Elected Officials React to Verdict in Sean Bell Murder Case
April 25, 2008
(Queens, N.Y.) Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith (D-St. Albans) and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined other elected officials in calling for calm today in Queens following the controversial acquittal in the Sean Bell murder case.
In light of the decision by the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the allegations from the community of police misconduct in the case, Sen. Smith, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), and other elected officials from around the U.S. are scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C. on Monday. The elected officials appeared together today when they announced the renovation of the Workforce One Job Development Center. In a statement released today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it will initiate its own probe into the Sean Bell case.
“The past seventeen months have been extremely difficult on the families involved, as well as our community. With the verdict in, we must now look to begin the healing process. We must move forward as a community. No verdict can stop the pain of Nicole Bell, his widow, or his family.
It appeared that the evidence presented by the prosecution was compelling and conclusive. Based on our understanding of the evidence and the circumstances, three accused police officers fired a total of 50 bullets at three unarmed and innocent young men, killing Sean Bell and severely wounding Jose Guzman and Trent Benefield.
We will continue to support the Bell family and the survivors of the incident. Though we understand and share the frustration that many New Yorkers are feeling at this moment, we caution against giving into that frustration. Instead, we urge all who are disappointed with the decision to channel their energy into supporting the families’ intention to seek a special federal prosecutor. On behalf of our communities, we intend to file a complaint with U.S. Justice Department to investigate alleged police misconduct in this case. In the near future the Tri-Level Legislative Taskforce, which held city-wide public hearings, will release its final recommendation. We must remain committed to a justice system that is fair to all.” said Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith
Photo: (L-R) Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, Queens City Councilman Thomas White(D-Queens), Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith(D-St. Albans), New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, Small Business Commissioner Rob Walsh and Queens City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-Queens).
Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith Reflects on Earth Day Inspiration
April 22, 2008
(Albany, N.Y.) Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith (D - St. Albans) released the following statement:
“As we mark the 38th celebration of Earth Day, the importance of protecting our planet becomes more critical with each passing year. Our goal in the Democratic Conference is to provide strong and sensible leadership in conservation, energy efficiency, and green initiatives.
Since its inception, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement. In 1970, Americans were primarily using leaded gas through massive V-8 engines in their sedans. Industries spewed smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or retribution in the media. Some even went as far as to equate air pollution as the smell of prosperity. But the creation of Earth Day turned all that around.
This year Senate Democrats have a strong set of proposals to help keep New York’s environment pristine. These proposals include reducing sulfur emissions in our home heating oil and school buses; redeveloping our brownfields to attract businesses and create jobs; safeguarding our working farms; forests and orchards against sprawl; and protecting our wetlands. And we continue to encourage energy efficient building practices, accelerating the move to green energy sources, and supporting the development of green jobs and green industries.
The global transition to clean, green energy will mean reduced levels of CO² emissions in the atmosphere, a smaller amount of climate chaos as well as less pollution of our air, water, and land. It means greater energy security for communities and nations, fewer conflicts over energy resources and sustainable economies with stable fuel prices.
As Earth Day was inspired by US Senator Gaylord Nelson (D – Wisconsin), I want to impress upon all New Yorkers to individually, leave the smallest footprint you can. When you save water, you’re saving the rivers and oceans. When you turn down the heat in winter, you’re turning down the heat on the planet. When you take the clean-fuel bus, you’re doing your part to let all children breathe easier. When you recycle, you save precious natural resources and keep pollutants out of the ground.
In order to save the Earth, we all must share in the responsibility.”
Photo: Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith
Senator Schneiderman, Innocence Project and Others Champion Mandatory Electronic Recording of Interrogations
April 14, 2008
(Stony Brook, N.Y.) On Friday, April 11, State Senators Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan/Bronx), Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn), John Sabini (D-Queens), John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) and Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan), Assemblymember Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove), and leading criminal justice advocates took part in a public forum to address wrongful convictions and Mandatory Electronic Recording of Interrogations.
At the forum, expert testimony was presented by Barry Scheck of The Innocence Project, which is affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Nicholas A. Gravante, the attorney who represented Frank Esposito in People v. Esposito, the representatives for Long Island native Martin Tankleff, who was present at the forum, Thomas P. Sullivan, a former United States attorney and national expert on recording custodial interrogations, Jeffrey Szabo, Deputy County Executive and Chief of Staff to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, and Jeffrey Deskovic, who was exonerated in 2006 after serving 15 years in prison for a murder and sexual assault that he did not commit.
