(photo: capitalnewyork.com)

Queens Democratic Party Chairman Joe Crowley, who scheduled appearances at three different borough president campaign kickoffs, is playing the field for outgoing Councilman Jim Gennaro's district too. Mr. Crowley will attend both Assemblyman Rory Lancman's fundraiser and District Leader Martha Taylor's. Also on Ms. Taylor's host committee are a few elected officials, like Congresswoman-elect Grace Meng, Assemblymembers Vivian Cook, Barbara Clark, Andrew Hevesi, William Scarborough, Michael Simanowitz and David Weprin, as well as Councilmembers Leroy Comrie, Danny Dromm, Karen Koslowitz and Mark Weprin.

It's almost like this fundraiser with "NYS Senate Majority Leader" John Sampson trying to hint at something. Almost.

Ominous news for Congressman Michael Grimm, whose case is apparently still under investigation by the Department of Justice. “The Department of Justice has asked the Committee to defer consideration of this matter," the House Ethics Committee announced.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn certainly has a redistricting conundrum on her hands. It seems her only option to scuttle a map favorable to Assemblyman Vito Lopez's potential candidacy is an up-or-down rejection of the new lines by her chamber, surely a difficult pill for some incumbents to swallow while looking at a map designed to protect their reelection bids. Also, any maneuvering could undermine her claims that the map-making process was truly independent of political concerns. Of course, Mr. Lopez can still run even if his house isn't in the district.

Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo declared himself willing to travel all the way down to Washington D.C. to speak with Speaker John Boehner if he felt such a trip would yield more federal dollars for New York.

“When you look at the number of homes and business impacted, this storm impacted more than Katrina,” Mr. Cuomo claimed at the same press conference. “Now, Katrina had a human toll and thankfully we have not paid in this region. Katrina was different story in government involvement, but just in terms of numbers, I think at the end of the day you will have a very strong story that Hurricane Sandy was much more impactful than Hurricane Katrina just on a housing side.”