Bronx Democratic County Committee Chairman Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz estimates the crowd at the Bronx County Dinner to be close to one thousand people, in what is now being called the largest and strongest show of support for any Bronx County organization.
Every Bronx elected official (minus one or two for one reason or another) were in attendance as this was a dinner of unity. The program went well with the with the combination of honorees and short speeches by elected officials. Bronx County Democratic Leader Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie and his assorted district leaders moved the pace of the evening smoothly and quickly.
Among those in attendance were New York State Governor David Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Conference Leader John Sampson, State Comptroller Tom Di Napoli, City Comptroller John Liu, former City Comptroller Bill Thompson, Public Advocate Bill deBlasio, Council Speaker Quinn, as well as current and former elected officials and county leaders from other boroughs to support the Bronx County organization.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer told me that he will soon be gearing up for what could be a very crowded field of candidates in the 2013 mayors race, as did mayoral candidate (2009) Bill Thompson. Former Queens Councilwoman and Comptroller candidate in 2009 Melinda Katz said that she is working on other campaigns this year, and would not rule out a run for her old council seat or other position in 2013. We would like to see Ms. Katz run for Queens Borough President in 2013, a position that would fit her talents best.
Even with the three state legislative leaders in the house there is still no final state budget, and I asked Governor Paterson what the consequences to local governments could be. The governor said that the state has enough money on hand for day to day operations for only about a month, that the legislature ignored his three budget proposals, and that he would have to call a special session in about a week or two to complete the budget process one way or another.
The exact amount of money that was raised won't be known for a while, but by the crowd of support we saw this was a record breaker.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and City Comptroller John Liu.
Is Governor Paterson trying to win over Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson for his budget plan?
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