A former press guy for Howard Dean and Mark Green endorsed Assembly challenger Paul Newell, surrogate candidate Nora Anderson, and incumbent State Senator Marty Connor.

Brooklyn Papers endorsed Kevin Powell for congress, Dan Squadron over Marty Connor for State Senate, and Mike McMahon for congress.

Newell attacked Sheldon Silver’s spokesman for trashing a mailing sent by a Republican-funded organization.

And Streetsblog offers its own spin on what Silver has done for lower Manhattan, which they say isn’t much.

Many city Democrats are heading out to Denver in the next few days, but not Mike McMahon.

A spokesman for the councilman from Staten Island, who is the party and New York Times-backed candidate in the 13th District Congressional race, said he'll be campaigning in the district instead.

McMahon's chances in the race look good--he's leading primary opponent Steve Harrison by a huge margin (64-18 percent) and neither of the Republican candidates for the open seat are particularly promising.

In a contrasting example, Representative Ed Towns, who is also facing a challenger, is very much going, as part of an ongoing effort to associate himself publicly with Barack Obama after having endorsed Hillary Clinton.  read more »

Last night’s online town hall with underdog Democratic Congressional candidate Steve Harrison was a mixed bag. Some participants asked, literally, how they could help. Others challenged Harrison’s core argument for running--that he’s the progressive Democrat challenging the conservative, party-backed Democratic Councilman Mike McMahon.

At one point, a reader challenged Harrison to explain donations he made to Republican candidates, part of why progressives question his credentials. (The 13th Congressional district leans conservative and is currently represented by the last Republican congressman in the city, Vito Fossella.)

His response:

“Between May and October 2002, I attended one fundraiser for each of Vito Fossella, John Faso for Comptroller and the Conservative Party because I was attempting to build multi-party support for my anticipated, non-partisan City Council Special Election race in February 2003.  read more »

Democratic Congressional candidate Steve Harrison will host an online town hall meeting tonight tomorrow at 8 p.m.

He’s running in the primary against the Democratic Party-backed candidate, City Councilman Mike McMahon, for the Staten Island seat Vito Fossella is leaving.

Since Jimmy Dahroug dropped out of a State Senate primary bid against Brian Foley on Long Island last week, the Harrison-McMahon primary is one of the last remaining races to pit a progressive Democrat against an establishment Democrat, although there used to be others. (It's worth noting that some observers question Harrison's progressive credentials .)

Adding intrigue is the fact that Harrison and McMahon are running in a fairly conservative district, the 13th, currently served by the last Republican congressman in the city.

What would, or will you, ask Harrison?

Here's a shot of Democratic Congressional candidate and City Councilman Mike McMahon pumping gas for voters in Staten Island today. (Upstate candidate and millionaire Jack Davis held a similar event, and paid for it).

I emailed the campaign to ask if McMahon supports the compromise energy bill in Congress that raises fuel efficiency standards, but also would permit expanded offshore drilling.

“Mike believes we need strong bipartisan efforts to find energy solutions, but would need to more carefully review this specific legislation before taking a position," campaign spokesman Anthony Hogrebe emailed.

A press release on the event today says McMahon wants to cut energy consumption, increase taxes on oil companies, and also has this section:

Expanding the Domestic Production of Oil and Gas.  read more »

Jerry Goldfeder, the election attorney who most recently worked for Andrew Cuomo, just won a court case decision from the city Board of Elections, where he was representing the Democratic Party of Staten Island. The organization's petitions for the judicial race in the borough had been challenged by Republicans.

It's a countywide seat, and among the Democratic candidates is Judith McMahon, wife of City Councilman Mike McMahon, the Democratic candidate the party is backing in the district's Congressional race. (Steve Harrison is also running in the primary).  read more »

The court B.O.E. decision paves the way for the judicial election to proceed, pitting Judith McMahon against Republican Joseph Maltese.]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/legal-victory-staten-island-mcmahons#comments Politics Jerry Goldfeder Judith McMahon Michael McMahon Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:08:29 -0400 Azi Paybarah 72623 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/mcmahon-gets-teachers-endorsement-and-quinn-staffer

One of Christine Quinn’s spokesman has taken a leave of absence and is now the interim director of communications for Democrat Mike McMahon’s Congressional campaign.

The spokesman, Anthony Hogrebe, was listed as the contact on a campaign press release announcing that McMahon has been endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers, which, according to the release, has 12,000 members in the district. McMahon is seeking to win the seat currently occupied by Vito Fossella, who is not running for reelection.

In a public statement, UFT's president, Randi Weingarten, said McMahon "is a champion for children and working people."

Before joining Quinn’s operation, Hogrebe worked on Gifford Miller’s 2005 mayoral campaign.

In other Quinn staffing news, her chief of staff, Maura Keaney, is expected to return from maternity leave in early September, according to another Quinn spokesman.

Michael Bloomberg, who won’t be at David Paterson’s O.T.B. press conference this afternoon, caught the attention of attendees at Mike McMahon’s press conference as he quietly left City Hall earlier today.

Congestion pricing isn't popular in Staten Island. So yesterday, when Staten Island Councilman Michael McMahon at the last minute decided to vote in favor of congestion pricing, it was a big deal in some circles, especially because his likely opponent in the 2009 borough president race, Republican Jimmy Oddo, voted against it.  read more »