Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits
May 15, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Stephanie Miner
Since leaving office due to term limits, former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner has been teaching at NYU Wagner School and deciding whether to challenge Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. She's still deciding, she said on the Max & Murphy podcast, while also outlining key aspects of her political career thus far, her assessment of what's broken in our politics, what it means to be "a romantic about government," her falling out with Cuomo, her assessment of Cynthia Nixon's candidacy, and more.
Listen to the full conversation and let us know what you think -- we're on Twitter @TweetBenMax and @JarrettMurphy, and this week's guest Stephanie Miner @MinerNYS. You can listen to the episode through the embedded audio below or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts.
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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax @GothamGazette
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
On Friday, state legislative leaders released the list of candidates who applied to be named Attorney General through a process that will include public hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. The list of candidates includes current Attorney General Barbara Underwood, who took over upon Eric Schneiderman’s resignation:
Thomas J. Abinanti; Lloyd Constantine; Michael D. Diederich, Jr; Jose W. Fernandez; Nicole Gueron; Elizabeth Holtzman; Thomas E. Humbach; Doris Ling-Cohan; Daniel J. O’Donnell; Sean Patrick Maloney; Mina Quinto Malik; Leecia Roberta Eve; Jennifer P. Stergion; Barbara D. Underwood; David Yassky; Alex Zapesochny
“Interviews will be held by a bi-partisan, bicameral committee of the Legislature on Tuesday, May 15, 2018, beginning at 2:00 p.m. and Wednesday, May 16, 2018, beginning at 10:00 a.m. in the Hamilton Hearing Room B, Legislative Office Building in Albany. These interviews will be open to the public and will be available for live viewing on the New York State Assembly website...Candidates will be given the opportunity to make an opening statement and to answer questions from members of the committee in order to assess their qualifications for the position.”
The process is being led by Assembly Democrats. Senate Republicans have declined to participate, seemingly knowing that Democrats in the two chambers have enough votes to name their preferred candidate as AG through the end of this year and presumably not wanting the process to unfold and thus give an appointed person an advantage in this year’s election. Assemblymember Joseph Lentol is heading the interview committee, which also includes Assemblymembers Jeffrey Dinowitz, Crystal Peoples-Stokes; Matthew Titone; William Barclay and Brian Curran; and Senators Martin Dilan and Brad Hoylman.
Public Advocate Letitia James is among several big names who have expressed or are known to have interest in the position of Attorney General who are not participating in the legislature’s process. When James announced she would not be applying for the appointment, she said she would have more news this coming week about her future plans. Others who have also said they are considering jumping into this year’s electoral race or are rumored to be interested or have expressed some openness to considering it include Rep. Kathleen Rice, law professor Zephyr Teachout, Senator Michael Gianaris, former City Council Member Daniel Garodnick, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, former de Blasio counsel Maya Wiley, and Senator Todd Kaminsky, among others.
That’s the headline of what to watch for this week, but there’s a lot more happening, including Governor Cuomo’s likely trip to Israel, Mayor de Blasio's trip to Washington, D.C., executive budget hearings continuing at the City Council, and more -- see our day-by-day rundown below.
***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday
“On Monday, Mayor de Blasio will attend the viewing for NYPD Sergeant Richard Wetzel. This event is closed press. Later, the Mayor will appear on NY1’s Inside City Hall,” in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.
At 2 p.m. Monday, Governor Cuomo will make an announcement from his Manhattan office. In the evening, Cuomo will deliver remarks at the New York League of Conservation Voters' annual gala in Manhattan.
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Monday in Albany.
On Monday morning, the New York Working Families Party announced it is starting to vet candidates for Attorney General "and plans to make an endorsement at the WFP's Convention on Saturday, May 19th at First Corinthian Baptist Church...The WFP believes that New York needs an independent Attorney General who will be unafraid to stand up to the powerful and investigate Donald Trump and Wall Street crime, and will restore public integrity."
At the City Council on Monday, the following committees will hold Executive Budget hearings:
--Public Safety at 10 a.m., regarding the NYPD.
--Justice System at 1 p.m., regarding District Attorneys and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.
--Housing and Buildings at 2:30 p.m., regarding the Department of Housing Preservation & Development and the Department of Buildings.
At 10 a.m. Monday in Bushwick at NYCHA Hope Gardens, “Council Member Rafael Espinal (D37- Bushwick, Cypress Hills, East New York) joins NYCHA tenants who are leaders of Metro Industrial Areas Foundation and faith leaders to commend Mayor de Blasio’s administration on their commitment to build affordable housing on underused NYCHA property. The coalition is hoping this site will be the model for the next 200 lots they have identified as viable for similar uses.” The “lot at Hope Gardens is among the first of three projects slated to be used for affordable senior housing. An RFP for the development has gone out; the property will be officially revealed by the advocates for the first time at Monday’s press conference.”
At 10 a.m. Monday at City Hall, "Food delivery workers will be joined by advocates from Asian American Federation, Biking Public Project, Transportation Alternatives, Make the Road New York, Legal Aid Society, Council Member Carlos Menchaca, Council Member Margaret Chin, and other elected officials to demand revisions to the Department of Transportation (DOT) rule clarifying the legality of pedal-assist electric bicycles (“e-bikes”), and changes to the current NYPD practice of punishing food delivery workers." Participants will include food delivery workers, City Council Members Margaret Chin and Carlos Menchaca; Asian American Federation; Biking Public Project; Transportation Alternatives; Make the Road New York; The Legal Aid Society; and other elected officials.
On Monday at noon at City Hall, “City Council Health Chair Mark Levine will be joined by colleagues and advocates to call on the City to increase Tuberculosis (TB) funding for the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) Bureau of Tuberculosis Control (BTBC). TB is a communicable airborne disease and the leading infectious killer worldwide. In 2017, there were 613 new TB cases in NYC, a 10 percent increase. This marked the city’s first increase since 2003 and its largest since 1993...Over the past 10 years, federal, state and city funding for TB has been cut by more than half, dropping from $29 million in 2007 to $14.7 million in 2017, with only $8.6M of that coming from the City.” Levine will be joined by City Council Finance Chair Daniel Dromm, among others.
At noon on Monday, “Community Service Society and Riders Alliance's Grassroots Fair Fares leaders representing an unprecedented coalition of transit, anti-poverty, civil rights and racial justice organizations” will be at the 125th Street subway station in Harlem “engaging subway riders to call Mayor Bill de Blasio's office, get on the record in support of Fair Fares, and ask their mayor to join the cause in this year's city budget.”
On Monday at 2 p.m., City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and taxi drivers "will be calling for a amnesty for fines of taxi drivers in New York City, this measure would benefit a large percentage of taxi drivers, who have pending payments totaling between $2 and $3 million and who do not have fines on major safety violations."
At noon Monday, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will deliver remarks at the Laborers' International Union of North America Conference, Albany Capital Center. At 6:30 p.m., Hochul will attend the Fortune Most Powerful Women Event, at Time Warner Conference Center in Columbus Circle.
"The Queens Borough Board, chaired by Borough President Melinda Katz, will hear a presentation from the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) on its proposed M1 Hotel Text Amendment during the Board’s meeting on Monday, May 14, 2018 at 5:30 PM in Queens Borough Hall."
Monday evening is the annual League of Conservation Voters gala, in Manhattan. Gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro will be among those in attendance. As mentioned, Governor Cuomo will deliver keynote remarks.
Tuesday
On Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall, Rev. Al Sharpton and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will lead a press conference to "call for the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana in the wake of published reports regarding a disproportionality of arrests targeting blacks and Hispanics" in New York City, per an advisory from Sharpton's National Action Network. Other elected officials and advocates will also participate, including Council Members Donovan Richards, Rory Lancman, and Ydanis Rodriguez. Sharpton will also call for a meeting with NYPD Commissioner O'Neill on the subject.
On Tuesday, Mayor de Blasio will be in Washington, D.C. to speak at the Center for American Progress' 2018 Big Ideas Conference. The mayor is expected to speak at 11:30 a.m.
At the City Council on Tuesday, the following committees will hold Executive Budget hearings:
--General Welfare at 10 a.m., regarding the Human Resources Administration and the Department of Homeless Services.
--General Welfare and Juvenile Justice jointly at 1 p.m., regarding the Administration for Children’s Services.
--Fire and Emergency Management at 3 p.m., regarding the FDNY.
Also at the City Council on Tuesday:
--The Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet at 9:30 a.m.
--The Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting, and Maritime Uses will meet at noon.
--The Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions, and Concessions will meet at 2 p.m.
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Tuesday in Albany.
Legislative committee interviews of Attorney General candidates will take place in Albany on Tuesday afternoon.
At 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will appear on NY1's "Mornings on 1" with Pat Kiernan. Afterward, Stringer will deliver remarks at the National Conference On Public Employee Retirement Systems.
Republican candidate for governor Marc Molinaro will also be a guest on NY1's "Mornings on 1" Tuesday morning, at 7:30 a.m.
On Tuesday, "Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will host the annual Bronx Week Business Luncheon, which recognizes business leaders in the borough for their contributions to the civic and economic health of The Bronx. During his remarks, Borough President Diaz will release the “Bronx Annual Development Report,” outlining the total development that took place in The Bronx during 2017."
On Tuesday at 2 p.m., First Lady Chirlane McCray "will participate in a Facebook Live discussion with Kay Warren—a national faith leader, author and co-founder of Saddleback Church—about how faith leaders can address mental illness and addiction in their communities ahead of the upcoming third annual weekend for mental health with faith and community leaders nationwide (May 17-20)."
At 2 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, "women leaders and activists will gather at City Hall to condemn Governor Cuomo’s bullying of elected officials and community organizations. Cuomo is reportedly trying to block New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, a prominent woman of color, from accepting the endorsement of the Working Families Party for her Attorney General candidacy. This bullying of James comes on heels of Cuomo threatening to defund community organizations aligned with the Working Families Party. Many low-income women of color will be harmed if Cuomo follows through on such threats...Speakers will include Nomiki Konst, Zakiyah Ansari, and Natasha Capers. The list of speakers is still in formation. Other women involved in organizing or supporting this event include: Zenayda Mendez, Bertha Lewis, and Kat Brezler."
At 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in Union Square, “hundreds expected at first U.S. rally for age justice to confront ageism...organized by the Radical Age Movement and more than two dozen co-sponsors...Speakers and entertainers at the rally will testify loud and clear that “We are part of the future, too!” “Ageism exists because American culture demeans older adults and ignores how they can and will contribute to the country’s future,” says Alice Fisher, co-founder of The Radical Age Movement, a national non-profit based in New York that rejects long-standing misinterpretations of aging."
On Tuesday afternoon as MS 131 in Manhattan, schools Chancellor Richard Carranza will host two town hall s with parents.
At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Limits will host “Fair Housing in a Rezoned City” at WeWork Harlem, examining the “difficult questions surrounding the city’s fair housing assessment process.” City Limits Executive Editor Jarrett Murphy will moderate a panel consisting of City Council Member Brad Lander, Leila Bozorg of HPD, Chanera Pierce of the Fair Housing Justice Center, and Barika Williams of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development.
On Tuesday evening, Council Speaker Johnson will speak at the WearingIrish New York City 2018 Showcase, at Bank of Ireland.
Wednesday
At the City Council on Wednesday, the following committees will hold Executive Budget hearings:
--Public Housing at 10 a.m., regarding NYCHA.
