Jerry Goldfeder

At a meeting of the Bronx County Democratic Party last night, both county leader Jose Rivera and the group trying to replace him with Assemblyman Carl Heastie claimed victory, and not before things got a little rough.

“Yes, I was assaulted," said Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz.

Dinowitz said he was standing in the hallway of the Paradise Theatre, where the meeting was held, when he got into a shoving match with Rivera supporters. The Rivera people were the aggressors, Dinowitz claims.

City Council member Maria Baez, who supports Rivera, told me this morning that she saw Dinowitz physically fighting with members of the county committee, but did not provide details.  read more »

Jerry Goldfeder, the election attorney who most recently worked for Andrew Cuomo, just won a court case decision from the city Board of Elections, where he was representing the Democratic Party of Staten Island. The organization's petitions for the judicial race in the borough had been challenged by Republicans.

It's a countywide seat, and among the Democratic candidates is Judith McMahon, wife of City Councilman Mike McMahon, the Democratic candidate the party is backing in the district's Congressional race. (Steve Harrison is also running in the primary).  read more »

The court B.O.E. decision paves the way for the judicial election to proceed, pitting Judith McMahon against Republican Joseph Maltese.

Jerry Goldfeder, a prominent election lawyer in Manhattan who has been working for Andrew Cuomo will be joining the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, according to a source.

Among Stroock’s many clients is the former state comptroller, Alan Hevesi, who is being investigated because of an alleged pay-to-play scheme that allegedly may have included his political consultant Hank Morris, and millions of dollars from the state pension fund.

When asked about the move, Goldfeder e-mailed to say that a statement will be made later in the morning.  read more »

Goldfeder closed his private practice and joined Cuomo’s office in March of last year. By December, he had

Here's a blast from the past of Jerry Goldfeder, the election lawyer just hired by Andrew Cuomo's office as a special counsel on public integrity, who once aspired to go to Albany in a different capacity.

More of his nine-year-old campaign lit is here.

-- Azi Paybarah

When the name of Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher unexpectedly surfaced last week on the list of candidates for comptroller, it caused a ripple, with one lawmaker telling me he "will be hard to say no to."

He's a Harvard-educated, black millionaire philanthropist with plenty of financial experience. Just the sort of outside financial expert Eliot Spitzer's people were looking for.

But what about the political background of this man who could soon be the state's top financial official?

A quick call over the city's Board of Elections to verify Fletcher's voter registration information revealed some interesting history.

According to the board's spokesperson, Fletcher lived on Central Park West around 1992 and was a registered Republican at the time. In 1995, Fletcher moved to the Dakota, where he then registered as a member of the Independence Party.

Between 1992 and 2000, the BOE said, Fletcher voted only two times, in the federal elections in 1992 and 1996. After 2000, according to the spokesperson, the board downgraded his status to a "move" because of inactivity.

That sporadic history of voting and registering seems to indicate a certain indifference to politics. It also raises the interesting question of whether Fletcher ever lived outside of New York State or even registered to vote elsewhere, which might arguably run afoul of a requirement that statewide office holders live in New York for five years prior to taking office.

The spokesman for Fletcher, election lawyer extraordinaire Jerry Goldfeder, told me that his client does indeed live at the Dakota and is still registed to vote at that address.

As for his status as a continuous resident for the purposes of taking office, Goldfeder said, "Residency is where you live, where you put your head when you go to sleep, where you buy your groceries."

But not necessarily where you vote.

UPDATE: An on-the-ball reader pointed me towards some disclosure forms that have just been posted. Fletcher's form lists among his jobs a managing director director position at Cornwall Castle Farm, LLC in Connecticut. According to this phone directory, Fletcher (or someone who shares his name) has a residential address right down the street.

Which doesn't prove anything except perhaps that at least some of the time, Fletcher buys his groceries in Connecticut.

-- Azi Paybarah

Ugly George was calling from a pay phone. "I'm outside right now, cruising," he told The Transom.  read more »