Freedom Party Gubernatorial Candidate Charles Barron says: "Don't settle for lesser of two evils"

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Immigration Reform is Serious Business... ...but we can laugh about it!

When Stephen Colbert testified before Congress yesterday he achieved two things. First he brought attention to the plight of undocumented migrant workers, within our borders. Additionally he reminded us - in his unique way - how utterly laughable are the opponents of a sensible migrant workers policy for these United States.

Colbert appeared with United Farm Workers (UFW) President Arturo S. Rodriguez before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law.

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While Bronx Politicians Squabble...Unemployment Continues To Go Up

As the dust was settling from last Tuesdays Democratic primary that saw Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada defeated by professional political staffer Gustavo Rivera, and Assemblyman Nelson Castro succeeding against the desires of County Leader Carl Heastie; the Department of Labor released it's unemployment figures for New York State.

As expected Bronx unemployment continues to go up, and the Bronx remains the County with the highest unemployment in the State. For the third strait month unemployment here continues to raise as it drops in other parts of the City, State and Nation.  One can only hope that the end of the Primary elections will allow Bronx Democrats to come together and formulate a unified strategy for bringing jobs to Bronx residents.

According to data provided by the NYS Department of Labor (DOL) nearly half a million Bronxites are without work. Advocates of the unemployed believe that the actual number is higher if you factor in those who are not claiming benefits.

The DOL calculates unemployment rates roughly by counting  the total number of people claiming unemployment benefits against those who are employed. The problem with this formula is that it leaves uncounted the hundreds of thousand who are not eligible for benefits either because they previously worked in the underground economy (ie. off the books) or their benefits have run out.

It would appear the we have all grown so accustomed to high unemployment in the Bronx that no one is speaking loudly about this devastating problem. It is not a topic spoken off in political campaigns, news papers and blogger are incredibly silent on the issue,  as are; ironically both business leaders and community activist.

• We here call on all elements of the Bronx Community to speak loundly and inteligently on this topic...
• We call on Newspapers and Blogs to raise the issue on every occasion -- if a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it....
• We call on the business community to look at the Bronx as firtle ground for development and job growth. The Bronx is the home to a semi skill, SKILLED, highly skilled and professional work force. Treat us fairly and we will all grow together...
• We call on elected officials to stop the political Squabbling and use their collective power to bring in recourse from all regions of power...

On paper the Bronx is a legislative power house unlike any other county in the state. For starters all elected official in this county are Democrats. This should give Bronx legislators unanimity of purpose and action. Additionally the Bronx holds a unprecedented number of leadership post in the City Council and State legislature (see list of Bronx leadership in state and local legislators), as well as unique relationships with the White House and in the United States Congress.

The end of the primary political season should provide a unique opportunity for Bronx elected officials to come together around one issue that they can all surely agree on. Although probably losing the Majority Leadership with Pedro Espada's defeat to Gustavo Rivera, we believe that Rivera's addition to the Bronx delegation should strengthen the Boroughs claim to funds and resources. Additionally the election of Adriano Espiallat to the Senate increases the power of the Latino Caucus lead by Senator Ruben Diaz Sr.

Finally County Leader Carl Heastie should end his war against Nelson Castro & the older Riveras (Peter & Jose... CUANTO'S POLITICOS RIVER HAY EN EL BRONX?????). Although he lost his all out effort to remove Castro and destabilize the Rivera's he he will surely remain the county leader. If he can lick his wounds and bring the Bronx Assembly delegation together, he will be able to become a significant power broker in the assembly and provide an effective counterweight to the Assembly leaders from Manhattan Speaker Silver and Ways & Means Committee Chairman Denny Farrell Jr.

In doing so these leaders will raise each other up; as it has not been done in the Bronx for decades. Most importantly they will also start to bring back to the Bronx much needed results. There are to ways to achieve unity. The first is to eliminate the opposition, the second is to come together share recourses and work on common goals. Bronx political leaders have been trying the first for years. Shouldn't they give peace a chance?

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Bronx Democratic County Committee Meeting & Judicial Convention

Miguel Santana & Efraim Cruz Leaders
 of Bronx For Change at Training Session

The grassroots political organization; Bronx For Change is reminding residents of the up comming Bronx Democratic Learseship selection meeting and Judicial Delegate Convention.

The set of legally mandated biennial meetings, usually get little attention from constituents and is traditionally only attended by the most dye hard party loyalist. However following the rancorous meeting two years ago, ordinary grassroots and community activist have been paying more attention to it.

