StreetPAC formally launched its efforts Thursday. (Photo: Jill Colvin)

After more than 11 years of new bike lanes and public plazas, pedestrian advocates are getting nervous.

Few of the mayoral front-runners, they fear, have openly embraced the issues they care about: more traffic-calming speed bumps, neighborhood slow zones, plazas, bike lanes and more thorough crash investigations.

"I think a lot of the candidates have sort of danced around the question of complete streets and plazas and bike lanes and things like that," said Park Slope community activist Eric McClure, one of the board members of the newly-registered political committee StreetsPAC,  which officially marked its launch Thursday with an event on the Flatiron Plaza.

He pointed to a recent debate hosted by the League of Conservation Voters, where he said transportation issues were largely absent from the conversation. In fact, he thought former City Councilman Sal Albanese, a long-shot Democratic candidate, had been the "most outspoken" of the field.

"We need to make sure that these issues are at the forefront of the agenda," he said.

(Representatives from several of the other campaigns disputed that notion, pointing to policy plans they've outlined in recent weeks that promise more buses and support for bike lanes, among other ideas. But City Comptroller John Liu was more blunt about the topic: "When it comes up for discussion, John has very clear answers and does not dance around this or any other issues. But admittedly, it is not a topic that carries weight on the same level as education, housing, public safety and job creation," his campaign said.)

The group hopes to harness the growing community of cycling and pedestrian advocates, whom they argued represent a significant voting block in many of the city's highest-turnout neighborhoods. The group already has $30,000 pledged, and expects to collect around "six-figures" to promote their cause, they said.

The group plans to focus on local city council and borough president races, where transportation policy is often shaped--and where their dollars can make a more significant impact.

While they won't endorse specific candidates until after they've reviewed questionnaires and conducted interviews, member Doug Gordon, a TV writer and producer who serves on Brooklyn's Community Board 6,  identified several key races where he thought they might be able to play a powerful role: perhaps supporting Costa Constantinides in his Queens City Council race, or backing contenders in the crowded races to succeed City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in Chelsea and Councilwoman Gale Brewer on the Upper West Side.

Attorney Steve Vaccaro, another board member who often represents pedestrians and cyclists injured by motorists, said they are also looking at the District Attorney contests and want to support candidates who will aggressively prosecute drivers involved in fatal crashes.

"I think the DA's offices can't be gun shy," he said, singling out incumbent Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes. "There needs to be a more proactive and aggressive approach," he said.

Hynes' spokesman responded in a statement saying: “Not every vehicular or pedestrian fatality rises to the level warranting a criminal prosecution. We aggressively pursue all viable homicide cases and seek substantial jail sentences, unless persuaded by the victim’s family to give a defendant a second chance."

(Photo: Getty)

Late in this year's election cycle, Mayor Michael Bloomberg suddenly announced the creation of a "super PAC," Independence USA, through which the billionaire mayor could funnel unlimited sums of cash to candidates who support his political agenda of gun control, gay marriage and education reform. Looking at the federal races Mr. Bloomberg aimed to influence through the new political action committee, however, a majority of his candidates narrowly lost last night.

For example, in western Connecticut, moderate Republican Andrew Roraback suffered a 48%-to-52% loss to Democrat Elizabeth Esty, despite Mr. Bloomberg spending more than a million dollars on Mr. Roraback's behalf. Similarly, in another suburban seat, Mr. Bloomberg dropped roughly a million dollars boosting GOP Rep. Bob Dold in Illinois, only to see him lose by less than 1%. And, down in Florida, he spent more than $2 million in an attempt to vanquish Republican Congressman Dan Webster, but the incumbent still beat back a strong challenge from Val Demings, 52% to 48%.

In New York State, Mr. Bloomberg only directly involved himself in one race, the rematch between former Rep. Dan Maffei and the Republican who defeated him in 2010, Ann Marie Buerkle. The hotly-contested campaign also featured Independence USA's smallest federal expenditure, at less than $500,000, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Nevertheless, Mr. Maffei did pull out a 48%-to-44% victory, with a Green Party candidate soaking up the remaining tally.

But, because millions of dollars from other outside groups were also involved in Mr. Maffei's campaign, Mayor Bloomberg can probably only point to one congressional race where his spending was clearly decisive. Thanks to the state's new nonpartisan primary system, the top two candidates in California's 35th Congressional District were both Democrats, Rep. Joe Baca and his challenger, State Senator Gloria Negrete-McLeod. By pouring in more than $3 million, Mr. Bloomberg successfully hammered Mr. Baca over environmental and gun issues, leaving the incumbent with a likely 7-point loss in a race he might have otherwise coasted in.

Before the election, Mr. Bloomberg described his electoral efforts this cycle as an attempt "to get our feet wait," with most of his spending to come after he's term-limited out of Gracie Mansion in 2014.

Update (2:40 p.m.): Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg's PAC, pointed out other elections Mr. Bloomberg has involved himself in, either through fundraising or other third-party efforts, as well as one non-congressional race Independence USA entered for Pennsylvania's Attorney General.  That list can be found below.

