Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld dropped out of the Republican race, officially letting the much lesser known John Faso take the Republican nomination worry-free. The maneuvering seemed to come after various state GOP bigwigs asked Weld to step down after Weld, who was initially supported by Governor Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, made a poor, but viable-enough-to-force-a-primary showing during the GOP convention. Faso is conservative, while Weld was much more moderate, and the GOP is setting up this fall's election to be much more black and white for voters. However, a poll says that Spitzer is leading candidates by 50 points. While it's still early and the public needs to know who exactly Faso is, Newsday reports that one person polled said, "I hate Democrats," yet will be voting for Spitzer anyway. GOP, this is what you get for giving us a third term of Pataki. more ›

Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, who lost the NY State Republican party's support to be the Republican nominee for the governor's race this fall, is being pressured to drop out of the race. Weld, who can still force a primary after earning more than a third of the NYS Republican party's votes, has lost support from both the current and former NY State Republican Party chairmen, who are urging him to quit, probably in order for John Faso to focus his efforts on defeating the looming favorite, Democratic nominee and current Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. more ›

Assemblyman John Faso of Columbia Country beat former Massachusettes governor William Weld for the GOP nomination for NY State governor yesterday. However, Weld did have enough support to stay on the ballot and force a primary this fall. The split between the two candidates represents many problems in the Republican party: On one side, you've got moderate, socially progressive members (Weld is pro-choice), on the other side, it's the conservatives (Faso is anti-abortion and the Conservation party nominee). Weld's people are playing it tough and tell the Times, "There's also a stature gap: Weld's big-time, a tough prosecutor, a former governor. Faso is an Albany insider and former lobbyist." At any rate, there are problems in the NY Republican party, and it's pretty clear that Spitzer will be our next governor. more ›

With the rest of the World Trade Center redevelopment mired in a bureaucratic morass, the opening of 7 World Trade Center was greeted with joy, excitement, and yes, even praise for beleagured developer Larry Silverstein for actually building something. The festive opening ceremonies lacked Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, who had "other commitments," giving center stage to Silverstein who said, "We've come a very long way. What you're looking at today is just the beginning." And a whimsical Jeff Koons sculpture, Balloon Flower (Red), was unveiled in the middle of the park outside 7WTC, and tthe sculpture is supposed to change color with the light - we can't wait to take a look up close ourselves. more ›

It's times like these when the newspapers go into a frenzy and give their opinions about the transit strike today. Here's our take on them: more ›

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- And a reader sent us this graphic to mark the end of all-Softee-jingle, all-the time more ›

With Mayor Bloomberg's reelection spending at $46 million - and that's weeks before the actual election - it's hard not to feel bad for Fernando Ferrer, no matter how questionable he may be as a politician. It's this NY Times story about how Ferrer had to march after Bloomberg in yesterday's Bronx Columbus Day parade that lays out the disparity: Here Ferrer is, son of the Bronx, former Borough President, and he's waking in a sea Bloomberg posters. Clearly, the Bloomberg campaign knows how to emasculate a candidate on his home turf. And the Mayor's campaign is also trying to shame Ferrer into giving back thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from tobacco companies; we're not very convinced by Ferrer's reason for not wanting to do so (besides needing the money), as they just cited the party where there were people smoking around the Mayor but he claims no one was? Huh? But Ferrer may be able to spook Bloomberg, if the Mayor happens to decline an invitation from the Hispanic Federation to debate on October 27. The debate would be for Univision, and one would think the Mayor would want to snatch up the Hispanic voter base, but a debate on a Spanish language network would give Ferrer an unfair advantage in that he can speak the language, whereas the Mayor would stumble through it. Gothamist can't wait to see what excuse the Mayor gives this time! more ›

It's official: Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld is going to run for governor of New York. We can thank Rudy Giuliani and Karl Rove for encouraging Weld to run; according to the NY Times, people have said Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the early Democratic frontrunner, is "beatable." Weld himself told the NY Times "juices are really flowing for this race." Okay, first things first, dude: No one wants to know about your juices, okay? Didn't anyone learn anything from the whole Lewinsky thing? Anyway, Weld is a native New Yorker and has been working at a city law firm, which might temper some carpetbagger criticism, but his liberal leanings - support for abortion rights and gay rights - might be unattractive to conservative New Yorkers (the ones upstate). more ›

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There are rumors that former Massachusetts Governor William Weld is considering to run for NY State Governor on the Republican ticket, since it seems like Governor George Pataki is on his way out, with bigger political ambitions in mind and a state that really hates him. Weld is an interesting Republican, as he believes drugs like marijuana should be legalized (that stance basically killed his attempt to be Ambassador to Mexico), is pro-choice and has relatively more liberal views. That could make him interesting and compelling matchup against Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Gothamist imagines that the attack on Weld would be that he's a carpetbagger politician, just trying to shore up the Republican party's hold on governorships. Weld has been working in a NYC law firm since his resignation as Governor in 1997, so he's not a total carpetbagger, but still, Gothamist wonderes if this phenomenon will continue of well-known politicians retrenching in areas they haven't really lived before in order to help the party (think any number of Senators, such as Hillary Clinton or even Elizabeth Dole who did return to her homestate). more ›