Republican state Senate candidate Mark Grisanti, who currently holds a 598-vote lead over incumbent Sen. Antoine Thompson, confirmed today -- via his campaign manager -- that if he is ultimately...

Yesterday it was reported that Alec Baldwin may be interested in running for Congress if Tim Bishop loses the recount to Republican Randy Altschuler in NY-1.

Today, a representative for Baldwin said no way.

"Alec is, like many other Democrats, still hoping Tim Bishop will be declared the winner," said Matthew Hiltzik, Baldwin's spokesman. "Alec is interested in politics and public service but now is not the time."

Although Baldwin lives in East Hampton, which is in...

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 Dickerson finds dissent unwelcome on Palin's Facebook page:

In her speech, Palin said that "prices have risen significantl

Here's our full report from Adam Lisberg, Rachel Monahan and Corky Siemaszko on Mayor Bloomberg's choice of Hearst's Cathie Black to replace long-serving Joel Klein as the city's Schools Chancellor:...

In naming Cathie Black, an executive at Hearst Magazine, to take over for schools chief Joel Klein, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is continuing his tradition of naming private sector executives to run public sector agencies. 

Bloomberg called Black "someone who has a proven track record of taking big organizations to the next level," emphasizing the managerial demands of the Chancellor's job.

"Joel [Klein] has built on the past, he has made an enormous difference, and...

 The TARP remains a kind of original sin of Obama's presidency, though it predated him, and though both Sarah Palin and John McCain supported i

 For all the talk of the Fox News Republicans, Rupert Murdoch is only tightening his relationship with another 2012 prospect: Michael Bloomberg

Nancy Pelosi has an op-ed in USA Today, mostly defending her record as speaker:

It’s after noon now, so here’s the Senate Update according to Reif as opposed to the Shafranian version this morning.

Also worth noting: Senate Democratic spokesman Austin Shafran says Democrats have increased their “line of credit” to $2.1 million. Their campaign committee currently owes $750,000; more than the $250,000 it has on hand. “We are raising resources and are going to spend whatever it takes to ensure a far and honest count of every vote,” he explained.

Here’s an update, with quoted text coming from Senate Republican spokesman Scott Reif. Shafran saw Reif sending this out, and sent along the following response quote: “This is like saying you won the lottery before buying the ticket. Press releases don’t trump votes. Once every vote has been counted, it will be clear, Democrats retained the Majority.”

60th Senate District — counting will begin in Niagara County next Wednesday. An inventory of emergency ballots continues.

Republican Mark Grisanti leads Senator Antoine Thompson by 598 votes, with approximately 2727 absentee ballots (516 from Niagara, 2211 from Erie) to be counted. Grisanti won Niagara County by a 3-1 one margin and ran virtually even with Thompson in Erie County. In addition, Grisanti conducted a strong absentee ballot outreach program while Senator Thompson and the Democrats ran no absentee ballot program.

Considering Grisanti’s substantial lead, his tremendous support among Democrats and Republicans, the relatively small number of absentee ballots to be counted, the enrollment of the voters that submitted them and the election districts where they came from, it’s clear that Republican Mark Grisanti will still be far ahead of Senator Thompson when the counting is done and will win this seat.

7th Senate District — counting will begin “in earnest” on Wednesday.

Republican Jack Martins is ahead of Senator Craig Johnson by 415 votes with 3,289 absentee ballots to be counted. An analysis of the absentee ballots shows a significant amount of them were from parts of the district where Martins won overwhelmingly. Slightly more absentee ballots were submitted by Republicans (1,370) than Democrats (1,366). In addition, there were 431 ballots submitted by voters registered as Blank, 67 registered as Independents, 52 as Conservatives, 1 Working Families Party and 2 Green Party. Martins ran on the Independent and Conservative lines. We are confident this race can be quickly resolved and Martins declared the winner.

37th Senate District — counting is ongoing, slowly.

Shafran notes that Oppenheimer’s lead has increased slightly, to 504 votes. He said “with every vote counted it is becoming more clear she will have kept her seat and Democrats will have retained their majority.”

Says Reif:

There may be as many as 10,000 votes yet to be counted in Westchester. This number includes 3,814 absentee ballots, 3,327 emergency ballots, 1,065 affidavit ballots and as many as 2,000 other ballots. Senator Oppenheimer has a lead of only 504 votes.

Bob Cohen ran an aggressive absentee ballot outreach program. Based on the breakdown of where the outstanding ballots came from, it’s clear that he will make up the difference and be declared the winner of this race when the counting is concluded.

Responding to the charge that he doesn't have enough charisma or "sizzle," Tim Pawlenty told Fox, "Well, we've seen sizzle in the cur

Bloomberg wasn't really playing the piano at the Mayor's Awards for Arts and Culture in Lincoln Center.

Cuomo and a bearded Paterson, in 2008. (Times Union Archive)

NEW YORK — Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo met with Gov. David Paterson this afternoon to discuss the transition of power.

Cuomo announced he will begin a tour of state facilities Wednesday with a visit to Sing Sing prison in Ossining.  He will also set up a transition committee to vet and recruit personnel, because “any organization is only as good as its talent.”

