John Sampson

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 »

It looks like the shake-up of the Senate Democratic leadership by newly installed minority leader Malcolm Smith is still underway.

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.

Sampson's ties to former Brooklyn boss Clarence Norman were a nagging problem for him during his race for Brooklyn District Attorney, but they shouldn't matter in his new leadership role. After all, Gonzalez held the position while dealing with legal troubles, as did previous chairAda Smith.

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.

When I asked Sampson why he turned it down, he offered some vague answers.

"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."

When I asked what kind of salary perk or staff boost came with being the conference's secretary, Samspon said, "I don't know about that. All I know is that it comes with more work."

-- Azi Paybarah

Memories, it seems, are short in Brooklyn.

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

But on April 2, Dov will be presenting awards at the Boro Park Jewish Community Council’s legislative breakfast, including the "distinguished guardian award for integrity in government" to... one Charles J. Hynes. A reader who followed those Brooklyn races recalls that that wasn’t exactly what Hikind was saying about Hynes at the time.

Jerry Skurnik, who keeps better track of this stuff than anyone else I know, emailed over some bits of analysis of the primary vote that caught his eye.

Here they are:

Either Ferrer & Weiner carried every Assembly District but 1.

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).

Christopher Brodeur finished 2nd in 72 AD (Washington Heights). He received 1,024 votes out of 9,860 cast. Ferrer received 6,596.

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

Joe Hynes won 12 ADs -- John Sampson won 9.

Scott Stringer won 4 ADs. Lopez, Moskowitz, Perkins & Espaillat each won 2.

Who but Isac would have alerted me to this one: John Sampson, the Brooklyn D.A. challenger, went with a Crown Heights Orthodox supporter, Chanina Sperlin, to the grave of the Grand Rebbe of Lubavitch yesterday to pray for victory.

Will it work? I asked.  read more »

"No," said Isac.

You heard it here first.

The Politicker hears from several Brooklyn sources that two partisans in the race for Brooklyn District Attorney, including John Sampson aide Omar Boucher, are in police custody following an altercation involving a Sampson poster and a bottle. One Boucher defender suggests that the erstwhile City Council candidate was simply collecting bottles for the refunds, in hopes that they would help repay the massive fines his campaign faces for its formidable illegal-signage efforts.  read more »

Don't miss this story from the Daily News's Brooklyn section, in which Councilman David Yassky -- a Yale-law, Brooklyn Heights reformer who used to work for Senator Schumer -- comes out for John Sampson in the race for District Attorney.

While you could argue that he's endorsing Sampson because the only African-American running for District Attorney is the one with the best shot of beating Joe Hynes, it's hard not to see a straightforward piece of racial politics here as well. Yassky is running for congresss in a traditionally black district -- it was drawn to further minority representation, and once represented by Shirley Chisholm. Some of his rivals will likely be scrutinizing every move he makes for an opening to attack him as an interloper, and Yassky will be maneuvering to avoid that charge.  read more »

Endorsing Clarence Norman's candidate of choice has to help.

Here's a footnote to our wall-to-wall coverage of John Sampson's visit to Gaza, which Errol Louis picked up on in the News today.

The guy who runs WorldNetDaily, where Sampson was originally quoted, Joseph Farah, emailed Louis to object to being called "conservative."

"WorldNetDaily is not a 'conservative website,'" he wrote. "It is the largest independent news source on the Internet. I ought to know. I founded it. And since I'm not a 'conservative' and am actually quite offended by the use of that term, I think it's unfair and inaccurate to describe the labor of eight years of my life in such terms."

Having received angry emails this week for describing News Corp. as "right-of-center" in the Observer, we enjoyed Louis's response:

"Mr. Farah:

"I may have been thrown off by your commentary lineup (Malkin, Coulter, Buchanan, Falwell, Williams, Schlesinger et al), and the ads you run on the site from rightwingconspiracy.com and the conservative book club. I guess your contributors and advertisers have got you all wrong.  read more »

"Thanks for the chuckle."

Oh, and by the way, here's a WorldNetDaily Exclusive headline from today: Regulators dragged feet on 'cannibal abortionist.'