Vincent Gentile

Councilman and candidate for public advocate Eric Gioia, of Queens, held his 35th birthday celebration and “green” campaign kick off at the W Hotel’s Whiskey Bar in Times Square last night. His guest list included Morgan Spurlock, writer and director of Super Size Me (who appeared in an ad recently), and Karenna Gore Schiff, daughter of Al.

Gore Schiff was in charge of the birthday introduction, while Gioia spent most of the evening surrounded by supporters bouncing with American Idol enthusiasm.  read more »

Assemblyman Michael Gianiaris, who is running for reelection to the Assembly in 2008, says in this week's City Hall News that he is "going to seriously consider" running for City Council in 2009 and seeking the speakership.

The same article also quotes an unnamed aide to Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell, the former chairman of the state Democratic Party, saying he won't run for speaker of the City Council if h  read more »

The Brooklyn Courier ran an article earlier this week on the race to succeed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who will be term-limited in 2009. I didn’t see the article online, but a reader faxed me a copy of it, which gives (of course) special prominence to the Brooklyn candidates for the job, including Sara Gonzalez, Vincent Gentile and Leticia James.

But there are other candidates worth acknowledging, like Dan Garodnick and likely incoming member Denny Farrell, both of Manhattan.  read more »

Here’s Bill Alatriste's shot of a press conference on the steps of City Hall earlier today where City Council members Bill de Blasio, Vincent Gentile and Mike McMahon rallied in support of a bill that would require “e waste,” like old computers and cell phones, to be collected by the dealers who sell them.

The bill was introduced last year and is still being negotiated, but a spokesman for de Blasio wasn’t quite ready to say City Hall or the Speaker’s office has been stalling on the issue.

“We’re happy with negotiations moving forward. But it never hurts having more people know about the bill and why electronic waste is a growing problem,” de Blasio spokeswoman Jean Weinberg told me.

When asked for a comment, Bloomberg spokesman Jason Post emailed say he was “surprised by the press conference.”

“The Mayor's office supports an electronic waste recycling program, and we have worked with the Council closely on their proposed e-waste legislation. Since recent negotiations have been productive and have brought us close to workable bill, we were surprised by today's press conference. This Administration will continue to work with Council Member de Blasio, Sanitation & Waste Management Committee Chair McMahon and advocates on a realistic e-waste bill."

This may be a quiet time when it comes to campaigning, but may also be the best time to get a new political company off the ground.

Earlier this month, 26-year-old lobbyist George Fontas founded New Gotham Strategies, LLC. Fontas said his campaign consulting gig will be completely separate from his current job at the lobbying firm, Capalino + Company.

Fontas managed Vinny Gentile’s general election in 2003, ran Gifford Miller’s field operation in South Brooklyn in 2005, and did some work on behalf of a 527 group trying to unseat a state Senator congressman upstate in 2006. So, what’s in store for 2009?

“The biggest concern is switching seats because a lot of that hasn’t shaken out yet,” Fontas told me. Which means plenty of behind-the-scenes work for consultants like him right now.

UPDATE: Fontas prefers to say he was "educating voters" during that 2006 race, rather than trying to"unseat" an elected official. There's more on that race over here.

Roll Call reports that Council Member Yvette Clarke has hired Chris Lanier to head up her campaign for Brooklyn's 11th congressional seat.

Lanier most recently worked on Vincent Gentile's heated campaign for re-election, the only competitive race in Brooklyn, which Vinnie won.