Day by day, the wide open upcoming race to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg is getting more entertaining, and morphing into a new year's gift for reporters, political junkies, and maybe the public.

Last week, Mayor Giuliani's former deputy mayor, Joseph Lhota, a man not known for conversational subtlety, confirmed he was running as a Republican. This week, we learned that supermarket mogul John Catsimatides, an old-fashioned boot strap guy turned billionaire, put up $1 million of his own money to start building a campaign operation. Local newspaper publisher Tom Allon has raised $234,000. Doe Fund founder George McDonald has declared, but has yet to report any fundraising numbers.

On the Democratic side, former city Comptroller Bill Thompson, who almost beat Bloomberg in the 2009 election has raised more than $1 million. On-again, off-again Bloomberg favorite Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker who twisted arms to get Bloomie his bumpy third term, has raised $5.6 million.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has raised $2.7 million. City Comptroller John Liu has raised $2.6 million, an impressive number when you consider that his campaign has been under federal investigation. Last week, he jokingly referred to himself as the "embattled John Liu" in an email about a campaign fundraiser. Former City Councilman Sal Albanese and retired fire Lt. Kevin Coenen are also running.

MTA Chief Joseph Lhota

As much as you may absolutely loathe the Metro Transportation Authority -- and, in many cases, for good reason -- credit must be given where credit is due; the public transit agency did a bang-up job getting the City moving again after the devastation of last month's Hurricane Sandy.

The quick recovery has led to chatter that MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota should throw his hat in the ring to run for mayor in next year's election -- again, despite the fact that the MTA doesn't exactly have the best reputation amongst the millions of New Yorkers who rely on it to get around every day.

What a difference a hurricane makes.

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www.someecards.com

Today is Election Day, which means two things: you are expected to perform your civic duty by participating in the Democratic process, and you can expect the possibility that slimeball political-types will be looking to cheat the system by doing things like getting your dead uncle to cast his vote for the candidate of the aforementioned slimeball's choice.

Since the days of Tammany Hall, voter fraud has been an ongoing problem in New York's political process. For example, between 1868 and 1871, the votes cast in the city totaled 8 percent more than the entire voting population. But federal authorities are on the lookout for any political scumbaggery and need your help to bring those who commit it to justice.

To help curb any potential voter fraud, the United States attorneys for the Eastern and Southern districts of New York have setup hotlines for voters to report any possible voter fraud.

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On Election Day, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, amidst a sex scandal, sexual harassment accusation and maybe even a cover-up by the higher-ups, will go for re-election in his district of Bushwick. Usually, in these occasions, the incumbent is knocked out and replaced with whatever the public can get its hands on (search: Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner -> Twitter -> resignation -> Republican takeover by Bob Turner).

But, in this case, even with all the bad press, Vito Lopez was expected to return to his seat unharmed because Bushwick has no one else. The district, and Brooklyn, for that matter, is a Democratic stronghold and Lopez's years there have eliminated any competition. Until now...

Today, Richy Garcia announced that he will revive his campaign against the disgraced Assemblyman because, in a battle against a disgraced politician, you really have nothing to lose. It's evident that Garcia made this revelation when he woke up this morning - yesterday, he told WNYC that he was bailing from the race.

It only took him 24 hours to realize, you know what, what the hell?

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What if they held an election, and nobody came?

Rather, what if they held an election, but there was no place to vote (see totally unrelated picture at right). That sort of happened on September 13 in the 43rd Assembly District, according to Assemblyman Karim Camera.

Camera sent a letter yesterday apologizing to constituents in the district, which includes parts of Crown Heights, Lefferts Gardens, and East Flatbush, for the fact that none of the polling sites were open for the September 13 Democratic primary.

Only he wasn't apologizing for himself, but for the Board of Elections, which failed to tell voters there was no primary contest.

"Although there were no primary challenges in our district, we informed the Board of Elections that appropriate notice should have been sent to you," Camera wrote. "It is totally unacceptable to not adequately inform voters that the polls in our district would be closed."

Wendy Long, the Republican Senate candidate who has quite a few ideas for your vagina, also has some ideas for banks.

Writing about financial reform in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, "A Smarter Approach to New York's Banks," she takes on political rival Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's "punitive" view on financial regulation.

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House Speaker John Boehner, perhaps realizing that half of the electorate has ladyparts, seems to want his fellow Republican party members to quit kvetching about birth control -- especially in light of that whole November election thing.

As you might remember, the White House's mandate that insurers cover birth control goes into effect next week, prompting many a religious conservative to develop a painful case of pantyknots, with some directly challenging the Obama Administration policy in court.

Boehner, as Talking Points Memo notes, has a "message" for his conservative colleagues: do not follow suit!

Rather, he wants them to abandon the most politically problematic issues until after the election, and even then, he seems game for taking things easy.

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Finally, it's over.
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Wendy Long, New York's Republican U.S. Senate candidate, has lots to say about your ladyparts.

As we reported last week, Long is apparently against abortion in all cases and anti-birth control.

Now, news has surfaced indicating that Long has put contraception in a patriotic context, saying in stump speeches that soldiers "didn't die for what Kirsten Gillibrand is saying -- for the right to force religious employers to pay for their employees' contraception," according to HuffPo (via a Thursday night RH Reality Check post).

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On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Congressman Charlie Rangel had the primary election in the bag. Against eleven counts of ethics violations, voters once again handed one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus a victory, sealing up his 22nd term as a member of the House of Representatives. His opponent was State Senator Adriano Espaillat, a public figure looking to become the first Dominican-American on the Hill.
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