Dan Garodnick

Some other notable expenditures from city candidates, courtesy of intern Bharat Ayyar:

John Liu--whose reluctance to specify his intention for 2009 is keeping Grace Rauh busy--paid $29,340 to the Washington, D.C.-based Lake Research Partners for polling on February 22. He paid an additional $10,366.80 for a “voter survey” from the same company on March 31.

Scott Stringer, who isn’t term-limited in 2009 and whose intentions for the next election are not clear, paid Global Strategy Group $13,7000 for polling on June 27.

Dan Gardonick, a possible City Council speaker candidate, paid $1,020 in rent to State Senator Liz Krueger’s campaign.

So there may be a little less at stake now for the officials girding for the opportunity to succeed Upper East Side-based Representative Carolyn Maloney. That unofficial mini-contest, of course, was contingent on Hillary Clinton having a chance of becoming president, and on Maloney having a chance of taking Clinton's place in the Senate.  read more »

Assemblyman Michael Gianiaris, who is running for reelection to the Assembly in 2008, says in this week's City Hall News that he is "going to seriously consider" running for City Council in 2009 and seeking the speakership.

The same article also quotes an unnamed aide to Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell, the former chairman of the state Democratic Party, saying he won't run for speaker of the City Council if h  read more »

The Brooklyn Courier ran an article earlier this week on the race to succeed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who will be term-limited in 2009. I didn’t see the article online, but a reader faxed me a copy of it, which gives (of course) special prominence to the Brooklyn candidates for the job, including Sara Gonzalez, Vincent Gentile and Leticia James.

But there are other candidates worth acknowledging, like Dan Garodnick and likely incoming member Denny Farrell, both of Manhattan.  read more »

Here is a one-minute interview with Assemblyman-elect Micah Kellner circa 11 p.m. last night after giving his victory speech to supporters at a bar on Second Avenue. He says it’s great to be a 28-year-old heading into public office, hopes to vote for a gay marriage bill, and wants to block development of a waste transfer station on East 91st Street.

Among the people celebrating Kellner's victory last night were his old boss, Comptroller Bill Thompson, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Council members Dan Gardonick, Jessica Lappin, and Vinny Gentile, to name a few. Not there was one of his key consultants, Evan Stavisky, who spent most of his day overseeing the election of several candidates in local New Jersey primaries.

Practically every major Democrat in the city was at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue yesterday afternoon to announce the formation of a what they say is the largest housing coalition in the city’s history.

The group, New York Is Our Home, includes labor and tenant groups, the Working Families Party and others.

The most heated rhetoric (video here) came from the Central Labor Council's Ed Ott, who said, “The price of housing in this city is effectively theft” and that affordable housing units, like the ones in Stuyvesant Town behind him, “are being stolen by the greed of developers and the market.”

Which drew applause and energetic head nods from the crowd of elected officials behind him.

In attendance at the rally were Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Betsy Gotbaum, Tom Duane, John Sabini, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Keith Wright, Jonathan Bing, Linda Rosenthal, Dan Garodnick, Eric Gioia and Charles Barron, among others. Most of them spoke but none matched Ott’s directness.

After the speeches, the group formed a human chain around Stuy Town, which is several blocks long, and marched down to Union Square.

Practically every major Democrat in the city was at the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue yesterday afternoon to announce the formation of a what they say is the largest housing coalition in the city’s history.

The group, New York Is Our Home, includes labor and tenant groups, the Working Families Party and others.

The most heated rhetoric (video here) came from the Central Labor Council's Ed Ott, who said, “The price of housing in this city is effectively theft” and that affordable housing units, like the ones in Stuyvesant Town behind him, “are being stolen by the greed of developers and the market.”

Which drew applause and energetic head nods from the crowd of elected officials behind him.

In attendance at the rally were Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, Betsy Gotbaum, Tom Duane, John Sabini, Ruben Diaz, Jr., Keith Wright, Jonathan Bing, Linda Rosenthal, Dan Garodnick, Eric Gioia and Charles Barron, among others. Most of them spoke but none matched Ott’s directness.

After the speeches, the group formed a human chain around Stuy Town, which is several blocks long, and marched down to Union Square.

UPDATE: Adolfo Carrion, Brian Kavanagh and Adam Clayton Powell IV also attended.