Felix Ortiz

If you believe Eliot Spitzer, Assemblyman Felix Ortiz of Brooklyn is part of what’s wrong with  read more »

In this week's (stunningly attractive!) redesigned Observer, I wrote about a plan from the Spitzer people to panic Republicans Senators into defecting to the Democrats.

The idea would be not only to install a friendly majority in the Senate but to diminish the influence of Sheldon Silver, who has emerged as Spitzer's Moriarty-type nemesis in Albany.

According to a senior administration official, the contrast between the Senate Dems and the Assembly Dems would "make clear that there is a reform wing of the Democratic Party and a status quo wing of the party a reform wing of the Democratic Party and a status quo wing of the party."

Also in the paper, Felix Ortiz criticizes the establishment.

And Adolfo Carrion looks at the 2009 mayoral field and laughs.

-- Azi Paybarah

You got to wonder what's really behind the public campaigning for the state comptroller position, a job which is quietly being sewn up behind closed doors.

But at a press conference on the City Hall steps a few moments ago, supporters of Assemblyman Felix Ortiz gave it their best shot, saying that electing him would bring "balance" and "representation" not just to the face of Albany, but to the places where the state pensions are invested.

Why hadn't previous comptrollers, most recently a Democrat from Queens and an African-American from Manhattan, invested more in the Hispanic communities?

"It's the same old same old same old," said Peter Fontanes, chairman of the New York State Hispanic American and Migrant Association. "Photo-ops, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, as they say, it doesn't happen."  read more »