Carl McCall

Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr.--who is running for re-election on both the Republican ticket and the Democratic one--wants to clear the air about a few things.

He called to say that his August 13 fund-raiser features Democratic State Senate Leader Malcolm Smith and conference co-chair Jeff Klein, but they are not behind the event.

“They are not organizing it,” Diaz told me. “They never organized nothing for me.” Diaz said his paid fund-raiser for the event is Anne Noonan, and that he is calling contributors himself.

Diaz also said of the party, “I’ve been there when they needed me,” and added that he contributed money to help his conference pick up seats.  read more »

Carl McCall said that he just spoke with Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, who said he is "prepared to do what he needs to do" after Governor Eliot Spitzer seemed to admit today that he was involved in a prostitution ring.

"I just got off the phone with David," said McCall, "and he is also in a sense of shock and what he said to me is, he is prepared to do whatever is necessary to provide the leadership in this state. That's the type of determination he has. I think David has the ability to do the job. David has been tested. He has been in the Legislature at a very top position for a long time; he is a very smart fellow who I think will be able to step in and provide the leadership we need, if it comes to that.

"He was shocked but at the same time determined," said McCall. "He said he is prepared to do whatever needs to be done and he is ready for it."

McCall said he did not know if Spitzer had spoken with Paterson.  read more »

Adolfo Carrion just announced two more co-chairs for his city comptroller campaign: former city comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman and Merryl H. Tisch, chairperson of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

Last month, Carrion rolled out two others: former state comptroller Carl McCall and business executive Leo Hindrey Jr.

Locking up the support of two former comptrollers gives Carrion, at least, a distinction among a field that also includes Melinda Katz, David Yassky, David Weprin, Simcha Felder and James Brennan.

The official statement is after the jump.  read more »

The co-chairs for Adolfo Carrion’s comptroller campaign will be former state comptroller H. Carl McCall and business executive Leo Hindrey Jr. of InterMedia Partners, the campaign announced this morning.

Hindrey, the former C.E.O. of the YES Network (which broadcasts Yankees games) also helped raise money for another Bronx politician seeking citywide office: Fernando Ferrer, who ran for mayor in 2005.  read more »

8:30 a.m. Al D'Amato and Carl McCall discuss city and state government at Baruch College.

11 a.m. Sirius Satellite Radio announces they're launching a station dedicated to Frank Sinatra.

Noon. Assembly Democrats convene for a meeting in the capitol.

1:45 p.m. The Assembly will gavel into session.

2 p.m. The state Senate will join the Assembly for a joint session of the legislature.

4:30 p.m. Grandmothers Against the War will hold vigil in Rockefeller Center

6 p.m. Legal scholar Cass Sunstein will talk about the balance between executive power and the Constitution at the New School.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion will host a celebration of Black History Month on Grand Concourse Avenue.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein discusses Children First reforms at community round table forum at 1368 Fulton Street, in Brooklyn.

6:30 p.m. Medical marijuana will be discussed by a panel hosted by the city Bar Association on 44th Street.

Certainly, the Clinton name is worth an awful lot among black voters, and Hillary has already moved to lock down some of the most influential members of the African-American political establishment.

But at first glance, it all seems at least slightly reminiscent of the New York governor's race in 2002, when Andrew Cuomo -- who also came from a well-known liberal family and had important friends in the African-American political firmament -- was running against Carl McCall for the Democratic nomination and was actually shown leading among black voters in early polls. But by the primary election -- even before Cuomo's preemptive withdrawal -- said voters lined up squarely behind McCall.

I asked a couple of longtime observers of minority politics about that analogy, and about how Hillary might prevent a similar hemorrhaging of support among African-American voters if Obama proves to be a credible candidate deep into primary season.  read more »

"For Carl McCall to have had any success in that race he would have had to appeal to an African-American base, and I think in many of the same ways you are going to see that situation with Senator Obama," said Walter Fields, a political consultant and the vice president for government relations at the Community Service Society, a non-profit public policy research organization focused on poverty. "The challenge is that McCall had a longer relationship with the African-American community in New York than Senator Obama does with blacks around the country."

They released statements from current city comptroller, Bill Thompson -- who seems to have been the chief object of speculation about who might replace Hevesi -- and former state comptroller, Carl McCall saying that they intended to vote for him against Christopher Callaghan.

But as Charles Schumer demonstrated yesterday, there's a difference between voting for someone, and endorsing them.

The E-word is nowhere in the statements from Thompson and McCall [after the jump].

More unequivocal in their support of Hevesi is the United Federation of Teachers, which is working hard to keeping him in office.

"We never disappeared from him," UFT director of legislation and political action, Marvin Reiskin, told me last night. Reiskin said the union is sending out mailings to their members reminding them to vote for Hevesi and the UFT is talking to other unions about how to help Hevesi's re-election.  read more »