Gary Tilzer

Here's more on yesterday's election from two local players, including somewhat contradictory takes on a little-noticed Brooklyn judicial race.

Gary Tilzer, campaign manager for Diana Johnson:  read more »

Pictured here at Malcolm Smith's inauguration ceremony in Queens on Friday night are Albert Baldeo, the Democratic candidate who narrowly lost to Republican state Senator Serph Maltese, and political consultant Gary Tilzer, who blogs under the name "Oneshirt".

The two have been making the rounds at Democratic events, reminding everyone that they came within about 900 votes of ousting an incumbent state senator -- without any organizational aid from the party. Needless to say, they wouldn't mind a little help the second time around.

-- Azi Paybarah

I guess this was inevitable, given the crowded state of our little universe...

Anne Michaud of the Crain's Insider took a swipe at Ben today for -- she says -- copying her work, writing in his comment section: "This post appears to be almost entirely lifted from this morning's Crain's Insider."

Ben's response:

"As a matter of fact, I couldn't have stolen your gem because I didn't make it to Crain's today, and don't most days, because of its paleolithic, suicidal distribution method."

Now, that colorful exchange has given life to a whole new site, dedicated to the Crain's Insider.

"Are you all tired of the Innacurate [sic] Insider? Tired of reading story after story you know is wrong. Well, starting today, we are going to work together to bring a bit of truth to the Insider."

Gary Tilzer, the guy rumored to have been behind other, similar-looking anonymous sites, like JeffFeldmanMustGo.blogspot.com, said this latest site is not his.

"I didn't do it," he told me. "I don't even get the Crain's Insider."

I have no clue who put this up. (I have even less clue who in the world is going to read it.) Since it is hosted on Google's free blogging software, the url ends with blogspot.com. That ending makes it impossible to search who registered the site at places like who.go daddy.com and www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp.

While the idea of a blog dedicated to picking up a reporter's inaccuracies makes me cringe, it goes to show that we should get used to the idea of hearing from our readers. All of them.

-- Azi Paybarah

The ratio between the power of an office and the public interest in it is nowhere higher than for each county's surrogate. Aside from serving 14-year terms (Like locusts!, as an Observer headline writer recently noted.), these judges often control very valuable estates and resolve wrenching family disputes. Which is to say that this new blog devoted to the race for Brooklyn Surrogate may not get a lot of traffic, but it's worth a look. It's run by Gary Tilzer, whose recent Gotham Gazette article suggests getting rid of the the surrogates and absorbing their work into the rest of the court system.  read more »