Here’s a shot from an event in Brooklyn yesterday where central Brooklyn lawmakers who supported Barack Obama in the February 5 primary announced they’re endorsing Representative Ed Towns for reelection.

“I made the decision to support Senator Obama because of his message of change,” said State Senator John Sampson, in a public statement. “I made the decision to support Congressman Towns for this same reason. Towns’ seniority in Congress enables him to build strong relationships and alliances in order to bring the change needed that will move our great borough forward.”

The other elected officials included Towns' son, Assemblyman Darryl Towns; State Senators Eric Adams and Kevin Parker; State Assemblymen Hakeem Jeffries and Karim Camara; and Borough President Marty Markowitz.  read more »

Democratic Congressional challenger Kevin Powell has been linking himself to Barack Obama in one way or another for some time now. But his effort to compare himself to the presidential nominee may suffer after tomorrow.

At 2 p.m. at Brooklyn Borough Hall, a number of local elected officials who are also Obama supporters--State Senators Eric Adams, Kevin Parker and John Sampson, along with Assembly members Karim Camara and Hakeem Jeffries--will be endorsing incumbent Ed Towns for re-election.

UPDATE: Powell fund-raiser Arthur Leopold responding by first noting that the Towns campaign put the wrong district number in the release--it says the 13th, but Towns represents the 10th Congressional district.  read more »

How many black elected officials from Brooklyn were at the rally for Barack Obama on the City Hall steps this afternoon?

Enough that State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem muttered to himself at the podium, “Oh man, we’re going to have to mix this up a bit.” He then introduced state Senator Eric Adams--who's from Brooklyn.  read more »

John Sampson, a Democratic state Senator from Brooklyn who is often aligned with the party establishment there, says he's sure the Democratic Party will be able to avert any Spitzer-Cuomo showdown in 2010.

“I don’t think Cuomo is going to do that,” Sampson just told me when asked about Cuomo possibly challenging Spitzer for governor. "There is not going to be any internal fighting. We remember what our purpose is. We’re going to be able to deal with any internal feuds.”

The purpose he was referring to, he said, was reforming Albany and taking over the state Senate.

“You look at the record, there is no controversy," he said. "Eliot is the governor. Andrew Cuomo knows he’s the Attorney General. I’m quite sure he’ll be running for re-election for Attorney General.  read more »

I just got off the phone with Travis Proulx, spokesman for state Senator Liz Krueger, one of the three people whose name was attached to that IRS letter about Joe Bruno.

Although the names of Senators Krueger, John Sampson and Valmanette Montgomery - all members of the finance committee - were attached to the letter, they “did not draft a single word of it,” he said.

Proulx said it was being shopped around to see who would want to sign onto it. None did. Proulx said he does not know who actually wrote it but what is clear is that nobody supported it.

“The big objection is the letter talks about personal gains from state aircraft,” rather than discussing the “political gains.” He added, “They did not write a word of this letter and killed it once they saw it.”

But the issue about using the state aircraft is still weighing on the minds of senators, according to Proulx.

Bruno “shouldn’t be using tax-payer funded state aircraft to raise money for the Republican party. But if the law allows it, we can gripe all we want about it” until the law is changed, Proulx said.

The state Senate is schedule to go back into session on the 22nd. A spokesman for Joe Bruno just told me an agenda for that session is not yet available.

Here is a copy of the letter John Sampson, Liz Krueger and Velmanette Montgomery drafted with the aim of getting the IRS to investigate Joe Bruno.

It reads, in part:

“Both Attorney General Cuomo’s report and the recent disclosure by the Albany Times-Union suggests that Senator Bruno has repeatedly used the aircraft for travel that was not primarily for bona fide state business and as such, we believe that he should be reporting imputed income for unreimbursed travel as members of the New York State Senate, we urge you to conduct a review into Senator Bruno’s use of the aircraft and his obligation and his obligation to pay federal income taxes on the fair market value of the unreimbursed non-official portion of his travel.”

Malcolm Smith released a statement reaffirming the fact that he (and others) have suspicions about Bruno’s travel, but saying that he decided not to pursue the issue because “it would be a distraction from us getting back to the people's business.”

Smith's full statement is after the jump.  read more »

According to a Democratic source in the Senate, Smith is expected to name John Sampson of Brooklyn as Chair of the Senate minority conference, replacing the twice-indicted Efrain Gonzalez of the Bronx.

UPDATE: John Sampson just called to say that he was offered the leadership position, but that he turned it down and that it was subsequently accepted by Martin Dilan.

"I just declined. I just turned it down," he said. "I'm a type of person that, I'm not looking for a leadership position, I'm just looking to serve my constituents."

Just last year, Assemblyman Dov Hikind campaigned, hard, against the incumbent district attorney, Joe Hynes, and for the organization candidate, John Sampson.

Here they are:

Field won 70 AD (barely) over Ferrer. That's her home district. (And two others. Jerry corrects here.) Miller came in 2nd in only 3 ADs - 65 & 73 (in his Council District) and 50 (Williamsburg-Greenpoint).

Norman Siegel won 3 ADs: 39 (Jackson Hts-Corona), 52 (Brooklyn Heights), 57 (Ft. Greene).

Will it work? I asked.