Dan Halloran. Via Wiki Commons.

State Senate

The Senate GOP is using a TV ad firm that has deep Tea Party ties.

Queens

Republican Dan Halloran surprisingly showed up at Democratic Senate candidate John Messer’s campaign kickoff.

Brooklyn

Runs for NYC Comptroller or Brooklyn DA could be in TLC Commissioner David Yassky’s future.

Elsewhere

Erie County Democratic Party chairman Len Lenihan is getting set to retire again – a year after initially saying he would.

Here’s the official list of candidates who are running in the September legislative primaries.

To read more from City & State click here.

“We’re going to have a public hearing May 31,” Yassky told City & State before a City Council budget hearing today. “It’s the same question we’ve been answering all day long.”

The city supports a fare increase, but the New York Times reported today that it is reluctant to also raise the so-called lease caps, or the amount that taxi fleets charge cabbies to use their vehicles.

Yassky today declined to discuss the city’s stance on the lease caps, saying only that the commission will process the two petitions that have been submitted for a fare increase, and develop a proposal for the commission’s nine-member body to consider and adopt.

One petition, from the New York Taxi Workers’Alliance, would only raise the fares, which would benefit drivers. The other petition, from the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, would raise fares but also raise the lease caps, which would lessen or eliminate the benefit from the fare increase to drivers.

To read more from City & State click here.

Thanks to the city’s “owner must drive” rule, he can’t lease out the medallion to other drivers, potentially robbing him of steady income in his golden years.

“I shouldn’t have to rely on my kids,” he said. “I want to be able to lease my medallion so me and my wife live happily ever after.”

The city Taxi and Limousine Commission contends the “owner must drive” rule keeps alive the dream of individual medallion ownership. But Tuncel and other taxi owners say that the regulation is akin to slavery. They found a champion in one Manhattan city council member, who has taken up their cause over the objections of the commission.

“These are people that have worked hard and long for these medallions and I think we should be sensitive,” said the bill’s author, Upper East Side City Council Member Jessica Lappin.
Lappin’s bill would waive the owner-must-drive rule for any military veterans who have served in times of war, spouses of deceased medallion owners who inherit the medallions and drivers age 62 or older who have driven for at least 10 years.

She has the support of several taxi drivers associations.

“Most people don’t appreciate what it’s like driving a cab,” said Steven Bulatowicz, operations manager of the League of Municipal Taxi Owners. “You’re out there five or six days a week for 12 hours per day. It’s hard. It’s grueling, grueling work and it takes a toll.”

The rule doesn’t apply to individual medallion owners who have owned their medallions continuously since before 1990, when the rule went into effect.

Some of the grandfathered-in individual drivers have leased their medallions to leasing agents. The leasing agents make a small profit off managing the leases.

David Yassky, a former City Council member and current chair of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, said at a recent City Council Transportation Committee hearing that eliminating the owner-must-drive rule would limit the supply of individual medallions and put them in the hands of leasing agents who don’t drive their own taxis.

“We believe very passionately that the owner-driver segment is worth preserving, and we don’t want any rule that will make them disappear,” Yassky said.

About 40 percent of the city’s medallions are for individuals. The rest are corporate medallions, which are bought by companies for fleets.

Tuncel bought his medallion for a little more than $200,000. Medallions now go for about $700,000.
While it appears that Tuncel is in line to make a killing off his investment, he said that’s not the case. He has refinanced the loan on the medallion to replace his vehicles—he needs another new car to replace his 2006 Toyota Sienna in August—and to put his two kids through Dowling College. He now owes more on his loan than he did when he bought the medallion.

By age 62, he will have driven for 25 years. He believes he has put in enough time behind the wheel.

“If God lets me get to age 62, I want the option to be there,” Tuncel said.

Neighbors Try to Thwart Vendors with Parking Meters

Last week, Community Board 7 narrowly voted down a resolution from their transportation committee that would have recommended a major change in parking regulations on a small strip of West 68th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. The measure came about as a way to keep food vendors off of the mostly residential street, which some residents vigorously support. The resolution was to recommend that the Department of Transportation switch the street from regular alternate side parking to metered parking, making it illegal for vendors to set up there. When the measure came before the full board, however, many board members were adamantly opposed to a change that would inhibit resident parking on the street and give over spaces to temporary visitors. Despite impassioned pleas from some residents who say they’re fed up with food vendors on their street, the board ultimately rejected the measure, and the street will remain, for the time being, open to both resident parking and street vendors with the proper permits.

