Results tagged “markgreen”

After losing big to Bill deBlasio in last week's public advocate runoff election, Mark Green is saying that he is out of politics for good...again. Green says his defeat came down to two factors: "Turnout; the array of forces. Period." Always the gracious loser, he added, "I was surprised and disappointed that the other side's operation overwhelmed my record and optimism." Green says he will go back to writing and his work at Air America. His daughter told him now he can go back to what he's good at—with there now being one thing we can all safely rule out that is not.

Last night, the Democratic candidates for Public Advocate and City Comptroller were decided in runoff elections: City Councilman Bill de Blasio won the Public Advocate race, with 63% of the vote while Councilman John Liu won the Comptroller matchup with 56% of the vote. While they will face Republican challengers in the November election (Alex Zablocki for PA, Joseph Mendola for Comptroller), de Blasio and Liu are expected to win, given NYC's overwhelming majority of Democratic voters.

Today's runoff elections for Public Advocate and City Comptroller were greeted by lower voter turnout. According to NY1's results, Bill de Blasio has won the Public Advocate race with 62.50% of the vote to Mark Green's 37.50% while John Liu won the Comptroller race, with 55.68% of the vote while David Yassky earned 44.32%. This means the Working Families Party had a big night— both its candidates won.

Today, the Democrat candidates for NYC Public Advocate and City Comptroller will be decided today in runoff elections, because no candidate received at least 40% of the vote during September 15's primary. In the PA race, it's City Councilman Bill de Blasio vs. former Advocate Mark Green (in the primary, de Blasio got 32% to Green's 31%), and in the Comptroller race, it's City Councilmen John Liu (who got 38%) vs. David Yassky (30%). If you're a registered Democrat, go vote—because it's costing the city millions anyway!

Mark Green went on the attack in last night's public advocate debate, linking his rival Bill de Blasio to the recently scandalized group, ACORN. Up until now, Green has attempted to cruise back into the advocate office based on name recognition and the harshest criticism toward de Blasio has come from Charles Barron (who was not even in the race!). But during last night's debate, Green said, "The Working Families party and ACORN put $30,000 in his pocket, so when they come and visit him at City Council who is he working for? You or his employers?"

With only a few days left before the public advocate runoff, the biggest question in the race seems to be: do you feel comfortable with Mark Green because he's already had the job or would you rather just see him go away like he promised three years ago? Green and Bill de Blasio are tied in the polls at 46 percent going into Tuesday's contest, expected to get miniscule turnout after only ten percent of Dems turned out for last week's primary.

Last night, primary returns showed that City Councilman Bill de Blasio earned 33% of the vote, with former Public Advocate Mark Green getting 31%. While both men will now be in a run-off (on September 29) since neither got 40%, the analysis is that de Blasio's results were surprising—the Daily News writes that he "pulled out a much better performance than the pre-primary polls suggested"—while there will be "hand-wringing" at Green's campaign headquarters. de Blasio told his campaign staffers, "You pulled off one miracle: You can do it again in two weeks," while Green said, "Because we've gone from a cluttered four-way race to a clarified head-to-head contest, I sure will contrast my story as a lifelong, independent consumer advocate, fighting for the middle class, and his proven record as a lifelong political insider." The other challengers in the race were Councilman Eric Gioia, who 18%, Norman Siegel, with 14%, and Imtiaz Syed with 3%.

Last night was the second debate for what might be the sleeper race in the city-wide elections this fall, the four-way contest for public advocate. While the first debate wound up being a Mark Green pile on, this one saw mud being slung in every which direction after the recent momentum and attention gained by the biggest fund raiser and endorsement-getter, Bill de Blasio. The candidates showed they were hungry for the second highest elected position in the city, a job Councilman Simcha Fielder recently suggested should be done away with.

Last night, the Democratic candidates for NYC Public Advocates squared off for a WABC 7-televised debate, and it got good fast: Within 10 minutes, City Councilman Bill de Blasio attacked frontrunner and former Public Advocate Mark Green, "I have to say, with all due respect to Mark Green, he has a little amnesia. He did not stand up to Rudy Giuliani when it mattered most, when Rudy Giuliani wanted to stay on for 90 days at the end of 2001. Mark caved in to him for political reasons.” Green retorted, "There was not any public official in the eight years of Rudy Giuliani who stood up to him more often and more successfully." Green also told moderator Diane Williams, "Diane, let Bill attack me one more time because he needs it emotionally."

