After months of angling, dropping in, dropping out, flirting and fighting, the unwieldy field of candidates for the “second hardest job in America” has taken shape. The next five months will see who emerges as the Democratic candidate for mayor of the nation’s largest city — and the primary will likely be the determining election in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly seven to one.


A top tier of about 10 candidates has started to coalesce out of dozens who have declared a run, with no clear front runner. The city is facing years of fallout from a still-raging pandemic while undergoing a sustained political shift to the left over the past two years, with many voters still weary from a protracted and ugly presidential contest.

And a fundamentally new approach to how those voters choose a nominee — by ranking their top picks — is forcing the candidates to chart an unknown course in campaigning, making history only a limited barometer for how the coming months will unfold.

Andrew Yang, the former presidential hopeful, became the latest big name to throw his hat in the ring this month. He joined a field that already includes long-established elected officials such as City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. Wall Street executive Ray McGuire, attorney and MSNBC commentator Maya Wiley, former HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales and former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia are among the two dozen or so candidates who have jumped into the ring.

Unlike in primaries past, the candidates may not be tumbling over each other to reach the top spot. Under the city's new ranked-choice voting system, contenders could begin forming coalitions around the issues central to their campaigns — and asking voters to consider supporting some of their competitors.

SNL is coming back Jan. 30. It was announced that John Krasinski will be the host and Machine Gun Kelly will be the musical guest. Fans may recall that Krasinski was scheduled to host the first episode that was canceled due to COVID-19 last season. And Machine Gun Kelly is good friends with cast member Pete Davidson, with the comedian even playing the rapper in a recent sketch.

https://lastnighton.com/2021/01/23/is-saturday-night-live-new-tonight-january-23/

Former Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez is considering a run for Maryland governor in 2022.

“I live here in Maryland,” he told liberal podcaster Bill Press in an episode of Press’ show, "The Bill Press Pod," set to air on Tuesday morning. “Our current incumbent [governor] is term-limited. [I’m] taking a look at that; we’ll see what happens.”

Perez opted not to seek another term as head of the DNC after guiding the party through now-President Joe Biden’s successful election campaign and an overstuffed primary process that saw more than two dozen candidates vying for the nomination. Former South Carolina state party chair Jaime Harrison, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate last year, was recently confirmed as his replacement at the national party.

Perez was the secretary of labor for much of former President Barack Obama’s second term. He helmed the Maryland labor department under then-Gov. Martin O'Malley during the late 2000s and was previously elected to serve on the Montgomery County council, just outside Washington.

The Justice Department's internal watchdog announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into whether top officials at the department engaged in any impropriety in connection with challenges to the results of last year's presidential race.

A statement from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office is "initiating an investigation into whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to have DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election."

Horowitz signaled a broad potential scope for the inquiry, saying, "The investigation will encompass all relevant allegations that may arise that are within the scope of the OIG's jurisdiction."

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the Department of Justice's inspector general would examine the abrupt resignation the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, Byung J. “BJay” Pak, following the release of a recorded telephone conference call in which President Donald Trump appeared to dismiss Pak as a "never-Trumper." A person briefed about that inquiry confirmed its existence to POLITICO.

Bridget Anne Kelly, a former aide to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie whose conviction in the Bridgegate scandal was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, is running for office.

Kelly announced during a television appearance Monday that she is seeking the Republican nomination for Bergen County clerk.

Kelly became well known for her role Bridgegate, when several local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge were closed over three days in September 2013. The lane closures in Fort Lee were an act of political retribution against the town’s mayor, Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who refused to endorse Christie, a Republican, for reelection.

It was Kelly who sent the now infamous email, “time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee” that triggered the lane closures.

A top political aide to former President Donald Trump spent the weekend quietly reassuring Republican senators that the former president has no plans to start a third party — and instead will keep his imprint on the GOP.

The message from Brian Jack, Trump’s former political director at the White House, is the latest sign that Republicans considering an impeachment conviction will do so knowing that Trump may come after them in upcoming primaries if they vote to convict him for “incitement of insurrection.”

Jack did not mention impeachment in his calls. But he wanted the word to get around that Trump is still a Republican — and for many, still the leader of his party.

“The president wanted me to know, as well as a handful of others, that the president is a Republican, he is not starting a third party and that anything he would do politically in the future would be as a Republican,” recounted Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “The Republican Party is still overwhelmingly supportive of this president.”

BOSTON (Reuters) - A Kentucky teenager whose 2019 face-off with a Native American activist in Washington went viral has fired his lawyer, a man who played a key role in Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat, according to court notices filed on Monday.

The teen, Nicholas Sandmann, terminated lawyer L. Lin Wood from the team representing him in a series of lawsuits that accuse media companies of inaccurately portraying the stand-off at the Lincoln Memorial on the day of a large anti-abortion protest.

“I have ended my lawyer-client relationship with Mr. Wood and no longer wish to be represented by him,” Sandmann said in an affidavit included in the court filings.

Sandmann continues to be represented by Kentucky-based lawyer Todd McMurtry.