The UWS on Two Wheels

Local preservation advocacy group Landmark West and the American Planning Associations Members are sponsoring a bicycling tour of historic railway, subway and greenway sites on the Upper West Side next Saturday, May 12, starting at 3 p.m. The tour will be led by transportation planner and Upper West Sider Josef Szende, who will take bikers past spots historically significant to the Hudson River Railroad and the IRT subway as well as the Hudson River Greenway and the Columbus Avenue bike lane. The trip is about 10 miles long, beginning at Columbus Circle Bike & Roll, 59th Street and Central Park West, and bike rentals will be available at the start of the tour. Tickets are $15; $10 for Landmark West members. Email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org to RSVP.

West Siders Say No to Horn Noise

Most New Yorkers would likely agree that horn-honking is one of the biggest disturbances of urban life—yet inevitable. Last week, however, West Side group CHEKPEDS (Clinton Hell’s Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety) joined forces with the Citizens Committee and Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky to try to curb the incessant honking. The groups convened at 10th Avenue and West 44th Street to lure taxi drivers with free coffee and donuts and politely worded entreaties to lay off the horns unless it’s absolutely necessary, like to prevent a collision or warn a pedestrian of oncoming danger. Citizens Committee is also upping the ante by offering implementation grants, from $500 to $3,000, to neighborhood groups with innovative ideas to reduce horn honking. Among other steps toward a more peaceful city, Yassky noted that the city’s “Taxi of Tomorrow,” the Nissan NV200 slated to hit the streets in fall of 2013, features a low-annoyance horn. Stated Citizens Committee CEO, Peter Kostmayer, “This is a small problem that we can solve on our own just by being a little more polite.”

Lincoln Square BID Annual Meeting

The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District will be holding its 15th annual meeting on Friday, May 18, at 8 a.m. Property owners, commercial tenants, businesses and residents are welcome. The BID will review the past year’s accomplishments and discuss new initiatives as well as adopt the 2012 fiscal year budget and elect directors for the coming year. Guest speakers include Thomas Farley, commissioner of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and Alair Townsend, chairwoman of the City Center of Music & Drama Inc. Fordham University, 113 W. 60th St., 12th floor. Reservations required; call 212-581-3774 or email info@lincolnsquarebid.org.

Help for Unhealthy Air

Last month, Mayor Bloomberg announced deadlines for eliminating the use of heavy heating oils, No. 6 and No. 4, in all city buildings. While these oils are used in only 10,000 of the city’s buildings, a mere 1 percent, they account for more soot pollution than car and truck usage combined. Many of these buildings are located in Manhattan, emitting a substantial amount of pollution on the

Upper East and West Sides, where many older buildings use the outdated systems that rely on these heavy fuel oils. Air pollution contributes to 6 percent of annual deaths in New York City, afflicting those exposed with ailments ranging from asthma to heart disease. NYC Clean Heat, an initiative to expedite the city’s conversion to cleaner fuels, anticipates that full compliance with these regulations will save 1,500 lives by 2030, alleviating the burden on our neighborhoods and health care system along the way. The initiative helps building owners by providing information, technical assistance, financial resources and incentives to encourage immediate action to convert heating systems before the compliance deadlines. For more information on the program, dial 311 and ask for Clean Heat, call 212-656-9202 or email info@nyccleanheat.org.

Free Breast Health Screenings

The American-Italian Cancer Foundation will be providing a mobile clinic for free mammograms and clinical breast exams on Friday, May 11, on the Upper West Side. The van will be parked near P.S. 84, at 32 W. 92nd St. To be eligible for the no-cost services, women must be age 40 or older, have a New York City mailing address, and not have undergone a mammogram within the past 12 months. Bring Medicare, Medicaid or insurance information if applicable. Appointments required; call 877-628-9090.

Larry Penner
Great Neck, Long Island

Letters have been edited for clarity, style and brevity.

Before the primary, we weighed in on both these contests; we still stand by those choices and reiterate them here to readers, who we hope will go to the polls on Sept. 29 to cast their vote in these important races.

Comptroller
The comptroller can be seen as C.F.O. of the city, responsible for making sure that budgets are tight and inefficiencies are pinpointed. But we also need more than a bean-counting bureaucrat. That’s why we feel New Yorkers should vote for Brooklyn Council Member David Yassky as the city’s next comptroller.

Yassky showed independence by being the only candidate to endorse legislation that will create a new level of pension benefits for future retirees, with the goal of reducing taxpayer costs. He understands the need to have a diverse portfolio that will protect the pensioners and taxpayers when the economy suffers. (Full disclosure: Yassky’s campaign rents separate office space from this newspaper’s parent company, Manhattan Media.)

