Joel Zinberg

City Hall News has a wrap-up of the East Side Assembly race I, and you, have been obsessing over.

Among the names the paper adds to the mix is former City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, who "would have a free ride to the Democratic nomination if he wanted it, has not closed the door entirely." On the Republican Side, City Hall News floats the names of Nick Viest, who ran for City Council there and lost; and Joel Zinberg, the doctor with a law degree who lost his Council race to Jessica Lappin.

But most interesting is the line the departing Assemblyman Pete Grannis, who said he doesn't think his own chief of staff, Tony Morenzi, will enter the race.

"For his part, Grannis said he will probably back a candidate eventually, and--though he believes Morenzi will pass on the race--would probably back his chief of staff in the race."

-- Azi Paybarah

An addendum to Jess's piece this week on how Republicans on the East Side hide their party label, while Democrats run away from their nominee, Freddy:

It's a piece of mail from a Democratic candidate for City Council, Jessica Lappin, that pulls a quote from Republican Robert Hornack off the local GOP community blog, Urban Elephants. In the quote, Hornack grumbles that her opponent, Joel Zinberg, is doing "us all a disservice" by hiding his party affiliation.  read more »

Meanwhile, on the front of the piece, a venture into surrealism: Even the elephants are disappointed.

Jessica Lappin, a candidate for City Council from the Upper East Side, has no problem explaining the  read more »

Over on the East Side, where the Times endorsements rule, our intern David Greenhouse reports that the Times switched horses yesterday in the District 5 race, endorsing Republican Joel Zinberg over its own choice in the primary, Jessica Lappin.

But that won't stop Lappin's palm cards from playing up a quote from her Times primary endorsement (while stopping short of using the magic word "endorsement").  read more »

"We took the quote from the editorial," her campaign manager, Julie Hendricks, says. "We attributed [and dated] it. ... The Times had great things to say about her, and we're going to use that quote."