Another de Blasio fundraiser busted

From the Daily News:

A Queens construction magnate who has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns across the state made illegal straw donations to Mayor de Blasio and other candidates during the 2013 election to gain political favor, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Husam Ahmad, whose deep pockets have helped fill the war chests of de Blasio, Gov. Cuomo and dozens of other elected officials, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court for making false statements about the contributions.

He was also charged for his role in a massive corruption and bribery scheme that involved paying off a mid-level city official for inside information on contracts.

Ahmad — who until two months ago served on the board of the de Blasio-controlled Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York — leaned on HAKS employees to make political contributions at fundraising luncheons at the company’s 40 Wall St. office, prosecutors said.

The soirees — where finger food and sandwich wraps were served — were held for De Blasio, Joe Lhota and Bill Thompson, all mayoral candidates in 2013.

A HAKS administrative assistant would keep tabs on the employees’ donations, then Ahmad would reimburse them with year-end bonuses, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Federal and state laws prohibit an individual from reimbursing a donor for their contributions.

2013 Primary election results

Good morning! I hope you all are happy waking up in a City that soundly rejected Christine Quinn last night. She came in with 15% of the vote. Bye-bye, Bloomberg lite!

The likely winner without a runoff is Bill DeBlasio. As of last night, he had 40.2% of the vote, with Bill Thompson coming in at 26%. Whether or not there is a runoff, however, let me point out once again that the political careers of Christine Quinn, John Liu and Anthony Weiner are DONE.

Scott Stringer bested Eliot Spitzer in the Comptroller's race and Letitia James and Daniel Squadron will go head to head in a runoff for Public Advocate.

Locally, Melinda Katz soundly defeated Peter Vallone, Jr. and even with the 9% or so of the vote that Tony Avella allegedly took away from Vallone, he still would not have beaten her. So much for Italian power.

In district 19, The latest numbers are Paul Vallone 2,723 votes to Austin Shafran's 2,579 votes with 98% of precincts reporting. Neither Huffington Post nor NY1 has called it for Vallone, although he claimed victory. So, in November, it MAY be Vallone and Republican Dennis Saffran. Will Saffran win because most Dems picked anybody but Vallone? Time will tell. (Apologies for previous mistake. Shafran got WFP endorsement, but NOT their line. He is challenging the election results.)

In the 22nd CD, Costa Constantinides handily beat John Ciafone.

In the 24th CD, Rory Lancman creamed Andrea Veras.

In the 27th CD, it's still a race between Daneek Miller (3,756) and Clyde Vanel (3,360) with 98% reporting.

In the 28th CD, Ruben Wills beat Hettie Powell.

In the 31st CD, Donovan Richards beat Michael Duncan.

And in the 32nd CD, Lew Simon beat William Ruiz.

Also, thankfully, in the 34th CD, which covers mostly Bushwick but half of Ridgewood, Antonio Reynoso sent Vito Lopez packing once and for all.

Sadly, because we are a one-party town run by a political machine, there were no primaries in the 20th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 29th or 30th districts and all incumbents ran unopposed.

In kind of a surprise, in Brooklyn, 23-year incumbent DA Charles Hynes was defeated by challenger Kenneth Thompson.

UPDATE:

Tony Nunziato and Phil Ragusa were also reelected as GOP state committeemen.

Lots of outside money in council and mayoral races

From the NY Times:

With little more than a week to go before the Democratic primary for New York mayor, outside groups have poured $3 million into supporting and opposing their preferred candidates, according to the most current figures through Sunday.

The effect of those expenditures is being closely watched, because this is the first citywide election in which outside groups, like corporations and unions, have had an opportunity to spend unlimited amounts on campaigns in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case.

And with the majority of candidates abiding by tight spending caps in exchange for participating in the city’s matching-fund program, any significant outside financing, especially for political ads and mailings, could make a difference.

In the race for mayor, for instance, all the major Democratic contenders are participating in the program, which allows the campaigns to spend $6.7 million in the primary.

