Charles Simon

The Upper West Side’s special election on Feb.  read more »

The Upper West Side’s special election on Feb.  read more »

Jason Horowitz looks at the power-elite support for Charles Simon's (so-far) failed bid for the State Assembly. Matt Schuerman has a thoughtful look at whether MIke has become a "housing activist," and notes that a task force considering reform of the 421a program -- which critics say is a subsidy for already-profitable luxury housing -- is a fraught issue for housing developers. Joe Conason rises to the defense of the opposition to the Dubai ports deal led by poor, embattled Chuck Schumer. Well, embattled by the counter-intuitive editorial-page types anyway. [UPDATE: This is slighly edited to make the point that Conason isn't defending Chuck personally, but rebutting the line that criticism of the deal is "xenophobic."] And Nicholas Von Hoffman tries to take an honest look at Coretta Scott King in a discussion of how dishonestly America treats its icons.

Some of the numbers are in for the contest to replace Scott Stringer in the State Assembly, a race whose first round will be fought in a vote of Democratic State Committee members sometime soon, and which will really be decided in what's expected to be a contested Democratic Primary in the fall.

Charles Simon leads the pack with $174,000 on hand, which includes a $100,000 loan from himself. Marc Landis has $123,600 on hand. And Linda Rosenthal, the Nadler staffer who is seen as a frontrunner, has just $10,000.  read more »

Of course, the state committee race is pretty much free. The fall primary probably won't be though.