Grimmer and Grimmer In Staten Island As A Desperate Mikey Suits Unfurls The GOP Racism Banner

Last week, the biggest, baddest news in the NY-11 election campaign was about how the indicted Mafioso incumbent, Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm, had seen his campaign funding dry up-- a big problem since he's been using his campaign donations to finance his legal case and his fight for a plea bargain that will include only minimal prison time. The Daily News Grimm lead: "From April 1 to June 4 he raised $44,000 and spent $214,397, including a $40,000 payment to attorneys. He also has $420,000 in legal debts related to the investigation that preceded the indictment." What;'s worse, his two biggest contributors, Florida Congressman Gus Bilirakis ($2,000) and shady developer Larry Silverstein ($1,000) both wrote the checks before the Feds announced their first 20 indictments against Grimm. Since then, there have been no big checks and the sources of institutional Republican money have all slammed their doors shut to Grimm. On top of that, sleazy GOP lobbyists, Mercury Public Affairs, have pulled one of their key operatives, Bill Cortese, out of Grimm's sinking campaign. Cortese was the campaign manager.

There's not much left for Grimm to do but play some right-wing cards that even Republicans trying to maintain a semblance of respectability don't normally play-- at least not in New York. Thursday, Grimm was appealing to the racist instincts of Staten Island Republicans-- his hard core base-- by attacking Mayor Bill be Blasio's affordable housing plan. He's trying to stir up white racists by implying that the Mayor plans to flood Staten Island and south Brooklyn with blacks and Hispanics.

"I'm extremely concerned with the Mayor's plan to revisit up-zoning throughout the City, which could allow for high-density projects like new low-income and affordable housing developments to pop up throughout Staten Island and Brooklyn" Grimm (R-Staten Island) said in a statement.

He continued: "Staten Island and southern Brooklyn fought for years to resist overdevelopment and preserve the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Opening the floodgates for new massive housing developments would be disastrous for Staten Island and southern Brooklyn considering our already major traffic problems and lack of infrastructure to handle the increased density." 

But City Planning Commission Chairman Carl Weisbrod said there was no rush to rezone, and that changes would be made only with local input.

"We are in the early stages of identifying neighborhoods to be considered for rezonings, and as we have made very clear, we will work closely with the elected officials and communities in each such neighborhood," Weisbrod said in a statement.  "The de Blasio administration is deeply committed to ground up planning, which means understanding neighborhood concerns, needs and priorities. There will be no surprises."

…Grimm said he and "a few" of his colleagues stressed "the importance of keeping neighborhoods consistent with their current character."

In a neighborhood of mostly single-family homes, Grimm said, an empty lot shouldn't be up-zoned for "low-income, affordable, or luxury condo complexes as doing so would drastically change the character of the community and potentially see current property values plummet."

While Grimm's funding has tanked, Domenic Recchia's has surged. A pathetic Steve Israel "mystery meat" candidate-- the very worst of what corrupt politics vomits up-- would have no chance to win this race except for the Grimm indictments. My own favorite scenario, though, would be to see Grimm win reelection from a prison cell-- the perfect Representative for Staten Island. Recchia has now overtaken Grimm in the cash-on-hand department. His own is $1,075,619 and Grimm's is $1,002,254. While the last quarter saw Grimm bring in $47,382, Recchia's take was $144,364.

Recchia is running a non-stop ad-- no audio-- on a large LED screen inside the Whitehall ferry terminal: