City Hall News Profiles Potential Citywide Latino Leaders

Laura Nahmias at City Hall News profiled the prospects for a number of latino leaders in the upcoming Citywide elections. In the article she expresses some doubt as to whether anyone can pull it together for the 2013 elections. She writes "Others suggested that the city’s best Latino leadership was being groomed for state and federal office rather than citywide positions. Rising stars like Sens. Gustavo Rivera and Adriano Espaillat are said to have sidestepped city office altogether, leaving an age gap between older machine politicians and the young Latinos now filling the City Council. Espaillat, for example, is said to be considering running for a seat in Congress. The federal level has its advantages: Politicians can control funds for their districts without having to kiss the rings of local Democratic Party leaders." Of Bronx BP Ruben Diaz, she says "One potential candidate to be the first is Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who is young, charismatic and experienced but is little-known outside the Bronx—except for helping kill a plan to redevelop the Kingsbridge Armory in a dispute over wages there." 2013 should be an interesting year.

Seabrook Trial Gets Under Way

Courtney Gross over at NY 1 reports that Bronx Councilman Larry Seabrook's trial is about to get under way a year after his indictment. She reports that "Seabrook is charged with getting kickbacks from this Bronx contractor to help secure work at the new Yankee Stadium. He also allegedly steered City Council earmarks to nonprofits that he controlled and where he installed friends and family in so-called “no-show” jobs." Seabrook is the guy who reportedly paid a $144 for a bagel.

Dinowitz Touts Ranking by Conservatives and Heads Off to Russia

Here is a piece from Captial Tonight blog where Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz brags about his near last ranking by the state's Conservative Party. The party gave him a 16 percent rating based on his votes on 24 key bills. He voted yes on bills such as extending unemployment benefits, legalizing same-sex marriage, raising the maximum retirement age for judges, mandating microstamping of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols, requiring backseat passengers under 16 to wear seat belts, etc. In another bit of news involving Assemblyman Dinowitz, this article from the Queens Gazette reports that he was on a recent junket to Russia with fellow members of the Assembly--the photo to the left is a shot of their visit. I am sure there is a lot that can be applied from Russia to New York State politics.