Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits
August 15, 2017: Representative vs. Substantive Representation, with Dr. Christina Greer and Alexis Grenell
On this episode of the Max & Murphy podcast we're without City Limits' Jarrett Murphy, who is on a much-deserved vacation, but joined by political analysts Dr. Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University, and Alexis Grenell, a Democratic strategist, founder of Pythia Public, and columnist on gender and politics.
With our Ben Max, Greer and Grenell discussed issues commonly referred to as "identity politics" dealing with gender, race, elections, and government. The three talked about the mayoral race between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Nicole Malliotakis, the Republican nominee seeking to become the city's first female mayor; de Blasio's record on gender equity; the low number of women in the City Council and what's at stake in this year's elections; barriers to entry into politics for women; and more.
Listen to the full conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax @Dr_CMGreer @agrenell. You can hear the conversation through the embedded audio below or download it wherever you get your podcasts.
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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax @GothamGazette
City Council candidate Keith Powers (photo: @KeithPowersNYC)
Candidates across the city this year are running for City Council on all sorts of issues, but only one has released a detailed list of government, campaign finance, and voting reform proposals. That agenda, called “Sunlight in the City,” has been put forward by Keith Powers, a Democrat competing in the crowded field to replace term-limited City Council Member Dan Garodnick on Manhattan’s East Side.
At a time of widespread distrust in government, continued problems with public corruption and unethical conduct, and low voter turnout, especially here in New York, Powers’ agenda is especially noteworthy. The 22-point platform on government and electoral reform in New York City is something of an amalgamation of longtime goals for voting reform advocates and good government groups. Some of the measures have actually already been passed or implemented; some have to be approved at the state level.
Powers’ reform agenda also comes as he is has been attacked by opponents for his work as a lobbyist -- he was until May a vice president at the firm Constantinople and Vallone. Sunlight in the City includes several planks directly related to lobbying, including more disclosure of lobbying meetings held by City Council members and more detailed lobbyist reporting to indicate, among other things, “who got lobbied, who did the lobbying, and the specific bill or subject matter.”
Some of the mainstay priorities of electoral and government reform advocates that appear in Powers’ platform include a move to instant runoff voting for all city elections and lowering the number of City Council issue committees to diminish patronage and redundancy in the legislative body. These planks have been proposed in the Council and, in the case of instant runoff voting, at the state level, but have gone nowhere.
Powers also calls for lowering the individual contribution limit to Council candidates campaigns from $2,750 to $1,225, “to make small donors and large donors equal in their donation capacity.” Ideally, his agenda says, he wants to see 100% publicly financed elections in the city to replace the city’s current matching funds mechanism, starting with a pilot program for special elections. Kallos introduced a bill to increase the matching funds payout for Council races “to a full match with the expenditure limit,” which is currently in committee.
A few planks in the platform are already in place, such as the closure of the “doing business loophole” that allows those doing business with the city to circumvent donation limits by giving to political nonprofits. The loophole was closed in a bill passed by the Council and signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2016, after the mayor himself was investigated for issues related to his own political nonprofit, the Campaign for One New York, which was shuttered amid controversy.
“I think it’s important we’re always sort of constantly evaluating our process by which we do government or help get people elected or otherwise,” Powers said in an interview, “we can always do better.” He indicated he believes the City Council is, in most cases, a model for transparent government, but that there’s still more that can be done.
In part because of his reform agenda, Powers has received the endorsement of City Council Member Ben Kallos, himself an advocate of open and ethical government and the representative of a neighboring Council district to the one Powers hopes to represent. Kallos also chairs the Council’s government operations committee, which often hears bills related to government and campaign finance reform.
“In terms of his Sunlight in the City report, it is a list of the 22 items that the City Council is currently working on or should be working on to really clean up government,” Kallos told Gotham Gazette. Kallos said that he hasn’t seen anything like it from anyone running this year.
While few City Council candidates are talking about government and campaign finance reform, Democratic mayoral hopeful Sal Albanese has made the topic central to his attempt to unseat de Blasio. Albanese has proposed a significant campaign finance reform to completely eliminate private money from the system, something de Blasio has said he favors in theory, but has not advanced legislation on.
Powers acknowledges the difficulties in getting some things on his list passed, but said that shouldn’t be a reason to not try.
“I think the City Council reform, I think that is the one where I look at as there being a lot of really achievable ideas in there,” said Powers, citing the creation of an independent bill drafting unit as something that many legislators are clamoring for, despite the existence of such a unit. The unit was part of a package of Council reforms passed in 2014, but Powers believes that these reforms can go further; regarding the drafting unit, Powers believes the current iteration is an improvement, but that it should be even more autonomous in instances such as the number of bills that can be introduced at a given time.
Another Council reform Powers sees as achievable deals with bill aging. Currently, a bill ages seven days after introduction for public input, but Powers claims that it just sits in City Hall and is essentially unavailable to the public. He believes it should publicly age online.
Powers said that the challenge of moving some of the reforms through the state government shouldn’t be a deterrent, that the city shouldn’t be “abdicating our authority to Albany.” Kallos said that the voting reform planks, other than ending patronage at the Board of Elections, don’t have to go through the state Legislature. Many of the other planks need city passage, some can be done through City Council rules.
