Michael McMahon

City Councilman Michael McMahon, the Democratic congressional candidate for the 13th district, who was endorsed not long ago by Michael Bloomberg, just issued a statement saying he'll vote against extending term limits.  read more »

The proposed change to the city’s term limit law may “sail” through the City Council, but it poses a complication for City Council members who are currently campaigning for higher office.

If they support the change, they risk, at least theoretically, angering voters they’ll be facing very soon—and raising questions about their real level of interest the new offices they're running for.  read more »

Retiring Republican Representative Vito Fossella got some mild praise from the Democrat who's running for his seat.

In a public statement just now, City Councilman Mike McMahon, said:

"When Americans across the country receive their 401k statements at the end of the month, the gravity of today's vote will be clear. Over the past week, Republicans and Democrats came together to create an imperfect but necessary answer to the financial crisis, and it failed. Now tens of thousands of jobs in the district are in danger on Wall Street, and Main Street will feel the pressure as student loans, mortgages, small business loans and credit freeze up.  read more »

Michael Bloomberg is officially endorsing Democratic congressional candidate Mike McMahon over his Republican opponent, Bob Straniere.

In a statement, Bloomberg said McMahon has "delivered during his seven years on the City Council, and I know he'll work just as hard in Washington."

For the mayor, endorsing McMahon makes sense. Despite the deep unpopularity of Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, McMahon surprised observers and voted for it. 

Also, there's no real downside to endorsing McMahon, since Straniere major problems with the local party on Staten Island. 

But Strainere is trying to shine a light on McMahon's association with the Democratic Party. Before Bloomberg's endorsement was formally announced, Strainere  sent out a press release pushing McMahon to say whether he supports letting embattled Representative Charlie Rangel of Harlem stay on as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which the editorial boards of the  read more »

A former press guy for Howard Dean and Mark Green endorsed Assembly challenger Paul Newell, surrogate candidate Nora Anderson, and incumbent State Senator Marty Connor.

Brooklyn Papers endorsed Kevin Powell for congress, Dan Squadron over Marty Connor for State Senate, and Mike McMahon for congress.

Newell attacked Sheldon Silver’s spokesman for trashing a mailing sent by a Republican-funded organization.

And Streetsblog offers its own spin on what Silver has done for lower Manhattan, which they say isn’t much.

Many city Democrats are heading out to Denver in the next few days, but not Mike McMahon.

A spokesman for the councilman from Staten Island, who is the party and New York Times-backed candidate in the 13th District Congressional race, said he'll be campaigning in the district instead.

McMahon's chances in the race look good--he's leading primary opponent Steve Harrison by a huge margin (64-18 percent) and neither of the Republican candidates for the open seat are particularly promising.

In a contrasting example, Representative Ed Towns, who is also facing a challenger, is very much going, as part of an ongoing effort to associate himself publicly with Barack Obama after having endorsed Hillary Clinton.  read more »

Last night’s online town hall with underdog Democratic Congressional candidate Steve Harrison was a mixed bag. Some participants asked, literally, how they could help. Others challenged Harrison’s core argument for running--that he’s the progressive Democrat challenging the conservative, party-backed Democratic Councilman Mike McMahon.

At one point, a reader challenged Harrison to explain donations he made to Republican candidates, part of why progressives question his credentials. (The 13th Congressional district leans conservative and is currently represented by the last Republican congressman in the city, Vito Fossella.)

His response:

“Between May and October 2002, I attended one fundraiser for each of Vito Fossella, John Faso for Comptroller and the Conservative Party because I was attempting to build multi-party support for my anticipated, non-partisan City Council Special Election race in February 2003.  read more »

Democratic Congressional candidate Steve Harrison will host an online town hall meeting tonight tomorrow at 8 p.m.

He’s running in the primary against the Democratic Party-backed candidate, City Councilman Mike McMahon, for the Staten Island seat Vito Fossella is leaving.

Since Jimmy Dahroug dropped out of a State Senate primary bid against Brian Foley on Long Island last week, the Harrison-McMahon primary is one of the last remaining races to pit a progressive Democrat against an establishment Democrat, although there used to be others. (It's worth noting that some observers question Harrison's progressive credentials .)

Adding intrigue is the fact that Harrison and McMahon are running in a fairly conservative district, the 13th, currently served by the last Republican congressman in the city.

What would, or will you, ask Harrison?

Here's a shot of Democratic Congressional candidate and City Councilman Mike McMahon pumping gas for voters in Staten Island today. (Upstate candidate and millionaire Jack Davis held a similar event, and paid for it).

I emailed the campaign to ask if McMahon supports the compromise energy bill in Congress that raises fuel efficiency standards, but also would permit expanded offshore drilling.

“Mike believes we need strong bipartisan efforts to find energy solutions, but would need to more carefully review this specific legislation before taking a position," campaign spokesman Anthony Hogrebe emailed.

A press release on the event today says McMahon wants to cut energy consumption, increase taxes on oil companies, and also has this section:

Expanding the Domestic Production of Oil and Gas.  read more »

In case there was any doubt about which Democrat has the might of the establishment behind him in the 13th Congressional district primary, City Councilman Mike McMahon just announced that he was endorsed by SEIU 1199. According to the campaign, there are 92,000 labor households in the district. [corrected]

Meanwhile, McMahon's opponent, Steve Harrison, unveiled a series of new slogans and signs.

