Tag Archives: rick lazio

Candidates on the ballot for tomorrows primary

New York City Primaries: The Who, What, When and Where

Candidates on the ballot for tomorrows primary
Some of the candidates on the ballot for tomorrows primary

Tomorrow is primary day citiwide, where several candidate seats are up for grabs.

For our district, candidates will find out who makes the ticket for the Governor, Senate and Attorney General seats in November’s general elections.

The candidates for these positions are:

Democratic Primary Ticket
Attorney General – Citywide
Richard L Brodsky
Sean Coffey
Eric R Dinallo
Kathleen M Rice
Eric T Schneiderman
United States Senator – 2 Year Unexpired Term – Citywide
Kirsten E Gillibrand
Gail Goode

Repulican Primary Ticket
Governor – Citywide
Rick A Lazio
Carl P Paladino
Lieutenant Governor – Citywide
Gregory J Edwards
Thomas V Ognibene
United States Senator – 6 Year Full Term – Citywide
Gary Berntsen
Jay Townsend
United States Senator – 2 Year Unexpired Term – Citywide
Bruce Blakeman
Joseph J DioGuardi
David Malpass

Independent Primary Ticket
Governor- Citywide
Rick A Lazio
Ralph C Lorigo
Attorney General – Citywide
Richard L Brodsky
Sean Coffey
Eric R Dinallo
Kathleen M Rice
Eric T Schneiderman
United States Senator – 2 Year Unexpired Term – Citywide
Kirsten E Gillibrand
Gail Goode

Another new addition at the polls are the voting machines themselves.

Don’t expect to pull the levers of your voting’s past as new electronic voting machines are being rolled out for tomorrow’s primary.

Introducing new voting booths have been notoriously rocky nationwide, but New York is the last state in the nation to implement the new machines as part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) responding to Florida’s presidential voting debacle.

Polls open at 6am to find out your exact polling location (as our neighborhood as several) Visit the official NYC Board of Elections site.

45-47 Park Place Debris

Mosque Hearing Update & Religious Turf War

45-47 Park Place Debris
Debris landing from 9/11 attacks used in hearing for landmark status.

As the rain poured outside, people poured inside the New York City Landmarks Commission public hearing. Despite the inclement weather nearly 100 people were in attendance at the hearing in Hunter College. A dozen or so individuals were able to take the floor including public opponent and New York State Governor hopeful Rick Lazio — who offered a different strategy to halt the Mosque’s construction by claiming the building at Park Place was worthy of landmark recognition. Even citing debris that had fallen on the building during the 9/11 attacks.

“I urge the commission to grant landmark status to 45 Park Place, [to] take into account important historical facts.”

Gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino was also represented by his lieuenant governor Tom Ognibene who agreed with Lazio stating the building of the mosque would be “an affront to the families that have died.”

Linda Rivera, a family member of a 9/11 victim suggested, “the building should be a landmark building. It should not be a mosque.”

Brooklyn resident, Barbara Sommer decried the sentiments and questioned “How can we allow something to eradicate that memory — the pain and suffering.”

While nearly a dozen others voiced their opinions at the hearing, a religious turf war had been established when Bill Keller of LivePrayer.com (of no relation to the New York Times editor) had sent out a press release stating he would bid on creating a Christian center within the heart of Ground Zero. As of yesterday, his site had been actively seeking donations to fund the construction and is slated to start a satellite prayer center at the Embassy Suites hotel in the northern section of our neighborhood every Sunday starting September 5th until December 26th — until a final home has been found for the Christian center. (I wonder if the group knows that Goldman Sachs is planning on closing the hotel down soon?)

It seems our neighborhood has become a religious battle ground overnight. Are we OK with this?

Plans for the Cordoba House Mosque

Rick Lazio Demands WTC Mosque Investigation

Rick Lazio, Ground Zero, Andrew Cuomo
Rick Lazio's Open Letter to Andrew Cuomo suggests "questionable" motives for WTC Mosque (Credit: Flickr)

As we suggested, politicians should heed last week’s Quinnipiac Poll.

We just didn’t know the first politician would be Rick Lazio.

Riding on the heels of a report that more than half of all New York voters oppose the building of the Cordoba Initiative mosque, the Republican gubernatorial candidate has openly challenged his Democratic opponent and current Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate.

According to Lazio, “New Yorkers have a right to feel safe and be safe. There are serious security questions about the appropriateness of this mosque.”

In his formal request, Lazio asserts that an investigation must be made into the backgrounds of both the Imam in charge of construction as well as its questionable funding.

Here is the complete letter to Attorney General Cuomo which was posted on Lazio’s official website:

July 7, 2010

The Honorable Andrew Cuomo

Office of the Attorney General

The Capitol

Albany, NY 12224-0341

Dear Attorney General Cuomo,

I am writing on behalf of the people of New York who share my concerns for their personal security and safety with respect to the construction of the Cordoba Mosque in lower Manhattan. Recent press reports have highlighted the following troublesome issues:

• The Imam in charge of the construction refused to acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization. (New York Post, 6/19/10)

• The Imam of the project is a “key figure” of Perdana Global, the single largest funder of the flotilla that tried to break the blockade of Gaza by Israeli defense forces. (New York Post, 6/5/10)

• The questionable background of the funding sources for the construction of the Mosque. (New York Post, 5/25/10)

Given that the Cordoba Initiative is a legally registered charitable organization with the New York Attorney General’s Office, my fellow New Yorkers and I are asking you to immediately conduct a thorough investigation of the previous items highlighted by the media with respect to the construction of this Mosque in lower Manhattan. The people have the right to know if this “charity” is using its resources in a legitimate, legal, and charitable way.

New Yorkers were shocked and appalled at the silence of our state law enforcement officials when the Obama Administration decided to stage a civilian trial of admitted terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in lower Manhattan. We hope that we can depend on our state officials for more competent leadership with respect to this extremely sensitive matter.

I and the people of New York await your rapid and full response.

Sincerely,

Rick Lazio

The cornerstone has not be laid out and it seems we’ve got a long road of controversy before any prayers begin. How do you feel about the allegations and the building of the Cordoba Initiative?