His opponent, Queens Council Member John Liu, will surely bring the same tenacity to the comptroller’s duties as he does to Council committee hearings, but we’re concerned he’ll be too focused on using the office as a bully pulpit. Yassky is a well-rounded candidate who can balance experience with leadership, and we endorse him in the run-off for comptroller.

Public Advocate
Brooklyn Council Member Bill de Blasio has the most far-reaching vision for the public advocate’s office, and the most detailed plans for executing that vision on a shoestring budget. De Blasio plans to leverage the public advocate’s meager resources by working with organizations like Transportation Alternatives and the Brennan Center for Justice, at New York University Law School. Through the office’s appointee to the City Planning Commission, he pledges to be an aggressive watchdog on development.

There are, however, a few reservations about his candidacy. If elected, he’ll be tasked with policing the large swath of elected officials and unions that have endorsed his bid for office; we hope this doesn’t make him too cozy to be an effective independent check on city government. And we feel that de Blasio should be more proactive in addressing the questionable services provided to his campaign by the Working Families Party and its for-profit company, Data Field Services.

Mark Green, his opponent, did a commendable job as New York’s first public advocate. But he seems too focused on the past to enact a forward-looking agenda. De Blasio strikes us as the candidate most ready to hit the ground running in January, and we endorse him in the run-off for public advocate.

Public advocate hopefuls Mark Green and Council Member Bill de Blasio will face each other. In an upset, de Blasio bested Green, the former public advocate who is trying to reclaim his seat, by a margin of 32 percent to 30 percent.

On the East Side, Green’s main base of support, de Blasio edged out his rival by 385 votes.

Council Member Eric Gioia and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel received 18 percent and 14 percent of the total vote, respectively.

Green, with wide name recognition, was expected to be in the lead, but de Blasio, who enjoys immense union support, pulled ahead. Green is trying to paint de Blasio as a political insider, tying him to the Council’s slush fund scandal. Green said that de Blasio doled out taxpayer money to nonprofits, which then donated the money back to his campaign.

For his part, de Blasio has criticized Green for being absent from city issues since he left office in 2001, after failing to beat Bloomberg in the mayor’s race that year.

For comptroller, Council members John Liu and David Yassky will face off again in the Sept. 29 run-off. Liu nearly avoided a run-off with 38 percent of the vote. Yassky, from Brooklyn, came in second with 31 percent.

Yassky was the clear favorite on the East Side, receiving 7,668 votes. East Siders’ second choice, Melinda Katz, got 3,359. When Katz failed to make it to the run-off, she endorsed Yassky.

Overall Katz got 20 percent of the city’s vote and Council Member David Weprin came in last place with 11 percent.

Liu, from Queens, is seeking to be the first Asian-American elected to citywide office. He has strong union support, including the labor-backed Working Families Party, and he is popular among minority voters. Weprin also threw his support to Liu.

While running third in the polls, Yassky leapt to second place after key endorsements from the New York Times, the Daily News and his former boss, Sen. Chuck Schumer. Yassky has pulled support from his home borough of Brooklyn and Manhattan’s liberal base.

“We’ve had a great first phase of the campaign, and now we’re going to make it count by building on our momentum over the next two weeks,” Yassky wrote in an email to supporters.

Moments after the polls closed, the general election between Thompson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg began, with both candidates lobbing blistering attacks at each other.

Thompson reiterated his claim that Bloomberg favors the wealthy, and that he overturned the will of the voters with his extension of the city’s two-term limit for local office holders. Using the slogan, “Eight is Enough,” the Democratic mayoral nominee began soliciting $8 donations.

Though Bloomberg was unopposed for the Republican nomination, he held a lavish party along the Hudson River in Manhattan. There, the mayor slammed “politics as usual,” which is part of his new ad slogan, “Progress. Not Politics.”

One sign that the mayor might not be a shoo-in for re-election were the results of several City Council elections. Backlash to the term-limit extension appeared to play a role in ousting four incumbents, with two more hanging on by a handful of votes, certain for a recount. Nearly all of the Council members who survived contentious races received less than half of the total vote. Even Council Speaker Christine Quinn only received 52 percent of the vote against two spirited challengers.

“Even though few voters voted, the ones who did spoke loud and clear in turning out and voting against incumbents,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the good-government group, Citizens Union. “That is a loud shout to the city’s elected leadership.”

