Anthony Weiner

Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist likes what he hears from Representative Anthony Weiner about eliminating earmarks in Congress.

“[Having earmarks] changes the nature of who a congressman is. All of a sudden, he is a favor factory,” Norquist told me.  read more »

Here's a debate to watch for as the 2009 mayor's race gets going.

The New York Post editorial board today praised Anthony Weiner's position on the reform of City Council member items, which Weiner recently said he opposes, along with congressional earmarks.  read more »

Representative Anthony Weiner, a devout Hillary Clinton supporter, recalls for News Forum host Jay DeDapper what it was like meeting Barack Obama on the floor of Congress the other day:

From a transcript sent over by the studio:  read more »

Despite the recent acquittal of the three police officers on trial for the death of Sean Bell, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly still leads the pack of potential mayoral contenders, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.

That seems in part due to his name recognition and in part because most voters probably aren't thinking about a race that's still a year and a half away. Considering also that most candidates haven't even declared, the significance of the results are limited.  read more »

Here’s a clip from a breakfast in Lower Manhattan this morning hosted by the Hispanics in Real Estate and Construction, where likely mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner conceded nothing on what one organizer said was “one of the most important items on our agenda.”
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Just when I thought Betsy Gotbaum had the best YouTubes, here's Eric Gioia out with a minimalist video featuring documentarian Morgan Spurlock (he's the Super Size Me guy, but he also has a new movie about looking for Osama Bin Laden.)

In a bit of interesting timing, Christine Quinn is having a fund-raiser on April 24 in Manhattan at the home of David Durst, a Hillary Clinton contributor.

Quinn, a likely mayoral candidate who shaped her public image as a reformer, has spent the last couple of weeks responding to a budgeting scandal at the City Council.

One of her likely mayoral rivals, Bill Thompson, has been critical of the Council, and by extension, Quinn. The other likely participant in the race, Anthony Weiner, has stayed notably quiet on the matter.

Here's the invitation, which was forwarded to me by a reader who received it yesterday afternoon:  read more »

Likely mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner released a summary of his tax returns just now. From his spokesman:

Weiner earned $152,996 of income in the year 2007. He made payments of $13,900 in New York City/State taxes and $24,300 in Federal taxes.

Longshot (but announced!) mayoral candidate Tony Avella already released his, while Bill Thompson and Christine Quinn have not.  read more »

Christine Quinn will announce shortly that she has reached a deal with the Bloomberg administration on a plan to restructure the Department for the Aging.

Michael Bloomberg's plan to overhaul the system of city senior centers, partly by closing many of them, and discontinuing a hot meals-on-wheels program has drawn criticism from advocates for the elderly.  read more »

Anthony Weiner, who opposed congestion pricing before Michael Bloomberg officially unveiled it, is (again!) taking the high road today.

Weiner, a likely mayoral candidate, released a statement saying, "Today may close a chapter on congestion pricing, but hopefully not the book on improving New York City's environment, reducing congestion, and raising additional revenue for mass transit. While the sides were clearly drawn, it's now time to come together to find solutions to these important challenges.”

Marty Markowitz, who might also run for mayor, was a less emphatic opponent. In the wake of its near-certain failure, the characteristically outspoken Brooklyn borough president links himself to Bloomberg and notes that he had several proposals that, he says, would have made the plan better:  read more »

Here's a shot from a congestion pricing forum in Brooklyn last night, where Anthony Weiner made an unannounced appearance, alongside likely mayoral rival, and fellow critic, Tony Avella (far right). In the middle, that's Steve Harrison, another critic of the plan and current candidate for congress.  read more »

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Here’s video of Christine Quinn explaining how the $4.7 million her aides diverted to fake organizations was spent on “mid-year budget needs.”

She goes on to say that the practice of “holding” money "in reserve" is done by “numerous city agencies.”

Citizens Against Government Waste published its annual list of congressional earmarks (they actually call it the Congressional Pig Book list).

Of course, what one person calls wasteful spending, another person calls bringing home the bacon, and now that Democrats are in the majority, New York was supposed to be getting more federal money.

The state made out with a good portion, particularly in the Catskills, where Maurice Hinchey brought in $43.7 million.

Here is a list of what some members from New York, and a few from elsewhere, brought their districts, according to the list. (It's in numbers of millions):  read more »

Council member Tony Avella, a congestion pricing opponent and, as of Sunday, longshot mayoral candidate, was on WNYC this morning discussing his theory of how the measure passed the City Council.

