The congressman, whose district encompasses the Upper West Side, said in a statement that too many unstable people have accessed firearms in the country to commit terrible acts.
“If now is not the time to have a serious discussion about gun control and the epidemic of gun violence plaguing our society, I don’t know when is,” he continued. “How many more Columbines and Newtowns must we live through? I am challenging President Obama, the Congress, and the American public to act on our outrage and, finally, do something about this.”

26 people were killed in the elementary school, including 20 children. The shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also shot his mother in his nearby home before the mass murder, and took his own life in the school.

BROADWAY MALL ASSOCIATION SEEKS DONATIONS
The Broadway Mall Association (BMA), the organization that oversees landscape design and maintenance for the malls along Broadway from West 70th to 168th streets, is seeking private funding for capital improvements.

BMA has secured over $10 million in state and city funds in the past three decades, but now wants to expand its preservation efforts to maintain newly renovated malls at an annual cost of $10,000 per mall.

According to BMA, “If the new malls are to grow in successfully and thrive over time, the BMA will need to advocate as successfully with the private sector as it has with the public.” For more information and to donate, visit BMA’s website at www.broadwaymall.org.

CITY’S CREATIVE ECONOMY GROWING, BUT MINORITIES BEING LEFT BEHIND
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office released a report last week on the city’s entrepreneurial economy. Titled “Start-Up City: Growing New York’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for All,” the report summarized recent growths in “entrepreneurial” industries like finance, fashion, marketing and technology, but also addressed these fields’ limited accessibility, citing census data that showed only 29 percent of employed Blacks and 20 percent of employed Latinos work in these “creative economies.”

“Too many working-class New Yorkers lack the resources and skills to share in this growth,” Stringer said in a statement, noting that annual salaries for jobs in this new tech economy often start at $65,000, well above the city’s median family income. “We need to turn this engine into a pipeline to the middle class for thousands of New Yorkers.”

To achieve this end, the report recommends increasing office and housing affordability, expanding computer science training in public schools and improving transportation to growing business districts, among other initiatives.

CONGRESS MEMBERS REQUEST POST-SANDY FOOD STAMP RELIEF
Members of Congress including Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler demanded easier access to federal food stamps for New Yorkers still suffering from Hurricane Sandy last week. The members wrote a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg requesting looser eligibility requirements and expanded eligibility zones for the U.S. Department of Agriculture-administered Disaster Supplemental Food Stamp (D-SNAP) program, which provides relief funding to help feed those who were hit hard by the October storm.

“Making it as easy as possible for those affected by Hurricane Sandy to have access to the resources they need to recover will also help our city rebuild,” the congress members wrote. “Allowing survivors better access to relief programs like D-SNAP will mean more people will be able to sign up, which will also translate into more profits for local small businesses such as grocery stores.”
The members noted that many New Yorkers whose homes were damaged by the storm’s extensive flooding were elderly or handicapped, so they would particularly benefit from easier access to the federal benefits.

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, representing the congressional district primarily covering Harlem, won yesterday’s primary despite district redraws (occurring once a decade). The 82-year-old Rangel defeated Adriano Espaillat and three other candidates in the congressional primary, with the New York Times calling it “the toughest re-election fight of his career.”

Rangel’s victory gives him the shot at a 22nd term, despite a recent ethics scandal, reports Fox News. Shortly after his 2010 congressional victory, Rangel was the target of a controversy on tax and financial disclosure statements, which included misappropriation of congressional resources. He was ultimately convicted of 11 ethics violations.

Rangel’s new district includes less of Manhattan and additional parts of the Bronx. The redistricting means Rangel’s constituency consists of fewer whites and more Hispanics, reports the Times. 

Rangel, who received the endorsement of Governor Cuomo and Speaker Quinn, credits his incumbency and long career in the district with the victory. The Democratic Rangel faces a favorable chance in the November general election.

—Alissa Fleck

Our hope has been realized, with two strong candidates in the 13th congressional district’s Democratic primary: State Sen. Adriano Espaillat and Clyde Williams, a man with experience on the national stage as well as in Harlem, still the heart of the newly drawn district.

Our nod goes to Williams, who presents the clearest vision—really a laser-like focus on how to bring more jobs back to the district. With his experience in job and community development in Harlem and elsewhere and with his ties to President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, he has the best chance to be the district’s most effective representative, particularly if the president wins re-election.

