Jeff Aubry

Council member Melinda Katz, a candidate for city comptroller, is having a June 19 fund-raiser that will showcase strong support from black and Latino lawmakers.

The elected officials on the host committee for the event include Yvette Clarke, Jeff Aubry, Jose Peralta, Maria del Carmen Arroyo, Maria Baez, Helen Foster and Melissa Mark Viverito.

One of her strongest opponents is Adolfo Carrion, the only Latino in the race.

It’s worth noting that Arroyo, Baez and Foster are also, like Carrion, from the Bronx.

The invitation also includes a number of big real estate people who sit on Katz’s finance committee: Douglas Durst, Peter Kalikow and Richard Ravitch. Katz recently said that her connections to the real estate industry are an asset to her.

Will Governor David Paterson be able enact the agenda of State Senator David Paterson?

I asked Assemblyman Jeff Aubry of Queens if he thought, for example, that Paterson would act to reform the Rockefeller drug sentencing laws, which Aubry tried to do, unsuccessfully, under Spitzer. (As Senate Minority Leader, Paterson had tried to raise the profile of the issue.)

"It's too early to comprehend with certainty what the next administration will do," Aubry told me on the floor of the Assembly chambers.  read more »