With characteristic outspokenness, Avella told Brian Lehrer, “We did have the votes [to block it], until the mayor and the speaker started leaning on people, or shall we saying influencing? Or bribing people, depending on how you want to look at it.” When Lehrer asked how he saw it, Avella replied, “I look at it as bribing people.”

Avella has identified the three main issues of his mayoral campaign as taxes, overdevelopment and education, but his real niche, such as it is, will be as a foil for the better-financed -- and more typically disciplined -- competitors like Christine Quinn, who’s expected to announce eventually.

During the radio interview this morning, Avella insisted on answering questions about congestion pricing from his office phone and then switching to his cell phone to talk about his campaign, to avoid using government property while stumping. It's the sort of off-beat behavior that might not get him elected, but should, at least, serve to distinguish him from his competitors.  read more »

Here’s a shot from the breakfast hosted Sunday morning by the Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations on the West Side, which, as Grace Rauh noted, attracted nearly every 2009 candidate for citywide office.  read more »

Anthony Weiner, who has been taking a pass on ribbing the mayor, has a new target: Albany.  read more »

Has anyone else noticed that Anthony seems a lot more, well, serious lately?

Perhaps fittingly for a maybe-front-runner for mayor, he seems to have toned down the old act, purposefully passing up opportunities to crack wise at the expense of his opponents.

For example: I asked Weiner to comment on Michael Bloomberg’s $500,000 donation to Republicans in Albany—a solid opening for the old Anthony Weiner, especially given the fact that his two likely mayoral opponents, Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson, were so recessive in their on-the-record reactions.  read more »

This Sunday, likely mayoral candidates Bill Thompson and Anthony Weiner are among those expected to deliver remarks at a breakfast organized by the West Side Community of Orthodox Jewish Organizations.

Notably absent from the invitation is Christine Quinn, another likely mayoral candidate who does, after all, represent parts of the West Side.

The March 30 event is taking place at the New York Historical Society, and will also include remarks from Representative Jerry Nadler and a tribute to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.  read more »

Here's Tony Avella's first (probably not last) mayoral video.  read more »

It’s a pretty crowded room upstairs in the City Council chambers, where testimony about congestion pricing is being given by city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and the Director of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, Rohit Aggarwala.

In one exchange, Aggarwala told City Councilman Robert Jackson, “[Y]ou don’t have to get 20 percent of the people off the road to have 20 percent reduction in traffic.” She continued, “Sometimes, if you take one or two cars off, it takes a crowded, congested condition and it turns it into traffic that can flow.”  read more »

 

The politics of congestion pricing is nearing a boiling point and opponents continue to make the case for a different approach to traffic reduction.

There are, of course other ways of reducing congestion, but Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal has the advantage of generating new resources for mass transit.

On Friday, our new Governor, David Paterson, demonstrated political courage and came out in favor of the plan to charge drivers for entering New York’s Central Business district during the work day. He joins City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno in support of the bill. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has yet to be heard from.

However, lots of prominent politicians are opposing all or part of the Mayor’s plan.

Today, New York's City Council begins formal consideration of the proposal.  read more »

After a few months of relative inactivity, Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing-touting road show is back in full force, pressing the topic nonstop, presumably ending with the March 31 deadline (which now seems to have become April 7) to gain approval or jeopardize more than $350 million in federal funds.

This morning the mayor hit up a Crain’s breakfast forum at the Ritz Carlton downtown, appearing with the secretary of the federal Department of Transportation, Mary Peters, to recite the now very familiar arguments for the plan.

From the Ritz, the mayor and Ms. Peters went to hop aboard the Staten Island Ferry (they took SUVs the few blocks to the terminal), after which they were scheduled to demonstrate a signaling system in Staten Island that could be part of a bus rapid transit program should congestion pricing happen.
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Michael Bloomberg was in rare form this morning at the Crain’s business breakfast in midtown, where the mayor lashed out at two of his least favorite entities: Anthony Weiner and reporters.

In response to Weiner‘s assertion that the mayor’s congestion pricing plan would lead to reduced federal aid for transportation, Bloomberg said:  read more »

A Quinnipiac poll released this morning finds that, among possible mayoral candidates, Ray Kelly is favored by 22 percent of respondents. He's followed, in order, by Anthony Weiner, Marty Markowitz, Christine Quinn, Betsy Gotbaum and Bill Thompson.

Polls at this stage in an election cycle should be taken with a massive grain of salt (as in, many of these candidates haven't officially declared they are going to run for mayor yet, and Betsy Gotbaum has said she won't run), but it seems to say something, at least, about Kelly's potential if he ever chose to get in. Also, although the poll was taken without listing party affiliations for the candidates, it is expected that Kelly would run as a Republican.

