HOWARD WOLFSON

Some Democrats warn this is a precarious strategy in a year when the party is facing stiff headwinds and could result in the election of Republicans promoting false claims who could use powerful posts to disrupt future votes.

James McBride’s latest honor for the novel “Deacon King Kong” is a real New York story.

NEW YORK A new literary award with a $50,000 cash prize will honor those best at telling a New York story. Wolfson and Tusk are funding the prize themselves and have committed to at least 10 years. Starting next spring, the award will be presented to a book, fiction or nonfiction, published in a given calendar year that is about New York City or takes place there. Celebrated works of the past that would have fit that category include Robert Caro's The Power Broker, Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities and Toni Morrison's Jazz.Jurors for the Gotham prize include filmmaker Ric Burns, poet Safina Sinclair and former New York City schools chancellor Dennis Walcott. The deadline for submissions for the 2020 prize is Nov. 1.

Ocasio-Cortez began airing a TV spot this week that underlines the importance of turnout in what's likely to be a low-turnout primary. Caruso-Cabrera has cast Ocasio-Cortez as a divisive elitist who ignores the district, which also covers parts of the Bronx. Caruso-Cabrera said that after Congress approved the coronavirus bill and the pandemic was ravaging New York, Ocasio-Cortez stayed in a luxury apartment in D.C. with a Whole Foods in the lobby." Caruso-Cabrera, 51, has vulnerabilities in the overwhelmingly Democratic district. The organization tangled with Ocasio-Cortez in a Texas primary in March, when she backed an unsuccessful liberal challenger to pro-business Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar.

One of the richest men in the world, Bloomberg is sending every indication he has decided to enter the crowded Democratic presidential primary election. Bloomberg's team has reserved more than $30 million in television ads set to begin running Sunday in several primary states. The decision to refuse contributions would make it impossible for Bloomberg to participate any sanctioned Democratic debates should he run. Any money Bloomberg raises and spends on his presidential ambitions will come from one place: His own pocket. "Whatever it takes to defeat Donald Trump," Wolfson said.

Reports indicate Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, is considering entering the crowded Democratic presidential primary race. Bloomberg has already filed paperwork to qualify for presidential primary ballots in three states. "One campaign is a primary campaign and there are a lot of great people in that contest and a lot of focus and activity around that," he added. And one of the arguments that we would make on behalf of Mike to primary voters: Is he is able to wage these two campaigns simultaneously effectively and simultaneously?" The new voter registration drive targets voters across five states that Trump won in 2016 largely by narrow margins.

Bloomberg has resurfaced less than three months before voting begins in the first nominating contest in Iowa on Feb. 3. We need more candidates! said Link, who is neutral in the Democratic race. Tom Steyer, a San Francisco hedge-fund billionaire in the Democratic race, taunted Bloomberg on Friday. If Michael Bloomberg decides to support a wealth tax, I welcome him to this race, Steyer said. In 2001, Bloomberg left the Democratic Party to run as a Republican for mayor of New York City.

Washington Michael Bloomberg is taking steps to enter the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, a person familiar with his plans tells CBS News. Bloomberg, 77, has dispatched aides to Alabama to file paperwork in the state to run as a Democrat. The Cotton State doesn't hold an early Democratic presidential primary, but has the earliest filing deadline for the presidential campaign. Taking steps to file paperwork is the most serious signal yet that the former New York mayor and billionaire is seriously planning for a White House run. In an interview with "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan in late October, Bloomberg expressed his reservations about the Democratic field.