Since Bronx County is overwhelmingly a Democratic Borough the selection of the Bronx Party Leadership and particularly that of the County Leader plays a much larger role than other boroughs. Sadly under the new leadership of Assemblyman Carl Heastie Democratic voter participation has dropped dramatically under 45% percent.

In November 2009 Assemblyman Heastie's  first full year as Chairman only 145,279 Democratic voters cast ballots for the general election, as opposed to  381,322 in the November 2008 election,  Assemblyman Jose Rivera's last year as county leader.

Miguel Santana an organizing leader of BRONX FOR CHANGE calls on Bronx Democrats to "empower yourself: The convention is your opportunity to see Democracy in action."

Bronx Democratic Party County Committee Meeting

Wednesday 9/22/10 at 6:30 PM

Eastwood Manor, 3371 Eastchester Rd., Bronx, NY

Judicial Convention

Thursday 9/23/10 at 6:30 PM

Villa Barone Manor, 737 Throggs Neck Expx Way, at Phillip Avenue

DEMOCRATIC COUNTY COMMITTEE

By law, a meeting of the Bronx County Democratic Committee must take place within 20 days of the primary.

The County Committee has 2500 members, who come from every election district in the borough. Each election district gets 2 to 4 committee members, depending on the total Democratic vote in each district, during the previous gubernatorial election. At the same time that candidate's petition for for Assembly and district leader, they petition for County Committee slates.

At the County Committee meeting, the members elect 4 officers – the chairman of the County Committee (which is a different position than county leader), as well as the secretary and the treasurer.

Those officers, along with the 22 district leaders (generally there is a male and a female district leader elected from each assembly district) form the executive committee.

The Executive committee then elects three other persons, who become members and in fact leaders of the Executive Committee– The Counsel, The Parliamentarian, and the Chairman the latter is also know as the County Leader.

JUDICIAL CONVENTION

Every assembly district is allotted a certain number of delegates – anywhere from five to eight people – based on the party turnout from the previous gubernatorial election.

Delegates run on the slate with the district leaders, who are party officials, and they go to the convention.

The judicial delegates, either by voice vote or hand vote, determine who wins the nomination for Supreme Court justice.

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Castro Defeated the Bronx Political "Machine" and Calls for Unity

At appx 1AM this morning in a room overflowing with energized community activist and democratic partisans of his West Bronx District, Assemblyman Nelson Castro claimed victory in yesterday's Democratic primary and called for unity amongst Bronx Democrats.

Celebrating the fact that his victory was the result of a grassroots effort he said to the crowd gathered before him; "this is your victory, today you demonstrated to the so called political machine that the power of the people can not be overturned by outside influence, political tricks, intimidation, slander and innuendo." 

This elections stands out because the Bronx County Democratic Organization had target Assemblyman Castro for defeat. They marshaled all of their forces and employed all strategies (many of which were to lowest ever seen in Bronx politics) against Castro with little effect.

Striking a tone of mature leadership Castro quickly called for Democratic Unity and invited his opponent, the Democratic County Leader Carl Heastie, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, and all other elected officials in the Bronx to a victory/unity rally.

"This fight within our democratic family is over! and it is our responsibility as the winners in this contest to invite back, our dissident democratic brothers and sisters including the county leader the borough president (Assemblyman Heastie & President Ruben Diaz Jr.) and all democratic leaders and activist who felt compelled to remain at the periphery of this contest." said Castro last night. 

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2010 PRIMARY Results - (source NY1)

New York

Attorney General-Dem 

New York
X	Eric Schneiderman	Dem	201,805	34.1%
	Kathleen Rice	Dem	188,298	31.82%
	Sean Coffey	Dem	97,557	16.48%
	Richard Brodsky	Dem	57,906	9.78%
	Eric Dinallo	Dem	46,267	7.82%
15003 of 15385 precincts reporting (97.52%)

Governor-Con 

New York
X	Rick Lazio	Con	11,084	60.44%
	Ralph Lorigo	Con	7,254	39.56%
15003 of 15385 precincts reporting (97.52%)

Governor-GOP 

New York
X	Carl Paladino	GOP	272,898	62.09%
	Rick Lazio	GOP	166,656	37.91%
15001 of 15385 precincts reporting (97.5%)

