Blog: Scott Stringer

Rocking with Al, Duncan, Eric, & Scott

Late last week, Drinking Liberally reached its 100th chapter with York, Pennsylvania - and then moments later its 101st with Jackson, Mississippi - just in time for Drinking Liberally city leaders from Huntsville to Louisville to Brooklyn to gather in New York City for our first annual national conference. We built stronger bonds over late night pitchers at Rudy's and early morning discussions with local elected officials.

It was also a weekend full of special guests, just a few of the many great people in the national and local political establishments who have seen the value of social gatherings bringing progressives together. National bloggers and political organizers Matt Stoller, Chris Bowers of MyDD, Duncan Black of Atrios, and Peter Daou of the Daou Report joined us for a panel on the Emerging Liberal Infrastructure, then stuck around for a little take-out dinner.

That evening, we held a hurricane relief concert featuring the band Second Movement, Laughing Liberally comedians Katie Halper and Negin Farsad, and the great liberal laughmaster, Al Franken, who started off by discussing the importance of social capital and Robert Putnam, and ended by listing the warning signs of alcoholism. Number one was drinking alone - but "you don't drink alone, you drink together, so that's all right." Number three: "you're the President." And a little later in the evening, New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman and soon-to-be-Borough President Scott Stringer came in together, both looking sharp in their dark suits like they'd just come from a night of dancing.

Rounding out the gang of elected friends, City Councilmember Gale Brewer and State Assemblyman Dick Gottfried joined us bright and early the next morning for a stimulating roundtable discussion. All in all, it was a packed weekend, a fitting capstone to a packed year and another one to come.

posted on Sep 27, 2005 7:18 pm (comment)

tags: Al Franken, Drinking Liberally, Eric Schneiderman,
Gale Brewer, Laughing Liberally, Living Liberally,
parties, Rudy's, Scott Stringer, social capital

Mayoroke!

Campaigns are serious matters. Education, health care, development, taxes... the summer saw Mayoral forum after forum sponsored by different issue groups. Sometimes it's nice to just kick back and see candidates in a fun, silly environment, and celebrate Democratic unity.

Last Thursday, candidates for New York City offices from Council to Borough President to Public Advocate came to The Tank for a night of karaoke: Mayoroke, presented by Democracy for NYC and, of course, Drinking Liberally, and featured in Gawker and Time Out New York. District 4 5 Council candidate Eric Cesnik and his chief of staff sang "I Got You Babe", and Public Advocate hopeful Norman Siegel performed "In the Still of the Night" with his staff as a do-wop backup troupe. Borough President frontrunner Scott Stringer and incumbent Councilwoman Gale Brewer both attended, though only their younger staffers sang songs.

But the best performance of the night was from Borough President candidate Carlos Manzano, who had never done karaoke before and by his own admission was "terrified," yet he got up on the stage and crooned to the tune of INXS's "I Need You Tonight" to rousing applause. Liza Sabater, liveblogging the event, was impressed . Carlos was congratulated by so many people afterward that he has since started joking that if politics doesn't work out, he could try a career as a rock star.

As I explained to one reporter when she asked who did the best job, karaoke isn't about being musically talented or putting on a "good" performance. It's about getting into the spirit of fun and pushing your boundaries of comfort, having ordinary people do something - singing on a stage - that only a small handful usually engage in. Democrats believe in making the political process accessible to the masses, not just a few wealthy elites. So what's more appropriate than having political elites, our professional politicians, join in a true activity of the masses - karaoke?

posted on Sep 9, 2005 10:11 am (1 comment)

tags: Gale Brewer, Mayoroke, New York,
photos, politics, Scott Stringer

Getting the campaigns cooking

Cosmopolity is best known for the calendar and for Drinking Liberally, but we also organize many other activities. This past weekend, on May Day, we hosted Get the Campaigns Cooking: A May Day Cook-Out, where volunteers from 2004 met the campaigns of 2005 and 2006. New York City has an election coming up this fall, meaning there are a lot of very interesting races going on right now, not to mention Congress in 2006.

We heard from Congressional candidates Chris Owens (Brooklyn) and Ben Shuldiner (northern Westchester and surrounding area), Manhattan Borough President contenders Scott Stringer and Carlos Manzano, Mark Peters running for Brooklyn DA, and three City Council candidates, Eric Cesnik (Upper East Side), Gur Tsabar (East Village/Lower East Side), and Darren Bloch (same district). Representatives from Gifford Miller's and Anthony Weiner's mayoral campaigns, Borough President candidate Brian Ellner, and several others joined in, talking to potential supporters and recruiting volunteers.

And I got to meet Al Franken the next evening.