Scott Sala

First, Michael Bloomberg left the party. Now this.

Urban Elephants, the first-read local Republican news bulletin board, which hasn’t been active in some time, is no more.

The founder of the site, Republican true-believer Scott Sala, told me in an email last night that “one cannot continue to ‘blog’ for free to help the causes of others who benefit (elected, etc).”

Combined with Karol Sheinin getting a day job that’s occupying most of her time, Sala's move seems to leave something of a void in the area of city-based, right-leaning blogs.

Sala's full email is after the jump.  read more »

Here is an invitation to the first-ever Senate Summer Social, organized by state Senate Republicans for August 21 by the South Street Seaport.

George Pataki held his birthday fund-raisers at that very location for years. But with Republicans holding no statewide office, the job of roping in contributors has now fallen into the hands of Joe Bruno and company.

The event is being organized by Bruno's spokeswoman, Lisa Black, and other Republican-friendly types like Scott Sala of Urban Elephants, Jason Weingartner of Cathy Blaney Associates and Bill Smith from the Staten Island DA's office.

CORRECTION: Never mind all that. An organizer called to tell me that it's not a fund-raiser.

Mark Green, guest blogging on Huffington Post, said, "Rudy Giuliani is not the first politician to exaggerate and play to the cheap seats."

Scott Sala responds.

Republicans may look weak right now compared to the Democrats, but they may be stronger in the general election, according to Ben.

Representative Jerry Nadler and others will discuss Iraq at an event tonight at Columbia University.

Representative Eliot Engel criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her trip to Syria.

Tom Elliott thinks monogamy is a better way to stop STDs than circumcision.

Mathieu Eugene may win his City Council race in Brooklyn by knocking all his opponents off the ballot.

Errol Louis and Erik Engquist discuss the race here.

DMI has more about their forum on New York's shrinking middle class.

State Senator Andrea-Stewart Cousins weighed in on the school funding and blamed Albany's secret negotiations for Westchester's shrinking share.

A former spokesperson for Ross Perot is running for office in NJ.

Ever wonder who is trying to get reporters to cover Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson?

Karol is looking for guest bloggers. [link fixed]

And pictured above is City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, whose budget proposal is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

The state attorney general in N.J. is about to resign because she used her office to get out of a traffic ticket, reports NY Hotlist.

Thinkprogress has the video of Bill Clinton calling Lieberman's position on Iraq the "Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld position." Ouch! [via: Political Wire]

When asked to choose between a Democrat and a Republican in their local congressional race, voters nationwide say they prefer a Democrat, according to Politcal Arithmetik.

To her surprise, an openly gay candidate running in Birmingham, AL gets the Yassky treatment. "What she didn't anticipate was the fight that broke out over the fact she is white."

DMI doesn't like the city's new definition of a 'parade' because now almost everyone needs a permit from the NYPD to get around this city.  read more »

And, as you can see above, Scott Sala got onto the right mailing list and got a fundraising letter from Rudy Giuliani.

-- Azi Paybarah

At Urban Elephants, Scott Sala sees Michael Bloomberg's appearance with George Bush at the airport this morning as a sign that the outspokenly liberal mayor is moving rightwards.

Here's his analyisis:  read more »

This is very significant in that Bloomberg is swinging his non-partisan scales back to the right a bit, if only just for show. It may greenlight some others to do the same. It may also remind New Yorkers, such as the numerous good government non-partisan voters, that there's still some Red in this Blue State mayor.

-- Josh Benson UPDATE: I should have noted more explicitly in the original post that this analysis belongs to Scott Sala and not to me. The "block quotes" feature on this blog obviously has its limits.

The Republican primary for U.S. Senate may not be generating all that much excitement, but over at Urban Elephants they are trying to change that by injecting a little more fundraising competition between the candidates.

Scott Sala posts:

UE will run a "Donation Contest" from March 20 to May 30, 2006 - just in time for the GOP State Convention. There is no prize but pride.

Dubbed Urban Elephants Challenge 1, the contest will determine whether John Spencer or KT McFarland will garner more campaign contributions from the faithful readers of UE.

—Nicole Brydson

[The Observer's Nicole Brydson, who once long ago worked in politics, is going to be appearing a bit more regularly on the site from here on in; she's picking up blog-strolling responsibilities abandoned by Jess. Bloggers, cc her when you're sending in links: nbrydson(at)observer.com.]

Over at Urban Elephants, Scott Sala muses about Randy Daniels as the non-candidate candidate.

Overheard in New York overhears Mark Riley during a stop over at Air America Radio. DMI Blog's Andrew Friedman has a briefing on Speaker Quinn's Patient Information Act.

And musings of a New York College Republican gives reason to fear for the youth.

Also: Wonkette says John McCain will have a cameo on Monday's episode of 24.

Budding linguist Scott Sala takes issue with "swiftboating" as a verb of the left; offers a handy diagram of what it would take -- i.e. not anger from Wall Street -- to properly "swiftboat" Eliot Spitzer. Wacky!  read more »

Over at The Nation, John Nichols is taking Jonathan Tasini seriously.

"Unlike Pirro, Tasini understands the issues, he's quick on his feet, he knows his way around the state's union halls and he recognizes that Clinton's greatest vulnerability is a cautious centrism that has frequently put her at odds with grassroots Democrats," he writes.

Tasini also has a blog of his own, featuring his policy and politics musings along with an insidery (and you know how we hate insidery blogs around here) view from the Change to Win wing of the labor movement. The blog also features, in comments on the post announcing his candidacy, some debate from the left over the wisdom of running.

On the Republican side, New York Press's Azi wonders what's up with the fact that http://www.pirroforag.com is live. Kinda.  read more »

Up on top of the ballot, meanwhile, Scott Sala is not so impressed with a Republican Mayor for Spitzer.