City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that the Board of Elections needed to come under the oversight of the mayor's office after conducting another election riddled with errors and incompetence.

"The Board of Elections should stop hiding, begin evaluating and become part of the Mayor's management," Quinn said at a morning news conference in which she and representatives from good government groups revealed results of a survey that showed widespread voter confusion on election day.

The...

You may recall the American Family Association's lead blogger Bryan Fischer from his past hits, including claiming that gay kids killing themselves is a good thing, that good married couples should be required to produce at least three children due to God's word, that every Muslim in the United States is automatically guilty of treason, and presumably therefore should be shot. In short, he's the most lunatic of the lunatic fringe, a man who found Carl Paladino too moderate and tolerant for his taste, but who still gets tucked in close to the bosom of the conservative movement and the people who want to be President.

Even so, his most recent bile departs the realm of bigotry and hate speech, to make it's home in a place that can only be described as completely delusional bordering on schizophrenia.

I can't summarize the crazy any better than his own words do. This is his conclusion after a long rant about the fact that there have been two human deaths this year from grizzly bears.

God makes it clear in Scripture that deaths of people and livestock at the hands of savage beasts is a sign that the land is under a curse. The tragic thing here is that we are bringing this curse upon ourselves.

No, you're not hallucinating. He is actually saying that God wants us to exterminate all bears in order to lift a "curse" from America.  

Incoming Gov. Andrew Cuomo and outgoing Gov. David Paterson are meeting today in Manhattan to discuss the transition.

They are holding a news conference at 2:15 p.m. today to discuss the transition. You can view it live here. Gannett’s WGRZ-TV is streaming it live, as is the governor’s office here.

Congressman Charles Rangel is not pleased about the House leadership fight between aspiring whips Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn.

Rangel declined to say whether he would support Clyburn--a longtime colleague, and fellow member of the Congressional Black Caucus--if the struggle came to a vote.

"It's not going to come to a vote. We can't afford a vote," Rangel said.

"I want to be convinced that the leadership knows this has to be resolved without the polarization that...

Newly elected Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, Columbia County, has announced the first major hire for his office: His chief of staff will be Saratoga native Steve Stallmer, who is currently vice president of government and public affairs for the Associated General Contractors of New York State.

Stallmer had previously worked for late Rep. Gerald Solomon, a Republican who represented the same region for over two decades, and former Buffalo-area Rep. Jack Quinn from 1999 to 2004.

Gibson beat Democratic incumbent Scott Murphy in a closely watched race in a district that stretches from Dutchess County up to the North Country.

If you’d like to relive Gibson’s campaign, he’s offered this montage on his campaign website.

Yes, I know.  We're not yet in the recount phase.  Absentee and provisional ballots are just beginning to be counted, and we don't yet have the first full tally of the votes.  But it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?  And it seems very likely that in at least a few of these races we're definitely going to a recount.

• The Ithaca Journal reports the new voting machines may "complicate legal challenges in tight elections."  What's that mean?  Just as we had hanging chads during the Bush/Gore recount, lawyers will now try to argue "voter intent" based on how vigorously you colored in your scantron form at the ballot box last week.
• The Brennan Center does not have kind words about the new voting machines.
• Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer is up 504 votes on Bob Cohen, with all precincts now reporting.
• Despite the fact that all votes are not yet in, Jack Martin's is declaring victory over Craig Johnson.  Cheeky bugger.  Let's wait until all the votes are counted, ok Jack?
• Behind the paywall at Newsday, Suffolk County Republicans are opposing Democrat's call for a full accounting of the votes.
• WGRZ has a process story about how provisional and absentee ballots will be counted in the Buffalo race between Senator Antoine Thompson and challenger Mark Grisanti.
• In the race between Ann Marie Buerkle and Rep. Dan Maffei, Buerkle is crying foul over an effort to confirm the content of military absentee ballots by contacting the voters themselves.
• Jimmy Vielkind notes that the auditing of ballots has begun, and has some updated statements from Senate Dems spokesperson Austin Shafran, who insists that all votes must be counted, and is confident Dems will emerge in the Majority once more.
• Thousands of votes have been found in the Bishop/Altschuler race on Long Island.  Nothing nefarious folks, both sides seem to be chalking it up to simple human error.  Bishop backers are pushing for a full recount of the votes.
  

Improving recent conditions in the stock market has meant positive gains for the state’s pension fund, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported today.

DiNapoli, a Democrat, was re-elected last week in a tight race against Republican Harry Wilson, a former hedge-fund partner who consistently hammered DiNapoli over the fund’s performance.

