Silver's spokesman Jonathan Rosen e-mails, "More than 100 volunteers from across Lower Manhattan collected nearly 8,000 signatures to keep Shelly Silver as their voice in Albany." He also said that the Silver campaign has no plans to challenge anyone else's petitions.

The exact number of signatures required varies per district, but most Assembly candidates need only about 1,000 signatures to get on the ballot. Silver has two challengers also trying to get on the ballot.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who hasn’t faced a Democratic opponent in 22 years, was out campaigning this Sunday, a spokesman for his campaign confirmed.

“Assembly member Silver spent some time on Sunday with a longtime resident of Village View who introduced him to some of her neighbors to hear their concerns and talk about his record fighting to preserve affordable housing in Lower Manhattan,” said Silver campaign spokesman Jonathan Rosen in an e-mail.

Silver’s campaign previously said he would not campaign until the legislative session ended and "once we know who all the candidates will be.”

That second part is usually code for the July 10 deadline for petitions and whatever additional time it takes to challenge the validity of those petitions in court. It looks like Silver isn't waiting.

This year, he's facing two Democratic opponents: Luke “Skywalker” Henry and Paul “Obamawitz” Newell.

With all the talk about Sheldon Silver's efforts during the congestion pricing fight to keep his members happy, it's easy to overlook the fact that he's been quietly tending to his other constituents—the ones who will, barring a shock upset, vote to return him to his seat on the Lower East Side later this year.

A reader passed along this ad for Silver, which appeared in this week’s issue of Downtown Express.

A spokesman for Silver’s campaign said it was paid for by the campaign and ads like this have appeared throughout the past decade. (His campaign finances show he has run ads as early as February in any given year.)

Silver is facing two Democratic primary challengers this year, and may have inspired a billionaire mayor (and his top political aide) to look at the race anew.

Here's spokesman Jonathan Rosen's e-mailed explanation:  read more »

In case you were wondering, the departure of State Democratic Party co-chair Dave Pollak does not mean Hillary Clinton's superdelegate count is down. That's because Pollak, a committed Clinton superdelegate, will be replaced by Reggie LaFayette, who is now the party’s second highest-ranking member.

In other words, this is different than the unexpected departure of Eliot Spitzer. David Paterson was already a superdelegate for Clinton, so his ascension to governor resulted in the net-loss of one.  read more »

After his press conference this morning, Eliot Spitzer took one on-topic question and departed, leaving reporters with queries on and more than a few topics. And although he is expected to make a few remarks at his major fund-raiser tonight, a spokesman for Spitzer said the governor will not take questions from reporters.

Unlike the usual arrangement with Spitzer fund-raisers, communications firm Berlin Rosen is handling the media for tonight's event. (The same firm also works for the state Democratic Party). Jonathan Rosen, a principal at the firm, told me the they are not on retainer with the Spitzer 2010 campaign, but are working “on an as-needed basis.”

This is, apparently, a time of need.

Boy, are the New York Democrats looking forward to the convention.

Here's an email from Jonathan Rosen about hotel assignments for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver:

Dear Usual Suspects,
 
Remember that moment when you found out your dorm assignment and the name of your roommate.  Me too.  Brett Hall.  Dan Ross.
 
This is sort of like that except it involves knowing which lobby bar in Denver you will be inhabiting in late August, 2008.
 
Today the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) made hotel assignments.  Regardless of who gets nominated, we’ve got room keys. 
 
The NY delegation will be staying at the Adams Mark Hotel at 1550 Court Pl in Downtown Denver.  In a rekindling of other epic East Coast / West Coast rivalries (think Tupac / Biggie, June O’Neill / Robert Dornan) the California delegation will also be staying there.   

The rest of the email is after the jump.  read more »

The latest round of stories questioning Joe Bruno's use of state aircraft is making it a little easier for state Democrats to push their argument that it's Bruno, not Eliot Spitzer, who has been behaving suspiciously.

As consultant Jonathan Rosen told me on IM just now, "I think it made clear that Joe Bruno is a hypocrite with questionable ethics who has abused taxpayer dollars since you and I were in junior high school."

(In case you're wondering: for me, junior high was 1990 to 1992. Bruno became the Majority Leader of the state Senate in 1995. But you get the point.)

The state Democratic Party has just gone one step past the Whitewater analogy, reaching for another recent American lowlight to characterize the ongoing Republican pursuit of Eliot Spitzer.

Here's a statement from consultant Jonathan Rosen in response to Republican state Senator George Winner's call for another hearing:

“These guys just don’t know when to quit. The Senate Republicans holding an ethics hearing is like O.J. searching for the real killer. Senate Republicans should end the partisan theatrics and join the Governor in getting back to work on the real issues that matter to working families. Let’s end the show trial, leave the investigating to the investigators, and get back to work.”

I've got a story in this week's paper looking at how the state Democrats are unrolling a coordinated response to the continuing Republican probe into Eliot Spitzer's Brunogate problems by branding it the new Whitewater.

“I think you saw in the 90’s a sort of never-ending investigation of Bill Clinton, and it created a widespread national consensus in support of Bill Clinton, and people who were bringing these charges get tossed out of power,” said Democratic consultant Jonathan Rosen, who was recently hired by the state Democratic Party.

Roger Stone, the former CREEP operative who currently works for the Senate Republicans, seemed amused at the analogy. “We also tried to say that Watergate was a third-rate burglary,” he said.  read more »

As spokesman Stu Loeser hastened to point out yesterday, it was only the city's data that enabled advocates to create the report, which shows in black-and-white terms that the city has fallen short of the benchmarks the mayor set in reducing chronic homelessness.

You have to say one thing, assuming the administration's numbers are correct: they're certainly willing to take their lumps in the interests of data-based transparency.