AG Keeps Secret SKD Lobbyists Cunningham Work for His Office
SKD Worked With Red Horse for Antonio Reynoso Which Received Mailing From Red Horse PAC United for the Future
AG Eric Schneiderman’s office rejected a Crain’s FOIL request seeking emails between himself and his ex-wife, Jennifer Cunningham, who is also a powerful political consultant
More Campaign Finance Bull Shit From No Shame Albany
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders said Wednesday they are no longer pursuing a broad overhaul of New York state's campaign-finance laws. * Cuomo and legislative leaders said they are no longer seeking a broad overhaul of the state’s campaign-finance laws, and who is the reason they’re no longer looking to change the system depends on whom you ask
OEM Head Resigns
Head of city's office of emergency management will resign
next week(NYDN) Joseph Bruno, who was appointed OEM commissioner in 2004, will
step down June 27, according to a Mayor de Blasio spokesperson. * New York City Office of Emergency
Management Commissioner Joseph Bruno resigned after staying
in office during the beginning of de Blasio’s tenure at the request of mayoral
aides, The New York Times reports:* * Questions were raised at a City Council
hearing as to whether the FDNY can handle a greater role in responding to gas
leaks, as mandated by Mayor Bill de Blasio, City & State writes:
6 Months de Blasio Still Key Vacancies
Six months in, de Blasio deals with key vacancies Capital)
GOP Flack Say His Party Drops Democratic Opposition . . . Only Agenda is to Stay in Power
Go Along Bottom Feeders Fight to Save IDC GOP Ruling Coalition of the State Senate
Will A Rent Freeze Push Out More Mom and Pop Landlords?
Could the Rent Freeze Help Corporate Landlords and Airbnb?
Cash-strapped tenants and a parade of city politicians crowded into the Rent Guidelines Board hearing on Monday to rally for the first rent freeze for stabilized apartments. Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Public Advocate Letitia James and Controller Scott Stringer all testified for an unprecedented freeze. “After years of consistent rent increases, I am pleased that this board - for the first time in its 46-year history - may enact a rent freeze,” said Stringer, the city’s chief fiscal watchdog.
.
New Law Boxes in the Mayor On Charter School Expansion
The Success Academy Charters Schools group’s aim to double in size by
2016 forces Mayor Bill de Blasio to choose between two troublesome
options.A new state law
passed in April gives the city just two options to meet the demands of
the Success Academy network: It can hand over free space in public or
private buildings, or give the schools money to find their own space.
The first option has frequently led to angry protests from the parents
and teachers in schools that have to share space. The latter route would
come with spiraling financial costs, as well as potential political
ones, underscoring the new law’s unspoken aim: to get the administration
of Mayor Bill de Blasio to be more collegial to the charter school
sector.* New York City has just two options to
deal with Success Academy’s plan to double in size—give the charter
school network free space or give it money to find its own space—putting
the de Blasio administration in a tight spot* Farina Discovers Education Councils Not Working New York City Department of Education
Chancellor Carmen Fariña’s office has asked for the attendance records
of the city’s 33 community education councils, some of which reportedly
haven’t been able to conduct business because of large absences, the New York Post writes:
Skepticism in Business World of Progressive de Blasio
Mayor Bill de Blasio has tried to win favor from New York City’s corporate elite since coming into office, but he still encounters deep skepticism in the business world, The Wall Street Journal writes: “Mayor Bill de Blasio has tried to forge better ties with New York City's corporate elite in his first six months in office, but he still encounters deep skepticism in the business world, from small firms to Wall Street. Mr. de Blasio campaigned as a populist but since taking office has quietly courted the city's businesses, meeting with an array of executives in hopes of calming nerves. He has unveiled plans to decrease fines on small businesses, formed a task force to focus on jobs and proposed a city budget that doesn't raise property taxes. ‘We are on a much better path of late,’ said Viacom Inc. CEO Philippe Dauman, after a ‘challenging start’ between the mayor and the city's business leaders.”
Skepticism in Business World of Progressive de Blasio
Mayor Bill de Blasio has tried to win favor from New York City’s corporate elite since coming into office, but he still encounters deep skepticism in the business world, The Wall Street Journal writes: “Mayor Bill de Blasio has tried to forge better ties with New York City's corporate elite in his first six months in office, but he still encounters deep skepticism in the business world, from small firms to Wall Street. Mr. de Blasio campaigned as a populist but since taking office has quietly courted the city's businesses, meeting with an array of executives in hopes of calming nerves. He has unveiled plans to decrease fines on small businesses, formed a task force to focus on jobs and proposed a city budget that doesn't raise property taxes. ‘We are on a much better path of late,’ said Viacom Inc. CEO Philippe Dauman, after a ‘challenging start’ between the mayor and the city's business leaders.”
The Lhota Crime Report Shows Increase in Shootings
JOE LHOTA
NYT Hides WFP Investigation
The NYT Reports on the Ending of the WFP Investigation in 2010 But Not the Opening of It Again in 2014
No Charges Against Working Families Party - NYTimes.com(2010)
WFP's Lawyers and Political Operatives Have Worked Hard to Stop the Data and Field Investigation
Only Staten Island Prosecutors Are Willing to Cross the WFP
Since 2009 Lawyer for WFP Have Been Trying With Much Success Stopping Investigations into Data and Field
Pol stonewalls suit on WFP campaign(NYP)A City Council hopeful won’t cough up documents related to whether
the Working Families Party is scamming the campaign finance system —
because the case could involve “criminal liability,” according to
documents released yesterday. The bombshell development was revealed at a court hearing where
lawyers for the WFP and the campaign of Staten Island candidate Debi
Rose tried to get a suit against them tossed.* No Charges Against Working Families Party - NYTimes.com * Who'll dare to probe the WFP? | New York(NYP)Like its ACORN partner, the WFP has responded to allegations by announcing an investigation of itself. With all respect to former Chief Judge Judith Kaye, whom the WFP tapped to lead the internal review, no one but an outside prosecutor will be able to hold the party accountable. On the local level, the best hope rests with Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, a Republican. Spurred by an election lawsuit filed by Randy Mastro, a top aide in the Giuliani administration, Donovan’s office has “begun a preliminary review” of Debi Rose’s WFP-boosted campaign for City Council, say sources.Rose’s lawyer refused to provide documents requested by the Mastro suit, citing his client’s Fifth Amendment right to not implicate herself in a crime. The councilwoman-elect later insisted that the Fifth wasn’t her actual grounds for refusing to cooperate with the demand for records — but failed to give another reason.Among the local prosecutors, incoming Manhattan DA Cy Vance has the most resources and largest staff. But is he willing to provoke the outrage of organized labor? A case emerging with the other Democratic DAs isn’t promising. “I need a complaint,” says Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, who was endorsed by the WFP. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has been silent on the WFP matter, could open a civil case against the party’s shell corporation. And, under a statute that has been used in rare circumstances, the attorney general may ask the governor for the power to criminally prosecute abuses of election law. Aspiring to be a more radical version of Boss Tweed, the WFP is an election or two away from becoming too powerful to stop. The choice facing Democrats and prosecutors is reminiscent of that line from “The Untouchables”: “Mr. Ness, everybody knows where the booze is. The problem isn’t finding it; the problem is who wants to cross Capone.”
More About WFP Data and Field
WFP, Acorn 2.0 and the New Progressive Machine
de Blasio's Park Slope Goes Nation Wide
“De Blasio, after six months in office, has managed to shift the
political polarity of the city and the state. So why stop there? The
mayor has always aspired to lead not just a city but a progressive
movement, and de Blasio’s bid to bring the 2016 Democratic National
Convention to New York is a signal of his ambitions. … [But] De Blasio
is as much realist as lefty idealist. Brooklyn is not exactly the
front-runner for the convention, and Hillary Clinton is not Andrew
Cuomo. But they share an instinctual preference for the pragmatic
political center and a coziness with big-money interests—traits that
produce a common tension with the increasingly leftish Democratic Party
base.” *The
world was a beautiful place as Bill de Blasio folded himself into the
front passenger seat of a black SUV. The late-afternoon sun was shining
on Park Slope, and a grand political breakthrough was within reach.
Sure, it had been a complicated few weeks as Governor Andrew Cuomo and
the Working Families Party, bitter codependents, tried to agree on a
deal that would give Cuomo the WFP’s ballot line this fall in exchange
for the governor’s publicly pledging to get behind a progressive policy
agenda. Now, though, thanks in part to de Blasio’s mediation, a
compromise was falling into place. He left Brooklyn for the drive north
to bless the grudging bargain at the WFP’s convention in Albany.
Is Queens Boss Crowley Dumping Parkside As His Go to Consultant?
Or is there an Merger of the Organized Crime Political Consultant Lobbyists Families, Advance and Parkside?
More About Corrupt Parkside
More About Corrupt Advance
Sunday DN and NYP Attack the Mayors on Rent and Teachers
Daily News Bangs Rent Guidelines Board for Rent Freeze
Zero tolerance for zero(NYDN Ed) Candidate Bill de Blasio’s call for freezing rents on New York’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments is chilling reason at the city’s Rent Guidelines Board. Now stocked with Mayor de Blasio appointees, the panel is set to vote this month on how much to allow rents to rise. A freeze makes for perfect politics — and abysmal economics.* More than half a dozen City Council members will speak out Monday afternoon in favor of freezing rents for the nearly one million New Yorkers who live in rent-regulated housing, Capital New York reports:*Rent-stabilized tenants may face lowest hikes in nearly 50 years(NYP) * Tenants push for rent freeze(NYDN)* amNewYork writes that freezing rent-regulated units would establish a terrible precedent, one that could lead to poor maintenance and a deteriorated housing supply if political grandstanding dictates the ability of landlords to meet their costs instead of the market:
NYP Bangs Teacher Tenure and UFT Contract
NYC’s school racket(NYP Ed) Who said New York City’s schools are broken? Truth is, they’re working just fine — at least for the people they’re really designed to serve: their employees. A recent report by the Citizens Budget Commission makes that all too clear. Indeed, when it comes to fringe benefits, it suggests New York City’s teachers are treated better than almost everyone. Better not only than the average Joe in the private sector, but better than other teachers across the country. * Tenured teachers: They cheat, they loaf … they can’t be fired(NYP)* The Times Union writes that a California judge’s ruling to strike down a provision that allows for tenure may go too far, but it underscores the need for better teacher accountability: Religion and Pre-K The Daily News writes that the NYCLU’s objections to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s universal prekindergarten program allowing religious organizations to participate are predictable and overwrought: * The Daily News writes that the state Legislature and governor must act on a proposal backed by some New York City Catholics, schools, yeshivas, labor unions and civic groups to create a special tax break for charitable donations to education: *Common Core A Times Union/Siena Research Institute poll released over the weekend shows New Yorkers think the new Common Core standards were rushed and confusing, the Times Union writes:
* The Times chronicles 9-year-old Chrispin Alcindor’s struggles with new Common Core standards, which critics say are overly difficult but others say challenge students to become better thinkers:
In A State Were Corrupt Pols Avoid Charges For Their Crimes They Committee the Same Crimes Over and Over
Flashback the AEG Deal
Albany's Gambling Pay to Play Payoff Gov. David Paterson's advisor, , was overheard giving the governor "sensitive advice" and disparaging AG Andrew Cuomo on speakerphone on a crowded train to Washington A meeting was arranged by Harlem political consultant, who apparently spoke to the governor, on speakerphone, on a train. (Page Six)
Paterson advising casino despite past ‘bid-rigging’ scandal(NYP)\David Paterson was caught up in a casino bid-rigging scandal when he was governor, and now he’s an adviser for a gambling operator vying to open a $400 million casino north of the city, The Post has learned. The New York State Democratic Party chairman is an “unpaid” confidante to Greenetrack, which runs an “electronic bingo” gambling parlor in Eutaw, Ala. — and wants to build a casino complex on a 140-acre site near Stewart Airport. “It’s mind-boggling,” said Blair Horner, director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “Paterson is the new Democratic Party chairman getting behind one of the bidders for a casino. Should he be doing that? No.”A state Inspector General’s Office report in 2010 faulted Paterson for poor oversight of the “tainted”selection process that led to claims of bid-rigging on behalf of Aqueduct Entertainment Group.“Gov. Paterson engaged in an ill-advised meeting with the Rev. Floyd Flake, a well-known member of AEG, within five days of its conditional selection in an effort to garner political support,” the IG report said. Paterson last year admitted that he backed the AEG bid as a favor to former Senate Democratic Majority Leader John Sampson — who has been indicted in a separate real-estate scam.
In Ocean 11 The Rat Pack Tried to Steal From A Casino, In Albany They Tried to Steal the Entire Casino
Albany’s latest stench(NYP Ed) Reports
of political rot in Albany keep a-comin’ — with revelations this week
by The Post of probes of top Democrats in a sleazy deal that, by his own
admission, even ensnared ex-Gov. David Paterson.For starters, the feds
are investigating whether state Sens. John Sampson and Malcolm Smith and
others were involved in a scheme to steer a multibillion-dollar
contract to a politically juiced firm, AEG, to run a racino at Aqueduct
Race Track.
More on the AEG Cover Up
Is There An Election Law That the Advance Group Did Not Break? Start Will Mixing Campaign Funds With Citizen United PACs
Anybody But Quinn Used Voter Info From Other Advance
Group Campaigns: Sources
The Advance Group, a leading consulting and lobbying firm, took voter information from City Council and borough president campaigns it ran last year and used it in the controversial Anybody But Quinn initiative, a move that is raising new legal questions. The consulting firm, which spearheaded the anti-Quinn group, drew information from the Voter Activation Network databases of other campaigns they managed or advised last year and gave the data to the crusade to discourage New Yorkers from supporting ex-Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s failed mayoral bid, a former operative for ABQ. Campaigns use the Voter Activation Network to access voter rolls and obtain the names, addresses, ages and party affiliations of registered voters–particularly useful for get-out-the-vote ground operations like the one ABQ ran.
The NYT Reports On the National Effect of Citizen United But Not One Word About the Effects of the Court Ruling on Local Politics
The Koch Cycle of Endless Cash(NYT)
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The wealthiest Americans are using their fortunes to lobby Congress against any limits on their ability to buy elections.
Did the Advance Group Have A Back Door into the Van Data Base?
The Van Voter Data Base is Controlled By the Democratic State Senate Committee
Several Advance Clients Are Funded by DSSC and Use the Van System . . . Did Advance Use Candidate Private Data Base Against Them? Who Controls Security for VAN?
The CFB Fined Two City Council Members Because the Advance Group Ran Their Campaign and They Received Funding By A PAC Controlled By Advance
Two City Council members were slapped with fines Wednesday for taking off-limits contributions from animal rights group NYCLASS, which bankrolled Mayor de Blasio's mayoral campaign for his pledge to ban horse-drawn carriages. Council members Laurie Cumbo (D-Brooklyn) and Mark Levine (D-Manhattan) have to pay back money they were given by New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets because they shared the same political consultant — the Advance Group — as the anti-carriage group. The funds also exceeded the contribution limit of $2,750, which was included in the violation. "The penalties levied today against the Cumbo and Levine City Council campaigns represent only the first step in this proceeding," said Board Chair Rose Gill Hearn. "The Board will consider violations and penalties for the other parties to these transactions.” Both Cumbo and Levine were fined for being connected to Advance PAC NYCLASS. But were not fined to date for another PAC Advance worked for and contributed to both campaigns, United for the Future.
