Carl Andrews

Finally.

One of the highest ranking African-American in Eliot Spitzer’s administration has a title, nine months after joining the administration.

Carl Andrews is, officially, the “Director of NYC Intergovernmental Office” according to this directory. The space next to Andrews' name had been blank for nearly the entire time since he joined the administration back in January, leading to suspicions that the administration was deliberately creating a low profile for him because of his close work with the corrupt Brooklyn Democratic machine under Clarence Norman.

What'll be a bigger headache for Eliot Spitzer this weekend?

The television ads denouncing his plan to cut health care spending or the fallout from the conviction of Clarence Norman, whose right hand man, Carl Andrews, works for Spitzer but has no title.

-- Azi Paybarah

A reader notes that days after the bombshell Village Voice article connecting Carl Andrews to the alleged selling of judgeships in Brooklyn, the Spitzer administration has still not announced that they've hired him.

Andrews is listed in this directory of gubernatorial employees, under the "Office of Intergovernmental Affairs" section.

But woman who answered the phone in the governor's Manhattan office said the hiring of Andrews hasn't been announced yet. A person who answered Andrews' direct line referred a question about his official title to the press office.

-- Azi Paybarah

Now that Eliot Spitzer won't have Alan Hevesi in Albany anymore, it's interesting to see that he's hired Carl Andrews as a community liaison.

Spitzer delivered an early and well-documented repudiation of Hevesi earlier this year to signal clearly his intolerance for the way public officials have conducted themselves in the past.

With Andrews, Spitzer is embracing someone who hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing himself, but who is certainly the product of a party machine that was hardly a model of post-Day 1 propriety.

Spitzer's association with Andrews goes back to the days when Andrews worked closely with Brooklyn Democratic County leader Clarence Norman, who was later convicted on corruption charges. After the Brooklyn organization endorsed Spitzer during the four-way Democratic attorney general primary in 1998, Andrews went to work on Spitzer's campaign as a statewide field coordinator. Spitzer won the primary, defeating incumbent Republican Dennis Vacco, and Andrews went to work in the AG's office.

This year, Spitzer made a rare primary endorsement when Andrews ran for a seat in the 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn.

"It's Mr. Spitzer's prerogative to make personnel announcements," said Darren Dopp, Spitzer's spokesman in the AG's office. Andrews "is expected to fill a role with the administration."

"All members of this administration go through a comprehensive background check," he said, adding, "It's unfair to be damned by association."

-- Azi Paybarah

On June 8, a memo was sent to “Black Elected Officials, City, State, and Federal” from City Coun  read more »

Thanks to a good friend with an unhealthy hoarding instinct, we bring you a taste of what some Central Brooklyn residents have received over the last few weeks from the candidates in the 11th Congressional district.

After the jump.  read more »

Hillary Clinton hit the air with a new 30-second ad, talking about the air in lower Manhattan after 9/11, increasing the federal minimum wage, and social security. Note the absence of that other issue which caused such a stir in Connecticut.

Carl McCall endorsed Yvette Clarke for the 11th congressional district in Brooklyn, bucking the trend of institutional players who are backing Carl Andrews.

This morning, Mark Green was only returning calls from New York Times reporters, and his wife.

The state senate is likely to pass a bill to prevent insurance companies from charging "a higher co-pay for mental health visits."

Mary Mapes is not joining her former colleague, Dan Rather, at his new job.

A video of this morning's press conference about the sale of Stuy-Town and Peter Cooper Village is here.

Jonathan Tasini, writing on the Huffington Post, wants MoveOn to sponsor a debate between himself and Hillary Clinton.  read more »

And an artistic picture of Andrew Cuomo taken after this morning's press conference.

-- Azi Paybarah

Brooklyn Papers endorsed David Yassky for the 11th Congressional District.

Thanks to the free-for-all primary, black voters are as empowered as ever.

All candidates being equal, our preference would be that the district remains represented by a person of color, given the paucity of black faces in Congress.

But all candidates in this race are not equal, and the most important consideration is that the district elect an effective leader who can strongly defend the interests of its black majority and white minority...Wonk-like in demeanor and a bit stiff on the campaign trail, Yassky is unlike many politicos -- he actually makes a difference.