--Transportation at 2 p.m., regarding the Department of Transportation.
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Wednesday in Albany.
Legislative committee interviews of Attorney General candidates will continue in Albany on Wednesday morning.
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, the Center for an Urban Future will host “Scaling Up Small Businesses in the Bronx” at Hostos Community College, with a panel discussing the small business boom in the Bronx and the simultaneous lack of scaling and “sustained growth.” The panel will consist of Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr, City Council Member Mark Gjonaj, Jessica Johnson of Johnson Security Bureau, Kerry McLean of WHEDco, Joyce Moy of the Asian American Research Institute, Anthony Ramirez II of Mainland Media, and Hashem Yehiya of Tasty Picks.
"On Wednesday, May 16th at 8am Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, Melinda Hunt of The Hart Island Project and other council members will tour the burial grounds of Hart Island on the 150th anniversary since the purchase of the island by the City of New York in 1868."
Beginning at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, a “Hospital Community Benefit Symposium” on “how hospitals can engage and invest in our health and well-being.” The event at the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building on 125th Street is being hosted by WE ACT for Environmental Justice and partners.
At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg and MTA New York City Transit Commissioner Andy Byford will host a town hall on the L train shutdown and potential transit alternatives for Brooklyn L train riders at the Progress School in Williamsburg. This is the second of two town halls after a Manhattan event last week.
Thursday
At the City Council on Thursday, the following committees will hold Executive Budget hearings:
--Sanitation and Solid Waste Management at 11 a.m., regarding the Department of Sanitation.
--Governmental Operations at 1 p.m., regarding the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the Board of Elections, the Campaign Finance Board, and the Law Department.
Also at the City Council on Thursday: The Committee on Land Use will meet at 11 a.m.
At 9 a.m. Thursday, City & State will host its Sustainable New York Summit at the National Geographic Encounter in Midtown. The summit will “offer industry executives, public sector leaders and academics the opportunity to share ideas about how to connect, design, and implement innovative sustainability strategies in New York.” Speakers will include City Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler, Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, Environmental Protection Commissioner Vincent Sapienza, City Council Members Ydanis Rodriguez and Costa Constantinides, State Senator Todd Kaminsky, and others.
At 9 a.m. Thursday, the Empire Center will host “Critical Condition: The State of New York’s Hospitals and What Should Be Done to Revive Them” at the Yale Club in Midtown, discussing strategies for improving New York State’s below-average hospitals. Empire Center Health Policy Director Bill Hammond will deliver opening remarks, and then will join a panel moderated by the NYS Health Foundation’s David Sandman. In addition to Hammond, the panel will feature State Senate Health Committee Chair Kemp Hannon, former US Health Care Financing Administrator Bruce Vladeck, Elisabeth Ryden Benjamin of the Community Service Society, and former Chair of the NYS Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century Stephen Berger.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a board meeting at 100 Church Street.
On Thursday at 1 p.m. at City Hall, “Council Member Antonio Reynoso and The Protect Our Places Coalition, a conglomerate of community advocacy organizations and institutions, will call for the passage of Intro 245. Each year, numerous charitable organizations, community gardens, and houses of worship are included in the City’s annual tax lien sale even though they qualify for tax exempt status. The exemptions and transparency measures put forth in Intro 245 will protect not-for-profit and charity organizations from being permanently shut down over debt they should have never been charged.” Participants will also include 596 Acres; Equitable Neighborhoods Practice at the Community Development Project; Picture the Homeless; Progressives Educating New Yorkers; religious organizations and groups of faith; and concerned community members.
Friday and the weekend
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday at 10 a.m.
At the City Council on Friday, the following committees will hold Executive Budget hearings:
--Health and Mental Health jointly at 10 a.m., regarding the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
--Cultural Affairs at noon, regarding libraries and the Department of Cultural Affairs.
On Friday at 10 a.m. at Queens Borough Hall, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is expected to release an economic snapshot of Queens.
On Saturday afternoon in Harlem, the Working Families Party will hold its 2018 state convention. Speakers will include endorsed candidates such as Cynthia Nixon for governor, Jumaane Williams for lieutenant governor, and others, as well as WFP National Director Maurice Mitchell. From 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at First Corinthian Baptist Church.
On Sunday morning, "NY-12 candidates for Congress Carolyn Maloney and Suraj Patel will appear at a brunch and moderated discussion hosted by Empire State Indivisible and Indivisible Brooklyn." Politico New York’s Laura Nahmias will moderate.
At noon Sunday, the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club will hold its 2018 Spring Brunch at the Yale Club in Midtown. Public Advocate Tish James and State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will be awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Service to New Yorkers.
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Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).
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by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette
What's The [Data] Point? Episode 40 -- 176,000, with Patrick Orecki [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]
176,000 is the number of New Yorkers statewide currently enrolled in Medicaid health homes, a key component of the Cuomo administration's Medicaid redesign efforts that have helped rein in costs and a program that provides care coordination services for Medicaid enrollees with complex health care needs to link these individuals to a full spectrum of health care providers and other social supports.
Patrick Orecki, CBC’s research associate specializing in the state budget and health policy issues, joins the podcast to break down the significance of health homes, what the program is doing well, challenges it has faced, and where it should go next.
Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think: Ben Max of GG (@TweetBenMax), Maria Doulis of CBC (@MariaDoulis). Listen below or download wherever you get your podcasts!
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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax @GothamGazette
Sheldon Silver and other state leaders in 2011 (photo via the Governor's Office)
Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was found guilty Friday on all seven federal corruption charges he faced, ending a retrial spurred by a United States Supreme Court ruling that changed the definition of public corruption, which led to Silver's prior convictions being vacated and prosecutors from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York seeking a new chance to convict the man who was for decades one of New York's most powerful elected officials.
In recognizing the outcome, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said Silver "took an oath to act in the best interests of the people of New York State. As a unanimous jury found, he sold his public office for private greed."
Silver was convicted of fraud, extortion, and money laundering, among other charges.
In a very brief statement reacting to the verdict, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday, "The justice system shows no one is above the law."
But during a Sunday appearance on NY1 television, Cuomo was asked about Silver's conviction and how it connects to other top government officials who have been found guilty of corruption, including Cuomo's own former top aide, Joseph Percoco.
"I think the common thread is...that people will do bad, stupid, criminal, venal things. And that's society. It's state government, it's local government, it's the federal government, it's the private sector," Cuomo said. "The question is do we have a system in place that finds it and corrects it? And we do. We should have, take confidence in that. Eric Schneiderman resigned the office. I went, moved very quickly to give my position which is that kind of behavior doesn't justify remaining in office and I called on him to resign. We then appointed a special prosecutor to make sure there is no conflict, no perception of conflict. And that's Madeline Singas who is the Nassau County District Attorney and a very experienced, proficient prosecutor in just these areas. So, my point is, will people do bad things? Yes. That goes back to Adam and Eve. Do we have a criminal justice system in place that says nobody is beyond the law or above the law? Yes, we do. And that's why we moved so quickly for special persecutor on Eric Schneiderman who was the Attorney General. Top law enforcement officer in the state. And justice will be done and that's how the system works and were going to make sure it works that way."
More from our Thursday story on the closing arguments in the Silver retrial case:
The retrial of former State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on federal corruption charges neared a close on Thursday, with the jury beginning deliberations late in the day.
Silver, a Democrat representing Lower Manhattan who was for years a pillar of New York politics, was convicted in 2016 on charges of honest services fraud, extortion under the color of official right, and money laundering in connection with two separate pay-to-play schemes. He was later sentenced to 12 years in prison, but his conviction was overturned after the Supreme Court’s decision in a separate corruption case redefined what constituted an “official act” that an elected official would have to take in exchange for money or services in order to be guilty of abusing their office. The vacated conviction prompted a retrial.
In federal district court in Manhattan on Thursday, prosecution and defense attorneys made their closing arguments to the jury, recapping a week-and-a-half long trial that saw 26 witnesses testify and a mountain of evidence presented. Like in the initial trial, Silver did not take the stand in his own defense. The case was argued this time by different prosecutors, as there has been significant turnover in the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York since Silver was first charged under the leadership of then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
Over the course of nearly three hours, assistant U.S. Attorney Tatiana Martins laid out the case against Silver, detailing the two schemes that he used to enrich himself. For the most part, both the prosecution and the defense agree on the details of the case, but only the prosecution believes Silver’s behavior was illegal.
“What the defendant did to line his own pockets wasn’t just wrong, it was criminal,” Martins said.
Both schemes, Martins noted, involved the same modus operandi -- referrals for cash. In the first scheme, Dr. Robert Taub, a former Columbia University researcher who was a prominent witness at the trial, directed mesothelioma patients to Silver who then referred them to his law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg, for hefty referral fees -- totalling $3 million for 48 patient referrals. In exchange, Silver directed $500,000 in state grants to Taub’s clinic and took other actions favoring Taub’s family. “Dr. Taub was Sheldon Silver’s golden goose and Sheldon Silver did whatever it took to keep getting Dr. Taub’s golden eggs,” Martins said, in outlining the alleged quid-pro-quo.
The second scheme involved Silver nudging two real estate firms -- Glenwood Management and the Witkoff group -- to send business towards a law firm, Goldberg & Iryami, which gave a 25 percent cut of the money to Silver, about $800,000 in total. In turn, Silver allegedly used his office to advance legislation and approve massive state tax credits that benefited the firms.
Silver faces three charges from each of the cases -- honest services wire fraud, honest services mail fraud, and extortion under the color of official right. He also faces a seventh charge of money laundering, stemming from his use of his allegedly ill-gotten gains to invest in blue chip stocks.
Silver corrupted his office, Martins said, “turning his official power into a cash cow to line his own pockets.” She noted that Silver repeatedly lied about these various sources of income, failing to report it on annual disclosure forms required of state legislators. And she insisted that the defense’s arguments were a “red herring” meant to distract the jury.
“This is bribery, this is extortion,” she concluded, “This is corruption. This is the real thing. Don’t let it stand.”
Silver’s defense attorney, Michael Feldberg, sought to poke holes through the prosecution’s theory, broadly insisting that Silver’s actions were far from violating the law. “It is perfectly legal for New York Assembly members to earn outside income,” he pointed out in his closing.
In both schemes, Feldberg insisted that Silver was simply earning income as a lawyer, which was declared on his disclosure forms, and that referral fees for the type of work Silver was doing are a “common, standard and accepted” practice in the field. New Yorkers may not like some of the practices involved, Feldberg argued, but that does not mean they are illegal.
Feldberg insisted that none of the witnesses testified to the existence of a quid-pro-quo arrangement in either scheme. He said Silver and Taub were close friends and that their relationship “wasn’t purely transactional,” rebutting the prosecution’s claims. And he insisted that in the real estate scheme, neither firm was aware that Silver was receiving referral fees, “so they couldn’t have been bribing him.”
“We’re not arguing that Shelly is a perfect man...We’re not arguing that he’s a saint,” he said, impressing upon the jury that even if Silver’s actions were “unseemly,” they were not enough to find him guilty.
Following a relatively short rebuttal from the prosecution, Judge Valerie Caproni read the charges to the jury, which then headed into deliberations briefly before the day was over. Jury deliberations will continue on Friday.
