Bill Thompson won the Democratic primary for mayor by a substantial margin last week and he started airing his first TV commercial. So he's probably made a dent in Mayor Bloomberg's lead, hasn't he? Not so much, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this morning:
Is Rudy Giuliani planning to run for president again in 2012? And is that why President Obama encouraged Gov. Paterson to abandon his gubernatorial bid? (The theory being that if Giuliani becomes New York's governor next year, he'd be better positioned to compete in a presidential election in 2012, and that by pushing Paterson aside, the chances of Rudy taking Albany are greatly diminished.) That's "insanity" and "very silly," and it ain't gonna happen, says Steve Kornacki. [PolitickerNY]
News emerged over the weekend that President Obama has been urging Gov. David Paterson to seriously consider bowing out of the race for governor, since the president and his advisers don't think he has a chance of winning next fall, especially if he goes up against Rudy Giuliani. Paterson rejected the suggestion yesterday, and indicated he plans to move ahead with his campaign. This morning the two men came face to face when the president touched down in Albany to deliver an economic address at a nearby college. So how did that go? It was a little bit awkward, not surprisingly:
Did you vote in the Democratic primary yesterday? If you didn't, you'll get another chance to make good in the next couple of weeks. A runoff election will be required to select Democratic candidates for both comptroller and public advocate since none of the candidates pulled in at least 40 percent of the vote yesterday. In the race for comptroller, the top two finishers, City Councilmen John Liu and David Yassky, will now go head to head; and Bill de Blasio and Mark Green will square off for the public advocate nomination when the special election is held on September 29.
Today is primary day in New York City! Were you aware of that? Probably not, since only one in six registered Democrats is expected to turn out at the polls today. But if you feel like doing your civic duty or you have strong feelings about who should be the next public advocate, comptroller, district attorney—or you're naive enough to think that someone can actually unseat Mike Bloomberg come November—the polls are open until 9PM. [NYT]
Mayor Bloomberg said today that he isn't really running against anyone else in this year's mayoral election, all the other candidates are pretty much irrelevant, and that he didn't bother to tune into the Democratic debate last night because he doesn't really care what any of them had to say. If that's the case, could he at least do us a favor make the commercials stop? [NYP]
According to a poll by Quinnipiac University, 78 percent of registered voters report having seen one of the gazillion or so TV ads for Michael Bloomberg that have flooded the airwaves in recent weeks. And they're really like him to stop: "Of those who've seen the spots this year, 47 percent say they're annoying; 41 percent say they're informative." [NYP]
Is Rudy Giuliani planning to run for governor? He still hasn't announced his candidacy officially, but it's looking more and more like he's a contender. Last week, he "encouraged" the chairman of the New York State Republican Committee, Joseph Mondello, to step down from his post, and Mondello dutifully did what he was told yesterday, resigning from the job to allow the former mayor to push for a more Rudy-friendly replacement. He's been crisscrossing the state over the last few weeks to drum up support with state Republicans. And he met with Mayor Bloomberg recently to discuss his chances.
Of course, the Taliban have reportedly executed a couple people for voting and rocket attacks have killed a couple more people, but on the whole it is a very proud day for Afghanistan. Though turnout seems, so far, to be incredibly low, in part because of those concerns about being executed but maybe more because of cynicism.
Iranians who've been protesting the elections are being detained in wide reaching crackdowns. Ayatollah Ahmed Khatam noted that anyone contesting the election should be "dealt with without mercy." Iran's loudest opposition voices are quiet. Has the revolution been silenced?
