Paul Newell

The executive director of the Working Families Party, Dan Cantor, showed support for Sheldon Silver in an interview with OpenLeft published today, calling attacks from the left on the incumbent Democrat “intellectually shallow and politically naive.”  read more »

Sheldon Silver is giving money to the Stonewall Democratic Club for the first time. In the past, the 32-year-incumbent and Orthodox Jew has not conspicuously supported the causes embraced by many gay activists in his district--or at least he didn't before bringing gay marriage legislation to a vote in the Assembly last June.

Silver paid $500 for a ticket to the May 15 annual fund-raiser for Stonewall, which is based in his district and considered one of the major Democratic clubs for the gay community. He is also expected to attend.

According to a search of campaign finance records, Silver has never given a contribution to the group before. Nor has he given to Lambda Independent Democrats.

The May 15 fund-raiser is the first major event the group has hosted since the Assembly passed the same-sex marriage bill last year. It's also in the run-up to the September primaries, which Silver is taking more seriously than usual as he faces two spirited challengers.  read more »

Here is something I just noticed.

Minutes after Kevin Sheekey went on NY1 and blasted Sheldon Silver for not having the "courage" to vote on the mayor’s congestion pricing plan, Sheekey officially made a new Facebook friend: Paul Newell, one of two Democrats seeking to oust Sheldon Silver in the September primary.  read more »

With all the talk about Sheldon Silver's efforts during the congestion pricing fight to keep his members happy, it's easy to overlook the fact that he's been quietly tending to his other constituents—the ones who will, barring a shock upset, vote to return him to his seat on the Lower East Side later this year.

A reader passed along this ad for Silver, which appeared in this week’s issue of Downtown Express.

A spokesman for Silver’s campaign said it was paid for by the campaign and ads like this have appeared throughout the past decade. (His campaign finances show he has run ads as early as February in any given year.)

Silver is facing two Democratic primary challengers this year, and may have inspired a billionaire mayor (and his top political aide) to look at the race anew.

Here's spokesman Jonathan Rosen's e-mailed explanation:  read more »

One of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's challengers in the Democratic primary this year, Luke Henry, released his tax information this morning and called on the 32-year incumbent to disclose more about his outside sources of income.

The other challenger in the race, Paul Newell, a community organizer, released his tax information last month.  read more »

Thanks in large part to Sheldon Silver, congestion pricing is dead. Now, Silver's Democratic primary opponent, Paul Newell, wants to make sure the Assembly speaker gets credit.

“This is a perfect example of how the broken system in Albany fails New Yorkers, and lower Manhattanites [are] included in that category,” Newell said.

“What is the point of being represented by the speaker of the State Assembly if he can’t even go to bat for us when it counts?”

   read more »

From Downtown Express:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told Downtown Express Wednesday he is likely to support congestion pricing, but the Albany power broker also said passage is still in doubt.  read more »

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Last month, a market-research firm called my Lower East Side apartment to gauge my support for Paul Newell.

I admitted that I had never heard Newell’s name before, and the caller quickly explained that Newell will challenge my state assemblyman–Speaker Sheldon Silver–in the Democratic primary in September.  read more »

Assemblyman Sheldon Silver is being challenged to disclose more information about his outside sources of income, something the Democratic Speaker has  read more »

A sports-minded reader predicts a rebuttal to the Michael Benjamins and Paul Newells of the world, who are already writing Hillary Clinton's political obiturary.  read more »

A Democratic Assembly candidate in Manhattan is calling on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the presidential race.

“Be polite. Thank her for her efforts,” writes Paul Newell, who is running to unseat Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan. "But ask her to gracefully bow out and return to representing the good people of New York in the Senate.”

Newell’s email to "New York Obama supporters," and his letter to Clinton are after the jump.  read more »