Saturday, February 21, 2015

Governor Cuomo Sets Date for Special Election to Fill Grimm’s Seat — May 5, 2015


All you folks in New York’s 11th Congressional District, take out your crayons and mark your calendars

As a named plaintiff in the action that forced Governor Andrew Cuomo’s hand to declare the Special Election and to select the May date  —   Diana Sepulveda’s cred for any step-ups in the Brooklyn GOP has gotten a big boost  —  Perhaps, it even propels her into a bigger Republican Party County-wide position  —  All as a prelude to the 2015 GOP organizational primary in September 


Meanwhile back in the 11th C.D., the Republicans seem in better shape than their Democrat adversaries for this seat  —   the GOP's Dan Donovan  will go up against  [somebody - you fill in any name you like,  the most likely Democratic candidate]  —   Democrats say they'll name their candidate next week



According to a report in the NY Times  — “Moving to fill offices vacated by a prosecution and a promotion, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced two special elections in New York after being chided by a federal judge for not acting sooner. The elections will be held on May 5, the governor said on Friday....” (See “Cuomo Sets Special Election to Fill Grimm’s Seat” by Jess McKinley, 2/20/15, NY Times
[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/21/nyregion/cuomo-sets-special-election-to-fill-grimms-seat.html?_r=0]).

DIANA SEPULVEDA WAS INVOLVED WITH THE LAWSUIT THAT FORCED GOVERNOR CUOMO TO ACT  

The part about  “... after being chided by a federal judge for not acting sooner...” is a direct reference to the federal lawsuit brought by Ms. Sepulveda and her co-plaintiffs. Just last Tuesday, a federal judge in Brooklyn, Jack B. Weinstein, had ordered Mr. Cuomo to set a date for an election to fill Michael Grimm’s vacated congressional seat for Staten Island and part of Brooklyn, threatening the Governor that the federal court might do so unilaterally if Cuomo continued not to act. Another hearing on the matter had been scheduled for earlier today, but Cuomo announced the election and its date instead, which should obviate the need  for further federal court intervention.

This is doubly interesting because Ms. Sepulveda’s name has been repeatedly bandied about on the Eaton side of the fence inside the Brooklyn GOP. Eaton and others have talked about raising Diana’s profile inside the Brooklyn GOP in advance of this years organizational primaries.  Something like this successful lawsuit against the sitting Democrat Governor of NY can only add further impetus to the Sepulveda bandwagon.

REPUBLICANS SEEM SET FOR THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SPECIAL   —   DEMOCRATS NOT SO MUCH

It sure looks like Republicans have already found their candidate to succeed Grimm. Staten Island District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan Jr.,  who achieved quite some “prominence” last fall for his handling of the Eric Garner case.  Garner was an unarmed black man who died after being arrested and while in police custody.  Video of the incident showed Garner resisting police and the use of what appeared to be a prohibited choke-hold by one of the officers.

The word is that Democrats are not very optimistic about their chances in New York’s 11th C.D. That party’s candidate in 2014, Domenic M. Recchia Jr., lost badly after a lackluster campaign. As for their candidate for the May 5th Special Election, which is already only about ten (10) weeks away, a bundle of candidates have been mentioned.

Just a few days ago, the New York Observer reported that Staten Island Democrats interviewed three candidates last week: Brooklyn Councilman Vincent Gentile (viewed by many as the front-runner for the nomination), Brooklyn Assemblyman William Colton and Staten Island union activist Robert Holst.  However, John Sollazzo, first vice chairman of the Staten Island Democratic Party, put himself into the increasingly unwieldy field of contenders for his party’s nomination to run for Grimm’s seat. Noting that in a special election, the candidates are chosen by the county party bosses, in this case Frank Seddio in Brooklyn and John Gulino on Staten Island; the Observer also noted that Mr. Sollazzo has long been a top member of the Staten Island party. A spokesman for Staten Island Democratic Chairman Gulino declined to comment on the Sollazzo announcement (See “Staten Island Democratic Party Vice Chair Announces Bid for Congress” by Jillian Jorgensen, 2/16/15, NY Observer [http://observer.com/2015/02/staten-island-democratic-party-vice-chair-announces-bid-for-congress/#.VOK3YvgMwr0] [@newyorkobserver on Twitter | newyorkobserver on Facebook]).

