Bill de Blasio Calls for Banning 'Member Items'; Albanese Pounces Back On Primary Rival

Seizing on the crippling Republican Party's nominating process, in wake of Tuesday's arrests, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is now calling for the “outright ban of the controversial spending system” beginning with the Fiscal Year 2014 budget cycle. 

“Time after time, the discretionary funding system has led to bribery, political blackmail and a boatload of big legal bills paid for by taxpayers,” said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio on the steps of City Hall. “New York doesn’t need an appropriations process that aids and abets corruption and political gamesmanship in order to invest in our city’s priorities and worthwhile projects. We can do better.” 

Mixed Observations Over Impact of Hurricane Smith on Light Field of Candidates In GOP Primary

In a slightly narrow field of GOP candidates in the Republican primary for mayor, the views of many are split to whether the Smith bribery scheme would have any direct repercussions on one of the mayoral contenders or not.

While an enraged Republican City Council member, Eric Ulrich, seized the opportunity to suggest that Catsimatidis should end his campaign for mayor, citing the candidate’s ties to the Queens GOP and the fact that he didn’t suspend Tabone earlier when he first became aware of the investigation,Mr. Catsimatidis piled the dirt back onto Joe Lhota's wagon. 

Catsimatidis Hires Dem PR Firm To Early-Court Dem Voters

Touting his electability argument to Republicans, Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis is already looking beyond the Republican primary in courting Democratic voters for the general. According to Politicker, John Catsimatidis has hired a PR firm called Millennial Strategies LLC, which specializes in Democratic candidates. Mr. Catsimatidis is the only Republican client they've hired.

Brad Gerstman, a partner at the firm, told Colin Campbell that given New York City’s Democratic tilt, the move makes plenty of sense for the GOP Gracie Mansion hopeful. “We expect to get through as a winner of the primary,” Mr. Gerstman said. “He needs to endear himself to Democratic voters and I think it’s natural for John.” 

Eric Ulrich Calls On Catsimatidis To Drop Out of Mayoral Race

An enraged Eric Ulrich, an outspoken critic of the Queens County GOP leadership, seized on the allegations to step up his attacks on Tabone, the borough’s party committee vice chair, as well as Queens GOP chair Phil Ragusa and John Catsimatidis, according to City and State NY. 

“As far as Tabone and the county is concerned, this confirms what I’ve known all along: These are some of the most corrupt political hacks in all of New York City,” Ulrich said. “They have no place in politics, and as an elected official I have an obligation, a sworn duty, to root out corruption anywhere it rears its ugly head, in government, in a city agency and even in a political party, especially when it happens to be my own party.” 

City GOP Chairmen Come Clean on Disturbing Nomination Process

In conversations with the Daily News, three of the Republican City Party Chairs - Phil Ragusa of Queens, Craig Eaton of Brooklyn and former Staten Island chief Robert Scamardella - said they knew nothing of the investigation and were never contacted by the feds, but they had nothing to comment about Halloran role in the process.

Ragusa told Celeste Katz he first heard about the arrests on the radio this morning and "almost jumped out of bed." "Every time I spoke to Malcolm, anybody, even Carrion, I always made it clear to them that I was in John Catsimatidis' corner (and) I wouldn't be backing anybody else. I was the first one to back John -- Queens County was -- and that's where I stood," Ragusa said.

Catsimatidis Believes Smith/GOP Bribery Scheme "Helps' His Mayoral Campaign.

Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis immediately removed his campaign aide Vince Tabone, a top political operative in the Queens County Republican Committee who was arrested this morning, from his campaign payroll.

"The arrests this morning point to a culture of corruption that permeates the politics of our city and state. Corruption that is fueled by career politicians who put personal advancement before public service," said a statement from the billionaire candidate's campaign. 

Democratic Senator and GOP Power Brokers Caught In Mayoral Bribe Twist

As Bizarre as the NYc 2013 race for mayor would get, the 'Wilson Pakula Gate' that involved Democratic senator Malcolm Smith, Queen Republican council member Dan Halloran and other GOP officials are the hype of the political process doomed to failure.

State Sen. Malcolm Smith and City Councilman Dan Halloran were both arrested by federal officials Tuesday morning after they were indicted on corruption and conspiracy charges to pave the way for Smith to run in the Republican primary, or as a sole candidate, for mayor. Four other officials, including the Republican Party chairman in the Bronx Jay Savino, were also charged with bribery.

NYC Reporters Sharing the Burden On Paid Sick Leave Deal With Bill de Blasio

A lot has been said about Christine Quinn's dominating the political discourse now that she has compromised and taken a lead on passing the sick pay leave bill, especially after Mike Bloomberg vowed to veto it. 

There is also no doubt that no one lost more from this deal than it's main advocate: Bill de Blasio. As Chris Bragg writes: "Now, he has to make a very complicated argument to voters—that the deal didn't go far enough—even as both advocates and opponents have largely been co-opted into supporting the final agreement. Who in the media is going to pay attention to his attacks against Ms. Quinn on the issue now? And what other clear points of policy difference are there between Mr. de Blasio and Ms. Quinn that could animate the progressive base Mr. de Blasio is counting on? And with 32BJ likely going into Ms. Quinn's camp, his chances of landing the key Working Families Party endorsement are looking slimmer."

McDonald and Thompson Among The Losers of the Week

Two of the mayoral candidates managed to get into City and Stae NY's list of losers of the week.

George McDonald - for failing to match ground with his two rivals in the Republican primary. And Bill Thompson - for siding with Kelly on the Inspector General issue, which didnt play out too well and appealing to his Democratic party base of voters, and for violating the City's campaign finance board's campaign contribution laws. 

Quinn Deflates de Blasio's Campaign Theme With Paid Sick Deal

“It protects people, protects small businesses and I’m incredibly proud with this final piece of legislation,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn as she stood with her fellow lawmakers on the steps of City Hall to officially announce the 'Paid Sick Leave' agreement, which was reached Thursday night. 

Under the bill proposed, businesses with 20 or more employees would be required to provide five paid sick days to their workers beginning April 1, 2014 and to businesses with 15 or more employees by October 1, 2015. Quinn called it a “good, strong, and sensible piece of legislation that recognizes the needs of everyday New Yorkers and the realities that our struggling small businesses face.”