Van Bramer Piles On Against 25-Year Old Republican

Van Bramer Piles On Against 25-Year Old Republican

The Jimmy Van Bramer bandwagon is suddenly getting very, very crowded.

In the weeks since Van Bramer won the Democratic primary in the race to replace Council Member Eric Gioia, a who’s who of political figures have thrown their weight behind Van Bramer, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, Reps. Anthony Weiner and Joe Crowley, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, and his two opponents in the Democratic primary, Brent O’Leary and Deirdre Feerick.

This could be more easily explained if Van Bramer faced a competitive general election. But in a heavily Democratic district, his opponent is a 25-year-old Republican named Angelo Maragos.

Maragos’ father, George, who is working as his son’s campaign secretary, attributed the flood of endorsements for Van Bramer to trepidation about the general election.

“The only explanation I have is that they’re scared,” said George Maragos.

Van Bramer’s campaign, meanwhile, said the endorsements were simply an effort by the Democratic Party to come together after a heated primary.

Campaign spokesman Dan Hendrick disputed the idea that Van Bramer is scared— just eager for as much support as possible.

“The district is 12-percent Republican. There’s no way this guy can win,” Hendrick said. “This is about putting our best foot forward.”

Schneiderman Talks Exoneration, But Not Of Monserrate

On Oct. 20, State Sen. Eric Schneiderman held a press conference to discuss his chairmanship of a new Senate committee that will consider Hiram Monserrate’s political fate in the wake of a misdemeanor assault conviction.

The very next day, Schneiderman held another press conference, with a seemingly related topic: exoneration.

Not of Monserrate, mind you. Schneiderman, chair of the Senate Codes Committee, along with Assembly Member Hakeem Jefferies, was touting the Actual Innocence Act, which would make it easier for the wrongfully accused to have their convictions overturned.

And though Schneiderman’s bill will likely apply to people facing far graver legal situations than Monserrate, there was some discussion potentially relevant to the senator’s case.

With Monserrate’s misdemeanor conviction based in part on security footage of the senator pushing his girlfriend from his apartment, Robert Perry, the Legislative Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said at the press conference that wrongful convictions can occur, because “digital video that is used in criminal prosecutions can often go wrong.”

With Holzer’s Help, Lincoln Comes To New York In New Exhibit

From the moment he stepped out on the stage at Cooper Union to deliver the speech that launched his 1860 presidential campaign, to the outpouring of grief at his funeral procession in 1865, Abraham Lincoln’s life has been intertwined with the lives of residents of the city of New York.

A new exhibit at the New York Historical Society highlights this relationship between Lincoln and New York. Running through March 2010, the display features photos, archival records and artifacts, including a handsome, meticulously detailed catalog edited by noted Lincoln historian Harold Holzer.

Holzer, who once served as press secretary to both Mario Cuomo and Bella Abzug, is senior vice president for external affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In a release, Holzer described how the city played a central role in the career of the 16th president, and how residents of the city were not always supportive of Lincoln.

“For the first time,” Holzer said, “this exhibition will show how the city’s politicians, preachers, picture-makers and publishers—its citizens, black as well as white, poor as well as rich—continued to aid, thwart, support, undermine, promote and sabotage Lincoln and his political party.”