Here's the announcement:

Washington, DC - Organizing for America (OFA), a project of the  Democratic National Committee committed to building on and strengthening the historic grassroots network created during the Obama campaign and helping advance the President's agenda, today announced the following staff hires: Melissa DeRosa, New York State Director; Moira Kelley, Regional Field Director; and Geoff Berman, Regional Field Director.

-

President Obama announced OFA in January and the group has continually been active around important legislative initiatives. OFA first organized thousands of meetings in support of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Later the group organized a nationwide pledge drive and encouraged Americans to call their Members of Congress to encourage support for President Obama's budget priorities. Volunteers and supporters are continuing to have conversations and educate their neighbors and members of their community about the President's plan to reform Health Care.  In recent weeks, OFA held thousands of Health Care Kick-Off events in New York and in communities across the country.  On Saturday June 27th, OFA participated in a Health Care Day of Service where supporters and volunteers volunteered for a health care cause in their community.

-

OFA in New York recently be based out of Albany and recently opened a New York City office. OFA’s operation in New York will continue to expand in the coming months.

-

“The work we’re doing at Organizing for America is unprecedented. I’m grateful to be working with such a group of talented and dedicated staffers and volunteers in this effort to maintain and build upon the historic grassroots network of support that brought us victory in November. OFA has quickly become a way for people in communities across the country to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill and delivering on the President’s promise to change the way Washington works,” said DeRosa, New York State Director for OFA. “With over 45 million Americans without health care coverage it’s clear that the time to act and pass health care reform is now. This week OFA volunteers and supporters will participate in a series of events across the state to demonstrate support of President Obama’s plan to pass health care reform this year.”

-

Information on new staff is below:

-

Melissa DeRosa, New York State Director

Melissa DeRosa is a New York native, having spent time growing up in Rochester, Saratoga Springs and Albany before attending Cornell University, where she received an undergraduate degree in Industrial and Labor Relations and Masters in Public Administration. DeRosa is an experienced New York political operative, having most recently served as Director of Communications and Legislation for Cordo & Co., LLC. During the 2008 election, DeRosa served as Campaign Manager for the Tracey Brooks for Congress Campaign.  Prior to the Brooks Campaign, DeRosa Melissa served as Deputy Press Secretary to Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Communications Director for “People for Carl Andrews” and Deputy Press Secretary for the successful NY State Transportation Bond Act Campaign “Vote Yes” in 2005.  Melissa has also worked for Bolton-St. Johns, providing communications and political consulting services to clients, and has interned for HILLPAC and the New York State AFL-CIO.  In addition, DeRosa serves on the Executive Board of the Women’s Leadership Forum Network of the Democratic National Committee.

-

Moira Kelley, Regional Field Director

Moira L. Kelley is a Regional Field Director for Organizing for America.  Prior to her hire there, Kelley worked as the Site / Event Coordinator for Union Station with the Presidential Inaugural Committee.  During the 2008 general election, she served as a Field Organizer for the Obama for America campaign in the Hudson Valley and Westchester, NY.  In previous years, she has also worked in new business at Bates Worldwide Advertising and as the Manager for Affiliate Sales at the YES Network. Kelley is graduate of Trinity College. She has lived in New York City for the last 9 years, and she currently resides in Brooklyn.

-

Geoff Berman, Regional Field Director

Geoff Berman is a Regional Field Director for Organizing for America.  During the 2008 general election, Berman served as a Field Organizer for the Obama for America campaign in Missouri, and prior to that, did work for the campaign in New York and Pennsylvania. Before the campaign, Berman worked to reform the New York public school system primarily through his job as an attorney at the law firm of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, where his legal work focused on pro bono advocacy for alternative public high schools.  Berman also served as Artistic Director of the Atlantic Theater Company's acting school for five years. Berman is a graduate of UCLA, where he earned an undergraduate degree in History and Politics, and the University of Virginia Law School, where he earned Master's and Juris Doctor degrees.

Andrews previously served in the State Senate. His decision to hang out his shingle comes as lobbying firms reshuffle their cards in preparation for the possible shift to Democratic control of the Senate. Paterson noted that he was the Democratic whip, and "in addition to representing neighborhoods in Brooklyn as a State Senator, he worked in several layers of government, including the New York State Department of State and the New York State Attorney General's Office."

Andrews' resignation takes effect tomorrow.

Maloney, who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 2006, didn’t come to Albany with a history of relationships with lawmakers or expertise in particular policies. But as a corporate lawyer who worked in the second Clinton White House, he knew something about politics.

Before a prostitution scandal brought down Spitzer, Maloney had been charged with cleaning up what, at the time, had been the biggest scandal to rock the administration: Troopergate. Maloney’s role as one of the people advising the former director of communications, Darren Dopp, not to cooperate with the attorney general's investigation, drew some criticism.

After Spitzer’s departure, Maloney helped transition Paterson from the lieutenant governor’s office to the governor’s office.

