Syracuse

State GOP Executive Director Ryan Moses, who backed Bill Weld over party-nominee John Faso, will leave his job Dec. 1 to become the director of government relations at a Syracuse-based law firm.

August 11 is the day to be in Iowa if you're a GOP White House hopeful.

A Q poll today measuring the popularity of national leaders finds John Kerry wanting.

Ben sees Hillary's ghost writer as something of a metaphor.

Greg Sargent condemns the tendency of reporters "to let McCain off the hook for pandering, usually to the right, because he supposedly doesn't actually mean what he says when he's doing it," and calls it something dirty.

Iraq is in a civil war, according to Matt Lauer.

Republicans are dangerous to your health, according to Daily Gotham.

Karol Sheinin wants to "spit on Charles Barron."

Health care in the US gets low marks in a recent Gallup poll.

The families of Eliot Spitzer and Bill Mulrow vacationed together last year, adding an element of personal intrigue to the incoming governor's decisions on a) whether to install Mulrow to replace Alan Hevesi as comptroller, if it comes to that, and b) whether to approve the takeover of New York's race tracks by a syndicate in which Mulrow is a principal.

And above is the invitation to Bloomberg's holiday party for the press corps.

-- Azi Paybarah

There are as yet no projected winners in the five most closely-watched House races in New York.

Democrats Mike Arcuri in the 24th District and Kristen Gillibrand in the 20th have jumped out to narrow early leads. Both seats have been eyed lustily by national Democrats as part of their effort to wrest the House from the GOP. Also, Dan Maffei, a former Congressional aide, is running even with incumbent Republican Jim Walsh in the Syracuse-area 25th District, and Eric Massa is slightly behind Republican incumbent Randy Kuhl in the 29th District.

With about 10 percent of the vote in, Tom Reynolds, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, holds an eight-point edge over Democrat Jack Davis in the 26th District, where the results figure to say something about the locals' response to Reynolds' role in the Mark Foley affair.

-- Steve Kornacki

There's been some question about whether the Green campaign has enough cash to air another ad in this, the home stretch of a race where polls have them trailing by double digits. Campaign spokesman Mark Benoit says they do, and that they will be airing this ad (which claims that Cuomo "failed to protect kids" and points out his connection to a "slumlord") in NYC through to Tuesday. A similar version will air in Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany.

Benoit says the buy is "fairly big."

--Jason Horowitz

Compared to recent weeks of laying low, apparently for fund-raising, Jeanine Pirro's last couple of days have made for a virtual frenzy of campaign activity. She was scheduled on Monday to meet with an editorial board, attend a woman's luncheon appear at a mixer at the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce.

Today, she's heading out to the Satmar stronghold of Kiryas Joel to pay her respect's to Boruch Wieder, 36, the late son of mayor Abe Wieder.

--Jason Horowitz

The Suozzi camp released another letter to Spitzer, and once again, the subject is debates.

May 25, 2006

Dear Attorney General Spitzer:

I'm pleased that you have agreed to debate me in New York City on July 25.

Still, I have to ask: Why only one debate? And why only in New York City?

With all the serious problems we have in New York-out-of-control property taxes, low-performing schools, disappearing jobs, and a lack of affordable housing-do we really think a single debate in New York City is enough?

I proposed a debate schedule that would enable voters in every region of the state to compare fully and fairly our records and visions for the future of New York. I am still following that schedule, and despite your absence in Ticonderoga two weeks ago, yesterday I was in Buffalo, ready for our 'second' debate.

The people of Ticonderoga deserve better and the people of Buffalo deserve better. Upstate voters are no less worthy of the right to scrutinize our records and take part in the democratic process than voters in New York City.

We are sending the people of Buffalo a terrible message: their city is good enough for our Party's closed convention, but not for a substantive debate between our Party's two candidates for Governor. We will both be in Buffalo next week: you will be in a hotel ballroom with party insiders; I will be outside that hotel, bringing my message of government reform directly to the people of New York.

Yesterday, we could have given the people of Buffalo an opportunity to judge us side-by-side. By not giving these voters that choice, you are not giving them or their democracy the respect they demand.

On June 14th, I will be in Syracuse for our 'third' debate. I hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Tom Suozzi Nassau County Executive

We have to give Suozzi points for perseverence. And in the interests of a nice, open election, we hope he gets his debates.

But at the same time, we continue to wonder whether this is really a productive message of the day.

—Jason Horowitz

The Republicans, the Times Union reports today, have a likely choice for Lieutenant Governor: former liberal Republican State Senator Nancy Larraine Hoffmann, who lost her Syracuse seat in a complicated three-way race a couple of years ago.

She is also, as far as I know, the only statewide candidate to have worked (if briefly) as what Marc Humbert delicately describes as a "go-go dancer." Which is fine, as long as she never tripped anyone in the playground.

The amount of work that the state's Service Employees International Union is doing for Andrew Cuomo continues to amaze.

Dan Rivera, a state committeeman from good old North Tonawanda, got a call yesterday around 8:30 a.m. from SEIU Local 200United in Syracuse. The man at the other end of the line was interested in one question of Rivera, who is not a member of the union:

"They wanted to know if I had made up my mind as to who I was going to support in the Attorney General's race," he told The Politicker.

Rivera, who is committed to backing Mark Green, said he was "annoyed."  read more »

"I'm kind of surprised anybody would be asking me a week out before my local elections what I'm planning to do in the Attorney General's race."

The strip of Third Avenue that runs between 29th and 38th streets in Manhattan is more than 1,500 mi  read more »

The  read more »

Our excellent Albany bureau (OK, it's the Times's Albany bureau, but let's not quibble.) takes a look today at the Republican State Senate majority's apparent decision to punish communities in Syracuse and East Harlem who committed the grave sin of electing Democratic legislators, a situation we wrote about last week.

The Times finally gets Majority Leader Joe Bruno's spokesman, John McArdle, on the record on this question. And while we're a little disappointed that Bruno hasn't yet realized that his stance on this issue is a major blow to his attempt to cast himself as a reformer, we have to admit we kind of admire John's style:  read more »

"'There is no timetable for the funds to flow,' Mr. McArdle said."

Here's a really astonishing story coming out of the Republicans' loss of three State Senate seats last year: It appears that the Senate Republicans are taking it out on the losers' constituents, from Syracuse to the Bronx.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reported today that, before the election, Nancy Larraine-Hoffmann promised grants to various groups, things like a local waterline extension in the town of Sennett.

She lost, and suddenly the grants -- which had already been promised in writing -- evaporated.

Now we're told the same thing is happening in East Harlem, where Jose M. Serrano beat Republican Olga Mendez.  read more »

"From the minute I got into office, I've been getting phone calls to my staff from different local organizations who are very concerned about grants that they were promised by Olga Mendez. Suddenly they're not getting them," Serrano told us.

"I really would rather hold harmless any of these groups that were looking to get support from the State Senator," he said. "It's pretty cynical."

"It seems to me that young girl memoirs get a bad rap," said Koren Zailckas, age 24.  read more »

In the last few weeks, the Senate race between Rudolph Giuliani and Hillary Clinton has focused on d  read more »

I recently celebrated the thrilling new production of King John for daring to be unafraid of Shakes  read more »