Thompson Consultants:Red Horse Berlin Rosen
Red Horse worked for Brooklyn DA Thompson campaign along with Berlin Rosen
Berlin Rosen also worked for NYS AG Schniderman
Both the Advance Group and Berlin Rosen worked for Comptroller Stringer and CM Mark Levine and Laurie Cumbo were fined for his connection to Advance. Both Advance and Berlin Rosen worked for Levine and the councilman received funding from United for the Future which both Advance and Berlin Rosen Worked for
8 Of Red Horse Clients Received Funding by the UFT PAC United for the Future which Red Horse Also Worked for:
Councilman James Vacca used Red Horse as a consultant and received mailing from United for the Future even though he had no race. Another Red Horse client CM Annabel Palma received funding by United for a Future.Austin Shafran another Red Horse client was funded by UF the UFT PAC that Red Horse Worked for. CM Daneek Miller another Red Horse client got mailing from UF. Red Horse client CM Antonio Reynoso also received help from UF PAC. CM Helen Rosenthal A Red Horse Client got mailing from UF PAC another Red Horse client. CM Richard Torres A Red Horse Client got mailing from UF PAC another Red Horse client. CM Paul Vallone A Red Horse Client got mailing from UF PAC another. NYS DEMOCRATIC SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE (NYS DSCC)
Mark Guma Who Worked With Cy Vance and DA Brown Also Worked With Red Horse
Red Horse client. Red Horse worked with Mark Guma for Jessica S Lappin.
Berlin Rosen also worked for NYS AG Schniderman As A Political Consultant
In the 2013 Elections Berlin Rosen Was Interconnected with Both Red Horse and Advance
In the 3rd council district Berlin Rosen candidate Corey Johnson received mailing from United for the Future, Red Horse worked for UF. In the 19 council district Red Horse worked on Austin I Shafran campaign along with consultants Berlin Rosen and PITTA BISHOP. In the 1st congressional district Red Horse worked for Jenifer Rajkumar against Berlin Rosen candidate Margaret S Chin. In the Manhattan BP race Red Horse worked for Jessica Lappin against Berlin Rosen candidate Julie Menin. In the 6th congressional district Red Horse worked for Helen Rosenthal against Berlin Rosen candidate Marc Landis.
Advance Group and George Arzt worked for former Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes
Red Horse worked for Manhattan DA Cy Vance
Mission Control worked for Brooklyn DA Thompson and the following
Mark Guma worked for Manhattan DA Cy Vance and Queens DA Bronx and worked with Red Horse for Manhattan BP candidate Jessica S Lappin.
Mission Control worked for Thompson and the UFT, CM Dickens, Mendez, Weprin who all received mailing from the PAC United for the Future. Mission work with Advance and Arzt on Council candidate Micah Kellner campaign. At the same time Arzt was working with Hynes Red Horse was working for Hynes opponent Thompson, but both were working together to elect Melinda Katz to become Queens BP. Berlin Rosen was also work with Thompson against Arzt's candidate Hynes. Both Berlin Rosen and Arzt worked together to elect Julie Menin Manhattan BP and Comptroller Stringer. Arzt Also worked with Advance to elect Micah Keller for city council.
Why Has the CFB Not Gone After Advance's Clients Who Got Funding From the UFT's PAC United for the Future Which Advance Also Worked for?
Months ago CrainsNY reported that the Advance Group through a fake group Strategic Consultants was working for the UFT PAC United for the Future. What is also not known is another consultant that worked for many candidates in 2013 also worked for the UFT PAC, Red Horse. Both the Advance Group and Red Horse worked for Bronx BP Ruben Diaz, Jr. Both Advance and Berlin Rosen work for Mark Levine in the 7th council district. Both Advance and Berlin Rosen also worked for Ydanis A Rodriguez. Red Horse Served as a consultant to Jenifer Rajkumar by received funding by the Citizens United PAC who the Advance Group worked for. Advance work for Manhattan BP Jackson who also was funded by Advance's PAC United for the Future
Branford Worked for Bronx DA Johnson, Brooklyn DA Thompson and AG Schniderman
Branford who Worked for Both Brooklyn DA Thompson, Bronx DA Johnson and AG Schniderman. Brandford candidates CM Maisel. Cabrera, Gibson, Rose and Andrew J Cohen received mailings from United for the Future PAC controlled by both Advance and Red Horse. Advance's candidate CM Mark Levine and Laurie Cumbo were fined for his connection to Advance. Branford worked with Berlin Rosen for Daniel L Squadron for Public Advocate. Branford work with both Advance and Red Horse with Bronx BP Rubin Diaa,Jr. Branford worked with Berlan Rosen for AG Schniederman.
Support for Bratton Drops 10%
Public approval for the NYPD has dipped from 68 percent in March to 59 percent among registered voters in New York City. The drop comes amid a steady increase in the number of shootings throughout the city and the highly publicized murder of a 6-year-old in an East New York public housing building.
In the 70's A Bronx Elected Official Put in A Bill to legalize Cock Fighting
End of Year Special Interest Bills
The Post writes that it’s that time of year at the state Capitol when lawmakers push through pricey bills to score points with special-interests groups before the legislative session ends:
Red Horse worked for Brooklyn DA Thompson campaign along with Berlin Rosen
Berlin Rosen also worked for NYS AG Schniderman
Both the Advance Group and Berlin Rosen worked for Comptroller Stringer and CM Mark Levine and Laurie Cumbo were fined for his connection to Advance. Both Advance and Berlin Rosen worked for Levine and the councilman received funding from United for the Future which both Advance and Berlin Rosen Worked for
8 Of Red Horse Clients Received Funding by the UFT PAC United for the Future which Red Horse Also Worked for:
Councilman James Vacca used Red Horse as a consultant and received mailing from United for the Future even though he had no race. Another Red Horse client CM Annabel Palma received funding by United for a Future.Austin Shafran another Red Horse client was funded by UF the UFT PAC that Red Horse Worked for. CM Daneek Miller another Red Horse client got mailing from UF. Red Horse client CM Antonio Reynoso also received help from UF PAC. CM Helen Rosenthal A Red Horse Client got mailing from UF PAC another Red Horse client. CM Richard Torres A Red Horse Client got mailing from UF PAC another Red Horse client. CM Paul Vallone A Red Horse Client got mailing from UF PAC another. NYS DEMOCRATIC SENATE CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE (NYS DSCC)
Mark Guma Who Worked With Cy Vance and DA Brown Also Worked With Red Horse
Red Horse client. Red Horse worked with Mark Guma for Jessica S Lappin.
Berlin Rosen also worked for NYS AG Schniderman As A Political Consultant
In the 2013 Elections Berlin Rosen Was Interconnected with Both Red Horse and Advance
In the 3rd council district Berlin Rosen candidate Corey Johnson received mailing from United for the Future, Red Horse worked for UF. In the 19 council district Red Horse worked on Austin I Shafran campaign along with consultants Berlin Rosen and PITTA BISHOP. In the 1st congressional district Red Horse worked for Jenifer Rajkumar against Berlin Rosen candidate Margaret S Chin. In the Manhattan BP race Red Horse worked for Jessica Lappin against Berlin Rosen candidate Julie Menin. In the 6th congressional district Red Horse worked for Helen Rosenthal against Berlin Rosen candidate Marc Landis.
Advance Group and George Arzt worked for former Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes
Red Horse worked for Manhattan DA Cy Vance
Mission Control worked for Brooklyn DA Thompson and the following
Mark Guma worked for Manhattan DA Cy Vance and Queens DA Bronx and worked with Red Horse for Manhattan BP candidate Jessica S Lappin.
Mission Control worked for Thompson and the UFT, CM Dickens, Mendez, Weprin who all received mailing from the PAC United for the Future. Mission work with Advance and Arzt on Council candidate Micah Kellner campaign. At the same time Arzt was working with Hynes Red Horse was working for Hynes opponent Thompson, but both were working together to elect Melinda Katz to become Queens BP. Berlin Rosen was also work with Thompson against Arzt's candidate Hynes. Both Berlin Rosen and Arzt worked together to elect Julie Menin Manhattan BP and Comptroller Stringer. Arzt Also worked with Advance to elect Micah Keller for city council.
Why Has the CFB Not Gone After Advance's Clients Who Got Funding From the UFT's PAC United for the Future Which Advance Also Worked for?
Months ago CrainsNY reported that the Advance Group through a fake group Strategic Consultants was working for the UFT PAC United for the Future. What is also not known is another consultant that worked for many candidates in 2013 also worked for the UFT PAC, Red Horse. Both the Advance Group and Red Horse worked for Bronx BP Ruben Diaz, Jr. Both Advance and Berlin Rosen work for Mark Levine in the 7th council district. Both Advance and Berlin Rosen also worked for Ydanis A Rodriguez. Red Horse Served as a consultant to Jenifer Rajkumar by received funding by the Citizens United PAC who the Advance Group worked for. Advance work for Manhattan BP Jackson who also was funded by Advance's PAC United for the Future
Branford Worked for Bronx DA Johnson, Brooklyn DA Thompson and AG Schniderman
Branford who Worked for Both Brooklyn DA Thompson, Bronx DA Johnson and AG Schniderman. Brandford candidates CM Maisel. Cabrera, Gibson, Rose and Andrew J Cohen received mailings from United for the Future PAC controlled by both Advance and Red Horse. Advance's candidate CM Mark Levine and Laurie Cumbo were fined for his connection to Advance. Branford worked with Berlin Rosen for Daniel L Squadron for Public Advocate. Branford work with both Advance and Red Horse with Bronx BP Rubin Diaa,Jr. Branford worked with Berlan Rosen for AG Schniederman.
Support for Bratton Drops 10%
Public approval for the NYPD has dipped from 68 percent in March to 59 percent among registered voters in New York City. The drop comes amid a steady increase in the number of shootings throughout the city and the highly publicized murder of a 6-year-old in an East New York public housing building.
In the 70's A Bronx Elected Official Put in A Bill to legalize Cock Fighting
End of Year Special Interest Bills
The Post writes that it’s that time of year at the state Capitol when lawmakers push through pricey bills to score points with special-interests groups before the legislative session ends:
WFP Promises Will Not Happen This Year
Why Did Senate Leader Stewart-Cousins Take the Heat off the IDC Members Who Face Primaries. Keeping the Attack Going on the failure to Pass the Women's Agenda and Public Financing Would Hurt the IDC Candidates?
de Blasio: Anything You Want Princess Moskowitz
The More de Blasio Attacks Charter Moskowitz the More He Empowers His Opponent in the 2017 Election
The Daily News writes that based on Eva Moskowitz’s record of achievement, she should easily receive the state’s approval for 14 new charter schools, and a law will force the city to either provide public school building space or funding to pay rent on leased space:
NY NJ Economic War Destroys Both
New York and New Jersey are battling for businesses with millions in tax credits:
IDC's Klein Hangs On With Triangulation
Sen. Jeffrey Klein supports City Council's wish to reduce speed limit to 25 mph(NYDN)
Following the New York City Council’s passage of a home rule message in support of lowering the speed limit on city streets, state Senate Co-Leader Jeff Klein said he would introduce an amended bill that would lower the speed limit to 25 mph on streets with two lanes or less, * Savino said the breakaway Democrats that make up the Senate IDC will remain separate from the mainline Democrats, but she did not commit to remaining linked to the Republicans, the Daily News report: * The Working Families Party endorsed former New York City Comptroller John Liu in his bid to unseat state Sen. Tony Avella, a member of the Independent Democratic Conference, the Observer reports: * In the race for retiring Assemblywoman Joan Millman’s seat, the Working Families Party is also backing activist Pete Sikora over Jo Anne Simon, Millman’s longtime ally, the Observer notes
IDC GOP Senate Coalition
Court: Special Prosecutor of WFP 2009 Election Probe May Go On
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York's Court of Appeals has ruled that a special prosecutor may continue his investigation into whether the Working Families Party violated election law in a 2009 New York City Council race on Staten Island.In a ruling issued Tuesday, the court declines to overturn Roger Bennet Adler's appointment as special prosecutor. District Attorney Dan Donovan had recused himself from the investigation for reasons that have never been made public.An attorney for the Working Families Party had argued that there was no demonstrated reason for Donovan to disqualify himself and Adler's appointment should be rejected.Two party officials were subpoenaed last year in the case. Expect this Investigation to move fast because the Statute of Limitations up may be up in September. Expect the WFP Lawyers to Stall Like They Have Been Doing. * Special prosecutor to probe Working Families Party The Saratogian The party, which has emerged as a leading liberal voice in New York politics, had asked the court to overturn the appointment of Roger Bennet Adler as special prosecutor. The statute of limitations "is five years from the last overt act," Adler said. "I believe there has been conduct that goes much deeper than some people think."
During oral arguments this spring, some top court judges questioned whether it will soon be too late to prosecute anyone for actions in 2009. Court Upholds Special Prosecutor In WFP Probe Read the Ruling * NY Court of Appeals upholds appointment of special prosecutor in WFP probe - UPDATED(NYDN) * Court rules prosecutor can investigate Working Families Party(NYP)* Court of Appeals: DA Donovan correct in recusing himself from Working Families ... SILive.com
Update: WFP’s state director Bill Lipton released a statement.
“While the Court’s reliance on papers filed under seal and hidden from us and the public to uphold the special prosecutor’s appointment is disappointing, we know that we have done nothing wrong. We are confident that will be the conclusion of any fair and unbiased inquiry, just as that has previously been the conclusion of the United States Attorneys Office and the Campaign Finance Board.
How the Data and Field Scam Worked
The way the scheme works, according the suit according to a lawsuit filed agianst CM Rose, is that the WFP gets involved in local races, backing its favored candidates, who in turn hire DFS for vital campaign services, such as phone banking, polling and get-out-the-vote efforts. But under the plan, the WFP-endorsed candidates pay only “a nominal sum, well below fair market value,” for those services — giving those candidates a major, unfair advantage over their opponents, whose spending is limited by law.
What the WFP's Data and Field Case is About
.Nexus
2009 WFP Election . . . Data and Field . . . Wolfe . . . Connecting to 2013 Spending Limits
Investigator wants to speak with Mayor de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe in Working Families Party probe(NYDN) Roger
Bennett Adler sent a letter in September to Emma Wolfe, de Blasio’s
director of intergovernmental affairs, asking for a sitdown, according
to sources. The investigation is examining whether the party’s
now-dismantled for-profit arm, Data & Field Services, gave
cut-rate prices to Working Families candidates, giving them an unfair
advantage in elections. The investigation is examining whether the
party’s now-dismantled for-profit arm, Data & Field Services,
gave cut-rate prices to Working Families candidates, giving them an
unfair advantage in elections.The accusations center on whether Rose
received improper support from
the WFP’s for-profit campaign arm, Data and Field Services.“Good. May
justice be done,” said lawyer Randy Mastro, who sued the WFP on behalf
of Staten Island voters in a civil case.
A special prosecutor investigating the Working Families Party’s relationship with get-out-the-vote corporation Data & Field Services wants to interview Emma Wolfe, an aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Wall Street Journal reports: Since 2012, the prosecutor, Roger Bennett Adler, has been investigating the Working Families Party's relationship with Data & Field Services, a corporation formed by the left-leaning party to provide its candidates with get-out-the-vote staffing and expertise. Investigators are looking at whether the for-profit firm charged significantly lower fees than is typical for such service, potentially providing an unfair advantage to favored candidates.
Group Honors Wolfe As Top Progressive? Interesting Timing
New Kings Democrats
More About WFP Data and Field
WFP, Acorn 2.0 and the New Progressive Machine
It is Time to Blame the Press for Enable NY's Corrupt Epidemic
The Media Continues to Ignore the U.S. Attorney Plea for Responsible Investigate Journalism . . . Ask Baldwin
Media Ignores U.S. Attorney Plea to Investigate Corruption to Improve Govt
Bharara: No Investigative Reporting Equals More Corruption
Bharara to Journalist
Investigate Stop Copying My Press Releases
"Rather
than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are
already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new
stories," Bharara said. "Groundbreaking corruption coverage is not just
good copy, it's a path to good government." Bharara
The Tenants of NYC Should Thank the Parkside Group For Being So Incompetent and Control of the Council
Panicked landlords are trying to do the impossible — convince New Yorkers that the rent is too damn low. With the Rent Guidelines Board mulling the first freeze in city history, the Rent Stabilization Association — which represents 25,000 landlords — has launched a six-figure ad campaign called, “A rent freeze hurts everyone.” The ad blitz began over the weekend and comes just as the guidelines board is preparing to meet Thursday for the first of five public hearings to discuss a freeze.