More of the release after the jump.  read more »

Anthony Weiner, a mayoral candidate who has no particular love for Michael Bloomberg, was the guest on Curtis Sliwa’s radio show, which replaced the John Gambling show that had featured Michael Bloomberg weekly for six years.

Bloomberg’s absence was fodder for Weiner and Sliwa, who had this exchange:

Sliwa:  read more »

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St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and so is the big parade, meaning it's once again for local politicians to make a statement one way or another on the organizers' decision not to allow gays to participate under their own banner.

I asked a few possible citywide candidates about their parade plans, and here’s what I heard back so far.

Mayoral candidates:

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One last clip from last night’s congestion pricing debate. Here's Richard Brodsky saying that if congestion pricing comes to pass before the 2009 mayoral elections, Anthony Weiner, who opposes it, will get elected.  read more »

Bill Thompson has a problem with congestion pricing.

Here’s part of the transcript from a television interview Thompson did this morning with NBC’s Jay DeDapper which will air on Sunday:

Mr. THOMPSON: I've got some problems with it. I mean...
DeDAPPER: Name one big problem you have.

Mr. THOMPSON: Well, how do you allow deductibility of tolls for people
coming in through the George Washington Bridge and coming in from Jersey...

DeDAPPER: Like the Holland Tunnel, right.

Mr. THOMPSON: ...and Long Island, and at the same point, you say to New
Yorkers, you have to dig deeper in your pocket? You know, those are the sins of the city. I mean, I think there's an unfairness there. So that was one of the big complaints I had before. I still have that complaint. I just think it's unfair to New Yorkers.

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Adolfo Carrion's communications director, Mike Murphy, is leaving for a job with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

While it's a loss for Carrion, it's something of a win that Murphy wasn't hired by another city comptroller candidate.

That's more or less what happened with John Collins, who was hired by Anthony Weiner, a likely mayoral candidate.

Collins had recently worked for two possible mayoral candidates before going to Weiner: Christine Quinn and Betsy Gotbaum (who had been considered a longshot candidate until this interview put that notion to rest).

Murphy's email after the jump.  read more »

Hillary Clinton’s "national town hall" in New York on Monday will air on the Hallmark channel in the 22 states voting on February 5th.

On a conference call with reporters just now, campaign spokesman Blake Zeff said it was the “culmination” of the technological outreach they’ve employed since the campaign began.  read more »

Speculation that Washington’s two most eligible singles—Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fashionable traveling aide Huma Abedin and New York’s dashing bachelor Congressman Anthony Weiner—are dating has become “common knowledge” among the campaign press corp, according to a reporter on the trail.

Reached for comment by the Transom, Mr. Weiner, who has reportedly stepped out with television hostess Alli Joseph and ABC correspondent Gigi Stone, opted not to deny the rumors. “I’ve got nothing for you on this, buddy,” he said.  read more »

At the midtown Hilton last Thursday, an absolute who’s who of New York City real estate descended upon the building’s grand ballroom to nibble on crab cakes, rub elbows with competitors and chow down a big hunk of steak at the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual awards gala. Milling among the tuxedo-clad crowd—with seats alongside REBNY’s executive board, no less—were three individuals who have been getting to know the real estate industry rather well recently, the leading potential Democratic mayoral candidates, City Comptroller William Thompson Jr., U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

For the first time in over a decade, the real estate industry is flexing its muscle in the early stages of a mayoral race, with developers and landlords dumping dollars into the campaigns of the three leading contenders.  read more »

On Wednesday, Jan. 23, in Washington D.C., writers from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” will be staging a mock debate about the writers strike, called “the State of the Union.”  read more »

Here’s the fund-raising email Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh of Manhattan sent to supporters this morning, in which he says he welcomes even $5 donations:

"In fact, I'm committed to relying more on smaller contributions and have unilaterally accepted the lower contribution limit that applies to federal campaigns, even though the limit under state law is 65 percent higher," Kavanagh wrote.

The people in charge of the fund-raiser is The Esler Group, which is also involved with mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, Lt. Governor (and Senate hopeful) David Paterson, as well as number of other candidates.

Full email is after the jump.  read more »

While Hillary Clinton delivered her closing argument to voters in Cedar Rapids, I asked Representative Anthony Weiner, who is out here campaigning for her, what he thought about Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s criticisms of the presidential candidates today.

“If he thinks there is a vacuum for good ideas, I don’t think he has looked at the candidates carefully, including his own senator,” said Weiner, who is all but certainly running to succeed Bloomberg as mayor. When I asked him if he thought Bloomberg would run for president, he suggested the mayor would be shirking his current responsibilities if he did so: “Hillary will be our nominee and then we’ll see. If the mayor wants to run, that’s fine, some of us are focused on the candidate we support, and the future of the city.”