So far, William C. Thompson Jr., a former city comptroller, has benefited from $1.55 million in outside money, making him the biggest beneficiary, by far, of such support, according to detailed records cataloged by the city’s Campaign Finance Board. Much of the money has been spent on palm cards, radio commercials and mailers, thanks to a group affiliated with the United Federation of Teachers, which has endorsed Mr. Thompson.

New York City is Not for Sale, a group of animal-rights activists and others who are vehemently opposed to the candidacy of Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, have spent $774,000. They were the first outside groups to spend money on a television commercial criticizing a candidate, and many political analysts say their relentless campaign has hurt Ms. Quinn.

Ms. Quinn, in fact, is the only mayoral candidate who has been the target of outside spending.

Some of that opposition, however, may have been blunted by $657,000 from outside groups that support Ms. Quinn. Of that amount, about $610,000 has been spent on English and Spanish-language materials by a group connected with the Hotel Trades Council, which has endorsed Ms. Quinn.

Locally, we have this:

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $7,755 since 8/5 opposing Chrissy Vosckerichian @electchrissy #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $21,003 since 8/5 opposing Austin Shafran @Austin4Council #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $16,238 since 8/5 opposing Paul Graziano @PaulGraziano19 #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $105,885 since 8/5 supporting Paul Vallone@PaulVallone #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $5,251 on 8/31 opposing John Ciafone #DailyFiling - http://t.co/icfNwiAo21

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 2, 2013

Jobs for New York, Inc.: independent expenditures of $24,999 since 8/5 supporting Costa Constantinides @VoteCosta #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Planned Parenthood of NYC Political Cmte: ind expenditures of $3,895 since 8/5 supporting Melinda Katz @MelindaKatz #FilingDay

— NYC Campaign Finance (@NYCCFB) September 1, 2013

Whoever we vote for, the city is screwed

From City Journal:

Listening to some of the candidates to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg, you’d think that New York City’s biggest challenge was how to spend billions of dollars in spare revenue. Bill Thompson wants to put 2,000 extra cops on the street at a cost of $200 million a year. One of his rivals, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, pledges to introduce universal pre-K in the city’s schools, a project with a $530 million annual price tag. Thompson, de Blasio, and another candidate, New York City comptroller John Liu, want to build at least 60,000 units of new subsidized housing over the next four years. The bill for that could dwarf the cost of the police and school proposals.

But no matter how big the spending dreams of the city’s would-be mayors, one of them is going to wake up to a fiscal nightmare in November. New York’s budget has grown hugely over Mayor Bloomberg’s 12 years in office, and it may finally have outstripped the Wall Street–generated tax revenues that have made such profligacy possible. The next mayor won’t have the luxury of expanding the government; instead, he’ll have to figure out how to pay for one that’s already dangerously bloated.

If Bloomberg’s goal was soaking up revenue and leaving his successor as little to spend as possible, he seems to have pulled it off. Spending from city revenues rose from $28.9 billion when Bloomberg took office to $47.5 billion in fiscal year 2012 and will be an estimated $50.2 billion in 2013—a staggering 70 percent increase per resident. Inflation rose only 29 percent over the same period. Had Bloomberg held Gotham’s budget increase to the growth rates of inflation and population, the city would currently be spending $12 billion less a year.

Limited love for Quinn?

From the Politicker:

When arguably the most powerful county organization in New York City, the Queens Democratic Party, endorsed Christine Quinn for mayor, political observers believed it was a coup for Ms. Quinn because Queens’s famously loyal elected officials would quickly back the Council speaker. But since party chairman Joe Crowley announced he was supporting Ms. Quinn on May 20, few Queens elected officials have followed suit.

“They’ve been surprised by the lukewarm reception for Quinn,” said one Queens Democratic operative, unaligned with any candidate. “Especially considering only three district leaders dissented at her endorsement.”

The black political leadership in southeastern Queens was irked on May 20 when Ms. Quinn was chosen over the race’s one African-American candidate, Bill Thompson, but the dissent was still relatively limited to a few older power brokers like former Councilman Archie Spigner. Ms. Quinn has secured the backing of some Queens elected officials, including Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, but thus far most have remained neutral.

