Pay To Campaign!

The 11th Congressional District is just a big ball of laffs:

Days after standing on the steps of City Hall and endorsing City Council Member David Yassky in his bid for Congress, the mother and brother of a slain council member, James Davis, returned to those steps to withdraw that endorsement and to call on Mr. Yassky to drop out of the race.

Thelma Davis and her other son, Geoffrey, said Mr. Yassky left about 200 senior citizens stranded in the rain July 21, when he failed to get enough buses to transport them to City Hall for a memorial service in honor of her son, James, who was killed by a gunman in the council chambers July 23, 2003.

“This is not only a horrible act against the seniors, but against society,” Ms. Davis said yesterday, holding a picture of her late son. Ms. Davis said she wants Mr. Yassky to apologize publicly and pay $20,000 to four senior centers left without transportation that day.

By that time, campaign fliers touting the endorsement — showing Ms. Davis solemnly looking at a sepia-colored photograph of her slain son — had already been mailed to voters.

But it doesn’t end there:

In response to the withdrawn endorsement, an invoice Geoffrey Davis submitted to Mr. Yassky’s campaign — showing Mr. Davis hoped to be paid $50,000 for campaign work — was released to reporters.

Mr. Davis said he has been helping the campaign since last July, with the expectation of getting paid at some point.

“When he reneged with the bus company, and made my mother that upset, I sat with him,” Mr. Davis said, recalling a meeting he and an associate had with Mr. Yassky and his campaign manager at a famed Brooklyn eatery, Junior’s. The meeting took place the Monday after the memorial service, he said.

“From this point on, it is totally, strictly business,” Mr. Davis said.

Mr. Davis, who is unemployed, said he discussed the year’s worth of campaign work he did, and the field operation he planned to do in the crucial final weeks of the campaign.

“I said, ‘You got an hour to think about it,'” Mr. Davis told The New York Sun.

The following day, Mr. Davis submitted his invoice, which included $10,000 in administrative charges that Mr. Davis told the Sun he said was “my fee.” An additional $2,000 for a campaign office and petty cash were also listed.

And revealing all this is supposed to make you look better how?

Well, That’s A Relief!

You could interpret this the way the Post seems to — or you can view it as shocking that 39 percent of New Yorkers actually feel this way:

Most voters don’t think black politicians in a predominately black Brooklyn district should try to keep a white candidate out of the race, according to a poll released yesterday.

The race to fill Rep. Major Owens’ 11th District seat has been overshadowed by efforts by some black leaders to oppose the candidacy of Councilman David Yassky, who is white.

But a Quinnipiac poll of voters across the city shows that 61 percent don’t think Yassky should be discouraged from running just because he is white.

The poll also found that 16 percent of New Yorkers had hypocritical double standards:

And 77 percent of voters say they would oppose a group of white politicians’ trying to prevent a black candidate from running in a white neighborhood.

The Sad Thing Is That It Was Probably A Carefully Crafted Statement

Expect mellifluously alliterative outrage from Al Sharpton after this “slip of the tongue”:

City Councilman David Yassky, locked in a racially charged congressional race, was all smiles yesterday as Mayor Bloomberg introduced him as “Congressman Yassky.”

Speaking at the first groundbreaking to come from last year’s Williamsburg-Greenpoint re-zoning, the mayor praised Yassky — but press secretary Stu Loeser insisted there was no endorsement, just “a slip of the tongue.”

Bloomberg: I’d Run As An Independent

Hizzoner knows that idle speculation about your apparent Presidential aspirations is the best way to build up the Cult of the Mayor:

After months of steadfastly dismissing rumors that he’s exploring a White House run, Mayor Bloomberg over the weekend openly mused about mounting an independent presidential candidacy.

Asked if he’s contemplating a presidential bid, Bloomberg didn’t give his usual flat-out denial.

Instead, he offered a response that is fueling speculation he may go for it in 2008: “Absolutely not. And anybody who’s running will say exactly that.”

Little did he know it (yeah, right!) but the Norwalk Hour was within earshot at the event where he said the remarks, a fundraiser for Connecticut Representative Chris Shays:

“I could never get the nomination from either party,” the mayor told some 85 Shays supporters, explaining that he’s too liberal for conservatives and too conservative for liberals.

But money wouldn’t be an issue, Bloomberg added.

The Hour reported that “in the context of a humorous anecdote,” the billionaire mayor said he’d have no problem coming up with the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to finance a third-party run.

But the mayor acknowledged that “running as an independent would be a daunting thing.”

He told the crowd he could make a move to sell his business, Bloomberg LP “in the next year or so.” Company spokeswoman Judith Czelusniak said there are no “definitive plans” to do so at this point.

Stu Loeser, the mayor’s spokesman, insisted Bloomberg’s position hasn’t changed. “He’s not running,” said Loeser.

Previously on Is the country really ready for a (Jewish-born*!) New York mayor with a really nasal accent?

*The Forward seems to argue that he’s Jewish in the tradition of Robert Moses.

Bloomberg For President? (Or VP?)

Hizzoner on the third-party tip:

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday lashed out at the “spirit of intolerance” that has fouled politics — and urged graduating University of Chicago students to become “freedom fighters” for independent political thought.

Politicians listen to pollsters too much and to their own guts too little, he said. And in his view, both Democrats and Republicans increasingly oppose ideas just because they come from the other team.

“Your mission is to fight the good fight . . . to maintain a healthy skepticism and an honest integrity, and to never let go of the American spirit of independence,” Bloomberg said.

He also attacked the Bush White House, although not by name, for “manipulating data to fit their own agendas” — discrediting global-warming theories, restricting federal funding for stem-cell research and refuting methods proven to stop AIDS.

“Independence”? “Independent”? Mmm . . .