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
Senate Majority Leader Flanagan and colleagues (photo: @nysenate)
The Republican-led New York State Senate, which for years had a collaborative working relationship with Governor Andrew Cuomo, passed a slew of government transparency and accountability bills on Wednesday that further highlighted the GOP majority’s recent split with the governor.
The package of 11 bills, covering everything from campaign contributions to state contracting processes, made its way through the chamber and was sent for approval to the Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats under Speaker Carl Heastie of the Bronx. Several of the bills have companion legislation in the Assembly and some have even been approved by that chamber. But it’s unclear how the Assembly will vote on the entire package. A spokesperson for Heastie did not respond to a request for comment.
Some of the bills clearly target Cuomo, particularly one directly related to the executive chamber, who has fallen out with Republicans since he ushered the reunification of a divided Democratic conference in the chamber last month and pledged a full-throated campaign to seize control of the upper chamber through the elections this fall. Other bills are intended to end the type of pay-to-play practices laid bare in the recent corruption conviction of Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to Cuomo, and that will likely feature heavily in the upcoming corruption trial of Alain Kaloyeros, another former Cuomo ally.
“It is imperative that the public trusts the actions of their public officials, especially when it comes to spending the people’s money,” said Senator John Flanagan of Long Island, the Republican majority leader, in a statement after the legislative package was approved. “This extensive package would help fix many of the issues that lead to corruption and the misuse of taxpayer funds and will create a system where sound investments will be better able to grow our economy and create more opportunities for all New Yorkers.”
In an op-ed in State of Politics on Monday, Flanagan made clear his differences with Cuomo, “whose unbridled ambition for higher office leaves every New York taxpayer in danger,” he wrote. He criticized the governor for tacking hard to the left because of the primary challenge from Cynthia Nixon. “For years, the Governor worked with me in a bipartisan manner to find common ground and move our state forward. But, I no longer recognize the person who occupies this office,” Flanagan said.
Taking direct aim at the governor’s office, one of the bills passed on Wednesday would prohibit executive chamber appointees and members of their households from making campaign contributions to, or soliciting them for, the same executive who appointed them. Without naming Cuomo, the bill cites a New York Times report that highlighted the governor’s practice of accepting such contributions despite a standing executive order from years ago that prohibited them. Cuomo’s office has presented a much narrower interpretation of the order than has been indicated in the past.
Another bill would limit political donations from individuals or entities applying for state grants, licenses, and contracts to those officials and candidates who would approve them.
Another requires appointees to Regional Economic Development Councils -- controversial entities created by Cuomo in 2011 to encourage local economic initiatives -- to file the same financial and ethics disclosures as public officers. The bill would also codify REDCs into law. “It is vitally important that we put laws in place that prevent conflicts of interest with taxpayer dollars,” said bill sponsor Senator Thomas Croci, a Republican from Long Island.
Croci also sponsored another bill in the package to create an online public database of projects that receive state subsidies and economic development benefits. Also known as the “database of deals,” the proposal was included in the Assembly’s one-house budget earlier this year but did not pass.
Most of the bills relate to transparency in government contracting and ensuring greater accountability for taxpayer dollars. One of the bills, termed the “New York State Procurement Integrity Act” -- which also has an Assembly counterpart -- reinstates the state Comptroller’s pre-clearance oversight jurisdiction of contracting by SUNY, CUNY, and the state Office of General Services, as well as expands his authority over SUNY Research Foundation contracts worth more than $1 million. It also forbids state-affiliated not-for-profits from awarding state contracts without prior authorization. These bills relate directly to issues that will be front and center in the Kaloyeros trial, which involves the governor’s signature economic development programs, namely the Buffalo Billion, and alleged bid-rigging therein.
One of the bills mandates that the Public Authorities Control Board be given more information before approving funding for any job creation projects, including any provisions that would allow the state to clawback funding if the project’s stated goals aren’t met.
The START-UP NY program, another Cuomo initiative, would have to resume reporting annually on its work under the provisions of another bill. Yet another bill creates a nonpartisan Independent Budget Office to analyze state revenue and expenditures.
Most of the bills seem intended to curtail the powers of the executive branch and of state agencies under its control. For instance, a bill sponsored by Senator Joseph Griffo would define how long, and how often, an interim appointee can serve at the head of a state agency or department. Another bill would limit the ability of state agencies to declare a public emergency unless necessary to protect the health and safety of the public.
Only one bill had a Democrat as lead sponsor -- Senator Liz Krueger of Manhattan -- mandating that the state budget division prepare a Unified Economic Development Budget each year showing how much the state has invested in economic development projects and the results of those investments. It is a measure that watchdogs, especially Citizens Budget Commission, have sought in order for the public to have more information about how successful the state’s economic development initiatives are.
A group of government reform advocates and independent fiscal watchdogs including the CBC praised in particular the “database of deals” and the Public Integrity Act, calling on the state Assembly to approve them. That group also includes Citizens Union, Common Cause NY, Fiscal Policy Institute, League of Women Voters, NYPIRG, and Reinvent Albany.
“Both these bills will be effective in reducing the corruption risk of economic development projects that taxpayers spend billions of dollars on,” said Alex Camarda, senior policy adviser for Reinvent Albany. “They’re good policy. The governor should support them.”
Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the Senate package. The governor has proposed his own reform agenda in recent years that includes elements aimed at the Legislature, as well as more sweeping campaign finance reform, government ethics measure, and voting reforms. The governor has indicated a top priority for him is banning outside income for legislators. Most of those proposals have seen less support in the Senate than the Assembly.
[Read: Post-Percoco Conviction, Kaloyeros Trial Likely to Further Stain Cuomo Administration]
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
As the week begins we’re watching for any signs of possible action in Albany. There are scheduled legislative session days before the session ends in mid-June, including the three scheduled this week.
The gubernatorial race is in full swing, of course, and this week is sure to see further campaigning from Cynthia Nixon, Marc Molinaro, and others. On Saturday, Nixon participated in a “Cinco de Mayo march in Brooklyn and the NYC Cannabis Parade and Rally in Union Square.” Governor Andrew Cuomo participated in a “Hudson Valley Blue Wave Rally to Take Back the House and State Senate” on Sunday.
As the Democratic and Republican state party conventions approach later this month, Republican candidates for the final statewide positions are emerging -- this week Manny Alicandro is launching his campaign for attorney general.
Meanwhile, in New York City, we’re watching as conflict between Comptroller Scott Stringer and Airbnb escalates. Stringer released a report this past week that showed Airbnb having a negative influence on housing affordability in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The home-sharing platform company pushed back quickly and the allegations of data-manipulation, faulty-methodology, and impure motives have been flying back and forth. Airbnb is holding a press conference call on Monday to continue its rebuttal.
One of Stringer’s main responsibilities, the city budget, enters a new phase this week in the process for determining the spending plan for next fiscal year, which begins July 1. The City Council begins hearings Monday on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s executive budget plan -- details for these and much more below.
As always, there are a number of political events to be aware of this week - see our day-by-day rundown below.
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday
On Monday evening, Mayor de Blasio will make his weekly appearance on NY1's Inside City Hall, in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.
This week’s Max & Murphy podcast from Gotham Gazette and City Limits will be recorded and published on Monday. This week’s guest is City Council Member Joe Borelli, a former member of the state Assembly from Staten Island, one of three Republicans in the City Council, and a fervent supporter of President Donald Trump.
At the City Council on Monday, the following committees will hold executive budget hearings:
--Finance at 10 a.m.
--Small Business at noon, regarding the Department of Small Business Services.
--Economic Development at 12:30 p.m., regarding the Economic Development Corporation.
--Aging at 3 p.m., regarding the Department for the Aging.
Also at the City Council on Monday: The Committee on Housing and Buildings will meet at 2 p.m. to discuss proposed laws related to residential safety measures.
“New York attorney Manny Alicandro will formally announce his campaign for Attorney General, along with state and local Republican and Conservative Party officials, including NYS Conservative Party Chairman Michael R. Long” on Monday -- in “New York City at Federal Hall at 10:30 am and in Albany in the NYS Capitol, 3rd Floor at 3:30 pm.”
New York City schools Chancellor Richard Carranza will appear on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show at 10:30 a.m. Monday.
On Monday at 11 a.m., “Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will host a media preview and celebration to kick-off Bronx Week 2018 at the Mott Haven Bar & Grill...As a highlight of the event, Borough President Diaz and The Bronx Tourism Council will announce the three honorees of the Bronx Walk of Fame Class of 2018.”
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Monday in Albany.
The New York State Board of Regents will meet on Monday and Tuesday in Albany.
At 11:45 a.m. Monday, "Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul Delivers Remarks at the 16th Annual Not-For-Profit Leadership Summit" in Tarrytown. At 7:30 p.m., Hochul will keynote and be honored at the Women's eNews' 21 Leaders for the 21stCentury Gala, at Museum of the City of New York.
At 6 p.m. Monday, the mayoral Charter Revision Commission will hold a public hearing at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
At 6 p.m. Monday, the Community Service Society will host its annual Spring Gala at the Hunt and Fish Club in Midtown.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Jumaane Williams, and New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will attend the Village Independent Democrats’ candidate forum at PS 41 in the West Village. Representatives for Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will also be in attendance.
On Monday at 7 p.m. at Carnegie Hall, “First Lady McCray will present the Corporate Advocate Award to NBCUniversal at the 2018 Child Mind Institute's 4th Annual Change Maker Awards. This event is open press. There will be no Q-and-A.”
On Monday at 7 p.m., Public Advocate Letitia James will will deliver remarks at the Van Nest Neighborhood Alliance Meeting in the Bronx. At 8 p.m. she will deliver remarks at the El Nuevo Caribe Democratic Club Meeting, at El Barrio's Artspace.
Tuesday
At the City Council on Tuesday, the following committees will hold executive budget hearings:
--Finance and Capital Budget jointly at 10 a.m.
--Parks & Recreation at 1:30 a.m., regarding the Department of Parks & Recreation.
--Technology at 3 p.m., regarding DoITT.
--Youth Services at 4 p.m., regarding the Department of Youth and Community Development.
Also at the City Council on Tuesday:
--The Committee on Fire and Emergency Management will meet at 11 a.m. to discuss several proposed laws related to safety and evacuation measures.
--The Committee on Civil Service and Labor will meet at noon to discuss two resolutions, one calling on the city to “extend paid family leave benefits to city employees covered by municipal unions” and another “calling upon the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, legislation to amend the state Paid Family Leave Act to provide workers in New York State with a benefit equal to 100 percent of an employee’s average weekly wage.”
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Tuesday in Albany.
At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the New York City Board of Correction will hold a public meeting at 125 Worth Street.
At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Governor Cuomo will tour the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.
At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will make an announcement at Schenectady High School. At 9:30 a.m., Hochul will deliver remarks at LGBTQI Advocacy Day in Albany. At 11:30 a.m., Hochul will highlight the YWCA's Work for Women and Children at Centennial Celebration in Troy. And at 1 p.m., Hochul will speak at the Police Memorial Remembrance Ceremony in Albany.
At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Vote Better NY will hold a rally at the Capitol’s Million Dollar Staircase in Albany to call on lawmakers to pass early voting, the Voter Empowerment Act, automatic and same day registration, no excuse absentee voting, and require preclearance from the Attorney General for changes to the voting process for any county “with populations with at least 10 percent of any racial, ethnic, or language minority group.”