Congresswoman Grace Meng, for example, has not endorsed Ms. Quinn, despite her close ties to the county organization. The same is true for elected officials like State Senator Toby Stavisky, State Senator Joe Addabbo and Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz. There is still time for elected officials to endorse Ms. Quinn and political insiders believe more, like Councilman James Gennaro, will back her. But she may also have an uphill battle in pressing her case to representatives of certain ethnic enclaves that have their own chosen candidates.

In addition, sources tell me that a lot of Dem club members are refusing to carry petitions for Quinn. This could get interesting.

Crowley pissed off a lot of Dems with his endorsement picks

From the Politicker:

When the Queens Democratic Party rolled out its endorsements this morning in Forest Hills, one notable demographic, African Americans, was left without a major candidate. Indeed, Queens' black political establishment looked on with disappointment as their favored candidates for mayor, borough president and public advocate were passed over for rivals.

Congressman Joe Crowley, the party chair, endorsed Council Speaker Christine Quinn for mayor and former Councilwoman Melinda Katz for borough president. While a vast majority of district leaders voiced their approval, Elmer Blackburne and several other black district leaders dissented, indicating that instead they would support Bill Thompson, the former comptroller, who is also black. Ms. Quinn and Ms. Katz are white.

"Our community tells us that they're gonna vote for him [Thompson] again," Mr. Blackburne, a district leader from a predominately black southeast Queens, told reporters after the endorsement meeting. "We feel strongly and we'll be working very strongly with Mr. Thompson. [Ms. Quinn] can't win in our district. She can't win the Bronx, from the numbers I'm getting. She can't win in her own district, I'm told--her own part of Manhattan--and she can't win in Brooklyn."

Mr. Blackburne said he understood the county organization had an appreciation for diversity but also made decisions that were not always popular with the local black political establishment. Archie Spigner, a former southeast Queens councilman and close ally of sitting Councilman Leroy Comrie, the black candidate Mr. Crowley was considering endorsing instead of Ms. Katz for borough president, expressed disappointment at the seemingly last-minute decision the county organization made to not support Mr. Comrie.

"I'm disappointed but I understand their logic," Mr. Spigner told Politicker. "We'll have to see whether Leroy continues in the race. If he continues in the race, I'll be with him. The reasons they gave me were that he was a very unsuccessful, unspectacular fund-raiser."

Sources indicated that Mr. Spigner and other Comrie allies were only informed of Mr. Crowley's decision to support Ms. Katz late Saturday and Sunday. Initially, Politicker reported that the county organization was expected to back Mr. Comrie, despite his poor fund-raising. However, according to several plugged-in Democratic sources, Mr. Comrie's candidacy was met coolly in the pivotal organized labor community, some of whom favored Ms. Katz. When other candidates, sources said, made it clear they were not going to step aside if Mr. Crowley backed Mr. Comrie, the county organization reevaluated their plans and chose Ms. Katz, a strong fund-raiser and former county-backed candidate for Congress.

Weiner comes in second only to Quinn

From the NY Post:

A week after floating his name as a possible mayoral candidate, the disgraced former congressman finishes second when he’s included in the field of Democrats, a new poll reveals.

Weiner — who resigned from office in 2011 after getting caught in a sexting scandal — said he’s mulling a political comeback by running for mayor.

The Marist poll is the first to include Weiner, and shows him pulling 15 percent of the Democratic vote in a hypothetical race — trailing only Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who garners 26 percent.

Weiner outpolls two current citywide officeholders — Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio — and former city Comptroller Bill Thompson, the 2009 Democratic nominee for mayor.

Liu receives 12 percent of the vote, and de Blasio and Thompson get 11 percent apiece.

A sizable 22 percent of the Democratic electorate is still undecided and 3 percent support goes to former City Councilman Sal Albanese or other candidates.

Desperate times call for the Nation of Islam?

Ray Cameron and the "Southeast Queens Host Committee" (quite frankly, no one I've spoken to in SE Queens has heard of it) are apparently hosting fundraisers for both William Thompson and John Liu at the law office of Jacques Leandre, a litigious failed candidate for City Council and proud Nation of Islam member. The Nation of Islam is categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, in case you weren't aware.