More after the jump.  read more »

“I made the mistake of going on-line yesterday trying to find a rental car, just so I can be more useful,” Representative Anthony Weiner, who is joining a number of New York electeds for Hillary Clinton in the Hawkeye state, told me. “There’s like, no cars anywhere in the state. It’s amazing. I even tried Omaha. There’s no Omaha cars."

He spoke about what points he'll be pushing once he gets there. "[I will] kind of articulate the whole notion of this being reminiscent of [Clinton's Senate campaign in] 2000, where there were a lot of people suspicious of her on the same level that people are in Iowa," Weiner said. "Some of the same arguments were made about her to voters, and she proved them all wrong. I can make that argument.”

“I’m not going to be doing speeches and things," he said of his assignment. "I’m probably going to get the same list of 'ones' and 'twos' and go knocking on doors like everyone else."

Congressman Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate with lots of internet and financial support but not much sway in the polls, is looking for delegates from two congressional districts in the city.

Here's an email that went out on Christmas Eve:  read more »

Frustrated by what they regard as press under-attention to negative storylines about Barack Obama, the Clinton campaign is absolutely committed to taking Obama to task on the non-committal "present" votes he cast as a state senator in Illinois.

As expected, that was the message to come out of a Clinton campaign conference call on Dec. 20 in which the Clinton press team and some surrogates used the votes to attack Obama's courage, ambition and experience.

Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio started by mocking Mr. Obama for his "present" votes.

"Yes or no should be an easy answer," she said, adding that the reason the campaign was so focused on this issue was that the "President of the United States needs to take a tough stand on tough issues -- not to say 'I'm here.'"

Representative Anthony Weiner of New York offered especially biting remarks, even bringing up the recent controversial comment of President Clinton regarding the risks inherent in voting for Mr. Obama.

"Clinton correctly framed this as something of a roll of the dice," said Mr. Weiner.  read more »

“Buenas noches!” exclaimed Congressman Anthony Weiner to the mostly Dominican crowd gathered on a recent evening in an all-purpose room at the Isabella Geriatric Center in Washington Heights. The congressman bounded to the front of the room, where Councilman Miguel Martinez, who represents the area, was waiting.

“Immigration isn’t just a problem for people in New York,” said Mr. Weiner, who is 43.  read more »

A reader dropped off this invitation for Lt. Governor David Paterson’s December 20th fund-raiser on West End Avenue and 90th Street. Tickets start at $250.

The event is hosted by Ricki Lieberman, a noted fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton. It's organized by The Esler Group, a busy firm that's helping to bring in money for candidates like mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner.

 

Adolfo Carrion's fellow comptroller candidate, David Weprin, welcomed Carrion to the race yesterday by way of some remarks on his own qualifications:

“I still stand on my financial credentials, and in the end, I think that‘ll be very significant," he told me. "I served as Deputy Superintendent of Banks under Cuomo. I was in senior positions in municipal finance on Wall Street. I chaired the Security Industry Association’s New York district. And I’ve been head of the Finance Committee in the City Council for the last six years. So, I think those credentials can stand on their own.”

He went on, “I think in the position of comptroller, there’s less ethnic politics involved than, say, the office of mayor where ethnicity plays a bigger role. So, I don’t think it’s going to breakdown along those lines.”

Also running for comptroller: Melinda Katz, David Yassky, Jim Brennan, and (all but announced) Simcha Felder. Other than Carrion, all of them are from Brooklyn or Queens and except for Brennan and Carrion, all are Jewish.

Glen Caplin, the spokesman who has been with Congressman Anthony Weiner since the mayoral race in 2005, is leaving to take a job with Rubenstein Associates.

In an emailed statement Caplin said, “Anthony has been a great mentor for the past 2 1/2 years, and it's been a tremendous experience. But I'm excited about the opportunity to dive back into the private sector end of the pool with a legend such as Howard and his outstanding team of people."

In other staffing news, Weiner has picked up a new chief of staff, Geoff Plague, who has previously worked as a legislative director for Senator Byron Dorgan, Representative Steny Hoyer and Representative Rob Andrews.

Plague fills the vacancy created after Kay Sarlin left. She's now at Glover Park.

At a business breakfast this morning, Congressman Anthony Weiner took a veiled swipe at Christine Quinn, but passed when given a chance to criticize Michael Bloomberg.

From the podium, and in a Q&A with reporters, Weiner said politicians who are interested in running for mayor (like himself), shouldn't be "coy" about their intentions.

More after the jump.  read more »