Tenants Thinking of A Parade to Thank the Parkside Group for Low Rents
Lobbyists Groups Parkside Spent $7.5 Million of Real Estate Developers Money and Failed to Elected A Council Speaker. . . Making Their Queens Boss Crowley Their Benefactor A Lose. The political action committee run by the Parkside Group, backed by the city’s strongest landlord organization, the Real Estate Board of New York, has doled out $7 Million for City Council candidates. The City Charter states. Parkside Jobs4NY gave gifts in the form of cash to the following council members: Chin, Levine, Dickens, King, Cabera, Gibson, Vallone, Prentzas, Lancman, Cumbo, Torres, Espinal, Maisel, Treyger, Mattero, Cohen (16 Members)
The Corrupt Parkside Group
Mayor Feels the Pain of His UFT Union Pals - Defends Tenure
T De Blasio defends teacher tenure * New York City Parents Pushing Hard For End To Teacher Tenure (WCBS)* CA teacher-tenure overturn will likely spur NY bid to do same: lawyer(NYP) * Hope for New York kids from California ruling(NYP Ed) A lawyer says the same kind of evidence used in California to strike down teacher-protection statutes could be used to bring an end to New York’s tenure laws* The Post writes that when elected officials call entrance exams to New York City’s specialized high schools biased against black and Latino students, they’re really saying they don’t believe students can pass the tests:
Mayor Does Not Feels the Pain of His Cops Sweet Penions
Too rich for our blood (NYDN Ed)De Blasio rightly opposes a pension sweetener for cops * The Daily News writes that though he has proven to be friendly with New York City’s public employee unions, Mayor Bill de Blasio is right to push back against
current calls for pension reforms for NYPD officers:
After the Friedman Corruption 1980's We Got Public Financing, But We Still Got Pols Stealing the Green
What Does Former Bronx Democratic Party boss Stanley Friedman 1986 Citisource Crook, Have In Common With 2014 Pay to Run GOP Smith both had the Same Lawyer Shargel?
Tom Robbins
Bribery demands for a new era: Donald Manes, 1985: "Where's mine?" Daniel Halloran, 2013: "I can take green."
http://nyti.ms/1oQ5bgV“Before, I had to show money coming in to help my campaign. Now, I don’t have to.” Later that same day, Halloran (R-Queens) sent the agent — whose real name wasn’t provided to jurors — an e-mail containing a commitment letter pre-dated four days and promising $40,000 to $80,000 for consulting work on a Queens YMCA.Mr. Modi’s testimony painted an unflattering portrait of Mr. Halloran as a councilman eager to use his so-called member-item discretionary account to pay back large contributors like Mr. Stern and Mr. Modi. In this case, the quid pro quo was a no-show management consulting contract worth up to $80,000 for the renovation of a senior center in his northern Queens district run by a nonprofit called Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Civic Association.* City Council Leadership Digs in Heels on Member Items(NYO)de Blasio still wants to ban member items in the City Council, but the fellow Democrats who lead the body are ready for a fight. Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, the Democratic majority leader, said last night that Mr. de Blasio would ultimately fail outlaw the discretionary funding granted to individual members.“Look, the council and I agree to disagree. We have a different perspective on this,” Mr. de Blasio said in May. “I do think it’s time to end member items. I think that’s the smart path going forward. But I also respect that the council has its own prerogatives and I respect them as a legislative body and we have to work in partnership. So we’ll continue to work on that issue.”
How de Blasio Became the Activists
“MISSION CRITICAL”: DE BLASIO ON HIS AGENDA -- Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel: De Blasio talked about his coming of age as an activist, during the Reagan years, when the federal government recused itself from dealing with—or even paying attention to—the pressing problems plaguing American consciences. During the 1980s, de Blasio said, “people were like, wait a minute, we’re adrift, what do we do? And so you had the nuclear-free zones in localities, you had the sister cities with Central America, you had the sanctuary movement, you had all sorts of things where localities…picked up the mantle and started creating their own counterprogramming.” Read the full transcript of de Blasio’s interview with the Nation, MSNBC and Salon here
AG Schneiderman Subpoenas Brooklyn DA Hynes Aides . . . Lobbyists Worlds Collide
The
AG Has Not Publicly Said He is Investigating the Advance Group, Berlin
Rosen, Arzt and Brandford, Now He May Be Forced To Now
State Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman reportedly subpoenaed consultant Mortimer Matz and Jerry
Schmetterer as he looks into possible criminal charges against former
Brooklyn district attorney Charles Hynes
Sources: The Defense of Hynes Public Relations Man, Matz is Already Out. Matz Was Not Running the Campaign.
Daily News "Still, sources close to Hynes say the majority of Matz’s emails were sent out on his own time in early morning hours. Matz defenders contend he was an integral part of the press office who routinely attended press conferences.. "
Lobbyists World Collide In the Middle of the Hynes Investigation
That means that the Advance Group, Gorge Arzt and Brandford will be used by the defense of Matz as the consultants that were running the Hynes campaign in the primary. That brings several conflicts for the AG Investigation of Hynes. They both used the same consultant, Brandord Communications. How can the AG investigate Hynes and not investigate Advance Group which is already being investigated by the FBI and CFB?
Sources: The Defense of Hynes Public Relations Man, Matz is Already Out. Matz Was Not Running the Campaign.
Daily News "Still, sources close to Hynes say the majority of Matz’s emails were sent out on his own time in early morning hours. Matz defenders contend he was an integral part of the press office who routinely attended press conferences.. "
Lobbyists World Collide In the Middle of the Hynes Investigation
That means that the Advance Group, Gorge Arzt and Brandford will be used by the defense of Matz as the consultants that were running the Hynes campaign in the primary. That brings several conflicts for the AG Investigation of Hynes. They both used the same consultant, Brandord Communications. How can the AG investigate Hynes and not investigate Advance Group which is already being investigated by the FBI and CFB?
Monday Update
AG Eric Schneiderman subpoenas Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes aides, says source(NYDN)The AG is looking into possible criminal charges, according to a source, who has revealed that the supoenas are for Mortimer Matz and Jerry SchmettererHynes could face theft charges for the misappropriation of public funds. Schmetterer also declined to discuss the case and Matz was not immediately available.In a 2010 interview with the New York Times, the veteran political guru said, “In 2013, I expect to be working on Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes’ re-election campaign. Still, sources close to Hynes say the majority of Matz’s emails were sent out on his own time in early morning hours. Matz defenders contend he was an integral part of the press office who routinely attended press conferences. Another incriminating aspect of the report concerned Barry Kamins — the top jurist in Brooklyn until his promotion to a statewide job late last year — who offered near-daily advice to Hynes about the campaign and related issues, emails showed. Meanwhile, Hynes has vacationed Florida, Aruba and Jamaica since his flopped bid for a seventh term, according to friend of the former lawman. He was in Hamptons when the DOI report was released last Monday, the pal said.
Capping off a week that started with stunning revelations the AG looks into Charges Against Hynes
Sunday Update
The departures include a veteran homicide prosecutor who bolted mid-trial and district attorneys with close ties to former DA Charles Hynes — whose legacy continues to be tarnished with new claims he misused public funds. Thompson was elected last November, and there have been ongoing shakeups and dismissals in recent months. The list of departures, sources said, includes a veteran homicide prosecutor who recently bolted mid-trial and district attorneys seen as close to former DA Charles Hynes. Along with their old boss, they were found to have possibly violated laws by funneling money seized from criminals to old-time political consultant Mortimer Matz, for a total of $1.1 million between 2003 and 2013.Matz was never enrolled as an official DA employee and was not on the payroll, according to sources.* A former Brooklyn prosecutor who raised questions a year ago about a troubled asset forfeiture fund interviewed by the state Attorney General's Office(NYDN) Barbara Burke told investigators on Wednesday that money seized from drug raids and Medicaid fraud cases was improperly used for campaign expenses, according to a source.
More On DA Hynes
More on the Advance Group
More on Horse-Carriage Politics
CrainsNY on the Advance Groups Double Dipping
Special Prosecutor? The AG, Bronx DA And Hynes Had the Same Political Consultant
Political Consultants Lobbyists Work for Prosecutors and Pols So Who is Watching Over Them?
AG Schniderman Berlin Rosen, SKD KnickerBocker,BRANFORD COMMUNICATIONS
Brooklyn DA Hynes THE ADVANCE GROUP, MILLENIAL STRATEGIES, GEORGE ARZT COMMUNICATIONS, DOUGLAS E SCHOEN, BRANFORD COMMUNICATIONS
Manhattan DA Vance Mark Guma Communications, GLOBAL STRATEGY GROUP, RED HORSE STRATEGIES, STU LOESER & CO
Brooklyn DA Thompson Red Horse, Berlin Rosen, BROOKLYN STRATEGIES, TIME FOR CHANGE CONSULTING
Queens DA ARNIE KRISS, MARK GUMA,
Bronx DA BRANFORD COMMUNICATIONS, STANLEY SCHLEIN, ESQ
Comptroller Stringer BERLIN ROSEN, BRANFORD COMMUNICATIONS, GEORGE ARZT, SKDKNICKERBOCKER, THE ADVANCE GROUP
PA Tish James Red Horse, HUDSON TG, Pitta Bishop Del Giorno, Mirram Group, HUDSON TG
Mayor de Blasio Berger, Henry T, Berlin Rosen, The Advance Group
Bronx BP Diaz, Jr. (no race) Branford Communications, Red Horse, Advance Group
Queens BP Katz Red Horse, George Arzt Communications, Multi-Media
Brooklyn BP Adams (no race) Red Horse, PITTA BISHOP
More on The Big 8 Lobbyists
More on Dark Money Pools Politics
Independent News' Future
True News Battles News by Spin By Providing Background to Stories In the News
True News Respects New Yorkers By Giving them Unfiltered News and None Lobbyists Supported News. True News Prints All Sides of An Issue and Offers Its Reader An Historical Background on the News Topic, So The Readers Are Not Manipulative By the Spins of Flacks, Pols or Even Newspapers Tracking Lobbyists Who Supported online Journalism
Taxi A state appeals court reversed a lower-court’s decision and declared to be legal the Bloomberg administration Taxi of Tomorrow plan for a nearly uniform fleet of yellow taxis in New York City
Crime Why Does It Take the Murder of a 7 Year Old for the City's Pols to Move on Increasing Crime in Public Housing and Making Sure Every Building Have Cameras?
NYFD The city fire commissioner’s new right-hand man is a gal — for the first time in FDNY history
MTA A new report shows that the MTA’s post-9/11 security program has been pushed back until late 2017 because of Superstorm Sandy, which caused salt water damage to security cameras and fiber optic cable(NYP)
Charter Schools The Success Academy charter school network, which clashed with Mayor Bill de Blasio over using public school space to start the year, wants to open 14 more schools over the next two years(NYT)
Teacher Tenure The Post writes that a California judge’s ruling to strike down tenure laws has aftershocks felt in New York, where last year just 31 percent of third- to eighth-graders tested proficient, but 91.5 percent of teachers were rated effective or highly effective:
Elite HS Undermining the elite high schools
NYPD De Blasio refuses to back increased disability pensions for cops: source T
Stuy Town Lenders Enlisted in Effort to Preserve Stuyvesant Town for the Middle Class(NYT)
Housing City officials push for providing lawyers for tenants facing eviction(NYDN)
Rents Landlords, tenants in crossfire as rent freeze battle looms(NYDN)
Real Estate Capital Real Estate: Walentases’ salty language for de Blasio (Capital)
SANDY UPDATE To Save the Shore, Putting Hope in the Sand(NYT)
AFFORDABLE HOUSING Albany Expands Effort to Cap Regulated Rents for Older Tenants (NYT) * Landlords launching ad blitz to stop rent freeze(NYDN)
TALE OF TWO CITY'S POVERTY As City’s Elderly Population Swells, Concerns Rise Over Lack of Access to Retirement Plans
GAS EXPLOSION UPDATE Regulator Wants to Know How Con Ed Is Handling an Increase in Reports of Gas Leaks(NYT)
1. Sandy HUD May Make NYC Compete for Sandy Aid
2. Gambling A proposed casino development is in Tuxedo — only 41 miles away from NYC
3. Gov Race Republican Rob Astorino rips Gov. Cuomo over attack ads
6. NYC Poverty NYC poverty rate hit 21.4% in 2012: study(NYDN)
8. Rangel Race The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union plans to endorse state Sen. Adriano Espaillat in his bid to defeat Rangel
9. Voucher Scandal State Sen. Phil Boyle, who is behind a bill to build a dorm for legislators in Albany, racked up $127,481 worth of lodging and food per diems during his six-year tenure in the Assembly
11. Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito Taking Her Time in Appointing Chief of Staff
12. Speed Cameras This City is just all too clever...Let's put speed cameras everywhere, then lower the speed limit to a ridiculous
13. Transparency New York officials are using private email to stay out of the public record.
14. Rapfogel Scandal Calculation behind charity? Despite scandal, Developer Bruce Ratner sticks with the Met Council
15 BOE Corruption City Councilman Ben Kallos rips Board of Elections for dodging blame after probe revealed problems
16. Citi Bike Majority of Citi Bike users are men: study
17. Port Authority Port Authority head orders internal corruption probe after suit
How NYC is Losing Its Middle Class Law meant to lower NY auto insurance made it surge: study
Closing LICH Hospital Competing bidders for Long Island College Hospital have one more day to reach an agreement for providing healthcare on the site before its owners close the hospital down on Thursday, May 22, The Real Deal reports
SUNY UPDATE SUNY Downstate says LICH to Maintain Current Level of Services as Negotiations Continue
Rangel leads Espaillat by 9 Points (41-32%) in 13th CD Primary acc to our new poll(NY1)
Gambling and Lobbyists
Moreland Update Michael Koenig, a former federal prosecutor, is expected to represent the Moreland Commission in its dealings with Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office and would function primarily as a replacement to the panel’s inside counsel
Sanitation .
Pre-K EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio gives pep talk to school staffers for pre-K enrollment boost(NYDN)
Grimm Campaign Rep. Michael Grimm’s campaign manager quit after indictment stopped donations: source
Gov Campaign Update
Documents show that Chemung County Sheriff and Republican lieutenant governor candidate Chris Moss withheld records from a county investigation into workplace harassment and violence complaints against him earlier this year, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin writes:
Comptroller Stringer Prohibits Pension Placement Agents
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer is set to announce that the boards of trustees of all five city pension funds have passed a resolution prohibiting placement agents from helping arrange investments by the funds, * City bans broker fees on pension funds(NYP)
NYT: Pols Who Rose to Power On Morality and Reform Must Be Held to A Highter Standard
A political figure like Bill de Blasio, who rose to power by the hand of moral authority and with a reform agenda, is going to be judged more harshly than someone who seems more transactional, The New York Times’ Gina Bellafante writes:
State Closes Down 11 Hospitals Serving the Poor Shocking Health Disparities
A new collaboration between the NYU School of Medicine and the City University of New York will address cardiovascular disease disparities in some of New York City's most ethnically diverse communities. The schools announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will fund the new public-private partnership, called the NYU-CUNY Prevention Research Center, which is set to launch Sept. 30. [Crain’s Health Pulse
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Hispanic workers have unemployment rates of around 12 percent in NY, about twice the 6.3 percent unemployment rate for whites
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Council Speaker Calls Walmart's Charity $$$ Dangerous
Friday UpdateDe Blasio mum on Walmart-City Council dispute(NYP) * The gift of Walmart(NYPED)
Thursday Update
Local nonprofits that have received charitable donations from Walmart are denying calls from the New York City Council to return the funds to protest the retailer’s policies, the Post reports:
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A Tale of Two Council Ethical Outrages
Nobody In the Council Has Ever Commented On the Conviction of Their Own Member For Misusing Member Items, Which They Approve
City Council members rip Walmart’s charity of ‘dangerous dollars’(NYP)More than half the members of the City Council have fired off a letter to Walmart demanding that it stop making millions in charitable contributions to local groups here. Twenty-six of the 51 members of the Council charged in the letter that the world’s biggest retailer’s support of local causes is a cynical ploy to enter the market here.