Schneiderman, who chairs the New York State Senate Democratic Task Force on Criminal Justice Reform and also serves as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Codes Committee as well as a Commissioner on the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform, has worked tirelessly to ensure that the guilty are punished and innocent persons are safeguarded. Testimony from today’s forum will be used to develop legislation that ensures the public’s trust in New York’s criminal justice system.
”A grave injustice is committed when we create victims out of innocent people because inefficient, unreliable and out of date models of interrogation continue to be used,” Schneiderman said. “Too often, criminal cases have been decided on little more than he-said/she-said. We need mandatory electronic recording so that justice is carried out with precision, so that detectives can do their work knowing their efforts are well-documented, and with no lingering question about whether the right person is off the streets.”
Senator Schneiderman proposed amendments to protect the innocent that included mandatory electronic recording of custodial interrogations to a number of bills last year. He has worked with many of the country’s leading experts on criminal justice reform, including the Innocence Project, whose Co-Founder, Barry Scheck, presented testimony today.
The Innocence Project has helped to exonerate 215 individuals in the United States since 1989. According to Scheck, “Twenty-three people in New York were wrongfully convicted and served years or decades in prison before DNA proved their innocence.” He also pointed out that “New York has seen more DNA exonerations than almost any other state in the nation – but has not yet taken action to prevent future injustice by implementing simple, straightforward reforms. Nobody – not the police, prosecutors, judges, victims, or the public at large – benefits from these wrongful convictions. The only person who benefits from a wrongful conviction is the real perpetrator of a crime, who evades justice. Leadership in New York State’s executive, legislative and judicial branches must enact reforms that can restore public confidence in the state’s criminal justice system and improve public safety.”
Addressing the information provided by the Innocence Project, Nassau County Assemblyman Charles Lavine commented, “As Americans, we have always valued the integrity of our system of criminal justice. The inquiry of the Senate’s Democratic Task Force on Criminal Justice Reform provides the citizens of New York the opportunity to examine how we are best able to protect the public in an era of dramatic technological advances while at the same time protecting the rights of our individual citizens.”
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, a long time advocate for reforming criminal justice polices in New York, continued “The hundreds of exonerations across the nation over the past several years should inspire us to fix the cracks in our criminal justice system. The videotaping of police interrogations will provide us with the added assurance that our criminal justice system is working properly, and that we are only convicting the real perpetrator of a crime.”
“False confessions under coercion are a major source of wrongful convictions,” added State Senator John Sabini. “Recording interrogations for violent crimes is a major step toward preventing these injustices.”
State Senator John Sampson noted, “By videotaping confessions, we eliminate the questions of whether or not the defendant has been coerced or other unorthodox means have been used to solicit confessions.”
State Senator Eric Adams, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Crime Victims, Crime, and Corrections Committee, spoke about his experience as a law enforcement official. “Recording interrogations doesn’t just protect the innocent, but also serves our police and prosecutors as well. Speaking as a former New York City police officer, I am committed to joining the other states across our nation that have already taken steps to enact this common sense policy.”
State Senator Bill Perkins agreed with his colleagues and added, “False confessions undermine the credibility of our criminal justice system, and ultimately the viability of our democracy.”
In over 25% of the Innocence Project’s DNA exoneration cases, the innocent defendants made confessions or incriminating statements, or simply pled guilty to the crimes. Studies show that the incorporation of harsh tactics, exhaustion, and intimidation or coercion during lengthy interrogation sessions can cause innocent suspects to confess to crimes they did not commit. These tactics are especially successful when used with minors such as in the cases of People v. Esposito and People v. Tankleff.
As a young man, Frank Esposito was brought up on charges that set a stable on fire. The prosecution’s case hinged on a videotaped confession of the then 17-year-old suspect that was coerced by the detectives after 18 hours of interrogation, during which time Esposito did not sleep or eat. In that interrogation, the detectives lied to the suspect about failing a polygraph test and whether or not his friends supported his alibi.
Nicholas A. Gravante, an attorney for Esposito, said “Nothing is more disturbing than innocent people sitting in prison for crimes they did not commit. Recording custodial interrogations in their entirety would minimize that possibility by inhibiting law enforcement from overreaching and preventing suspects from falsely alleging that they did. It would be a win-win situation for the justice system.”
Also testifying today about the benefits of mandatory electronic recording were advocates for Martin Tankleff, who was convicted and sentenced to 50-years-to-life after allegedly confessing to his parents’ double-homicide. Last year, after serving over 17 years in prison, the New York State Appellate Court 2nd Department unanimously overturned his conviction. Tankleff is still in the process of trying to vacate his indictments.
