Martin Dilan

City Council member Erik Dilan, who leads the delegation from Brooklyn, is having a fund-raiser tonight at the Woolworth Kitchen Tower.

He's one of the youngest people to ever lead a borough delegation, but he's also one of the 38 people that'll be term-limited come 2009.

The money being raised tonight will go to New Yorkers for Dilan, which is a campaign account not listed with the city's Campaign Finance Board. It is, however, listed here with the state Board of Elections. An indication, perhaps, that Dilan may be looking for a job that entails long commutes upstate and lunch at the Fort Orange Club.  read more »

Here are state Senators Jeff Klein and Marty Dilan at Federal Hall yesterday, announcing results of a study Klein conducted showing that 90 percent of public colleges “failed to send students voter registration materials in the mail.”

In a public statement about the report, Klein‘s office said, “Of private schools, only 50% made voter registration materials available on campus, and 0% offered information by mail. In addition, over 100,000 students enrolled in the 2004-2005 academic year could not obtain voter registration materials on campus. This number represents only a sampling of schools from across the state, but if all schools were included the number would skyrocket.”

I haven’t read the report, which surveyed 60 schools across the state, but it seems to correspond with an in-depth investigation I conducted with the help of my younger brother. He turned 18 on June 1 and the only thing he got in the mail were birthday cards.

A reader passes on word that Malcolm Smith, the Queens state senator who is agressively campaigning to become the next minority leader, scheduled a press conference yesterday with senate members -- but abruptly cancelled it. A sign, perhaps, that Smith doesn't have the votes he thought.

Smith's spokeswoman said no such meeting was planned or scheduled and dismissed the story as a rumor.

Maybe. Maybe not. This race is similar to the speaker's race in the City Council: most if not all the jockeying is behind closed doors. Since only elected officials vote, the public has zero input, but folks in labor, lobbyists and, of course, the county leaders all have their say.

That's where it gets interesting. Brooklyn and Queens teamed up to help pick Christine Quinn as the City Council Speaker. But for senate minority leader, that two-borough formula may not be working together.

At the Brooklyn Democratic County dinner earlier this year, Brookyn County Leader Vito Lopez indicated that his candidate for the job was Martin Dilan. The Executive Secetary of the Queens Organization, Michael Reich, said the two boroughs should work together, which Lopez seemed happy about at the time.

That's all to say allegiances, votes and promises aren't finalized until the votes are cast.

-- Azi Paybarah

Azi reports the announcement of another strategic Queens-Brooklyn Democratic alliance, this time in support of Martin Dilan for Senate Minority Leader.

How does this affect the odds? And who, at this point, still has a realistic shot?

-- Josh Benson UPDATE: A supporter of another aspiring minority leader emailed to suggest that it's too soon to consider Brooklyn and Queens definitively in Dilan's -- or anyone else's -- column. So maybe what happened last night was more of a hint than an announcement.