Sal Albanese
One Day Being Bullied, The Next Day Ignoring That Same Bully
Was It All Scripted to Fool Party Activists and the Public, By Who Besides Cuomo?
Cuomo jeopardized his new New York (democratandchronicle.com) Cuomo, whose first-term success is directly attributable to his centrist appeal, picked a fine time to choose sides. With just two weeks left in this year’s legislative session, the Democratic chief executive’s arm-twisted realignment with the liberal Working Families Party could prove costly for New Yorkers, particularly upstaters. All of this is happening because an ordinarily politically astute Cuomo allowed himself to be pushed around by a small downstate-based party that threatened to run its own gubernatorial candidate if he didn’t toe their liberal line. Cuomo obviously wanted to keep a third-party candidate out of the race at any cost so he could shoot for a plausible landslide victory in November that could help his possible presidential bid. Amazingly, Cuomo acted as if nothing had changed during a visit to Rochester last week. He sounded as centrist as ever. “We had gridlock before Washington had gridlock. Albany had it first, and we’ve totally flipped that.” Whether Cuomo admits it or not, the state may well be flipping back to the old New York. What a shame. * Column on Cuomo and the Indep and WFP lines: You say "transactional politics" like it's a bad thing: (TU)
Examining the Cuomo-WFP pact Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to make good on a slew of promises he made for the recent endorsement of the Working Families Party. Greg David examines the business implications of the governor’s new pact. [Greg David on New York]* HENDRIK HERTZBERG in The New Yorker, “Cuomo, the WFP, and Seven Days in May”: “Cuomo is the kind of politician who governs canoe-style. He paddles left, then he paddles right, then left again, then right again—and, in Cuomo’s case, right again. … Liberals are delighted with his strong leadership on marriage equality, criminal justice, and gun control. But his economic and fiscal policies are another story. On those, he paddles starboard. He cut the inheritance tax and a bank tax. He cut an existing surtax on millionaires and blocked New York City from imposing a new one. He allowed New York State’s minimum wage to rise gradually, to nine dollars an hour, but foiled Mayor de Blasio’s attempt to raise the city’s higher.
If You Think Ken Langone And His Rich GOP Friends Would Support Cuomo If He Would Allow the Senate to Be Take Over by the Democrats, We Have A Bridge to Sell You
“He balanced his budget exclusively via cuts in spending. On top of all that, he reduced his own proposal for extensive public financing of campaigns to a teeny, tiny pilot program—accepting, meanwhile, a contribution from David H. Koch, of the brothers. … Cuomo and the W.F.P. have reached a truce, but it’s more like a ceasefire than a ratified treaty. The W.F.P. has already delivered on its end of the bargain. It remains to be seen whether Cuomo will deliver on his.”* Cuomo caves to the Tea Party of the left(NYDN Ed) The floodgates open for a radical agenda. You’d think that after watching the Tea Party divide and weaken Republicans, Gov. Cuomo would know to steer clear of hard-line ideologues on his end of the spectrum. Worse, a governor who rightly says New York has no future as the America’s highest-taxed state was helping to elevate a third party that believes just the opposite.With both houses of the Legislature in the hands of Democrats — a large percentage of them cross-endorsed by the WFP — the floodgates would open for the party’s high-tax, business-hostile agenda.* Home Depot's Langone Defends Republicans for Cuomo ... * GOP power broker backs Cuomo's re-election campaign ... * Republicans for Cuomo sell out cheap | New York Post * Cuomo: Senate Dems Reunify, But Wait Until Next Year(YNN)
Why Did Senate Leader Stewart-Cousins Take the Heat off the IDC Members Who Face Primaries. Keeping the Attack Going on the failure to Pass the Women's Agenda and Public Financing Would Hurt the IDC Candidates?
WFP Leader Canter Has A Strange Way of Putting On Pressure on Cuomo to Keep to His Deal
Canter Love Filled the Convention Room WFP’s Dan Cantor on the party’s contentious convention: “It was a room filled with strong feelings, with solidarity, with love.”
NYP: Today’s Spending Ends Up Becoming the Rationale for Tomorrow’s Tax Hike
Backdoor tax hike(NYPEd)Bill de Blasio lost his frontal assault for a tax hike. But if his new budget is any clue, he is now building pressure for a tax increase through the back door. It all has to do with a boring acronym called “PEG.”PEG stands for “Program to Eliminate the Gap.” It’s the term bureaucrats use for pushing city agencies to find budget trims. Mayors have included PEGs in their spending plans for years. Not Mayor de Blasio.On Wednesday, city Comptroller Scott Stringer called the lack of a PEG “a potential problem.” He’s absolutely right. De Blasio says the budget challenges he faces are “unprecedented.” The back raises he gave the teachers union — paid with future dollars — won’t make it easier. His budget reflects multibillion-dollar out-year gaps.* Teachers' budget scrutinized Two months after Bill de Blasio and the United Federation of Teachers reached what the mayor called a "historic" contract agreement, some budget watchers are more concerned than ever that the deal's purported $3.4 billion in health care savings will not come to fruition. [The Insider]
Albany Red Light for de Blasio's Vision Zero
De Blasio’s Vision Zero plan is hitting a roadblock in Albany, where state lawmakers are running out of time to address his push to lower the city’s speed limit to 25 miles per hour, the Post reports:
CM Dromm Threatens Charities Not to Take Walmart $$$
Ask not what your City Council can do for you. Ask what it might do to you.Furious over Walmart’s attempt to open a store in Gotham — and the Walton family foundation’s support for charter schools — a majority of council members signed a decree calling on the retail giant to stop donating to New York charities.
The council also urged these charities (which include City Harvest, Coalition Against Hunger, One Hundred Black Men) to return the checks.This “suggestion” came with a thinly veiled threat from Queens Councilman Danny Dromm that “other people are watching who [you’re] taking money from.” In between, the council also found time to ask Albany to pass a law restoring the job protections
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Marking the Violent Murders in Brooklyn
GHOSTS COME ALIVE: Sidewalk monuments to mark deaths caused by violence in Brooklyn neighborhood(NYDN)
Marking Brooklyn Democratic Convention HQ
Norman Oder
The optics here could be convenient: Hank Sheinkopf says a Big Apple convention would be a way “to marry Clinton centrists and de Blasio progressives.” Another Dem said the choice would fit with an unstated Hillary campaign message: “It’s the 90s all over again.” The last time NYC hosted a convention was 1992, when Bill Clinton was nominated.The local benefits could be limited. David Dinkins lost re-election a year after the DNC came to town, starting a 20-year Republican run at City Hall. And several key party members said they’re skeptical of de Blasio’s decision to make it specifically a Brooklyn bid. One Dem consultant who likes the proposal asked: “Is Brooklyn's brand of Democrats a winning brand for the national party?”
The real challenge could be logistics. Some Democrats who say Brooklyn provides a great backdrop for a new, more diverse and tech-savvy Democratic Party think most conventioneers would eat, sleep and shop in Manhattan. Also, not forgotten: The Barclays Center was supposed to foster thousands of units of affordable housing which haven’t materialized yet.* The Post writes that Mayor Bill de Blasio has good reason to want the 2016 Democratic National Convention to be in Brooklyn, and the incentives that come with the convention have the potential to bring benefits to all New Yorkers:
Political Parties In NY Are For Sale to the Highest Bidder
Smith (right) is facing up to 45 years in prison if convicted of bribery conspiracy, wire fraud and extortion. Malcolm Smith once had his sights set on Gracie Mansion. Now a jury will be asked to send him to the Big House.The Democratic state senator from Queens — who is seeking re-election despite his legal woes — heads to trial Monday in White Plains Federal Court on charges he tried to buy a spot on the 2013 mayoral ballot as a Republican by paying off the city's GOP bosses. Mr. Halloran is also charged with promising a “cooperating witness” and an undercover federal agent that he would use $20,000 from his councilman’s discretionary account to finance consulting work for them on a senior center in Queens and for a no-show job. And he would call in favors from other council members to increase the size of the discretionary allocation.* State Sen. Malcolm Smith to head to trial(NYDN) * Sen. Malcolm Smith Corruption Trial Begins(WCBS) *Judge brushes off insanity plea from ‘corrupt’ ex-councilman(NYP)
Remembering D-Day With Their Brothers in Arms(NYT) * Memories From Normandy(NYT Ed) * Homage to heroes(NYDN)
,
Feds Say Smith Followed In the Long NYC Tradition of Trying to Buy A Ballot Line
Malcolm Smith attempted $200K bribery in failed GOP mayoral bid(NYP) Unsatisfied with the power he’s amassed in Albany, Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith last year tried pulling off a $200,000 bribery scheme to get on the Republican ballot for New York City mayor – with then-Queens Councilman Dan Halloran “setting the whole thing up,” a federal prosecutor told jurors Wednesday. “Malcolm Smith wanted something more; he wanted to be mayor” and figured his best shot would be to cross party lines and “run as a Republican."Bloom said Smith – one of the state’s top Democrats – made the failed bid to secure the Republican mayoral primary line by bribing Halloran, Tabone and then-Bronx Republican Chairman Joseph “Jay” Savino. Smith, the prosecutor said, turned to crooked Rockland County developer Moses Stern and an undercover agent for money and help pulling off the scheme.
The Pre-K Half
The Daily News writes that New York City should make all data for every prekindergarten provider instantly accessible to ensure that all programs deliver safe, high-quality prekindergarten:* Day after NYDN reveals health code violations at NYC pre-K, city hits 2 w/ 21 more * De Blasio hailed a new mixed-use development in Harlem that will house a universal pre-K program and contribute 124 units to the administration’s affordable housing goal, City & State reports:Less Than Half of New York City’s Applicants for Pre-K Get Their Top-Choice School(NYT)
* 4 out of 10 parents shut out from public school pre-K: officials(NYDN) * Pre-K Spots Go to 62% of Applicants in First Round(WSJ) * REJECTION LETTERS -- “Thousands of Kids Rejected as Pre-K Demand Exceeds Supply of Seats,” by DNAinfo’s Amy Zimmer: “The Department of Education received 41,178 applications for about 26,000 full- and half-day seats for the fall of 2014, leaving more than 15,000 kids without a spot … “In Queens' District 24, which includes Flushing, 70 percent of students were turned away. More than 60 percent of applicants in The Bronx's District 11, which covers the northeast Bronx along the Westchester border, received rejection letters, as did more than 60 percent of applicants in Brooklyn's District 20, which spans Bay Ridge, Borough Park and part of Sunset Park, DOE data showed.” http://goo.gl/LzudzS* 38% of New York City pre-k applicants did not get an offer for a school placement. (WNYC) * City confident in meeting pre-K demand with non-school spots(Capital)
None Profit Picks Up Speakers Tab
Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito didn't pay for the trip to Chicago. But she scored $ for her campaign.Some are questioning a trip to Chicago last year that New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito took during which she attended a fundraiser that raised money for her re-election campaign, though her trip was paid for by a nonprofit organization, The Wall Street Journal reports:
The Selling of Political Party Ballot Lines Is More Than the Smith Trial
Rangel Race Promises of Jobs
What They Will Get In Reality is More Gentrification and More Low Paying Jobs
In Race for Rangel’s Seat, Top Rivals Promise Job Growth in Struggling Areas(NYT)
Representative Charles B. Rangel and State Senator Adriano Espaillat
courted voters in the Bronx and Harlem with promises of job growth.
* Rep. Charles Rangel and challengers will face off in the Bronx after all* Rep. Charles Rangel and Democratic primary challenger state Sen. Adriano Espaillat both courted voters by promising to bring jobs to Harlem and the Bronx, though the theme of whether Rangel’s longevity is an asset or weakness never quite faded, the New York Times writes:
* Rep. Charles Rangel and challengers will face off in the Bronx after all* Rep. Charles Rangel and Democratic primary challenger state Sen. Adriano Espaillat both courted voters by promising to bring jobs to Harlem and the Bronx, though the theme of whether Rangel’s longevity is an asset or weakness never quite faded, the New York Times writes:
Schumer Repeats His Grad Speech Again and Again and Again
CHUCK’S “DUMPED” SPEECH makes Wall Street Journal A1 as A-Hed -- “Senator’s Pomp Makes for Odd Circumstances: Senator Drops by Graduations to Tell Same ‘Loser’ Story,” by Mike Vilensky and Sara Germano: “As colleges around the country go through the graduation ritual of speeches, handshakes and cheers, school officials in New York have been dealing with another ritual: the often unadvertised arrival of Mr. Schumer. Politicians at all levels of government often speak at commencement, but few have embraced the role as ardently as New York's senior senator. So far this commencement season, Mr. Schumer, a Democrat elected in 1998, has made remarks at at least eight colleges or universities in the state. … “Schumer often recites a variation on the same story, in which he turned down a scholarship to travel abroad after graduating from Harvard to spend time with his then-girlfriend, who subsequently dumped him. ‘There I was: no scholarship, no trip around the world, no girl. I said to myself, “What a loser you are,”’ he said in his remarks this year at Binghamton. He told the same story at Hofstra University and Stony Brook University this year. And at St. Francis College in 2010, Saint Rose in 2010 and Binghamton in 2012. ‘It's like the ''Twas the Night before Christmas” of commencement speeches,’ said Karla Schuster, a spokeswoman for Hofstra and former reporter who said she has heard the speech m
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High Court to Rule on Big Gulp Ban
Much more than soda is at stake in New York’s battle over sugary drinks.* SODA BAN HITS STATE'S TOP COURT: Judge hears arguments on New York City's push to ban large sodas(NYDN)
New York City's push to ban big sodas reaches state's highest court(NYDN) * Soda-Ban Fate Weighed(WSJ)Tuesday: More WFP Cuomo Fallout
If the Left Had a Tea Party (Politico)
The Working Families Party made a deal with Cuomo to give him its backing for governor, which was billed as a historic step forward by Mayor Bill de Blasio—then came the day after, The New York Times’ Michael Powell writes:* The Post writes that those wondering why Albany is so corrupt should look no further than the Working Families Party’s decision to endorse Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the three key players behind it Astorino to make Cuomo’s dependence on de Blasio to get WFP line a central campaign theme * The Working Families Party’s grudging endorsement of Cuomo may be intriguing for insiders and pundits, but others should find the deliberations silly at best and dishonest at worst, Anthony Weiner writes in the Daily News:
Cuomo Pushes Back From WFP Video
“But even with Cuomo and the unions on their side, the Democrats are by no means a safe bet to run the table and win back a sufficient number of seats to compel the renegade Independent Democratic Conference to return to the fold. Yes, they would have a 32-member majority, but at least two members—Simcha Felder and Ruben Diaz Sr.—could be counted on to vote “no” on public campaign financing and the full Women’s Equality Act, which contains an abortion rights plank.”--TAKEAWAYS from Politico’s Maggie Haberman: “Cuomo, described as obsessed with his margin of victory in what should be a fairly easy reelection battle … pushed himself into facing boiling-over anger among liberal activists over his centrist governing … where Occupy Wall Street was born so he could secure their line. … de Blasio, who's got strong ties to the party and helped broker a deal, … could claim a king-making role after months of beatdowns from Cuomo. The WFP, which needs 50,000 votes to maintain status on the ballot in future races, has billed this as a massive victory, getting Cuomo on tape promising to a range of policy points, including allowing localities to set their own minimum wage rates.”* Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins Virginia Perez, a Westchester County legislator, won’t wage a primary run against Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.* Stewart-Cousins says Gov. Andrew Cuomo reassured her of his dedication to ending the current IDC-GOP leadership, and she “did not feel that I had to press him.” *
IDC Leader Jeff Klein recently picked up the endorsement from the Pelham Democratic Committee in his primary battle against former NYC Councilman Oliver Koppell. Tenants PAC is backing former NYC Comptroller John Liu’s bid to unseat Sen. Tony Avella in a Democratic primary.* Sen. Tim Libous thinks Cuomo will come to realize that returning to Democrat control of the Senate isn’t a good idea.* The Buffalo News writes that despite pledges made to the Working Families Party to win support, including one to help Senate Democrats assume power, Gov. Andrew Cuomo should remember that New York needs more of what he achieved in his first term, not less:* Gov. Cuomo Wednesday hardly sounded like a man ready to keep his promise to take out the Senate Republicans. “We have a very good working relationship on both sides of the aisle,” Cuomo to reporters following an economic development announcement in Rochester. He took credit for reversing years of partisanship in Albany that “totally gridlocked” state government. “The lack of partisanship in Albany is something that I’m very proud of,” Cuomo said.* Glens Falls Post-Star EDITORIAL: Cuomo trades honor for support: * Reminding Cuomo of his party (Wash Post)
Green Party TU: "Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins believes that the Working Families Party’s controversial decision to throw its support behind Gov. Andrew Cuomo provides a clearer choice for voters seeking an alternative to both major parties this fall." * Cuomo-Hochul Ticket Given WFP Nod, Officially(YNN) * State Republicans are accusing Gov. Andrew Cuomo of flip-flopping when it comes to supporting a Democratic takeover of the State Senate, with Senate Co-Leader Dean Skelos suggesting there are “two Andrew Cuomos,” State of Politics reports * Just a few days after calling for the ouster of Republicans from their power base in the State Senate, Cuomo sought to characterize his relations with GOP lawmakers as productive, telling a reporter “We have a very good working relationship on both sides of the aisle,” The Buffalo News reports:
de Blasio Moves Fast On Gov Min Wage Commitment
Friday
Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped a lawsuit brought by the Bloomberg administration aiming to block the city's prevailing-wage law, as de Blasio looks to raise the pay of workers in city-subsidized buildings, Crain’s writes:
Thursday
Higher Minimum Wage Gains Support(NYT)
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he would support raising the state minimum
wage — currently $8 per hour — and he might also support an even greater
wage for high cost-of-living areas like New York City.* Can the Minimum Wage Be Too High?(NYT)On Monday Seattle raised its minimum wage to $15 an
hour. But can the city afford it? Will it lead to job losses, as some
predict, or be a model for national r
Council Speaker Melissa
Mark-Viverito Wants $15 Dollars An Hour New York City Council Speaker Melissa
Mark-Viverito said she would like to see the minimum wage in the city
increased to $15 an hour and she is ready to convene hearings on the
matter, the Daily News reports: * Mayor Bill de Blasio is dropping the city's suit against the prevailing wage law:
Fallout of the WFP Endorsement: Ammunition for GOP's Rob Astorino
Fredric U. Dicker
Wright: WFP Won’t Get All They Want(YNN)
Source: De Blasio plans outreach to I.D.C. challengers(Capital) de Blasio plans to reach out this week to potential challengers to
members of the State Senate's Independent Democratic Conference* Democrats in the mainline conference
are confident Cuomo will follow through on his promise to help them
retake the State Senate, although it remains unclear what form the
governor’s support will take, State of Politics reports: * Higher Minimun Wage Mayor Bill de Blasio got behind a
proposal floated by Gov. Cuomo to raise the state minimum wage to
$10.10, with an option—formerly opposed by the governor—for a 30 percent
increase to just over $13 in New York City, City & State reports * Lost in the chaos of the Working
Families Party convention was its endorsement of challengers to two
members of the breakaway Senate Democrats—Oliver Koppell, who is going
up against Senate Co-Leader Jeff Klein, and John Liu, who is challenging
Sen. Tony Avella, Crain’s reports: * Ross Barkan of the Observer writes that de Blasio has regained some clout in his relationship with Cuomo, which was formerly defined by the governor’s clear victory in their
first budget war earlier this year * NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to reach out this week to potential challengers to IDC members and also potentialyl meet with IDC Leader Jeff Klein.