In the newspaper endorsement category, it goes:

New York Times- David Yassky Brooklyn Papers - David Yassky Our Time Press - Chris Owens Amsterdam News - Chris Owens Caribbean-American Weekly - Chris Owens [added] New York Carib News - Yvette Clarke Black Star News - Yvette Clarke Jewish Press- Carl Andrews

-- Azi Paybarah

John Koblin was back in the 11th Congressional district this morning with Carl Andrews, who bragged about his access to Eliot Spitzer and revealed that he aspires to be a congressman in the mold of Charlie Rangel, Anthony Weiner and Greg Meeks.

Here's Koblin's report:

"Things are starting to shape like a pyramid, or hit a peak for the campaign," says Carl Andrews a little before 8 a.m. at the B/Q Newkirk Avenue subway station.

Shaking hands and greeting sleepy commuters, Mr. Andrews said all the pieces - from yesterday's endorsement from the AFL-CIO to his "broad-based support" - were coming together.  read more »

"A culmination is starting to come to a head," he said.

The AFL-CIO has just endorsed Carl Andrews in the 11th Congressional race.

In a statement just sent over by the campaign, the Andrews camp touts the breadth of his establishment support by including a the names of the elected officials who are backing him and, interestingly, by listing the cash-on-hand totals of the four contestants to demonstrate that it has become a "2-candidate race."

David Yassky has $858,497 on hand and Andrews has $295,754. Yvette Clarke and Chris Owens have $107,699 and $45,940, respectively.

-- Azi Paybarah

The Daily News reports that Howard Dean said yesterday that Joe Lieberman should drop his independent bid.

Ben Smith covers primary night in Meriden, Connecticut, hangs out with bloggers; and reports that Carl Andrews used taxpayer funds to send out a series of mailings.

In case you missed it, the Sun reports on Washington Post Op-Ed team Mike Bloomberg and Jeb Bush.

-- Nicole Brydson

One more note on the new-and-improved, gender-based Yvette Clarke campaign in the 11th Congressional district...

As Ben already pointed out Londell McMillan, best known for being Prince's lawyer, has been vigorous in applying his fundraising skills on Clarke's behalf.

An interesting sidenote here is that McMillian was courted for his support by Carl Andrews early in his congressional bid after being introduced by Musa Moore.

They met a number of times, but he apparently decided to go with Clarke instead. For whatever reason.

—Nicole Brydson UPDATE: We just heard from McMillian who told us:

"I do plan on calling out a number of notables from the community as well as from my celebrity rolodex to support Yvette. The way I see it is, Yvette is clearly the most qualified candidate with the integrity and commitment from the community. It seems to me at this point, she raises money, she wins. She's not a newcomer to the district, she's not riddled with scandal, she's not trying to do anything but represent the best interests of all of the people in the district."  read more »

Al Sharpton recently explained his support for Carl Andrews in the 11th Congressional race -- or, more precisely, his opposition to Yvette Clarke -- by explaining that he was still annoyed that he hadn't received support from Yvette's mother while he was protesting the shooting of Amadou Diallo.

"Una Clarke didn't support us on Diallo," Sharpton told the Daily News. "Yvette claims it has nothing to do with her, but she was her mother's campaign manager."

I'd be interested, then, if anyone could explain to us the meaning of this old piece of Una Clarke campaign literature.  read more »

(Azi notes that Yvette disputed the claim several days ago. This picture, we presume, is the evidence she was refering to. )

-- Josh Benson

Once again, in the latest issue of the Village Voice, Wayne Barrett pursues his case against Carl Andrews.

Here's one of the meaty grafs:

Andrews delivered $55,000 in precious senate grants in 2004 and 2005 to the Local Development Corporation of Crown Heights, which has retained Clarence Norman as a consultant. Started by Norman's father in the 1980s, the LDC had also collected $371,500 since 2003 in assembly funding from Norman, who, as a leading member of the Democratic assembly majority at the time, had much more pork power than Andrews. The GOP senate majority greatly limits the so-called "member items" that Democrats control, so Andrews tried, in a Voice interview, to lowball what he'd given, insisting "it was just $5,000 or $10,000."

You can read the rest here.