Which candidate is the "Southeast Queens Host Committee" actually supporting? Why do Liu and Thompson condone being two-timed? Why are they comfortable rubbing elbows with a sleeper cell?

Quinn attacked for extending term limits

From the Daily News:

The Brooklyn crowd erupted in boos Wednesday night when frontrunner Quinn fielded a question about having helped pave the way for Mayor Bloomberg to seek and win another four years in office.

Quinn spoke calmly over the jeers: “I believed it was the right decision… I respect that many folks disagree with that.”

Democrats often use the term-limits controversy to bash Quinn as uncomfortably close to Bloomberg. It's a perception some observers say has encouraged Quinn to demonstrate her independence before the primary without alienating Hizzoner or his fans in November.

When asked Wednesday, she refused to pledge not to overturn a voter referendum if elected mayor.

The speaker's primary foes -- former Councilman Sal Albanese, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Comptroller John Liu and ex-Comptroller Bill Thompson -- all said they would not scuttle a referendum.

And the mayor thinks Christine is just peachy.

Quotes about Dan & Vince

From Facebook:


From City and State:

Amid the chaos surrounding New York City Councilman Dan Halloran’s alleged involvement in a corruption and bribery scheme with state Sen. Malcolm Smith and two city GOP operatives, Halloran has to defend his Council seat from one of a slew of Democratic opponents. Two of them, former Cuomo administration employee Austin Shafran and urban planner Paul Graziano, put out statements about Halloran’s troubles.

“These are serious and disturbing charges from the FBI which need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Shafran said in a statement. “Public service is a privilege, and violations of the public’s trust cannot be tolerated. Anyone involved in this scandal should immediately come clean because the people deserve to know the truth so justice can be done.”

Graziano released a statement noting that he had seen “a lot of things being done by Dan Halloran that I thought were inappropriate,” which led him to enter the race. Asked to elaborate, Graziano detailed his battles with Halloran over rezoning in District 19, where Halloran allegedly pushed for a zoning change to help the business of an associate with ties to the Gambino crime family.

Halloran did not respond to calls for comment about the rezoning dispute. Two other candidates challenging Halloran, attorney Paul Vallone and former Assemblyman John Duane, could not be reached for comment about Halloran’s corruption charges.

Of course, the above fails to mention that Shafran was Smith's spokesperson in Albany for quite a while...

Interesting choice of Facebook profile picture for a Republican...

The Queens Gazette carries a front page "article" on their front page this week, consisting only of a quote from Paul Vallone, who is currently vacationing in Florida, and no one else:

"The corruption charges against Dan Halloran are very troubling. If these allegations prove to be true, this conduct is an egregious violation of the public's trust and those who are found guilty in this scheme should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Vallone. “Now is the time for integrity and trust – principles which the Vallone Family have embodied for over three generations and which I will bring to the 19th City Council seat."

From the NY Times:

William C. Thompson Jr., another Democratic candidate, who said Ms. Quinn had failed to curb “a history of corruption and a broken system” of earmarks in the Council. A third Democratic candidate, Sal F. Albanese, accused Ms. Quinn of “abuse.”

From WNYC:

"Until we ban member items, it's just not been enough," argued De Blasio who said City Council should replace the member item practice with what he calls a merit-based system, or one that gives spending choices to groups of local residents, which some districts have tried on a smaller scale.

Comptroller John Liu, who's been embroiled in a fundraising scandal of his own, released a brief statement Tuesday morning calling the news, "shocking."

"When there is suspicion that taxpayers' money is being abused, investigations should be carried out quickly and thoroughly," Liu said. The trial of members of his campaign staff related to a straw donor scheme is scheduled to resume this month.

Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota says the arrests of local Republican leaders yesterday, including two who had endorsed his bid for mayor, demands more ethics reform in Albany and New York City.