Carmen Arroyo Watch
Sampson Separate Petition
Brooklyn Boss Seddio Is Petitioning for Sampson But Won't Carry the State Senator On His Clubs Joint Petition. Turns Out All the Elected Officials and District Leaders are Carrying Separate Petitions for the Indicted Senator
.
.
Hevesi Said Not Allowed to Probe Special Needs Abuse
Secret tape shows Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi saying that his leadership refuses to probe state agency(NYDN) Hevesi,
who chairs the chamber's investigations committee, said in the
recording that he was not allowed to investigate the Justice Center for
the Protection of People With Special Needs, even though Assembly
Democratic leadership believe the agency is a fraud. He was speaking to
activist Michael Carey, who made the recording.
@klnynews typical of how legislature works in NY State, these guys forget their job is to protect the public not to cower to pol bosses
Corrections Department in Crisis
New New York City Corrections Department Commissioner Joe Ponte called the department’s performance under his predecessor, Dora Shiro, unacceptable, the New York Post reports:
* 'DEEP TROUBLE': City's new jail boss says Department of Correction is a mess(NYDN)
JFK Boss Quites
JFK boss suddenly quits(NYPThe Port Authority’s top boss at JFK Airport abruptly quit his $179,600-a-year position without explanation Monday, sources told The Post. Gennaro “Jerry” Spampanato, 75, JFK’s general manager, notified PA officials...
NY tabloids unimpressed with Bowe Bergdahl deal: "'Victory' for Terror"- @nypost & "'Taliban Victory'"
BOE Wants More $$$
Board of Elections wants to raise pay for pollworkers(NYDN) NYC's embattled Elex Board seeks pay hike for 36,000 poll workers, already among highest paid in nation* NYC’s embattled Board of Elections is lobbying City Hall for $7.4 million to boost the salaries of its 36,000 temporary pollworkers — many of them party insiders — by $100.
What Happen to the Criminal Investigation That Comptroller Liu Called for Two Years Ago
May 31, 2012 John Liu Called For a Criminal Investigation on 911 Now We
Know NYPD Chief Dowd took gifts from Contractor Verizon May 31,
2012 John Liu Called For a Criminal Investigation on 911 Now We Know
NYPD Chief Dowd took gifts from Contractor Verizon Where is our criminal
investigation all these years it's been obvious we need one simple
math....I
guess city Council aren't the brightest light bulbs or is it that
they're trying to protect the fact that they dropped the ball. Over the
last few years the counicl has had dozens of hearing about problems in
the 911 system What happen to the council oversight role? * Comptroller Investigating City's 911 System After EarlyComptroller Investigating City's 911 System After Early ...(2013) * Bloomberg Blasts Liu's "Stupid" 911 Audit | NBC New York(2012) *Gonzalez: City Controller John Liu threatens to block massive Verizon contract to maintain New York's 911 system(NYDN) * Liu: 911 Upgrade Cost City Millions - Times Newsweekly * City Council holds emotionally charged hearing on 911 (2013) * Dept. of Investigation Launches Probe into Ariel Russo, 911 (2013)The .000004% Did This to NY
81 WFP Delgates/78 WFPProxy in A State of 19,000,000 -Revolution By A Potemkin Party
Monday Update
As Antics Subside, Both Cuomo and the Left Claim the Last Hurrah
In
the end, liberals were exulting in what they believed would be the
start of a tectonic shift in New York politics, as the governor agreed
to abandon his Republican allies in the State Senate and throw his
weight behind electing fellow Democrats. If Saturday’s madcap
machinations in this Albany suburb are the shape
of things to come, the liberal-Democratic rapprochement could make
politics as usual in Albany look serene and orderly by comparison. He
kept his distance by relaying his promises in a recorded video —
which itself became the subject of intense negotiations — and then even
addressing the convention in a decidedly low-tech method: by calling the
iPhone of a Working Families staff member, which was hooked up to the
sound system in the ballroom where the convention was being held. Until
moments before Mr. Cuomo addressed the convention via video,
however, it seemed possible that the peace agreement would unravel. Emma
Wolfe, one of Mr. de Blasio’s most trusted aides, popped in and out
of the room throughout the afternoon, bouncing around the hotel’s inner
courtyards. Leaders of Working Families insisted he speak to the
convention live, to
elaborate on certain of his promises. Even that was not enough;
following his live call to address the convention, Mr. Cuomo spoke with a
smaller group of party members to expand yet again on his commitments. *The floor action capped days of back-and-forth negotiations where, at one point, major unions threatened to secede
from the third party and a top Cuomo aide asked his Democratic
colleagues—Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Tom
DiNapoli—to boycott the W.F.P. in solidarity. In the end, union bosses and party leaders whipped enough votes to support a deal
that had Cuomo promising to work for a Democratic Senate in sync with
party priorities. Cuomo won with won with 58.7 percent of the vote. http://goo.gl/AZbXkl* --WSJ“Greater New York” cover, “Last-Minute Deal in Albany,” by Erica Orden:
“With the clock ticking, Mr. Cuomo spoke by phone to a smaller group
backstage, including a top aide to … de Blasio, Emma Wolfe, and WFP
members Jonathan Westin, Javier Valdes and Deborah Axt. This time, Mr.
Cuomo used the agreed-upon language (concerning giving local authorities
the ability to adjust the minimum wage within a formula) … The party
members were appeased, and about 45 minutes later, Mr. Cuomo received
his nomination …* Last-Minute Deal Secured WFP Nomination for Cuomo(WSJ) Cuomo's nomination by the Working Families Party came down to a set of
public declarations and private pledges—along with a few missteps by a
faction of the WFP and some heavy lifting by Mayor de Blasio and his
aides.
Cuomo Wins WFP Ballot Line
"This is literally one of those historic moments when things are changing," Mayor Bill de Blasio tells the WFP convention.* Senate
GOP's Skelos: "I have grave concerns that Governor Cuomo appears
to be turning away from a record of working with Repubs and
Dems."Skelos: "The scandal-scarred Working Families Party shouldn't be
holding
elected officials hostage in exchange for an endorsement" #WFP
Tally is 58.6% Cuomo, 41.3% for Teachout. Cuomo wins. Midnight Coup
d'etat: NYS Held Hostage By WFP Which Represents .03% of the voters in
NYS
.
Who the Hell Do the WFP Delegates Represent?
chris smith
@chrissmithnymag .@nygovcuomo conspicuously absent from quotes in WFP release declaring 'historic coalition.' hmm...'coalition' not best choice of words? * Splitsville: Skelos rips Cuomo’s deal with “scandal-scarred” WFP(LoHud)* newyorkist
@Newyorkist
Congratulations to Governor Cuomo tonight for agreeing to some democratic concessions as a democratic governor.* Paul Newell
@NewellNYC
LOL! RT @NewYorkGOP: .@NYGovCuomo is now a wholly owned subsidiary of BdB and the radical extremists of the #WFP...* Cuomo wins Working Families Party nomination(NYP) * Cuomo Secures Support of Working Families Party(NYT) *Working Families Party Gives Cuomo Its Ballot Line (Nation) * Cuomo caves to get Working Families Party nod New York Post
.
Who the Hell Do the WFP Delegates Represent?
Coup d'état The Night the WFP Took Over NYS
Cuomo Speaks
Cuomo
mentions passing same-sex marriage, gun control.
Job growth. We made government work. * Bill Lipton: "Without further
ado, we're going to watch this video from the governor." Loud boos from
attendees drown out video * OK. Enough musing. Cuomo's video is
starting. He's name-dropping EVERYONE. De Blasio, Westin, * Cuomo, in
video, says he backs a minimum wage that can be adjusted up to 30
percent depending on the area of the state. * Cuomo: “I support a
minimum wage of President Obama's $10.10, indexed.” Says NY's $9 deal
was "reduced" in legislative neg'ns.* Cuomo is now mentioning the WFP's
big priorities: Dream Act, women's equality act, and now #minwage hike. * Cuomo also calls for public campaign finance reform, and more school funding in poorer communities.
.
From the Empire State to the Working Families Party State
.@BilldeBlasio mis-states time since that election, in 1998. "Fourteen years. Okay, fifteen years—math's not my strong suit!" #nywfpcon * De Blasio: “I know people have strong views, passionate views … but I want you to just think about that history for a moment.” #nywfpcon * De Blasio: “Six years we talked about $7.25 an hour. Tonight we talk
about a package of major reforms … that will change the lives of ppl.” * #wfp
de Blasio sez will get $10.10 min wage Dream Act & WEA in 2015
when they take Senate * "This is literally one of those historic moments
when things are changing," Mayor Bill de Blasio tells the WFP
convention. * If WFP can get Cuomo to deliver a WFP policy agenda,
they'll be the most effective political force in the US today. #longgame * .@BilldeBlasio says "tonight we talk about a package of major changes and reforms for the progressive agenda." * Josh Greenman
@joshgreenman
Saturday PM
WFP leaders urge skeptical members to support Cuomo(Capital)
WFP member: details of Cuomo deal "compelling" but gov's "obvious disinterest in poor working people" is "repulsive" * NYGOP calls for probe of Gov. Cuomo for "soliciting a bribe from the WFP - their endorsement - in exchange for promising political favors." * NY State GOP calls for investigation of Gov. Cuomo's deal with WFP * In other news, WFP just voted to endorse Adriano Espaillat * .@32BJ_SEIU's Hector Figueroa says "we have to let @NYGovCuomo
know that we have his back."* Sources say WFP leaders and union
officials have enough votes to secure Cuomo nomination, by a very thin
margin. #WFP * Gov Cuomo to get Working Families Party line after long fight in the liberal party, co-chair of party, source says.(Newsday) *Andrea Stewart-Cousins speaking to WFP's state committee about Dems taking the Senate majority. *Ten years ago, the WFP cut a deal with Joe Bruno to keep the Senate GOP in power.
A Possible Future Majority Leader Watches the WFP Vote
Update 7:20 PM Zephyr
Teachout meets the press: "I am seeking the Working Families Party
nomination." * Schneiderman is in bonafide lobbying mode. Keeps taking
Cuomo-wary
delegates into private rooms -- "Step into my office," he just quipped *
SKED UPDATE - On Sat, Mayor BdB will attend the WFP Convention in
Albany. Arrives abt 730 pm. Official sked update going out soon. * WFP
spox tried to cut down a question on Zephyr Teachout's residency. She
says she moved to NY in June 2009. * Zephyr Teachout says she's
considering whether to petition to force a Democratic primary against @NYGovCuomo * Increasingly
looking as if Cuomo will Skype into the WFP convention* W.F.P.
convention members meet in ballroom to vote on whether or not to endorse
@nygovcuomo. People call out "Don't Sell Out!" * immy Vielkind
@JimmyVielkind Here's a great primer from Laura @Nahmias on the state of play here. Party leaders whipping votes for Cuomo, hard. * WFP/Cuomo summary: Cuomo gets line, will do a video rather than show up,
de Blasio coming to speak soon, Teachout won't rule out Dem primary
'
Tweet By Tweet What Happen At the WFP Convention
If NYC Goes Back to 70's Will the GOP Campaign Against Him?
Will Hillary Have to Answer for de Blasio?
de Blasio's Jewish Hora . . . 24Hrs Later Not Paying Attention
Sunday Update
A tale of two standards (NYDN ED) Call it Mayor de Blasio’s personal tale of two cities. In one, he boycotts the St. Patrick’s Day Parade because organizers refuse to allow gays to march behind banners declaring their sexual orientation.In the other, he warmly addresses an Orthodox Jewish group that had fervently lobbied against legalizing same-sex marriage in New Y
Mayor de Blasio says it’s not kosher to ask about his silence over rabbi’s comment
De Blasio was not paying attention when an Orthodox rabbi went on a tirade against reform and Conservative Judaism at a Tuesday night event, according to mayoral aides, the Daily News reports:
Politics in NYC! De Blasio, at Haredi gala, keeps mum when Agudath rabbi slams non-Orthodox Jews
At a Jewish Gala, de Blasio Skips His Cue to Speak Out(NYT)
SILENT NIGHT — “At a Jewish Gala, de Blasio Skips His Cue to Speak Out” -- “Gotham” column by Times’ Michael Powell:
“Rabbi Perlow offered a shower of condemnation for Reform and
Conservative Jews, who he said were among those who ‘subvert and destroy
the eternal values of our people.’ These movements, he said, ‘have
disintegrated themselves, become oblivious, fallen into an abyss of
intermarriage and assimilation.’ ‘They will be relegated,’ he added, ‘to
the dustbins of Jewish history.’ This was a striking statement because a
majority of the Jews in this city identify as non-Orthodox. … When Mr.
de Blasio stood to speak a minute later, he offered no whisper of
demurral.”* Progressives against the press New York Post.* DE BLASIO’S JEWISH PROBLEM:
The fracture between the Orthodox community and progressive Jews is
becoming more difficult for politicians to navigate, as illustrated by
Mayor de Blasio’s recent tap dance, writes former assemblyman Ryan
Karben in City & State:
In NY Bad Guys Win in Politics
Despite the corrupt behind the Bloomberg millions money laundered through the Independence Party . . . Frank MacKay and his wife's consulting firm using pay to win an endorsement and the fact that the party is controlled by a sex cult, Cuomo accepted the party's line and City and State made them the winner of the week.
