cordobainitiative.org

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

Remember the "Ground Zero mosque" that wasn't just a mosque but actually a community center but still had people enraged back in 2010 because they thought it would be a victory monument to terrorism?

We hadn't really thought about it much recently, either -- until today, when we heard that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, one of the original religious leaders behind the project, would be involved in a new local effort: campaign finance reform.

Tomorrow, religion and politics are mixing at an event hosted by a local good government group that is pushing to get campaign finance reform underway this year in the state -- and as part of their efforts, they're bringing together high-profile religious figures to discuss politics.

More »

Sam Levin

City Comptroller John Liu, front, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, right, at event earlier this month.

In the race to replace Mike Bloomberg as mayor, two expected candidates -- who are trailing behind two frontrunners, according to a recent NY1 poll -- have made headlines this week that are of interest.

City Comptroller John Liu has tried to stay on-task and on-message since he was dealt a major blow with the arrest of his campaign treasurer in February. This fundraising controversy has raised questions about whether Liu will actually have a fighting chance next year, and Liu -- who is trudging along with different initiatives and audits in his current job, frequently dodges questions about his campaign. Maybe with some help from his new communications director -- who appears to be focused on controlling Liu's public appearances and keeping them on-topic -- the fundraising drama has somewhat stayed out of the news in recent weeks.

That changed, though, yesterday when the New York Times reported that a federal grand jury has officially indicted the former campaign treasurer for Liu on the charges that she helped funnel illegal campaign dollars to his 2013 campaign.

More »

Sam Levin

Assemblywoman Grace Meng, who is running for Congress, in Flushing today.

Queens Assemblywoman Grace Meng, who would be New York's first Asian-American member of Congress, has raised $300,000 in ten days.

Obviously, she's thrilled.

"We are definitely excited. I think this is going to be a historical campaign that people all throughout New York and the country are looking at," Meng told the Voice this afternoon after the mayor held a press conference on senior centers in Flushing, Queens.

Meng, the candidate of choice of the Queens Democratic Party, is running in a crowded race that includes City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (the cousin of Rep. Joe Crowley, chairman of the Queens Dems, who has endorsed Meng), Assemblyman Rory Lancman (who yesterday got support from former mayor Ed Koch), and Republican Councilman Dan Halloran, who kicked off his campaign last week.

More »

Sam Levin

Sasha Warner-Berry, Parent Action Committee organizer, points out the schools in need of improvement to a guidance counselor passing by.

​Juana Gonzalez, 35, standing on a quiet corner outside P.S. 58 in the Bronx yesterday afternoon, said she was feeling a bit nervous.

The mother of three, whose two sons attend struggling schools in one of the city's lowest performing school districts, was waiting for dismissal -- but she wasn't there to pick up her children.

For the first time, Gonzalez, with her three-year-old daughter by her side, was participating in the newest campaign of the the New Settlement Apartments Parent Action Committee, a Bronx-based advocacy group that focuses on increasing parent involvement in local public schools.

"I'm just going to talk to them from my point of view as a parent," she told the Voice as she waited for parents to arrive to pick up their children.

More »

New Yorkers told pollsters: "I Heart Barack Obama" in a Quinnipiac University survey released this morning.

They gave him a 50-46 percent job-approval rating, unchanged from his 50-45 percent in December. And 50-45 percent want Obama to stick around and think he deserves to be re-elected to a second term in office.

No surprise here, but New York's voters don't really like any of the Republican candidates that much. Obama beats Mitt Romney 52-35 percent, Newt Gingrich by 57-31 percent, and Rick Santorum by 53-35 percent.

More »

John Lindsay was the mayor of New York City from 1966 to 1973. That's definitely far enough in the past that you'd think his campaign materials would be long gone. Check out this photo, though:

Frank Jump

That's a Lindsay campaign billboard from the late 60s, recently uncovered on the corner of Bedford and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn.

More »

For a while, Alec Baldwin was doing his damnedest to sow the seeds of a possible mayoral run in New York City. Or at least to drum up enough buzz so it appeared that he was kind of serious about it, which it turns out (to few people's surprise) he's not; Baldwin said on WNYC today that he "doubts" he'll have a political career. As for the mayoral race itself:

More »

Barack Obama went on a whirlwind fundraising tour of New York yesterday, making stops in the East Village and Midtown (and causing road closings and traffic issues along the way).

Despite a clutch of Occupy Wall Street protesters on a #DinnerWithBarack action, the president raked in $2.4 million over the course of yesterday's fundraising.

More »

Eddie Murphy announced that he was bowing out of hosting duties for next year's Oscars today. This came on the heels of Brett Ratner's resignation as the show's producer following an unfortunate gay slur. Oscar hosting duties are now up in the air. Who will take the reins?!

Maybe the Muppets. Today we learned of a campaign to do away entirely with infallible human hosts and replace them with Kermit, Miss Piggy, et al. It's the idea of Charlie Poekel, a 27-year-old Greenpoint resident who works for a documentary film company. He's started a social media campaign to get the Muppets hosting the next Oscars. We chatted with him this afternoon:

More »