But DiNapoli said today the fund’s value is $132.8 billion, up 8 percent for the second quarter, which ended Sept. 30. DiNapoli spokesman Dennis Tompkins said the fund is up 3.5 percent through Sept. 30 for the fiscal year, which started April 1.

It’s up 5.9 percent for the fiscal year through Oct. 31, according to preliminary estimates.

“Last year’s record returns are holding,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “Over the past few weeks the market has shown strength, however, there’s still volatility. The Fund remains among the strongest in the nation. Our commitment to long-term, value investing through our diversified portfolio has kept the Fund secure and well positioned to benefit from the markets’ continued recovery.”

One of Wilson’s criticisms was that the fund was estimating a rate of return of 8 percent, which he argued was too optimistic during these difficult economic times. DiNapoli did move the estimated rate of return to 7.5 percent in September.

How the pension fund does is critical to local governments and the state. DiNapoli has ordered higher contribution rates for local governments and the state to pay retirement costs for employees in recent years because of the fund’s poor performance during the recession.

Watch the governor-elect and the governor-eject (that’s his joke, by the way) at their joint 2:15 p.m. Tuesday press conference. Click here.

I reported this morning that, after a review of FEC data, groups making independent expenditures on behalf of Chris Gibson spent at least $1.7 million in the 10-county district 20th district, while supporters of Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, spent at least $869,482.

A full picture of what the campaigns spent won’t be available until December, but as of October 21 Murphy was leading: he spent $2.1 million compared to $1.1 million from Gibson.

The rub of some is about disclosure. Groups like the labor-backed Citizens for Safety and Security or the pro-Republican American Crossroads don’t need to disclose their corporate and union donors, who under the Citizens United court case can spend unlimited amounts on campaigns.

I asked Congressman-elect Gibson if he would support the disclosure of those donors. He responded by saying the DISCLOSE Act passed earlier this summer by the House of Representatives was flawed, because it exempted labor unions from some things it required of corporations.

“We need a policy that is applied evenly and to all, and in that circumstance, all those contributions would be revealed,” he said. “But it needs to be fair. You can’t have a system, you can’t have a law that is designed in this instance to exposing certain campaign contributions and not apply it evenly and to the advantage of the party that was in power.”

On provision had to do with the disclosure threshold, which exempted small donations from people like, well, union members. Saratoga County Democratic Chairman Larry Bulman, who is also a labor leader, put it this way.

“I would say corporate spending tipped the tide on at least 20 of the races. And we just saw the tip of the iceberg. The 2012 elections we’ll see even more profoundly how this money can be spent, because now people like Karl Rove are going to go back to the donors and do it all over again,” he said.  “We usually get around a nickel an hour from our members, but the difference is that it’s voluntary, and it’s individuals’ money. It’s not someone who’s using customers money to buy politics. Our members — if they sign up for it — contribute what equals a cup of coffee a week toward political action. It’s individuals’ money, it’s not union funds.”

And below, a chart of who spent what for whom.

Assemblyman James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, today wrote a letter to the governor and the legislative leaders asking them to place redistricting reform on the agenda for any extraordinary session this year.

Independent redistricting has been a top issue for New York Uprising, the group led by former NYC Mayor Ed Koch that got signed pledges from about 300 legislative candidates to back its reform goals.

Tedisco, the former Assembly minority leader, said that in order to put an independent redistricting commission in the state Constitution, it would mean an amendment would have to pass two consecutive legislatures—this one and the one that takes office Jan. 1. It would then be on the ballot in 2012—when the redrawing of district lines is due.

Tedisco is right, technically, but good-government groups has sought a more attainable way to get redistricting reform. The Legislature can simply adopt a statute that creates an independent redistricting commission and accept its recommendations—without requiring a change to the constitution.

Special Session Letter to Governor

On Good Morning America this morning, Newt Gingrich said he would support a mid-term shake-up that installed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of Defense.

"She is knowledgeable, she is tough, I think that she'd be a very aggressive defender of the military in terms of what it needs, its budgets and its concerns," Gingrich told George Stephanopoulos. "If she would take it she would be terrific."

"I'm not sure she would have quite as much fun," Gingrich...

As part of her final season victory lap, Oprah Winfrey is communing with some of her fellow daytime talk legends.

Tomorrow's episode of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" will feature appearances from Ricki Lake, Phil Donahue, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Montel Williams. This much nineties nostalgia and daytime talk power has never before been assembled in the same place, at the same time. Sadly, Maury Povich will not be coming to give paternity...