City and State Winner of the Week
Frank MacKay - Editorial board after editorial board urged Gov. Cuomo and the rest of the Democratic ticket to shun the state Independence Party in the 2014 elections. But MacKay laid low... and heading into the long Memorial Day weekend it was announced that the whole ticket accepted the party's backing, virtually ensuring the party another four years of viability. Even better for MacKay, the story emerging from the whole ordeal was about when Cuomo signed the paperwork and not about his actual decision to take the line.
Cuomo Speaks
Cuomo
mentions passing same-sex marriage, gun control.
Job growth. We made government work. * Bill Lipton: "Without further
ado, we're going to watch this video from the governor." Loud boos from
attendees drown out video * OK. Enough musing. Cuomo's video is
starting. He's name-dropping EVERYONE. De Blasio, Westin, * Cuomo, in
video, says he backs a minimum wage that can be adjusted up to 30
percent depending on the area of the state. * Cuomo: “I support a
minimum wage of President Obama's $10.10, indexed.” Says NY's $9 deal
was "reduced" in legislative neg'ns.* Cuomo is now mentioning the WFP's
big priorities: Dream Act, women's equality act, and now .
So
bizarre that a Democratic governor had to have his arm twisted to
campaign for a Democratic Senate.* Oliver Koppell, sitting in second row
as de Blasio condemns Senate coalition, is smiling widely. * De Blasio
says this "moment" is "literally historic," and the "beginning of a
transcendent coalition" * @GannettAlbany umm he bribed the @WorkingFamilies Party for their line with a $10mm slush fund for @NYSenDems
Majority. That is a crime. * "I believe in this absolutely
unprecedented coalition. I have never seen anything like this in its
reach & power." @BilldeBlasio * "We don't leave our people behind in New York City anymore," says @BilldeBlasio. * "I am mayor of New York City only because I ran in a place that had public financing," says @BilldeBlasio.” * "I am mayor of New York City only because I ran in a place that had public financing," says @BilldeBlasio.” * Sal Albanese
@SalAlbaneseNYC
When are people going to wake up? DEB is a political operative not a
leader. He's a full fledged member of political class.* Former
Binghamton mayor Matt Ryan "I still can't figure out how taking back
senate precludes governor from being challenged." #nywfpcon.*IDC
on warpath; Senate GOP appears to have gone to bed?Those smiling
Cuomo/GOP/IDC pix still on gov's web page.Get last looks now.* After
nearly three hours of debate and speeches, the WFP has come to the voe
for governor. #nywfpcon * Dorothy Siegel, in North Brooklyn (the biggest district), votes for Cuomo. It doesn't look like Teachout can overcome this. #nywfpcon
Teachout Speaks
.@zephyrteachout
takes stage after Cuomo phone call. "I'm sure a lot of you and the
governor are wondering who is Zephyr Teachout." * End of Cuomo
speaker-phone call: "Boo!" "We don't believe you" "Liar" Followed by
standing ovation for Zephyr Teachout * Teachout: “My goal is to launch a
different argument — what kind of America, what kind of New York we
want to live in." * Teachout: “I don't want to just re-jigger screwed up
tax policy. I want
to stand with you and redistribute real power in our economy.”* .@zephyrteachout
says no matter what happens at WFP convention, she wants WFP to be
unified.* Teachout says she will fight to end Comcast-TWC merger.
Methinks this is aimed at the CWA, a major WFP component #nywfpcon *
Teachout says she was raised a Congregationalist. Closes her speech
with traditional Christian "peace be with you" exchange.* "I will never
ask you to compromise your principles and values." -- @zephyrteachout to WFP delegates.* #wfp Now phil rumor from Buff teachers union pushing Teachout sez time 4 a woman gov.* chris smith
@chrissmithnymag from the archives: "We're not a Ralph Nader Party," Cantor said. "We try to be principled and pragmatic."
-
Many people couldn't support me because their institutions had $ ties to Andrew's power. Should we accept a Gov who builds power from fear?
-
@zephyrteachout this says a lot about our pol system that allows taxpayer $ to be doled out to further personal political power
zephyrteachout
Saturday PM
WFP leaders urge skeptical members to support Cuomo(Capital)
WFP member: details of Cuomo deal "compelling" but gov's "obvious disinterest in poor working people" is "repulsive" * NYGOP calls for probe of Gov. Cuomo for "soliciting a bribe from the WFP - their endorsement - in exchange for promising political favors." * NY State GOP calls for investigation of Gov. Cuomo's deal with WFP * In other news, WFP just voted to endorse Adriano Espaillat * .
* Sherrill, Kenneth
@KenSherrill Neither Hugh Carey nor Mario Cuomo supported Dems for state Senate. Ask Roy Goodman and John Marchi.
A Possible Future Majority Leader Watches the WFP Vote
'
Tweet By Tweet What Happen At the WFP Convention
The mood here is very casual—Most delegates not in suits, protesters
with masks & signs have seats. No security. Kids in the aisle* De Blasio says 'yes' to a Democratic-controlled Senate(NYDN)
* Anti-Cuomo signs with guv photoshopped as king at WFP convention:
'Minimum wage? Let them eat cake ... out of touch elitist' * VIDEO: Zephyr Teachout won’t rule out primary against Cuomo * Schneiderman says WFP is nominating a ticket with a mandate to
"transform the Senate of the state of New York" to Democratic control.* .@AGSchneiderman
notes he was part of the group of lawyers who drafted the rules for WFP
nominations. "This is what democracy looks like."* WFP endorses Eric
Schneiderman for AG and Tom DiNapoli for Comptroller, as expected. Tense
governor nomination coming up.* W.F.P. math, pre-vote: 159 members
present. 81 are physically here, and 78 have a proxy instead.
'
Bob Master, WFP co-chair and CWA political director, now nominating Cuomo for the WFP nod.* First speaker in support of @nygovcuomo is a member of 1199. Union's leaders have been pushing in support of Cuomo. She yields to Bob Master * laura
@nahmias Bob Master: It is my honor to nominate Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The crowd breaks out in a chorus of loud boos. #WFP * .@cwabobmaster:
"The decision that we’re making tonight is one of the most complex and
challenging that we face."* AG Schneiderman says WFP will leave
convention with plan to have Dems.
take control of the Senate and they'll pass Dream Act. WEA.* Jimmy Vielkind
@JimmyVielkind Another big (and good, I would argue) cultural difference at #nywfpcon: lots of delegates drinking beer in their chairs. #nygov * Sherrill, Kenneth
@KenSherrill *@mikeallen @CapitalTonight @JimmyVielkind @capitalnewyork Amazing concession! Dem gov supports Dem control of legislature.
@JimmyVielkind @blakezeff Can't Cuomo just pretend to try, then say he held up his end of the deal when it doesn't work?
'
Bob Master, WFP co-chair and CWA political director, now nominating Cuomo for the WFP nod.* First speaker in support of
.@cwabobmaster: endorsing Cuomo, "we believe we’ve obtained a commitment to build a unified coalition" w/ de Blasio, unions, WFP. #nywfpcon * CWA made it clear weeks ago that it would push for Cuomo * First mention of Gov Cuomo at Working Families Party nomination process draws 15 seconds of loud boos, hisses * Wow. Jonathan Westin, of NY Communities for Change, is seconding Cuomo's
nomination. Big get. He's a top activist, and just invoked Jon Kest * The great @jwnychange tells #nywfpcon
that WFP got fast-food workers in reach of $15 and a union * SEIU
1199's George Gresham: “Organizing 101: we should capture a victory when
we have it, sisters and brothers.”* Jimmy Vielkind
@JimmyVielkind Now up is Bertha Lewis, the former ACORN head. She's ripping Cuomo, and people are cheering.* Zephyr Teachout's name placed in nomination by Bertha Lewis to loud applause * There is screaming, chanting and stomping accompanying Bertha Lewis's nomination of @zephyrteachout over Andrew Cuomo. * Bertha Lewis: "We're in the fog of war, and we've got a Zephyr. We've got a strong wind that will blow away all of the Cuomo clouds" #nygov * .@BerthaLewis addresses WFP says @NYGovCuomo "got his four years. So what are we doing here now?!?"
Gresham:"I know there’s things that you don’t like about the gov...but
I’ve also gone thru too much pain to not be pragmatic&take a
victory" * 1199's Greshman quotes Kenny Rodgers: "You need to know when to hold
'em. And goddamit with this victory you need to know when to fold em." * Bertha Lewis, in @zephyrteachout
nomination, quoted Drake. "We started from the bottom now we here." *
Susan Weber on Cuomo—“He cut funding for our schools and he went to Lake
Placid and he spoke to the charter school, rich bastards” #nywfpcon * Susan Weber, speaking in favor of Zephyr Teachout, said @NYGovCuomo
can't be trusted, "he lies."*Susan Weber on Cuomo: "There's one problem
with the deal: he lies. He'll find a way to squirm out of it … I don't
trust him." #nywfpcon * Susan
Weber on Cuomo's public financing deal in state budget. "He stuck it to
Tom DiNapoli. And that's just wrong."* Wow. The WFP just voted to take a
10 minute break because of "technical difficulties," which are not
apparent to the crowd. * Pablo Guzmán
@yoruba69 Now you know why #Cuomo
went video vs actually being there. So for all his tough guy jive, will
not take the heat. Or allow that photo op.* WFP pauses for "technical
difficulty" -- multiple people telling me that
the "second draft" of Cuomo's video address has *not* arrived yet *
"What's the problem with the deal? He lies!" speaker says of Cuomo.
"That's not what I planned to say," she says, a bit sheepishly. * Steve McLaughlin
@SteveMcNY @JimmyVielkind Susan Weber is correct. @NYGovCuomo has proven time and time again he can't be trusted. Just ask the Catholic Bishops.* ? MT @ItsFischy:
Sources say delay is because de Blasio rejected Cuomo's first video.*
Cuomo is about to speak to the WFP convention via video and then by
phone. Teachout will speak in person. * That @blakezeff tweet raises excellent point: what happens to IDC in this deal? Are they targeted? Is rapprochement brokered? #nywfpcon* Steve Kornacki
@SteveKornacki
If NYC Goes Back to 70's Will the GOP Campaign Against Him?
Will Hillary Have to Answer for de Blasio?
Why New York—and Bill de Blasio—May Haunt Hillary Clinton in a 2016 Campaign(Daily Beast) Rather, de Blasio’s mayoralty stands to pose as a headache for the
would-be Democratic Dynasty. Right now, the city is showing signs of
slipping into the bad old days. Crime, fiscal recklessness,
and homelessness are stirring like discordant strains of music. If New
York City again goes awry, Hillary will be called to answer for it.
de Blasio's Jewish Hora . . . 24Hrs Later Not Paying Attention
A tale of two standards (NYDN ED) Call it Mayor de Blasio’s personal tale of two cities. In one, he boycotts the St. Patrick’s Day Parade because organizers refuse to allow gays to march behind banners declaring their sexual orientation.In the other, he warmly addresses an Orthodox Jewish group that had fervently lobbied against legalizing same-sex marriage in New Y
Mayor de Blasio says it’s not kosher to ask about his silence over rabbi’s comment De Blasio was not paying attention when an Orthodox rabbi went on a tirade against reform and Conservative Judaism at a Tuesday night event, according to mayoral aides, the Daily News reports:
Politics in NYC! De Blasio, at Haredi gala, keeps mum when Agudath rabbi slams non-Orthodox Jews
At a Jewish Gala, de Blasio Skips His Cue to Speak Out(NYT)
SILENT NIGHT — “At a Jewish Gala, de Blasio Skips His Cue to Speak Out” -- “Gotham” column by Times’ Michael Powell:
“Rabbi Perlow offered a shower of condemnation for Reform and
Conservative Jews, who he said were among those who ‘subvert and destroy
the eternal values of our people.’ These movements, he said, ‘have
disintegrated themselves, become oblivious, fallen into an abyss of
intermarriage and assimilation.’ ‘They will be relegated,’ he added, ‘to
the dustbins of Jewish history.’ This was a striking statement because a
majority of the Jews in this city identify as non-Orthodox. … When Mr.
de Blasio stood to speak a minute later, he offered no whisper of
demurral.”* Progressives against the press New York Post.* DE BLASIO’S JEWISH PROBLEM:
The fracture between the Orthodox community and progressive Jews is
becoming more difficult for politicians to navigate, as illustrated by
Mayor de Blasio’s recent tap dance, writes former assemblyman Ryan
Karben in City & State: In NY Bad Guys Win in Politics
Despite the corrupt behind the Bloomberg millions money laundered through the Independence Party . . . Frank MacKay and his wife's consulting firm using pay to win an endorsement and the fact that the party is controlled by a sex cult, Cuomo accepted the party's line and City and State made them the winner of the week.
Frank MacKay - Editorial board after editorial board urged Gov. Cuomo and the rest of the Democratic ticket to shun the state Independence Party in the 2014 elections. But MacKay laid low... and heading into the long Memorial Day weekend it was announced that the whole ticket accepted the party's backing, virtually ensuring the party another four years of viability. Even better for MacKay, the story emerging from the whole ordeal was about when Cuomo signed the paperwork and not about his actual decision to take the line.
City Council Pushes Vision Zero
Council Passes Bills Aiding de Blasio’s Quest to End Traffic Deaths(NYT)
Rules governing cabbies, motorcyclists and other drivers were among the
changes approved as part of a package of bills framed as a piece of
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero plan. The Council passed several bills promoting
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” initiative to end traffic
fatalities, including a ban on cabbies who strike pedestrians* City Council cracking down on dangerous drivers with bill package(NYDN)* New York City Toughens Traffic Laws(WSJ) * De Blasio Orders Second Review of City’s 911 System(WNYC)
The Old Real Estate Mayor is Gone, Long Live the New Real Esate Mayor
The de Blasio administration is proposing a zoning change next to Grand Central Terminal that would clear the way for a 65-story tower built by SL Green Realty in Midtown East, The Wall Street Journal reports:--BACKSTORY: City Hall has lined up support for the project that foiled the previous administration, including big backing from labor and business/real estate. Councilman Dan Garodnick will say in a statement today: “This plan now puts the right emphasis on upfront infrastructure improvements, and guarantees that there is public review of the projects most likely to move forward early. It also allows for us to have a thoughtful exchange about how the broader East Midtown can grow and remain competitive, while also planning for district-wide improvements.”--THE MAYOR TODAY will announce “a multi-part strategy to strengthen East Midtown as a world-class 21st Century commercial district … a new consensus that will help ensure East Midtown's future vitality as a business district, attract more quality jobs to New York City, and deliver vital infrastructure improvements in the same timeframe as new development.”* NEW EAST MIDTOWN PLAN – In April, Capital’s Dana Rubinstein reported that SL Green was in talks with the de Blasio administration about a way to build a 65-story tower near Grand Central Terminal without the sort of neighborhood-wide rezoning Michael Bloomberg had unsuccessfully sought. The building, called 1 Vanderbilt, would include 1.6 million square feet of space and tower above the landmark Chrysler Building. … Now, WSJ’s Laura Kusisto and Eliot Brown report: “City officials have discussed rezoning Vanderbilt Avenue, which stretches from East 42nd Street to East 47th Street… The administration then would move forward with the rezoning of the rest of Midtown East, in a process that would include more community consultation. That effort would be led by City Council member Daniel Garodnick, who represents the area, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer...”* Zoning Change Would Allow Tower Near Grand Central(WSJ)
More on NYC Real Estate
WFP Bosses Hold All the Cards Over the Party's Activists
Who’s selling out? Cuomo, the WFP — maybe both(NYP) The WFP the decision on who to back for governor will strip away the camouflage that has cloaked the party since its inception in 1998 — ostensibly to advance progressive policies but in fact as cover for the transactional politics of the public-employee unions comprising its core. Sanctimony and subterfuge are hardly unique to the Working Families Party, of course, but it has prospered because nobody has been paying close attention — and because its leaders haven’t been faced with hard ideological choices. Now the party’s true bosses — the folks who run the health-care workers and teachers unions in particular — are pushing hard for a Cuomo endorsement. Heaven only knows what practical understandings they’ve reached with the governor, but for sure the decision wasn’t a product of his sunny disposition. Yet the true believers are pushing back.