We like Williams’ record, his intelligence and his problem-solving skills.

Espaillat has had an admirable career fighting good fights in Albany, but he hasn’t given us a reason to think he will be as effective as Williams in Washington. Although jobs and the economy are important issues to him, they are not his top priority.

Rangel, for his part, did not present us with a clear vision of what he hoped to accomplish in the next two years. He does not appear to have the energy and focus he once did.

Add to that his ethical problems, which are much more serious than “spitting on the sidewalk,” as he described them us. Even if you accept Rangel’s claim that he was railroaded into an unfair admission agreement and censure, he nevertheless is a fallen political star. The president and other Democratic leaders pay a political price if they get too close to him.

He believes the accusations are no longer an issue because he was re-elected overwhelmingly in 2010, but that ignores the fact that the district has changed and many voters are looking at Rangel for the first time.

Much of the Upper West Side has been cut out to include more of the East Side and parts of the Bronx.

The other two candidates in the race, Joyce Johnson and Craig Schley, have not run strong campaigns and did not give us reason to think they could be effective.

Clyde Williams is the best candidate in the race and we endorse him in the June 26 Democratic primary.

Photo by Jonathan Springer

Over the course of her 20 years in Congress, Nydia Velazquez has earned the nickname of “La Luchadora,” or the “The Fighter.” And for the first time in almost a decade, Velazquez is facing a serious fight against three Democratic opponents in the race over the newly redrawn 7th Congressional District. In a congressional environment where the Republicans are likely to control the House and stymie Democratic proposals at every turn, Velazquez’s connections and familiarity with the issues and political system are what are needed for the two years ahead.
Whether you are a critic of her work or not, her resume is impressive, as are the many political “firsts” she has under her belt: the first Hispanic female New York City Council Member, the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in Congress and the first woman to chair Congress’s Committee on Small Business. It is her experience on this committee that is most important as the government tries to create jobs and foster economic growth.
While the criticisms that Velazquez hasn’t done enough for her constituents, especially those within our portion of her district, hold some merit, it is now virtually impossible for any Democrat to make headway in the Republican-controlled House. Instead, Velazquez focuses on working in committee to broker whatever compromises can be reached on already proposed legislation. This nuanced—yes, “insider”—view of how Congress unfortunately works at the moment is another reason we support Velazquez.
While it seems likely Velazquez will be victorious in this race, we wholeheartedly believe there are better potential candidates out there.
No candidate better communicated this change than George Martinez. His participation in the amorphous Occupy Wall Street movement might be clear grounds for some to outright dismiss him as a legitimate candidate, but in person he is decisive, clear, even inspirational. Martinez cohesively packages the ideals of OWS and makes one think that if OWS infiltrated the political system, it could be a strong antidote to the Tea Party movement.
Martinez, however, doesn’t seemed to have energized Occupy supporters as much as he needs to this late in the game. He is also very well-versed in and focused on local issues, begging the question of whether a federal position is the best fit for him.
But a defeat in this race isn’t likely to deter Martinez from politics, and we believe he will become a formidable candidate over the next few years.
Dan O’Connor is perhaps the most interesting candidate in this race—a white, New York City-born economist who is fluent in Chinese and shares many ideological similarities to libertarians. However thought-provoking O’Connor’s ideas are, he clearly has no interest in bringing more federal resources to the district.
As a City Council member, Erik Martin Dilan has proven himself to be active and engaged, but his close ties to the Brooklyn political machine are unsettling.
For this race, our nod goes to Velazquez, but we are encouraged to see more serious contenders for this district this time and hope to see better candidates in two years.

In a letter sent to new constituents in the newly drawn 7th Congressional district, Rep. Nydia Velazquez wrote that she is sometimes referred to as “La Luchadora,” Spanish for “The Fighter.”

That label may prove more than fitting as Velazquez seeks re-election to the congressional seat she has held since 1992, which as the result of the 2010 Census has undergone redistricting.

Many political insiders say this could be the veteran congresswoman’s toughest fight yet, as she goes up against three challengers in the upcoming Democratic primary on June 26.

Term-limited Brooklyn Councilman Erik Martin Dilan, political newcomer Dan O’Connor and Occupy Wall Street/hip-hop activist George Martinez are all vying to oust Velazquez from the new 7th District, which is now 20 percent Chinese and includes parts of Chinatown, the East Village and the Lower East Side in addition to areas in Brooklyn such as Williamsburg and Sunset Park and Woodhaven in Queens.

