In a move that will come as a shock to no one, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn officially announced she’s running for mayor this morning via a video released online.
“I’m running for mayor ’cause I love this city,” Ms. Quinn says in the clip. Read More
Girls star Lena Dunham has already shown an interest in local politics, but now, the actress-slash-auteur-slash-author is getting involved in the presidential election. Ms. Dunham taped a video for the Obama campaign filled with plenty of sexual innuendo and her reasons for supporting President Barack Obama. Read More
Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank is heading to Minnesota tomorrow to appear at a fundraiser for his fellow Democrat, Jim Graves, who is running against congresswoman and former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann. Ms. Bachmann’s campaign marked the occasion by releasing a video yesterday entitled “Barney Frank is Coming to Town.”
“Roll out the red carpet, shine up your shoes, but hide your wallets,” a narrator says in the clip as a jazzy soundtrack plays. “Jim Graves needs a little more campaign cash, so he’s doing what any good Wall Street banker, auto executive and corporate welfare fan would do: Ask Barney Frank to bring in the bucks.” Read More
On Sunday, someone claiming to be affiliated with the hacker activist group Anonymous, released a two minute clip containing footage of last November’s eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park that they said was obtained from the NYPD’s Technical Assistance Response Unit. While the clip has widely been covered as having been “leaked” from the police, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne told Politicker the clip was ‘not ‘leaked” and may have been a combination of footage from television news cameras, public court records and even possibly from the occupiers themselves. Read More
Gary DeLong says he, his wife and his six year old daughter are being stalked by operatives working with his rival in a California House race. Mr. DeLong released a web video today documenting what he says is his family being tailed through the streets by “a tracker” sent by his Democratic opponent in California’s 47th Congressional District, Alan Lowenthal. Footage in Mr. DeLong’s ad shows him walking around Long Beach’s annual Greek Festival with his wife and child while being closely followed by a young, blonde woman wielding a video camera.
“The lady following Gary? That’s not his videographer,” text explains in Mr. Delong’s video. ”Unfortunately Lowenthal and his party bosses felt it necessary to intrude on Gary’s quality family time by sending a tracker to record his every move.” Read More
Missouri Congressman, costume enthusiast and (for now) Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin became notorious for his rather interesting theories on the female reproductive system this weekend, but his disastrous television interview isn’t the first time he’s shared his unique hypotheses on how babies are made. At a Tea Party event in Branson last year, Mr. Akin and his wife, Lulli, gave a detailed explanation of how they came together and made their six babies. Read More
This new web video for Arkansas congressional candidate Bobby Tullis may just be the most incredible campaign ad we’ve seen so far this year. Mr. Tullis’ commercial features an aged Elvis impersonator in a jeweled jumpsuit crooning a “Bobby Tullis For Congress” song.
“Ladies and gentlemen with all the fussing and feuding going on in Washington let’s elect someone grounded in the principle of economic freedom and personal liberty,” the Elvis impersonator says before breaking into song.
Mr. Tullis’ Elvis impersonator also makes a rather unusual campaign promise on the candidates’ behalf. Read More
Mindy Meyer, the brash 22-year-old self-proclaimed “diva” running for State Senate in Brooklyn, told The Politicker she has nothing to do with a “Friendz of Mindy Meyer” “super PAC” that released a campaign web video and created a Facebook page on her behalf.
“That’s some scam because we never did that,” Ms. Meyer said. Read More
The good people at Animal New York spent an afternoon walking the streets of the 21st State Senate district in Brooklyn with self-proclaimed “diva” candidate Mindy Meyer and captured incredible footage of the 22-year-old Orthodox Jewish woman’s decidedly unorthodox campaigning techniques. Ms. Meyer spends most of the video greeting constituents and basically berating them with her voice at full volume.
“I’m not your typical senator. Do I look like your typical senator?” Ms. Meyer asks one voter.
Ms. Meyer’s loud, in-your-face approach seems to connect with some of her targets, but not everyone in the video enjoys the show and some are eager to end their conversations with the candidate. Read More
The latest video from controversial conservative provocateur James O’Keefe’s “Project Veritas” implies unions and several big name New York politicians are colluding to earn state and federal contracts for do-nothing companies purporting to hire for so-called “environmental jobs.”
In the clip, Mr. O’Keefe portrays an executive for a business that literally digs ditches and fills them back up with more dirt. He visits with John Hutchings, whom he describes as a “director” of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, and former assemblyman Ronald Tocci and another man who apparently discuss how easy it is for them to use their lobbyists and political connections to get cash for businesses.
“When we go for a bill, you know, you’ve got to get approval of the Senate, and the Assembly and then the Governor’s got to sign that. We have a lobbyist for the Senate [Republicans], and we have a lobbyist for the Democrats and that’s how we try to push our agenda through,” Mr. Hutchings says in the video. Read More
