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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Don't even go there. Because the buses already don't.

That's the message from a group of transit advocates, who sent an open letter to Albany yesterday pleading with the governor and Legislature not to raid the MTA's dedicated funding. Again.

Last year, needing to trim the budget by billions, Albany decided to take $143 million from an MTA "lockbox," the largest single cut made. The move was part of the reason the agency's own budget hole...

On Sunday, Senator Charles Schumer told reporters he isn't particularly interested in retaking the reins of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

This morning, the Wall Street Journal explains why it isn't very appealing this time around, starting with the fact that nearly half the Democratic delegation--a whopping 23 senators--are up for re-election in 2012.

More important, among those 23 Democrats who face voters in 2012 are a handful of incumbents from the kind of moderate to...

David Paterson has a new nickname for himself.

A look at Andrew Cuomo's business friends, and what they might get from the new governor.

WNYC charts Cuomo's possible cabinet appointments.

Cuomo said he welcomes Sheldon Silver's no-tax stance.

Democrats are worried this year's state Senate recounts could end up like Florida ten years ago.

The Wall Street Journal wonders whether the unsettled state Senate could slow Cuomo down.

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin wonders whether Journal reporters read their own paper.

Repealing Don't...

FishbowlDC editor Betsy Rothstein called out the Washington Post on Monday with a blog post that accused the paper of taking two stories from other outlets without attribution -- Politico's story about Keith Olbermann's campaign contributions and FishbowlDC's scoop about the ouster of TBD.com editor Jim Brady.

WaPo reporter David Montgomery's article on the Olbermann suspension gave credit to Politico, but other Washington Post stories about the situation did not mention Politico's role in the story...

Shelly Silver shoots down rumors that he is on the way out

John Jay Lavalle is defending Ed Cox.

Andrew Cuomo was unable to avoid the press in Puerto Rico.

Grief counselors for Capitol Hill staffers?

Alec Baldwin for Congress?

Darrell Issa is planning hundreds of investigations into the Obama administration (Also check out that art on the office wall..)

Who watches Obama's You Tube videos? No one...

The indispensable blog The Fix has a few ideas.

Among them:

1. Democrats here got swept up in the wave election

2. Upstate Republicans and independents swung back to the G.O.P.

3. Catholic voters swung back to the G.O.P.

While numbers two and three are just plain fact--borne out by exit polling data--many Democratic strategists are offering the first explanation for why they lost more seats than any other state in the country.

Heading into the election, most Democrats I...

Yesterday, on the subject of non-partisan redistricting, Chuck Schumer told reporters what he has been telling Ed Koch all along.

"Bottom line is that one thing you have to be careful at the Congressional level--I can't comment on the state and local levels--is you don't want to lose all that seniority if other states are not doing it," said Schumer.

Schumer might be on to something. On Tuesday, nineteen chambers across the country flipped to Republican...

At an afternoon press conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg denied having called President Obama "the most arrogant man I've ever met," as Rupert Murdoch relayed to the Australian Financial Review last week.

"I don't remember the conversation that way," Bloomberg said. "I do not think he's arrogant."

As for Rupert Murdoch, he declined to say if he felt betrayed by his publicizing their private conversation.

"I think Rupert Murdoch probably agrees with me that it's time to get...

Mayor Bloomberg took time out at his first news conference this morning to say a few words about his daughter Georgina who was injured in a horse-riding accident yesterday.

Bloomberg said his daughter was currently getting an MRI scan and may have cracked a vertebrae. She was knocked unconcious by the fall.

And the mayor had kind words for all of those who had reached out to see how his daughter was doing.

"Thank you for everybody...

The Working Families Party is out with an email today claiming that the party received 138,615 votes in unofficial election returns, 2,000 more the Independence Party and the WFP's largest share of a vote total in their history.

If the numbers hold--and the machines need to re-canvassed and paper ballots counted--it would be quite an achievement for the party, which was left for dead after Andrew Cuomo forced them to accept his agenda or find...

Governor David Paterson today announced that BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has promised to have 1,530 New York jobs by the end of this year and add another 200 New York jobs over the course of 2011.

By way of comparison, the New York Department of Labor says that the state lost 15,600 private-sector jobs from August to September.

"I am pleased to join BlackRock in announcing this expansion of good paying financial services jobs...

Should Walt Disney Company CEO Robert Iger be worried? His wife, television journalist Willow Bay, helped inaugurate a new divorce section on the Huffington Post.

Huff Post Divorce will launch on Monday. There are currently over 20 special sections on the Huffington Post about a wide variety of topics including College, Books, and Technology. The new divorce page will include legal and financial advice, forums for readers dealing with crumbling marriages, and news on...