MAYORAL:

City Comptroller Bill C. Thompson was mentioned by President Obama during his speech at the NAACP centennial in NYC yesterday: 

“"We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all
races, African Americans are out of work more than just about anyone
else – a gap that’s widening here in New York City, as detailed in a
report this week by Comptroller Bill Thompson."

Rev. Billy Talen,  the Green Party candidate for mayor, is outraged that the Working Families Party didn't include him in their mayoral forum along with candidates Mike Bloomberg, Tony Avella and Bill C. Thompson on July 2nd. Tallen had this to say:

There is one mother of all issues. Democracy is it. Bloomberg
arranged with his money to flout public votes for term limits and is
now running against Democracy itself. His corruption of our right to
free elections will be judged harshly in history, as a modern Tammany
Hall. We must oppose his $90 million campaign not just to oppose his
leadership as a person, but to show future generations that we had the
guts and energy to rise up against big money’s imitation of democracy.

CITY COUNCIL:

The Democratic petitioning period is now over and the candidates are kvelling about  the number of signatures they were able to gather.

I heard from a pal on Seventh Avenue that Josh Skaller, one of the 39ers has 10,000 signatures on his ballot petition. Here from Mole 333 in Gotham Gazette, a Skaller supporter: Skaller running for City Council in the 39th district in Brooklyn, claims more
than 10,000 signatures (he needed a minimum of about 1000 with about
3-5000 to play it safe) and more than $161,000 fundraising (more than
enough to qualify for public matching funds).

Gary Reilly, also one of the 39ers wrote to say that "with the aid of a volunteers and staff I collected the last of
our petitions and bound them for delivery to the Board of Elections.
 The final tally was 1,389 signatures, or 50% more than the required
900.

He also said that he's thrilled because "my
plea for help was met with such an amazing response that I actually
felt like George Bailey at the end of my favorite film, It's A
Wonderful Life.  Thanks to your generous support we raised the
necessary contributions to qualify for city matching funds of $39,000.
 Amazing!  I was beaming when I turned in my paperwork to the Campaign
Finance Board yesterday."

You gotta love Gary!

Also according to Mole 333 in the Gotham Gazette, Ken Diamondstone, one of the 33s, has 5,000 sigs. "We collected more than 5,000 signatures without institutional support
or backing from the big political clubs or party insiders," said
Diamondstone, a Democrat from Boerum Hill…"

Brad Lander turns 40! Well, he turned 40 on July 8th and his parents wrote a sweet note on Lander's website:

Forty years ago this month, as the nation prepared for the launch of
Apollo 11, there was excitement in the Lander household as well, as our
son Brad was born on July 8th, 1969.

We worked hard to raise our kids with some basic values: Treat
everyone fairly.  Read a lot, study hard, and ask a lot of questions. 
Be a good listener.  Try to bring a bit more kindness and opportunity
into the world.  

We hoped these values were embodied in our own lives as well.  At
the time, David was the director of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri,
helping tenants facing gas shutoffs and family farmers facing
foreclosure.  Carole was a public school teacher (she later went on to
a career as an elementary school guidance counselor).  

Check out:  "A Liberal Operator Runs Against the Brooklyn Machine", an informative profile of Evan Thies, one of the 33s, in the Politicker