Nydia Velazquez. Photo by Jonathan Springer.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez

Velazquez, who is leading her three challengers in fundraising, with more than $300,000, according to the latest figures from Opensecrets.org, prides herself on fighting for the city’s working families.

“Most recently, I secured more than $50 million for numerous public housing facilities throughout the city,” said Velazquez in an email interview. “I’ve consistently fought to ensure NYCHA receives the federal funds it needs to keep our public housing stock safe and affordable while protecting programs that prevent working families from being evicted from their homes.”

When asked about her greatest achievements in the past two decades in office, Velazquez pointed to legislation she authored on the Women’s Procurement Program, which, she said, has helped female entrepreneurs tap into the $500 billion federal marketplace.

“By standing up to Republican efforts to gut and weaken small business programs, assistance for thousands of New York City entrepreneurs was preserved,” she said.

Responding to accusations by some of her challengers who have called the congresswoman a “career politician” whose major donors include large financial institutions, Velazquez countered that she came to Congress to be an “independent voice” who stands up for working families.

In addition, Velazquez, who has received endorsements from powerful politicians including Sen. Chuck Schumer and State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said a current analysis of all representatives’ voting records found that she was among the members of Congress “most likely to stand up to special interests.”

Regarding the issues of most concern to her constituents, Velazquez said that given the economy, jobs are paramount.

“First and foremost, we need to stay focused on creating good-paying, local jobs,” she said. “With new, high-technology businesses migrating to Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan and Queens, we can create another wave of economic opportunity. In addition, we need to make the investments in infrastructure and education that provide immediate job opportunities while creating conditions for long-term prosperity.”

Once again reiterating her commitment to help the city’s small businesses, the congresswoman cited legislation favoring small business tax breaks.

“I’ve introduced a measure providing a $6,000 tax break for small businesses that add new workers to their payrolls,” Velazquez said. “Tax incentives like these are also a priority of the president’s and can make the difference for a restaurant, store or small manufacturer trying to grow in a tough economy.”

She added, “Our economy is getting better, but we still have a long way to go. I have the experience to implement policies ensuring New Yorkers benefit as our economy turns the corner and our nation moves back toward prosperity.”

Dan O'Connor. Photo by Jonathan Springer.

Dan O’Connor

Brooklyn-born challenger Dan O’Connor is unique for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is his familiarity with Chinese culture, keen knowledge of economics and decided lack of any political experience.

O’Connor, an economist and businessman who worked at an unnamed alternative energy company in Manhattan, was immersed in Chinese culture during a six-year stay in mainland China, where he learned to speak fluent Mandarin and Cantonese. He also studied economics at Johns Hopkins University in Nanjing, China, and later worked at an economic think-tank in Hong Kong before returning to the United States in 2009.

In March, O’Connor opened a campaign office in Chinatown and has knocked Velazquez for all but “ignoring” the Chinese community while growing increasingly complacent as a result of being unchallenged for so long.

But O’Connor, who made it on to the ballot with about 9,000 signatures in early May and has raised just over $50,000 for his campaign, has repeatedly warned of Washington’s economic policies and the corrupt relationship between big business and government that has produced a crop of politicians who are only concerned with pleasing corporate sponsors and getting re-elected.

A spokesman for O’Connor reported recently that polling is going well and that the candidate has been reaching out to thousands of voters each week.

“Dan is coming off a strong showing on the May 24 edition of NY1′s Inside City Hall and is looking forward to an upcoming candidate forum,” said spokesman Paul Hanson. “Dan’s focus has been on connecting with voters on the issues they are most concerned about—jobs and the economy foremost among them—and showing them that they have an alternative to Nydia Velazquez’ corporatist cronyism.”

Further, Hanson said, “We are planning a full-court press as June 26 draws nearer, and we are looking forward to shocking the establishment by making Dan the nominee of the Democratic Party for District 7.”

In an interview with Our Town Downtown in April, O’Connor commented on Velazquez and her “disregard” for the Chinese population in Manhattan.

“Everyone knows that she [Velazquez] has completely ignored the Chinese population and has only recently begun to visit the community since I entered the race,” O’Connor said.

“She brags that she has brought back a lot of federal money to the community, but in fact she has brought back less money to this district than any other representative in New York. She has nothing to brag about when it comes to bringing back money to the district.”

