The Cuomo Conundrum
Lazio, a surer bet to beat than junkyard dog Paladino
If you were Andrew Cuomo, who would you rather run against: Rick Lazio, the Republican middle-of-the-roader who is as American as apple pie and Howdy Doody, or his conservative, tea-partyish opponent, Carl Paladino? Cuomo is beating the stuffing out of both of them in the polls. You can be sure that this question is being discussed a lot in the Cuomo organization and between Papa and Junior Cuomo. Read more
First Amendment at Stake
Right-wingers’ inflaming dialogue, using issue for political gain
Remember Nelson Mandela and his concept of “truth and reconciliation”?
In politics, you never know what’ll catch fire. Right now, it’s the mosque near Ground Zero. If you listen to right-winging, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino, the Ground Zero mosque is an affront to all Americans and more specifically to the Americans and foreigners killed in that awful attack. Furthermore it is a jab in the eye of the American people because, the multi-millionaire candidate says, the people who are putting up the mosque are “jihadists,” the very group of people responsible for bringing down the World Trade Center towers. Read more
New York Pols are all too human
Lawmakers act as though laws don’t apply to them
The more we watch these powerful folks in politics, the clearer it is that many of their actions can be explained by “rationalization,” the term we all learned back in our basic Psychology 101 course. For example, when Charlie Rangel is accused of not paying his taxes after having written much of the tax code, or Eliot Spitzer consorts with prostitutes after he wrote and enforced many of the laws against “Johns,” we ask ourselves how they could be so stupid. Or when former Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno skirts the ethical line by selling a nearly worthless nag as a way of having a business associate funnel money to him, we shake our heads and wonder what he could have been thinking. Read more
Going Lean in Hard Times
Time for New York politicians to stop ‘porking’ out
OK, class, let’s talk about pork. Pork, of course, is not kosher. Like many, I suspect one of the reasons it was listed in the biblically proscribed list was that if not properly handled, it caused diseases like trichinosis. Once that worm got into your system, you could die from it.
I tell you all of this since there is another kind of pork—that which exists in politics and abounds in New York, where the Legislature has given away more and more money each year. The party in power gets more of this pork (so-called projects and special member items) to give away than the minority party. Read more
Albany Must Police Itself
Lawmakers grease their own wheels with ‘Pay to Play’ schemes
When I issued my New Year’s predictions, I stated unequivocally that former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, 81, would not see a day of jail time. Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has made it clear that they have no confidence in the overly broad federal “Theft of Honest Services Law,” it appears more certain than ever that my prediction is coming true. Read more
Ready for a Revolution
You know it’s bad when California government starts to look good
By Alan S. Chartock
I have been hanging around the New York State Legislature and watching government as a professor, broadcaster and columnist since about 1965. I’ve seen a lot, but I have truly never seen anything like what I am seeing now. It’s degenerate, disgusting, venal and beyond comprehension. It is particularly bad in the New York State Senate, where a clique of Democratic politicians has grabbed power and captured the top leadership positions. Read more
Reading the LG Tea Leaves
What picking Rochester Mayor Duffy means for team Cuomo
Andrew Cuomo has chosen his candidate for lieutenant governor. He is Bob Duffy, the mayor of Rochester, and a virtual unknown “who-he?” to most New Yorkers.
If one knows the Cuomos and the way they think, which is politically, you had better believe that they have specific criteria for who becomes the number two person in the administration. Read more
Cuomo Tackles the Albany Beast
Would-be gov’s success depends on ability to navigate Legislature
Andrew Cuomo is positioning himself to be president of the United States. His chances of getting there will be infinitely increased if he is able to turn Albany into a calmer, less venal, more reflective and genuinely representative place.
Cuomo must win the Legislature’s confidence and at the same time convince the people that he really is going to clean things up. Read more
Three Guys in a Room
It’s no joke, and the scene in Albany is turning chaotic
So these three guys walk into a room. That sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it turns out that this meeting is anything but funny. The first man in the room is Speaker Sheldon Silver of the New York State Assembly. He’s the Empire State’s senior serving politician. He’s a canny, brilliant, politically astute guy who, up to now, has known how to win elections.
He is connected to the New York State power brokers and their lobbyists, like the teachers union, and he doesn’t break the paradigm of power. He isn’t about to change the game plan, even when confronted with the likes of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch. Koch, one of the great political phonies of all time, has a penchant for grabbing good issues and riding them. This time, it’s reform of the “dysfunctional” Legislature.
