NEW THIS MORNING

SENATE REPUBLICANS HIRE CONSULTANT WITH ABRAMOFF TIES: The Senate Republican Campaign Committee has paid $92,640 to a firm run by consultant Susan Ralston, who resigned as an aide to Karl Rove because of her involvement in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal: http://bit.ly/AetmsX NEW THIS MORNING: *  Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Queens convention center plans are raising eyebrows among convention experts, who say the distance from Manhattan will deter prospective event holders and hoteliers, the New York Times writes: http://nyti.ms/xnU6Rr * New Yorkers gave $13.3 million to so-called Super PACs in 2011, making the state second only to Texas in fundraising for the groups, the New York Post writes: http://nyp.st/wNWJF2 * The State Board of Elections' proposed guidelines for Super PACs are designed with a loophole that may allow the PACs not to disclose any fundraising information at all, the Times Union reports: http://bit.ly/xHHMcd * A state judge ruled in favor of the upstate town of Dryden's right to ban hydrofracking within town borders, the Times reports: http://nyti.ms/yHKxPr * Amid reports that controversial NYPD "stop and frisk" tactics increased 600 percent under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration, the policy's critics formed a new coalition to make the practice a 2013 mayoral race litmus test, the Times writes: http://nyti.ms/wHrCdA * State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has received more than a quarter of his campaign contributions from the unions he is trying to defend from Cuomo's proposed pension reforms, the Daily News writes: http://nydn.us/x441sD * But according to a profile of the comptroller in the New York Observer, public sector union contributions only make up 12 percent of DiNapoli's campaign account: http://bit.ly/yZuwnP