Roberto Ramirez

Here’s Sheldon Silver playfully introducing Democratic County Leader Jose Rivera, also an assemblyman, at the Bronx Democratic County Dinner last night.

Silver told the crowd that Rivera was “in the Assembly for five years and he went to Albany Medical Center and the doctor told him to go on light duty. So, he went to the City Council for 13 years. And then he was all cured and he came back. Now he’s working again real hard.”

“I say that in jest,” said Silver to Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Guests also included Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, likely Republican mayoral candidate John Catisimatidis (who had brief chats with Silver and Cuomo); City Council members Eric Gioia, John Liu, and David Weprin; Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV; and former county leader Roberto Ramirez.

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Here is the negative ad done by Roberto Ramirez and Luis Miranda of the Mirram Group on Eliot Spitzer's health care spending cuts.

Also finally got in touch with a spokesman for Mirram to ask, among other things, whether the commercial signaled a change in attitude towards Spitzer.

Citing company policy, he offered no comment.

Liz has the script here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Some of the television commercials slamming Eliot Spitzer's health care spending plan were made by Roberto Ramirez and Luis Miranda, consultants who helped elect him, according to an informed reader.

The ad, which I haven't seen yet, shows footage of a busy emergency room and suggests there could be long lines there if Spitzer's plan is enacted, according to my source. It's running on Channel 47.

Between November 2004 and November 2005, Ramirez and Miranda, who run Mirram Global LLC, were paid around $13,000 from Spitzer Paterson 2006

A spokesman for 1199 declined to comment and a message left for Ramirez and Miranda at their Manhattan office was not immediately returned.

-- Azi Paybarah

What did people think of Eliot Spitzer's first State of the State address?

Mike Bloomberg told reporters he looked through Spitzer's speech at 8:30 a.m. this morning and "there are very few things in the speech that I could ever quibble with. They'd only be in degrees."

About Ground Zero, which Spitzer said was developing at an unacceptable pace, he said, "It's coming along. Things are going well."

Tom Suozzi, Spitzer's rival in the Democratic primary, said that the new governor did great.

"It's an exciting agenda. It's going to be very tough, but if there's one person who can accomplish it, it's Governor Spitzer."

Roberto Ramirez, whose former chief of staff is now the secretary of state, declined to comment on Spitzer's policies, saying he stopped doing that since he left the assembly a couple of years ago.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky said that "90 percent" of what Eliot Spitzer proposed already passed the Assembly. Brodsky also noted that Spitzer didn't say what exactly constituted a gerrymandered district.

-- Azi Paybarah

Roberto Ramirez's former chief of staff, now a lobbyist, is Spitzer's choice for secretary of state. Let the finger-wagging begin!

Liz Benjamin, who broke the "Hevesi to resign" story last night, says the comptroller is going to have a very bad day tomorrow.

She also says some Republicans are starting to talk about throwing Joe Bruno overboard.

The Bond Buyer has a breakdown on the Atlantic Yards project's tax exempt bond financing (sub. req.).

The Times betrayed Brooklyn, says Chris Smith.

More Atlantic Yards reactions here.

Mickey Kaus isolates Obama's secret vulnerability--he's just too darn introspective!

Jim Jordan brings his winning karma to Chris Dodd's presidential campaign.

Evil Lamont bloggers were not to blame for Lieberman's website crash.

Who's the pervy congressman?

Who's the pervy New Yorker writer?

Meet the Nigerian bishop who is destoying the Episcopal church.

-- Andrew Rice

In his sophomore year at the New York Military Academy near West Point, Joel Rivera and his friends  read more »

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“I stand now at the threshold of having fulfilled a commitment that I made somewhere in 1987,  read more »

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There's certainly something to the Ferrer campaign's contention that they're at a disadvantage when it comes to the media, one backed by Bill Lynch. Setting aside the political stances of newspaper proprietors (which shouldn't always be set aside), the delight we take in campaign follies hits Freddy harder because his staff is stretched thinner, more likely to err. Mike can afford a huge staff; others, like Anthony, work with a small staff but keep a very simple focus. Freddy is trying to do a lot with a little money, and so of course they're sloppier.

But the media story has a flip-side: The press likes and underdog, and tacitly sees itself, often, as having the responsibility of leveling the playing field. What's more, there's a squeamishness about kicking Freddy while he's down.

This sentiment seems to have kept unwritten a central story about Freddy's media campaign: How explicitly ethnic some of his appeals are. As I understand it, the Villaraigosa campaign, for example, generally avoided anything that could suggest that his first priority would be Hispanics. Freddy's Spanish-language television began with an emotional spot on the theme "we made history." Now they end with him thanking his "familia." Are others not family?

The most striking one of these, though, if Freddy's recent radio spot, which features a country music love song, an African-American voice linking Mike and Bush, and this tag line: "Elect Freddy Ferrer Mayor. He's not like Mike. He's more like you."

Two Democratic campaign veterans I spoke to when it was released had the same instant reaction: Um, I hope that's not for black radio. It was.

The problem?

