A big field of good candidates (all white guys) to fill Bill de Blasio's City Council seat in the 39th District just got bigger.

David Pechefsky, the Green Party Candidate for City
Council District 39 (and one of the Park Slope 100) just invited me, you and anybody to a kick-off
party for his campaign with suggested donation prices of $25-$175 at
Barbes on Friday, March 27th from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. That's 376
Ninth Street near Sixth Avenue.

In today's email blast, he opens with: "Interested in a greener, more equitable, more democratic city?"

I'm not sure if you have to make a donation to take a look-see at the candidate. Donation is suggested not mandatory. If you want to RSVP for the event, email Jonathan@pechefskyforcitycouncil.com

Soon I will begin publishing my stories about my breakfasts with all the city council candidates in the 39th District.

In these posts, I hope to convey a palpable sense of who these men are as people and politicians. I want to find out what they believe in, what they're like to have breakfast with, how they grew up, what matters to them and whether or not they're suited to be in the City Council.

So far I've had breakfast with Brad Lander and Craig Hammerman and a lunchtime coffee with Bob Zuckerman; I am in the process of scheduling breakfasts with Josh Skaller (who I met the other day at a Meet-the-Candidate private party), John Heyer and Gary Reilly.

And is Steven Di Brenza actually running?

And now for some breaking news:  David Pechefsky, the Green Party Candidate for City Council District 38, just invited me, you and everybody to a kick off party for his campaign with a suggested donation prices of $25-$175 at Barbes on Friday, March 27th from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. That's 376 Ninth Street near Sixth Avenue.

So, hey, David: when do you wanna have breakfast. There's no way around it.

Some of the City Council Candidates pictured left to right: Bob Zuckerman, Josh Skaller, Brad Lander, Craig Hammerman, Gary Reilly, Johy Heyer and Gary Reilly.  Not pictured: Steve Di Brienza and David Pechefsky.

Here's the press release statement from Council Member Bill de Blasio from the 39th district who is running for NYC's Public Advocate, the position currently held by Betsy Gotbaum.

"With 6 months left to go, our campaign has already passed
the halfway mark. With this filing, we have raised a total of nearly $2 million
with matching funds, a huge milestone. Our filing for this period put a large
dent in the gap, bringing in over $300,000 with matching funds,” said
Councilmember Bill de Blasio.

The New York Times reports that Brooklyn congressman Anthony Wiener may not run for mayor against incumbent Mike Bloomberg, who re-engineereed the city’s term limits law makien it possible for him to run for a third term. Weiner announced yesterday that he is going to take a wait-and-see approach and won't make an announcement until late spring.

His sudden — and very public —
ambivalence could significantly reshape the campaign. Mr. Weiner, 44, a
Democratic congressman, tireless political street-fighter and dogged
critic Michael R. Bloomberg. Bloomberg has been considered a threat to the mayor’s re-election.

If he leaves the field, what many had expected to be a spirited Democratic primary could dissolve into a placid affair, with William C. Thompson Jr,  the city comptroller, easily winning the nomination in the fall.

Brad Lander is running for City Council; he's the so-called front-runner if you can be a front-runner nine months before the primary.

Then again, Brad has more money than the other capable candidates in the race, including Josh Skaller and Craig Hammerman. All are hoping to replace Bill deBlasio, who is running for Public Advocate. I'm set to interview Brad tomorrow about his perspective on things,which I am looking forward to.

I've been exploring his website and I see that's he's got a blog. I found this story interesting. It confirms my sense that personal blogging can bring a candidate to life.

Last night, I was honored to attend a memorial service at the Prospect
Park Picnic House for Marine Lance Corporal Julian Brennan.  Julian
grew up on 15th Street in Park Slope.  He was 25 when he was killed in
Afghanistan last week.

The event was heartwrenching, of course.  It was impossible not to
cry while listening to his friends talk about how Julian made them
laugh … or while reading the note he wrote to his mom for Christmas
in 2005, wishing that he could be 5 years old again, so she could
cradle his head in her arms.

But there was also tremendous inspiration, both in Julian's life,
and in how his parents are responding to their almost unimaginable
tragedy. Julian was a remarkable person, a gifted actor, who felt a
call to service at the funeral for his grandfather, Marine who fought
in WWII.  "The only way I think I can describe myself,” he wrote, “is
as a guy who will go out of his way to make someone laugh, write a
great song, find a reason to dance, and watch the sun rise every chance
he gets."