On Tuesday at noon at City Hall, “New York City Council Members Andy King, Antonio Reynoso, Fernando Cabrera, Chaim Deutsch, Laurie Cumbo, Adrienne E. Adams, Rafael Salamanca Jr., Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte will be joined by members of the Legal Aid Society, Vulcan Society Inc., National Action Network, NAACP and the Black Institute at a press conference...to call out FDNY’s hypocritical decision not to hire applicant Andre Laurant and denounce FDNY’s hiring of Joseph Cassano, 28, who had quit his former FDNY job as an EMT in 2013 after his hateful tweets against blacks, Jews and others he was employed to served were exposed.”
On Tuesday at 1 p.m. in Albany, "Assistant Speaker Felix W. Ortiz (D-Kings) will hold a press conference to discuss his legislation dealing with gender identity and recognition, identification cards, runaway and LGBT homelessness."
At 1 p.m. Tuesday, Public Advocate Letitia James will deliver remarks at the RWDSU Rally for Food Service Workers Justice, at John Jay College.
On Tuesday at 2 p.m. at One Police Plaza, "Mayor de Blasio will host a press conference on crime statistics. This event is open press. There will be Q-and-A."
At 4 p.m. Tuesday, "Governor Andrew M. Cuomo will join thousands of New Yorkers at the #CountMeIn Rally in Union Square."
At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, schools Chancellor Richard Carranza will attend a town hall meeting of District 12’s Community Education in the Bronx.
At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the NYU Urban Democracy Lab will host “People’s Cities: A Summit,” discussing the resurgence of cities as locales for investment, innovation, and “urban progressivism.” Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now will moderate a panel discussing the “possibility - and limits - of municipal, and city-led, politics,” consisting of City Council Member Carlina Rivera, Deputy Mayor of Barcelona Gerardo Pisarello, city planner Kali Akuno, and political science professor Margit Mayer. The event will take at the Labowitz Theatre at NYU’s Gallatin School.
Wednesday
The City Council will hold a stated meeting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. It will likely be prefaced by the typical pre-stated press conference led by Council Speaker Corey Johnson.
Also at the City Council on Wednesday:
--The Committee on Finance will meet at 10 a.m.
--The Committee on Rules, Privileges, and Elections will meet at 11 a.m. to discuss two nominees to the City Planning Commission: Alfred Cerullo III and Allen Cappelli.
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Wednesday in Albany.
At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting at 120 Broadway.
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the mayoral Charter Revision Commission will hold a public hearing at the main branch of the New York Public Library in Midtown Manhattan.
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the Center for an Urban Future and TransitCenter will host “An Unhealthy Commute: The Transit Challenges Facing New York City’s Healthcare Sector” at One Whitehall Street. Panelists will discuss a recent CUF study showing that healthcare workers have the longest average commutes in the city, affecting their work and life, and will include City Council Health Committee Chair Mark Levine, Jonathan Bowles of CUF, and Danna Dennis of Riders Alliance.
At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg and MTA New York City Transit Commissioner Andy Byford will host a town hall on the L train shutdown and potential transit alternatives for Manhattan L train riders at the New School’s Johnson Hall. This is the first of two town halls, with another for Brooklyn residents next week.
At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Civilian Complaint Review Board will hold a board meeting at the Brooklyn College Student Center.
Thursday
At the City Council on Thursday, the following committees will hold executive budget hearings:
--For-Hire Vehicles at 10 a.m., regarding the Taxi & Limousine Commission.
--Environmental Protection at 1 p.m., regarding the Department of Environmental Protection.
At 8:30 a.m. Thursday, the Association for a Better New York will host Brooklyn Navy Yard CEO David Ehrenberg for a discussion “on the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s recent Master Plan exercise, as well as an update on the current state and overall vision for the yard.”
At 10 a.m. Thursday, the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a board meeting at 100 Church Street. (This meeting is not taking place)
At 11 a.m. Thursday, the Assembly Standing Committees on Insurance and Health will meet jointly at 250 Broadway in Manhattan for a public hearing to “evaluate the proposed plan by CVS Health to acquire Aetna Inc. and the potential impacts on the delivery of health care and the health insurance market in New York State.”
At 1 p.m. Thursday, the CUNY Center for Community and Ethnic Media will host city schools Chancellor Richard Carranza for a “Newsmakers Roundtable” at Tweed Courthouse. “The Chancellor will share his vision and agenda with the members of community and ethnic media, and give them a chance to ask him education-related questions that are important to their respective audiences.”
On Thursday evening at New York Athletic Club, "the Brain Aneurysm Foundation will host its inaugural New York Champion Awards and will honor U.S. Representative Yvette Clarke. She will receive the Community Advocate Champion for introducing the “Ellie Helton, Lisa Colagrossi, Teresa Anne Lawrence, and Jennifer Sedney Focused Research Act” (“Ellie’s Law”), on March 21, 2017."
Friday and the weekend
At the City Council on Friday, the Criminal Justice committee will hold its executive budget hearing at 10 a.m., regarding the Department of Correction.
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday morning at 10 a.m.
***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).
***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette
Gov. Cuomo voting (photo: Governor's Office)
New York’s unique fusion voting system is again in the spotlight this year, with renewed attention in the wake of Cynthia Nixon’s insurgent challenge for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination against Governor Andrew Cuomo, with the potential for vote-splitting on the left leading to a Republican victory in November. Cuomo and Nixon have each now been endorsed by a minor party with automatic general election ballot access, even as they vie for the big prize of the Democratic nomination.
Fusion voting, which allows candidates to combine the votes they receive from appearing on multiple ballot lines, is used in only eight states. But it takes its highest profile in New York, where numerous minor parties can cross-endorse rather than all having to run their own nominees, and still keep their own line on the ballot. Parties can secure a ballot line by having their gubernatorial nominee secure 50,000 votes statewide in the general election.
In New York, fusion voting has often led to individual candidates appearing on multiple ballot lines, whereby the minor parties do not threaten to play a spoiler role by costing a major party nominee victory by siphoning a determinative number of votes. For example, the Republican and Conservative parties often back the same candidates for various offices, and they appear set to do so again in this year’s gubernatorial race, behind Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro.
Governor Cuomo has appeared on several ballots lines in his runs for office over the years, including on the Democratic, Working Families, Women’s Equality, and Independence Party lines during his 2014 reelection. This year, however, the Working Families Party has backed Cynthia Nixon, who hopes to defeat Cuomo in the Democratic primary, but may appear on the general election ballot regardless and therefore risk pulling a decisive number of votes from Cuomo in the general election. Having earned the backing of the Independence Party this year, Cuomo could do similarly if Nixon has the Democratic Party nomination.
The Green Party, which typically fields its own candidates, could also play a role, pulling some voters on the left. This year it is again nominating for governor Howie Hawkins, who received over 184,000 votes in 2014. The Reform Party and Women’s Equality Party have yet to settle on a nominee.
The practice of fusion voting was common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as a means for minor organizing arms to defeat powerful Tammany Hall machine candidates. These tickets sometimes worked: the second mayor of the consolidated City of New York, Seth Low, defeated Tammany Hall Democrat Edward Shepard on a fusion Republican-Citizens Union ticket in 1901.
The Wilson-Pakula Law of 1947, passed allegedly to disempower the American Labor Party, which was accused of having ties to communists, prevented candidates from running in the primaries for different parties; instead, a candidate must gain permission from the minor party that they’re not registered with in order to run on their ballot line. The alleged ties to communists caused ALP members to flock to the newer Liberal Party, which did not face the same allegations; the Democrats and Republicans did not want to grant their line to members of the ALP.
Cuomo criticized the Wilson-Pakula Law in 2013 after it came under scrutiny following Senator Malcolm Smith’s alleged attempt to bribe his way onto the Republican line. Some have called for repeal of the law, but so far efforts at repeal have gone nowhere in Albany.
The minor parties gain prominence unseen in most other states due to their ability to influence the major parties, and often act more like advocacy organizations than vast political organizing machines, though some have party infrastructure. According to Gerald Benjamin, a political scientist and the Director of SUNY New Paltz’s Benjamin Center, this has made New York’s politics more ideological and polarized.
“There are people who believe that periphery-oriented politics is desirable,” Benjamin said. “Pulling to the left and right is desirable. I think pulling to the center is desirable, having a two-party system that contains the conflict within that system is centrist.” He said that the system, in a way, is “mischievous” in empowering a minority of ideologically-inclined voters to have outsized influence on the process. As such, instead of allowing for more representation on the ballot, the third parties give their lines to major candidates and influence the platform and positions of the major parties and candidates.
Benjamin also says that the parties have become more prominent over time, though not to the degree they were in the 19th century.
“Their significance is higher than in the recent past,” Benjamin said, though he noted that the parties often have disparate periods of high significance, such as when James Buckley was elected to the U.S. Senate on only the Conservative line in 1970 or when John Lindsay won the New York City mayoralty on the Liberal line in 1969. “There have been peak moments. But systemically, and through politics at all levels, I think they’re at a pretty high level of significance relatively to history.”
Though there have been minor party successes for New York City mayor and U.S. senator, none has ever alone elected a governor of New York. The Democrats and Republicans have controlled the governorship exclusively since Whig Party member Myron Clark left office in 1856. The Whigs were one of the two major parties in the U.S. before being replaced by the Republicans in the 1850s.
The liberal Working Families Party (WFP), a coalition of left-wing activist groups and labor unions, is one of the more prominent minor parties in New York. The WFP typically cross-endorses the Democratic nominee and attempts to pull its nominees to the left. Cuomo and the WFP recently split dramatically after several activist groups involved with the party endorsed Nixon for governor, which led to unions leaving the party to side with Cuomo, reportedly at his behest. The unions have provided key funding to those activist groups, whose futures are at risk, along with the larger WFP, which is taking a significant gamble on Nixon.
Cuomo and the WFP have a rocky history. Cuomo initially declined the WFP endorsement in 2010 but eventually agreed to take the line, despite their platforms not being wholly aligned, especially on the issue of taxation. As such, the WFP won 50,000 votes and retained statewide ballot access.
The WFP had more leverage over Cuomo in 2014, when the party agreed to endorse him over liberal challenger Zephyr Teachout in exchange for a pledge to unify the Senate Democrats and support a more progressive platform. Cuomo did not follow through on the agreement, and also created the Women’s Equality Party, whose acronym, WEP, is very similar to WFP. His campaign urged supporters to vote for him on the Democratic or WEP lines, omitting the WFP from get-out-the-vote emails.
Having endorsed Nixon over Cuomo this year, some have raised the possibility of a vote split on the left that could land Molinaro in the Governor’s Mansion. WFP Political Director Bill Lipton, in response, declared that the party didn’t intend to act as a spoiler, telling the Associated Press that in the event Nixon loses the primary, she would “meet with our leaders, and we will make a decision that puts the interests of working families first.” However, Lipton does not think that will happen anyway.
“The more voters learn about Cynthia's progressive values, the more they like her,” Lipton told Gotham Gazette in an email. “Working Families feels confident Cynthia will win the Democratic Primary in September and go on to be both the Working Families and Democratic Nominees in November. The real problem is Andrew Cuomo being a spoiler. It looks like he will have the WEP and Independence Party lines - what happens when he loses the Democratic primary - is he willing to be a spoiler and elect a Republican Governor?”
The Independence Party has indeed endorsed Cuomo for the third election in a row, landing him on the November ballot no matter what. He is also likely to receive the nomination of the WEP, with the new party leader telling Politico that it’s “very likely the party will support Cuomo’s reelection bid.” Neither the Independence Party nor the WEP responded to requests for comment for this story.
