Bill Perkins

Charles Barron said he'll be "glad" to see Hillary Clinton vacate her seat for a job with Barack Obama, so she can push "his" foreign policy. (It's close, but not official yet).  read more »

ALBANY—Emerging from a closed-door session, Senate Democrats affirmed that Malcolm Smith will remain their leader as they assume the chamber's majority in January.

Twenty-seven members showed up today for the session, and unanimously supported a resolution to "reaffirm their confidence in my leadership," Smith said.  read more »

ALBANY—I just talked to State Senator Bill Perkins about the reports that Democratic leader Malcolm Smith might be the target of a coup soon after Election Day.  read more »

It's been something of an eminent domain-filled day so far, with three events focusing on the state and city's ability to acquire private land, particularly for economic development: First a hearing, then a press conference, and a scheduled court appearance.

Why all the fuss?

A number of the larger private development projects in the city--the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, Columbia University's planned West Harlem expansion and the proposed redevelopment of Willets Point in Queens, to name a few--plan to use eminent domain to take property and create large, contiguous space for new development. Naturally many of the affected property owners are resistant, and some lawmakers have taken an interest in the issue, calling for more restrictions on the tool's use.  read more »

DENVER--During the speeches leading up to Hillary Clinton’s primetime address to the Democratic Convention last night, the New York delegation seemed distracted.

"We don't need McCain here -- put them down!," Maria Luna, a Clinton delegate from Manhattan, screamed at her delegation, which was waving "McCain More of the Same" signs above their heads. She jumped out of her aisle seat and onto the steps. "Down," she screamed. "Down!"

"Maria. Calma," said State Senator Bill Perkins, who sat in the second row. “Calma.” Then he saw a friend trying to pass through the convention’s clogged main corridor just below the delegation. "Guillermo, Guillermo, como vas?" Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was telling his life story on the stage.  read more »

Here’s State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem praising David Paterson’s speech yesterday.

At the end, I asked Perkins, an early Obama supporter, if he’s bragging to any of his colleagues who backed Clinton in the primary.

He said no.

(He was later spotted on the convention floor, pointedly chanting for "unity" during Clinton's appearance as the rest of the New York delegation made noise for their home-state senator.)

Here’s Bill Perkins, who represents the Harlem district David Paterson represented before becoming lieutenant governor.

Towards the end of our two-minute chat about what he hopes to hear in Paterson's economic speech later today, Perkins makes the case for raising taxes on those who “benefited from what I consider to be an unfair tax structure.” He goes on to say, “I don’t think we should be, in that respect, looking at those who have wealth as sacred cows.”

Marty Connor was endorsed by a number of his Democratic colleagues in the State Senate at a press conference on the City Hall steps just now.

While Connor racked up a good number of endorsements, his opponent, Dan Squadron, has the support of one very notable elected official: Chuck Schumer.

I asked two of these State Senators how they felt about Schumer’s involvement in the campaign.

Jeff Klein of the Bronx said, “Well, with all due respect to Senator Schumer, he represents us in the United States Senate. I think it’s clear that the senators that matter endorse Marty Connor.”

Bill Perkins chimed in, “Chuck has a history of endorsing those that work for him.  read more »

State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem, an early, vocal Obama backer, told me yesterday that Clinton's exit speech was a "giant step" toward winning back the affections of the Obama supporters who were offended by her pre-concession tactics, but that it should be seen as a "beginning.”

”Less visible and less dramatic efforts need to be part of it," said Perkins.  read more »

David Paterson spoke with Barack Obama around 2 p.m., he told reporters in Midtown during the New York State Democratic Party’s meeting.

“He asked me how the first two and a half months were going," Paterson said. "And I told him it might have even been more difficult than your campaign.”  read more »

Here's a brief moment of disunity at a unity rally in support of Barack Obama on the steps of City Hall this afternoon.

Representative Ed Towns was answering a question about the fact that Christine Quinn and other City Council members weren't there, and then, well, State Senator Bill Perkins and Representative Yvette Clarke kind of got in each other's way.

New York State Senator and Obama supporter Bill Perkins, who is partial to sports metaphors, likened Barack Obama's remarks distancing himself from Reverend Jeremiah Wright today to a marathon runner overcoming a bad cramp.

"Do you want that cramp? No." said Perkins, "Are you ready to deal with the cramp? Yes."  