—Nicole Brydson

One small detail on Carl Andrews' fundraising: among his donors is Winston & Strawn PAC, the fundraising arm of a lobbying firm that earned millions from the Bush Administration Department of Energy pushing for a nuclear waste repository in Nevada.

This is not to say that Andrews has done anything wrong. Winston & Strawn is a massive firm that, Yucca Mountain aside, represents a roster of blue-chip corporate clients that includes Cisco, Microsoft, McDonald's and Philip Morris. And the firm has donated money to a long list of Democrats that includes Hillary Clinton, whose Senate campaign Andrews worked for in 2000.

It's just interesting that the Chicago-based firm, which seems to donate predominantly to Republicans, has chosen its candidate in the 11th.

-- Josh Benson

Before we get into any in-depth observations about the sources of contributions for the candidates in the 11th congressional district, a basic question about the cash-on-hand totals:

How significant is it that David Yassky now has $ 858,000 on hand, nearly three times as much as Carl Andrews?

And what kind of campaign can Chris Owens, with $46,000, actually afford to run at this point?

(For the sake of originality, let's try to answer without using the word "grassroots".)

-- Josh Benson

As Ben points out, Hakeem Jeffries has included Jeff Feldman on his vacancy committee. Eric Adams also included Feldman and five people listed at the same address, two by the same name.

The petition in question also includes Carl Andrews and two Civil Court candidates. A comparison of Andrews 2004 petitions--which also carried Major Owens in some areas--to the current one shows William Boone notably absent from the 2006 edition. The question remains that if Andrews does not have Boone or Feldman on his committee in order, presumably, to eliminate additional ties to Clarence Norman, why would Jeffries associate himself with the indicted party leader?

—Nicole Brydson

The reason Isac called this morning, ostensibly, was to relay news from an event late yesterday of the "United Satmar" citywide organization honoring Ed Towns, at which Carl Andrews, who was also in attendance, received the group's endorsement in his much-discussed congressional race.

But on the topic of the race for the Shirley Chisholm-Major Owens congressional seat, which has come to be dominated by a philosophical discussion about what it means to represent a Voting Rights district, he couldn't help suggesting a proposition of his own:

Instead of focusing on the controversial prospect of a white candidate beating out three black candidates to occupy the seat once occupied by a black woman, he suggested, perhaps local political leaders could solve everyone's problems by urging the three male contenders to drop out of the race and clear the way for... Yvette Clarke.

Said Isac: "Why they shouldn't let her have the seat?"

-- Josh Benson

The Times covers Carl Andrews' show of support yesterday.

The Empire State Pride Agenda endorses Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson.

Ben Smith reports on Sheldon Silver's meeting with the Dolans and Mark Green under investigation.

The Albany Times Union follows up on Pat Healy's story yesterday on the soon to be publicized personal letters of KT McFarland.

—Nicole Brydson

Rumors are floating through the various campaigns for the 11th district that the cancellation of Carl Andrews' big event with Eliot Spitzer today signified something more than overcrowded schedules.

While it does seem odd that the event would be booked to take place in Manhattan on what was supposed to be the final day of the legislative session in Albany, it is also, theoretically, a convenient way for Spitzer to back away from Andrews -- a notion that seems to make a lot of sense to Andrews' opponents.

Here's what a spokesperson for Yvette Clarke's campaign had to say about it: "Obviously, we believe Spitzer endorsed the wrong candidate."

—Nicole Brydson

The Times reports on Eliot Spitzer's expanding influence in Albany.

The State plans to sue Exxon over a decades old oil spill.

The Daily News reports on Eliot Spitzer's support for Carl Andrews.

The Albany Times Union reports Tom Suozzi may pursue an independent bid for governor.

—Nicole Brydson

So tomorrow is the day for Carl Andrews' big press conference to display support from political heavyweights including his former boss Eliot Spitzer, Randi Weingarten, retail union leader Stuart Appelbaum, Public Employees Federation VP Pat Baker, and New York State Credit Union League president William Mellin.

We wonder if this show of institutional strength is aimed at the public or at the other contestants -- amid continuing pressure from some black leaders to unite behind a single black candidate -- and whether any of the VIP's at tomorrow's event will wade into the race issue.

—Nicole Brydson

Azi reported this morning that Al Sharpton is about to lend his weight to the Stop Yassky movement by urging black leaders to unify behind a single, black candidate in the 11th.

