You can read up on some of the candidates in the upcoming election on November 3rd. I conducted these interviews prior to the Democratic primary on September 15th. 

For Mayor: Thompson was the only candidate I was able to interview. I wanted to interview Rev. Billy but wasn't able to make that happen. And no go with Mayor Bloomberg.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Bill Thompson I asked Thompson how big a deal he's going to make out of the fact that Bloomberg overturned term limits: "New
Yorkers are upset and frustrated by what he did. He said he would never
go against what the voters wanted. And then he did. He lied to the
people. And that resonates with them." And those are fightin' words. Thompson, who has been called the stealth candidate by the New York Times, has plenty to run on. He just needs to get his juices flowing and find
some passion about other  issues that matter to New Yorkers.

For City Council in the 39th:
Breakfast-of-Candidates: Brad Lander, Lander has two master's degrees and
a BA from the University of Chicago. He made his mark running
community organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee and Pratt
Center for Community Development, advocating for affordable housing and community sustainablility.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: David Pechefsky. The Green Candidate, Pechefsky worked for 10 years in the central staff of
the New York City Council. With a master's degree in public policy and
experience advising local governments in Africa, Pechefsky knows how the
City Council works from the inside out and has ideas about how it could
better serve the people of New York City.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Joe Nardiello  He doesn't look like a Republican. I was expecting
someone clean cut, non-ethnic and very middle America. But Nardiello, born and bred in Brooklyn, has dark eyes, dark hair and strong Italian good looks. He
had the Brooklyn childhood of legend and is a very intriguing guy:  "All we needed was a ball. My
life was constantly filled with sports, resourcefulness, spending time
with friends."

For City Council in the 33rd:

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Stephen Levin.  A classics major at Brown University,  Levin has wonky good looks and a boyish, disarming
manner. His father's cousins are Michigan's Senator Carl Levin and
Congressman Sander Levin and he currently works as Vito Lopez's chief of staff. Lopez,
who is often portrayed as a Darth Vader figure in Brooklyn politics
taught the 29-year-old Levin about "knocking on doors, talking to as
many people as possible, the
importance of having a command of the issues, and having empathy for
the people," Levin told me. A pragmatist, Levin believes "that for for
every problem there is a solution that is not readily apparent."