One of the most remarkable things about Julian – and about the
Brennan family – is how they combine the deepest ideals of service from
both older and newer parts of our neighborhood.  Julian followed his
Irish Catholic grandfather James into the Marines, feeling that after
September 11th he had a duty to fight for the ideals and the security
of our country.  And he also followed his father Bill Brennan, a
musician and actor who performs kids music (he appears on one Park
Slope Parents CD), and who played a song of forgiveness and healing at
the memorial service.

Too often in our neighborhood, it seems as if these very different
ideals might exist in neighboring houses on a block in the Slope or
Windsor Terrace or Carroll Gardens, but that they are still two
different cultures, sometimes even worlds apart.  Julian and his
family's example reminds us that they can and should go together —
that they are merely different ways of serving something bigger than
yourself.

In a remarkable act of compassion, his parents Bill and Thya Brennan
are asking us to make contributions in Julian’s memory to the Central Asia Institute, at www.ikat.org. 
CAI’s mission is to promote and support community-based education,
especially for girls, in the remote regions of Pakistan and
Afghanistan.

Please consider a donation in Julian's memory to:

Central Asia Institute
P.O. Box 7209
Bozeman, MT 59771  
In memo line, please write: Julian Brennan

Please help the Brennans to make a deep and abiding blessing of Julian’s life and memory.

Today Mark Green announced that he's putting his hat in—again—for the job of public advocate. The job is currently held by Betsy Gotbaum.

Other candidates in the race include civil liberties attorney Norman
Siegel and City Council members Eric Gioia, Bill de Blasio and John Liu. deBlasio sent out a statement this morning:

"I am running for Public Advocate
because I believe we need an independent presence in City Hall,
fighting for
all New Yorkers who do not have a voice. I have known Mark Green for
many years
and have a great deal of respect for him. I look forward to an engaging
debate with
all of the candidates over the next several months about the best ways
to ensure every New Yorker is heard in this time of economic crisis.

600 people attended Sunday's Brooklyn for Barack's "Continue the Change Service Fair" at Union Temple. More than 65 local nonprofits, charities and advocacy group came together to promote volunteer opportunities, including sewing new clothes for women at domestic violence
shelters to stocking
shelves at a local food bank, from mentoring a child to working with abused animals.

Organizers hope that the fair provides former campaign volunteers with opportunities to make
a positive difference close to home.

Anyone out there who was at the fair want to make a comment?

Illustration by Antar Dayal

I thought this sounded like a cool idea.

Brooklyn – Change in Washington may have
begun in the voting booth, but hundreds of Brooklynites who volunteered for
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign are determined to make sure change comes
right to their own backyard, too.

On Feb. 8,
more than 65 local nonprofits, charities and advocacy groups will join together
for the first-ever “Continue the Change Service Fair.” Organized by the
grassroots Brooklyn for Barack and the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats,
the volunteer fair will seek to harness the incredible energy sparked by the
Obama campaign.

From stocking
shelves at a local food bank to sewing new clothes for women at domestic violence
shelters, from working with abused animals to mentoring a child, the volunteer
fair will provide former campaign volunteers with countless opportunities to make
a positive difference close to home.

“The election was
just the beginning,” Brooklyn for Barack co-founder Jordan Thomas said. “This
campaign was not just about bringing change to Washington, but bringing it to
Brooklyn, too. It is up to us to make the change real.”

What:
Continue the Change Service Fair

When:
Sunday, Feb. 8, 2 to 6 p.m.
Where: Union Temple, 17 Eastern
Parkway (at Grand Army Plaza) 3rd Floor ballroom
Cost: Free, but a box of dried pasta
for Union Temple’s food drive would be appreciated

To RSVP, please email continuethechange@gmail.com or call 718-757-8572

Participating
organizations include the Arab-American Family Support Center, Bed-Stuy
Campaign Against Hunger, HousingWorks, Marriage Equality New York, New York
Aquarium, Sue Rock Originals Everyone, Transportation Alternatives, Oxfam, the Women's
Prison Association and more than 50 others. The fair will also include
roundtables on Local Environmental Activism, Using Technology to Monitor and
Influence the Legislative Process, Health Care, Voting Rights and Food Justice.
In addition, parents are encouraged to bring their kids for a “make-and-take” craft
table, sponsored by Materials for the Arts.

