Jesse Hamilton

Here's the the Iraq resolution Congress will debate tomorrow.

Someone claiming to have been part of Rudy Giuliani's mayoral administration on 9/11 defended the way his boss handled that day.

Eliot Spitzer continued his assault on the legislature by picking on George Latimer during his "Bring the Budget Home" tour.

Expect the AFL-CIO's presidential endorsement sometime in early March. Update: Or maybe not.

Michael Bloomberg has advice on how to fix the country's health care system.

TWU President Roger Toussaint still can't collect union dues automatically after June 1. [updated]

Former Congressman Major Owens endorsed Jesse Hamilton in the special election in Brooklyn.

Assemblyman Joe Lentol defines reform as not ceding power to the executive branch.

There's a new TV ad about the state's Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Westchester, like NYC, wants to ban the N-word.

Robert Caro thinks an exhibit on Robert Moses, which counterprograms some aspects of The Power Broker, is "even-handed."

And above is Ben's video of Barack Obama talking about the major media.

-- Azi Paybarah

The New York Times endorsed Jesse Hamilton in the special election for Yvette Clarke's old City Council seat in Brooklyn.

The Times was careful to explain that ethnic politics had nothing to do with their decision, writing:

"While we like anything that might help increase voter participation -- ethnic and cultural pride included -- there are more important considerations here than the origins of the candidates."

It seemed more than a little reminiscent of the careful explanation of their endorsement of David Yassky in the race-influenced Congressional primary won by Clarke last year. ("There are many, many intelligent, hard-working and high-achieving young African-Americans in central Brooklyn who once considered careers in politics and then moved on when the party machine proved unenthusiastic or downright antagonistic. That failure of leadership is reflected in the current race. The residents of the 11th District deserve the best representation possible.")

Of course, it was the Daily News -- a highly influential paper in this part of Brooklyn -- which, coincidentally or not, endorsed the eventual winner in that Congressional race. So it will be interesting to see if they come up with something here that will trump Hamilton's Times coup.

-- Azi Paybarah

So, how do candidates running in a non-partisan special election feel about non-partisan elections?

At a crowded forum on Cortelyou Road last night, I threw that question to a few of the candidates running in the 40th District who are Democrats, but who have had to create new party lines this year on which to run.

Leithland Tulloch (Visionary Party) said he supports non-partisan elections for special elections, but not for general elections. And Gerry Hopkins (Coalition of Concerned Residents of Brooklyn Party) said he supports the idea of non-partisan elections with no conditions.

On the other side, Harry Schiffman (Neighborhood First Party) opposes non-partisan elections as does Jesse Hamilton (Family Values and Money Matters Party), who noted that he just won election last year as a Democratic district leader. Moe Razvi (Your Voice Party) said party designations can "align" like-inded candidates and voters, while

Moderator Ben Smith moved the conversation into a broader topic by asking the candidates to choose between Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

"For what?" Razvi jokingly answered, before settling on Hillary. Hamilton also went with Hillary.

Tulloch and Hopkins chose Obama.

Schiffman said "duck" and declined to answer.

(Candidates were sort of in and out of the forum throughout the night, so not all of them were around to answer the questions.)

Also making a much celebrated appearance at the forum...Rock Hackshaw, who should have some more on this race later today.

-- Azi Paybarah

The sleepy special election in for the Brooklyn City Council seat vacated by Yvette Clarke has its first legal controversy.

District Leader Jesse Hamilton is suing Wellington Sharpe over the name of his party.

Hamilton's party is called "Family Values and Money Matters." Sharpe's is called "Family Values."

Hamilton's campaign wants an injunction "barring Mr. Sharpe from engaging in any further fraudulent use of the name 'Family Values' designed to defraud voters and thwart the Democratic process."

I called Wellington Sharpe, who seemed happy to respond.

"Number one, my attorney was the person who created the name. He first used it back in 1998 for a client of his. My attorney is Mitch Alter. He can go through the history of that name, long before Jesse Hamilton thought of anything about this.

Number two, we filed before Jesse Hamilton.

Number three, it's a totally different name.

Mitch can prove that he's used that name. Dan Quayle also used it way back when."

So, Jesse Hamilton does not have any claim to that name. In fact, no one can claim Family Values as uniquely theirs."

This echoes a complaint some people have had about the Independence Party, but that's for another day.  read more »

Update: A list of party names used in previous special elections is after the jump, courtesy of an astute reader who follows this kind of stuff.

-- Azi Paybarah

One informed reader informs me that the field of competitors to fill the City Council seat being vacated by Yvette Clarke include may actually be shrinking.

Candidates still actively jockeying for position, according to the reader, include:

Jesse Hamilton, whose poster you can see here;

Ferdinand Zizi, who won support from the Haitian American Steering Committee, and is registering his political committee now;

Zenobia McNally, who ran against Yvette in 2005, but is the only person in the race who ran district-wide so far;

Dr. Mathieu Eugene, who heads a sports non-profit in the district for a number of years and has wide name recognition in the Haitian community.

But the reader says that four other candidates who were until recently planning on making a run have since dropped out because they didn't get the support of the Haitian American Steering Committee.

Anything we're missing?

-- Azi Paybarah

The city's newest congresswoman, Yvette Clarke, will get sworn into office next year, but the jockeying for her city council seat is well underway.

According to the encyclopedic Jerry Skurnik and a City Council source, the Mayor will call the special election within 3 days of the vacancy occurring (January 1). Then, the election is held within 30 or 60 days.

There are no run-offs, and it's a non-partisan race. Candidates have 10 days to petition and they follow rules as if they are creating your own party.

The race could have as many as six or seven candidates, some of whom I mentioned here.

Yesterday, two more candidates emerged. Jesse Hamilton and Zenobia McNally spoke to the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats club where one attendee asked them about the Atlantic Yards [corrected].

According to Daily Gotham, when Hamilton was "asked about Atlantic Yards he gave a somewhat vague answer," and "Zenobia did seem too wary of directly criticizing Ratner's plan." -- Azi Paybarah