"There needs to be a change here," Lhota said, offering a good government critique that also dings Quinn at the same time. "Transparency on all financial items. Whether it's in government or in the process of campaigning, on what agreements are made between the members of council and the organizations they're giving money to. The taxpayers of New York shouldn't be finding out about the actions of various elected officials through the prism of a US Attorney."

From Capital New York:

"I do not think this is a reason to conclude that member items should not be given," Quinn said today.

"In the case of Dan Halloran, this senior citizen group did nothing wrong," she continued. "Why should they become the victim of an alleged criminal's activities?"

Rather than call for their abolition, Quinn offered a full-throated defense of the member-item system in the Council, which has undergone substantial reform since the slush fund scandal of 2008.

"I think it is the tightest system you'll find in any legislative body in the country," said Quinn.

"When I became speaker, I largely inherited a process around member items that was an honor system," she said. "If a member said, 'Fund X group,' the assumption was...it was a good group. We no longer have that system. We have largely what is a verification system."

Quinn did, however, say the Council was reviewing all of Halloran's prior member items and stripping him of the ability to dole out new ones during the next budget cycle.

She also suggested he consider resigning.

"I think Councilmember Halloran owes the people of his district a great deal of thought about whether he is actually able to continue to serve them, conduct the defense I'm sure he believes he deserves, and do both of those at the same time," she said.

Quinn also said she disagrees with Bloomberg's argument that the allegations against Halloran and Smith present a strong argument in favor of nonpartisan elections, though she didn't explain why.

From the Daily News:

Ragusa said he first heard about the arrests on the radio this morning and "almost jumped out of bed."

He said he knew nothing about the case, including Tabone's alleged involvement, and was neither approached by anyone offering a bribe or interrogated by the feds ("Knock on wood, no. I hope they never show up either," he added.)

And to wrap up, from the NY Post:

Resistance is futile

From the NY Post:

Former Comptroller Bill Thompson has decided to clear the decks for his 2013 mayoral run by paying a record-breaking fine of nearly $600,000 for plastering the city with illegal campaign posters during his previous race for City Hall, The Post has learned.

That leaves only Comptroller John Liu among the mayoral contenders still fighting six-figure penalties incurred in 2009 for poster violations.

Thompson had been challenging the 7,925 summonses issued to his old campaign at hearings before the Environmental Control Board that have stretched on for three years.


He lost a final appeal before an administrative panel in September but still had a chance to overturn the ECB’s verdict by going to court.

A campaign spokesman said Thompson has instead decided to end the battle and pay up.

Thompson owes $594,375. His payment would be the largest ever made for campaign-poster infractions.

Gentlemen, it's time to pay up

From the Times Ledger:

Former Democratic City Councilman Allan Jennings was penalized earlier this month by the city Campaign Finance Board for several violations committed by his campaign during the 2010 special election for the seat left vacant by the late Councilman Thomas White Jr.

After the CFB completed its audit of Jennings’ campaign, he was fined $2,493 for eight violations. He did not respond to a request for comment.

A $1,000 fine was levied against Jennings for failing to accurately report contributions to his campaign and expenditures. Jennings reported he had raised $23,513, about $5,000 of which his bank records could not properly account for. He also failed to submit documentation for more than $6,000 worth of the $24,458 in expenditures he reported to the board.

Other violations included failing to provide periodic bank statements for the entire year of 2011, failing to provide employer information for 25 of 49 contributions of more than $99 and making a $200 cash payment. The limit for cash payments is $100.

Jennings also made a cash withdrawal of $2,458, violating the rule prohibiting candidates from maintaining a petty cash fund of more than $500.

He was also penalized for failing to document a $2,000 loan he received and two $1,000 repayments. Jennings was fined for failing to respond to the board’s requests for records needed for the audit of his campaign.

From the NY Post:

Former Comptroller Bill Thompson -- one of the top contenders in the 2013 race for mayor -- has lost another attempt to quash nearly $600,000 in fines for plastering public property with illegal posters in his 2009 campaign for City Hall.

Sources said the Environmental Control Board has upheld a decision of an administrative law judge rejecting Thompson's argument that his senior campaign aides did all they could to comply with the law.