From WNYC:

Gillibrand,
a second-term lawmaker from upstate New York, will be named to fill the
seat vacated when Hillary Rodham Clinton resigned to become secretary
of state in the Obama administration, the aide said, speaking on
condition of anonymity because an announcement hadn't been made. An
announcement was scheduled for later Friday.

Photo by friend of OTBKB Sheva Fruitman

My friend Betsy is in Washington for the inauguration. She'll be texting me all day:

Craig Hammerman is running for Bill de Blasio's city council seat (Bill is running for Public Advocate). He sent this around today:

WE'RE TAKING IT BACK!

I've
spent nearly two decades as an appointed City official working to
organize, support and empower the communities of my district.

I've been holding government's
feet to the fire and delivering projects and programs in an
unprecedented and exciting period of growth and change.

And I've been transforming the neighborhoods of my district into the hottest destinations in the City of New York for people to live, work and visit!

Great challenges lie ahead.

Grassroots
democracy and our community's values are increasingly under attack from
powerful special interests and out-of-touch politicians from the
national to the local level.

And,
in what will be a seasoned City Council in 2010, we'll need to have
strong, experienced representation to get our fair share from
government, for our voices to be heard.

With less than 9 months until the 2009 New
York City Primary, we're ramping up our grassroots campaign for New
York City Council's 39th District being vacated by Bill de Blasio.

In 2008 we took back our nation;

Oral arguments on the merits of the Term Limits
lawsuit will begin this Monday, January 5th, at 4:30pm.

This diverse coalition of local
elected officials, candidates, good-government groups, and voters filed the
lawsuit in November to challenge the term limits extension that was passed by
the City Council and signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg this fall. The
plaintiffs seek to invalidate the law, and further seek the court’s declaration
that a fundamental change in the City’s term-limits law, such as the extension
enacted by the Council and the Mayor, requires a public referendum. The case
has been assigned to Judge Sifton in the Eastern District. The judge has set an
aggressive schedule for moving the case forward, and has also rejected the
City’s request to transfer the Term Limits case to the Southern District of New
York in Manhattan, after finding that combining the cases in the Southern
District would not save any resources or serve the interests of justice, as the
City had claimed.

The complaint filed yesterday states:

“Allowing a self-interested mayor and City Council to dismiss the results of two recent referenda undermines the integrity of the voting process, effectively nullifies the constitutionally protected right to vote, and perniciously chills political speech by sending the unavoidable message that the democratic exercises of initiatives and referenda can be disregarded by public officials.”

Councilmember Bill de Blasio released the following statement on Monday about the filing of a lawsuit challenging the newly enacted law to extend term limits to three consecutive terms for New York City elected officials:

“One week ago, the Mayor enacted his term limits bill into law, officially signing away the votes and voices of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. Public outrage at this move, made by a handful of politicians to circumvent the democratic process, has been blatantly disregarded. The people will long remember the events of the past few weeks, and they will be rightfully unforgiving.

“Today marks an important next step in our fight to restore democracy in New York City. All voters have a constitutional right to have a meaningful vote on term limits; one that cannot be overturned at the drop of a hat by a self-interested few. I have pledged to my constituents and to all New Yorkers to continue fighting to restore public participation in this process. Today we took this matter to court to ensure that the voices of the people are heard.”

I got this press release from Bill de Blasio and Tish James about their press conference today:

Councilmembers Bill de Blasio and Letitia James, joined
by Comptroller Bill Thompson, attorney Randy Mastro, and other elected
officials, will hold a press conference on last week’s term limits vote. Last Thursday, the Council voted 29-22 to extend term limits to three consecutive terms for City elected officials. State
law, local law, and voting rights guaranteed under the US Constitution,
however, require that a mandatory referendum be held on this issue.

Councilmembers
de Blasio and James have authorized their lawyers to prepare a lawsuit
to challenge the legality of changing voter-ratified term limits by
legislation. The two Councilmembers have also authorized
their lawyers to review the legal infirmities and adverse impacts on
minority participation that will result from this major change by
legislation to the local electoral system, and to continue to pursue
claims that the vote blatantly violated local conflict of interest laws.

The Where and When

Councilmembers Bill de Blasio and Letitia James; Comptroller Bill Thompson; Randy Mastro; Other elected officials
12:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 29^th
City Hall Steps

Here’s an excerpt from the Brooklyn Optimist:

To say that I am appalled at yesterday’s Council vote is to grossly
understate my reaction. Last night, I was indignant. This morning, I
woke up quivering with rage.