When asked what he would do differently if elected, O’Connor said he would opt to help stabilize the middle class.

“Instead of giving bailouts and trillions of dollars to large banks, hedge funds and corporations, I will fight to put money back in the hands of everyday middle-income and lower-income families,” he said.

“I will provide real solutions to fix the economy, not the failed attempts to revive the economy of recent years,” O’Connor added. “I will push through real initiatives and legislation to revive the Brooklyn waterfront, which has only fallen apart during her time in office.”

Erik Martin Dilan. Photo by Jonathan Springer.

Councilman Erik Martin Dilan

Dilan, a lifelong resident of the 37th Council District, which covers the communities of Bushwick, Cypress Hills, East New York, Ocean Hill-Brownsville and Wyckoff Heights, was first elected to City Council in 2001 and is currently serving his third term in office.

Generally seen by political insiders as the most credible threat to unseat 20-year veteran Velazquez, Dilan, as chair of the Council’s Housing & Buildings Committee, has worked to create housing laws and policy that are balanced to both building owners and tenants.

With a focus on construction safety issues, Dilan has worked on legislation to improve housing inspections and repairs in addition to helping increase the safety of suspended scaffolds, tower cranes and retaining walls at construction sites.

He has also worked to secure roughly $4 million to completely renovate Irving Square Park and more than $10 million to rehabilitate parks across the district.

To better safeguard his council district’s local neighborhoods, he helped appropriate nearly $450,000 for NYPD precincts 75 and 83 for a Mobile Command Vehicle.

On his congressional campaign website, Dilan wrote that he believes Congress must kickstart economic growth immediately by supporting small businesses, incentivizing new hiring and easing the tax burden on working families.

Further, Dilan added that small businesses need to be supported with tax cuts, grants and loan programs so they create jobs in our communities.

He also favors restoration of fairness to the tax code by cutting taxes for working families and ensuring that wealthy Americans pay their fair share while working to eliminate tax loopholes that corporations exploit to keep profits overseas, redirecting that money to small businesses to facilitate job creation both here and at home.

On energy and the environment, Dilan supports adoption of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and biofuel as well as other new transit technologies.

Dilan’s time in office, however, has not been without controversy.

In March, Dilan was investigated for obtaining a city-backed apartment that he seemingly was not entitled to by virtue of having too much income. According to news reports, Dilan’s combined household income was $160,000, while the cap for the apartments was $114,000. In addition, the developer of the apartment was found to be a donor to Dilan’s campaign.

And a recent report by the Daily News found that Dilan, along with two other city politicians, had dipped into the Council’s discretionary funds for more than $10 million, according to a report by Citizen’s Union.

In recent days, Velazquez has publicly said that Dilan, a close political ally of Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez, would not be in the race were it not for Lopez’s backing.

Dilan has since denied the accusations in statements to reporters, telling the press that he is “his own man.”

George Martinez by James Kellher.

George Martinez

According to his campaign manager, Cecily McMillan, George Martinez has been part of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement since the second week of its encampment, and he wrote and performed the OWS’ hip-hop anthem during the third week.

McMillan writes that Martinez was a primary organizer of Occupy Sunset Park and Occupy Bed-Stuy, as well as “Occupy the ’Hood” in New York City and nationwide.

Martinez is currently involved in the End Corporate Personhood Affinity Group. In the world outside the Occupy movement, Martinez was the former district leader for the 51st Assembly District and former assistant director for the New York State attorney general.

He is currently a U.S. Cultural Ambassador to Latin America and Asia, a member of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and an adjunct professor of political science at Pace University in Manhattan.

Martinez’ main focus is an “election with a new direction”—to hear Martinez articulate his platform, it is basically to get the money out of the process and the people in.

“We want to empower people to solve their own problems,” Martinez said.

His OWS-style, hip-hop campaign is the prototype of a community-based, direct action style he has named “Bum Rush the Vote.” The Bum Rush premise is predicated upon controlling politics without money, which is what he calls “people power.”

Martinez said OWS has exposed some of the ways that corporations have used money to influence elections. “People don’t trust public officials anymore,” Martinez said.

“We were told that it takes an average of $1.2 million dollars to run for Congress, much of which comes from corporate backers,” Martinez said. “However, with less than $5,000, we made it on to the primary ballot and even won a ballot challenge!”