Also leaving Paterson’s office is Carl Andrews, who had been a longtime friend of Spitzer and handled intergovernmental affairs. Andrews, who was at Paterson’s press conference in Manhattan yesterday, said he will be opening up his own consulting firm.

These vacancies (and others?)will open up room on the second floor that Paterson could fill with people he's more familiar with, rather than the people who were already there.

One of the highest ranking African-American in Eliot Spitzer’s administration has a title, nine months after joining the administration.

Carl Andrews is, officially, the “Director of NYC Intergovernmental Office” according to this directory. The space next to Andrews' name had been blank for nearly the entire time since he joined the administration back in January, leading to suspicions that the administration was deliberately creating a low profile for him because of his close work with the corrupt Brooklyn Democratic machine under Clarence Norman.

The television ads denouncing his plan to cut health care spending or the fallout from the conviction of Clarence Norman, whose right hand man, Carl Andrews, works for Spitzer but has no title.

-- Azi Paybarah

Andrews is listed in this directory of gubernatorial employees, under the "Office of Intergovernmental Affairs" section.

But woman who answered the phone in the governor's Manhattan office said the hiring of Andrews hasn't been announced yet. A person who answered Andrews' direct line referred a question about his official title to the press office.

-- Azi Paybarah

Spitzer delivered an early and well-documented repudiation of Hevesi earlier this year to signal clearly his intolerance for the way public officials have conducted themselves in the past.

With Andrews, Spitzer is embracing someone who hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing himself, but who is certainly the product of a party machine that was hardly a model of post-Day 1 propriety.

Spitzer's association with Andrews goes back to the days when Andrews worked closely with Brooklyn Democratic County leader Clarence Norman, who was later convicted on corruption charges. After the Brooklyn organization endorsed Spitzer during the four-way Democratic attorney general primary in 1998, Andrews went to work on Spitzer's campaign as a statewide field coordinator. Spitzer won the primary, defeating incumbent Republican Dennis Vacco, and Andrews went to work in the AG's office.

This year, Spitzer made a rare primary endorsement when Andrews ran for a seat in the 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn.

"It's Mr. Spitzer's prerogative to make personnel announcements," said Darren Dopp, Spitzer's spokesman in the AG's office. Andrews "is expected to fill a role with the administration."

"All members of this administration go through a comprehensive background check," he said, adding, "It's unfair to be damned by association."

-- Azi Paybarah

After the jump.

This mailer from Carl Andrews plays on the issue of class, pitting fancy-pants Manhattan against scrappy Brooklyn. It's an indirect shot at David Yassky who, like others, has received campaign contributions from outside of the district. Andrews has also sent out lit using images of mammograms on the topic of women's health, education, his childhood home in the district, Hurricane Katrina and a letter from his most prominent supporter, Eliot Spitzer.

Here's Yvette Clarke's bid to capitalize on the issue of Iraq. Clarke has sent out mailings advocating money for schools instead of the war in addition to pieces on her endorsements and on President Bush's "assault on a women's right to choose."

David Yassky appears to have used his fundraising advantage to out-mail his opponents, with a flurry of pieces featuring imagery of waving American flags, smoking guns, and victims of violence to highlight national and local issues. Like Clarke, he connects the Iraq War to the state of education at home, while other of his pieces highlight his work on gun control, environmental issues including the Newtown Creek oil spill and junk food in public schools.

This piece of mail from Chris Owens stresses that it will be the only one voters receive from him. After the deluge of glossies residents have already gotten, that may come as something of a relief.

—Nicole Brydson

Hillary Clinton hit the air with a new 30-second ad, talking about the air in lower Manhattan after 9/11, increasing the federal minimum wage, and social security. Note the absence of that other issue which caused such a stir in Connecticut.

Carl McCall endorsed Yvette Clarke for the 11th congressional district in Brooklyn, bucking the trend of institutional players who are backing Carl Andrews.

This morning, Mark Green was only returning calls from New York Times reporters, and his wife.

The state senate is likely to pass a bill to prevent insurance companies from charging "a higher co-pay for mental health visits."

Mary Mapes is not joining her former colleague, Dan Rather, at his new job.

A video of this morning's press conference about the sale of Stuy-Town and Peter Cooper Village is here.

Jonathan Tasini, writing on the Huffington Post, wants MoveOn to sponsor a debate between himself and Hillary Clinton.

And an artistic picture of Andrew Cuomo taken after this morning's press conference.

-- Azi Paybarah

In the newspaper endorsement category, it goes:

New York Times- David Yassky
Brooklyn Papers - David Yassky
Our Time Press - Chris Owens
Amsterdam News - Chris Owens
Caribbean-American Weekly - Chris Owens [added]
New York Carib News - Yvette Clarke
Black Star News - Yvette Clarke
Jewish Press- Carl Andrews

-- Azi Paybarah