Azi Paybarah

Former Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau with his successor, Cy Vance (Azi Paybarah/flickr)

Erosion.

Ira Glass on Albany (via Seiler): "Have politics have gotten so messed up that we just can’t solve our problems?"

Bloomberg charms, again: “I’m sorry that ...

Rep. Carolyn Maloney is not accepting an invitation to debate her Democratic opponent, Reshma Saujani.

Saujani sent a letter last month inviting Maloney to six “respectful and robust debates.”

Maloney’s campaign declined, calling it a "political stunt."

Maloney's spokeswoman emailed me to say, “While the Congresswoman is creating jobs ...

New York State Comptroller candidate Harry Wilson is keeping the Independence Party's endorsement, according to his spokesman Bill O'Reilly.

Laura Italiano and David Seifman have this detail showing Michael Bloomberg, initially, liked Haggerty's campaign work:

"The mayor had been so pleased with his efforts that he sent him a separate $120,000 contribution three weeks after the election so Haggerty could launch his own political action committee."

Despite being indicted by the Manhattan DA for allegedly stealing $1.1 million from Michael Bloomberg's campaign, John Haggerty is keeping his job on Carl Paladino's gubernatorial campaign.

Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos led his conference into session and issued this warning before the budget vote today:

Pollster Peter Feld doesn't think the sky is falling for Democrats, despite the slippage Andrew Cuomo, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand recorded amongst independents in today's Siena poll.

That's mainly because Republicans don't have a strong field this year. And the paid media hasn't started. Also, it's fair to ...

Independent voters are moving away from Democrats and towards Republicans, according to a survey released by the Siena Research Institute.

From the poll:

Governor Paterson says lawmakers will pass a budget extender, but they don't have a deal on the overall budget.

"[T]here might be some limited borrowing," to close the budget gap, said Paterson.

That borrowing could make getting Tom DiNapoli re-elected even harder.

June 11, 2010, Crown Point - Governor Paterson and Vermont Governor Jim Douglas break ground for a new Lake Champlain Bridge spanning Crown Point, New York, and Addison, Vermont. (Photo courtesy David Paterson/flickr)

Saturday

9:20 a.m. Christine Quinn is on WNYC Channel 4 ...

Mayor Bloomberg meets with state legislative leaders to discuss education funding.
June 09, 2010
(Photo Credit: Edward Reed)

Harry Reid is trailing his opponent.

Ruben Diaz Sr. says he'll vote against the emergency spending bill Monday.

David Paterson warned that will cause chaos.

Tom Precious watches the slow progress on property relief.

LGBT legislation stalled in the state senate. Democrats say Republicans Andrew Lanza and George Maziarz promised to get the bill out of committee, even if they'd oppose it on the floor.

Troubled political consultant Hank Morris was "intimately involved in the day-to-day business" of the state's pension funds, according to court papers filed by Andrew Cuomo.

Richard Hanna gave nearly $5,000 to the Independence Party for advertising, but the party doesn't have a record of it.

Paterson likes the radio: “It’s sort of a perfect medium for me.”

Matthew Goldstein defends the public advocate's office. "I am not at the point where I've heard a very compelling reason to eliminate the public advocate position."

SEIU's national political director said Reps. Mike McMahon and Mike Arcuri abandoned "the needs of working families."

Republicans hit Reps. Bill Owens and Scott Murphy for not stopping "runaway spending."

Unions rally with students walking out of school today.

A survey commissioned by the teachers union says voters favor higher taxes in order to pay for schools.

For some reason, there's a lot of opposition to building new mosques in the city.

Kirsten Powers says watch the left.

When Bloomberg met with college journalists, the event was behind closed doors.

Cuomo struck a deal with Craigslist to curb scalping.

Queens Chronicle: "If elected, [Francisco] Moya would be the first Ecuadorian to hold a public office in the United States."

The Republican challenger running against Rep. Gary Ackerman gets noticed.

And a candidate learns that "after reviewing archived records at the Albany County Board of Elections--it appears he has never been enrolled in the Republican Party."

The threat to close the parks didn't happen. State workers weren't furloughed. But New York State, technically, hasn't had a budget for the last two months. WNYC's Azi Paybarah has more.

While a lot of Democratic lawmakers are complaining about spending cuts David Paterson put into the latest emergency spending bills, only two are threatening to block the legislation, which would shut down state government for the first time in New York's history.

A shutdown would stop government services, ...

As part of radio blitz this morning, David Paterson laid out the case against Democratic and Republican opposition to his budget cuts.

California replaced their system of partisan primaries with a system that sends the top two vote-getters from the primary into the general election.

Matt Bai explains why Chuck Schumer's model for Democrats' takeover in 2006 wasn't replicated ...

Happy birthday State Senate candidate Anna Lewis, blog diva Liza Sabater, and New York Post alumni Frankie Edozien.

7:05 a.m. David Paterson is on WWRL. 

7:35 a.m. Paterson is on WCBS. 

7:50 a.m. Paterson is ...

Rep. Jerry Nadler doesn’t think much of the current state Senate, which is narrowly controlled by his Democratic colleagues.

Here’s the one-minute highlight of the Working Families Party convention this weekend in Buffalo, where Sen. Chuck Schumer said, “I thank the executive committee for their vote of support a few months ago. Of course I will be honored once again to be your standard bearer.”

The comments ...

Buffalo, N.Y. —

“We want to have a unified ticket with the Democrats at the end of the day," said Dan Cantor, the executive director of the Working Families Party, a labor-backed party that wrapped up its nominating convention here today.

But endorsing Democratic candidates isn't so easy.

It took the Independence Party just over an hour to pick candidates it wants to support in New York's statewide elections. The party's meeting just outside Albany today was lightening fast because it punted one of the thorniest question of the year: who to support for attorney general.