Talk Bronx New York

The DN’s Erin Einhorn sent this video of yesterday’s press conference with Sen. Hiram Monserrate at which he compared himself to murdered civil rights workers and announced he had hired civil rights attorneys Norman Siegel and Steve Hyman to take his case.

You’ll notice as Einhorn pans the crowd that three Bronx Democrats - Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. and Assemblymen Jose Rivera and Peter Rivera - showed up to support their fellow Latino lawmaker, while no officials from Monserrate’s home county of Queens is present.

Diaz Sr. is a longstanding Monserrate supporter, but I was surprised to see the two Riveras (who are allies, but not relatives) on hand.

“It’s not a question of support; it’s a question of whether somebody is not getting the kind of fair treatment I think they should be getting,” Peter Rivera told me this morning.

“I think the Senate is treading on very dangerous ground when it tries to impeach one of their members for being found guilty of a misdemeanor. Those aren’t the rules that we have lived by in Albany. Ever.”

“I have an issue with changing the rules midstream and singling out individuals, particularly when they happen to be Hispanic.” Read more..

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Bronx Democratic Chairman Carl Heastie is clearly annoyed by the suggestion that black leaders should be flocking to support former Rep. Harold Ford Jr.’s possible primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

“I don’t feel that I have to support him just because I’m black,” said Heastie, who I caught en route to (yet another) closed-door conference of the Assembly Democrats as they wait for the Senate to sort out the “Race to the Top” mess.

“There’s this expectation that because he’s black and I’m black, I have to run to support him, and damn a sitting US senator,” the chairman continued. “I’m trying to get people thinking beyond race.”

Heastie rejected a report by the Post that he is “open” to supporting Ford.

(In fact, while I was standing outside the chamber with the assemblyman, he spotted Fred Dicker and called out: “Fred. Your sources are wrong.” That, of course, was my cue to exit). Read more..

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Gov. David Paterson insisted the $750 million in scheduled payments to schools and local governments that will be withheld tomorrow are not a “cut” or an “impoundment.”

“The state has run out of money,” Paterson declared. “…We think we are well within the bounds of legal authority.”

NYSUT is reviewing its legal options.

Paterson defended his actions in a Plattsburgh Press-Republican OpEd.

One in five legislators have staffers who do double-duty as their campaign treasurers - an arrangement good government advocates warn could present a conflict of interest.

“Albany’s entrenched pay-to-play culture doesn’t get much more naked than this,” the DN says.

The relationship between the governor and the Legislature is so bad that Senate Democratic Leader John Sampson is refusing to attend formal events with Paterson.

Tired of living on the 32-30 knife’s edge, Senate Democrats are negotiating to make Republicans committee chairs in hopes of improving relations with the minority.

The MTA unveils its new austerity budget this morning, and drastic service cuts are expected.

Paterson said his “hands are tied” when it comes to the MTA because the state has no money.

Andrea Peyser thinks Eliot Spitzer, “whose cast-iron ego will outlast the cockroaches in a nuclear war,” has a good shot at success if he tried for a 2010 comeback.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum was once so close to ex-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi that she hired three people close to him, including one of his sons.

Chris Smith marvels at the “indomitability” of New York’s elected officials, writing: “They refuse to go away, even when the law, the voters, or sanity says they should.

The state’s system of juvenile prisons is so riddled with problems the agency overseeing them wants all but the most dangerous of youthful offenders to stay out of them.

The Post likes the idea of letting AG Andrew Cuomo have subpoena power to go after corrupt state lawmakers.

Cindy Adams is standing by her story about Paterson saying he wanted to piss “on” the Legislature.

It’s D-Day for the Kingsbridge Armory project, and so far things are not looking good.

Jordan Moss says Bronx officials can “proudly cross the finish line or meekly toss the keys back to Mayor Bloomberg.” Read more..

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s successful campaign for a third term was widely anticipated, but the results were not without surprises.

Bronx voters supported city Comptroller Bill Thompson, the Democratic nominee, over Mr. Bloomberg, an independent, 60.8 percent to 37.1 percent, the largest borough-wide margin for the challenger. Brooklyn was the only other borough to give Mr. Thompson a victory, and by a much smaller margin of 50.9 percent to 45.3 percent.

Riverdale, though, went for Mr. Bloomberg. Districts 80 and 81, comprising Pelham Parkway, Norwood, Woodlawn and Riverdale, were the only districts in the Bronx to favor Mr. Bloomberg. In district 80, Mr. Bloomberg received 7,041 votes to Mr. Thompson’s 6,377, and in district 81, it was an even bigger gap of 9,698 votes to 6,732, according to polling data. Read more..

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Rubén Díaz Sr., a New York state senator, has argued that a bill legalizing gay marriage should not be allowed to come to the floor

 Every Sunday morning, the deep, melodious voice of State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. rumbles across the congregation at his Bronx church. On weekdays, it echoes across the Senate chamber as he rails against Medicaid cuts or abortion. Earlier this year, it enthralled thousands at a boisterous rally against same-sex marriage.

Rubén Díaz Sr., a state senator and Pentecostal minister.

But ask him about the gay people in his own life, and Mr. Díaz’s voice grows quiet. His smile vanishes.

Two of his brothers are gay, he murmurs, one of them recently deceased. So is a granddaughter. There is an old friend who works for him in the Senate. And a former campaign aide.

“I love them. I love them,” says Mr. Díaz, who grew up one of 17 children in Puerto Rico. “But I don’t believe in what they are doing. They are my brothers. They are my family.”

His voice rises again. “So how could I be a homophobe?”

For those fighting to expand gay rights, Mr. Díaz, a Pentecostal minister, represents the most outspoken and unpredictable of foes. He was forced to resign from the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board years ago for suggesting that the Gay Games would encourage homosexuality and spread H.I.V. In 2003, he sued the city to shut down a high school for gay and transgender students.

As advocates push for a vote on same-sex marriage in the State Senate on Tuesday, Mr. Díaz is again speaking out, arguing that last week’s election results show that the tide has turned against allowing gay people to wed.

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