Lieutenant Governor-GOP 

New York
X	Greg Edwards	GOP	204,203	52.08%
	Thomas Ognibene	GOP	187,927	47.92%
15003 of 15385 precincts reporting (97.52%)

State Assembly-Dem 

District 24
X	David Weprin	Dem	4,494	69.27%
	Bob Friedrich	Dem	1,994	30.73%
102 of 102 precincts reporting (100%)

District 26
X	Edward Braunstein	Dem	2,035	37.11%
	John Duane	Dem	1,526	27.83%
	Steven Behar	Dem	994	18.13%
	Elio Forcina	Dem	928	16.93%
99 of 99 precincts reporting (100%)

District 28
X	Andrew Hevesi	Dem	2,984	60.34%
	Joseph Fox	Dem	1,961	39.66%
101 of 101 precincts reporting (100%)

District 33
X	Barbara Clark	Dem	3,185	66.76%
	Clyde Vanel	Dem	1,586	33.24%
88 of 88 precincts reporting (100%)

District 35
X	Jeffrion Aubry	Dem	2,289	62.82%
	Anthony Miranda	Dem	1,355	37.18%
79 of 79 precincts reporting (100%)

District 38
X	Michael Miller	Dem	1,756	76.55%
	Nick Comaianni	Dem	538	23.45%
68 of 68 precincts reporting (100%)

District 39
X	Francisco Moya	Dem	2,711	66.66%
	Hiram Monserrate	Dem	1,356	33.34%
55 of 55 precincts reporting (100%)

District 40
X	Inez Barron	Dem	3,149	74.41%
	Kenneth Evans	Dem	1,083	25.59%
113 of 113 precincts reporting (100%)

District 42
X	Rhoda Jacobs	Dem	3,236	67.54%
	Michele Adolphe	Dem	1,555	32.46%
82 of 82 precincts reporting (100%)

District 50
X	Joseph Lentol	Dem	5,138	79.71%
	Andre Soleil	Dem	1,308	20.29%
103 of 103 precincts reporting (100%)

District 52
X	Joan Millman	Dem	6,828	73.59%
	Douglas Biviano	Dem	2,450	26.41%
132 of 132 precincts reporting (100%)

District 68
X	Robert Rodriguez	Dem	2,523	36.02%
	John Ruiz	Dem	2,061	29.43%
	Marion Bell	Dem	687	9.81%
	Alvin Johnson	Dem	552	7.88%
	Edward Gibbs	Dem	488	6.97%
	Felix Rosado	Dem	369	5.27%
	Evette Zayas	Dem	324	4.63%
106 of 106 precincts reporting (100%)

District 71
X	Herman Farrell	Dem	6,102	74.47%
	Ariel Ferreira	Dem	2,092	25.53%
92 of 92 precincts reporting (100%)

District 72
X	Guillermo Linares	Dem	2,689	48.86%
	Julissa Gomez	Dem	1,326	24.09%
	Gabriela Rosa	Dem	650	11.81%
	Nelson Denis	Dem	548	9.96%
	Miguel Estrella	Dem	291	5.29%
71 of 71 precincts reporting (100%)

District 73
X	Jonathan Bing	Dem	5,211	84.22%
	Gregory Lundahl	Dem	976	15.78%
113 of 113 precincts reporting (100%)

District 76
X	Peter Rivera	Dem	2,428	55.65%
	Luis Sepulveda	Dem	1,935	44.35%
95 of 95 precincts reporting (100%)

District 78
X	Jose Rivera	Dem	2,185	75.89%
	Sergio Villaverde	Dem	694	24.11%
70 of 70 precincts reporting (100%)

District 80
X	Naomi Rivera	Dem	2,332	68.57%
	Robert Giuffre	Dem	1,069	31.43%
98 of 98 precincts reporting (100%)

District 82
X	Michael Benedetto	Dem	4,091	72.83%
	Herbert Moreira-Brown	Dem	809	14.4%
	Rafael Dominguez	Dem	717	12.76%
114 of 114 precincts reporting (100%)

District 85
X	Marcos Crespo	Dem	2,094	73.5%
	Israel Cruz	Dem	755	26.5%
80 of 80 precincts reporting (100%)

District 86
X	Nelson Castro	Dem	1,765	54.12%
	Hector Ramirez	Dem	1,496	45.88%
74 of 74 precincts reporting (100%)

State Assembly-GOP 

District 49
X	Peter Cipriano	GOP	469	61.31%
	Lucretia Regina-Potter	GOP	296	38.69%
91 of 91 precincts reporting (100%)

