Well off from a successful family. Well educated. Elevated from a lesser statewide office, succeeding a Governor with presidential ambition. A liberal committed to political reform, slashing taxes, curbing big business and protecting working people. And Jewish. What more could New York want in a Governor? Maybe not the Jewish part, as the description above is that of Herbert Lehman, Governor of New York from 1933-1942, after whom more than sixty years would pass before the election of the next Jewish Governor, Eliot Spitzer.

Why so long? Lehman was able to ride a wave of immigration that brought so many Jews to New York at the turn of the century, although his upbringing was more Upper than Lower East Side. Also riding that wave were New York's other long serving statewide figures Arthur Levitt and Louis Lefkowitz, and later Jacob Javits. But none emerged to be Governor.

The public affairs television show CityWide, which I host, airs on CUNY TV, Channel 75 (New York City only) tonight, November 8 at 8:30PM; repeating Saturday at 8:00PM and Sunday at 10:00AM. It is also available on the Internet here. This season's theme is "Doing Business in New York." My guests are: Frank Sciame CEO, F.J. Sciame Construction Company and Dolly Williams CEO, A. Williams Construction.

Any list of winners from yesterday's election should include Cindy Darrison,who held the title of Managing Director of Spitzer 2006 and whose primary function was to head up the finance effort. Darrison has been hard at work at this pretty much since Spitzer decided to run for Governor and his impressive fundraising did a lot to convince the political establishment that he could withstand any challenge. But wait, there's more. Before joining Spitzer, she had been a key fundraiser for Ways & Means Chair to be US Rep Charles Rangel. Her addre$$ book is worth its weight in gold. Darrison had previously worked for Carol Bellamy, Dick Ravitch (and ran my first campaign for the City Council).

Happy Halloween. Readers are invited to answer this question: Why does CityStore, the City's official retail outlet (in the Municipal Building) feature a wind-up sushi set? This 5 wind-up piece set, in a clear plastic package, has no obvious New York markings - or connection. Is it the Mayor's new favorite snack? A symbolic nod to the cleaning of the Gowanus Canal? A bow to Japaneses tourists? Or just something fishy?

Govenor Pataki, I am sure, can't help but feel compassion for Alan Hevesi. After all, if Hevesi had only followed the Pataki model and arranged to put Mrs. Hevesi's driver on the state party payroll...

I don't quite have this link thing down, but here's the URL for the Times story in which the Governor conceded that the Republican Party was paying $50,000 for his wife's personal assistant.

Note also that once again, a woman getting paid less than a man for similar assignments.

For the first time in thirty years, I didn't know who was on the Democratic primary ballot for Brooklyn Civil Court, am not sure who won the primaries and don't know who the candidates are for the Supreme Court.

That might not  sound surprising for the average New Yorker. After all, there was virtually no coverage of  any of the races by the daily newspapers (let alone tv or radio) and even if there had been, candidates for judge are very circumscribed in permissible topics for discussion, prohibited from pronouncements on issues likely to come before them, like the death penalty.