After
sitting through the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee meeting last
month, I felt certain that this farce would be the most ridiculous political
theater of the year. But, leave it to the New York City Council to come
storming back a mere month later with a production so well-orchestrated
and rehearsed that it deserved Broadway’s most ostentatious marquee.

At
least, the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee meeting had no
pretension. All of our electeds, except Charles Barron, dutifully read
through the script in a homogenous monotone that laid plain the
emptiness of our faux democracy. To his credit, the evening’s chair
Marty Connor practically admitted that our attendance was all just for
show.

Yesterday I received this press release from the offices of De Blasio and Tish James about the term limit controversy:

Today, Councilmembers Letitia James and Bill de
Blasio, and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum held a town hall to allow community
members to voice their opinions on the Mayor’s legislation to extend term
limits. The Council held nearly
twenty hours of hearings this week on this issue. New Yorkers who signed up to speak had to wait for hours,
and many were no longer present when their names were finally called.

"Voters have made the
decision to enact and uphold term limits; let’s not engage in runaround
democracy.  8.2 million people always trumps 51 members, and the Mayor’s
proposal is in clear violation of the rights of voters," said
Councilmember Letitia James.

"The Mayor’s blatant
attempts to circumvent democracy and keep voters out of the process continued
at this week’s hearings. We are
here today to ensure that all New Yorkers have a chance to voice their opinions
on this important issue. There is
absolutely still time to hold a referendum on extending term limits, and the
legislation that Councilmember James and I have introduced ensures that the
voters will be heard," said Councilmember Bill de Blasio.

Multiple pieces of legislation
were heard this week. The Mayor
presented his own bill to extend term limits for elected officials from two to
three terms by Council vote. The
Council also considered legislation by Councilmembers de Blasio and James that
calls for the creation of a Charter Review Commission that would examine the
issue of extending term limits, and would hold public hearings and a referendum
in the spring. The two Council
hearings this week at City Hall provided the only opportunity for the public to
voice its concerns over the Mayor’s legislation, thereby excluding many working
New Yorkers and those who live in the outer boroughs.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum
said, "This is not about term limits, it’s not about the job the mayor has
done, and it’s also not about continuity during a financial crisis. It’s about
whether or not, in a democracy, it is okay to disregard people’s votes. While I
can only support extending or changing term limits through a public vote, at
the very least, the Council must prolong any vote until public hearings can be
held in all five boroughs. That’s why we’re here today, to give as many New
Yorkers as possible an opportunity to have their voices heard."

Brooklyn for Barack is opening its headquarters TOMORROW (Tuesday) night for the final
sprint to the finish. They’re having phone banking there from about 10 am until 8
pm every day through the election.

The grassroots office is now open at Vanguard Independent Democrat Club,
located at 1424 Fulton St.

The kick-off Open House is tomorrow evening from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. We’re expecting a couple hundred volunteers to stop in during the next two weeks.

The Where and When

Brooklyn for Barack
Vanuard Independent Democrat Club
1424 Fulton Street
From 10 am until 8 p.m. every day through the election

WHAT:
Elected Members of the Kings County Democratic County Committee and
their constituents will be joined by Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia
James to voice their outrage over the Mayor and City Council’s proposed
legislative change to New York City’s term limits law.

 

WHERE: The steps of City Hall in Manhattan

 

DATE: Tuesday, October 21^st, 2008

 

TIME: 1 p.m.

I just got this note from Art Obama organizer David Konigsberg about one more thing you can do to help Barack Obama go to the White House. Yo can support a band of volunteers that is heading for the swing state of Virginia and going door-to-door in a get-out-the-vote-effort!

Some of you know Neil Goldberg (an artObama contributor),  but many of you do not.  Suffice  it to say that Neil is not only one of the best artists I know, but also among the most deeply committed to moving this country in a progressive direction.   An astute activist and organizer, Neil is always ready to join the fight.  Today, that fight is in Virginia, a state that twice voted for George Bush, but one that has since sent Jim Webb to the Senate and is now leaning Democratic.

As Neil has repeatedly pointed out, this is no time to relax, no matter what the polls say. This is especially true in states like Virginia that have been in Republican hands for so long.  That’s why Neil and a band of volunteers are joining the campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort in  Richmond, and why you (if you’ve got anything left to give) might think about giving some time–or, in lieu of that, helping Neil do it for you.

