Allen Roskoff, an outspoken gay rights activist, Maura Moynihan, daughter of the late senator, and Brice Peyre, an aide to congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

It's worth noting that Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one trying to get squared away with Eliot Spitzer’s new license policy.

The governor’s (original) plan would have allowed illegal immigrants to obtain a driver's license, but now it's being linked to federal guidelines that will be outlined in the Real ID Act. Although Spitzer backed Real ID this week, a number of Democratic congress members from New York opposed it during a 2005 vote (which may explain why it hasn't been easy getting most of them to say anything about Spitzer's new plan).

One congressional aide was kind enough to refer me to the results of the 2005 vote on the Real ID Act.

Democrats Gary Ackerman (Queens/Nassau), Tim Bishop (Suffolk), Joe Crowley (Queens/Bronx), Eliot Engel (Bronx/Westchester), Carolyn Maloney (Manhattan/Queens), Greg Meeks (Queens), Jerry Nadler (Manhattan/Brooklyn), Charlie Rangel (Manhattan), Jose Serrano (Bronx), Ed Towns (Brooklyn), Nydia Velazquez (Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens) and Anthony Weiner (Queens/Brooklyn) all voted against it.

UPDATE: Another congressional staffer, putting this story in context, noted that every Democratic congress member in the state voted against Real ID, except for Mike McNulty, who voted for it, and Maurice Hinchey who was absent.

With the rise of Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects comes the escalating chatter about who would get to fill out the remainder of her senate term. The speculation so far has been mostly limited to half-hearted denials denials by politicians, blind quotes from supporters and tea-leaf reading by reporters.

But yesterday, I got one person to go on the record. Above is a clip of Trudy Mason, a notable character in Manhattan politics, making the case, without apology, for Representative Carolyn Maloney to get the Hillary seat.

The key message being pushed today at the state Democratic Party meeting in Garden City--onetime home of Rudy Giuliani and home to the last Republican state convention--is party unity.

Here, above, is State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who organized a lunch for convention goers, sharing a moment up on the podium with Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi.

DiNapoli lost a primary to Suozzi in the 2001 county executive’s race, but he said that the two have since mended fences, going so far as to reveal to the crowd that he had kissed his former opponent at a dinner the night before.

The crowd laughed. To prove that the story wasn't a joke, Suozzi stepped up and planted one on DiNapoli’s forehead.

Afterwards, I asked Suozzi what political significance that kiss might have for Eliot Spitzer. All he would say was, "I'm going to give him a kiss too, later."

In other news: Chuck Schumer said he still hasn't studied Eliot Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, while Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Joe Crowley said they support the effort.

I’m at the Garden City Hotel right now for the state Democratic Party’s fall meeting, which began with a breakfast hosted by the Nassau County Democratic Committee.

Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm Smith livened up the crowd with some blunt, Rangel-esque words about George W. Bush: “Our president, no question, has left every child behind. Our president, no question, has lost his mind.”

Speaking after him was Rep. Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan, who spoke about health insurance and ways to solidify Democratic control of New York State.

In the middle of the room there are tables for a few presidential campaigns. Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton‘s table has prime real estate, greeting visitors as they walk into the room, and Barack Obama's and Joe Biden’s tables are on either side of hers. The table for John Edwards is facing the back of the room.

Other Republicans are picking up the argument Roger Stone made to me when he refuted Democratic claim that the investigations into Eliot Spitzer are just like Whitewater.

Democratic members of congress Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney have been the latest to push the analogy, scolding the Republicans for being political and urging them to “get back to work.”

Here, Michael Brady, who used to work for the Assembly Republicans, and Michael Giuliani (no relation to Rudy), the former chief of staff to former Rep. Sue Kelly, have an article making the case that there's a certain hypocrisy in the Democrats demanding more disclosure from the White House in Washington but blocking for Spitzer in Albany. From the piece:

With House and Senate Democrats holding more than 600 oversight hearings into the Bush Administration since assuming control of Congress in January, one might assume the two veteran lawmakers were urging an end to the relentless partisan attacks on President George W. Bush.

They weren’t.

[skip]

That Nadler and Maloney were the first Democrats to come to Spitzer’s defense is rife with irony. Maloney, once dubbed a “lightweight…devoting herself to symbolic causes that have little chance of passage,” opined that “four investigations equal a four-ring political circus.” But the Manhattan Democrat is a sponsor of exactly four different House resolutions targeting the Bush Administration, including three separate bills to censure the President.

UPDATE: An aide to Carolyn Maloney sent over the following statement: "The Congresswoman issued her statement because she believes that the time and energies of the Governor and his staff should not be tied up in multiple political investigations. The State Ethics Commission has the power and independence to investigate this matter thoroughly."