“Whether it’s getting guns out of the hands of criminals; allowing people to marry regardless of their sexual preference; or cleaning up the environment, a solid majority of Americans believe that government has to enact common-sense reform – and last night, they made clear that they don’t want to wait any longer," Mr. Friedman said in a statement. "By exercising their democratic rights at the polls and voting for common-sense candidates and causes, the people took a giant step towards achieving reforms that will last a lifetime and benefit a great many.”

WINS
NELSON (D)(FL)
KING (I)(ME)
KING (R)(NY)
MCCASKILL (D)(MO)
HEINRICH (D)(NM)
HATCH (R)(UT)
KAINE (D)(VA)
SCHIFF (D)(CA)
QUIGLEY (D)(IL)
MENG (D)(NY)
RANGEL (D)(NY)
MAFFEI (D)(NY)
CICILLINE (D)(RI)
NEGRETE MCLEOD (D)
KANE (D)(PA)
TESTER (D-MT)
MAINE MARRIAGE
MARYLAND MARRIAGE
MINNESOTA MARRIAGE
WASHINGTON MARRIAGE

LOSSES:

CARMONA (D)(AZ)
BROWN (R) (MA)
RORABACK (R)(CT)
DEMINGS (D)(FL)
DOLD (R)(IL)
VILSACK (D) (IA)

"The Homeless Services initiative will ensure an important population has the opportunity to cast a ballot," a press release announcing the move explained.

"Being part of our election process is a privilege and an important responsibility," Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond said in the statement. "We want to ensure that even while living in temporary, emergency shelter, families and individuals are appropriately registered at their current address in order to cast their ballot on Election Day and make a difference in the processes of our country."

Anyone who wants to vote in this election will have to register quickly, however. The deadline is this Friday.

Ydanis Rodriguez speaking at today's press conference.

Supporters of State Senator Adriano Espaillat are calling for a federal monitor to step in and oversee the counting of votes in his congressional race against longtime Congressman Charlie Rangel after reports of uncounted votes emerged yesterday. Mr. Rangel was initially declared the victor by the Associated Press and in unofficial totals from the Board of Elections after the election on Tuesday, but the AP subsequently published a report claiming results from 33 of the 506 precincts in the Upper Manhattan district remained uncounted. Mr. Espaillat's supporters announced their push for a federal monitor at a press conference in front of Mr. Rangel's office in Harlem where some of the attendees also made allegations of voter fraud at the polls Tuesday.

"I'm here today to call for a federal monitor on the Board of Elections. It is unacceptable that 48 hours after the elections took place....we don't have the outcome of this election," said Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, a close ally of Mr. Espaillat's. "We also have a lot of concerns that still the Board of Elections has not received [results from] a number of election districts. We don't know where they are, they don't know where they are."

Though Mr. Rodriguez did not provide specific numbers or locations of the precincts where votes remain uncounted, he said most of these precincts are in areas favorable to Mr. Espaillat inside his State Senate district.

"Most of the election districts that the Board has not received, they are from our district. They are Adriano Espaillat's numbers," Mr. Rodriguez said as the crowd chanted Mr. Espaillat's name. "I am completely convinced that Senator Adriano Espaillat will be a congressman at the end of this process."

The Board of Elections initially told The Politicker and both the Espaillat and Rangel campaigns that the unofficial results showed Mr. Rangel beating Mr. Espaillat with 16,252 voters or 45.7 percent to Mr. Espaillat’s 13,921 votes, 39.1 percent of the total with 100 precincts reported. Unofficial results do not include affidavit ballots submitted by absentee voters and those whose name is not on the rolls when they arrive at the polling place, however the numbers initially reported by the Board of Elections gave Mr. Rangel a 6.6 percent margin that was more than enough of a cushion to weather any changes caused by the outstanding affidavit ballots. The Associated Press report placed Mr. Rangel’s actual margin of victory at a much smaller 2.8 percent and said the returns from the 33 precincts outstanding along with the affidavit ballots. The Board of Elections has not responded to multiple phone calls and emails from The Politicker asking them to explain the discrepancy or identify how many precincts remain uncounted. However, sources with knowledge of the situation said the Board communicated to the campaigns yesterday and confirmed the AP report.

Lawyers for the Espaillat campaign led by Leo Glickman have been at the Board of Elections monitoring the situation. In an email to The Politicker, Mr. Glickman claimed Board of Elections officials told him they were ordered not to give out information about which precincts remain uncounted.

"The Board of Elections staff is not allowing us to get the tallies. They are very nice but they are apparently acting on orders," Mr. Glickman wrote. "We are watching people put the  memory sticks from each election district from 15 feet away without being able to see the information om the sticks."

