STATEN ISLAND

MILLER GETS DEMOCRATIC ENDORSEMENTS

A group of 18 elected officials and community leaders from Staten Island announced yesterday that they were endorsing the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, in the upcoming mayoral race.

The group, which announced their endorsement at Borough Hall in St. George on Staten Island, includes Democrats Michael McMahon, a council member, and Jerome O’Donovan, a former council member, along with the pastor of an area church, the former head of the Staten Island Federal of Parent Teacher Associations, and the chairman of Community Board 1.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

FERRER CAMPAIGN TOPS $3 MILLION IN DONATIONS

Officials with Fernando Ferrer’s mayoral campaign said yesterday that their candidate had raised $600,000 in the last two months, bringing his bank account up to over $3.1 million.

Mr. Ferrer, the former borough president of the Bronx, and all other candidates who are participating in the city’s public matching fund program, must file their financial disclosures forms by Tuesday.

Late last week, campaign officials with the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, said he had raised $200,000 in the last two months and hit $5.7 million, the maximum that publicly-financed candidates can spend in the primary. Mr. Ferrer is considered the Democratic frontrunner. A spokesman for Mr. Ferrer, Chad Clanton, said yesterday that this was the candidate’s best fund-raising period to date.

Mayor Bloomberg does not participate in the public campaign finance program. He spent more than $70 million in the 2001 election.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

REPORT: DONATIONS FROM BUSINESSES DOWN FOR DEMOCRATS

If campaign donations are any measure, New York City’s businesses back Mayor Bloomberg, according to an article in Crain’s New York Business online. By this point in 2001’s mayoral race, the Democratic candidates had amassed between them $67,300 from businesses and groups that collect money for businesses. Four years later, Democratic candidates C. Virginia Fields, Anthony Weiner, and Fernando Ferrer have accumulated just $1,000 from the same 2001 donors.

City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, however, has so far received $98,700 from 2001’s business contributors; some have speculated that contributions to Mr. Miller are more a testament to his influence as council speaker than his promise as a potential mayor.

According to the Crain’s report, donors to Mr. Miller’s campaign include lobbyists, major real-estate developers, and individuals with projects currently in the hands of the City Council, including the chairman of Cablevision, Charles Dolan. Cablevision is the owner of Madison Square Garden, and is campaigning against the mayor’s plans for a West Side stadium and convention center, which would compete with the Garden’s facilities.

According to the Crain’s report, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, attributed the lack of contributions to Mr. Bloomberg’s rivals to the strength of the incumbent’s record, especially on job creation, crime reduction, and increases in real-estate prices.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

THE BRONX

MAN WITH FIGHTING ROOSTERS ARRESTED

A Bronx man who worked at a chicken slaughterhouse was arrested at his home late yesterday morning for possessing more than two-dozen gamecocks, 15 of which had already been altered to fight in illegal matches against other roosters.

Orlando Fernandez, 54, was arrested and charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty, all misdemeanors, said special agent for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Joseph Pentangelo. If convicted, Mr. Fernandez stands to face up to $1,000 fine and a potential one-year prison sentence. An attorney for Mr. Fernandez could not be reached yesterday. It is not alleged that Mr. Fernandez obtained the roosters from the slaughterhouse where he works. The fighting birds were first seized more than a month ago, when police officers spotted a man carrying a big rooster down a street in the Bronx.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun