After an audit by the Federal Election Commission, Al Sharpton is being forced to pay back almost $500,000 for what they have deemed illegal campaign contributions during his 2004 run for president. The FEC is nailing Sharpton for not delineating between donations for his campaign and money coming in for his National Action Network. The report says that "virtually no effort was made" to show which funds were for which.
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Results tagged “election2004”
Sharpton Allegedly Took $500k in Illegal Contributions
Rather Cute
He may not be anchor anymore, but Dan Rather did get a kiss from the HIV-positive Sesame Street muppet, Kami, at the Peabody Awards event last night. Awww, but alert Ken Tomlinson - this must be evidence of the so-called liberal bias of PBS! Rather received a Peabody for his 60 Minutes II report on the prisoner abuses at Abu Gharib; a one-hour documentary for South African Sesame Street to encourage adults and children to discuss AIDS and HIV received a Peabody as well. [Related: An interview with the director of content for Sesame Street.]
Almost Half A Nation Regrets
Reader Amy pointed out this website, Sorry Everybody, where people have been contributing their apologies about the election. Of course, Gothamist was tickled to see that pandas were also apologetic.
NY Times Editorial On Accepting Bush
The NY Times has issued a new editorial about President George Bush. Basically, it talks about how the nation is very divided, what the voters were looking for in each candidate when they went to the polls last night, and how the President needs to ease back from his conversative-base appealing stances on domestic issues in order to get the public behind him - not propel our country furhter into bipartisanship ("But lawmakers can't lead themselves into a bipartisan consensus. Only a president can create a new mood, and he can do it only by sacrificing his own short-term political advantage on occasion for the common good."). Gothamist appreciates that the NY Times is pointing this out, because we hope BOTH parties can grow candidates who can appeal to constituents with sound plans, instead of invective, that can make us feel good about the place we live. Because while all this talk of secession is fun and all, it'll take a while to enact.
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Mayor B's Election Morning
Mayor Bloomberg decided on one package of each kind, after joking that neither would be good for his waistline (he did pass on the Krispy Kreme doughnuts, though). He handed over $2 for the cookies, three each in clear plastic packages.And then, when he went to go vote, he reassured a woman that he wasn't trying to cut her, saying, "I'd be massacred on the front page of the newspapers." Oh, Mayor Bloomberg, if you really cared about us New Yorkers, you would have cut a lady so we New Yorkers could have read and laughed about it.
Mourning Kerry
About 49% of the population is still reeling from Senator Kerry's concession. Gothamist's own Doug Gordon (also of Planet Gordon) and his wife are in Boston, and were captured for the world to see on BBC News Front Page. He tells us, "All I can say is that there is nothing quieter than the sound of 10,000 people not saying a word." And we expect the Secret Service and FBI to be investigating many more street crimes of this nature.
Four More Years
Senator John Kerry called President Bush to concede the election. Reports say Kerry will give a speech at 1PM this afternoon.
New York City Votes, Remains Blue
Pooh-poohing the idea that being in a blue state meant their votes wouldn't count, New Yorkers were determined to vote yesterday, overwhelming voting centers and frustrating many. Our readers reported both frustrating and easy voting experiences yesterday, which makes us realize a couple things: 1) Voting on the way to work may make you late to work; 2) Voting at the crack of dawn is ideal, except at 45 Wall Street where election officials arrived an hour late; 3) There are varying rules about taking pictures of your ballot; 4) NYC children enjoy voting, so much so that they'll ask any ol' stranger if they can vote with 'em, making us believe the children really are the future. And the City's Board of Elections website had been inaccessible since Monday, due to the public's demand to find out more about where they needed to vote, which makes Gothamist wonder why the City didn't anticipate the need for more bandwidth - it's only the biggest city in the U.S., with a very high number of people Internet enabled. Department of Information and Telecommunications Technology, wake up! Gothamist has learned that the DoITT has nothing to do with the Board of Elections site or phonelines, so we're sorry we assumed you did; but maybe you need to help the BoE revamp their systems!
Election Hangover: We Still Don't Have A President
Okay, we sorta have an idea of who the President will be next year. It's just that the media won't say so definitively, and by Jove, if the media isn't saying it, who are we to disagree? Who knew that Florida would seem pretty well-run, next to Ohio? There's one thing that Gothamist is sure of on this day after the 2004 Election: If NYC wants to secede (Kerry carried New York, as expected), the rest of the Northeast and West Coast, plus a pocket in the Midwest, would be interested in seceding with us. What else can we say? Internets polls, you tried to help us by giving us information, but your models were flawed. People are blaming the young people for not coming out in droves for Kerry (though it was too assumptive to think they'd all vote for him - Republicans start ) but we feel that's a little premature, not to mention seeing footage of people on line at Kenyon College in Ohio, for hours and hours, so screw that. Credit is being given to the Republicans for mobilizing their evangelical base to cast their vote to oppose issues like gay marriage, abortion, and stem cell research, which makes us foresee gay marriage/abortion/social issue parties in the future. A wise friend attempted to put it in perspective for us, "Basically, there are just over 5 people who wanted Bush...and almost 5 wanted Kerry." Oy.