A Party With .03% of the States Registered Voters Has Taken Over its Politics
The result is a “striking spectacle,” as Alec MacGillis writes in an essay in the New Republic, as “a governor with a famous name and $33 million in the bank is scrambling to meet the demands of a third party led by a little-known former community organizer, Dan Cantor, with a mere 40 people on his staff.” The latest push came Tuesday evening, when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Cuomo in talking to labor leaders.
“The
people I’ve spoken with,
there isn’t anybody supporting Cuomo,” WFP state treasurer Dorothy
Siegel tells Capital New York. Cuomo’s support for charter schools — as
selectively applied as it has
been — and his refusal to nick millionaires a second time to support de
Blasio’s pre-kindergarten program earlier this year, are like a bone in
the throat to the true lefties. A WFP endorsement of Cuomo means that
the party has surrendered its soul
to the unionists — who then could quit pretending to progressive values
and get down to the business of molding state government to fit the
best interests of their members. For make no mistake: Cuomo won’t win
the WFP endorsement without
having conducted some business of his own — some of which will quickly
be apparent, but most of which will probably never become obvious. Put
more starkly, the governor will have sold his own soul — or a very large
chunk of it — to the WFP. Immediate evidence of this would be strong
gubernatorial support for
campaign-finance legislation that passes WFP muster — that is, which
includes piles of tax dollars for candidates plus sharp restrictions on
business and personal political contributions, all along with carve-outs
effectively exempting unions from spending limits of any sort. 
‘We Don’t Have to Agree With Everything’: de BlasioReveals His Cuomo WFP Pitch(NYO)* Cuomo: Without Public Financing, Senate Coalition A Failure (Updated)(YNN)
e Blasio's Decision to Move 3 harter School Costs $5.4 Million
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to move three Success Academy charter schools cost the city $5.4 million a year for the next four years, the Wall Street Journal writes: * City to pay $11G per student in three charter schools booted from public space(NYDN)
They Can Bitch About Homeless and Transparency, But Can They Change Anything?
The Daily News writes that new Human Resources Commissioner Steve Banks has yet to propose
any efforts to combat homelessness that haven’t been tried before and
criticized by himself when he was a Legal Aid lawyer: Transparency The Post criticizes New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for his lack of transparency,
suggesting there is a progressive double standard because as Public
Advocate de Blasio attacked the Bloomberg administration for failing to
make records public* Free lunch could 'risk millions': Schools Chancellor Fariña(NYDN) * Mr. Banks’ big shot (NYDN Ed) The official assigned to shrink the homeless population must step into shoes he once scorned* Mayor De Blasio Promised Transparency, But Is He Practicin(WCBS)
Council Progressives Attack Charter School With Charges of Segregation
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to move three Success Academy charter schools cost the city $5.4 million a year for the next four years, the Wall Street Journal writes: * City to pay $11G per student in three charter schools booted from public space(NYDN)
They Can Bitch About Homeless and Transparency, But Can They Change Anything?
Council Progressives Attack Charter School With Charges of Segregation
Demonizing Charters
(Manhattan Institute) New York’s City Council denounces schools that
help disadvantaged kids.At a recent New York City Council hearing,
education committee chairman
Daniel Dromm denounced the city’s charter schools, calling them a
“separate and unequal” system of education that borders on “apartheid.”
Public Advocate Letitia James agreed, suggesting that New York City has
betrayed the legacy of the civil rights movement by instituting
“privatization” and “segregation” in public education. But for all their
incendiary charges, the hearing’s participants couldn’t seem to agree
who has been victimized by charter schools. Dromm, James, and others
implied that the charter movement’s goals are
to separate kids on the basis of skin color and give advantages to white
children. But 60 percent of charter school students are
African-American. Another third of charter school kids are Latino, which
means that New York City’s charters overwhelmingly and
disproportionately serve minority communities. In order for the
apartheid metaphor to hold up, these schools would have to be pretty
miserable places. Yet Dromm and James claim that many charters are
lavishly outfitted with the best of everything, their budgets
supplemented by “Wall Street raiders” and “right-wing extremists.”
Ferrets Making History By Becoming Part of the City's Political Spin
Carriage drivers want OK for horses as city eyes ferret ban’s end(NYP)Stuff the ferrets, Mr. Mayor — and save the horses. That’s the loud-and-clear message from the city’s horse-carriage drivers, who couldn’t understand Wednesday how the de Blasio administration could consider lifting the city’s ban on ferrets while still vowing to run the iconic steeds out of Manhattan. “Maybe we should get ferrets to pull the tourists around in carriages,” said a fuming Ian McKeever, spokesman for the Horse and Carriage Association.* City yanks license of carriage driver who forced injured horse to work(NYP) * Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is blocking bills that would prevent New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio from following through with his campaign pledge to rescind licenses to horse carriage driversAssembly Speaker blocks bills to save the carriage horse drivers(NYDN) * Giuliani Thinks Captured Nigerian Girls Should Have de Blasio’s Focus, Not Ferrets(nyo) * Some Horse Carriage Advocates Upset Over Proposal To Lift Ban On Ferrets In NYC(WABC)
Another City Hall Secret Meeting With Lobbyists Brings Results
In nearly five months, de Blasio has barred the media from 53 events and limited access to 30 more—establishing a pattern of frequently conducting public business in private, the Associated Press reports: * De Blasio bars media from many public events* NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s spokesman defended the administration’s restrictive press policy following a critical AP report. * The Post criticizes New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for his lack of transparency, suggesting there is a progressive double standard because as Public Advocate de Blasio attacked the Bloomberg administration for failing to make records public
Ferret Freedom: Giuliani "This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness"
…“Often, the mayor's photographer later published images from
those so-called private meetings, meaning that an official image of the
event is the only one that exists. It's a tactic President Obama has
also used while restricting access to events in the White House and
around the world. Several news organizations, including the AP, refuse
to distribute such handout images from Obama or de Blasio. …“‘We believe there is a whole swath of information that needs
to be available to the public and we need to continue to do a better job
on that,’ he said [at a Brooklyn news conference yesterday]. ‘There is a
lot of day-to-day government business that is appropriately disclosable
that we need to be better at.’ Any limits imposed on reporters are
largely due to logistics, not secrecy, noted De Blasio's spokesman Phil
Walzak.”--AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll said de Blasio’s “charm and talent” does not excuse his penchant for having “closed press” meetings.--Promises lobbying disclosure - After
taking questions on the subject of his restricted access to reporters,
de Blasio said he plans to disclose "substantive" meetings his
administration conducts with lobbyists, continuing a practice he
implemented when he was the city's public advocate. "I've tried to, in
my time as public advocate and continuing as mayor, do something I
believe in," he told reporters on Tuesday in response to a question
about the lack of media access to events on his public schedule. "For
example, when I have any kind of substantive conversation on a lobbying
matter with a lobbyist, I think that should be disclosed. We've done
that voluntarily. That's a standard we'd like to see applied more
broadly.".
.
de Blasio Big Brother Speak
De Blasio said he has no regrets
about declaring Long Island College Hospital saved, even though the
Brooklyn hospital later announced it would shutter all but its emergency
department, the Observer reports: * Bill de Blasio Still Doesn’t Think He Has a Transparency Problem(NYO) * De Blasio announced at a candidates’ forum in March 2013 that he would eliminate the horse-drawn carriages in his first week as mayor,
delighting NYCLASS and other animal rights activists.* Bill de Blasio Says ‘It’s Time to End Member Items’(NYO) * Blaz’s abandoned pot pledge(NYDN) * De Blasio still says health care will be ‘saved’(Capital)Maintains it wasn’t premature to declare victory on LICH
de Blasio said Tuesday it that had not been premature to host a victorious press conference in February about the fate of Long Island College Hospital, which will now continue as a dramatically scaled-down medical facility. * Mayor de Blasio defends transparency record, despite closed events(NYDN)
de Blasio said Tuesday it that had not been premature to host a victorious press conference in February about the fate of Long Island College Hospital, which will now continue as a dramatically scaled-down medical facility. * Mayor de Blasio defends transparency record, despite closed events(NYDN)
Bharara Tells Senate and Assembly Not to Shred Moreland Documents
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Last Week the CFB Uncovered the Tip of the Iceberg About Illegal Coordination Between PACS and Political Consultants
Organized Crime Politics
The CFB determined under its rules last week that the Advance Group’s work on behalf of Brooklyn Council member Laurie Cumbo and Manhattan’s Mark Levine and the supposedly “independent” anti-carriage PAC really amounted to illegal coordination between the campaigns and the PAC NYCLASS. But the coordination between campaign consultants and PAC goes mush deeper then the CFB fines.Berlin Rosen another political consultant lobbyists besides working for mayoral candidate de Blasio also worked for Advance fined candidate Councilman Levine. Both Advance and Berlin also worked together for councilman Ydanis A Rodriguez. What the CFB is looking at as it continues it investigation of Advance is other types of coordination between the candidates and the political consultants that bring money and additional resources to NYC candidates that bring them over the spending limits they agreed to when accepting public matching funds.
Not One Councilmember Called for Reform to Campaign Consultants Running PAC
Not Even Cumbo and Levine Who Were Fined
Campaign Consultant Lobbyists Led by Advance and Berlin Rosen Have Divided Up City Government Like the Mob Did At the Apalachin Crime Summit, 56 Years Ago
Who Will Prosecute the Advance Group or the Other Interconnected Political Consultants?
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CFB Ruled That A Union Donation By de Blasio Cousin to A Pro Gambling PAC Led to Illegal Coordination With the Mayor's Campaign
The leaflet highlighted de Blasio’s name on the ballot and text from the referendum that said the push for casinos was about “job growth, increasing aid to schools and permitting local governments to lower property taxes.”
I find it hard to believe that there was no coordination between these organizations and the campaign
None of the printed materials urged a vote for de Blasio, but the city Campaign Finance Board ruled that the “posters and leaflets were supportive of de Blasio’s campaign,” spokeswoman Bonny Tsang said. “Both of them had the same image of the mayoral ballot with de Blasio’s name highlighted in yellow, thus clearly identifying him as a candidate for mayor with the yellow suggesting that voters should choose him,” she said.
De Blasio’s cousin John Wilhelm founded UNITE HERE! and is its highest-paid official. He also was a top de Blasio fund-raiser. Money from the union found its way to another “independent” organization in the mayoral race.Last May, UNITE HERE! gave $175,000 to NYCLASS, the group leading the charge to ban horse-drawn carriages. NYCLASS then sent $175,000 to an “independent” committee called New York City Is Not for Sale, which spent more than $1 million bashing one of de Blasio’s top rivals for mayor, Christine Quinn. More Big Money in NY Politics The state Board of Elections voted unanimously that New York’s $150,000 cap on campaign donations by individuals will no longer be enforced, citing U.S. Supreme Court rulings as the reasoning behind their decision, Newsday writes: Ratner and Al D'Amato Transactional relationship btw Bruce Ratner & Al D'Amato: $3M + curious contribution(AYR) * NY1 ItCH: A Not-So-Independent Governor
20 Albany Pols Campaigning to Keep Out of Jail
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Cuomo to Senate GOP: Pass Campaign Reform or the IDC-GOP Coalition Will Die
* Cuomo has won over some labor leaders in the Working Families Party, but activists in the third party’s state committee still have doubts about backing the governor for reelection, Capital New York writes:
Cuomo to press Senate Republicans on campaign finance, plus City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, former Gov. David Paterson(NYDN) If Republicans don’t get a campaign finance deal done this session, Cuomo will move to toss them out of power, say sources. Cuomo will work to toss the Senate Republicans from power by reuniting the chamber’s fractured Democrats if the GOP does not agree to create a statewide public financing system for campaigns, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation. “If Dean and the Republican conference renege and fail to pass campaign finance this session, the governor is going to actively campaign for Senate Democrats and work very hard after the election in November to unite” the breakaway and mainstream Democrats, a source said. A second source confirmed that Klein isn’t ruling out aligning the mainstream Dems. Insiders noted the ultimatum comes days before the liberal Working Families Party, which is split on whether to offer Cuomo its line, meets Saturday to make a final decision and as Klein faces a primary challenge from the left by Attorney General Oliver Koppell. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has refused to join Mayor de Blasio and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in calling on the Working Families Party to back Cuomo’s reelection. Some Dems were shocked that the liberal Mark-Viverito nominated Cuomo’s running mate Kathleen Hochul.* We talked to rank-and-file Working Families Party delegates, many of whom have lots of doubts about backing Cuomo (Capital) * Former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky says a “real” gubernatorial campaign about economic development and income inequality will only happen if the WFP “forces” the debate. * * Last week's State Democratic Convention was supposed to highlight Democratic unity, but instead it spotlighted a growing sense of unease and dissatisfaction the party's base feels for Cuomo, Gotham Gazette reports:
Campaign Debate is Not About Jobs But Fake Reform That WFP Will Use to Gain Power
The race is on(NYP Ed) Taxes. New Yorkers have long borne the heaviest tax burden in America. In the city, top earners pay more of their income (53.2 percent) in federal, state and local taxes than they keep. Beyond the city, local taxes in some New York counties lead the nation.Jobs. While spending has driven up taxes, taxes have driven jobs over state lines. So has Albany’s mind-numbing rules and mandates for businesses.
Balancing the Ticket More Important Than Details
Hochul is a conservative Democrat who as a congresswoman was highly
rated by the NRA and led the charge as Erie County clerk against
then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to provide driver’s licenses to illegal
immigrants. Albany insiders were taken by surprise that Cuomo picked ex-Gov. David
Paterson to chair the state Democratic Party, given his unimpressive
past. “Cuomo talks about taking New York out of the days of chaos and
dysfunction and then turns to the guy who was in charge at the time to
head the party?” one source said incredulously. Many of the party’s unions backers support Cuomo. But a number of party
insiders believe he hasn’t done enough to push progressive ideals.* David Paterson Definitely Has Joseph Bruno’s Back (NYO)
Campaign Finance is A Candy Store of Corruption for Campaign Consultants
WFP Created A New Machine With Just .03% of the City's Registered Voters
Once the mayoral race was over, the corruptive role of money in politics cycled out of their Super PAC structures and into 501(c)(4) structures, just like money used to cycle from ACORN, to New York Communities for Change, to the Working Families Party, to NYCLASS, and to The Black Institute. How Mayor de Blasio directs the affairs of political entities is by making sure that they get staffed by operatives or lobbyists, who have pledged their loyalty to him. Once vetted, these operatives and lobbyists can be counted on to conduct and participate in the established pattern of activities most beneficial to the mayor. It was announced last week that the purpose of the UPKNYC 501(c)(4) organization was to evolve from advancing the mayor's universal pre-kinder agenda to now being basically a blank check political apparatus. The interchangeability and permeability of these "instruments" staffed by loyalists form the basis of the "enterprise" that allows the mayor, from a phantasmal distance, to essentially order others to do his political bidding.