Well, how about this spot: Salsa music in the background, and the words "mi amor" and "mi corazon" floating through. The text says Freddy's "married" to the Bronx political machine, or something like that. And the tag-line: "Re-elect Mike Bloomberg. He's not like Freddy. He's more like you." Run it on WABC, or make the narrator African-American and run it on black radio.

I asked Roberto Ramirez about this when we interviewed him for this week's profile, and he dismissed the comparison. "This is about Bush," he said of the Ferrer spot. It's a catchy, unconventional spot -- another attempt to break through without much money. Ramirez also said the "familia" tag rings differently in Spanish, and has a less exclusive feel.

But the salsa ad could be making a legitimate point. And any spot that ends "He's more like you" has to raise the question of why, exactly, people are being asked to vote for the candidate.

This hasn't gotten any press at all, though the Times touches today on Freddy pushing a Hispanic line more aggressively than he has before, in the debate trap set for Mike by the Freddy-allied Hispanic Federation. (Hard to beat up on Freddy for having allied non-profits, since half the non-profits in town take money from Mike, and the other half are holding their hands out.)  read more »

But the real story is in the media buys, and the fact that it hasn't been written about the underdog is the flip-side of the Ferrer campaign's complaints about the press.

Freddy gave a strong speech last night, more coherent and more passionate than Anthony's. He did sound like he'd won something.

But the real result at the Puck Building -- 39.9% makes Freddy something like the Job of city politics; perhaps boils are next -- was visible on the faces of Ferrer's close aides.  read more »

As the speech would up, advisor Roberto Ramirez and Ferrer's campaign lawyer, Stanley Schlein, stood by a curtain on the East Side of the room. As Freddy concluded with the words "God bless New York," Schlein exhaled glumly and Ramirez, in a gesture of pure frustration, smacked his palm into his forehead.

After splitting with longtime consultant David Axelrod midway through this year's campaign, Freddy is facing yet another round of turmoil over who, exactly, is shaping his message. David Doak, the veteran adman currently making English-language ads for the Democratic frontrunner, will no longer play a central role on the campaign, Democrats tell The Politicker.

It's unclear whether Doak will stick around after the primary; if so, it will apparently be in a face-saving, nominal capacity. But he's not expected to be cutting Freddy's next round of television advertising.

Democrats tell The Politicker that Doak has been sidelined internally as control, and spending, get consolidated with Ferrer's longtime advisors, including Roberto Ramirez and Luis Miranda. Like Axelrod, Doak was never made part of the campaign's inner circle, and the relationship between the consultants and the campaign has been a running source of friction.

All that was forthcoming from Ferrer spokeswoman Jen Bluestein was a carefully-worded statement that doesn't answer the question of who will be making Freddy's English TV-spots in the fall:  read more »

"DCO are a critical part of our team and they will remain a critical part of our team helping us beat Mike Bloomberg in November," she writes. "Mirram Global [Miranda's and Ramirez's firm] makes our Spanish ads, and they will continue to do so."

How weird was the coverage of the Puerto Rican Day Parade? More than 200 arrests, including a bunch of gang members and two drunk cops, a stabbing, an injured police officer, and the general theme of coverage -- outside the Post -- is "a marvelous time was had by all."

The real political story of the parade, too, is emerging a day late. The Sun today picks up on an El Diario report of an interesting little confrontation between Roberto Ramirez and a parade official along the route. This could be a first sign that Mike is pushing his assault on Freddy's Hispanic base a little too hard.  read more »

Diario has an amazed, appalled, and funny editorial -- in English here, handily -- scolding the official, who had marched alongside Mike.

"We cannot think of another city in the United States where the president of a Latino parade would get into an altercation with the campaign workers for a candidate who has the potential to become that city's first Latino mayor."

Until now, the race for Mayor hasn't exactly seized the public's imagination, but at least two acute  read more »

We've been watching and wondering for months as Freddy's home borough simmers. The relationship between County Leader Jose Rivera and his predecessor, Roberto Ramirez -- Freddy's top advisor -- is one of the great mysteries of city politics. And the feuds among the clans around them -- Diazes and Arroyos and Espadas, not to mention Riveras -- are Shakespearean.

It had to explode under Freddy at some point, and when he appeared to switch sides on the Amadou Diallo shooting and criticize the prosecution, he tossed the first match, because Bronx D.A. Bob Johnson seems to have taken Freddy's remark personally.

Johnson must have been pretty angry today when he sent out a statement defending his indictments. Raising eyebrows all over town, he concluded with a veiled reference to Freddy's changing position on the death penalty and, as we read it, to a 1997 incident Freddy would probably prefer to forget, when the then-Borough President called the police shooting of Kevin Cedeno an "execution," then backed off.

"While I consider Mr. Ferrer to be a friend, who also was an excellent Borough President, my recollection is that this is not the first time that he has changed his position on a significant case or criminal justice issue," Johnson's statement says.  read more »

Wow.

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State Senator Eric Schneiderman, a tall, tanned Democrat who is reviled by his Republican colleagues  read more »

Was there a more appalling election-season spectacle than that of Talk editor Tina Brown strolling i  read more »

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LOS ANGELES-Dear De Blasio,  read more »