Results tagged “thedemocratic”

Doug Schoen, the pollster who has worked with Bill Clinton on his 1996 reelection and Mayor Bloomberg, is stirring the Bloomberg for President pot again. He tells the Sun that Ralph Nader's decision to enter the 2008 presidential race could help Bloomberg.

Mayor Bloomberg spoke out about the unofficial results from NYC's primary night undercounted votes in 78 districts. These districts' unofficial results raised eyebrows because no votes at all were recorded Barack Obama.

After Hillary Clinton's started airing a commercial in Wisconsin questioning why Barack Obama declined to appear in another debate, Obama came back with his own ad. The voiceover says:

After eighteen debates, with two more coming, Hillary says Barack Obama is ducking debates? It's the same old politics, the phony charges, and false attacks. On health care, even Bill Clinton's own labor secretary [Robert Reich] even says Obama covers "more people" than Hillary and does more to cut costs, saving $2500 for the typical family. Obama's housing plan it stems foreclosures and cracks down on crooked lenders. That's change we can believe in.

Provisional votes in New Mexico, which had its caucus on Super Tuesday, were finally counted and Clinton officially won the caucus, 48.8% to Obama's 47.6%. Clinton received one more delegate, earning a total of 14 to Obama's 12. The delegate counts vary depending on the media outlet (as MSNBC explains, the differences are due to "how they account for states that have held caucuses but have not yet chosen their delegates, and how they project the apportionment of delegates within congressional districts where the vote was close."): The AP says Obama has 1,276 and Clinton has 1,220, while NBC says Obama has 1,116 and Clinton has 985.

As of 11:45 p.m., Hillary Clinton and John McCain are projected to win their New York primaries. The Democratic primary distributes NY delegates proportionally, so the final total will be important in determining how many will go to Clinton and how many to Barack Obama.

http://gothamist.com/2008/02/05/get_out_your_pr.php

Presidential hopeful John Edwards targeted New York son Rudy Giuliani during a speech. The Democratic candidate had earlier called President Bush's "war on terror" a "bumper sticker," which prompted Giuliani to say, "This is not a bumper sticker; the war is a real war."

The latest Quinnipiac poll about New York politics shows that the public is behind Governor Spitzer and his "Steamroller Style." Sixty-one percent say Spitzer's way is "good for the people"; by gender, men like Eliot a little more than women, with 63% men approving to 57% of women. (Men like a man who gets angry!) Interestingly enough, 59% of Republicans approve of Spitzer's attitude - probably because they are enjoying his fight with Assembly leader Sheldon Silver.

The first battle is over, and Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver has dealt Governor Eliot Spitzer his first defeat. The Democratic-led Assembly selected one of its own, Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli, to be State Comptroller. Spitzer had recommended three non-lawmaker candidates in the past weeks, but Silver and other Democrats were upset that the panel didn't include their choices. So, proving that politics is beyond any sort of rhyme or reason, the Assembly reneged on a deal with Spitzer to publicly vote for a new comptroller, rejected the other candidates and just picked their own. Way to have Democratic solidarity! (Of course, the Dems would argue that Spitzer reneged on a deal to have five contenders.)

- On being President: Spitzer doesn't want to be, while Suozzi does (to which Spitzer cracked, "Good luck")There was also a supposed freak-out by Spitzer when he saw that Suozzi was going to bring notes on stage during the debate. Notes are not allowed, and Suozzi told reporters that Spitzer got "angrier and angrier and angrier" and accused him of "playing games," but let's face it, if notes weren't even allowed...

The Mayor of New York has always been a player on the national stage. And when it comes to political theatre, the Constitution requires that the show must go on. The right of the public to view debates and other political events is central to democracy. You have a none other than New York politicos Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch to thank when televised debates or election coverage interrupts your favorite shows. It was a lawsuit brought agains them that helped guarantee media access to politicians.

C. Virginia Fields' campaign has been spinning ever since Fliergate. Yesterday, she held an emergency press conference, with real life Asians (as opposed to Photoshopped ones), telling reporters, "By and large, I knew all of [the people in the montage], except the two Asians in there, I don't know them." Fields' new campaign manager is Chinese - Chung Seto, whom Newsday says holds the "highest position" for an Asian in any campaign. Fields' solution to the problematic flier was to blame the company, Winning Direction, and say she'd "withdraw" the mailing, so if you see some people lurking around your mailbox, they might be Fields campaign operatives! One man who was in the flier picture, David Givens, was annoyed and told the Post, "If you're going to put my photo in campaign material, please tell me. I haven't endorsed her." Which brings us to the other Fields problem: She has a "casual" photograph of herself with some firefighters in both the flier and on her website, and it turns out that the Fire Department doesn't allow photographs of firefighters in political campaigns. The FDNY said that even though firefighters might appear in news conferences that are used by political candidates, Deputy Fire Commissioner Francis Gribbon tolds the NY Times, "We don't endorse political candidates or become involved in campaigns in any way. So we would not allow it." Unless it's a politician tugging at the September 11 heartstrings, because Gothamist feels like we've seen a lot of those.

Much to the delight of gay and straight New Yorkers, yesterday's steamy weather meant that there was more reason for marchers in the Gay Pride Parade to go shirtless. If you were downtown, everywhere people would turn there was bound to be a fairly naked, glistening body. New Yorkers enjoyed themselves, and some noted how the parade has become "mainstreamed." The parade was started as to mark the Stonewall uprising in 1969, and some who marched in the first pride parade 36 years ago marched again yesterday.

This week, Ask Gothamist answered your questions with all sorts of handy advice:

Lloyd Grove gets political and examines Wesley Clark's recent subway journey. And it's official: The Democratic presidential hopeful is a Metrotard (TM The Morning News). After claiming he was riding the subway "Simply because it's the best way to get around the city," Clark tried to swipe his Metrocard at the turnstile, only to get "PLEASE SWIPE AGAIN." Then his aide tried a few times to work the Metrocard. Grove asked if the general had ever taken the subway before, and Clark replied, "I've taken it lots of times. My wife [Gertrude] is from Brooklyn. She's from Park Slope. Then, her family lived in Flatbush for a while. And so we used to ride the IRT all the time. But I haven't been on since they got the new ticket machines. I'm used to the old tokens." Okay, but still, if he gets elected, Gothamist wants a check on his motor skills.