Though NYS and Nassau Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs has not always been particularly positive about the potential Senate campaign of former Congressman Harold Ford, perhaps due to his outspoken support of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Ford's likely primary opponent, we did hear that the pair spoke on the phone recently. Chairman Jacobs has confirmed that he received a 15-minute "courtesy call" from the would-be Senate primary candidate recently and he came away "positively disposed" toward him, while not coming anywhere close to switching his support.

Moving back to the local scene for a minute, Erie County Independence Party Vice-Chairman Ricky Donovan has been reaching out to the Tea Party movement as a way of making the local IP what he calls "A People's Party."

"Unlike previous leaders of our party, we have not put pressure on anyone to support this candidate or that," he points out. "We have always let the local leaders of our party decide endorsements. Right now we are reaching out to members of the Tea Party movement in order to let them know that, if they want to influence the political process, they should join our party. We are the true grassroots party, the true "People's Party" and we are putting out the welcome mat for them because they are the true people's movement."

Meanwhile, Vice-Chairman Donovan has announced that he has endorsed Buffalo businessman and community leader Eddie Egriu for public office in 2010.

"Eddie is a true people's candidate, someone who is a hard working family man, not a professional politician," he declares. "He is someone who knows the problems of the average person because he lives them himself every single day.

Getting back to the Jacobs/Ford Summit, the Chairman reports had and the former Tennessean "had a nice get-to-know you talk. He called to let me know he was coming out to the island. I told him he couldn't see me unless he was coming to Dubai because I would be there for business. It was a nice, amicable, pleasant discussion. A nice courtesy call. These courtesies are important to folks, and I think the substance is, too."