Other encouraging signs? The campaign paid for a spread, including a kosher food station, and there was an open bar.

At 9:15 pm, the place was already three-quarters full and former City Comptroller Bill Thompson was gently working the room alongside Yetta Kurland, who’s considering a bid for Christine Quinn’s council seat in Chelsea.

Jeffries’ tireless spokeswoman, Lupe Todd, made a brief announcement that the campaign crunched early numbers and found that Jeffries was ahead 70 percent to Charles Barron’s 30 percent (unofficial Associated Press numbers as of 12:30 a.m. showed Jeffries up 72-28).

“The bar is open!” said Todd.

The room began an ecstatic hum and Thompson gave interviews.

“The early numbers are just that— but this is a good sign,” Thompson said understatedly. “I think that Hakeem will win by a larger margin that people think and I think Nydia will win.”

Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny and Councilman Al Vann staked out positions near the buffet table.

“I’ve never seen such great numbers,” said Brook-Krasny, who shepherded Jeffries’s winning efforts in Coney Island and Seagate.

I asked Vann whether Rep. Ed Towns made a mistake by endorsing Barron.

“I don’t know what was in his head and why he did it, but I did not think it would make any difference in the race for Hakeem,” he said.

The numbers kept getting better and it seemed like everyone in Brooklyn turned out to celebrate Hakeem’s developing victory. Even former county leader Clarence Norman, fresh off his release from prison, showed up to “congratulate the future congressman.”

“I’m a businessman now,” he said, declining further comment, in the night’s oddest celebrity showing.

To read the full article at City & State click here.

Hoylman, who narrowly lost a Lower Manhattan Council race in 2001, is the well-known chairman of Community Board 2. Others expected to run for the seat include Corey Johnson, the chairman of Community Board 4, and Yetta Kurland, a civil rights lawyer and radio host. All the candidates are LGBT identified.

Hoylman’s Council campaign committee popped up the very day that Quinn stormed out of a rally heralding the passage of the living wage bill, after an attendee criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg –  a close Quinn ally who opposes the bill.

And in his Council race, Hoylman faces a similar balancing act as Quinn, as he runs in a liberal West Side district. The personal politics he espouses are liberal. Yet he has long served as the executive vice-president and general counsel of the Partnership for New York City, a pro-business group with close ties to Quinn and Bloomberg.

The situation has grown even more complex for Hoylman after Quinn decided to drop a contentious provision from the living wage bill three weeks ago. That led the the pro-business group, which had initially supported a compromise version of the bill, to drop its support.

To read the full piece at City and State click here.

The Coalition has put forward a plan for the site that would provide for a 200 to 300 bed hospital.

Yetta Kurland, the attorney for the Coalition said that “the community has made clear, all of the data and needs assessments have made clear, the law makes clear, and even the NYS Department of Health has admitted we need a hospital.  Now we need the Rudin corporation to hear this.  As we know, power concedes nothing without a demand, and as our elected leaders have turned their back on the community, unable to stand up to powerful interests like the Rudin real estate corporation, the community is making our voice heard.”

For more information go to: http://demandahospital.blogspot.com/