“Velazquez was in office for 20 years and she didn’t author one piece of legislation that really affected people in their neighborhoods,” Martinez added.

Martinez said his campaign team is truly grass-roots, made up of volunteers. “Canvassers contributed countless hours petitioning for over 3,000 signatures. We’ve had campaign, media, photography, graphic design and web design consultants donate their time and skills. We’ve had individuals and small businesses donate space and resources for meetings and fundraisers, etc.”

Calling the OWS movement the canary in the coal mine, Martinez said he wants to fix Washington, D.C., and “move the agenda forward.”

Maloney on the roof of the Azure building. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

Some politicians get themselves noticed for the things they say. Others work quietly, hoping to gain attention for the things they do. The rare breed of national legislator is able to land in the spotlight both for their pithy turns of phrase and for their hard-won accomplishments. Rep. Carolyn Maloney is that kind of lawmaker.

The Upper East Side congresswoman has been enjoying national attention lately for her mantra “Where are the women?” a non-rhetorical question posed first to fellow Rep. Darrell Issa when a panel he chaired on religious freedom and birth control was devoid of female speakers and subsequently to every media outlet that would listen as a general indictment of Republican-led policy that seeks to legislate women’s rights.

It’s a catchy and of-the-moment question, but it’s one that Maloney has been asking for decades, as a chief sponsor and continual champion of the Equal Rights Amendment, as the author of the Debbie Smith Act, which allocates $151 million in federal funding a year to process DNA evidence in sexual assault cases and as a reliably unyielding proponent of women’s rights on the national stage.

Maloney has proven she can walk the walk (often in heels) and talk the talk (often with wry jabs at right-wingers and the few political opponents who have challenged her). In her almost 20 years as a congresswoman, she has also been able to strike an impressive balance between advocating for national issues and supporting local ones.

One of her signature measures has been fighting to get federal transit dollars pumped into the overcrowded East Side public transportation system.

“I am very proud of finally finishing the Second Avenue Subway,” Maloney said in reference to funding the first phase. “For those of us who ride the good old Lexington Avenue line, one of the most overcrowded in the nation, there really is a limit to how many people you can stuff into that subway car.”

Over the years, she’s helped secure $4 billion in federal funds for the project, which has generated approximately 38,000 jobs, and she said that when she first began pushing for it, she faced an uphill battle.

“I got $5 million to do a study and then another $5 million for an engineer’s report, and then I just kept pushing it,” Maloney said. “Then we finally broke through, and every day I worked on it.”

She said one of the efforts of which she is most proud is her work on the Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Reform Act, the law that changed the structure of the intelligence system in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and on the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

“I think it’s an example of how this government can really get things done when we’re determined to get things done. We completely reorganized our government and made homeland security our No. 1 top priority,” Maloney said. She also isn’t shy about insisting that New York deserves the lion’s share of anti-terrorism funding.

Maloney, originally from North Carolina, got her first taste of community leadership when she became president of the 92nd Street Block Association, representing the street she has lived on since 1976. In 1982, she was elected to the City Council and in 1992, she ran for Congress, shocking many by ousting incumbent Republican Bill Green and becoming the first woman to represent the 14th District.

She’s been re-elected nine times and recently kicked off her 10th re-election campaign, this time for the renamed and redrawn 12th District, encompassing parts of north Brooklyn (which she used to represent) as well as the Upper East Side and eastern Queens. Maloney doesn’t bat an eyelash at the potential challenges inherent in representing both Williamsburg and Park Avenue.

“I have to study the area and work with the other elected officials, and my work is really a result of what the needs are,” Maloney said of her 100,000 potential new constituents. “When I represented that area, they had an incinerator and I called for the first federal hearing on the incinerator and literally closed it down, so that was a major environmental victory.”

Recently named Public Official of the Year by Earth Day New York and the New York office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Maloney doesn’t back away from issues she sees as vital for the environment. She’s currently embroiled in battling against the Marine Transfer Station planned for East 91st Street, citing concerns for the East River as well as about public health conditions in the surrounding neighborhood.

“Sometimes it’s not what you do, it’s what you stop. When they tried to close the veteran’s hospital on 23rd Street, that became a goal and a passion of mine to keep it open,” Maloney said—and she succeeded. She also successfully lobbied against the closure of several post offices in her district.

She’s been heavily involved in creating new schools for the Upper East Side, working to form the East Side Task Force on education that led to the formation of several local schools.