The biggest winner in Manhattan on primary night was Cy Vance, who is all but assured to be Manhattan’s next district attorney, with no Republican running for that seat. With 44 percent of the vote, Vance beat 2005 candidate Leslie Crocker Snyder and newcomer Richard Aborn.

In the East Side’s District 4, two Republicans faced off for the right to go against Council Member Dan Garodnick—an uphill battle, considering the incumbent’s popularity and the district’s Democratic lean. Ashok Chandra, a native Texan and member of the New York Young Republican Club, beat the Manhattan Republican Party’s candidate, Neal D’Alessio, 477 to 239.

“My campaign has brought a lot of people out of the woodwork; Young Republicans who in the past haven’t been Republicans. They’re very conservative about fiscal issues,” Chandra said in an interview before the primary.

Moments after the polls closed, the general election between Thompson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg began, with both candidates lobbing blistering attacks at each other.

Thompson reiterated his claim that Bloomberg favors the wealthy, and that he overturned the will of the voters with his extension of the city’s two-term limit for local office holders. Using the slogan, “Eight is Enough,” the Democratic mayoral nominee began soliciting $8 donations.

Though Bloomberg was unopposed for the Republican nomination, he held a lavish party along the Hudson River in Manhattan. There, the mayor slammed “politics as usual,” which is part of his new ad slogan, “Progress. Not Politics.”

One sign that the mayor might not be a shoe-in for re-election were the results of several City Council. Backlash to the term-limit extension appeared to play a role in ousting four incumbents, with two more hanging on by a handful of votes, certain for a recount. Nearly all of the Council members who survived contentious races received less than half of the total vote. Even Council Speaker Christine Quinn only received 52 percent of the vote against two spirited challengers.

“Even though few voters voted, the ones who did spoke loud and clear in turning out and voting against incumbents,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of the good-government group, Citizens Union. “That is a loud shout to the city’s elected leadership.”

The biggest winner in Manhattan on primary night was Cy Vance, who is all but assured to be Manhattan’s next district attorney, with no Republican running for that seat. With 44 percent of the vote, Vance beat 2005 candidate Leslie Crocker Snyder and newcomer Richard Aborn.
The nail-biter primary races were for public advocate and comptroller, and no candidate broached the 40 percent mark needed to avoid a run-off. The top two contenders in each race will now face each other in a run-off election on Sept. 29.

Public advocate hopefuls Mark Green and Council Member Bill de Blasio will face each other. In an upset, de Blasio bested Green, the former public advocate who is trying to reclaim his seat, by a margin of 32 percent to 30 percent.

Council Member Eric Gioia and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel received 18 percent and 14 percent of the vote, respectively.

Green, with wide name recognition, was expected to be in the lead, but de Blasio, who enjoys immense union support, pulled ahead. Green is trying to paint de Blasio as a political insider, tying him to the Council’s slush fund scandal. Green said that de Blasio doled out taxpayer money to nonprofits, which then donated the money back to his campaign.

For his part, de Blasio has criticized Green for being absent from city issues since he left office in 2001, after failing to beat Bloomberg in the mayor’s race that year.

For comptroller, Council members John Liu and David Yassky will face off again in the Sept. 29 run-off. Liu nearly avoided a run-off with 38 percent of the vote. Yassky, from Brooklyn, came in second with 31 percent.

Queens Council member Melinda Katz got 20 percent of the vote and David Weprin, also a Queens Council member, came in last place with 11 percent.

Liu, from Queens, is seeking to be the first Asian-American elected to citywide office. He has strong union support, including the labor-backed Working Families Party, and is popular among minority voters.

While running third in the polls, Yassky leapt to second place after key endorsements from the ITAL New York Times ITAL, the ITAL Daily News ITAL and his former boss, Sen. Chuck Schumer. Yassky has pulled support from his home borough of Brooklyn and Manhattan’s liberal base.

“We’ve had a great first phase of the campaign, and now we’re going to make it count by building on our momentum over the next two weeks,” Yassky wrote in an e-mail to supporters.

In the East Side’s District 4, two Republicans faced off for the right to go against Council Member Dan Garodnick—an uphill battle, considering the incumbent’s popularity and the district’s Democratic lean. Ashok Chandra, a native Texan and member of the New York Young Republican Club, beat the Manhattan Republican Party’s candidate, Neal, D’Alessio, 477 to 239.

“My campaign has brought a lot of people out of the woodwork; Young Republicans who in the past haven’t been Republicans. They’re very conservative about fiscal issues,” Chandra said in an interview before the primary.

