He has made overtures to Fotis Kouvelis, the soft-spoken leader of the Democratic Left party, a refuge for aggrieved socialists that is polling around 9%.
"They become part of the story," says Mickey Blum, president of Blum & Weprin Associates, a company that is polling in this year's New York Senate race.
There have been widespread calls for change — of candidates and of ideas — which explain in part the popularity of a new anti-establishment party lead by comic Beppe Grillo that is polling at 19.7 percent.
In July, I came to the realization that the greatest risk to the Afghan elections was from "ghost" polling stations, that is polling centers sited in areas so insecure that the centers would never open.
"The candidates for mayor have been under the radar screen, but they have been putting together their campaign teams and their political coalitions," said Jeffrey B. Plaut, a partner with Global Strategies Group, a political consulting firm that is polling for Mr. Vallone's campaign.
'New Layout Vote', a Facebook application that is polling users on their response to the new Facebook homepage, is taking the social network by storm.