Despite a mad dash at the deadline to hit the minimum in donations necessary to receive public matching funds, City Controller Bill Thompson fell just short in the latest cycle and will lose out on $1.5 million in public funds. Thompson scrambled to to find donors on the final day of eligibility—including making a donation from himself to the campaign—in order to hit the necessary $250,000 needed in order to receive six-to-one matching funds. But after a few donations are expected to be disqualified by the Campaign Finance Board, Thompson will miss out. Mayor Bloomberg, of course, has opted out of matching funds and has already spent over $36 million on his re-election bid. Dick Dadey, of the good government group Citizens Union, told the News, "If he doesn't qualify for public matching funds, his campaign is in trouble.For a major candidate to not qualify one month out from the primary sends a disturbing signal about the strength of his candidacy." In the race for public advocate, frontrunner Mark Green was the only one of the four major candidates to miss out on matching funds this cycle. The next opportunity for matching funds is August 20.

Over the weekend, we had an up close and personal sighting of original Public Advocate Mark Green getting signatures for his petition at the Fairway on the Upper West Side (people seemed more focused on groceries than government). The Times was there as well for what Green's political director called "a humbling experience" for the candidate who was mistaken for Scott Stringer at one point and got the reaction from one woman, "It’s very sad. It’s like he can’t get another job." And she was a supporter! The campaign is a strange one for the man fighting the public's "Green Fatigue" after campaigns during his public advocate reign in the '90s and unsuccessful bids against Bloomberg and Cuomo this decade. Despite an early lead in the polls, Green has raised a fraction of his opponents' war chests. And there's even a humble tone coming from the man who is usually quick to tell you he came up with the idea for 311, saying, “Why would I have a press conference and have no one come? Who wants to come listen to the Mark Green economic development plan?”

Yesterday began Mark Green's quest to become Public Advocate once again. And he can already claim one victory, apparently pushing out Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell who said, "I don't think Mark Green can be beaten." That still leaves a crowded field of Democrats vying for the office including Councilmen Bill DiBlasio, Eric Giola and John Liu who all appear to be pushing forward in their bids.

Mark Green, who served at NYC Public Advocate between 1994 and 2001, will run for the position this fall, according to NY1. Green, who won the Democratic nod in the 2001 mayoral election but fell against Michael Bloomberg, currently serves as president of Air America (which is owned by his brother, real estate developer Stephen Green). He said, "Given the extraordinary economic crisis, it's especially urgent that the person who's the next public advocate, the number two citywide office holder, the investigator of city services, be a person who's shown that he or she can get results and have innovative ideas, has a track record, and understands how to make New York a cutting edge, 21st century city." The P.A. race is heating up: City Council member Bill De Blasio already announced his candidacy and other Democrats interested are Council members Eric Gioia and John Liu.

In order to counter an expected bill from Oliver Koppell to extend term limits, Councilman David Weprin says that he will introduce legislation that only a referendum by voters should change the city's term limits law. Weprin, like Koppell, is among the majority of Council members that will be forced out of office next year, but plans to run for city comptroller. Koppell calls Weprin's proposal “a largely cosmetic attempt at publicity.” While Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn have remained relatively mum as developments in the term limits saga have continued to unfold in recent weeks, yesterday former Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Mark Green wrote an op-ed for the Daily News calling his allowance of Mayor Giuliani to stay in office for 90 days following 9/11 "a mistake" and wonders why Bloomberg is "imitating Giuliani" in his play to stay in power for four more years.

Governor Spitzer may have identified himself as a steamroller in his attempts to accomplish certain executive tasks, but he's got nothing on the former federal prosecutor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. The NY Times has a colorful profile of the the former Mayor as a man who used his offices as bludgeons, crushing anyone who crossed him.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and each of his parents kicked in about $16,000 a piece to pay off Mark Green's outstanding campaign debts, which he incurred while unsuccessfully running for Spitzer's old job as Attorney General in 2006. The $50,000 in payments exceed the Governor's self-imposed limit of contributions of $10,000, but he's making an exception because this is to pay off a past campaign debt, so is not really a campaign contribution. Plus, he and Green are old pals, with the latter acting as a vocal supporter of the Governor during his first year in office, when vocal supporters were in short supply.

Mr. Green said that he and the governor “have been friends for years, and this is what friends do for each other.” He said there was nothing untoward about accepting donations from Mr. Spitzer on the one hand and speaking out in support of him on the other.

Continue reading "$pitzer Family Picks Up the Tab for Green"

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's civilian life got a jolt: His company, Bloomberg L.P., was sued by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission for "a pattern or practice of demoting and reducing the pay of female employees after they announced their pregnancies and after they took maternity leave."

While there's no video of Mayor Bloomberg's Inner Circle Dinner performance online yet (though there's a YouTube clip of someone taping the CW 11's New at Ten - complete with giggling at Mayor Mike), the Daily News' Daily Politics did post this commercial for "Mayor Poppins." Elizabeth Benjamin writes, "My favorite part is Mark Green, playing himself and uttering a line so quintessentially Mark Green it's scary."

Though Rudy Giuliani may have been thrilled to have raised $15 million toward his presidential campaign during the first quarter, it turned out to be quite a bit less than the total haul by Republican rival Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor raised a whopping $23 million. However, Giuliani's team says that the former mayor raised $10 million in March alone, and Rudy himself said, "If I could do it all over again, I would have started three months earlier."

