During the overheated press coverage of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, some cynical observers of the press (like me) said this was a classic “summer story”. That is, a minor event or controversy that gets enormous attention in the media because there is less real news happening in August. Previous examples include shark attacks and Chandra Levy. Others said no, this is a major issue that will resonate with voters in November and affect American relationships around the world.

In last Tuesday’s Democratic Primary elections, two winning candidates for State Assembly were Francisco Moya in the 39^th AD and Robert Rodriguez in the 68^th.  Both are overwhelming favorites to take office as their districts are safely Democratic.

Moya and Rodriguez will join an interesting group of present and former New York City state legislators – those who were unsuccessful candidates for City Council and then were elected to the State Senate & Assembly.

Both Moya and Rodriguez ran in 2009, Moya in a Special Election to replace Hiram Monserrate (the person he defeated last week) and Rodriguez against incumbent Melissa Mark Viverito (in a district that had previously been represented by Rodriguez’ father).

From the Primary Day edition of the Wall Street Journal -

http://arkansasnews.com/2010/08/29/lincoln-should-have-started-spending-sooner-observers-say/

From the Huffington Post –

One sentence in Maureen Dowd’s ridiculous column attacking Michelle Obama in last Sunday’s NY Times explains what’s wrong with Dowd.

At the risk of receiving comments that I’m once again subtly defending the indefensible, I’m presenting a report on the first 3 days of hearings on petition challenges at the New York City Board of Elections.

One assertion from insurgents and the press about New York politics is that our hyper-technical election laws required candidates to get at least twice or three times the number of required signatures to get on the ballot.

In last week’s New York Post, Michael Barone, the conservative pundit, who fewer & fewer gullible people still consider a political analyst, proclaims that the Democrats will lose the Congress this November.   

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/jerry_skurnik/how_to_beat_an_incumbent_move_to_flushing.html

On Thursday, July 15, Party designating petitions were filed at the New York City Board of Elections.

Every four years, various political pundits overhype that year’s contests for governor. Thinking readers won’t think the choice of the chief executive of large states are important enough, these experts must explain to us that who wins an election for governor can be crucial in determining who wins the next Presidential election.

This year's edition of Prime News, Prime New York's annual report on the previous year's elections has now been mailed.

For those of you who do not receive it in the mail, you can download a PDF of it at our website - www.primeny.com

Please do not use the comments section to point out the typo on page one regarding the Citywide results in the Democratic Primary for Mayor. The Westside’s own Alan Flacks have already done so.

The New York Times decided to give Rush Limbaugh’s biographer, Zev Chafets a free advertisement on their Op-Ed page, where Chafets declare Limbaugh is the ‘most obvious explanation …for Republican success in 2010.