UPDATE: And here's a response from Nadler's office: "The notion that one can draw a direct comparison between congress's investigations into the Bush administration and the partisan witch hunt into Governor Sptizer is laughable and absurd. It's not even apples and oranges. It's apples and automobiles.

"The so called 'investigation' led by state majority leader Bruno is redundant. The Albany District Attorney has already determined that no criminal activity occurred. More importantly, congress is acting now because for six years, the Republican-led congress failed to carry out their constitutionally mandated oversight role and a politicized Justice Department ignored and possibly helped evade the rule of law.

"In Washington, I'm working to restore checks and balances; in Albany, Mr. Bruno is engaging in a partisan sideshow."

Tonight's "Party in the Garden" at the home of Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney might be about more than raising money for Democrats and for her congressional reelection. According to one close Maloney supporter I spoke to, tonight also serves to build her election war-chest for a 2010 Senate run if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election.

Asked directly about the possibility that funds raised tonight are at all connected with the prospect of a Senate campaign, Maloney's office was dismissive.

"New Yorkers already have two great U.S. senators who, working with the rest of our congressional delegation, are providing strong and effective representation for the Empire State on Capitol Hill," Maloney said in a statement read to me by consultant George Arzt.

"The funds that I am now raising will be devoted to preserving and enhancing the Democratic majority in the house as well as my own reelection to Congress."

But Conrad Foa, a supporter who said he will be attending the party, seemed open to the idea that the money could be used for another possibility.

"That door is there for her to knock on," he said. "Maybe she stands first in line or very close to first in line to that door, but I feel that she has an unerring political sense to do what's best for her constituency. The question is what does she perceive her constituency will be, and I think she'll at least have the funds to do what's best."

Either way, tonight's event -- which will be held at her 92nd street home -- will only be the latest event to invite chatter about Maloney eyeing the Senate seat, according to one Democratic operative.

"There has apparently been fund-raising events the congresswoman has held so far where she has been introduced as 'the next U.S. senator from the state of New York'," the operative said, adding that whether or not the funds will be set aside for her own run, "what she would be able to do is use that money to raise her profile nationally."

Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, who will be attending the party tonight, told me he did not know how the funds would be spent. But he did say that he'd like to see Maloney in the upper Capitol chamber.

 read more »

Nancy Pelosi helped raise a cool $300,000 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last night at the Upper East Side home of Dennis and Karen Mehiel, according to one of the guests, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

In addition to Maloney, who I ran into at a Women for Hillary event this morning at the Hilton, the guest list of elected Democrats included representatives Steve Israel, Nydia Velazquez and Chris Van Hollen.

Tennis great Billie Jean King really threw herself into an introduction for Hillary Clinton at this morning’s Women for Hillary event.

"Hillary can hit the ground running," she said, running in place on a stage in the middle of the Hilton ballroom. "I mean she lived there for eight years. I mean, come on!"

And later, during a “town hall” style question-and-answer portion of the event, Carolyn Maloney injected some local politics into the breakfast by asking Hillary if she’d campaign for Micah Kellner in an Upper East Side special election for the Assembly to be held tomorrow.

Hillary answered by telling Maloney (and the confused crowd) that she had already cut a robo-call for Kellner, who she then invited up to the platform to say hello.

Not that Assembly candidate Micah Kellner needs it, but he's having a fund-raiser later this month for that East Side Assembly race on June 21 5.

There was, at one point, a crowded field. Then, the Democrats cleared out. And the Republican challengers never really showed up.

So, you could consider it sort of like an early victory party, but one that guests have to pay a lot of money to get into.

The fund-raiser is taking place at the Princeton Club and the price of admission is $250. (Or $2000, if you want to be listed as a "co-chair.)

It's being hosted by newly shaven City Comptroller Bill Thompson, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Council member Jessica Lappin and Steve Nislick.

More details are after the jump.  read more »

Ben has a fun piece on Gregg Birnbaum and JustHillary.com. (The Hillary people, he reports, have taken to calling the site "Stalker.com.")

Hillary will campaign in South Carolina.

Nancy Pelosi has a blog, appropriately titled The Gavel, which has a clip of Carolyn Maloney asking questions about funding for the Iraq War.

An $84 million approval fee requested by the Port Authority may doom efforts by Dubai Ports World to divest its US holdings, according to the WSJ political blog.

A toll-free storm damage hotline is now ready for your phone calls.

Daily Gotham has video of City Council candidate Wellington Sharpe.

Newsday has final numbers from the Craig Johnson-Maureen O'Connell race.

A Tom Suozzi staffer is leaving for a job at a Manhattan law firm.

Dee Richards hears that Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer may run for Queens Borough President.

Bill O'Reilly antagonist Keith Oberman has a new contract with MSNBC.

And pictured above is Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, who looks like he really enjoyed Christine Quinn's speech today.