Thompson's campaign now owes the city $594,375 for 7,925 poster violations.

Liu looking into golf course

From the NY Times:

Were we to commit ourselves to making a master list of what New York City needs more of, it is fair to say that many of us would wear a third or fourth pencil down to the nub before settling on an 18-hole golf course and the increased presence of Donald J. Trump. And yet, with the renovation of a major portion of Ferry Point Park in the southeastern section of the Bronx, this is what New Yorkers will receive.

The city is spending $97 million to construct a public golf course in the park; it is scheduled to open in the spring of 2014 and to be operated by Trump National and International Golf Clubs. At that point, residents of a borough where more than 30 percent of people live below the poverty line will have what will surely be seen as a welcome opportunity to improve their handicaps (for green fees higher than those at most municipal courses).

The construction of the golf course, which has a long and embattled history — the budget, to cite one aspect, has swelled by $40 million since 2008 — gained renewed attention last week after The Daily News reported that MFM, a contracting company the city is using on the project, had been linked to a troubled outfit, Felix Associates. MFM’s owners have a passive financial interest in Felix Associates, one of whose principals pleaded guilty to bribery charges two years ago.

Although MFM has not been accused of any wrongdoing, the city’s Department of Investigation had recommended that the Department of Parks and Recreation consider hiring an auditor to oversee dealings with the company. The parks department chose not to do so.

Further sullying matters is the unrelated fact that elevated levels of methane gas have been found just outside the golf course’s perimeter during construction. The Ferry Point golf course will sit on a former landfill.

From the Daily News:

The city controller has begun looking at cost overruns and delays at the golf course the city is building for Donald Trump in the Bronx, the Daily News has learned.

Last Thursday, Controller John Liu sent city Parks Commissioner Veronica White notice that he was reexamining the agency’s handling of the project, which is behind schedule and has ballooned in cost to at least $97 million from $22.5 million.

Liu is reopening a 2007 audit by then-Controller William Thompson that found lax oversight by the Parks Department caused the city to lose $25 million in overpayments and potential earnings at the project.

On Thursday, Liu informed Parks that the audit “will determine whether the Parks Department carried out or implemented recommendations” from that prior audit.

Mayoral candidates line up to kiss Crowley's ass

According to the the Daily News, Bill deBlasio, Christine Quinn, John Liu and Bill Thompson are pushing each other out of the way to kiss Joe Crowley's ass and support Grace Meng in the NY-6 race. Which means they have no qualms about indirectly supporting sex trafficking, are ok with the fact that she hired a pornographer/ publisher/ Donald Manes crony to run her campaign and don't mind that she has no platform whatsoever.

Time for Thompson to pay

From the Daily News:

Former controller, losing mayoral candidate and repeat mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson fights furiously on to evade paying more than a half-million dollars in sanitation fines racked up by his 2009 campaign.

As he challenged Michael Bloomberg that year, Thompson’s team plastered city property with thousand s of illegal posters. Sanit enforcement agents ripped down 8,163 and sent the campaign a $75 ticket for every one.

Rather than cough up penalties of $612,225, Thompson hired lawyer Jerry Goldfeder, who got the tickets dismissed on the technicality that Sanitation could not link each specific summons with a specific poster.

Thompson’s dodge forced the Sanitation Department to waste enormous time and money reissuing the tickets to the exacting specifications of the law. This the department did, and, on Friday, there was Goldfeder, challenging it all again at an Environmental Control Board hearing.

Deblasio & Liu to fight fines

From the NY Post:

The elections are long over, but the three leading Democratic candidates for citywide office last year still face fines of nearly $1.5 million for plastering the town with illegal posters, The Post has learned.

Records provided by the Environmental Control Board show that mayoral contender Bill Thompson received 8,257 summonses over the course of his near-upset campaign. Comptroller John Liu got 7,270, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was hit with 4,023. Like all posters attached to city property, each carries a $75 fine.

So Thompson could owe as much as $619,275, Liu $542,259 and de Blasio $301,725 if they're found guilty after administrative hearings. Under the convoluted system, some of the cases won't be heard until September.