If that wasn't enough, the Brooklyn Eagle just reported that  "...  [o]n Feb. 19, a new candidate emerged. Amber Adler, a Brooklyn resident and a former chief of staff of the International Center for Autism Research and Education, announced that she would be seeking the Democratic nomination in the 11th Congressional District..." (See  “Cuomo sets May 5 as date for special election to replace Grimm” by Paula Katinas, 2/19/15, The Brooklyn Eagle [http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2015/2/20/cuomo-sets-may-5-date-special-election-replace-grimm]).

DEMOCRATS PROBABLY TO ANNOUNCE THEIR CANDIDATE NEXT WEEK

According to the report in the Times cited above, the executive director of the Democratic Committee of Richmond County, Tom Feeney, said that he expected to make the announcement about the Democratic Party candidate early next week.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to go off topic, but it looks like Rudy just killed any chance Scott Walker had

Anonymous said...

Yes that obvious fact has been pointed out to Gale but he remains in denial. Rudy just blew any chance the GOP had to at least lose respectably to Hillary.

Galewyn Massey said...

GREETINGS: THE "DEMOCRAT COMMENTERS ALWAYS TURNING-UP ON THE WRONG THREAD" EDITION

IT USED TO BE MY LEFTISH BSIs would call or email their stuff and the posts an the comments sort of held together. Now it's worse than herding cats or having some super-beagle hunt down bed bugs.

Speaking of "bed bugs," the two wistful Democrats above are perfect foils for my more right-wing rants....

I think I'll call these little fights with my favorite Dem commenters my "Foils War" (Season 1) !

OH, HARDY-HAR-HAR-HAR-HAR --- HAR !

Let's see if Scott Walker rises or drops in the key polls after sipping his champagne from Giuliani's glass slipper.

Gotta go and work on my Honeysuckle Weeks scrapbook.

True Republican said...

It may not be a Democrat in the above comments. It could be a Republicrat or a Domincan.

Also, I had to select cake to post this.

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE "DAN DONOVAN IN THE HOUSE" EDITION

Tomorrow's Brooklyn GOP Executive Committee Meeting will be addressed by Staten Island DA Dan Donovan, who is expected to be the next member elected to congress from a district in part of Brooklyn.

Now that the Special Election to fill the 11th C.D. seat vacated by the disgraced Michael Grimm has been declared, and the clock is running; it is expected that Donovan will quickly get the formal nod from the Brooklyn GOP and Chairman Eaton.

Galewyn Massey said...

EVEN BIGGER NEWS UPDATE: THE “IS THERE ANOTHER BROOKLYN GOP BLOG ?” EDITION

CONGRATULATIONS TO A PAIR OF NE'ER-DO-WELLS, WHO APPEAR TO BE MAKING GOOD IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING THAT I'VE DONE TO TRY TO STOP THEM

I am so happy to re-announce that “Behind Enemy Lines” has been nominated for a 2015 Blogger Award at Blog Bash, the largest gathering of right-of-center bloggers each year organized by the National Bloggers Club. This is the second nomination in a row for Russ Gallo and Gene Berardelli — and “Galewyn Massey’s ‘...Fountainhead” and the Brooklyn GOP couldn't be more proud.

Even if you know me, I doubt that you can tell how excited I am that two of my favorite Brooklyn buds have been nominated for the BlogBash 2015 “Best in Show Podcast” award.

Why am I so excited? Well let me just keep that to myself....