On closing doing business loophole, which already became law, Powers conceded to have not known the full extent of the legislative package that was passed. He also was largely nonspecific on his proposed additions to the 2014 member item reform, stating that there’s a lot to look at where the Council can “do better.”
The Powers agenda received an enthusiastic response from democratic reform group Citizens Union, which interviews candidates and releases preferences in some city elections based on good government bona fides.
“Keith Powers has put forward an ambitious and wide-ranging plan to increase transparency and accountability, and bring some needed sunlight to the New York City Council. While we do not support all of his proposed reforms, Citizens Union has long been advocating for several of them and will continue to do so in the upcoming session,” said Rachel Bloom, Citizens Union’s Public Policy director.
For example, Citizens Union is not in support of the full public financing of city elections plank of Powers’ platform -- the organization “feel[s] that candidates should have to raise money in the districts they seek to represent,” Bloom said. However, it is supportive of Powers’ proposed pilot program in special elections. The organization has not yet made its preference in the Council District 4 race or any other.
In the Democratic primary to be voted on September 12, Powers is competing against Marti Speranza, Jeff Mailman, Bessie Schachter, Maria Castro, Vanessa Aronson, Barry Shapiro, Rachel Honig, and Alec Hartman, none of whom have released government reform platforms, though Shapiro called for transparency in lobbying in a campaign video.
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by Ben Brachfeld, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
The Citizens Union candidate interview and preference process is wholly separate from Gotham Gazette operations. Gotham Gazette does not endorse or support candidates for office.
Nicole Malliotakis (photo: @NMalliotakis)
Daniel Loeb, the investor, political donor, and charter school network leader who has found himself embroiled in controversy after racially charged remarks about State Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, donated the maximum allowable contribution of $4,950 to the campaign of presumptive Republican mayoral nominee Nicole Malliotakis.
The brash board chair of the Success Academy Charter Schools Network and CEO of the Third Point hedge fund said in a Thursday Facebook post that Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Westchester who is African-American, had done “more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood,” in apparent reference to her anti-charter school position on public school education and the KKK, and in response to a reported exchange between Stewart-Cousins and Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The post, first reported by The New York Times, was taken down and Loeb issued an apology, saying, "I regret the language I used in expressing my passion for educational choice," but that didn’t stop Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray from calling for Loeb’s resignation from Success, the city’s largest and most controversial charter school chain, in separate tweets posted Friday.
“Charter schools are in fact public schools. No public school leader would get to keep their job after a comment like Loeb's. Time to go, Dan,” was posted from the mayor’s official account. De Blasio has been a frequent critic of charter schools and has had an especially contentious relationship with Success Academy and its founder and CEO, Eva Moskowitz.
There has also been loud and swift criticism of Loeb’s remark by other Democratic elected officials and activists, among others. Many have called on those who have received Loeb contributions to return them, especially Governor Andrew Cuomo, to whom Loeb has directly donated over $110,000 since 2007
Statements of condemnation have also come from some of Loeb’s allies, including Cuomo, Success’ Moskowitz, and Jenny Sedlis, the executive director of pro-charter group StudentsFirstNY, where Loeb sits on the board.
In addition to his donations to the governor, Loeb has been a substantial donor to state Senate Republicans and the Senate Independent Democratic Conference, as well as congressional Democrats, giving over $100,000 to the Democratic congressional and senatorial campaign committees and thousands more to individual candidates, including Congressional Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and Virginia Senator Mark Warner.
Loeb (pictured) gave Malliotakis, de Blasio’s presumed general election opponent, the max $4,950 contribution on August 4, and does not appear to have given any other direct donations to New York City candidates in the 2017 cycle, nor has he bundled donations. In the 2013 election cycle, he contributed to then-mayoral candidate Christine Quinn and current Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Charter schools – privately run public schools largely funded through public monies – have been contentious within politics since their creation. Malliotakis has made statements in support of expanding charters, while de Blasio has been a frequent antagonist and target of charters, though he has made some peace of late. Still, de Blasio is often at odds with the sector and its backers over granting charter schools space in public buildings. Part of his recent deal with the state Legislature to extend mayoral control of city schools included significant concessions to charter schools.
Success Academy enrolls over 15,000 students. Moskowitz, the CEO, is a former City Council member and frequent de Blasio critic who has considered running for mayor herself.
Reached by phone, Malliotakis campaign spokesperson Rob Ryan said, “We are glad Dan Loeb apologized for what he said, and Assemblywoman Malliotakis agrees with Saturday’s New York Post editorial on the matter.” The editorial agreed that Loeb’s language was inappropriate but asserted that otherwise his stance on charter schools and Albany Democrats like Sen. Stewart-Cousins was correct. Charter school supporters, like Loeb and the Post editorial board, often argue that Democrats who oppose charter schools (and are allied with teachers unions) are doing so to the detriment of students, especially children of color, who are more likely to attend subpar district schools.
The Malliotakis campaign will be keeping the donation.
[Update: de Blasio campaign spokesperson Dan Levitan emailed Gotham Gazette responding to a request for comment, saying, “Her biggest supporters are the billionaires behind Trump and Breitbart news and the guy who thinks standing up for public schools is worse than the KKK. These are things all New Yorkers should reject."]
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by Felipe De La Hoz, Gotham Gazette
@FelipeDLH @GothamGazette