Obama, he said, was not the only candidate in the race suffering from sudden and painful spasms.  read more »

From earlier today, and worth mentioning if only for the unusual starkness of rhetoric:

State Senate Democrats are hoping stop private insurance companies from increasing the cost of health care for thousands of New Yorkers, arguing that a change in New York's three-tier system of calculating costs -- allowing insurance companies to apply for a Tier 4 reimbursement level -- would raise the price of prescription drugs for patients.  read more »

Inez Barron, wife of outspoken City Councilman Charles Barron, just kicked off her campaign for State Assembly, and, while vowing to be an independent voice for change, hasn’t ruled out seeking the support of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

“No I have not been in touch with Shelly Silver -- our campaign is a grassroots campaign,” she said.

When asked if that meant not seeking Silver’s support, Inez replied, “I didn’t say that.” So, would she? “I might.”  read more »

How many black elected officials from Brooklyn were at the rally for Barack Obama on the City Hall steps this afternoon?

Enough that State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem muttered to himself at the podium, “Oh man, we’re going to have to mix this up a bit.” He then introduced state Senator Eric Adams--who's from Brooklyn.  read more »

New York State Senator Bill Perkins, one of Barack Obama's most prominent supporters in New York, says that the Clinton campaign is to blame for injecting the issue of race into the contest for the Democratic nomination.

When asked about the recent remark from Clinton supporter and Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson that Hillary was working hard for black Americans while "Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood" Perkins responded "It's outrageous."

"People keep making these insinuations and then keep dismissing them as mistakes or misunderstandings," Perkins said. "The reality is everyone gets it. So we have a string of apologies that are starting to sound hypocritical and hollow. Obviously the intention is to fight below the belt. And I think the backlash will be obviously for people to recognize what is going on."

Perkins thinks it's concerted, and suggested that Bill Clinton was complicit in pushing that message.  read more »

State Senator Bill Perkins is picking up the issue on whether the City Council is delaying a public hearing on a local bill because it voices support for legislation authored by Hillary Clinton’s rival, Barack Obama.

Perkins, an Obama supporter, wrote a letter to Quinn saying:

“I am pleased that the City Council had planned to take up this issue, although I am concerned by the recent delaying of this hearing. Deceptive practices in elections have affected thousands of voters and if the perpetrators of these crimes continue to go without punishment, their actions will have a lasting impact on one of the most basic rights in the country.”

The Council has said the hearing was delayed because the federal legislation is still in development. But who can miss a chance at a Hillary vs. Barack story?

Perkins letter is here and here. A letter from the Council explaining the delay is here.

Bill Perkins, one of the few New York Democrats to have endorsed Barack Obama for president, just sent out an email saying that Michelle Obama will be in Harlem for a "Women for Obama" event at Our Children's Foundation on Tuesday.

Perkins writes, "There are many strong Democrats running for President. But none will make our party, and our nation prouder than Barack Obama's victory and service as President of the United States. Barack Obama speaks to our hopes and dreams and he was right from the start in opposing the War in Iraq."

 

 

Over the weekend, I asked freshman state Senator Bill Perkins if he expected there to be any kind of payback for his decision to endorse Barack Obama over hometown favorite Hillary Clinton.

"I have no fear," he told me.

We spoke within earshot of Saturday's Obamathon, so the audio is a little less than ideal.

A transcript of the short interview is below.  read more »

Bill Perkins, the only Democratic state Senator I know of to have endorsed someone other than Hillary Clinton for President, sent out the following statement today she chatted with the Democratic conference:  read more »

A knowledgeable source tells me Hillary Clinton met yesterday with the only Democratic Congress member from New York who hasn’t endorsed her yet: Yvette Clarke.

The two had a “heart to heart,” according to my source. The meeting comes shortly after Clinton’s closet Democratic challenger, Barack Obama, picked up the endorsement of state Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem, and as other local elected officials are thinking of endorsing him also.

Clarke’s reason for holding out on Clinton, as far as anyone knows, are more parochial than ideological. In an interview a few weeks ago with NBC, Clarke confirmed that part of the reason she didn’t want to endorse Clinton was because Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson worked against Clarke in her four-way Democratic primary for Congress.

I'm waiting for calls back from the offices of Clarke and Clinton.

Senator Bill Perkins may be endorsing a different presidential candidate than New York Congressional dean Charlie Rangel, but they can still celebrate together.

Rangel, a Clinton supporter, is billed as a “special guest” at a birthday event on Sunday for Perkins, who is backing Barack Obama.

“It’s a birthday celebration,” Rangel spokesman Emile Milne told me. “His birthday didn’t change.”