Waiting For The Returns: Election Night 2004
Gothamist used to remember when we'd have a good idea of who would be president around dinner time. However, the very special episode of "America Picks A President" in 2000 had special guest appearances by "Hanging Chad," "James Baker," and "Overanxious Journalists Who Wanted To Call The Election." So this year, we must wait before we know who will be kicking his legs up in the White House come next January. Will it be a man who can choke on a pretzel or a man who looks a lot like Herman Munster? We'll be glued to all the news channels, desperately waiting some information.
Mayor B's Presidential Prediction
While our former Mayor (you know, the one with grander political aspirations) is under fire for how close he is to the President, Gothamist must say our love of Mayor Bloomberg's wishy-washy-ness (not quite flip-floppiness) is at an all time high. Why? Because of what he told reporters when asked what he thought today's election results would bring: "I think it will be one of those two. I think Mr. Nader probably is not going to win. I'd be willing to make a small tasteful wager that he did not win." Oh, Mayor Bloomberg, way to not endorse either candidate, even after serving NYC on a silver platter to the RNC this summer. He also said, "Kerry will certainly carry the state and New York City, so there's not a lot I can do here one way or another." Heh.
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Poll Malfunctions: Voting Problems For New Yorkers
New Yorkers have definitely been trying to cast their vote, given reporst of long lines and broken machines. Some of us at Gothamist have been able to vote and prove it, while others faced long lines of New Yorkers and made silent vows to leave work early and vote then. And if you were voting on the Upper East Side and had to deal with long lines, Gothamist says blame P. Diddy for bringing his media circus with him to vote so he doesn't die. And the media circus at P.S. 321 in Park Slope? It was to capture Senator Schumer, who will probably be re-elected.
Huge Voter Turnout Expected In NYC
Dunh dunh DUNH - Election Day is finally here. Expectations are that many people will head to the polls. New York City prepared for the possible surge by buying 400 used polling machine from Georgia ($731,000), for a total of 7,964 machines across the five boroughs. Some think that since New York is a blue state, the turnout won't be that high, Gothamist believes that many people are excited just to add their voice to the popular vote. And the NY Times reports people trying to through to the Board of Election website or phone line were faced with unresponsive websites or busy signals. Plus, there are many other local races to weigh in on. In Newsday's endorsement, they sum up most people's feelings about our local offices: "Because Albany is so dysfunctional, we have raised the bar for endorsing incumbents. But when challengers were inadequate, we made no endorsement."
Get Out and Vote. And Drink!
Gothamist has already told you how to get information about where and when to cast your vote tomorrow. Now, we move on to more important information -- where to party on Election Night. The Election Party is "a non-partisan organization working to give this election day November 2, 2004 the spirit of a popular holiday by creating an atmosphere of celebration and pride in our democracy," profiled in yesterday's New York Times. Even before we saw the article, Gothamist had noticed one of their posters in a Brooklyn bar, and we went to their website to learn more. After all, who doesn't want another excuse to go out and drink with friends? And what better excuse than democracy? Venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn where you can either celebrate or drink away your sorrows are listed at theelectionparty.org.
Getting Out The NY Vote
Gothamist is also very proud of the New Yorkers who went to swing states to rally voters. There's also a NYT piece on Democrats eying the State Senate. The NY State Assembly and Senate are pretty ineffective, so Gothamist is guessing that the NYT will advocate for voting for the challenger again.
Election 2004 Around The Corner
It's the Friday before the election, which mean news organizations will be unusually busy in reporting the most minute stories from the respective campaign trails and wondering if the Bush administration will pull a "We've got Osama" rabbit out of the hat or how Kerry can get more mileage out of the missing explosives story. Some subjects of non-election stories are irked that reporters are bothering them and not covering the election (but St. Bernard puppies are IMPORTANT). Gothamist has been loving the NYTimes 2004 Election Guide, especially it's Electoral Vote Calculator. We love making the electoral votes even, like we did above (and Tien as well), because that would just serve our stupid electoral college system right. We're heartened to hear that the Feds will be policing people's voting rights on Tuesday, and liked NY magazine's ideas on how you can still help out with affecting the vote; Gothamist will be reporting from our NYC sidelines, but if you happen to be traveling to swing states, let us know and tell us your experiences.
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