“The old style signs eventually blend in with scenery,” Harrison said in a public statement.

 

Jerry Goldfeder, the election attorney who most recently worked for Andrew Cuomo, just won a court case decision from the city Board of Elections, where he was representing the Democratic Party of Staten Island. The organization's petitions for the judicial race in the borough had been challenged by Republicans.

It's a countywide seat, and among the Democratic candidates is Judith McMahon, wife of City Councilman Mike McMahon, the Democratic candidate the party is backing in the district's Congressional race. (Steve Harrison is also running in the primary).  read more »

The court B.O.E. decision paves the way for the judicial election to proceed, pitting Judith McMahon against Republican Joseph Maltese.

One of Christine Quinn’s spokesman has taken a leave of absence and is now the interim director of communications for Democrat Mike McMahon’s Congressional campaign.

The spokesman, Anthony Hogrebe, was listed as the contact on a campaign press release announcing that McMahon has been endorsed by the United Federation of Teachers, which, according to the release, has 12,000 members in the district. McMahon is seeking to win the seat currently occupied by Vito Fossella, who is not running for reelection.

In a public statement, UFT's president, Randi Weingarten, said McMahon "is a champion for children and working people."

Before joining Quinn’s operation, Hogrebe worked on Gifford Miller’s 2005 mayoral campaign.

In other Quinn staffing news, her chief of staff, Maura Keaney, is expected to return from maternity leave in early September, according to another Quinn spokesman.

Michael Bloomberg, who won’t be at David Paterson’s O.T.B. press conference this afternoon, caught the attention of attendees at Mike McMahon’s press conference as he quietly left City Hall earlier today.

 

Congestion pricing isn't popular in Staten Island. So yesterday, when Staten Island Councilman Michael McMahon at the last minute decided to vote in favor of congestion pricing, it was a big deal in some circles, especially because his likely opponent in the 2009 borough president race, Republican Jimmy Oddo, voted against it.  read more »

On March 8, The New York Times published a survey of where some of the City Council's 51 members stood on congestion pricing. At the time, 20 were against, 12 were for, and 19 were either undecided or did not respond to the survey.  read more »

The subprime mortgage crisis continues to send shockwaves through New York City and now the consequences have spread beyond the economy. The rising tide of foreclosures is making the city uglier (gasp!). Councilman Michael McMahon believes “the proliferation of extra-large for sale signs is having a negative aesthetic impact on residential neighborhoods in New York City.”  read more »

Buried deep in Staten Island Advance reporter Sally Goldenberg's piece about the plastic bag recycling bill working its way through the City Council is this line: "The council employs the Albany lobbying firm of Brown McMahon & Weinraub LLC, of which [Council sanitation committee chair Michael] McMahon's brother, Thomas, is a principal. The lobbying firm has earned $18,000 this year for its efforts."

I asked Michael about it.

“He has a client who has a position on the bill," he told me, referring to his brother. "They did not request the bill. They were not involved in the drafting of the bill. The first time I heard they had a position on the bill is when they came to the hearing.”

More after the jump.  read more »

The city Campaign Finance Board is putting out some numbers today filed by some familiar candidates for citywide office.

The first total after each name below represents net contributions over a six-month period that ended last week, and the second is net contributions for the entire cycle.  read more »

According to Councilman Michael McMahon, the fact that the Democratic Party on Staten Island has never nominated a candidate of color isn't a sign of bias.

That was the implication yesterday from the campaign manager of an African-American Assembly candidate, Kelvin Alexander, who lost the Democratic nomination and is now running against the party-backed candidate, Matthew Titone.

"I am one of those who firmly believes that when the time is at hand, a person of color be nominated and endorsed by the Democratic Party of Staten Island," McMahon said. "The issue then becomes working with the community and finding elections that they can be successful in. Because whatever the election, whether it's the Assembly, state Senate or City Council a person of color has to be able to get votes from all the people in the district just like I, not being a person of color, have to get votes from people of color as well.

"My point is, the issue is not whether there should be a candidate of color but how best to accomplish that."

He went on to say, "They'll point to the fact that the Republicans Party has supported candidates of color, but it's in races when they have no chances of winning."

-- Azi Paybarah

Here are City Council members James Oddo, a Republican, and Michael McMahon, a Democrat, waiting in Speaker Christine Quinn's office and discussing the special election to fill the seat of late Assembly member John Lavelle.

McMahon said that after a few rounds of balloting last night, the Democrats settled on attorney Matthew Titone to be their candidate. Titone beat out Lavelle's son, John Daniel, Robert Olivari, and Kelvin Alexander.

More on that race here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Here is Hiram Monserrate, one of only five City Council members to have voted against a 25 percent pay raise for the council.

The others were Michael McMahon, Andrew Lanza, Darlene Mealy, and Tony Avella.

One insider gave me some speculative reasons for why some of them might have voted this way:

McMahon hopes to run for Staten Island Borough President and this vote will give him ammunition to repel Conservative Party accusations that he's a free-spending liberal.

Lanza doesn't care about Council pay because he's going to the state Senate.

Avella, the only declared mayoral candidate, always objected to increases salaries and taking lulus.

My secret brain trust didn't crack the mystery of Mealy.  read more »

As for Monserrate, he explained himself to reporters after the vote by saying that he simply doesn't like the process of awarding himself a pay increase.

Here he is. -- Azi Paybarah