The Morning Read: Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Hillary Clinton unveiled her $110 billion a year health care plan, which would largely be paid for by rolling back the Bush tax cuts. Clinton and her aides stressed that "there will be no new government bureaucracy.” Rudy Giuliani will speak to the NRA on Friday. President Bush’s AG nominee and Giuliani have a long history. There’s a budget fight coming soon. Financial disclosure statements released yesterday show the city comptroller is carrying a little bit of personal debt. The public advocate invests in “an arms manufacturer, a casino, drug companies and a cigarette maker.” Financial statements also show Christine Quinn owns a vacation home in New Jersey. More financial numbers are here. There are some judicial races in the city today. Here are the New York Times-endorsed candidates in the city. A full list of candidates running for public and party positions in the city today are here. Republicans and Democrats have a primary in the Onondaga County Executive’s race. There are some Republican and Conservative primaries in the Southern tier. There are primaries in Ulster, Sullivan and Orange County too. The mayor’s race in Oswego just got simpler. Assemblyman Brian Kolb, a Democrat Republican who used to be a Republican Democrat, will face a challenge next year from another Democrat who used to be a Republican. The city hired a criminal lawyer to defend itself with respect to the former Deutsche Bank fire. A Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission will collect testimony from refugees on Staten Island. Mitt Romney wants the U.N. to indict the president of Iran. The New York Sun editorial board doesn’t like Spitzer’s work on the horse racing franchise, saying it shows “disingenuousness cloaked in the mantle of ethical integrity.” Bill Hammond likes Hillary’s health care plan. And Karl Rove says Republicans can win on health care.