From Neil:

Beyond voting yourself, going door-to-door in a swing state is the single most important thing you can do in this election, period. Polls aside, the Obama campaign believes it will lose without a massive get out the vote effort. To find out how to volunteer, go to http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/PABorder

If you absolutely cannot volunteer, please consider sponsoring those of us who can. At least eight of us are going to the crucial swing state of Virginia for the five days leading up to election day. Between transportation, housing and other expenses we’re estimating that the trip will cost about $300 per person.

If you’re interested in contributing any amount directly, please email me and I will let you know how.

Thanks for giving this your consideration. May we be celebrating an Obama victory in 20ish days!

Best,
Neil

Contact for Neil: neil(at)neilgoldberg(dot)com

A longtime friend and fellow Park Sloper was in Berlin yesterday and went with her husband and two daughters to hear Obama speak. Here is what she had to say about this historic event in that most historic city.

All four of us rode our bikes to see Obama speak at the Siegesaule—the Prussian victory monument that was deemed such an inappropriate place to speak.  He tried to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, but the Prime Minister, Angela Merkel, and others, decided it was inappropriate to have a candidate speak in a place where only elected officials have gone before.

The Victory monument faces the Brandenberg Gate—between the two structures, there is a street called the Strasse17Juni named to commemorate the uprising of the East Berliners on 17 June 1953.   This street lines the side of the Tiergarten, a large tree-filled park, nearly a forest, in the middle of Berlin.  The Central Park of this city.  (or should I say, the Prospect Park of Berlin).  People came teeming through the park to reach this wide boulevard, one of the widest streets in all Berlin (a city which claims the widest boulevards in Europe) and by the time we got there, you could no longer squeeze into the part that was in front of the Siegesaule.  It was full by 4pm—the speech was at 7pm.  No bikes were allowed on the streets, so we locked ours to a tree—along with thousands of other bikes—and walked through the tree-filled park until we were nearly at the Gate.  We forced our way onto this end of the Strasse 17 Juni and realized that we wouldn’t even be able to see one of the two enormous screens that were set up to give a view of the Man.

But we were glad to be there—more fun to hear his voice ringing out over Berlin, than to see his face in the Close-up of a newscast.

Obama was asked to speak from the side of the monument that faces the Brandenberg Gate—therefore, when the cameras focused on him, the gate would NOT be in the background.  Therefore, Germany could not be said to be using their famous backdrop to support a presidential candidate—especially one running against the party of the president in office.
Good luck.  A poll yesterday showed that nearly 70% of Germans support Obama.
That much more pathetic when

McCain said he’d like to speak in Berlin too, but only AFTER he’s president.  Hah!

And who needs the Brandenberg Gate anyway?  This power of the location was everywhere evident without the cliched backdrop.  It was a real Berlin location—steeped not only in history—but in so many histories—Prussian, World War II, the Cold War—triumph and defeat—good and evil.  This was not lost on our well-educated Obama of course, and his speech as you heard, often referred to the spirit of Berlin, the quest for Freedom, the American pilots who dropped food during the Berlin blockade—he braided this history artfully into the present—leading up to the need for partnership. The great partnership of the Luftbrucke—the need for partnership between Europe and America today.

Of course, it’s all more complicated than that.  Of course, after WWII Germans were our despised enemies until the Communists took their place.  But once they accepted defeat and became our allies in the cold war,  the evil Germans were transformed into civilian victims.

But Obama knows all this, I’m sure—and just as he smoothed over the last 60-70 years, so he also moderated his criticism of America.  But Berliners are not only full of spirit, they’re also a practical people—why else would they ride their bikes everywhere—and they know he has to moderate the rhetoric when speaking in a foreign land.  He mentioned ending the war—but he didn’t say the war was a mistake—he said America’s not perfect, but that we always strive to be better.  And so on.

SO: between the Prussian War Memorial and the Gate-where this street named for anti-Communist protest lies—We stood along with roughly 200,000 people—mostly Germans, mostly young, but we also heard languages from all over the world—including English.  It was said that many Americans living in other parts of Germany came to Berlin to hear him.  It was also said that many people from the eastern European countries came to Berlin to hear him.  It’s notable that Obama spoke in English and that most Germans could understand him.  That’s a feature of this country—how well they all speak English.

Mostly young people, but also many old ones, many children and babies.  They were selling beer and bratwurst and people came to juggle and sing and enjoy.  I felt like I should be carrying a sign that said “Make Love Not War.”  But when Obama spoke, everyone listened.  They clapped often and not only when he brought up the spirit of Berliners.  The German radio later reported that his speech was a great success.

