Ed Brzezinski enters race for city controller
Ed Brzezinski is seeking the Democratic nomination for city controller in the spring primary election.
Brooke Sanfilippo announces bid for city controller
Brzezinski has spent 12 years on the Erie School Board along with two full eight-year terms on city council.
If he wins this race, his third term on city council would be cut short and his seat would be vacated.
Chuck Nelson announces run for Erie City Controller
'I think the city is, and I think everybody knows, is at a critical juncture. There's going to be a lot of things that are happening and a lot things that are not happening. ARPA money is going to be running out. It's going to be a time where experience is going to be a major factor in the things that we do. That's basically why I'm throwing my hat in there,' said Brzezinski.
Brzezinski's challengers for the position are Erie resident Brooke Sanfilippo and fellow city council member Chuck Nelson.
They'll be seeking the Democratic bid in May.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Washington Post
19 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Alina Habba's future as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor faces legal test
President Donald Trump's effort to keep Alina Habba in charge of the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey is facing a legal challenge that could influence his ability to extend terms for some of his other controversial picks to lead prosecutor's offices across the country. Defendants in a drug and gun case set to go to trial in New Jersey this week are urging a federal court to toss the charges, arguing that Habba, a former Trump defense lawyer, has no legal standing to exercise prosecutorial powers. 'The executive branch has exceeded its lawful authority,' defense lawyer Thomas Mirigliano wrote in a court filing. 'Thus, all subsequent prosecutorial actions taken by Ms. Habba or any assistant U.S. attorneys relying on her purported authority lack constitutional legitimacy.' A judge who briefly considered the matter Monday called that argument 'nonfrivolous' before the issue was transferred to a judge in Pennsylvania who will now rule on the merits of Mirigliano's filing. Trump appointed Habba, whom the state's Democratic senators have panned as a 'partisan warrior,' to a 120-day term as New Jersey's interim U.S. attorney this year. With that tenure having expired last week, the state's federal judges voted not to renew her appointment and chose Desiree Leigh Grace, a veteran prosecutor from the office, to replace her. The Justice Department quickly fired Grace, and Trump administration officials deployed a complex series of procedural moves that it maintains will allow Habba to remain on the job indefinitely. Those steps included Habba resigning as interim U.S. attorney before the official expiration of her term on Saturday, and the president withdrawing her pending nomination for a full four years as the Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney. Attorney General Pam Bondi then appointed Habba to the No. 2 job in the New Jersey office — a role the Justice Department maintains will allow Habba to continue serving as its de facto leader since no one is currently appointed to fill the office's top position. Experts have questioned the legality of those unconventional maneuvers and whether Habba still holds the authority to act as the Garden State's top prosecutor. But Bondi and others have accused New Jersey's federal judges, many of whom were appointed by Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, of working to frustrate Trump's agenda. Mirigliano — a lawyer for Julien Giraud Jr., one of the defendants contesting the charges on grounds that Habba 'holds office unlawfully' — argued that 'the illegitimacy of Habba's appointment' undermines his client's due process rights. U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel described Mirigliano's gambit as a 'nonfrivolous argument' and suggested during a brief court hearing Monday that other federal judges in New Jersey might be preparing to pause proceedings in other criminal cases as they wait for questions over Habba's legal authority to be settled. Until then, the issue threatens to cast much of the work of that U.S. attorney's office into doubt. Hours after Mirigliano's motion, Michael A. Chagares, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, transferred the matter to a federal judge in Pennsylvania to sort out, apparently because New Jersey's federal bench had already voted against extending Habba's term. That new judge, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, huddled with lawyers on both sides Tuesday to review how to handle the matter. Brann — a former Republican Party official, member of the conservative Federalist Society and an Obama appointee — gained notoriety in 2020 with a withering dismissal of Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the election in Pennsylvania that year. In court filings Tuesday, the Justice Department insisted on the legality of the president's effort to keep Habba on the job and said Trump intended to immediately fire Grace, the judge's pick, even if she'd assumed the role of U.S. attorney. 'Ultimately, the President has both constitutional and statutory authority to remove from office any U.S. attorney — whether appointed by the President, the Attorney General, or the courts --- and to replace that person … with someone he believes better suited to fulfill that role,' government lawyers wrote. They maintained that even if Brann disagrees, Giraud's case — and countless others pending in New Jersey — could still move forward because they were launched by Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys in prior administrations. That still would not address the status of any charges Habba's office has brought since the legality of her position was called into doubt. A review of federal court dockets since Saturday, when Habba's interim term officially expired, showed prosecutors had filed cases against at least three new defendants on charges including bank fraud and fraudulent possession of a government ID. K. Anthony Thomas, the chief federal public defender in New Jersey, urged Brann in a separate filing Tuesday to consider what would become of those cases and others that Habba's office will continue to bring separately from the issue now being raised by Giraud. 'It is critical that the court decide these issues as they are presented by the facts of each case,' Thomas wrote, noting the 'complexity and importance of the legal issues involved.' Brann has sought further briefing on the matter and has not yet indicated whether he will hold a hearing before ruling on Giraud's motion to dismiss his case. The Justice Department has deployed maneuvers similar to those used to keep Habba on behalf of at least two of Trump's other controversial appointments as interim U.S. attorneys — John E. Sarcone III, in the Albany-based Northern District of New York, and Sigal Chattah, in the District of Nevada. Unlike Habba, neither of them had been nominated by Trump for a full, four-year term in their posts. That could be due in part to headwinds working against them in the Senate. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said he intends to continue to honor a custom, known as the 'blue slip,' that allows either of a state's two senators to block the president's nominees for judicial or U.S. attorney roles. New Jersey's senators — Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both Democrats — opposed Habba's nomination. And Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) has made clear she would oppose Chattah were she to be nominated. Trump urged Grassley to reconsider in a post to social media Tuesday evening, calling the blue slip tradition 'a hoax' that has stymied his ability to get his nominees confirmed. 'The only way to beat this Hoax,' he wrote, 'is to appoint a Democrat or, a weak and ineffective Republican. Therefore, I would never be able to appoint Great Judges or U.S. Attorneys in California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia, and other places.'