Tony Avella

Mayor
If going against Mayor Michael Bloomberg is considered a long shot for Comptroller William Thompson, then Council Member Tony Avella is the longest of shots. Avella, from Queens, has spent most of his Council career as a firebrand who often casts the lone-dissenting vote on legislation. He wants to empower community boards to take a greater role in local development, pledges to increase the involvement of parents and teachers in education policy making and supports commercial rent control.

William Thompson

Mayor
When most prominent Democrats declined to take on Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Comptroller William Thompson was the last one standing, facing only Avella, a long-shot aspirant, in the primary. As comptroller, Thompson’s alternative investment strategies helped cushion the pension fund when the economy collapsed. He knocks the mayor for being overly focused on Wall Street and real estate, a strategy that he says has harmed the middle class, and he promises to diversify. He would create an independent body to study student progress, and wants to mitigate the taxes, fees and fines that he says burden small businesses.

Melinda Katz

Comptroller
In the City Council, Melinda Katz chairs the powerful Land Use Committee, which oversees all development projects that need zoning changes. That has helped her raise campaign cash from real estate interests, but Katz says she has also pushed for affordable housing, fair labor wages and buildings that fit within a community’s context. Before her Council election, she worked in the Queens borough president’s office and she was a State Assembly member. As comptroller, Katz promises to invest a portion of pension funds in successful but debt-strapped companies that do business in New York, to help spur local job creation.

John Liu

Comptroller
John Liu is a reserved City Council member from Queens, but he also has a reputation for being a pit bull during committee hearings. As chair of the Transportation Committee, he claims to be the first elected official to discover the now-infamous “two sets of books” the MTA was using. Liu promises to use his tenacity when auditing city agencies, which the comptroller must do every four years. He also wants to audit and track stimulus funds coming to the city. On pensions, Liu wants to return to traditional, low-risk, low-yield investment strategies.

David Weprin

Comptroller
David Weprin wants voters to understand that he knows the buck. The Queens Council member chairs the Finance Committee, which must pass the city’s budget. He was also Gov. Mario Cuomo’s state superintendent on banking. His position in the Council has baggage, as he was partly blamed for not catching the slush fund scandal sooner. Nonetheless, he is touting his experience and his willingness to stand up to the mayor when appropriate, as he did when opposing the term-limit extension. Weprin plans to open satellite comptroller offices that would focus on financial literacy and assistance programs.

David Yassky

Comptroller
In a field of comptroller candidates from Queens, David Yassky is the lone Brooklynite. He is also the only candidate who supports the creation of a new level of pension benefits that would ease the city’s budget woes, but that remains unpopular with unions. Yassky points to his record in the City Council, where he worked to eliminate waste in the Housing Department, assisted in closing a tax loophole used by luxury developers and supported creating gas-electric hybrid taxis. He promises to invest a small portion of pension funds into biotechnology companies and increase transparency; during the campaign, he put the city’s budget online, at www.ItsYourMoneyNYC.com.

Bill de Blasio

Public Advocate
Council Member Bill de Blasio became Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s chief antagonist during the fight to extend term limits. The successful extension ruined de Blasio’s plans to run for Brooklyn borough president, but he found a spot in the public advocate’s race. He was quickly endorsed by most of the city’s elected officials. As the city’s ombudsman, de Blasio said he would stand up to a powerful mayor when necessary and promises to work collaboratively with other elected officials to get results.

Eric Gioia

Public Advocate
This two-term Queens Council member built a network of support from unions and young professionals, winning his first term without the backing of the borough’s Democratic organization. Gioia is capitalizing on this “outsider” status in his bid to be the city’s ombudsman and is touting his effective use of publicity to drive policy change. In 2007, he went on food stamps for a week, then pushed for legislation that would put applications online. He says he will continue working to improve schools, fighting for economic justice and holding government accountable.

Mark Green

Public Advocate
Voters may remember Mark Green as the city’s first public advocate who served during the Giuliani years, when he sued the mayor for withholding information on racial profiling and police misconduct, and he served as a general foil to many administration policies. He promises to continue that “aggressive progressive” platform, standing up to City Hall and helping government better serve New Yorkers. Since his unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2001, he has been president of Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network that was owned by his real estate mogul brother, Stephen.

Norman Siegel

Public Advocate
This is civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel’s third bid for public advocate, following his unsuccessful challenge of incumbent Betsy Gotbaum in 2005. Siegel, who says the public advocate needs to be visible, a big mouth and a fighter, points to his record representing groups like the 2004 Republican National Convention protestors and West Harlem tenants in their battle against Columbia University. He plans to recruit hundreds of volunteers to be “surrogate public advocates” in each community, and create an “Institute of Advocacy” to help New Yorkers make themselves heard.

