The following two stories show that the NY State Senate Republicans are breaking new ground in their use of taxpayer’s money to fund their campaigns.

Times Union and The Journal News

I was amused by a story in the Buffalo News about an attempt to do away from some tolls on the thruway up there.

John Faso pledged to eliminate with the tolls (an idea that has merit) but his explanation of where the lost money would come from is the amusing part: 

Faso said he would end the tolls and replace the lost toll revenue by separating the New York State Canal Corp. from the Thruway Authority.

The canal agency, which oversees the state's sprawling canal system upstate, had its budget transferred to the Thruway Authority in 1991 to save money in the state's general fund. Since then, the canal office has been a financial drain on the Thruway.

Andrea Peyser has a column in the Post supposedly explaining how Mark Green’s arrogance doesn’t let you like him.

But if you deconstruct the column, it’s not clear what Green did wrong.

Here are parts of the column and my comments:

I was running [for mayor] after 9/11 in the face of $74 million" spent by Mike Bloomberg, a lean Green told me yesterday over eggs easy …

"If I told you I ran for election in Hawaii and the date was Dec. 7, 1941…, would you say the attack had nothing to do with the election?

We know. It's very early. But, John Toscano of the Queens Gazette throws some fuel on the Comptroller 2008 2009 fire. Says that Council Finance Chair, David Weprin, has planned a May 2nd fundraiser for a possible Comptroller bid; and that Finance Commissioner, Martha Stark, will also be throwing her hat into the ring.

Here is an article from the Staten Island Advance about potential candidates for the now open State Senate seat.  

Ms. Alvarado said Ms. Quinn believes it is "absolutely unacceptable" for Wal-Mart to build a store anywhere in the five boroughs without consulting with the City Council first, even it is not legally required to do so.

[In today's New York Sun] 

Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long announced today that his Party will preempt the Republican Party by holding its state convention to choose its Senate and Gubernatorial nominees on May 23rd in the Big Apple, one week before the May 31st GOP Convention begins on Long Island.

While Long and Minarik agree on backing John Spencer for US Senate, they disagree on the Governorship. Long has long favored John Faso while Minarik is backing Bill Weld.

In honor of retiring Senator John Marchi and because this might be the first time since 1978 there could be a serious contest here, the 2^nd installment of who votes is about Marchi’s 24^th Senate District.

These percentages are based on data in the Prime New York voter file and these reports come with the usual caveats - ethnic data is based on last names so are not 100% accurate, past voting behavior is not always predicative, etc.

Estimated Percentages

Democrats            40%

Republicans            36%

In case you haven't heard, NY1 has the story here: in print and via stream. And John Holusha of the Times just filed the story here.

In short, Toussaint gets 10 days and must pay $1,000.  Ed Watt and Darlyne Lawson, two other TWU administrators, face fines of $500 a piece, and no jail time.

I know.  I know.  The prophetic title of this piece is NOT what many of you want to read first thing on a Monday - nor, I imagine, on any other given day of the week.

But, I am here to speak truths, and this is one of them:  The Harlem Success Academy, a new charter school led by former Upper East Side Council Member Eva Moskowitz, is bound to produce extraordinary results.

And I make this prediction with great confidence, not because I have so much faith in Eva (we'll save that story for a rainy day), but because I sense that the brains and money behind this operation, Joel Greenblatt (not Klein), is on to something big.

Speaking to a standing room only crowd at  a town hall forum organized by East Side Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney this morning, persistent-Bush-thorn PA Rep. John Murtha had many choice words for the President.

He began by cracking jokes around Bush's campaign pledge to pursue an "humble" foreign policy, summarizing, "This is the most arrogant administration I have ever seen."

The Sacramento Bee published an editorial criticizing local Congressman John Doolittle for, paying his wife a 15% commission on contributions to his campaign committee. The Bee points out that they can find only 1 other Congressman doing that - NY's own John Sweeney who pays his wife 10%.

The Bee makes a strong case that this may violate House ethics rules. Read the editorial and see but wonder why no NY paper (to my knowledge) has criticized Sweeney for this action.