I was especially happy to be there with my daughters and wondered if they’d remember this day the way I remember the peace marches my mother took me to when I was a kid. Of course, it all depends on what happens.  If Obama wins and fulfills even half the promise we expect—if he wins and ends this dark time in American politics, if he wins and does something, anything about the environment or the war, if one can come to Berlin, as we often do, and stop being embarrassed to be living in a country run by buffoons, if, in fact, they’ll be able to look back and say that they were in Berlin at the Siegesaule and that they had a good feeling, some kind of sense that things might, finally, change for the better.

We walked back through the Tiergarten with hundreds of others, through this typically German park which is part wild forest and part manicured gardens and retrieved our bikes, and rode home.

Our phone rang off the hook from Berlin friends who’d either been there too, or watched him on television.  It’s a town obsessed with politics—even and especially American politics.  Everyone wanted to know what we thought and we spent the night going over his speech, the reactions (people here were watching CNN and German news at the same time).  I liked his speech, and so did most of our friends.  It’s a bit too much like a preacher, especially for the low-key Germans, but they accepted that too.  They admire and even envy the emotion that this American candidate can project.   There’s a certain kind of theater that no German politician could ever create, and Obama creates that. I know he always manages to move me.  And it was doubly moving to see it along with so many other people, to confirm that his voice has stretched across the ocean and moved so many Europeans.  This guy certainly has something and that I think that something is desperately needed in the White House.

Photo found on Flickr, that global village of photography

I may be hours from Brooklyn but I’m still on top of the Brooklyn news. This story arrived in my in-box and I had to post. Luckily, the hotel where I am staying has an Internet connection (for a fee). OSFO is taking a break from the pool so I had a few minutes to blog this.

Seems that Yveltte Clarke has announced that she plans to use her superdelegate vote for Hillary Clinton at the convention despite the face that Barack Obama was a big winner in her district.

A Prospect Lefferts Garden blog had a post that I thought might be of
interest to other Brooklyn residents. The congressional representative for
the 11th district (which includes Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush,
Flatbush, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Kensington), Yvette Clarke, is
planning to use her superdelegate vote to back Hillary Clinton at the
convention – despite the fact that Barack Obama won the 11th district by a
higher margin of votes than Clarke herself received when she was elected.
Personal preference aside, it’s irksome to see a superdelegate planning a
vote against the direct will of her constituents.

http://www.hawthornestreet.com/2008/02/yvette-clarke-n.html

The New York Times reports the delegate count as of 6:51 a.m.

Clinton: 845

Obama: 765

2,025 needed

McCain: 613

Rommney: 269

Huckabee: 190

1,191 needed

As reported by WNYC radio, Barack Obama is the winner of the Iowa caucuses. John Edwards is in second place followed by Hillary Clinton.

Huckabee is the Republican winner. Mitt Rommney is the big loser of the night.

For those of us addicted to WNYC radio, we’ve been hearing a lot from Park Slope’s Andrea Bernstein, Political Director at WNYC, and one of the many public radio reporters covering the presidential campaign. This week, she was in Iowa reporting ont he caucuses.

Andrea Bernstein at Clinton headquarters had this to say about Clinton’s third place finish and Obama’s triumph. “A very tense night for Hillary. It looked likes Obama has been winning for the last few days…The Clinton campaign wanted an easy campaign. This is a real struggle for her. She has not been in a contested primary before. This is a new one for her. It will be interesting to watch how she handles herself in the days leading up to New Hampshire and Super Tuesday.”

From Bernstein, one can expect a very knowledgable, thorough, well-researched, well-observed approach to political journalism; she is one shrewd reporter. Bernstein is in charge of political and campaign coverage at WNYC. Since joining WNYC in 1998 Bernstein has covered national, local, and state politics.

Bernsteins’s on-air reporting just gets better and better. She has won numerous awards, including the 2003 Investigative Reporters and Editors prize for radio, the 2003 Heyward Broun Award, the 2003 Society for Professional Journalists award, for her series, with Amy Eddings, on New York’s “Handshake Hotels” for the Homeless.

In 2006-2007 Bernstein was one of 12 top U.S. journalists to win a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University. Now that she’s back on the east coast, she will be covering the presidential campaign for WNYC.

I love this AP pix by Diane Bondareff, that is on The City Room today. Read more at The Caucus.