Bloomberg to Wal-Mart: Come hither

Following his opening statements at this year's ICSC conference, Mayor Mike Bloomberg told reporters in a separate press conference that the city should relax its hardliner stance on keeping big-boxer Wal-Mart out of all five boroughs.

"If they (Wal-Mart) want to come, we should not say 'no' to anybody," said Mayor Mike inside the Mercury Rotunda at The Hilton New York earlier today.

"There is enormous demand for Wal-Mart and their products, and the way they merchandise them and the price point they have," he added.

Wal-Mart has long been persona non grata in New York City, largely to a dedicated effort by some members in the City Council who fear the giant retailer will gobble up union jobs and mom-and-pops in the amount of time it takes to refill a Wal-Mart pharmacy prescription.

Related Companies has reportedly kept a 650,000 square foot space warm for Wal-Mart at the developer's Gateway II development in East New York.

State Senator José Peralta (D-Queens) and city Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-Queens) were among the local politicians who are staunchly opposed to Wal-Mart using the space.

But not Mayor Bloomberg.

"The city should never be in a business of telling companies that we don't want them," he said.

"We want anybody that obeys the laws and creates jobs in our city."

drosen@observer.com

After rattling of a list of Cuomo's goals, Dicker said, "The governor is also committed to same-sex marriage, but there is little I think he can do about that, as long as the Senate just doesn't have the votes to pass the measure."

Cuomo is reportedly looking for a vote on legalizing same-sex marriage by June. It's passed the Assembly by wide margins, twice. It was defeated in the State Senate two years ago, but since then, a number of people who opposed it have left, or signaled a possible shift.

Some of the changes that have taken place in that chamber, since the last vote, include:

George Onorato, a Democrat who retired and was replaced with Michael Gianaris, a progressive Democrat who voted for it in the Assembly. Hiram Monserrate, a Democrat who was expelled and replaced with Jose Peralta, a Democrat who voted for it in the Assembly. Pedro Espada, a Democrat who was replaced by Gustavo Rivera, a progressive Democrat [Correction: Espada voted for the bill]. Joseph Addabo, conservative Democrats who voted no, now says he's reconsidering the issue.

New hires:

Shams Tarek, spokesman. He most recently worked for the NYS Senate Democrats (and, full disclosure, is a former reporter who I worked with at the Queens Tribune).

Robin Golston, political director. She has worked for former Senator Clinton and current Senators Gillibrand and Schumer.

Kristie Stiles, Celeste Wolter, Michael Giacco will be fund-raisers. Rice said they raised money for Governors Paterson and Spitzer, as well as nationally for Democrats.

Adam Alonso, another fund-raiser. In the past he raised money for Melinda Katz and Jose Peralta, so if you have money and live in Queens, expect a phone call from him.

Also on the finance team is Rafi Jafri, who claims a rare experience among Democrats: work as Jon Corzine's finance director (Corzine, of course, used to pay for his own campaigns).

Can Monserrate win Peralta's seat?

A breakdown from yesterday's election seems to suggest not. The Senate district that resoundingly rejected Monserrate yesterday is made up of primarily three Assembly districts. Monserrate trailed by far in each of them, including Peralta's.

Here's the breakdown, courtesy of Peralta's campaign:

34 A.D.: The heart of Jackson Heights, represented by Assemblyman Michael DekDekker
Peralta: 70 percent
Monserrate: 21 percent
Beltrani:9 percent

35 A.D.: Represented by Assemblyman Jeff Aubry
Peralta: 60 percent
Monserrate: 36 percent
Beltrani: 5 percent

39 A.D.: Represented by Assemblyman Jose Peralta
Peralta: 66 percent
Monserrate: 27percent
Beltrani: 7 percent

Also worth noting: The City Council district Monserrate represented for nearly eight years is split between the 35 and 39 Assembly districts. So, if he ran for Peralta's seat, only half of those constituents who may remember him from his old Council days are there to help him out.

Also, the Lefrak building, a place where Monserrate had campaigned strongly in when he nearly ousted John Sabini in a 2006 state senate race, isn't in Peralta's Assembly district, so, one demonstrated source of Monserrate votes won't be available.

Either way, it's been a weird campaign. Let's review:

After declaring himself the torchbearer for Yes We Can, Mr. Monserrate decided to borrow Barack Obama's logo--adding a little flourish on the bottom to make it a Q--for Queens!--so as not to be confused with the president's nearly-identical symbol. (Which didn't quite work.)

In other fliers, Mr. Monserrate's supporters--who have rallied around his opposition to same-sex marriage--called him the "Defender of Our Christian Principles" and branded his opponent, Jose Peralta, the "Gay Caballero."

Mr. Peralta, for his part, sent out a nice glossy mailer with a photo of Mr. Monserrate getting arrested, and included the URL where voters could find a link to a surveillance video of the then-senator dragging his girlfriend through a hallway--footage that Mr. Peralta also used in his campaign ads.

Mr. Monserrate also used his web site to roll out endorsements and supporters from previous campaigns, and, according to this morning's Times, took to his Facebook page to accuse Mr. Peralta of infidelity.

However, we could not seem to find this particular allegation on Facebook--which might be because we are not "friends" with Mr. Monserrate, or perhaps, because we are bad at navigating that site--but, in either case, it would seem to underscore the importance (particularly in Queens?) of producing and distributing one's allegations on real, actual paper.

The polls close at 9.

The flier doesn't say who paid for it, but I asked a spokesperson for Monserrate's campaign opponent, Jose Peralta, if the flier was theirs.

The spokeswoman, Anne Fenton, emailed to say yes, it is.

So there.

"A hundred percent of every dollar you contribute will go directly to taking anti-equality senators out of office," Nixon says. The ad doesn't mention Monserrate directly, but the group has gone after him before, and it's being released days before the election.

"Jose Peralta voted 3 times for the gay marriage bill," the flier says.

This is the third flier for this race I've seen today.

Opposing same-sex marriage is one of Hiram Monserrate's main arguments as to why he should be back in the State Senate after he was expelled.

UPDATE: The P.A.C. targeting Monserrate responds to the "hate fliers" and says he is putting "another foot down into his political grave."

 

Here's the public statement:

"With each hate-mongering, fear-rattling, equality-stunting volley, Hiram Monserrate digs another foot down into his political grave.  Monserrate’s attacks on marriage equality are both a moral and political misjudgment.  The voters of the 13^th Senate District strongly support equality, and will send that message when they defeat Monserrate on March 16th,” said Valerie Berlin, spokesperson for Fight Back New York.

"Fight Back New York is a political action committee that seeks to remove from office New York State Senators who vote against or block legislation that would provide equality and safety for LGBT New Yorkers. Fight Back New York’s first target for defeat is Hiram Monserrate."

The flier doesn't say who paid for it, but the back refers you to a web site that is dedicated to depicting Monserrate as a criminal, and has footage of Monserrate dragging his girlfriend through the hallway of his apartment building after the incident that night. The footage earned him a misdemeanor. It's unclear who owns or runs the site.

The return address on the flier 77-15 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, which doesn't leave many clues.

Monserrate is trying to regain his Senate seat after he was expelled, and is facing a challenge from Assemblyman Jose Peralta, who a number of Democrats and unions are supporting.