Following up with Sharpton's office, we were told he has no plans to endorse anybody specifically but will call for the unification at Saturday's Black Brooklyn Empowerment Convention.

In an interesting historical footnote, Sharpton waded into a 2004 Civil Court election -- at the urging of Carl Andrews -- in which he backed a white judicial candidate, Bernard Graham, against three black and Caribbean candidates in the 6th judicial district in Brooklyn. On primary day that year, loudspeakers circled the district blaring Sharpton's voice in support of Graham.

Graham ended up winning by a little less than 1,000 votes.

—Nicole Brydson

Ben's got more poll numbers from the 11th.

Yvette Clark - 29% Carl Andrews - 17% Chris Owens - 14% David Yassky - 9% Nick Perry - 8% Undecided - 21%

Can Yassky really be this weak? If so, it kind of makes all the Voting Rights arguments seem weirdly beside the point.

And if not, what are these polls missing?

-- Josh Benson

If it didn't already, the open senate seat in Carl Andrews' district now has a clear frontrunner.

Eric Adams, the co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, just picked up the support of 1199.

Adams, who has flirted with running for public office in the past, already has the backing of the Brooklyn party organization and has (I believe) the most money on hand of any of the candidates.

He's in the race against, among others, Anthony Alexis, who Rock Hackshaw hoped might be able to "make history" by becoming the first Trinidadian elected to office in New York.

Urban Elephants rounds up the parade schedule for the weekend.

On Saturday, the Stonewall Democrats brunch with Carl Andrews.

Anti-war activists will gather at the New York Public library and walk to the Intrepid to hold a vigil.

Monday, Scott Stringer and Gale Brewer host a memorial service and walk to Grant's Tomb.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

—Nicole Brydson

Ben Smith, over at The Daily Politics, has an interview with David Yassky, running for the 11th congressional district in Brooklyn.

Yassky continued on with his message that the racial issue is more present "among the politicos and the politicians then among voters," who, he believes, "want the person who will do the best job for them."

On the issue of the targeted campaign flyer posted here last week, Ben asked Yassky if he gave up a color blind high ground in a campaign with a strong racial component.

"Our community doesn't mean just the Jewish community," he said. "I don't think it gives up on the high ground more than advertising on Spanish language radio gives up on the high ground or advertising on radio stations that are thought to play more to an African American listenership, both of which I will certainly be doing and candidates throughout New York City do all the time. I'm going to campaign and bring my message to every corner of this district, literally every block of the district, and will certainly be trying to reach voters in every way we can; and some of that means trying to target to people who will be listening to a particular radio that caters to a certain ethnicity."

Later today, Ben will have a podcast with Carl Andrews, one of Yassky's opponents.

—Nicole Brydson

Jeffrey Plaut, partner at Global Strategy Group, will join the campaign team of 11th congressional district candidate, Senator Carl Andrews. Another of Plaut's clients is running for governor. —Nicole Brydson

The Politicker isn't spending enough time at the Board of Elections to know the details of the Brooklyn Democratic Party Organization's attempt to reverse the victory of a reformer for the Surrogate post, amusingly reported today in the Post. If you are, we're curious.

But whoever the next Brooklyn Democratic leader is -- and if it's Vito Lopez, I'll certainly claim you read it here first -- the Surrogate messes are likely to seriously tarnish that person's rise. Because while the challenge to Lopez Torres's election hardly looks good, it pales in comparison to the Assembly's creation of a second Surrogate post, timed in such a way that the party would be able to handpick one of its own for the seat.

Erik Engquist of Crain's, reigning expert on Brooklyn politics, had a funny description of this process in a recent email to Maurice Gumbs (italics added):

"Nobody outside of a few legislative leaders (Pataki, Bruno, and Silver, the Republican chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, and maybe a few more insiders) knew about this bill until it was wheeled into the Senate anteroom. Connor was there along with Sampson and Carl Andrews. They all expressed surprise, even shock at its appearance. Then Andrews and Sampson proceeded to vote for it when the roll was called afew mintues later.  read more »

"Most senators did not have time to read it (not that they would have anyway). The Assembly had a little more time, but still, there was no chance for any opposition to be mounted. This all happened in an hour or two."