Others expected to attend include Lt. Governor David Paterson, Senate Democratic leader Malcolm Smith and Assemblyman Herman “Denny” Farrell.

The party is from 4 - 6 p.m. at Carne.

State Senator Bill Perkins of Harlem -- who considers Michael Bloomberg to be the worst mayor he's ever seen -- sort of likes the idea of congestion pricing, he told me yesterday. "There is no question in my mind that you can do what he wants to do without it being a tax on the middle class and the poor," he said. -- Azi Paybarah

 read more »

Some members of the City Council were predictably outraged to learn this week—on the front pag  read more »

Tomorrow, Al Sharpton will endorse Bill Perkins for state senate at Emanuel AME Church, then head over to the Black Brooklyn Empowerment Convention at the Concord Baptist Church of Christ.

New York State AFL-CIO, Carolyn Maloney, Vito Fossella and injured workers will rally for a comprehensive response to 9/11 health effects at the World Trade Center site.

Tom Suozzi attends the Taste of Niagara Festival in Lockport.

Happy Father's Day!

—Nicole Brydson

In keeping with the minor obsession in our office over the distribution of organization support in the Harlem state senate race, here's the latest announcement from the Bill Perkins campaign:

Adding to the growing grassroots strength of the campaign across the District, ACORN PAC (A-PAC) and Three Parks Independent Democratic Club overwhelmingly voted to endorse former Councilmember Bill Perkins for State Senator to fill the seat being vacated by David Paterson.

The race to replace David Paterson in Harlem's historically significant state senate seat is shaping up as a contest of money versus organization - for now.

While C. Virginia fields managed to raise about $100,000 at a single fundraiser last week, Bill Perkins is continuing to pick up potentially valuable organizational endorsements.

The Perkins camp can now point to the Broadway Democratic Club's vote of 34 - 12 in his favor earlier this month, the Park River Independent Democratic Club's lopsided vote of 46 - 6 last Thursday, and an endorsement, announced today, from Democracy for New York City - the political action committee spawned by Howard Dean's presidential campaign.

Perkins has also won the backing of 1199 SEIU and UAW Region 9A, and as Ben pointed out earlier, he has a proven ability to turn out voters in the district on Election Day.

It's worth noting that the clubs that have endorsed Perkins so far are in the southern portion of the district, based in the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights and that, as a Fields advisor cautioned me, the endorsements from a handful of Harlem-based clubs are yet to come.

Anyone have any idea how those endorsements will go? Or how much any of them matter?

From the people bringing you the C. Virginia Fields Comeback Campaign for State Senate, the following:

She raised around $100,000 yesterday at an event at the Yale Club, a sum that her handlers say will make her the money leader in the race to replace David Paterson.

Bill Perkins, the former councilman who is also running for the seat, has some significant organizational support of his own, including backing from Local 1199 as well as three current council members who represent part of the senate district.

The outcome of the contest featuring two well-known Harlem officials -- Fields, who left her borough presidency because of term limits, and Perkins, who left his council seat because of term limits -- will hardly produce a tectonic shift in the balance of power in Albany.

But the race is worth watching as part of the larger narrative of Harlem politics, where a younger generation has fought with mixed success to win power and influence from the generation of political lions like Carl McCall and Basil Paterson, both of whom occupied the seat now being contested.

When David Paterson won election to his father's old seat in 1985 at the age of 31, much was made of the notion that he was part of a new crop of emerging black leaders from a post-civil rights generation.

If history were linear, the seat he is abandoning to run for lieutenant governor might have fallen to Rodney Capel, the eminently likeable son of Charlie Rangel's chief of staff.

Capel toyed with the idea of running for it before withdrawing his name in March, citing "the large influence of money and challenges that face new leadership."

Sometimes, things just go in circles.

As names start to float up in the contest to replace David Paterson in the State Senate -- Bill Perkins and Keith Wright first among them -- here's another: Rodney Capel.

The Politicker is told that the executive director of the State Democratic Party, Rodney Capel -- also the son of Charlie Rangel's chief of staff -- is bein encouraged to run.  read more »

Reached yesterday, Capel said he was too caught up in Eliot's Lieutenant Governor choice to think about his own plans.

The Politicker is prone to rough Mondays; none of us made it to the term limits forum last night.

But thanks to a Politicker reader and comments section maven, we've got a little something to spark discussion. Please not that this is his take, not to be confused with The Politicker's take, which doesn't exist, particularly because...we weren't there.