When really pressed, Silver gives a little to the forces of reform in the State Capitol. There are a number of ways to do that. One is to make a good bill into a lukewarm bill that will change little or nothing. That’s exactly what he did with the call for ethics reform. Gov. David Paterson correctly vetoed that joke.
Another Silver specialty has been the famous “one house bill” that he knows will never be passed in the other house. This used to be very easy when the other house was controlled by the Republicans. Now the State Senate is controlled by a group of pathetically inept Democrats who can’t get their act together, so the game is a little more difficult.
The Senate Dems’ leader is John Sampson, and he’s the second man in the room. Like his hero, that other Sampson, he has tremendous strength but is likely to be given a haircut by others in his Democratic Senate conference who just can’t seem to master the skill of playing well together. Sampson was chosen by his conference to pick up the pieces after a group un-herdable cats, among them the infamous crew of Hiram Monserrate, Pedro Espada and Malcolm Smith, came very close to committing hari-kari before our very eyes. Sampson has the respect of many internal players, but the public’s initial impression of the Senate’s ineptitude has been so lasting that no matter how much perfume they put on, the stench persists.
Sampson and Silver recently went along with Paterson’s plan to furlough state workers. A federal judge put that plan on hold and now they are hated by the unions and have little to show for their efforts.
Finally, there is Paterson, the third man in the room. He isn’t running for reelection and he knows that the way to political salvation and historical canonization is doing the right thing. His state is broke and he is trying to get civil servants to forgo pay raises. He is hopelessly outclassed by Andrew Cuomo, who is waiting in the wings but who won’t indicate what needs to be done to right the ship of state. So Paterson has put the spotlight on the Legislature and is holding tough, unable to make the other two guys come up with a plan that will allow New York to live within its means. Come January, he will be out of office and he will smell clean. The newspapers tell him that he’s doing right, but castigate him for being inept. He’s a good guy who deserves more support for what he is trying to do.
In the meantime, back in that room, chaos prevails. The reality is that the state is broke. The little boy who cried wolf is about to be eaten by that very same animal and everyone assumes that somehow this will turn out all right. As William Bendix would have said in The Life of Riley, “What a revoltin’ development.”
Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an executive publisher at The Legislative Gazette.
No Bench at All
Thin talent leaves state G.O.P. in the lurch
By Alan S. Chartock
Where are the Republicans?
This will be the biggest election ever in New York State. All—and I do mean all—the major offices are up for grabs. It’s a rare election when not one, but two, United States senators will be running at the same time.
There are all kinds of indications that this will be a Republican year. The unthinkable happened in Massachusetts when the seat once held by John and then Teddy Kennedy went to a young “who-he?” Republican. 
All the Republicans have to do is find some people who are known to the public who will run for office.
It turns out that this may be easier said than done. As usual, they turned out the usual suspects. First there was Rudy Giuliani. They always raise Rudy from the political dead. You name the office, the Republicans were going to run Rudy. I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Rudy wasn’t going to run. You see, there’s this guy, Bernie Kerik, Rudy’s former wunderkind. It turns out the man is a crook and that he was crooking on Giuliani’s watch.
It doesn’t stop there. Giuliani thought he would be president and went down to Florida with the mistaken belief that the Floridians would elect him. As they say in gin rummy, he got “schmeared.”
Finally, Rudy ain’t running because he’s making too much money, the kind of money that you are not allowed to make in public office. His firm has represented a lot of people, some of whom might not pass the smell test. Interestingly, the one situation in which he might actually win at this point would be if he were to run against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. She’s not doing well in the polls. But Giuliani hasn’t got the guts.
Another name that the Republicans seem to perpetually rely on is George Pataki. He is a Republican super-star and if the Republican constellation were aligned just right, he might win. But he, too, is making big money in his law firm. And polls show that he wouldn’t reach first base against Andrew Cuomo in a run for governor, and Pataki doesn’t want to be greeting constituents at the U.S. Capitol.
After those two, the Republicans have folks like John Faso, who they may just run for comptroller. There seems to be a bit of a food fight between Andrew Cuomo and Tom DiNapoli, the incumbent comptroller, but DiNapoli has a lot of friends who will be out there helping him.
The Republican wannabes who are attempting to run are a pathetic lot who have been self-destructing before our very eyes. Like I said, no bench at all. But unlike the Yankees, they can’t even buy talent.n
Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an executive publisher at The Legislative Gazette.