Richard Aborn

Manhattan District Attorney
Richard Aborn, a former assistant district attorney under Robert Morgenthau, stormed into the district attorney race as a dark-horse candidate. Yet his campaign has gained momentum after most of the borough’s elected officials, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler, endorsed his campaign. A gun-control advocate who was behind the federal assault weapons ban and the Brady Bill, Aborn is running on a platform of providing alternatives to incarceration, rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders and expanding the use of technology in the office.

Leslie Crocker Snyder

Manhattan District Attorney
This year, Leslie Crocker Snyder is mounting her second attempt to be Manhattan’s top prosecutor. In 2005, the former State Supreme Court judge ran against incumbent Robert Morgenthau, who had been in office since 1974. Snyder, a former assistant district attorney, was the first woman to prosecute homicides, founded Manhattan’s Sex Crimes Bureau and co-authored the Rape Shield Law. As district attorney, she would create a Second Look Bureau to address wrongful convictions and connect prosecutors to local law enforcement, civic and religious groups.

Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Manhattan District Attorney
Retiring prosecutor Robert Morgenthau chose Cy Vance, his former assistant district attorney, to be his successor. Vance, the son of President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of state, has been a defense lawyer in Seattle, Wash. for most of his career, litigating white collar crimes at a national firm. He plans to develop a community-based justice model in neighborhoods to better attack problems such as domestic violence and discrimination against immigrants. If elected, Vance would tackle the criminal court backlog and form special units for mental health issues and hate crimes.

To help voters get a better grasp of these candidates, we’re launching a series of profiles this week featuring one candidate from the comptroller, public advocate and district attorney races. To determine the order, we drew names out of a hat. Stay tuned for additional profiles in weeks to come.

Although he represents brownstone Brooklyn, David Yassky went to high school at Dalton and lived on the Upper West Side as a teenager. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

DAVID YASSKY

Running for City Comptroller
By Zara Kessler

Confronting New Yorkers during their morning commutes is no small feat. But on a recent summer morning, City Comptroller candidate David Yassky looked unperturbed as he greeted potential voters at East 77th Street and Lexington Avenue. Most passersby accepted handshakes and fliers from Yassky and fellow Council Member Dan Garodnick, who is running for reelection in his East Side district. Some signed petitions to put both men on the ballot; a few scoffed at being bothered.

Yassky’s mother, also the campaign treasurer, stood nearby, petition in hand. She was joined by volunteers from the Lexington Democratic Club, which has endorsed Yassky, along with the Brooklyn and Manhattan Democratic Parties, over his three primary challengers: Council Members John Liu, David Weprin and Melinda Katz. Other prominent support comes from East Side Assembly Member Jonathan Bing, Staten Island Rep. Mike McMahon and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Yassky, who is often characterized as “wonky,” suggested a must-read piece to a passerby who was toting a recent issue of The New Yorker. While some may make light of his “nerdiness,” that seriousness may attract Democratic voters, who are choosing between four candidates, all Council Members, to be the city’s next chief financial officer.

“The basic quality of life that we’ve come to value and enjoy in New York is genuinely at risk, and we have to be very disciplined and very creative in the city government to make sure we get back on track,” he during an interview at a downtown Starbucks.

As comptroller, Yassky says he would cut fat in city budgets to maintain critical initiatives, like open firehouses, Meals on Wheels and class size control. He promises to keep a close eye on the Department of Education. To temper the city’s reliance on Wall Street, he champions investing in biotechnology and environmental technology, and continuing to promote the film and television industry. As a Council member, he recently called for an expansion and extension of the New York City Film Tax Credit, a program he sponsored as a Council member that was signed into law in 2005.

Of course, the comptroller’s most well known responsibility is to be a steward for the city’s pension funds, and Yassky has been thinking about the recent pay-to-play scandal that led to the indictment of political advisers close to former city and state comptroller Alan Hevesi. But instead of an outright ban on the intermediaries who help broker deals between investment firms and the fund, as Katz proposes, Yassky wants to limit placement agents to smaller companies whose assets are less than $1 billion.

In a push to make the city budget more transparent, Yassky created www.itsyourmoneynyc.com, where New Yorkers can examine budget allocations for city programs and agencies, search earmarks and leave comments on how crucial they think individual programs are. If elected, he promises to publish every city contract online.

Although Yassky represents brownstone Brooklyn, including parts of Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Brooklyn Heights, he spent his formative years on the Upper West Side and attended the prestigious Dalton School.