Lonnie Soury and Eric Friedman, who testified on behalf of Tankleff who sat in the audience due to his ongoing litigation, pointed out that “the larger meaning of Marty Tankleff’s case is to point out the gap in our system, which is that when there is a horrible, obvious mistake made, there is no mechanism for correcting it. To leave it to the judicial and prosecutorial entities to correct their own mistakes is what leads the wrongfully convicted to remain imprisoned for many, many years.”
Martin Tankleff was joined by Jeffrey Deskovic, a Westchester County resident who served 15 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Mr. Deskovic was exonerated, with the assistance of the Innocence Project, in 2006. “It is essential that we mandate videotaping interrogations and enact other reforms to prevent wrongful convictions, so that other people don’t suffer the same fate I did by serving time in prison for crimes they did not commit,” said Deskovic.
Over 500 jurisdictions nationwide, including the states of Alaska, Minnesota and Illinois, regularly record police interrogations. Despite the undeniable benefits of mandatory electronic recording, previous efforts to implement a system of checks-and-balances in New York State with mandatory electronic recording have been largely unsuccessful.
Thomas P. Sullivan, who co-chairs the Illinois Governor’s Commission on the Death Penalty, testified that “recording custodial interrogations saves time and money, creates compelling evidence and is effective in resolving disputes involving allegations of police misconduct and whether confessions are voluntary.” In a 2004 report titled Police Experiences with Recording Custodial Interrogations, Mr. Sullivan documented the overwhelming approval of mandatory electronic recording of interrogations by law enforcement officials who have experienced the first-hand benefits.
Jeffrey Szabo, Deputy County Executive and Chief of Staff to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, also testified about Suffolk County’s effort to mandate recording of interrogations in homicide cases once a suspect arrives at the police station.
“There are clear examples of people who have been wrongfully convicted, and there are compelling examples of how the bad guy may have been let free,” Szabo continued. “Given that, it seems appropriate for us to implement mandatory electronic recordings of interrogations as the normal protocol when investigating criminal matters. It is imperative that our system of justice operate with the most up-to-date tools and resources. I will continue to work with my colleagues and experts in this field to develop smart legislation and responsible policies that hold our legal system to the highest standard.”
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Photo: New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman
Statement From Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith On Passage Of The 2008-09 Fiscal Year Budget
April 10, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) A final budget vote was made for the 2008-09 Fiscal Year Budget from the floor of the Senate Chamber on Wednesday, April 9, 2008. The below is a statement released from the New York State Senate Democratic Conference.
“This budget is a victory for all New Yorkers that includes a record school aid increase of $1.7 billion, including $1.2 billion in school foundation aid that ensures New York state continues to produce the best and the brightest. I would like to congratulate Governor Paterson for his commitment to the people of this state, and my colleagues in state government, for passing a timely budget that addresses the needs of all New Yorkers.
This is a far-reaching budget that will impact all 19 million state residents, including providing funding for health care, financial and legal counseling to educate potential homebuyers, as well as, a strong financial commitment to the upstate economy. It should be recognized that Senate Democrats played an instrumental role in moving the budget process forward. This budget shows that this is truly One New York.
And, while these are extraordinary times, with a sluggish state economy, I am confident that the $380 million boost in economic aid to upstate New York will help spur the statewide economy. While there is still a great deal of work and economic uncertainty ahead, this “people’s budget” represents a giant step towards restoring the public’s faith, hope and trust in state government. Again, I would like to commend Governor Paterson for stepping up and successfully delivering a budget under unprecedented conditions. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco should also be thanked for their dedication and cooperation in concluding timely budget negotiations.”
Photo: FINAL BUDGET VOTE – Senator Craig Johnson (D – Port Washington) studies budget bills during the debate prior to the final vote on the State Budget for Fiscal Year 2008-09.
Maplight.org Nominated for Best ‘Politics’ Website for the 12th Annual Webby Awards
April 9, 2008
(Berkeley, C.A.) MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization illuminating the connection between money and politics, is thrilled to announce its nomination for the best ‘Politics’ Web site of 2008. Hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile Websites.The 12th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from over 60 countries and all 50 states. Winners will be announced on May 6, 2008 and honored at a gala in New York City on June 10th.
