Democratic City Councilman James Sanders said "we need to take this surplus" and "make sure we save the teachers." The surplus, as I and other people have noted, don't really exist (or, as the City Comptroller has said, it really just "depends who you ask.")

Republican City Councilman Dan Halloran told the protesters "It's good to see somebody out here who cares about kids because it's clear the Bloomberg administration doesnt."

And Democratic State Senator Tony Avella keeps up the outspoken tradition he cultivated when he was in the City Council, and told the crowd, "I want to start a recall petition for the mayor." 

Note: In case you think Avella is onto something, think again. One attorney told me there is no recall mechanism in New York, so the issue is a "no go." Political consultant Jerry Skurnik -- a walking encylopedia of information -- emailed to explain the backstory: 

Former Senator Vander Beatty led a petition drive to amend the City Charter to allow recall during Koch's first term because he was made about Koch defunding some anti-poverty programs. But he did not submit enough signatures and the issue died.

Standing by the security gate by the West side of City Hall, Avella was overheard telling one labor official, "I think I'm going to run for a [State] Senate seat."

In a brief telephone conversation, Avella told me, "We haven't crossed all the t's and dotted the i's, but I think we're going to do this."

He said he'd like to make sure the Senate Democrats are "on board" with his campaign, and that the Queens Democratic Party is "united" on it too.

The seat in Northeast Queens Avella would be running for is held by Frank Padavan, a 37-year-Republican incumbent who narrowly held onto his seat in a nailbiter of a race against Democratic City Councilman Jim Gennaro.

Gennaro, and other Democrats, are thought to have benefited from the higher-than-usual turnout which accompanies presidential election years.

I asked Avella why he thought he would do better against Padavan than Gennaro did if there's no presidential race.

"More of my Council district covers the Senate district," he said. "I have very good name recognition," he added, and "good name recognition on reform issues." Then, after a pause, he laughed to himself and said, "I just think we can do it."

So, there you go.

Tony Avella and Charles Barron, two of the City Council's most discontented members, are proposing a "Democratic Reform Movement." Basically, the goal is to shift power away from the speaker's office to rank-and-file members. They make the case for, among other things, electing a black or Latino member as Speaker. Barron has announced his candidacy for the speaker position. Avella ran unsuccessfully for mayor and leaving the Council at the end of this year.

"Historically and presently, the New York City Council has been ruled and controlled by the dictatorship of the Speaker's office," they write.

To change that, the pair want the following changes made:

-equal distribution of capital and expense funds

-give more control to rank and file members over the legislative process

-let members, not the speaker, decide committee assignments and chairmanships

On the third page, Barron and Avella argue that the membership has grown in the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, yet, citywide, they are not represented.

"People of color are the new majority in the City Council and in New York City as a whole. They make up 27 of 51 seats in the City Council. There are 14 Blacks, 11 Latinos, and 2 Asians. In a city where people of color make up 62 % of the population, Blacks and Latinos make up roughly 55% of the population, and the other 7 % are Asian. For there to be no Black or Latino holding a city-wide office is unacceptable. The Mayor's White, the Speaker's White, the Public Advocate is white and the Comptroller's Asian. No Blacks or Latinos. We can change that by electing a Black or Latino Council Speaker. Historically, there has never been a Speaker of color, or a person of color selected to Chair one or both of the two most powerful committees in the New York City Council, the Finance Committee and the Land Use Committee."

I contacted a couple of Democrats who've lost primaries to see if they'd heard from Weiner. Turns out, not many had. (One got a present, though.)

Melinda Katz: "We don't recall any."

Eric Gioia: "I don't think he sent me a letter. But he did buy me lunch, which I thought was very nice of him. He also sent a really thoughtful baby gift."

Mark Green: "I haven't seen any."

Simcha Felder: A spokesman doesn't remember him getting one.

Tony Avella: "No, I didn't get any letter from him. Is he using taxpayer money for this?"

The bill, introduced by outgoing Councilman Tony Avella of Queens, and Councilwoman Anabel Palma of the Bronx, calls for those mayoral appointments to be filled "subject to the advice and consent of the council after a public hearing."

The bill would require public hearings held within thirty days of the full Council meeting after a nomination has been made. Interestingly, the bill also says that if a hearing isn't held within that time period, "the nomination shall be deemed to be confirmed." So, the Council can't block an appointment by delaying a hearing.

It's not likely the bill will go anywhere, considering its primary sponsor, Tony Avella, is a pariah in the Council and has passed few bills. But the idea seems somewhat consistent with the current mood.

Mr. Halloran, reported to be the "First Atheling" of a neo-heathen tribe, beat the Democratic nominee Kevin Kim 53 percent to 47 percent in a campaign marred by a number of unseemly accusations: that Mr. Kim was unfairly exploiting Mr. Halloran's religion, that Mr. Halloran was tying Mr. Kim, who is Korean-American, to Asian developers, that one tore down the other's campaign signs, and so on.

The Village Voice, which ran a 2,500-word write-around on Mr. Halloran's religious beliefs, predicted he wouldn't get 30 percent. The Voice stayed on the story last night, reporting from both headquarters, and pushing the impression that the contest split on racial lines.

Shortly before the polls closed at the Kim campaign office, there was not one white person working there....At Halloran HQ, there was hardly one non-white person, and the walls were adorned with ads for Tea Party protests.

The Voice proclaims him "America's First Elected Heathen," and makes sure to mention that he didn't end his victory speech with an invocation to God.

The line, fired off during the last televised debate of the Democratic mayoral primary, was followed almost immediately by an email from Michael Bloomberg’s campaign which, as you might expect, used Avella’s line.

Throughout the debate, Avella criticized Thompson for accepting campaign funds from people who do work with the pensions he oversees, and for not being a strong enough critic of Bloomberg during the mayor's eight years in office.

“If anybody gave me a contribution in hopes that I would somehow favor their position, they were mistaken,” Thompson told reporters afterward.

When asked why he didn’t just refuse to take money from people doing business with the pension funds, Thompson said he was acting within the rules of the City Campaign Finance Board, which doesn’t prohibit the practice.

After the debate, Avella said he wasn’t afraid of writing Bloomberg’s attack message against Thompson, since the mayor’s people already have done their research on him.

“He had these things all set to go,” Avella said. “Come on. We all know Mike Bloomberg was sitting with these things.” He added, “These commercials are already planned out. The strategies are already planned out."

“I can see the commercials now,” Avella said.

“This is Mike Bloomberg’s commercials: ‘I improved the math and reading scores’ which I don’t think he has but that’s a whole other issue. ‘Who was head of the board of Education when it was worse? What about the pension scandal?’ And then they’ll go through the same things.”

The question now is how many other Democrats start reading from Avella’s script and start openly criticizing Thompson.

But the two of them are featured on the same piece of campaign literature in support of Paul Vallone. He’s running for the City Council seat in Bayside being vacated by Tony Avella.

Vallone’s running in a Democratic primary, and Bloomberg is running on the Republican and Independence Party lines for mayor.

At a press conference this morning, I asked Michael Bloomberg if he would, too.

“I don’t even know who is going to be running next year,” he said.”Right now, I’m worried about an election November 3 and then I’ll look at it.”

Bloomberg, who is running on the Republican and Independence lines but courting Democratic voters, added, “I will do everything I can for as long as I am mayor to support our governor, whoever that governor is.”