Nixon has taken notice of Cuomo’s Independence Party endorsement. When asked about being a potential spoiler in Buffalo, she flipped the script, according to the Buffalo News.
“Why is nobody asking Andrew Cuomo that question, who is running on the Independence line and the Women’s Equality line he created,” Nixon said.
The Cuomo campaign did not respond to requests for comment from Gotham Gazette.
“Could he win without the Democrat line? Maybe,” Professor Benjamin said, while noting that the governor losing the Democratic primary would be an unlikely scenario and that a continued run would be based on a future calculation by Cuomo. The most recent poll, from Quinnipiac University, has Cuomo leading Nixon by 28 points. However, Benjamin conceded that Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination for president was also initially seen as exceedingly unlikely.
The Independence Party has had significant showings in both of Cuomo’s elections: in 2010, it received 146,576 votes statewide, while in 2014 it received 77,762, according to the State Board of Elections. In both instances, however, it was bested by the Working Families Party in vote count.
The Independence Party is, however, by far the largest third party in New York State based on enrollment. According to the State Board of Elections’ Annual Report for 2016, the most recent year available, the Independence Party had 501,738 registered voters in the state, outnumbering the second largest, the Conservative Party, by almost 340,000 voters. WFP had 50,039 registered voters. The Independence Party’s high membership, despite a relatively low electoral profile, is due in no small part to people mistakenly registering as Independence when meaning to register as unaffiliated, or “independent,” as shown by the Daily News in 2012.
Meanwhile, the New York Times has derided the Independence Party as a “bizarre and fractious political group” that “survives on confusion” of people thinking they’re registering as independent. The editorial board urged Cuomo to reject its endorsement in 2014 in order to cause the party to lose its automatic place on the ballot; Cuomo did not do that.
Unlike the WFP, the Independence Party has not committed to endorsing either the Democratic or Republican nominee in the event that Cuomo loses the primary; as such, Cuomo could theoretically continue his campaign as the Independence nominee if he loses the Democratic primary. However, like a potential Nixon campaign as the WFP nominee, a Cuomo Independence campaign against Nixon and Molinaro would allow the possibility of a vote split that would likely send Molinaro to Albany.
Cuomo’s stormy history with minor parties goes back a long way. In 2002, he was endorsed for governor by the Liberal Party, but dropped out of the race before the Democratic primary. He remained on the party’s line for the general election, where he failed to receive 50,000 votes and thus the Liberal Party lost its automatic place on the ballot. Historically a vehicle for candidates with the backing of labor unions, the party ceded that ground to the WFP and has not appeared on the gubernatorial ballot since Cuomo’s 2002 run.
Things are looking less tense on the Republican side. Molinaro appears to have consolidated support among the state’s GOP establishment; he recently won the endorsement of the Conservative Party, and his main competition for that and the Republican nomination, State Senator John DeFrancisco, recently pulled out of the race.
There’s also the Reform Party, which has a history of maverick actions and public stunts by its founder and leader, Curtis Sliwa. Last year, the party publicly urged Preet Bharara to run for either mayor or governor; Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney who was fired by President Donald Trump, has instead become a renowned podcaster.
Now, the party is apparently split on endorsing either Molinaro or former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra, who mounted a brief campaign for the Republican nomination before dropping out. According to the Daily News, the party has “punted” the decision to its May 19 party convention in Queens; if the party can’t make a decision there, it will hold a primary in September. In late April, it was reported that Sliwa himself was considering a run, saying he had “no other choice” if doctors give him a “clean bill of health.” Democrats and Republicans will hold their nominating conventions toward the end of May.
“There was a motion made to table consideration of the Governor's race until the state convention so that all of the state committee members could speak with the candidates,” Frank Morano, a spokesman for the Reform Party, told Gotham Gazette.
The party has its own outsized role in New York politics compared to its membership; according to the 2016 BOE report, the Reform Party has only 900 registered members in all of New York State.
***
by Ben Brachfeld, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
Marc Molinaro, left, and Chris Gibson (photo: @marcmolinaro)
The presumptive Republican nominee for governor of New York did not vote for the Republican president of the United States.
One question Marc Molinaro was asked most often in the early weeks of his campaign to replace Governor Andrew Cuomo is whether he voted for Donald Trump in November 2016.
“I did not, I voted for Chris Gibson,” Molinaro told reporters in Albany on April 2, the day of his official campaign launch, naming the former Congressional representative who is now chair of Molinaro’s gubernatorial campaign. It was the second time that day Molinaro, currently Dutchess County Executive, had been asked the question, the first coming in the village of Tivoli, where he grew up, became mayor at the age of 19, and held his first launch event. Both times he answered quickly, and briefly, ready to move on to the next question.
A follow-up question, though: why didn’t you vote for Trump?
“I had significant differences at the time, I didn't vote for him, I voted for Chris Gibson, who would have made a fine president,” Molinaro said in Tivoli. “And this is what I tell people, and I believe it, for those that admire [Trump], they believe he says it the way he sees it, and so do I, but when he doesn't do what is in the best interest of New Yorkers, and New York families, I’ll say it, and when America and the federal government does something in the best interest of New Yorkers I’ll say it too.”
In several iterations of the same answer over the course of weeks, Molinaro has not explained the “significant differences” he had with Trump that led him to write in Gibson.
Molinaro has mentioned two incidents where Trump has disappointed him since taking office -- the president’s response to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and the federal tax overhaul that severely limits state and local deductions -- but has not provided details of his issues with Trump during the campaign. A Molinaro campaign spokesperson said she thought he had been clear in his answers about Trump and did not provide more detail when Gotham Gazette inquired.
The campaign spokesperson also declined to answer repeated questions about who Molinaro voted for during the Republican presidential primary in New York, in April 2016. Gibson, meanwhile, has been a fairly outspoken critic of Trump, though he said he did vote for the Republican nominee over Clinton because he thought Trump was more likely to clean up Washington, D.C. Gibson has told the Albany Times Union, however, that Trump has not lived up to his promise to “drain the swamp.”
In August 2017, Gibson condemned Trump’s “both sides” response to the Charlottesville rally and counter-protest, writing in the Poughkeepsie Journal, “In moments like these, leadership can make all the difference. We were all counting on President Donald Trump to help us understand what happened, condemn by name the racist organizations involved, mourn the losses, and bring us together to heal. He utterly failed us.”
Molinaro’s lukewarm approach to the president does not seem to have had an impact on his ability to garner the support of key New York Republican leaders in his bid to earn the party nomination and take on the winner of the Democratic gubernatorial primary, where Cuomo is being challenged from the left by actor and activist Cynthia Nixon, both painting themselves as essential anti-Trump forces.
The Trump question could continue to prove tricky for Molinaro, who appears to want to discuss virtually anything else. There is no question that his Democratic opponent will attempt to tie him to the president and members of the media will want to know what he thinks of various Trump actions.
On the day Molinaro entered the race, Cuomo said, "They want to run a Trump mini-me in New York -- good luck.”
That same day, Geoff Berman, the executive director of the New York State Democratic Committee, released a statement saying, “it's clear that the New York GOP is intent on pushing an ultra-conservative Trump agenda, and a candidate that has the same positions as Trump with a different hair color.”
While he didn’t vote for Trump, Molinaro is loathe to explain why and hesitant to criticize the president. While Trump is deeply unpopular in New York overall, he retains strong support from Republicans in the state (Democrats hold a significant voter enrollment advantage across New York). Trump, a New York City businessman and television star, won 46 of 62 New York counties in his election against former New York Senator Hillary Clinton, though Clinton still won the state handily, 59 to 36.5 percent, thanks to dominating the population centers, including New York City.
A February Quinnipiac poll showed Trump underwater in New York at 30 percent approval and 65 percent disapproval, though it was actually a slight increase in approval for the president. Within those numbers, though, Trump had a 79-15 percent approval rating among Republicans, and a 5-93 percent among Democrats.
It looks as though Molinaro will not be forced into the difficult task of having to hug Trump in a Republican primary to then distance himself in a general election, where he almost certainly will need to win over many independents and some Democrats to win.
The Dutchess County Executive, who has held a handful of different government positions over more than 20 years in elected office, appears to have secured both the Republican and Conservative Party nominations, and their ballot lines in November. Throughout the process of seeking the backing of different county chairs of each of the two parties, Molinaro has had to answer the Trump question in public and in private.
Asked if he supports the president on the Joe Piscopo Show on AM970 radio, Molinaro said, “I support America, and when the president does something good, I’m going to stand up and say it. A lot of people say this about him and that is, he says it the way he sees it, well so do I. So when he does or says something that I can’t stand for, I have to say it as well. I did that when he spoke out, I think inappropriately, after Charlottesville. I didn’t vote for him last November, but my position is that we need America to succeed and we need New York to succeed.”
He then pivoted to criticizing Cuomo, whom Molinaro has repeatedly said “displays the very attributes he demonizes,” as he tweeted recently about Cuomo and Trump, pulling up just shy of criticizing the president while still being able to take a shot at Cuomo as a hypocrite.
Despite his coolness toward the bombastic president, the seemingly even-tempered Molinaro -- who is basing his run in part on the quality of his character, his ethics, values, and willingness to work across the aisle -- has continued to gain support from Trump backers.
“The bottom line is that I would have preferred him to vote for Donald Trump,” said Mike Long, state chair of the Conservative Party. “Marcus Molinaro’s positions on the issues are in sync with conservative Republicans, and therefore I overlooked it.”
Long said he’s spoken with Molinaro about his lack of support for Trump. “What I found out was: number one, father of young children, he at the time, what was going on in the campaign, he wasn’t comfortable voting for Donald Trump, and he felt his vote in New York wouldn’t make a difference in the outcome here,” Long said in an interview with Gotham Gazette.
“The meter is different, but on the issues they mostly see eye to eye,” Long said of Trump and Molinaro, who says that as governor he would lower taxes, rein in state spending, return more power to localities, clean up rampant corruption in state government, and improve management at the MTA. While he holds many conservative positions, Molinaro has also expressed some more moderate stances on immigration and campaign finance reform.
“Marcus is refreshing, he’s energetic, and I think he can give New York a fresh start,” Long said. “Some people may be disappointed he didn’t vote for Trump, but they’re not going to vote for Cuomo.”
New York City Council Member Joseph Borelli, a Republican from Staten Island, was an early endorser of Trump in the presidential race and continues to strongly back the president. He is also vehemently behind Molinaro for governor.
“He is a pragmatic executive, willing to work with all sides, and has a reputation as a problem-solver,” Borelli said in a statement endorsing Molinaro. “Most importantly, he has good character and a strong moral compass that guides his decisions.”
“New York City could benefit from someone like him at the helm of our state,” Borelli also said.
On whether he thinks Trump will be involved in the race personally, Long said he doubts it. “I don’t see the president getting involved at any part of the campaign. I don’t see any need for that happening. The president has his hands full dealing with the anti-Trumpers around the country,” Long said.
“Would he help Marcus? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t think it’s necessary that the president get involved.”
[Read: In Run for Governor, Marc Molinaro Will Make a Character Argument]
***
by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax @GothamGazette
Cynthia Nixon (photo: Cynthia for NY on Facebook)
Actor and activist Cynthia Nixon launched her challenge to two-term incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo by calling him a fake Democrat who has governed like a Republican and only takes progressive stances when they are politically expedient or he has no choice.