“It is a great honor to be recognized alongside such esteemed organizations as NPR, FactCheck, and the Pew Forum,” said Daniel Newman, executive director of MAPLight.org. “This honor reflects the tremendous support we’re receiving for our work on government transparency, holding our politicians accountable. And like Oscar shining its searchlights in Hollywood, MAPLight.org is shining its spotlight on the campaign contribution politicians receive, and whether those politicians vote with special interests, or the interests of the people.”
“The Webby Awards honor the outstanding Websites that are setting the standards for the Internet,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards. “MAPLight’s Webby Award nomination is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators.”
MAPLight.org provides unprecedented government transparency, shining a light on our broken system of money-dominated politics. They track all campaign contributions given to members of Congress, and how every member of Congress votes on every bill, revealing connections between money and politics never before possible to see. MAPLight.org’s research department uses Web 2.0 data mashup technology to combine three data sets: campaign contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) and National Institute on Money in State Politics, special interest support and opposition for each bill in Congress (MAPLight.org research team), and legislative voting records and bill information (THOMAS via GovTrack.us).
Cited in the NY Times, Washington Post and National Journal, MAPLight.org’s Web site is fast becoming a favorite tool for journalists nationwide.
The Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-person judging academy whose members include Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, R/GA’s Chief Bob Greenberg, “Simpson’s” creator Matt Groening, Arianna Huffington, and Harvey Weinstein. From now through May 1st, online supporters of MAPLight.org can cast their own votes in The Webby People’s Voice Awards presented by Nokia at: http://pv.webbyawards.com.
The Webby Awards are known worldwide for its famous five-word speech limit. Past headline-grabbing speechmakers include Al Gore (“Please don’t recount this vote”), Beastie Boys (“Can anyone fix my computer?”), and Prince (“Everything you think is true.”). “If chosen,” Newman said, ” my five words would be, ‘Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant,’ paraphrasing Justice Louis Brandeis.”
About The Webby Awards:
Hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. Established in 1996, the 12th Annual Webby Awards received a record 9,500 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Adobe; The Creative Group; .ORG; The Barbarian Group; Level3; Adweek; Fortune; Variety; Wired; IDG: Brightcove; PricewaterhouseCoopers; 2advanced.Net; KobeMail and Museum of the Moving Image.
About MAPLight.org:
MAPLight.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California. Its search engine at MAPLight.org illuminates the connection between Money And Politics (MAP) via an unprecedented database of campaign contributions and legislative outcomes. Data sources include: GovTrack.us; Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org); Federal Election Commission (FEC); and National Institute on Money in State Politics. Support and opposition data is obtained through testimony at public hearings, proprietary news databases and public statements on the Web sites of trade associations and other groups. To learn more visit www.MAPLight.org.
State Budget Offers Remedies to Health Care in New York
April 3, 2008
(Albany, N.Y.) State lawmakers and groups focused on health care-related issues are applauding the Health and Mental Hygiene portion of the state budget. The $400 million package is designed to improve the lives of New Yorkers across the state as it restores proposed cuts and invests in primary and preventive care for the future.
Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith announced the new health care budget achieves several major goals including: an historic shift of resources towards primary care and preventive health, more than $300 million per year in new investments in primary and preventive care, giving a boost to hospital outpatient clinics, community health centers and local primary care doctors. Reforms in this budget will expand patient access to family physicians, improve the quality of care for the indigent and save money for the taxpayers by preventing high-cost illnesses and reducing overpayments.
“The health care portion of the state budget is a big step in the right direction,” said Smith (D – St. Albans). “This measure will help more New Yorkers receive better health care with lower health care costs for taxpayers because of early detection and treatment of diseases like diabetes, asthma and HIV / AIDS. The new Doctors Across New York initiative encourages doctors to practice in underserved areas. We’re getting more children covered in the Child Health Plus program. This measure clearly makes us a healthier New York.”
This budget also helps the state’s growing elderly population by providing for a new EPIC discount card for New Yorker who are between the ages of 50 and 64 and New Yorkers with disabilities at any age.
The budget also restores proposed pharmacy reimbursement cuts in an effort to boost local and independent pharmacies supporting essential health care in their communities.
Although many of the proposed cuts to health care have been restored in this budget Senator Smith acknowledges that across-the-board cuts are still a cause for concern.
Photo: Senate Democratic Leader Malcolm A. Smith
Senator Aubertine Criticizes Water Findings
March 31, 2008
(Albany, N.Y.) Senator Darrel J. Aubertine (D – Cape Vincent, photo left) is calling on the International Joint Commission (IJC), which is reviewing solutions to the water level problems in the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes, to approve a previously agreed upon plan to return the waterways to even and consistent levels.