-- Azi Paybarah

Council member Jessica Lappin today endorsed Micah Kellner, providing another indication that the race for Assembly seat being vacated by Pete Grannis on the East Side may not turn out to be much of a contest at all.

Kellner also has the backing of Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and a prospective Democratic opponent, Barry Klein, has already dropped out.

The biggest obstacle for Kellner right now seems to be that, officially, there is no race yet.

Grannis has not yet been confirmed as the Spitzer administration's Environmental Commissioner, thanks to the Republican-controlled Senate.

-- Azi Paybarah

John Catsimitidis raises expectations for Hillary Clinton's fund-raising operation.

Chuck Bennett notes that Rep. Carolyn Maloney is praising the president's budget for including lots of money for the Second Avenue subway.

Eliot Spitzer sent a letter today saying it would be a huge mistake for legislators to elect a legislator as comptroller.

The legislature is set to vote on this comptroller stuff tomorrow.

And by the way, Republican Majority Leader Joe Bruno likes Tom DiNapoli.

Amy Traub of DMIblog has a piece on what she says is the president's "Quiet Plan to Kill Medicare."

The Albany Project sees a conspiracy behind the Democrats' efforts to win the seat in Nassau.

Harry Siegel goes behind the NYPD stop-and-frisk numbers reported in the New York Times.

Bill Hammond has more on the controversial imam who spoke at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting.

Comedian Michael Showalter, who is raising money tonight for an anti-Atlantic Yards group, said "Clearly, we're in a losing battle, short of shackling ourselves to the fence."

You have six months to enjoy the presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee.

Urban Elephants has the official statement on the change in GOP leadership in Queens.

And pictured above is Eliot Spitzer and members of the Partnership for New York City at a press conference in midtown earlier today.

-- Azi Paybarah

Long-shot congressional candidate Danniel Maio - who is running against Rep. Carolyn Maloney of Manhattan- said he doesn't want to cut and run from Iraq...without listening.

In a letter to supporters that I'm not sure I understand, Maio wrote:

"Before we hastily ask for withdrawal or an end to the war, let us listen to the stories. Stories from women and children; stories from businesses and police officers; stories from people with guns and hate. By understanding them, America will have already won."

-- Azi Paybarah

Carolyn Maloney has a new online form on her congressional website to help collect the stories of World Trade Center workers who face serious health complications.

Time perfectly with the release of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, of course.

—Nicole Brydson

Carolyn Maloney has a new online form on her congressional website to help collect the stories of World Trade Center workers who face serious health complications.

Time perfectly with the release of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, of course.

—Nicole Brydson

The directors of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation meet at 1 Liberty Plaza.

Hillary Clinton's presidential bust will be unveiled at the Museum of Sex.

Carolyn Maloney and Patrick Lynch demand better health treatment and monitoring for sick and injured 9/11 responders at Ground Zero. Then Maloney will hold a forum to help businesses recover from Queens blackouts at the Federation of Hellenic Societies.

Constituents of Jerry Nadler demand that he state whether he still believes Israel is acting with "admirable restraint" in the Lebanese conflict.

1199 SEIU endorses Nick Spano for state senate at St. Cabrini Nursing Home in Dobbs Ferry.

New York State Young Democrats holds their biennial YoungDems After Dark event at Via Bistro.

—Nicole Brydson

It's not what it looks like. (Actually, what does it look like?)

Carolyn Maloney with a group of 'lactivists' on the A train today in celebration of World Breastfeeding Week.

"We should not have to be here today," Maloney said via press release. "New York State law guarantees a woman's right to breastfeed, but until we have a national standard for breastfeeding rights, cities and states will still be able to prevent mothers from feeding their babies in public."  read more »

—Nicole Brydson

Grumpy Lou Dobbs dislikes plenty of people, but apparently Carolyn Maloney isn't one of them. A Maloney aide brought to our attention the following exchange on Dobbs' CNN program Tuesday night about the use of Venezuelan-produced Smartmatic voting machines in American elections. (Maloney has urged caution about the machines and pressed the issue in Congress.)

Lou Dobbs: ...I think we have to give just extraordinary credit to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. She focused on this issue, she brought it to the attention of the public, and our hats are off to her. She's just doing a wonderful job here.

Kitty Pilgrim: She's been very vigilant, and until this came to light publicly, there was really no -- absolutely no acknowledgment that there was a problem with this.  read more »

Lou Dobbs: It is nice to see our elected officials, when it does... rarely happen, doing their job, and again, our compliments and commendation to Congresswoman Maloney.

--Jason Horowitz

Tomorrow, Al Sharpton will endorse Bill Perkins for state senate at Emanuel AME Church, then head over to the Black Brooklyn Empowerment Convention at the Concord Baptist Church of Christ.