Lawyers for all three candidates say they intend to challenge every summons.

One candidate told The Post there's a move afoot at the City Council to overhaul the process and wipe out the fines retroactively.

But a council source said that was unlikely, since "you couldn't do it just for the candidates and not everyone else."

Was last year's election a total sham?

From the Village Voice:

If voters had a vague sense that this was a mirage of a mayoral election, what follows is a damning set of facts that shows that these two supposed opponents were actually far more connected than we ever knew. They shared a very personal and subterranean agenda, the funding of a project dear to Thompson's heart. Remarkably, Bloomberg continued pouring new money into a project that benefited Thompson even in the heat of the campaign. It is a connection begging for explanation, but Thompson would not answer virtually any of the post-election questions posed by the Voice.

Stranger still, Bloomberg's press managers refused to provide any public information about that project—a museum—in the lead-up to the election, prompting me to tell the mayor's press secretary, Stu Loeser, that he was more helpful when I was writing an exposé about the mayor than when I was reporting on the mayor's opponent. Since November, however, the city agencies that once stonewalled me have piled public papers on my desk.

Here, then, is the story about Bill Thompson that Mike Bloomberg didn't want you to know when he was running against him.

It starts with a single, unsettling fact: The mayor has directed or triggered between $43 million and $51 million in public and personal subsidies into a museum project led by Thompson's current wife and longtime companion, Elsie McCabe-Thompson, dumping $2 million of additional city funding into it as late as September 30, in the middle of the mayoral campaign.

Quinn ran Thompson endorsement by Bloomberg first

From the NY Times:

A few weeks before Election Day, Christine C. Quinn, the speaker of the New York City Council, met with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at a diner in Manhattan.

Ms. Quinn had not yet taken sides in the mayor’s race, snubbing the Democratic nominee, William C. Thompson Jr., infuriating some of her colleagues who viewed her as too cozy with the mayor.

Over coffee, Mr. Bloomberg assured Ms. Quinn that it would be all right with him if she endorsed his rival. “Do what you have to do,” the mayor told her, according to two aides who summarized the conversation.

Soon after, she did, halfheartedly endorsing Mr. Thompson, in a move that quieted critics and paved the way for her re-election as speaker, which occurred as Council meeting on Wednesday.

Ms. Quinn declined to discuss the conversation. But the story encapsulates her complicated relationship with Mr. Bloomberg: even as she was publicly declaring her preference for his rival, she first received the mayor’s blessing.

This week's political news roundup

Councilmember Simcha Felder is being appointed Deputy Comptroller by Comptroller John Liu. The Daily News explains that this move by Johnny is to help position him for a mayoral run in 2013. (Of course, Johnny still has 4 years in which to mess up and resign in disgrace.)

Former Comptroller William Thompson has declared his intention to run for mayor again. (Maybe this time he'll expand his campaign to white and Asian neighborhoods as well as black and Hispanic ones.)

Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio is going to push the civic-minded to community organize. (The idea is that you'll do the work so he won't have to.)

Queens Council neophytes have declared their New Year's resolutions and have new ideas. (Danny Dromm really wants to help day laborers. Taxpayers seem to rank a lower priority.)

Following in the footsteps of Hillary Clinton, another southern carpetbagger is considering running against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

And last, but certainly not least...

Barry Grodenchick, former Assemblyman and Parkside Group lobbyist, has been appointed Deputy Queens Borough President. (Even though his role in the illegal lobbying that Claire Shulman's group did with regard to the Willets Point land grab is certainly going to be examined by authorities.)

Bloomberg's vote margin in Queens narrowed considerably

From the Times Ledger:

Bloomberg landed 154,127 votes in Queens, according to unofficial results from the city Board of Elections, compared to Thompson’s 120,754. That difference of about 34,000 votes is far less than the 90,000 votes Bloomberg carried Queens by in the 2005 general election.

“A lot of Queens voters were disaffected and turned off,” Queens Civic Congress President Corey Bearak said of this year’s mayoral campaign. “There was not enough attention given to issues like development, taxes and education.”