After graduating from Princeton, Yassky worked in the city’s Office of Management and Budget, where he says he learned how to make the most of every dollar, then headed to Yale Law School. He’s also worked for Sen. Charles Schumer in Washington, D.C., and as a teacher at Brooklyn Law School.

On the City Council, Yassky has worked to eliminate waste in the City’s Housing Department, assisted in closing a tax loophole used by luxury developers and supported efforts to make taxis gas-electric hybrids. He points to these accomplishments as evidence that he is most qualified to serve as comptroller.

“I have by far the strongest record of using the tools of a Council member to advance the progressive agenda to go after waste in the city government,” he said.

His support of Bloomberg’s term limits bill is a hitch in his claim to the progressive mantle. The day before the Council vote was scheduled, he backed an amendment that would require a voter referendum on the matter, killing the term-limits push. When the amendment failed, though, Yassky supported the mayor.

Defending his actions, Yassky explained that he had a problem with the way the mayor went about the extension, not the extension itself.

“Term limits are bad policy, and I continue to believe that a 12-year limit is much better policy for the city than an eight-year limit,” he said. “I think part of the lesson here is it’s not enough to pursue the right policy, you’ve got to go about it the right way.”

As far as the right way to pursue primary voters, Yassky seems to be putting his wonkiness to work. His campaign recently released an invitation to join the Council member outside four movie theaters on the opening day of the new Harry Potter movie. The invite boasted a Hogwarts crest reading “David Yassky for NYC Comptroller 2009,” as well as Yassky in a Harry Potter getup, pointing Uncle Sam-style. “The World of Muggles needs YOU!” it beckons.

Let’s just hope that Harry’s a financial whiz, too.

Cy Vance was a prosecutor under Robert Morgenthau from 1982 to 1988. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

CYRUS VANCE, JR.

Running for Manhattan District Attorney
By Zara Kessler

The sun was shining outside of the Harlem Legal Services building on 125th Street, and Cyrus Vance, Jr. couldn’t have looked happier. While volunteers distributed fliers and “Cy Vance for D.A.” pins, Vance greeted those congregating for Gloria Steinem’s endorsement of his candidacy for Manhattan district attorney. It was an especially noteworthy event, given that one of Vance’s opponents, Leslie Crocker Snyder, is gunning to become Manhattan’s first female D.A. The other challenger in the Democratic primary is Richard Aborn.

To many, Vance is most notably the son of Cyrus Vance, secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. But Vance is careful to stress his background as a lawyer and policy expert in criminal justice issues who has an in-depth understanding of the D.A.’s office.

Steinem’s support stemmed from Vance’s “Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women, Children and Intimate Partners,” which includes a proposal to increase sentences for repeat offenders, create a human trafficking unit and stalking hotline, and open a family justice center in northern Manhattan similar to those in Brooklyn and Queens.

“To me, domestic violence cases really are a reflection of violence in the home spilling out into the acceptance of violence in our society,” he said.

Vance also promises to protect immigrants and the elderly, groups who are often preyed upon and defrauded.

A graduate of Yale and Georgetown Law School, Vance was a prosecutor under Robert Morgenthau from 1982 to 1988. Morgenthau virtually handpicked Vance as his successor, determining that he had the best shot at taking down Snyder, whom he has never forgiven for her acrimonious 2005 primary challenge. Other prominent Vance supporters include former mayor David Dinkins, former state comptroller H. Carl McCall and two members of the Kennedy clan, Caroline Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

While Vance lacks Aborn’s long list of endorsements by political clubs and elected officials, he believes he has a good balance of support, including endorsements by a number of former senior and federal prosecutors.

“I don’t think the D.A.’s job is a politician’s job,” he said.

Leaving his Upper East Side roots, Vance moved to Seattle in 1988 to raise a family, build a law firm and make a name for himself outside his father’s shadow. He returned to New York in 2004 with wife Peggy McDonnell and their two children, now both in college. Vance joined Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, P.C., where even the doorman wears a “Cy Vance for DA” button.

While this 16-year stint on the West Coast has been criticized as detracting from his ability to serve New Yorkers, Vance touts the perspective he gained out West.

“We should as an office and as, I believe, a city, welcome people who bring breadth of experience to leadership in any office,” he said.

He stresses that his experience as a lawyer on both sides of the criminal justice system makes him fit for the role.