Cuomo also spoke of the need to “reinvent” government and pledged again “no new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes” even in the face of a projected $9 billion deficit. He said the budget process will be a chance to restructure state government rather than simply cutting, broad strokes he painted last month during a meeting with the Times Union Editorial Board.

“One of the main issues on the transition is personnel. The governor and I are going to be discussing existing personnel, and he’s going to be giving me recommendations,” Cuomo said. “We’re going to be setting up a transition committee in the coming days and weeks which will primarily be a transition committee to find talent. Any organization is only as good as its talent.”

He reiterated Paterson’s call for legislators to return to the Capitol to bridge a $315 million mid-year deficit. To not do so, Cuomo said,  “rolls forward into next year in what already is an impossible year…the alternative would not be responsible.”

Cuomo said it’s unlikely taxes will go down next year: “Can you close $9 billion and cut taxes? I don’t think that’s a realistic expectation. But is that the goal? Certainly.”

His budget will stretch broader than cuts.

“Not just cuts. Let’s call it program re-design,” Cuomo said. “There’s an assumption that the state government is a model of total efficiency and effectiveness, and any cuts to that, you know, it’s like you’re tampering with a finely tuned Swiss watch. There’s no waste. There’s no fraud, and the thing’s just running perfectly. I spent four years as attorney general: there’s plenty of waste and there’s plenty of fraud and there’s plenty of abuse. So, cuts. I call it, let’s analyze the system. Let’s re-design the system. Let’s re-invent the system, let’s eliminate the waste, let’s eliminate the fraud. And you know what? Those are good things to do anyway. And maybe we use this point in time to do a lot of hard analysis that the system needed and that’s gong to be part of it.”

The Bloomberg administration announced today that Cathie Black will take over for Joel Klein in running the city's sprawling education system.

According to her official biography, Black is the chairman of Hearst Magazines and is a former executive at USA Today. She is also the author of Basic Black: The Essential Guide For Getting Ahead At Work (And In Life), which has been described as offering "case studies; 'black-and-white' tips; and invaluable lessons about ambition...

The nation's largest public school system will be headed by the head of Hearst Magazines and former publisher of USA Today, as Mr. Klein departs for a job at the News Corporation.

Chancellor Joel Klein is resigning his post this afternoon, serveral news outlets are reporting.

Klein has been with Bloomberg since the start of his tenure in 2002, and has been a lightening rod for criticism over the years, most recently for a plan that would release teacher data to the general public

We will update with more information as more comes...

The NRSC is up with its first post-election press release against Sen.-elect Joe Manchin, targeting him for his support of Harry Reid for major

Senate Republicans today handicapped the three contested races for the state Senate. Their findings, not surprisingly: They’ll win all three.

But Democrats say not so fast.

“This is like saying you won the lottery before buying the ticket. Press releases don’t trump votes. Once every vote has been counted, it will be clear, Democrats retained the Majority,” said Austin Shafran, spokesman for Senate Democrats.

Scott Reif, spokesman for Senate Republicans, offered this detailed assessment of where they believe things stand.

Here’s his review.

60th Senate District
Republican Mark Grisanti leads Senator Antoine Thompson by 598 votes, with approximately 2727 absentee ballots (516 from Niagara, 2211 from Erie) to be counted. Grisanti won Niagara County by a 3-1 one margin and ran virtually even with Thompson in Erie County. In addition, Grisanti conducted a strong absentee ballot outreach program while Senator Thompson and the Democrats ran no absentee ballot program.

Considering Grisanti’s substantial lead, his tremendous support among Democrats and Republicans, the relatively small number of absentee ballots to be counted, the enrollment of the voters that submitted them and the election districts where they came from, it’s clear that Republican Mark Grisanti will still be far ahead of Senator Thompson when the counting is done and will win this seat.

7th Senate District
Republican Jack Martins is ahead of Senator Craig Johnson by 415 votes with 3,289 absentee ballots to be counted. An analysis of the absentee ballots shows a significant amount of them were from parts of the district where Martins won overwhelmingly. Slightly more absentee ballots were submitted by Republicans (1,370) than Democrats (1,366). In addition, there were 431 ballots submitted by voters registered as Blank, 67 registered as Independents, 52 as Conservatives, 1 Working Families Party and 2 Green Party. Martins ran on the Independent and Conservative lines. We are confident this race can be quickly resolved and Martins declared the winner.

37th Senate District
There may be as many as 10,000 votes yet to be counted in Westchester. This number includes 3,814 absentee ballots, 3,327 emergency ballots, 1,065 affidavit ballots and as many as 2,000 other ballots. Senator Oppenheimer has a lead of only 504 votes.

Bob Cohen ran an aggressive absentee ballot outreach program. Based on the breakdown of where the outstanding ballots came from, it’s clear that he will make up the difference and be declared the winner of this race when the counting is concluded.

Bloomberg Presser...

In New York Online: There's no such thing as too fast or too slow. Or too cobweb-covered.