Nixon, who certainly has an uphill climb if she wants to beat Cuomo in the September 13 Democratic primary, has staked her campaign on claiming to be a true progressive, with a liberal agenda focused on racial and economic justice, led by what has been her marquee issue as an activist over the past two decades: education funding. As a spokesperson with the Alliance for Quality Education, Nixon has long-championed increased investment in the state’s public schools, especially those in disadvantaged communities.
Running to Cuomo’s left, Nixon has quickly outlined a variety of policy positions that are garnering her additional media attention, beyond the significant amount she captures as a celebrity running for elected office, while she also criticizes Cuomo on topics that are less easily placed on the ideological spectrum: management of the MTA and its subways, government corruption, and personality. Like Cuomo’s Republican opponents, Nixon calls him a bully who governs out of fear rather than collaboration.
“If we had a governor who acted like a Democrat," Nixon said at a recent house party meet-and-greet, "we could have fully funded our schools, we could have enacted campaign finance reform, we could have enacted the women’s equality agenda, we could have enacted the New York Dream Act, we could have fought for single-payer health care, we could have strengthened our rent regulations, and we could have fixed our subway.”
She also indicated she would "invest in public housing," end mass-incarceration and "the over-policing of communities of color" and "make our state into a real sanctuary state.”
“We cannot depend on career politicians to deliver the change that we have been begging for, for literally decades,” she said to the roughly 15 attendees, according to a video posted to Facebook.
The governor has responded to Nixon’s candidacy with a fit of effort, rallying allies, tacking leftward on several fronts, and making a couple of gaffes. Cuomo is running on a record that impresses many, including high-profile progressive achievements such as the passage of marriage equality in New York in 2011, an aggressive gun regulation program in 2013, a large increase in the minimum wage and a paid family leave program in 2015, and more.
“During my administration we have made this state the most progressive state in the United States of America,” Cuomo recently said, and dismisses the notion that Nixon has pushed him leftward.
Asked about his apparent move in that direction since Nixon announced her candidacy, Cuomo recently said:
“Yeah, I say: look at what I have done all my life, all I did with Mario Cuomo. When we took a position against the death penalty every year, at tremendous political cost. Look at what I did at HUD when I was with President Clinton, and we went all over the country building an agenda for poor people. I sued the Klu Klux Klan. Look at what I did when I was the first big state in the United States to pass marriage equality...when I passed $15 minimum wage, when I passed paid family leave, when I closed more prisons than any governor in the history of the state...Look at a lifetime of work, my friend. I have been doing the same thing since I entered public service. When I was in my twenties, I was doing homeless housing in Brooklyn, homeless housing for homeless families and people and victims of domestic violence, so I’m a very simple, consistent fellow. We got into this business because my father taught me that the Democratic Party at its best was a vehicle for social justice and social change; it’s what I’ve been doing since day one.”
Nixon and her supporters, like those in the liberal Working Families Party, which endorsed her after backing Cuomo in his previous two gubernatorial races, have said some of Cuomo’s big achievements are watered down and there’s a long list of progressive goals that could have been achieved if Cuomo didn’t govern from the center, empower Republicans and breakaway Democrats in the state Senate, appease his big-money donors, and focus on the wrong priorities. Indeed, much of Nixon’s platform includes policy priorities that Cuomo has said he backs but has not gotten passed through the Legislature, something his critics say has been by design.
A recent Siena College poll shows Nixon gaining ground, though she still appears a significant underdog to a governor with near-universal name recognition in New York, $30 million and counting in the bank, and other advantages of incumbency. Cuomo’s 66%-19% advantage among Democratic voters in a poll released just as Nixon launched her campaign in mid-March shrank to 58%-27% in a poll released mid-April, but the governor still appears to be in strong position as the campaign begins to heat up. With the primary vote set for September 13, Nixon clearly needs to show Democratic voters around the state that she understands their concerns, while continuing to answer questions about her qualifications.
In her early campaign, she has begun to hold events around New York, while attending rallies where she is not a featured speaker, and sitting for several magazine profiles and appearing on television with Wendy Williams and Stephen Colbert. Twitter has become one of her key campaign tools, which she uses to reach her roughly 173,000 followers and many others through retweets and press coverage. Through these appearances and tweets, as well as press releases and campaign videos, Nixon has made a variety of policy positions clear, some of which are affirmative plans, others that are only critiques of how Cuomo has done things, with her own specific proposals still unannounced.
A little more than a month after declaring her candidacy, Nixon does not have a page on her website dedicated to policy, and has released one detailed issue plan, on energy and the environment. Her campaign did not respond to a request for comment about her policy agenda and what New Yorkers might expect in the future in terms of policy rollout.
But, Nixon has expressed support for a number of long-standing but unpassed policy proposals like the New York Dream Act, and begun to put forth other elements of her platform, which, given her lack of experience in government, she will be relying on heavily to woo voters. She has also listed off a number of ways in which she would govern differently from Cuomo, typically to the left.
Cannabis
Nixon has called for legalizing recreational use of marijuana in New York.
She has framed it as an issue of racial equity and criminal justice. “We have to stop putting people of color in jail for something white people do with impunity,” she said in a video posted to Twitter. At the same time, she frames the issue as an opportunity for economic growth and a potential new source of state tax revenue, “Legalizing marijuana can generate millions of dollars in tax revenue to improve the lives of all New Yorkers,” Nixon said in a tweet. She has also pointed out the potential agricultural opportunities in further tweets on the subject.
Another reform that Nixon has expressed support for relates to forgiveness for those who have been arrested and convicted on charges relating to cannabis. “Ending the injustice of putting New Yorkers in prison for marijuana is a start but we also have to correct past injustices, by expunging prior convictions — particularly for nonviolent offenders whose only convictions are for marijuana use,” Nixon tweeted.
Education
Nixon has been a vocal activist on education issues in the city and state for the better part of 20 years. Working with the Alliance for Quality Education, she has decried what they call the underfunding and unequal funding of schools, while also opposing the over-emphasis on standardized testing and the expansion of charter schools.
Talking to reporters in Syracuse recently, Nixon said of more education funding, “We need it to improve buildings that have mold, that have lead, that have asbestos, but we also need it to stop the school-to-prison pipeline. We need to have more social workers and psychologists, and we need to have people who are really trained in conflict resolution.”
At a press conference in March, during her first week as a declared gubernatorial candidate, Nixon appeared with the Alliance for Quality Education in Albany. She said of local education funding, “We need to not have it based on property values,” while suggesting that schools should rely primarily on state funding, not local. She also criticized the 2% cap on annual property tax growth everywhere in New York except New York City, which Cuomo implemented and points to as a major accomplishment. “He makes it very difficult if a locality wants to raise taxes on itself for education," Nixon said.
She also expressed support for the Assembly Democrats’ plan to increase public school funding in the state at the AQE press conference, which occurred during state budget negotiations before a deal was reached in late March. The Assembly plan would have directed an additional $1.5 billion in funding to public school districts, slightly more than double the funding that Cuomo had proposed, at an increase of $769 million over the prior year. The new state budget for the fiscal year that started April 1 increased state education spending by $1 billion, to a total of $26.7 billion. Cuomo regularly notes that New York spends more per pupil than any other state, and has long asked if the state and its localities are getting enough from that high level of spending, leading him to some of his calls for education reforms.
Nixon also frames education funding as a social and racial justice issue. “There is a $7 million budget for school resource officers, and a quarter of a million budget for mental health, we need to flip that,” she said. “We are treating our black and brown children, we’re viewing them as criminals, we’re viewing them as a threat from the very earliest ages.”
“Allowing more police into our schools will only fuel the school-to-prison pipeline which has ruined the lives of so many young black and brown students. More smartboards, less metal detectors,” she tweeted.
Nixon has also shown her opposition to charter schools, which are publicly-funded and privately run. Cuomo has been a major supporter of charter schools, helping them expand, especially in New York City. “We have to stop diverting education funding into privately run charter schools, and put the focus back where it should be: on strengthening our public schools and keeping them public,” Nixon wrote on Twitter.
She has also criticized Cuomo’s Excelsior Scholarship program that attempts to make city and state colleges tuition-free for students from many middle-class families. Cuomo considers it a crowning achievement, but critics like Nixon have put it in the bucket of progressive policies that don’t go as far as they should.
“In terms of free college for all, it only affects a very narrow group of New Yorkers who are middle class New Yorkers who earn too much money to be affected by the federal grant, the pell grant, and people who can afford to go to college full-time, don’t have to work, can graduate in four years, can guarantee they won’t move out of state for four years, and, importantly, don't need any help with books, with room, with board, with transportation -- that’s a very narrow targeted group of people,” Nixon said in an interview with Karen DeWitt of upstate public radio, WXXI News.
Nixon has come out in favor of repealing one of Cuomo’s major education reform initiatives, though something the governor has already largely abandoned. She is calling for removing any ties between state standardized test scores and teacher evaluations, otherwise known as the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) system. The initial passage of the system as well as the implementation of the Common Core learning standards helped fuel an opt-out movement whereby many parents have kept their children from taking the grades 3-8 tests in English language arts and math. The movement has also been bolstered by teachers unions decrying the focus on the tests, which themselves have seen both much criticism and some adjustments in terms of duration of testing and more.
Elections, Voting, and Campaign Finance
Nixon has thus far been light on details regarding campaign finance reform, though she has indicated support for an overhaul of New York’s system, which is known for its sky-high individual contribution limits and for the infamous LLC loophole, which allows virtually unlimited campaign donations from those who set up multiple limited liability corporations and has been a major boon to Cuomo’s coffers.
Nixon has been particularly critical of how Cuomo has built up his $30-plus million campaign warchest, pointing out that a tiny percentage has come from small donors, as exposed by The New York Times, while the rest is predominantly from wealthy individuals, corporations, and real estate developers.
Nixon has repeatedly stressed she is not accepting any corporate donations, opting to highlight the role that small donations have played in her campaign, but the nature of “corporate donations” has been loosely translated and Nixon is still accepting donations from LLCs, which at the federal level are considered corporations, but are are considered people at the state level.
In tweeting about her endorsement from Citizen Action of New York, Nixon appeared to support the public financing of elections, one of the advocacy group’s top priorities. Nixon’s endorsement from the Working Families Party mentions Nixon’s commitment to campaign finance reform, however it does not reference specifics.
On voting reform, Nixon has said New York is lagging behind on things like early voting. One of Cuomo’s recent moves, which added to claims that Nixon has moved him to take progressive action, was to move toward granting parolees the right to vote. Nixon tweeted that “Voter suppression in New York should have ended eight years ago, from the rights of parolees to access to early voting and automatic registration.”
Campaign finance reform and early voting are on the list of policies that Cuomo has said he backs and proposed year after year, only to see them die in the Republican-led Senate, while Nixon and others say that Cuomo either could have done more to get them passed even given current political dynamics or that his support for Republican control of the Senate has led to these policy failures.
Energy & Environment
Energy and environmental issues, like education, were major topics in the 2014 gubernatorial primary in which Cuomo defeated law professor Zephyr Teachout, who is now campaign treasurer for Nixon. Teachout did win a surprising 34% of the primary vote, likely related to her calls to ban fracking and reverse much of Cuomo’s education agenda.