"Last night at the LGBT Center, the Stonewall Democrats, VID and several other clubs hosted a forum on term limits.

"Unfortunately, the term-limited-about-to-be-unemployed (and absolutely against term limits) councilmember Bill Perkins was absent because he forgot it was was his anniversary. Gale Brewer presented her belief that term limits should be expanded to 12 years due to an Epiphany she had when a small non-profit she cares about to hired a lobbyist partially because of the turnover created by term limits. None of the other panelists, Dick Dadey of Citizens Union, Harry Kresky of the Independence Party and Deborah Goldberg of the Brennen Center seemed to buy that argument.

"The full audience at the Center featured a disproportionate number of Independence Party members, who argued that term limits should be part of a broader initiative including non-partisan elections. The Indies undermined the argument that most people in the audience actually agreed with (by informal poll of the moderator NY1's Davidson Golden), which is that whatever your position on term limits, the Council shouldn't override the will of the people, which passed term limits by ballot initiative."

--EnWhySeaWonk  read more »

UPDATE: Azi also attended the forum, and offers his take at The Fifth Estate.

Nothing beats your turkey hangover like...a lively forum.

Next Monday, Nov. 28th, Gale Brewer, Bill Perkins, and other voices in the term-limits debate (see below) will tackle your questions, and each other, from 7-8:30 p.m. at the LGBT Community Services Center on 208 W. 13th Street.

Seriously, this panel should be excellent, and The Politicker hopes to be there barring deadline purgatory.

Here's the list of panelists: Councilmember Gale Brewer, sponsor of legislation to extend term-limits Councilmember Bill Perkins, critic of term limits Dick Dadey, Executive Director of Citizens Union Harry Kresky, Esq. Counsel to the NYS Independence Party Deborah Goldberg, Esq., Brennan Center for Justice  read more »

Moderator: Davidson Golden, NY1, Inside City Hall

City Council member Bill Perkins has taken the 2 Columbus Circle fray to the legislative chamber by introducing a bill that would require the Landmarks Preservation Commission to hold public hearings on alterations to any building the City Council thinks it should hold hearings about. All the council needs to do is get a majority to vote for having the hearings.

Preservationists and activists have been trying to compel the L.P.C. to hold a hearing on the Edward Durrell Stone-designed building for years. To no avail, though; the L.P.C. is standing by its 1996 decision that the building doesn't have enough historical or architectural import for consideration.  read more »

Mr. Perkin's legislation also requires the L.P.C. to hold a hearing to determine whether any building under landmarks consideration should be listed on the state Register of Historic Places.

- Matthew Grace

The Campaign Finance Board has announced initial matching funds in the race for Manhattan Borough President, and they are as follows: Scott Stringer $666,849 Eva Moskowitz $592,637 Brian Ellner $563,122 Carlos Manzano $484,580 Adriano Espaillat $399,214 Bill Perkins $357,270 Stan Michels $234,832 Keith Wright $139,431 Margarita Lopez Funds Witheld So...what's up in Margaritaville?  read more »

The same day that the Times does a story on how confusingly crowded state of the Manhattan borough president race, someone from the Brian Ellner campaign writes to say that all three candidates at last night's DFNYC debate between Ellner, Scott Stringer and Bill Perkins pledged not to challenge the petitions of any other candidates. I'll take his word for it that this stands to have some effect on the dynamics of a race with nearly a dozen contenders, if only by making it less likely that the field will thin out. As to which candidates actually benefit, I couldn't begin to do the calculations without getting a bad headache. Comments, anyone? P.S. On this, my final day sitting in on the Politicker, I have a pledge of my own: This is the last time I'm going to write the words "Brian Ellner" on this blog.  read more »

While the debate rages below over whether Democracy for NYC, the Dean group, is going to endorse Anthony Weiner or not, we hear the group is headed into a run-off on the Manhattan Borough President's race. The candidates are Scott Stringer, Brian Ellner, and Bill Perkins, he of the great Dean-Gore-Perkins photograph.  read more »

For a city with a past as brilliant and a future as promising as New York's, it's troubling that the  read more »

When John Ravitz cut his hair short and took over the city's Board of Elections last year, the forme  read more »

Barring a reversal of the world order, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller woke up on the morning of  read more »

C. Virginia Fields Modifies Stance OnSt. John the Divine Landmarking  read more »

Gifford Miller is 32 years old and looks a good deal younger.  read more »