The Hill
24 minutes ago
- The Hill
Democratic state representative James Talarico seeks to turn Texas blue: 'The Hill' on NewsNation
Democratic state representative James Talarico is gaining national attention after appearing on Joe Rogan's podcast, with Rogan at one point even suggesting a presidential run for the 36-year-old from Austin. However, a run for Senate is what could come next.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Cuomo cites NYC shooting in slamming Mamdani's ‘defund the police' past
Andrew Cuomo believes Monday's mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan will bring public safety to the forefront of this year's mayoral race — and is already citing the tragedy in painting Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani as someone who would be ill-equipped to oversee the NYPD. Cuomo, who's running as an independent against Mamdani in November's mayoral election, made the assessment in a wide-ranging interview with the Daily News on Tuesday afternoon. In the interview, Cuomo argued issues related to public safety are political weak spots for Mamdani and affirmed he plans to start calling out his past rhetoric about policing as the general election season heats up. Having vowed to run a more aggressive general election campaign after losing last month's Democratic mayoral primary to Mamdani by a 12-percentage-point margin, Cuomo even questioned whether his opponent's condolences for the NYPD officer killed in Monday's shooting were genuine. '[Mamdani] said that today because it was in his political interest, but everything he has said for years is the exact opposite,' said Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he now denies. The ex-gov continued, 'You do a 180 right after this incident … and it's just coincidental that the election is a few months away? Do you buy that?' Cuomo was referring to an X post Mamdani put out Monday in which he, in part, wrote he was 'grateful' for the cops and other emergency personnel who earlier in the day had responded to 345 Park Ave., where officials say suspect Shane Tamura fatally shot NYPD officer Didarul Islam and three others before killing himself. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, embraced sharply different rhetoric about the NYPD during the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in 2020 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. In social media posts at the time, Mamdani wrote the city should 'defund' and 'dismantle' NYPD, blasting the department as 'racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.' 'Oh, really, Officer Islam was racist?' Cuomo said Tuesday. 'Who's going to apply to be a police officer when that's what the mayor thinks of them?' Mamdani, who is in Uganda visiting family this week, wasn't available for an interview Tuesday, but his spokeswoman Zara Rahim blasted Cuomo for using the shooting as fodder for a political attack. 'Families across our city are mourning — including members of our Muslim community grieving an officer who leaves behind his pregnant wife and young children. Multiple victims remain in the hospital, fighting for their lives,' Rahim said. 'Our focus is on supporting those who've lost loved ones and bringing our communities together in the face of tragedy. This is a moment for compassion and solidarity — not cheap shots in the press.' Mayor Adams, who's also running as an independent in November's election after having dropped out of the Democratic primary amid fallout from his federal indictment, agreed with Mamdani's campaign. 'It is deeply disappointing — and frankly despicable — that during a moment of tragedy, when our city is mourning the loss of one of its own, former Governor Cuomo would choose to inject politics,' Adams told The News in a statement. 'Now is not the time for political potshots. Now is a time for unity, compassion and focus on the brave officer who made the ultimate sacrifice.' Since launching his mayoral bid, Mamdani has shifted gears rhetorically on policing, saying he wouldn't defund the NYPD as mayor. Instead, he has vowed he'd keep the department's officer headcount flat and launch a new community safety agency focused on helping people with mental illness in order to let cops focus on fighting crime. But Cuomo, who has pledged to as mayor hire 5,000 new NYPD officers, said he doesn't trust Mamdani would make good on those promises. 'I don't believe that pointing to one statement counteracts 10 years of activism and hundreds of tweets,' said Cuomo. As governor, Cuomo voiced solidarity in 2020 with elements of the Black Lives Matter movement and signed an executive order that threatened to pull state funding from police departments that didn't take steps to reform their use-of-force protocols to ensure accountability and to protect civil rights. But on Tuesday, Cuomo struck a different tone, arguing the anti-police sentiment that took root in 2020 was dangerous. 'That whole movement was wrong and did tremendous damage and today is a reality check on that,' he said. Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi later said the ex-gov was with that comment referring to the defund-the-police movement, not Black Lives Matter. Mamdani is polling as the favorite to win November's election after running a primary campaign focused on affordability that included pledges to freeze rent for stabilized tenants, drastically expand subsidized child care and make public buses free. Policing was not a major theme of Mamdani's campaign, and Cuomo as well as Adams are likely to come after him over that issue this fall. Cuomo saved some criticism for Adams in relation to the Midtown shooting as well. Touting that, as governor, he signed legislation that banned assault rifles in New York, Cuomo questioned why Adams hasn't as mayor tried to do more to rally local elected officials around the country to push Congress to enact stricter gun control laws on the federal level. 'I haven't heard or seen him doing that,' Cuomo said. In his statement, Adams said Cuomo is mistaken, noting his administration 'has convened national meetings with mayors from cities most impacted by gun violence.' 'This is not a moment for finger-pointing. It's a moment to honor our heroes, support their families, and recommit ourselves to the hard work of keeping our cities safe,' he said.