Michael Tobman

This afternoon, Democratic consultant Michael Tobman is going to join me at my desk inside City Hall for a quick chat about local politics--and everyone can watch!

If my fancy new machine does what it's supposed to (and everyone is on time), at 3 p.m. the video above (which I shot during the Republican National Convention) will update automatically to the live feed (thanks to this Web site).

And, if Tobman says anything you’d like to hear more about, hover your mouse over the video, and a few icons will appear. One of those icons, in the lower right corner, will be  read more »

Here’s a poetic way to look at Eliot Spitzer’s 21-day budget amendments, which he submitted today, adjusting to lower-than-expected state revenue.

Michael Tobman, an education reform activist and political operative, told me by instant message:  read more »

Here's an image being used on a billboard on the Manhattan-bound Prospect Expressway in Brooklyn (just before the ramp up to the Gowanus Expressway) which was sent over by Michael Tobman, one of the operatives pushing the governor's education plan.

Between this and the dueling television ads about health care, it feels a little like statewide election season never ended. New York is becoming California.

-- Azi Paybarah

Here's a new radio ad that criticizes "special interests" for not supporting Eliot Spitzer's plan to lift the cap on charter schools. The group running the ad is Real Reform Now, a new collaboration between the New York Charter Schools Association and Dems for Education Reform.

So far, there's a $100,000 ad buy for this radio spot, according to Michael Tobman, head of Dems for Education Reform.

-- Azi Paybarah

Backers of education tax credits are ratcheting up the pressure on Teachers Union president Randi Weingarten with the introduction of an unhappy Bishop.

His Eminence Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn and Queens, who is big on immigrant and labor issues, apparently tried to set up a meeting with Randi last September, and hasn't heard back.

Says tax credit organizer Michael Tobman: "Tax Credits are a reasonable effort designed to help lower through middle income families. What's not reasonable is the UFTs refusal to speak on this issue with the representative of nearly two million New Yorkers, mostly immigrants, from Brooklyn and Queens."

But wait! Weingarten's aides say she'd "love to" meet with His Eminence, and they produced a letter dated March of last year suggesting that they chat about ways to help non-public schools.

So maybe it's just a missed connection. They can work it out on Craigslist.