"It was the comb-over! I said to myself, Why couldn't his wife tell him how stupid that is? So he's bald. I'm happy that he's "listened" to me [Mr. Giuliani has abandoned his comb-over for a more conventional style.] Now his only impediment is a speech defect, his lisp."Fun fact: Former public advocate Mark Green lived on the floor below Giuliani in the 1980s.

In a little more than two weeks, the ING NYC Marathon will take place. It's a little too late to sign up to run (unless you run for a charity - more here), but there are ways to get involved. One is to volunteer at the start of the race. Since the race starts early, volunteers are needed to help out at the start of the race in Staten Island - they will "help set up the refreshment areas and help corral the runners to the staring blocks." While it's an early, early start (4AM-ish), the volunteers will get bused back to Manhattan and get passes to watch the race at the finish line. For more information on volunteering, check here.

With just 55 days left, the dance cards are set for the general election. As expected, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Senator Hillary Clinton won their respectives primaries for governor and Senate. The NY Times noted that Clinton's reosounding win showed that her support of the Iraq war did not affect voter sentiment:

“Clinton’s work ethic, her lack of enemies, and her fund-raising help for other Democrats have insulated her from party criticism, including on Iraq,” said Ken Sherrill, a political scientist at Hunter College. “I got a taped phone call from Susan Sarandon urging support for Tasini, but that’s all I really heard about him.”

Today is Primary Day in the city and state, with candidates for the Democratic and Republican tickets to be selected for Governor, Attorney General, Senate, Congress, and more. If you're registered to the Democratic or Republican party, you can vote!

If you're a registered Democrat or Republican, get your primary shoes out. Here's a list of candidates (PDF), but the shortlist of primaries is:

If there's a city parade, you bet it's an opportunity for politicians to get out to press the flesh. And yesterday's West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn was no different, with the primary showdown over the Congressional seat being vacated by Major Owens coming up next week. As it happens, the crowd in the Wyckoff Gardens Houses weren't too happy to hear Mayor Bloomberg and candidate-City Councilman David Yassky announce that $600,000 worth of security cameras would be installed. Someone ended up throwing a frosted doughnut near the Mayor, causing his girlfriend Diana Taylor to take "cover beneath a concrete overhang," as the Times puts it. Which only made the Mayor joke, "Well, just another reason why we need cameras." Newsday reports that another man was loudly murmuring in the back of the crowd, prompting the mayor to say, "If we could have some quiet back there, sir, it would be appreciated, thank you; we can't hear." Of course, the NYPD investigated the tasty treat toss, but came to the conclusion, "Nothing was ascertained with certainty, but there is no indication it was directed at the mayor. It may have just been tossed out the window or dropped."

Apparently the way to celebrate a NY Times endorsement in Mark Green's household is to get your email on. And by email, we mean "E-mail people that have endorsed Andrew Cuomo instead of Mark Green". The Daily Politics has an email that Green's daughter Jenya sent to one of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's aides, with Jenya criticizing Stringer for being "so totally controlled....and therefore unfit to hold office" and excerpting part of the Times endorsement of her dad. Of course, now Mark Green's camp is saying that he'll be apologizing to Stringer later, and that Jenya was just being "overprotective." And then the Daily Politics found out that staffers in Representative Jerry Nadler's and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's offices got emails like that too! Even though Jenya is an adult, we bet she is so grounded.

The NY Times doled out two big endorsements for the upcoming Democratic primaries this weekend: One for Attorney General and the other for Governor. And Mark Green, the former city Public Advocate, gets the nod, even though the editoral starts out, "If there are excellent Democratic candidates for governor this year, the race to succeed Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is a lot more contentious and a lot less promising." Green's "prickly personality" is noted, as is "when elected, he has always repaid voters by doing the job well." While Andrew Cuomo's mixed record at HUD is cited as enough to make being AG questionable.

Today, there's an interesting NY Times feature on City Councilman John Liu which focuses on his zealous ability to have press conferences and issue press releases. Which is exactly what our readers noted when he got into the fight with DJ Star/Troi Torain over Torain's remarks on Hot 97 and when he held a press conference for three of the victims in the Queens hate crime incident last week. In fact, Liu's aggressive or pro-active media stance, which includes holding press conferences in districts outside his own (Flushing), seems to have alienated other City Concil members. Which we can understand - he is all over the TV during electrified plate incidents, Asian racism incidents, transportation issues. And even though the article says he gets up at 4AM and goes home at 10PM, his office still sends out press releases late! Interesting facts: His dad was convicted of bank fraud, his Chinese name is slang for toilet, and he can't speak Chinese. Read it if you're interested in knowing more about someone who very clearly wants to run for Mayor some day.

- Finally, sweet baby Jesus, don't click here. Seriously. We warned you.