The city Campaign Finance Board just announced its latest round of fines, with Virginia Fields leading the pack.

Fields' 2005 mayoral campaign was fined $70,567, mostly for not responding to a draft audit in a timely fashion (112 days late!). She was also fined $5,727 for spending $57,272 on “non-campaign related and impermissible post-election expenditures.”

Other notable fines: Adolfo Carrion’s 2005 campaign for Bronx Borough President was fined $6,875, mostly for accepting over-the-limit contributions. Eric Gioia was fined $5,050, mostly for the same reason.

Maureen Casey, Vice President at Giuliani Partners.

Dennis Rivera, president of SEIU 1199, whose members work in hospitals through out New York state, some of which may be closed because of recommendations from an independent panel due out in December.

John Kest, head organizer for left-leaning housing advocates, ACORN.

Alan Van Capel, head of the Empire State Pride Agenda.

C. Virginia Fields.

Bruce Raynor, president of UNITE HERE.

Joyce Brown, wife of Carl McCall and head of the Fashion Institute of Technology.

David Paterson and Eliot Spitzer will address advocates at St. Francis College about their plan to address domestic violence in New York State.

Marty Markowitz and Jerry Nadler endorse Alec Brook-Krasny for the 46th Assembly district on the steps of Brooklyn Borough Hall.

She raised around $100,000 yesterday at an event at the Yale Club, a sum that her handlers say will make her the money leader in the race to replace David Paterson.

The outcome of the contest featuring two well-known Harlem officials -- Fields, who left her borough presidency because of term limits, and Perkins, who left his council seat because of term limits -- will hardly produce a tectonic shift in the balance of power in Albany.

When David Paterson won election to his father's old seat in 1985 at the age of 31, much was made of the notion that he was part of a new crop of emerging black leaders from a post-civil rights generation.

Capel toyed with the idea of running for it before withdrawing his name in March, citing "the large influence of money and challenges that face new leadership."

There's a lot of personal affection for Charles Barron among the unions that would like to punish Ed Towns for voting for the Central America Free Trade Agreement and being absent on important, close budget votes. But there's not a lot of confidence at the moment that Charles can win. Unions continue to search for a candidate with greater fundraising strength and greater electoral appeal in Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene and Williamsburg, and hope that Charles might reconsider running if he sees a stronger candidate emerge (as he, gracefully, for example, did to support Virginia Fields).

Between organized labor and online groups*, there's a significant amount of money available for a viable challenger against Towns (who really is viewed as a sellout). Defeating Towns would send a message of discipline that would be heard throughout the House Democratic caucus.

But Charles has a chicken-and-egg problem. He can't win without *at least* $500k, but he probably can't raise $500k unless there is confidence he can win.

On the other hand, even an under-funded Barron effort would give Towns a scare and force him to work hard for re-election - and keep him from straying from a progressive, pro-labor agenda. And that would be no small accomplishment.

*You've probably seen that the netroots have raised $130k for Henry Cuellar's Democratic primary challenger: http://www.actblue.com/list/CiroforCongress

But Freddy's preparatory breakfast with Charlie Rangel, Virginia Fields, and Billy Thompson up at Sylvia's this morning did offer a clue as to why, quietly, many Democrats are wondering how much this line of attack actually helps.

Charlie Rangel, never shy of racial politics, defended them this morning, Politicker intern David Greenhouse reports:

Virginia, too, saw a broader, and also purely ethnic theme in the debate debate:

(Freddy's response to Virginia: "I'm glad I don't have to debate against you anymore.")

It was, one reader with long experience in black politics points out, a rarity: a public airing of a political grievance between two leaders, the sort of thing that -- whatever the hard feelings -- would never occur between, say, Sharpton and Charlie Rangel.

What else this statistic is good for remains a bit unclear.