Noting his in-depth understanding of white-collar crime cases as a distinguishing characteristic among the candidates, Vance sees the D.A.’s office working with federal authorities and the attorney general to prosecute all types of fraud. But businessmen and corporations aren’t the only ones he hopes to scrutinize.

“I can’t wait to get into office and take a look at the issue of public corruption,” he said.

Citing roughly 20 years of experience on sentencing commissions in Washington State and New York, Vance promises to look at alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders and provide support to prevent recidivism. He has proposed creating special units to address mental health issues and hate crimes. Other structural changes include working on the backlog of cases and creating a computer crime unit to investigate cases involving computers and the Internet, support other divisions and work with the private sector to prevent data breaches and identity theft. Vance has also proposed a community-based justice model that would align teams from the office with Manhattan precincts.

“The D.A.s will not only be more accessible, but they’ll understand more what the specific challenges are for the neighborhoods,” he said. “And the communities will know to whom they can turn within the D.A.’s office.”

Vance, for one, knows he can turn to Morgenthau for support. And that may be enough for Manhattan primary voters. As the Steinem press conference dissipated, two pedestrians passed by and remarked at the gathering.

“He’s taking Robert Morgenthau’s place,” one says.

Vance certainly hopes so.

Eric Gioia worked night shifts as a janitor and elevator operator to pay for tuition at New York University. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

ERIC GIOIA

Running for Public Advocate
By Clara Martínez Turco

Eric Gioia believes that politicians have a tendency to talk about, rather than solve, problems. Yet for the past eight years he has represented Queens in the City Council, and now he’s hoping to be the next public advocate, an ombudsman position that’s viewed as a watchdog for city government.

“We need elected officials who listen, who understand what people are going through and who are willing to fight and actually get results,” Gioia said. “Through the work I have done, you see I’m result- and action-oriented, and I think that’s what we need.”

To the 36-year-old Council Member, the public advocate can be the voice of unheard New Yorkers, and speak against what he considers “powerful interests.”

Speaking out is exactly how Gioia says he was introduced to politics. As a 5th grader at P.S. 11 in Woodside, Queens, he was selected by the principal to advocate for more classroom space in front of then-Mayor Edward Koch and the school board.

Growing up in a family that has owned a Queens flower shop for more than 100 years, he says he learned the value of hard work. That lesson continued during his college years, when he worked night shifts as a janitor and elevator operator to pay for tuition at New York University.

“Working my way through college, I learned what an incredible city we live in that gives kids like me an opportunity,” said Gioia.

After graduating from NYU in 1995, he got a job as a law clerk in the White House Deputy Counsel’s office during the Clinton administration. Three years later, he graduated from Georgetown Law School and returned to New York to work as a private attorney. Finding it impossible to stay away from politics, in 2000 he served as Al Gore’s New York campaign coordinator. That’s where he met wife Lisa Hernandez, a political consultant who is now one of his campaign advisers. The couple has a daughter and is expecting a second child around Sept. 15, the day of the Democratic primary.

Gioia speaks broadly when talking about his goals as public advocate: he wants to give a voice to an invisible middle class and to those who are underrepresented in the current administration. He plans to continue working to improve schools, fighting for economic justice and holding government accountable to make sure that taxpayer dollars are well spent. The overall goal, he says, is to give New Yorkers a government they can be proud of.

Much like his City Council bid, which was successful despite a lack of the support from the Queens Democratic organization, Gioia is appealing to unions and young and professional voters in the race for public advocate. That support helped him win his Long Island City Council seat, making him the second youngest Council member to date.

A well-known joke in political circles is that Gioia has been running for public advocate since his re-election to the Council in 2005. He has amassed 5,558 contributions as of May 15, totaling $2.2 million, well ahead of his competitors. They include fellow Council member Bill de Blasio, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel and Mark Green, who was public advocate during the Giuliani years.

“This is a grassroots campaign,” Gioia said during his annual party at the Long Island City water taxi beach, as old supporters and prospective voters approach him.

As a Council Member, one of Gioia’s priorities has been to end child hunger in the city. In 2007, he was the only New York elected official to take the nationwide “Food Stamp Challenge” and lived for a week on $28 of groceries, although he gained two pounds. Critics slammed the maneuver as a media stunt, but he used the attention to push for legislation that would allow the city to offer the application online. And after almost two years of pressure from Gioia and others, Costco also started accepting food stamps in its two New York stores.

“That’s both advocating with legislation and policy change to attack an issue,” he said. “You have to be creative, tough and willing to stand up, no matter what the odds.”

He says the success of the food stamp initiative is what first made him consider running for public advocate.“It became the perfect fit for me,” he said.