New York State AFL-CIO, Carolyn Maloney, Vito Fossella and injured workers will rally for a comprehensive response to 9/11 health effects at the World Trade Center site.

Tom Suozzi attends the Taste of Niagara Festival in Lockport.

Happy Father's Day!

—Nicole Brydson

If and when Queen Latifah runs for U.S. Senate, she'll have the Carolyn Maloney endorsement locked up. Read all about it in People magazine. (Seriously.)

Today John Murtha spoke at the Community Church of New York, at a town-hall meeting convened by Rep. Carolyn Maloney.  read more »

On Saturday, Stonewall Democrats host brunch at Junior’s with Councilmember David Yassky.

Sunday, the 92nd Street Y series, In The News with Jeff Greenfield, continues with Senator Chuck Hagel.

And on Monday the League of Women Voters will host a forum on the status of the equal rights amendment with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and the Republican Jewish Coalition will host a reception with Congressman Christopher Shays.

—Nicole Brydson

On Dec.  read more »

Gifford Miller and Carolyn Maloney will endorse Dan Garodnick later today, bringing to two the number of entrants in the 4th District primary to receive backing from mayoral candidates. Jack Lester, the longtime Upper East Side land use lawyer, is supported by Virginia Fields. Garodnick already has support from a bunch of local elected officials and Democratic clubs, and Lester has the Working Families Party. It's hard to tell which of these endorsements means anything, especially given the fact that these two candidates - and a third, Meryl Brodsky - are already pretty well-known commodities to East Side Democrats. But it's interesting that Miller is following Fields in dispensing with the conventional political wisdom that aspirants for higher office shouldn't choose sides in potentially divisive primaries. Then again, if you're polling in the low teens, there's probably something to be said for throwing caution to the wind.  read more »

We hear that some serious arm-twisting is being conducted on Giff's behalf at the moment among the well-bred members of the Lexington Democratic Club.

The outline, as we understand it, is that Gifford thought he had the club's support until Fields partisans, led by Trudy Mason, starting engaging in the time-honored practice of packing the club with new, pro-Virginia members.  read more »

The club's executive board is meeting tonight, with the former president of the club, John Mills, leading the push to set an earlier date for the endorsement meeting, in order to keep those new members off the books. It has gotten a bit, we're told, "raucous."

We also hear that Giff himself, along with Jonathan Bing and an aide to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, have been making calls and twisting arms. The folks at the Lex Club must be feeling rather important today.

In what must have been an exhausting exercise, some academic wonks and good-government-type journos (namely, grad students at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and CPB's Marketplace, American RadioWorks) spent months combing the travel records of our members of Congress since 2000, detailing who travels the most (Louisiana's former Senator John Breaux) and who foots the bill. And New York's got two Congressmen - Maurice Hinchey and Greg Meeks - in the top 10!

Here are the top frequent flyers in New York's current and former Congressional delegation since 2000:

Maurice Hinchey ($152,169.25) Gregory Meeks ($126,690.08) Joseph Crowley ($79,807.23) Eliot Engel ($67,471.23) Amo Houghton ($44,539.43) Nita Lowey ($43,452.95)

... and the rundown of some of the rest:

Hillary Clinton ($31,047.74) Carolyn Maloney ($26,157.72) Major Owens ($25,049.02) Charlie Rangel ($18,821.00) Anthony Weiner ($16,756.71) Steve Israel ($14,556.24) Chuck Schumer ($13,738.00) Vito Fossella ($9,588.78) Pete King ($9,311.82)

... including a few stay-at-home types:

Nydia Velazquez ($766.64)

Among the priciest excursions were Maloney's $12,665 trip to Doha, Qatar, and Meeks' $17,194 trip to Mumbai, India.  read more »

And who could turn down NASDAQ's March 2003 meeting in Miami (not Vito or Greg) or the Aspen Institute's February 2000 conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico (not Eliot or Gary Ackerman)?

And Nita must really be a fan of the Aspen Institute - over the years, she's been to its summits in Helsinki, Finland; Punta Mita, Mexico; Great Exuma Island, the Bahamas; and Honolulu.

Midtown property owners and their congresswoman are claiming that a planned Metropolitan Transportat  read more »

"Kaboom! MTA Plans Could Blow Up Midtown, Say Neighbors" is my headine in this Observer Web Exclusive. Key quote: "Concerned neighbors point out that terrorists could target the building knowing that the resulting conflagration would likely destroy the surrounding buildings and spread to the underground passenger concourse below," Rep. Carolyn Maloney wrote Tom Ridge.  read more »

Barring a reversal of the world order, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller woke up on the morning of  read more »

It's been five years since President Clinton, flying aboard a helicopter over Governors Island, made  read more »