Congressman Charles Rangel’s birthday bash at Tavern on the Green in Manhattan on Aug. 11 features an interesting assortment of headliner guests: Gov. David Paterson and Richard Ravitch, a former transit authority chairman and Paterson’s pick for lieutenant governor. Other featured guests include New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his Democratic opponent and New York [...]

State Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, a challenger for the 19th District Congressional seat, has proclaimed that the $182,149 he raised between Feb. 1 and June 30 shows broad support.

But the figures vaunted by Ball don’t take into account the time it took him to raise the money compared with U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, [...]

More than 160,000 New Yorkers have lost manufacturing jobs since 2001.

Tomorrow U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, will release a report detailing those job losses by region and explaining how she plans to create new well paid jobs.

Stay tuned …

The failure of the state Senate to reconvene could have particularly negative consequences for Putnam, Deputy County Executive John Tully said today.

While 36 counties and the City of New York await the extension of their current sales tax rates, Putnam is one of the few that must put together its 2010 budget by September.

Most others [...]

The New York State County Executives Association plans a telephone press conference tomorrow to urge state senators “to get back to the people’s work” and deal with “end of session priorities pending before the New York State Legislature.”

Those expected to participate include:

Andrew Spano, Westchester County Executive

Scott Vanderhoef, Rockland County Executive

and

Putnam’s Deputy County Executive John Tully

In the Hudson Valley, the cost of child care is increasing by $781 a year, according to a statewide report released today by U.S Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY.

The average Hudson Valley family spends about $13,341 a year for an infant in child care, $11,261 for a toddler and $11,254 for a school-age child, she reported.

Gillibrand’s [...]

As President Obama met at the White House today with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-bak, Peekskill Democratic Committee Chairman Darren Rigger was just returning from a 10-day exchange visit to the Republic of Korea sponsored by the State Department.

Rigger was one of six young (under 40) political and policy leaders from across the U. [...]

Most of Westchester’s legislators want voters in the county to continue to use mechanical lever voting machines because, as they wrote in a letter to Gov. David Paterson, they are “reliable, user-friendly and cost-effective.”

While preferable to touch screens, optical scan voting have malfunctioned in many counties throughout the U.S. including in Florida, West Virginia, Michigan [...]

Two out of every five military absentee ballots in New York State are not counted, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, said today.

It takes up to 82 days for troops stationed overseas to go through the process of voting absentee in New York State – the ballot spends three days with the voter, 72 days in [...]

Now an officially announced challenger for New York’s District 19 seat in Congress, state Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, has unveiled a new website titled Ball for Congress.

The new site is a first step in clearing up the fundraising muddle Ball had when using the same site to raise money for his Assembly campaign and his [...]