While Cuomo did institute a fracking ban and has retreated on many education reforms, both larger topics are again at play this year.
Nixon has come out hard against fracking and non-renewable energy, backing environmental activists’ calls for a ban on all fracking-related infrastructure and more ambitious renewable energy goals. “I pledge that if I am elected Governor I will not approve any new use of fracked gas in New York State. Andrew Cuomo should take the same pledge. New York should not build fossil fuel power plants or pipelines that threaten our environment and contribute to climate change,” tweeted Nixon.
She has said she supports the Climate and Community Protection Act, stating that passing it would be at the top of her priority list should she become governor. She has stated her intentions to set New York on a road to achieve 100% reliance on renewable energy by 2050.
As part of her plan to achieve this, Nixon has proposed that she would reject all new investment proposals in fossil fuel infrastructure, such as pipelines and plants. She stated that she wants to hold what she calls “corporate polluters” accountable, suggesting this as a way to raise revenue in the state. While this may lead to calls by Nixon for a carbon tax, she has not given specifics for how she wants to punish those polluters.
Nixon has also been highly critical of nuclear energy as a potential alternative to fossil fuel, going so far as to state that nuclear power will not at all be part of her clean energy plan. On her campaign website, Nixon says she is against the state’s 2016 agreement to bail out aging nuclear power plants for $7.6 billion.
Nixon also recently came out against the Crestwood Liquefied Petroleum Gas Storage Project, a plan to import 1.5 million barrels of liquid propane from Texas and store it under Seneca Lake in unused salt mines in the town of Reading. “The Finger Lakes is a world-class wine and tourist destination that supports thousands of jobs and brings billions of dollars into New York’s economy every year. Clean air and clean water are vital for these businesses to thrive. I am firmly opposed to the Crestwood Gas Storage Project and the Romulus garbage incinerator,” Nixon tweeted.
On the same day that Nixon released her “A Just Transition for New York” environmental platform, Cuomo’s Department of Environmental Conservation rejected a water quality certification for a proposed gas pipeline. The department cited an incomplete application and environmental concerns as a reason, though some are arguing that Nixon’s environmental platform is influencing Cuomo’s actions.
Health Care
Nixon’s thoughts on health care are relatively scarce thus far, but she has expressed support for a single-payer system in New York. However, in a comment on Twitter relating to her recent endorsement from the Working Families Party, Nixon laid out several top policy priorities. “We will fight for equitable schools, good jobs, single-payer health care, subways that actually work, environmental justice, and an end to mass incarceration. It’s time for a New York that belongs to all of us—for the many, not the few,” said Nixon.
She made similar but more vague statement in a tweet thanking advocacy group Citizen Action for its endorsement. “I look forward to working with them on public financing of elections, racial justice, and guaranteeing quality healthcare and education to every New Yorker.” But in her recent interview with New York Magazine, Nixon also brought up the fight for a state level single-payer health care system as something she supports.
Transportation
The New York City subway system appears to be one of the key issues of the gubernatorial race. As the system has been plagued by delays and breakdowns, Cuomo’s management of the MTA has become a focus for elected officials, advocates, and riders. It has also become a focal point for those seeking to unseat him, including both Nixon and Republican Marc Molinaro, the Dutchess County Executive and presumptive GOP nominee for governor.
Nixon has placed the blame for MTA troubles squarely at Cuomo’s feet. “He slashed taxes on the wealthiest, and he’s slashed services on everybody else. He’s lost $25 billion from state revenue,” Nixon said in her interview with New York Magazine, adding that “fixing the subways” is one thing that money could have been spent on.
Nixon has been highly critical of Cuomo on the MTA but hasn’t fleshed out her own vision, though she has made a few general comments about how she would change priorities. Her campaign website has a section for “#CuomosMTA” and on the site, she says cosmetic changes, like wifi in subway stations, misguided priorities that put resources toward things that don’t actually improve the system. “The subway is the lifeblood of NYC. If the subway dies, so does the City of New York. When I’m governor, I’m going to make fixing the subway a top priority,” Nixon said on Twitter.
While Cuomo has overseen implementation of the MTA’s Subway Action Plan, even forcing New York City to pay for half of the $836 million tab, which seeks to make fast repairs to tracks and signals to return the subways to a more functional state, he has been criticized for acting too late and not prioritizing the subways over other projects like lights on bridges and expansion of the Long Island Railroad.
Nixon has come out in support of a comprehensive congestion pricing plan to reduce traffic congestion in Manhattan and create a new dedicated revenue source for the MTA. Cuomo has also expressed general support for congestion pricing and created a panel that crafted a specific proposal, but the governor never came out in full support of that plan. He saw one initial piece of it, a surcharge on taxis and for-hire vehicles, passed in the new state budget, and called it a first step toward congestion pricing.
“I think we need comprehensive congestion pricing not just on Uber and Lyft and black cars and stuff like that,” said Nixon. “We need money. We need a dedicated revenue stream. We have to be creative. I think congestion pricing is a great place to start.”
Economic Development
Nixon has been critical of Cuomo’s economic development programs. “The thing I keep hearing from people is top-down economic development isn't helping people. There were millions of dollars being doled out to people who then contribute to Cuomo's campaign coffers,” Nixon said recently as she toured upstate areas. She said the governor should listen to the needs of communities and then work to help them with those needs. Both lines of argument are similar to the ways Molinaro has characterized things in his criticisms of Cuomo.
Nixon has further suggested that as part of economic development strategies and contracts, private employers that work with the state government should face requirements to hire and train local workers from the communities that they are working in. “We need to make sure that economic development benefits everybody, not just those who are financially and powerfully connected,” said Nixon. She has not presented a real plan for how she would approach economic development.
Housing
Nixon has placed a fair amount of focus on the affordable housing crisis in New York City and across the state. She has talked about the need to strengthen rent regulations, criticizing Cuomo for not doing more to protect rent-regulated apartments, and she visited NYCHA housing soon after she launched her campaign in March, calling the conditions of the units in the housing authority “devastating”. She appeared to blame both Mayor de Blasio, who is a close ally and she campaigned for heavily in 2013, and Cuomo, though she has criticized Cuomo more heavily for not doing more.
In comments on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she said, Cuomo “has declared a state of emergency, and yet he's doing nothing about it.” Nixon pointed out how additional funds to deal with the crisis have not yet been spent even though a state of emergency has been declared.
Nixon has said she wants to renew and strengthen state rent laws and protect affordable housing, highlighting issues with how landlords are allowed to raise rents on rent-regulated tenants.
Nixon received the endorsement from activist group NY Communities for Change, which focuses on affordable housing. At an event with the organization, she sharply criticized Cuomo on housing and homelessness. “In the last ten years across this country, we’ve seen a reduction by 14% in homelessness, but not in Andrew Cuomo’s New York State,” she said. “Over the last eight years in New York State, we’ve seen a 36% increase in homelessness.” She promised to work with activists to reduce homelessness in the state, though she did not get into specifics other than one or two of the nuances of rent regulations, leaving undiscussed, for now at least, questions around rental subsidies, a topic of much debate in New York over the past decade and beyond.
Budgeting
Nixon, like Molinaro and many other Cuomo critics, has been critical of the budgeting process in New York state government. In a press release, she said, “Instead of an open and transparent process with a public debate on the issues, Cuomo’s budget cobbles together a series of backroom deals.”
There has been a great deal of criticism for many years of Albany’s “three men in a room” decision-making process, and Nixon has not only criticized the secretive nature of the way big budget deals are made, but also that Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the only woman leading a legislative conference, was kept out of negotiations of new sexual harassment policies, as well as all others.
“Governor Cuomo is allowing essential reforms like tax hikes on multimillionaires, bail reform, and early voting to drop off the table altogether,” she also said, questioning Cuomo’s approach to budget priorities.
In addition to her opposition to the state’s 2% cap on annual property tax growth, applicable everywhere outside New York City, Nixon has also come out as opposed to the 2% cap on annual state spending growth, both signature Cuomo achievements. At a press conference in Albany, Nixon said, “I think that that 2 percent cap on state spending is disastrous and what it means is we shrink the budget year after year.” While this is not really true, given that the budget does continue to grow, because of Medicaid and other costs, state government has in some ways shrunk under Cuomo, who has largely kept spending at his executive agencies flat over the course of several years.
Nixon appears ready to increase taxes on high earners and state spending on services including education. She expressed support for a progressive tax plan proposed by the Democrat-dominated Assembly, led by Speaker Carl Heastie of the Bronx, which would see taxes raised on those earning more than $5 million.
Immigration
Nixon supports the New York DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented students in the state access to in-state tuition and financial aid. Speaking with El Diario, a Spanish-language newspaper, Nixon said, “We have to pass legislation to make sure we do not collaborate with ICE, that they are not welcomed here and we have to pass the New York DREAM Act.” Not long after those comments, Cuomo issued an executive order to keep ICE from many state properties, one of several recent moves that have led to widespread comments that Cuomo is overtly responding to Nixon’s candidacy.
Nixon has come out in support of providing undocumented immigrants in New York with access to state driver’s licenses, saying, “I think that people who are old enough to do this and know how to drive should receive a license.”
“The hard-working members of our community should be able to drive their children to school and go to work without fear that a broken tail-light will lead to deportation. Let’s make driver's licenses available to all qualified New Yorkers and make NY a REAL sanctuary state,” Nixon recently tweeted. In a campaign video that included City Council Member Carlos Menchaca, the first elected official to endorse Nixon for governor, Nixon outlined her call for the restoration of full access to driver’s licenses.
In accepting an endorsement from activist group Make The Road Action, Nixon also announced support for the bill, tweeting, “Our governor has failed to provide hundreds of thousands of otherwise qualified New Yorkers with a path to obtain a license because of their immigration status. I will work with @MaketheRoadAct and working families across the state to pass the Driver's License Bill.”
While Cuomo has expressed some openness to possibly supporting the driver’s license bill, he most recently said it is something that could be done by a change to state law or that could be a county by county decision
Nixon also supports the Liberty Act, which she argues would put New York State on par with California in terms of immigration protections. The act would potentially prohibit state and local official’s interaction with ICE agents and provide a right to counsel for immigrants facing deportation who can’t afford a lawyer. “Our immigrant communities are fighting to keep their families together. They need a governor who will fight with them, from driver’s licenses to making New York a true sanctuary state, and Andrew Cuomo hasn’t. In 2018, you can’t call yourself a Democrat if you’re not doing everything you can to fight for immigrants” remarked Nixon in a press release.
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by Matthew Sweeney and Ben Max
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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax @GothamGazette
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by Matthew Sweeney, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
This week we're continuing to dissect Mayor Bill de Blasio's recently-released $89 billion Executive Budget plan for fiscal year 2019, which begins July 1. The de Blasio administration and the City Council now enter another round of Council hearings on the budget as well as behind-the-scenes negotiations, rallies, and other methods of seeing the next city budget include or ommit certain priorities. [Listen to the latest episode of What's The [Data] Point? for a full breakdown of de Blasio's budget proposal and key issues at play as negotiations heat up]
There are three days of legislative session in Albany this week, with less than two months to go in the Albany government year, which is scheduled to end mid-June. It's unclear how much will get done given it is a state election year and Senate Republicans, who control the chamber by a one-seat margin, have little incentive to say "yes" to anything that Governor Andrew Cuomo or the state Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats, wants to see passed this session.
