Weiner Ahead In 2013 (!) Fundraising

The Wall Street Journal ran a story today about the cash on hand for various mayoral contendors. Weiner has $3.9 million in campaign cash, and Quinn also healthy with $2.7 million war chest. “Five officials contemplating mayoral bids in 2013 have provided The Wall Street Journal with details of their disclosures:” Quinn, Weiner, Stringer, Thompson, and Liu. Bill de Blasio declined to particpate.

Stringer is the only mayoral contendor who raised much money in the past six months:

Mr. Stringer raised more than $600,000 this year, and he said he intends to carry over about $1 million from his re-election campaign last year.

“I’m gratified by the close to 1,000 people who contributed, and I’m moving forward,” Mr. Stringer said in an interview. “This is a long journey.”

Thompson has also made his intentions clear:

“It is definitely my intention to run for mayor in 2013 and we’ll begin that process in the latter part of this year,” Mr. Thompson said in an interview.

2013 is going to be an interesting year. If all five ran, we’d also have big fields in the comptroller and Manhattan Borough President races. Not that my political acumen matters much, but if all five ran and went the distance to Primary day, I would bet on Liu.

Photo of the Week: Almost Is Not Enough

A lot happened on Tuesday. The Republican Party imploded in upstate NY and allowed Democrats to gain a House seat we hadn’t held since 1852. However, two Democratic legislatures have gone Republican and there were widespread losses sustained across the state by Democrats.

Here, in our own City, we elected a Democratic Comptroller and Public Advocate, and we came within a hair’s breadth of taking the mayoralty.

We almost won it.

But almost is not enough. Last year, most of us got on the phone, traveled out-of-state, urged our friends to vote, and donated to help elect Obama. This year, too many of us sat on the sidelines. Don’t take it in stride. Help organize for 2010 RIGHT NOW!

Don’t sit this one out. You can play a pivotal role. Help us keep New York blue.

Give as little as $5 and make sure we elect the right people next year! Come to MYD meetings and help us strategize! They’re the 3rd Tuesday of every month.

How To Blow $100M And Have It Backfire

Liz Benjamin reports:

With 90 percent of precincts reporting, Mayor Bloomberg is leading Bill Thompson by 494,367 to 461,129.

That’s 50.0 percent to 46.7 percent, which is not decisive. Not at all.

It’s more like a cliffhanger. And this after spending some $100 million of his own cash.

Maybe NYers are much harder to buy than you thought, eh, Mike?

Meanwhile, up in NY-23, Bill Owens (D) is doing well:

Thirty-one percent of precincts are reporting and he’s leading Conservative Doug Hoffman, 51.1 percent to 43.9 percent.

Indecision 2009 – NYC Edition

That’s right. Everyone’s favorite nighttime infotainment segment finally picked up the NYC Mayoral election. Concise, and full of hilarity, the Daily Show delivers.

Hat tip, Jen Chung of the Gothamist.

Btw, if you’re looking for more infotainment on Sunday, check out this nugget form our newsletter:

Sunday November 1, 2009
Info-tainment Politics in the Millennial Generation
The Tank, 354 West 45th St (between 8th & 9th Ave)
Join MYD and other organizations for a night of entertainment and conversation to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the 2008 election with performances, a premier and a panel discussion.
RSVP by emailing meagan.carberry@gmail.com

Kornacki Kracks It

The award for best post-debate analysis goes to Steve Kornacki of the NY Observer for this article: “Bloomberg Beats a Dead Horse”

The irony is that Kornacki doesn’t analyze the debate at all, specifically. No guessing which hand gesture most affected turnout (Bloomie grabbing his lapels), or what response most sent shivers through people (Thompson’s grade of D- for Bloomberg’s term as mayor). Instead, Kornacki chooses to dissect the dialogue of the campaigns, compare the reality of the ‘09 Race with what it could have been, and analyze why we’ve ended up with politics as usual.

And as usual, he’s spot on.

Bloomberg Beats a Dead Horse [New York Observer]

Bloomberg’s $15,000/Hour Campaign

New Yorkers weigh in:

From the Thompson Campaign.

Oy

Apparently this weekend Bloomberg insinuated he and ONLY HE can save NYC from becoming the next Detroit:

“We all know that cities have gone through great boom times and then turned around and collapsed. Take a look at Detroit,” he said. “It went from a great city with lots of good-paying jobs to a city that’s basically holding on for dear life. All of our gains are always in danger of being turned around.”

Obama Endorses Thompson

Democratic candidate for mayor Bill Thompson started off the week strong with a new poll showing he’s within single digits of the billionaire mayor. Now, he’s got the endorsement of the top Dem in the country:

“I am grateful and encouraged to receive the support of the President of the United States, especially on the day that Barack Obama is named a Nobel Prize Winner. It is a point of personal pride to receive this endorsement since I made my final decision to run for mayor of this great city while waiting on line to vote for President Obama.  New Yorkers supported President Obama in historic numbers on November 4, 2008 and I look forward to that same support on November 3, 2009.  I am deeply honored and thank our President for his support and confidence that I will be the next mayor of New York City.”

Two Words, Bloomberg: Term Limits

From the Thompson campaign:

Submit A Question For Our Mayoral Forum

We’re already hosted a very successful District Attorney Forum. Now, MYD is teaming up with Living Liberally and Democracy for New York City to host our 2009 Mayoral Forum on August 11th at The Tank (354 W. 45th St). The doors will open at 6:30, and each candidate will be grilled one at a time.

As usual, MYD gives you the hookup: YOU PICK THE QUESTIONS!

(Note: the link above leads to a crowdsourcing tool called Ideascale. You submit an ‘idea’, or in this case, a question, and it gets voted up or down by others, thereby leveraging the genius of the collective MYD ‘crowd’. We’ll use the top questions in the forum, so please start submitting now!)

This election is going to be one of the hardest fought in the history of New York City. We have a sitting Republican-in-Independent-clothing Mayor who changed the law on term limits and is pumping $100 Million of his own money into a shot at a third term. We’re the generation that elected President Obama – we don’t sit idly by and let this effective purchasing of the electorate to go by unchallenged! We make things happen. Our responsibility now is to choose the best Democrat and put everything we’ve got into getting them elected. So come on out, decide the questions, grill the candidates, and when it’s all over, volunteer for the best one.

No, the Naked Cowboy didn’t meet our high invitation standards, and Mayor Bloomberg declined but thanked us for the invitation. To clarify, if you’re a registered Democrat, you’ll be deciding between Thompson and Avella in the September 15th Primary. Be sure to visit our voting toolkit if you need to verify or change your registration. To see what we’ve written about the mayoral race so far, go here.

Watch three men court this lady:

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