“To approve Plan B+ would turn the St. Lawrence River back to a more natural state and would be much more predictable as far as water levels,” said Senator Aubertine.
The recent IJC report calling for more input and study was met with harsh criticism by some. Aubertine says continuing to study the issue means the Commission “wants the issue more than the solution.”
Aubertine says there is already an agreed upon solution which would meet the objectives of all involved along New York’s northern border. Aubertine asserts the Commission members are on a fishing expedition.
“I’ve lived my entire life along the St. Lawrence Seaway and on the shores of Lake Ontario. I understand the economic impacts,” Aubertine said. “I don’t know how much more input people in organizations could give to the IJC. It’s as though they’re fishing just for the input that they want. Until they get it they are going to continue to fish.”
Aubertine also sees the waterway from a personal perspective.
“I enjoy the St. Lawrence River,” Aubertine said. “I want to see this river looked at as more than just a canal, as some people might look at it. Given the time and resources that are available to the IJC, I am just extremely disappointed in the lack of decisions that they’re making.”
Aubertine says the Commission members are seeking answers that do not exist.
“The IJC has chosen to essentially maintain the status quo after having spent $20 million and five years trying to come up with an alternative plan,” Aubertine said. “It’s just disheartening that after this much time and effort we come up with this Plan 2007, which again, claims to need more input and study.”
Aubertine says this process is not advancing the mission of the IJC, which first started developing this plan on July 2, 1956. Aubertine says everyone who wants to have their voices heard has already spoken to the IJC.
“Everyone who has a vested interest in and along the seaway and the Great Lakes on each side of the international border have had ample opportunity for input. I can’t believe that the IJC has not heard from every interested party from the commercial shippers to the sportsmen to the recreational users to those that live along the river and the lakes.”
Photo: Assemblyman Darrel J. Aubertine
Barack & the History of Racism
March 25, 2008
By Nina May, www.RWNetwork.net
Barack didn’t mention in his mea culpa speech in Philadelphia that over 250,000 white Americans gave their lives to end slavery. He doesn’t mention that in 1854, abolitionists left the Democrat Party and founded the Republican Party created specifically for the purpose of ending slavery and giving equal rights to all those who had been in bondage.
He needs to read the history of this battle for equality and realize that the party he embraces today was the party that voted against the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, while the Republicans supported them unanimously. He needs to acknowledge that the two dozen civil rights bills that were passed by the Republicans were overturned by the Democrats when they regained control of the House, Senate and White House at the end of the 19th Century.
It was at this time that the Democratic Party instituted Jim Crow laws. It was not whites that did this against blacks, it was bigoted, racist Democrats who would choose to divide a nation rather than give freedom to those they considered inferior. Had blacks been voting equally in both political parties, there never would have been literacy tests, poll taxes or other restrictions to voting. But because all blacks at this time identified with the party of Lincoln and were actually the ones starting Republican parties in southern states, and running and getting elected as Republicans, the Democrats knew that to kill a black was killing a Republican.
The anger of segregation was tempered by an opportunity to succeed in a world where whites could not condemn or destroy. This is when amazing black colleges and universities blossomed and exploded with incredible talent and energy. This is when black businesses and industry flourished out of the necessity that segregation created. There were no hand wringing or angry sermons directed at white guilt and racial division. The sermons focused on what was good, what was virtuous, what was lovely. The peer pressure was to succeed, to get an education, to compete and grow, not sit around, whining, blaming whitey for your problems. If there is anger, it should be against big government solutions to big government problems that politicians like Barack and Hillary always claim is the only way to run a country.
Democrats have created this plantation of government handouts that suggest blacks are incapable of making responsible decisions separate from the government. They are not trusted with the same benefits of freedom that whites are and must be placated with the lie that all whites are racists and all blacks are the poor victims of that racism. It is a lie that needs to be exposed, destroyed and renounced, not fed and nurtured the way Rev. Wright continues to do.
Barack says, “I have asserted a firm conviction that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds,” yet he sits week after week listening to sermons that say just the opposite.
It is ironic that he challenges the listener by saying, “We can accept politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism,” when he belongs to the very party that has always done that, to the point where the new liberal plantation has erected philosophical barriers around all blacks, condemning those who dare to challenge the liberal status quo and escape this manipulation and intimidation. They are called Aunt Jamima, like Condi Rice, or house negroes like Colin Powell, or forced to endure high tech lynchings like Clarence Thomas. They have Oreo Cookies thrown at them like Michael Steele and are accused of acting white if they identify themselves as Republicans or conservatives.