BUT >>> Russell Gallo’s “Ten Gallon Look” in the group photo shown in Mona Salama’s post earlier today (See “How A Ride To DC Changed Everything - Why I Am Voting For BEL”
by Mona Salama, 2/23/15, Behind Enemy Lines -Blogging From Within [http://www.behindenemylinesradio.us/2015/02/how-ride-to-dc-changed-everything-why-i.html]) is more suggestive of Jon Voight than Tim McGraw, or somebody who’s “All Hat ’n’ No Cattle, if you follow my drift. I know Russ is a bit of a “Everybody's talking at me... I don't hear a word they're saying...” sort of guy, but yuh gotta draw a line somewhere...

Btw, the contingent from our blog just couldn’t get past the mini-bar at the motel in Bethesda - sort of. It’s just down the road from the NIH, where some of our BSI’s wound up being tested for god-knows-what after they went over the fence to retrieve their Radio Shack drone. Maybe, we’ll finally get to all the CPAC fun next year, if any of us are let out of quarantine by then.

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE "BROOKLYN TEA PARTY & DAN DONOVAN" EDITION

DONOVAN FLOPS ON SOME EASY QUESTIONS FROM BROOKLYN GOP EXECS

REPORT OF DONOVAN'S PERFORMANCE TO BROOKLYN TEA PARTY -- NOT GOOD FOR DONOVAN

Quite apart from the orchestrated chorus of questions from the Establishment faction of the Brooklyn GOP at Tuesday's meeting, mostly about what congressional candidate Dan Donovan would do about and for the Brooklyn GOP, there was one substantive question that flummoxed the sitting Staten Island DA completely.

When asked if he favored and would he support the passage of the "Federal Marriage Amendment" or the "Marriage Protection Amendment" -- that would defines "marriage" under the U.S. Constitution as being only between a man and a woman, Donovan answered that he couldn't because it would be "unconstitutional."

When asked if a constitutional amendment were passed, wouldn't that make it constitutional, Donovan, a lawyer, backtracked and said he needed to study all about it some more.

Several people couldn't believe it. When the head of the Brooklyn Tea Party was informed about the exchange, he said that Donovan was an embarrassment as a congressional candidate and not ready for prime time, also that the Tea Party wouldn't lift a finger for the GOP candidate for congress.

Anonymous said...

The Brooklyn Tea Party is a fringe extremist group made up of a handful of sexist men (mostly of Irish and Italian descent - no surprise there) who do not believe in women's equality. Their Marriage Protection malarkey has nothing to do with gays. The Brooklyn Tea Party pushes this marriage protection nonsense in order to keep women as second class citizens. Their "traditional marriage" phrase is code for keeping women in their place. They are a misogynistic group of lugs. One of their more prominent members even wrote on social media that it is okay to hit a woman. That is their medieval mindset. So good for Dan Donavan in not wanting to be associated with them. He should expressly condemn their antiquated notions of gender and the role of women.

Anonymous said...

So much ignorance and mis-information in such a small place, you must be a special breed of Obama-Clinton loving Democrat. Plus the nature of your slime attack is typical of the breed.

Where do you get your notions about the Brooklyn Tea Party, just made up, I'm sure. Certainly it is not based on anything in the real world. The last meeting I was at, about one-third of the group was Jewish and about 20-25% were women.

"...one of their more prominent members ... social media... okay to hit a woman..." This is nothing but a slime slam. It is pure group slander -- Who said it ? When ? In what context ?

And you have it completely backwards. The Brooklyn Tea Party wants nothing to do with Donovan, not the other way round.

Anonymous said...

I guess your stats are correct. With probably about 4-5 persons present and one being Jewish (wonder who that could be?lol) then roughly one-third present was Jewish. With about 4-5 persons present and one woman invited to make the coffee then yes about 25% was female. Although I don't think she would count if you needed a quorum for something. btw, a clause in the new municipal ID law states that if a Tea Party person ever got into office then the applications for municipal ID's should be destroyed to protect individuals. That is true. But that's neither here nor there. My beef is they do not support women's equality at all.