In addition to expressing concerns about the uncounted precincts, Mr. Rodriguez said he believed the affidavit ballots would help Mr. Espaillat close the gap with Mr. Rangel. He claimed the Board of Elections received 3,174 affidavit ballots, mostly from neighborhoods in the 70th, 71st and 72nd Districts which were favorable to Mr. Espaillat.

"Those are election districts where Senator Espaillat won big time," Mr. Rodriguez said.

Mr. Espaillat was not at the press conference. According to Mr. Rodriguez, "at this moment Senator Espaillat is not speaking, we are looking at the numbers.

One of the Espaillat supporters who joined Mr. Rodriguez at the press conference was Ruben Dario Vargas, who briefly entered the race against Mr. Rangel in April. After less than 24 hours, as a candidate, Mr. Vargas dropped out and began supporting Mr. Espaillat. Mr. Vargas, who said he was "supervising ten polling places" on election day, claimed he saw widespread instances of Dominican voters being forced to use affidavit ballots. Mr. Espaillat would be the first congressman of Dominican descent and his base of support is within the Dominican community.

"It was a common factor when a person with a Spanish accent--a Dominican Spanish accent, went to vote they were saying, 'You're not on the list.' They were not finding them," Mr. Vargas said. "Then, they were telling them 'OK, you want to vote? Affidavit."

Mr. Vargas also claimed some of the affidavit ballots were being tampered with by poll workers.

"I had a tremendous problem with Cynthia Doty, who is a district leader in that area," Mr. Vargas said. "She was going around with other people cutting the seal on the affidavit ballots and replacing the seal on the affidavit ballots."

In an interview on NY1's Inside City Hall last night, Mr. Rangel said he wasn't following the evolving situation with the results in his race because he was busy in Washington.

“I’m not hearing anything because I’ve been on the floor, I’ve been at legislative meetings, I’ve been at caucuses,” Mr. Rangel said. “Quite frankly, since last night, the New York people have been dealing with the numbers....I’m anxious to analyze what the figures mean and so long as the victory is there, I think I’ll just proceed with my present term and then see what we have to do better or whatever the situation may be.”

My colleague David Freedlander has already weighed in with some thoughts, which you are more than encouraged to do as well by emailing him at dfreedlander [@] observer.com.

Here's some of what I'm watching:

Upsetting Conventional Wisdom

The collective thinking of most observers has incumbents Charlie Rangel and Nydia Velázquez favored to beat back their challengers with Hakeem Jeffries, Sean Patrick Maloney and Grace Meng as the frontrunners to win their primaries. But surely Election Day won't reflect conventional wisdom entirely, right? Where will the surprises come from?

At a glance, Rich Becker, with strong local support and a snippy campaign operation, would seem to have a solid shot at beating Mr. Maloney for the right to challenge GOP Rep. Nan Hayworth for her Hudson Valley-based district. Mr. Maloney has more campaign cash and influential labor support, however, and it's difficult to see where the final vote tally will end up with the two candidates' non-parallel strengths.

And while Mr. Rangel's campaign has been revving up into full gear lately, he's being pressed on multiple fronts and State Senator Adriano Espaillat has a path to topple him with a plurality of the vote. Mr. Espaillat's base is in the Dominican community, and Mr. Rangel's three other African-American challengers, notably the surprisingly strong campaign of Clyde Williams, are more likely to be taking votes away from the incumbent than Mr. Espaillat. Two things to watch for here are Mr. Williams' share of the vote and how well Mr. Rangel performs in the Bronx -- the one part of the reconfigured district he has never represented in in his lengthy tenure.

Barron vs. Jeffries

There's no way to slice this race and have it not be fascinating. With the larger-than-life personality of Councilman Charles Barron and rising star Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries going toe-to-toe, political observers have already grabbed their popcorn and staring directly at New York's 8th Congressional District, previously held by veteran Rep. Ed Towns.

The seat's boundaries were changed in redistricting, taking the majority African American district and sending it down through Russian Jewish neighborhoods like Brighton Beach as well as white areas like Howard Beach in Queens. With Mr. Jeffries campaigning hard for these votes (he's been running a steady stream of ads on post-Shabbos Jewish radio, activists in these neighborhoods have rallying hard against Mr. Barron and there is a Sephardic anti-Barron PAC in the mix), it will be particularly interesting to see how big of a margin he racks up in these precincts and what turnout looks like, as socially conservative constituencies may not necessarily be excited for the idea of a liberal congressman named Hakeem either.

Even though Mr. Jeffries is the favorite candidate in the race, Democrats are concerned about some of Mr. Barron's more provocative positions and statements and there are more than a few operatives that won't be able to rest easy until they see the Associated Press declaring his rival the winner.

Tomorrow's top races.

Tom Allon is the first of the 2013 Mayoral candidates to hit the airwaves.

Alan Hevesi's life behind bars.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says a biologist with the Department of Environmental Conservation bilked the State by boozing.

Sharon Bialek's media blitz begins tomorrow.

President Obama's emissary to the Jews makes his debut.

Bill Clinton says Hillary won't replace Vice President Biden on the 2012 ticket.