Mayor Mike's delivery may have left something to be desired, but his message came through loud and clear: Everyone needs to get real about the budget shortfall -- even the Yankees.

New Yorkers went to the polls on the morning of September 11, but what began as a primary vote ended up a test of character that made winners of some and left others in the rubble.

For yielding to Hillary Clinton in the Senate race, Nita Lowey was rewarded with a key leadership role that's thrust her onto a national stage. She hasn't wasted the opportunity.

In the final weeks of the mayoral race, the Democratic leadership essentially declared Al Sharpton beyond rebuke -- a stand that's sure to haunt the party for years to come.

Why did so many Democrats desert Mark Green once they were in the privacy of the voting booth? Distrust of liberal politics and worship of wealth made city voters welcome a mogulocracy.

At this point in the mayoral race, only a connect-the-dots series of events could keep Mark Green out of Gracie Mansion -- but anything can happen . . .

Team Ferrer accuses Mark Green of playing the race card in the runoff, but that ugly game was begun by Bronx party chief Roberto Ramirez eighteen months ago.

Mark Green won the runoff without the support of the city's Big Three unions, leaving both the candidate and labor in an unfamiliar posture come Election Day.

Mark Green is in danger of losing because he didn't make voters feel comfortable enough, but maybe it's also time to admit his white-liberal constituency has become the new minority vote.

As the mayor turned two weeks of unforgettable grace under pressure into a bald power grab, Fernando Ferrer shed ethnic politics to become democracy's defender.