Cuomo spent Friday rallying for a Democratic state Senate, by backing Anna Kaplan in Senate District 7, and Sunday on a day trip to Puerto Rico, where he continued to enhance New York's efforts to support the island's recovery from Hurricane Maria. The governor is, of course, at the center of a re-election campaign and this week is sure to see continued campaigning by his main Democratic primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, and the presumptive Republican nominee Marc Molinaro, the Dutchess County Executive.
There are a variety of events to be aware of this week - see our day-by-day rundown below.
***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
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The run of the week in detail:
Monday
On Monday at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall, "Mayor de Blasio will hold a public hearing for the following eleven bills that aim to reduce workplace sexual harassment: Intro. 612-A requires annual anti-sexual harassment training at City agencies; Intro. 613-A requires assessing workplace risk factors associated with sexual harassment within City agencies; Intro. 614-A mandates information about sexual harassment to be made available online for public access; Intro. 630-A creates an "Anti-Sexual Harassment Rights and Responsibilities" poster; Intro. 632-A mandates anti-sexual harassment training for private employers; Intro. 657-A expands sexual harassment protections to all employees; Intro. 660-A makes improvements to clarify and strengthen the City's Human Rights Law; Intro. 663-A changes the City's Human Rights Law statute of limitations for sexual harassment to three years; Intro. 664-A relates to climate surveys and action plans to combat sexual harassment; Intro. 653-A mandates annual reporting on workplace sexual harassment within City agencies and; Intro. 693 relates to the Division of Labor Services employment reports. The Mayor will also hold a public hearing and sign Intro. 241-B that establishes a Charter Revision Commission."
In the evening, de Blasio will appear on NY1’s Inside City Hall during the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday at Gracie Mansion, First Lady Chirlane McCray "will deliver remarks at the annual Mayoral Service Recognition Ceremony honoring over 400 New Yorkers and over two dozen businesses for outstanding volunteer service in 2017."
On Monday, city schools "Chancellor Richard A. Carranza will visit classes and attend a music and dance performance at MS 137 America's School of Heroes in Queens" at 10:30 a.m. "In the afternoon, he will host town hall events" at 4 and 5:30 p.m. at PS 131 Abigail Adams School in Queens.
At the City Council on Monday:
--The Committee on For-Hire Vehicles will meet at 9:30 a.m. to discuss proposed laws relating to “the waiver of licensing fees for accessible taxi-cabs and for-hire vehicles” and “the licensing and regulation of app-based for-hire transportation services and vehicles.”
--The Committee on Fire and Emergency Management will meet at 9:30 a.m. for an oversight hearing “evaluating emergency service needs in response to population shifts” as well as to discuss several proposed laws relating to reporting on the effects of rezonings on FDNY operations.
--The Committees on Education and Civil Service & Labor will meet jointly at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding “paid parental leave for New York City municipal employees” as well as two resolutions, one “calling upon New York City to extend paid family leave benefits to city employees covered by municipal unions” and the other “calling upon the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, legislation to amend the state Paid Family Leave Act to provide workers in New York State with a benefit equal to 100 percent of an employee’s average weekly wage.”
--The Committee on Parks and Recreation will meet at 1 p.m. for an oversight hearing regarding the “permitting process for the use of athletic fields at parks.”
At 8 a.m. Monday, members of the Independent Drivers Guild will rally at City Hall to protest Intro. 838, a proposed city law that would create a $2,000 annual fee for for-hire drivers and prohibit them from driving for more than one company, which is being heard at the aforementioned City Council meeting of the for-hire vehicle committee.
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Monday in Albany. Including Monday, there are 24 scheduled session days left this year, with three this week, before the June 20 end of business in Albany.
The retrial of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who had his corruption conviction overturned due to a Supreme Court ruling and subsequent appeal, begins on Monday.
At 11 a.m. Monday, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez will join advocacy groups at the steps of City Hall to “call on Congress to reject disastrous cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, housing, and other social programs that strengthen the economy, improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers, and demonstrate how we as a city value opportunity and dignity.”
At noon Monday, the Department of City Planning will give a presentation on the recently passed Jerome Avenue rezoning at the offices of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council in the Financial District.
On Monday at 1 p.m. at City Hall, "delivery workers will be joined by Asian American Federation, Make the Road New York, Biking Public Project, Transportation Alternatives, Legal Aid Society, New York City Council Member Margaret Chin and other elected officials to lay out five steps the de Blasio administration must take to ensure their needs are not forgotten in light of recent proposed clarifications on rules surrounding class 1, pedal-assist e-bikes. The rules recently proposed by the mayor enshrining the legality of class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes are a positive first step, but they explicitly leave out the e-bikes that the vast majority of delivery workers use. As long as this remains the case, delivery workers will continue to be criminalized." Participants will include delivery workers, Asian American Federation, Make the Road New York, Biking Public Project, Transportation Alternatives, Legal Aid Society, Council Member Margaret Chin, and other elected officials.
At 1:30 p.m. Monday, Luis Sepulveda and Shelley Mayer will be sworn in as State Senators in the Senate Chamber in Albany. The two Democratic Assemblymembers won special elections on April 24 and will vacate their Assembly seats to join the Senate.
At 6 p.m. Monday, the mayoral Charter Revision Commission will hold a public hearing at Bronx Community College in University Heights.
At 6:30 p.m. Monday, the New York City Bar Association will host “Advancing Environmental Equity in New York City,” discussing “pressing local environmental justice issues, including: mold in NYCHA buildings, private waste transfer stations, and equity in climate change adaptation.” Speakers will include Rachel Spector, Melissa Iachan, and Shiva Prakash of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Sara Imperiale of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Michael Stanley of Manhattan Together.
Tuesday
At the City Council on Tuesday:
--The Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet at 9:30 a.m.
--The Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting, and Maritime Uses will meet at noon to discuss a proposed law “authorizing the Landmarks Preservation Commission to administer a historic preservation grant program.”
--The Subcommittee on Planning, Dispositions, and Concessions will meet at 2 p.m.
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Tuesday in Albany.
City "On Tuesday, Chancellor Richard A. Carranza will attend meetings in Albany." At 9:30 a.m. he will deliver brief remarks at an Assembly Education Committee meeting and at 10:30 a.m. he will deliver brief remarks at a Senate Education Committee meeting.
Tuesday will see several demonstrations in honor of May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day. There will be demonstrations in Union Square, Washington Square Park, Cadman Plaza, and Wall Street, among other places.
--Beginning at 7 a.m. in Battery Park, "On May Day, as part of a national day of resistance, immigrant and working class New Yorkers will march to Wall Street to protest major financial institutions' complicity in the mass incarceration and family separation being advanced by the Trump Administration." Participants will include "immigrant and working-class New Yorkers with Make the Road NY, Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH), Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, New York Communities for Change, Center for Popular Democracy, Working Families Party, and CREDO."
--At 11 a.m. in Washington Square Park, the the New York Immigration Coalition will hold a May Day rally, at which Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and Public Advocate Letitia James will be among the speakers.
On Tuesday Gotham Gazette and City Limits will produce this week’s Max & Murphy podcast, with guest Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President and 2021 mayoral candidate.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will appear on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.
At 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, there will be a rally calling for instant runoff voting in New York. Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Letitia James, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and others will participate.
At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Governor Cuomo will make an announcement at John Jay College in Manhattan.
At 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, "Mayor de Blasio will join Newark Mayor Baraka to make an announcement at Newark City Hall. This event is open press. There will be no Q-and-A."
At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, NYC Votes and the New York City Campaign Finance Board’s Voter Assistance Advisory Committee will meet at the CFB’s office “to discuss the findings of the 2017-18 NYC Voter Assistance Annual Report.”
At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the Association for a Better New York will host its 12th Annual “Spirit of ABNY Awards” at the Rainbow Room. Honorees will include U.S. Rep Joe Crowley, Police Commissioner James O’Neill, and New York Magazine CEO Pam Wasserstein.
At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Empire State Indivisible and True Blue NY will host “4 Women in a Room: A Conversation about Women in NYS Government” at the Great Hall of Cooper Union. Speakers will include former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, former gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout, former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, and Brooklyn NAACP President L. Joy Williams.
Wednesday
At the City Council on Wednesday:
--The Committee on Standards and Ethics will meet at 10:30 a.m. to discuss a proposed law relating to “the advisory opinions of the Conflicts Of Interest Board.”
--The Committee on Land Use will meet at 11 a.m. to discuss the “approval of cemetery uses on land acquired in Queens before 1973.”
--The Committees on Justice System and Consumer Affairs & Business Licenses will meet jointly at 1 p.m. to discuss proposed laws relating to the bail bonds industry.
The New York State Legislature will be in session on Wednesday in Albany.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the Business Council of New York State will host its annual “Conference on State Taxation,” featuring business leaders discussing the impact of recent tax issues on businesses in the state. The conference will take place at the Renaissance Albany Hotel.
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, Crain’s New York Business will host its 2018 “Health Care Summit” at the Times Square Sheraton Hotel, discussing “investing in digital health innovation.” Panels consisting of health industry CEOs, as well as Economic Development Corporation James Patchett, will discuss “cutting edge trends in digital health.”
At 9 a.m. Wednesday, City & State NY will host the “Gender Parity Summit,” discussing changes in workplace culture surrounding gender in the #MeToo era and strategies for the future. Speakers will include, among others, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Public Advocate Letitia James, and New York State Chief Diversity Officer Lourdes Zapata. The event will take place at the Manny Cantor Center on the Lower East Side.
At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the New School Center for New York City Affairs will host “School Choice and Integration in NYC,” discussing new research by the Center’s Nicole Mader on the impact of school choice on those who choose to leave neighborhood schools and those who stay. Following the presentation of the research, there will be a panel consisting of Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa, New School professors Maya Wiley and Ujju Aggarwal, Community Education Council 3 member Dennis Morgan, and author Allison Roda.
At 11:15 a.m. Wednesday, criminal justice reform advocates will gather at the west gate of City Hall to call on the city to “pass protections for consumers regularly exploited by the predatory bail bonds industry.”
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the New York City Bar Association will host “How To Get on the Ballot in New York City,” discussing the complex process of becoming a candidate for public office in New York City. Speakers will include former Senate Minority Leader Martin Connor, election attorney Sarah Steiner, NYS Board of Elections co-chair Douglas Kellner, and City Board of Elections Deputy General Counsel Raphael Savino.
Thursday
At 11 a.m. Thursday, the Assembly Standing Committee on Health will meet at 250 Broadway in Manhattan “to examine the practice of medical aid in dying, as well as potential legislation to authorize this practice.” Medical aid in dying is when a terminally ill patient requests a prescription from their doctor that will, when administered, bring about death.
At 11:30 a.m. Thursday, City Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Just Leadership USA, and others will rally at the Fulton Fish Market to call for the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center in the South Bronx to be closed.
At noon Thursday, the New York State Board of Elections will hold a commissioners’ meeting in Albany.
At 6 p.m. Thursday, the Charter Revision Commission will hold a public hearing at the Flushing branch of the Queens Library.
Friday and the weekend
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday morning at 10 a.m.
On Friday, Gotham Gazette and Citizens Budget Commission will produce the latest episode of the What’s The [Data] Point? podcast, focusing on Mayor de Blasio’s neighborhood rezonings and affordable housing plan, real estate transactions, and other housing-related issues, with guest Sally Goldenberg of Politico New York.
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Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).
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by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette