Just one day after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced that House Republicans would take action to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is urging GOP leadership not to waste taxpayer resources to defend the unconstitutional law. Gillibrand, in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said Congress should [...]
Michael Allegretti, the candidate hoping to take on Democratic Staten Island Rep. Mike McMahon in the general election, has his work cut out for him in his own GOP primary – his fundraising last quarter was just over a third of his rival’s. Allegretti, who has been seen as the favored candidate by the National [...]
A proposal by a city lawmaker to begin Common Council meetings with a prayer has reignited the electric debate about the appropriateness of religious expression in government. Newly elected Councilman Anton Konev, sworn in four weeks ago, wants to amend the council’s rules to include an opening prayer at its biweekly meetings, right between the [...]
Staten Island has long been unique in this racially diverse city: a borough where whites constitute the vast majority. But over the last few decades and particularly in recent years, people of other races have been increasingly calling the island home. From 1990 to 2000, the percentage of residents who identified themselves as black increased [...]
All five of the New York City borough presidents have been re-elected. The incumbents were largely favored to win Tuesday’s election. Democrat Ruben Diaz in the Bronx won by the largest margin against GOP challenger Allison Oldak. He had 87 percent of the vote with 100 percent of the precincts reporting. Scott Stringer remains in [...]
As Republicans regained control of the Nassau County Legislature for the first time in a decade, Nassau County Executive Thomas Souzzi is leading by a razor thin margin. The defeat came for Democrats when Republican Howard Kopel beat five-term Democrat Jeff Toback in last night’s elections, giving the GOP a 10-9 control. Several races remained [...]
A day after Republican state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava abruptly suspended her campaign in the New York special election, she’s endorsing the Democrat in the race, not the Conservative Party candidate favored by fellow Republicans. Scozzafava said today that Democrat Bill Owens is the best of the remaining candidates to build on the legacy of the [...]
Dede Scozzafava, the GOP nominee in a key upcoming House special election, is running dangerously low on campaign cash, according to several GOP sources familiar with her spending and fundraising. While Scozzafava’s official fundraising numbers will not be known until next Thursday, the third-quarter Federal Election Commission reporting deadline, the GOP sources acknowledged to POLITICO [...]
House Republicans failed Wednesday for a third time to oust Rep. Charles Rangel as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, but they kept the political spotlight on his ethical problems. The House voted 246-153 along mostly partisan lines to refer a GOP resolution to remove Rangel to the House ethics committee. The Democratic [...]
New York Gov. David Paterson keeps sinking in the public’s opinion, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is stuck in the vortex: She has to avoid getting sucked down by the governor’s historic low ratings without appearing ungrateful to the man who picked her to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton. Gillibrand, a little-known second-term congresswoman before Paterson named [...]