That is “the racist spectacle we are not allowed to talk about.” When blacks have to whisper at polling booths that they are Republican, for fear of reprisal from their liberal neighbors, then Barack really doesn’t get the real conflict that is alive and well in this country, and why should he? He belongs to the party of the overseer of the philosophical plantation that intimidates and marginalizes blacks that dare support conservative values or Republican ideas.
So, if Barack knew his American black history, he would take his pastor aside and tell him about it and challenge him to be more Christ-like when he preaches. If he knew real American black history, he would not belong to the party of segregationists and bigots and would not have allowed himself to be sucked into that dark undertow of racial politics that has already robbed our nation of too many amazing blessings.
Florida Mail-In Do Over For Democratic Party Primary Scratched
March 19, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) Clearly frustrated by the lack of support shown by Florida’s Democratic Party congressional members, State Democrats decided to shut down its bid to do a mail-in voting for Florida’s Democratic Party primary which would have represented 210 national delegates.
Democratic Party chairwoman Karen L. Thurman provided a written statement to the Associated Press voicing out her party’s frustration on their failed attempt. “A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it’s simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the party were to pay for it,” Thurman said. “… This doesn’t mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee.”
Both Florida and Michigan were disqualified by the Democratic Party national committee for holding their respective primaries too early which violated Party bylaws thereby forfeiting any representation the state held to the Party’s national convention this summer. Democrats at Michigan were successful in its attempt to have a do-over election after Legislative leaders evaluated a new measure last Monday which could allow a privately funded, state-administered do-over primary on June 3.
Phil Singer a spokesman for Hilary Clinton’s camp expressed dismay on Florida’s decision. “Today’s announcement brings us no closer to counting the votes of the nearly 1.7 million people who voted in January. We hope the Obama campaign shares our belief that Florida’s voters must be counted and cannot be disenfranchised.”
Meanwhile , IL. Sen. Barrack Obama’s camp was optimistic that Florida Democrats and national Party leaders could reach an agreement on the current situation in the sunshine state. “We hope that all parties can agree on a fair seating of the Florida delegates so that Florida can participate in the Democratic Convention, and we look forward to working with the Florida Democratic Party and competing vigorously in the state so that Barack Obama can put Florida back into the Democratic column in November,” said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.
Clinton, Obama Strategist Lobbied Accusations; Obama Extends Lead
March 17, 2008
(Long Island, N.Y.) Illinois Senator Barrack Obama’s campaign strategist team hurled accusations against rival candidate NY Sen. Hilary Clinton’s campaign over the latter’s ethical standing and governance accountability.
Robert Gibbs who serves as Obama’s campaign communications director asked Clinton’s camp to release all of her post-White house tax returns after she served as First Lady during former president and husband Bill Clinton’s tenure. Gibbs also noted that documents such as Clinton’s pet projects on spending bills and financial imprints of her Clinton foundation and Clinton Libraries should also be disclosed publicly to avoid scrutiny.
“What is lurking in those documents?” Gibbs asked as the two campaigns had dueling phone conference calls with reporters. “There are gaps that need to be filled,” said senior Obama strategist David Axelrod.
Hilary Clinton’s chief strategists Mark Penn responded in saying, “This is a tried and true technique of the Obama campaign that has repeatedly shifted negative when they find the momentum working against them, they are just trying to deflect public opinion from their losses in Ohio and Texas and faced with Clinton strength in Pennsylvania.”
On Monday, Barrack Obama will head out to Pennsylvania to campaign in the state for its delegate-rich primary on April 22. Political experts agree that Clinton holds a sizeable lead over Obama in Penssylvania as the former first lady holds a strong following in the state. Obama strategist David Axelrod said in a statement, “‘We are going to contest vigorously in Pennsylvania, Obama would be there on Monday and Tuesday. She (Clinton) does have a lot of advantages there — and we understand that. We know we have an uphill fight there. … But in no way are we giving up on Pennsylvania.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Barrack Obama’s campaign received a few more delegates on Monday to further extend his total delegates lead over Clinton after he secured nine more delegates on the basis of caucus night projections of former candidate John Edwards in Iowa’s caucus held on January of this year which switched Saturday to Obama. Current Demorcratic Party delegate count has Obama leading with 1,617 delegates while Clinton securing 1,498.