“I can remember meetings where I said, if you can’t give us a school, I’m going to have to open up my home and move the kids in, because we really need it,” Maloney said.

Maloney lives near her office on East 92nd Street, a fact she said she relishes because she loves that part of the Upper East Side. She spends as much time in the neighborhood as she can.

She has two daughters, Virginia and Christine, with her late husband Clifton Maloney, a wealthy investment banker who died in 2009 pursuing one of his passions, mountain climbing, in Tibet. Now that her children are out of the house, she focuses even more on her career—though she admits she takes time for gardening and is even planning to get back on a bicycle this spring to promote new bike lanes—and seems undaunted by the premise of a three-borough campaign in a contentious election year. She credits her staff for helping her maintain a local focus.

“One of the reasons I ran for office was that after 12 years of Bush and Reagan, federal aid to the city was cut by 74 percent,” she said. “It got so that we could hardly do anything. You could see the importance of the federal government for doing anything local, particularly big projects such as housing, transportation, major investments…

“To this day, we do send more in tax revenue than what comes back, and it’s my job to try to get every penny of it,” she said.

The hundreds of commendations lining the walls of her office and her obvious pride in her work clearly speak to the seriousness with which she takes her job in Congress, but Maloney admits that she relishes creating legislation and finds it, well, fun.

“It’s sort of like a game to me,” she said, explaining how she can introduce so many bills (70 in the last full session, tying her for the most from any representative). “There’s a problem and I just sit in front of a fire or a pretty view and I think of a legislative fix.”

With Joe Carvin’s departure from the race for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination, top consultant Bill O’Reilly’s strange couple of days are over.

O’Reilly confirmed that with Carvin out of the race, he is now back doing press for Rep. Bob Turner, whose campaign for Congress was helped enormously by O’Reilly’s press work. But when Turner announced for Senate this week,with O’Reilly already committed, another member of O’Reilly’s firm, Jessica Proud, handled press for Turner’s campaign, while O’Reilly continued to do Carvin. Both offered to quit both campaigns because of the conflicts, O’Reilly said.

E. O’Brien Murray, who managed Turner’s 2011 congressional campaign and had been considered the mastermind behind the upset, also had been with Carvin.

Here’s the statement that went out this morning:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JOE CARVIN: ‘REPUBLICANS WILL BE WELL REPRESENTED IN RACE AGAINST GILLIBRAND’

Withdraws Candidacy; Remains Neutral

Rochester, NY – March 16…Westchester businessman and Rye Town Supervisor Joe Carvin (R) withdrew his candidacy today for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate.

When Carvin made the decision to get into this race, the Republican Party had only one declared candidate for the office. Carvin entered the race because he wanted to ensure that the Republican Party faithful had a choice of candidates and to ensure that voters understood the depth and urgency of the financial crisis confronting the nation and threatening our long-term jobs prospects.

“I was pleased with the positive feedback I received from Party members and leaders around the state when I talked about the need to fundamentally restructure our entitlement systems, our tax code and health care,” Carvin said.

Carvin made it clear that this kind of fundamental reform could not go forward without shared sacrifice among the people of New York and the United States. “Far too often politicians are afraid to tell voters the truth about the severity of the fiscal and jobs crisis we are facing. I was pleased that the New York Republicans are prepared roll up their sleeves and take on today’s daunting challenges.”

Since Carvin’s decision to enter the race, two new candidates have decided to run for US Senate joining George Maragos in the competition, Wendy Long and Congressman Bob Turner.

“My number one goal in entering the race was to ensure that the Republican Party had a nominee capable of defeating Ms. Gillibrand in November,” Mr. Carvin said. “But in the last several days – after Ms. Gillibrand was ranked the most left-wing senator in America by National Journal and after she voted for higher gas prices by opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline – I believe any of the candidates in this race can beat her. I am one hundred percent confident that I would have received the 25% of the Republican delegate vote necessary to get on the ballot, but I am now comfortable that my party is well represented.”

The New York State Republican Convention, at which a Party nominee will be chosen, is being held today in Rochester, NY.

“This has been a tremendously uplifting experience and I am extraordinarily grateful to all those around the state who have supported me in ways large and small over the past few weeks. I am particularly grateful to my own county chairman Doug Colety and his committee for giving me such strong support.”

To see more from City & State click here.