Chung Seto

Tomorrow, a few more Democratic clubs in Manhattan will hold endorsement meetings on a bunch of local races, including the quiet, but incredibly competitive, Surrogate’s Court race in Manhattan.

How competitive is that race? Judging by the hired guns the candidates have, very. (Especially since most folks haven’t even heard of it).  read more »

Steve Kornacki writes about last night's Republican presidential debate, and says that Rudy Giuliani did extremely well by dancing around the questions about his views on social issues.

Jason Horowitz reports from D.C., where Rudy Giuliani told Conservative activists “Isn’t it better that I tell you what I really believe, instead of pretending to change all of my positions to fit the prevailing winds?”

And in case you missed it, Chung Seto talks to me about a recent L.A. Times story that placed her at the center of Hillary Clinton's Chinatown fund-raising efforts.

Just got off the phone with Joe Mercurio, who says he shouldn't be the one taking the blame for Virginia's doctored mail piece, and who will be appearing on NY1's Road to City Hall tonight to tell his side of the story.

The bottom line: he says the piece was "printed over my objections," and that Fields saw before and after versions of the flier.

The piece, originally designed in March, went through a dozen drafts, he said. They were circulated to Fields along with her top political and government staffers.

"Before and after versions of the piece with the Anglos and with the Asians was circulated to her chief-of staff, her deputy borough president, her, and the treasurer," Mercurio said.

Mercurio originally objected to the flyer, he said, because he thought it wasn't a good use of campaign cash. He also said the photograph, and the photoshopped Asians, were put in as a placeholder, and that he wouldn't have used a photograph that included political staffers who hadn't endorsed the candidate.

"It never should have went out for reasons that had nothing to do with the two stock photos," he said.

Mercurio said he thought the piece was on hold.

"Then one day I get a phone call from Al Handell at Astoria Graphics saying [campaign manager] Chung Seto and [treasurer] Milton Wilson sent him over a low resolution .pdf for a run of printing.... Milton called me and insisted that I get the artwork from Winning Directions. It had to be done, it had to be done then. Winning Directions was gracious enough to send over the artwork."

A Fields aide disputed Mercurio's version, and said she had not seen before and after versions of the photograph.

To the extent that this is all a big deal, the central issue seems to me to be whether Virginia saw the before and after versions of the flyer, and if she did, why she didn't mention that at Wednesday's press conference.  read more »

And beyond that, the question is who will capitalize on a mess that will surely make it very hard for Virginia to go anywhere but down. Can Ferrer revive his support among black voters? Can Miller or Weiner make inroads?

And how hard is Kevin Sheekey laughing?

We're told she's hired Chung Seto, former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, to run her campaign. As longtime readers will recall, the Politicker is and remains your exclusive source for Chung Seto news.  read more »

The executive director of the State Democratic Party, Chung Seto, has confirmed for us that she is leaving. (Will she, we in the press wonder, take with her the "weekly GOP failures" email?)

She'll be replaced by the current political director, Rodney Capel.  read more »

We're not sure this has any broader significance. Let us know if we're wrong.