State Senate-Dem 

District 10
X	Shirley Huntley	Dem	9,535	73.15%
	Lynn Nunes	Dem	3,500	26.85%
231 of 231 precincts reporting (100%)

District 16
X	Toby Ann Stavisky	Dem	6,475	45.24%
	Isaac Sasson	Dem	4,874	34.05%
	John Messer	Dem	2,965	20.71%
234 of 234 precincts reporting (100%)

District 18
X	Velmanette Montgomery	Dem	12,742	80.87%
	Mark Pollard	Dem	3,014	19.13%
298 of 298 precincts reporting (100%)

District 21
X	Kevin Parker	Dem	8,805	72.77%
	Wellington Sharpe	Dem	3,295	27.23%
226 of 226 precincts reporting (100%)

District 28
X	Jose M. Serrano	Dem	6,567	80.58%
	Mark Escoffery-Bey	Dem	1,583	19.42%
219 of 219 precincts reporting (100%)

District 30
X	Bill Perkins	Dem	17,357	76.31%
	Basil Smikle	Dem	5,389	23.69%
245 of 245 precincts reporting (100%)

District 31
X	Adriano Espaillat	Dem	10,969	51.15%
	Mark Levine	Dem	8,326	38.82%
	Anna Lewis	Dem	1,691	7.89%
	Miosotis Munoz	Dem	459	2.14%
228 of 228 precincts reporting (100%)

District 32
X	Ruben Diaz	Dem	7,823	78.61%
	Carlos Ramos	Dem	2,129	21.39%
241 of 241 precincts reporting (100%)

District 33
X	Gustavo Rivera	Dem	6,870	62.21%
	Pedro Espada	Dem	3,607	32.66%
	Daniel Padernacht	Dem	567	5.13%
192 of 192 precincts reporting (100%)

State Senate-GOP 

District 28
X	Jon Girodes	GOP	116	52.73%
	Keesha Weiner	GOP	104	47.27%
219 of 219 precincts reporting (100%)

U.S. House-Dem 

District 10
X	Edolphus Towns	Dem	19,816	68.79%
	Kevin Powell	Dem	8,991	31.21%
592 of 592 precincts reporting (100%)

District 14
X	Carolyn Maloney	Dem	26,303	80.85%
	Reshma Saujani	Dem	6,231	19.15%
513 of 513 precincts reporting (100%)

District 15
X	Charles Rangel	Dem	22,418	50.55%
	Adam Clayton Powell	Dem	10,353	23.34%
	Joyce Johnson	Dem	5,645	12.73%
	Ruben Vargas	Dem	2,392	5.39%
	Jonathan Tasini	Dem	2,389	5.39%
	Vincent Morgan	Dem	1,154	2.6%
473 of 473 precincts reporting (100%)

District 5
X	Gary Ackerman	Dem	16,048	68.97%
	Patricia Maher	Dem	7,221	31.03%
452 of 457 precincts reporting (98.91%)

U.S. House-GOP 

District 13
X	Michael Grimm	GOP	8,391	68.65%
	Michael Allegretti	GOP	3,832	31.35%
523 of 523 precincts reporting (100%)

District 14
X	David Brumberg	GOP	3,131	62.42%
	Dino LaVerghetta	GOP	1,374	27.39%
	Roger Blank	GOP	511	10.19%
513 of 513 precincts reporting (100%)

District 17
	York Kleinhandler	GOP	3,225	51.43%
	Anthony Mele	GOP	3,046	48.57%
544 of 617 precincts reporting (88.17%)

District 5
X	James Milano	GOP	3,804	60.22%
	Elizabeth Berney	GOP	2,513	39.78%
452 of 457 precincts reporting (98.91%)

U.S. Senate-Dem 

(2 Year)
X	Kirsten Gillibrand	Dem	410,147	75.91%
	Gail Goode	Dem	130,179	24.09%
14656 of 15385 precincts reporting (95.26%)

U.S. Senate-GOP 

(2 Year)
X	Joseph DioGuardi	GOP	169,255	41.67%
	David Malpass	GOP	152,600	37.57%
	Bruce Blakeman	GOP	84,290	20.75%
14656 of 15385 precincts reporting (95.26%)

(6 Year)
X	Jay Townsend	GOP	212,587	55.54%
	Gary Berntsen	GOP	170,167	44.46%
14635 of 15385 precincts reporting (95.13%)

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