The Lobbyist Berlin Rosen and Pitta Bishop are Partners With the WFP New Machine
The mayor's political influence was extended across New York City after his administration installed the lobbying and consulting firm of Berlin Rosen, political operatives who worked on the mayor's campaign, in the media relations role of the mayor's universal pre-kinder initiative. Berlin Rosen maintained the universal pre-kinder messaging for the mayor this way. Berlin Rosen also serves as consultants to a coalition of major police reform groups, Communities United for Police Reform. The latter allows Berlin Rosen to again maintain the messaging coming from one of the mayor's most politically sensitive quarters : police reform activists. Tampering down police reform activists is all the more important to the mayor, especially after the NYPD continues to become embroiled in more racial profiled controversies.
Berlin Rosen besides working for de Blasio worked for the following City Council members: Margaret S Chin, Corey Johnson, Ben Kallos, Marc Landis, Mark Levine, Ydanis A Rodriguez, James Van Bramer, Elizabeth S Crowley, Richards Donovan, Rory Lancman, Stephen T Levin and AG Schniderman, Brooklyn DA Thompson.
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Cuomo to Senate GOP: Pass Campaign Reform or the IDC-GOP Coalition Will Die
Cuomo Giving the WFP Meat to Calm Their Activists Who Don't Want the Party to Endorse the Governor
* Cuomo has won over some labor leaders in the Working Families Party, but activists in the third party’s state committee still have doubts about backing the governor for reelection, Capital New York writes:
Cuomo to press Senate Republicans on campaign finance, plus City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, former Gov. David Paterson(NYDN) If Republicans don’t get a campaign finance deal done this session, Cuomo will move to toss them out of power, say sources. Cuomo will work to toss the Senate Republicans from power by reuniting the chamber’s fractured Democrats if the GOP does not agree to create a statewide public financing system for campaigns, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation. “If Dean and the Republican conference renege and fail to pass campaign finance this session, the governor is going to actively campaign for Senate Democrats and work very hard after the election in November to unite” the breakaway and mainstream Democrats, a source said. A second source confirmed that Klein isn’t ruling out aligning the mainstream Dems. Insiders noted the ultimatum comes days before the liberal Working Families Party, which is split on whether to offer Cuomo its line, meets Saturday to make a final decision and as Klein faces a primary challenge from the left by Attorney General Oliver Koppell. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has refused to join Mayor de Blasio and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in calling on the Working Families Party to back Cuomo’s reelection. Some Dems were shocked that the liberal Mark-Viverito nominated Cuomo’s running mate Kathleen Hochul.* We talked to rank-and-file Working Families Party delegates, many of whom have lots of doubts about backing Cuomo (Capital) * Former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky says a “real” gubernatorial campaign about economic development and income inequality will only happen if the WFP “forces” the debate. * * Last week's State Democratic Convention was supposed to highlight Democratic unity, but instead it spotlighted a growing sense of unease and dissatisfaction the party's base feels for Cuomo, Gotham Gazette reports:
Campaign Debate is Not About Jobs But Fake Reform That WFP Will Use to Gain Power
The race is on(NYP Ed) Taxes. New Yorkers have long borne the heaviest tax burden in America. In the city, top earners pay more of their income (53.2 percent) in federal, state and local taxes than they keep. Beyond the city, local taxes in some New York counties lead the nation.Jobs. While spending has driven up taxes, taxes have driven jobs over state lines. So has Albany’s mind-numbing rules and mandates for businesses.
Balancing the Ticket More Important Than Details
Campaign Finance is A Candy Store of Corruption for Campaign Consultants
Using political entities, operatives close to mayor exploit campaign finance regulations through ''pattern'' of activities
The New York Post has reported that since 2001, the mayor’s political operatives, possibly including Bertha Lewis and others, have been conducting activities with the goal of electing Mr. de Blasio as mayor, a feat they finally achieved last year, possibly with the help of a Super PAC. This project to elect the mayor began not long after the Working Families Party was co-founded by Mr. de Blasio, Ms. Lewis, ACORN, several unions, and others.WFP Created A New Machine With Just .03% of the City's Registered Voters
Once the mayoral race was over, the corruptive role of money in politics cycled out of their Super PAC structures and into 501(c)(4) structures, just like money used to cycle from ACORN, to New York Communities for Change, to the Working Families Party, to NYCLASS, and to The Black Institute. How Mayor de Blasio directs the affairs of political entities is by making sure that they get staffed by operatives or lobbyists, who have pledged their loyalty to him. Once vetted, these operatives and lobbyists can be counted on to conduct and participate in the established pattern of activities most beneficial to the mayor. It was announced last week that the purpose of the UPKNYC 501(c)(4) organization was to evolve from advancing the mayor's universal pre-kinder agenda to now being basically a blank check political apparatus. The interchangeability and permeability of these "instruments" staffed by loyalists form the basis of the "enterprise" that allows the mayor, from a phantasmal distance, to essentially order others to do his political bidding.
The Lobbyist Berlin Rosen and Pitta Bishop are Partners With the WFP New Machine
The mayor's political influence was extended across New York City after his administration installed the lobbying and consulting firm of Berlin Rosen, political operatives who worked on the mayor's campaign, in the media relations role of the mayor's universal pre-kinder initiative. Berlin Rosen maintained the universal pre-kinder messaging for the mayor this way. Berlin Rosen also serves as consultants to a coalition of major police reform groups, Communities United for Police Reform. The latter allows Berlin Rosen to again maintain the messaging coming from one of the mayor's most politically sensitive quarters : police reform activists. Tampering down police reform activists is all the more important to the mayor, especially after the NYPD continues to become embroiled in more racial profiled controversies.
Berlin Rosen besides working for de Blasio worked for the following City Council members: Margaret S Chin, Corey Johnson, Ben Kallos, Marc Landis, Mark Levine, Ydanis A Rodriguez, James Van Bramer, Elizabeth S Crowley, Richards Donovan, Rory Lancman, Stephen T Levin and AG Schniderman, Brooklyn DA Thompson.
In the End de Blasio's LICH Protest Help Gets Him Elected Mayor and Nothing For People Who Needed That Hospital
After All the Protests A Dead Hospital . . . After All the Money Horse Carriages in Central Park
Hey the Horse Protests Got A Mayoral Candidate Money, Wrecked His Main Opponent and Has Not Banned the Central Park Horse-Carriages . . .Green Taxi One Day Stop, Now A Go . . . Does Anyone See A Pattern?
Bill’s expensive bust (NYDN Ed)
Wag the Dog: Two Days Later the NYP Copies True News Report Card On How Well de Blasio Paid Back His Supporters
De Blasio donors aren’t getting what they paid for(NYP)Cash
poured into Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign from unions,
developers and special-interest groups hoping to advance their agendas.
De Blasio took in a total $10.6 million in donations, and so-called
independent spending groups shelled out even more to bash his opponents
or to support his effort. What did they get in return? For some donors,
not what they expected. Opponents of the carriage-horse industry,
for one, wanted the buggies off the streets at the start of a de Blasio
term, but they are rolling along. Here are some of de Blasio’s biggest
supporters and the issues they care about:
1199 SEIU Healthcare Workers East
How much: $208,000, plus at least $1 million spent on mailings to its members.
What they wanted: The giant health-care workers union fought to keep open Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, among other issues.
Result: Fail. As a candidate, de Blasio voiced his support for maintaining the Cobble Hill hospital, even getting arrested during a protest last year. But under a court settlement reached last week, an emergency room will remain open but the full-service hospital closed for good. * De Blasio said he has no regrets about declaring Long Island College Hospital saved, even though the Brooklyn hospital later announced it would shutter all but its emergency department, the Observer reports:
Yellow-taxi industry
How much: At least $550,000.What they wanted: To keep green taxis off the streets of the outer boroughs.
Result: Fail. De Blasio opposed green cabs as public advocate but named Meera Joshi, a supporter of green cabs, as his Taxi and Limousine commissioner. Rather than slowing the rollout of the green taxis, licenses for 6,000 of the cabs will be issued this summer.
Carriage-horse opponents
* City carriage horse drivers to bring fight to state Capitol(NYDN)How much: At least $1.3 million to support de Blasio and to promote City Council candidates opposed to the industry.
What they wanted: To banish carriage horses from Central Park.
Result: Fail. The mayor said ridding the streets of the iconic horse and carriages would be among his first acts in office. The carriages are still on the street and, with a campaign to keep them there with supporters such as Liam Neeson, they show no sign of riding off into the sunset.
Airbnb
How much: $24,950.What they wanted: The three founders of Airbnb each gave de Blasio the maximum $4,950 donation as did one of Airbnb’s investors and his wife. Another company worker kicked in $200. The apartment-sharing site has been battling regulators over the legality of offering short-term rentals in New York. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed Airbnb’s Web site to turn over the names of its users.
Result: Mixed. Under an agreement reached last week, Airbnb has to relinquish rental data stripped of user names and other identifying details. The AG can request more data to pursue investigations.
Affordable housing advocates
How much: $13,850What they wanted: Lisa Gomez of L&M Development Partners, bundled $13,850 for de Blasio to support more affordable housing.
Results: Victory. De Blasio unveiled a 10-year, $41.1 billion plan to create more affordable housing including a requirement for some builders set aside units for low and middle-income tenants.
When politically prudent in 2009, @BilldeBlasio said "no more subsidies" for #AtlanticYards Now, a hint of more
Labor Unions
What they wanted: A coalition of private and public unions kicked in $1 million to New York Progress, a committee that bought ads in opposition to de Blasio’s Republican rival Joe Lhota. With more than 100 municipal union contracts open, labor had a big stake in the new administration.
Results: Too soon to tell. Many contracts are still being negotiated, but the powerful United Federation of Teachers claimed victory in its newly struck deal that would provide for 10 percent salary increases over seven years.
.
.
.
It Turns Out Horse Carriages Also Makes Kings In NYC
Horsing around with cash (NYDN)
Council campaigns rightly slammed for illegal coordination with
anti-carriage crusade forces. The drive to ban carriage horses from the
city — and throw hundreds of
New Yorkers out of work — was based on more than animal rights
extremism. The higher power was illicit political cash. AdvanceAccording
to the CFB, Brooklyn Council member Laurie Cumbo and
Manhattan’s Mark Levine, both participants in the matching funds
program, hired a firm called the Advance Group as their campaign
consultants. At the same time, the Advance Group was raking in
substantial sums from
NYCLASS — and sending out campaign literature urging voters to back
Cumbo and Levine.The CFB determined under its rules that the Advance
Group’s work on
behalf of both Council candidates and the supposedly “independent”
anti-carriage PAC really amounted to illegal coordination between the
campaigns and NYCLASS. Using funds from donors that included UNITE HERE —
a union chaired by
Mayor de Blasio’s cousin John Wilhelm — NYCLASS slimed mayoral rival
Christine Quinn into oblivion.
More Actors for Future Shows Being Hired
A Real Estate Deal and A Miniature Hospital
.
.
It Turns Out Horse Carriages Also Makes Kings In NYC
More Actors for Future Shows Being Hired
UPKNYC, Now to Be Known as Campaign for One New York, Will Promote de Blasio's Agenda
A Real Estate Deal and A Miniature Hospital
#Now the activists have succumbed to reality. In exchange, Peebles Corp. has agreed to commission an independent study on the local community’s health-care needs.But it would only have to implement added facilities that are “reasonable” and “feasible.”* Woman arrives at LICH to give birth after half its staff was let go: sources(NYDN) * Activist hospital-ity(NYP Ed)The pity is the city could have had the same deal many months and tens of millions of dollars earlier. When SUNY moved to sell the bankrupt hospital, activists — led by then-mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio — launched an effort to ensure that any bidder would keep a full-service hosMore on the Battle t
No Respect for the Voters . . . In NY Corruption Gets You Elected
Nick Confessore
MT @gblainnydn: Indy Party papers at state BOE show @NYGovCuomo signed acceptance May 22--same day he said decision was "down the road." Cuomo Accepted Independence Party Line Before Formal No
.
The
truth is beginning to come out how big money controlled by campaign
consultants robbed New Yorkers of a fare democratic election in 2013
NYCLASS Kicks Advance Group Out
Saturday Update: NYCLASS Cuts Ties With the Advance Group
NYCLASS cuts ties with political consultant linked to ongoing FBI probe of mayoral race(NYDN) The anti-horse carriage group has cut ties with controversial political consultant Scott Levenson. The FBI has been questioning key players over whether Levenson pressured Christine Quinn to support NYCLASS’ campaign to end horse-drawn carriages. On Thursday the Advance Group emerged as a central player in city Campaign Finance Board rulings fining two city council candidates for dodging limits on campaign donations. Advance Group’s Levenson has been lobbying the council since 2011 for NYCLASS, records show. * NYCLASS Drops Advance Group Amid Mounting Bad Press(NYO)NYCLASS, the vocal animal rights group that is leading the charge to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City, has parted ways with the Advance Group, a source with close knowledge of the relationship confirmed to the Observer this afternoon. A clear majority of New Yorkers want to keep the horses. The drive to put them to pasture is gradually being exposed as nothing more than a big-money fix by an overzealous lobbying group.
Horsing around with cash(NYDN Ed) The drive to ban carriage horses from the city — and thow hundreds of New Yorkers out of work — was based on more than animal rights extremism. The higher power was illicit political cash. Rulings by the Campaign Finance Board certify that NYCLASS, the anti-horse ringleader, engaged in a concerted effort to funnel money into helping friendly City Council candidates in amounts far larger than permitted by law. The scheme laid out by the board was elaborate. Council candidates are entitled to generous public matching funds for their campaigns, on the condition that they abide by strict limits on their fundraising and spending. According to the CFB, Brooklyn Council member Laurie Cumbo and Manhattan’s Mark Levine, both participants in the matching funds program, hired a firm called the Advance Group as their campaign consultants. At the same time, the Advance Group was raking in substantial sums from NYCLASS — and sending out campaign literature urging voters to back Cumbo and Levine. Same candidates, same consulting firm, same office — and a clear end run around the caps on how much candidates can spend on their races under the matching funds program.
Why Isn't the AG and the Manhattan DA Enforcing the Election Law?
The
CFB determined under its rules that the Advance Group’s work on
behalf of both Council candidates and the supposedly “independent”
anti-carriage PAC really amounted to illegal coordination between the
campaigns and NYCLASS. The board properly fined Cumbo and Levine. And
its crackdown on the
out-of-bounds campaign spending by NYCLASS has done the city a huge
favor, by providing a badly needed glimpse into the big money play that
successfully swung the 2013 city elections. Using funds from donors that
included UNITE HERE — a union chaired by
Mayor de Blasio’s cousin John Wilhelm — NYCLASS slimed mayoral rival
Christine Quinn into oblivion.Now the FBI is probing the funding of the
attacks on Quinn, and de Blasio’s flip-flop that led to his vow to ban
the horses. The CFB needs to stay vigilant, making every effort to hold
NYCLASS,
the Advance Group and sponsored candidates to account for their actions
in the 2013 campaign. Among the others benefiting from NYCLASS spending
was Melissa
Mark-Viverito, who took free services from the Advance Group in her
successful bid to become City Council speaker.
NYCLASS Kicks Advance Group Out
Saturday Update: NYCLASS Cuts Ties With the Advance Group
NYCLASS cuts ties with political consultant linked to ongoing FBI probe of mayoral race(NYDN) The anti-horse carriage group has cut ties with controversial political consultant Scott Levenson. The FBI has been questioning key players over whether Levenson pressured Christine Quinn to support NYCLASS’ campaign to end horse-drawn carriages. On Thursday the Advance Group emerged as a central player in city Campaign Finance Board rulings fining two city council candidates for dodging limits on campaign donations. Advance Group’s Levenson has been lobbying the council since 2011 for NYCLASS, records show. * NYCLASS Drops Advance Group Amid Mounting Bad Press(NYO)NYCLASS, the vocal animal rights group that is leading the charge to ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City, has parted ways with the Advance Group, a source with close knowledge of the relationship confirmed to the Observer this afternoon. A clear majority of New Yorkers want to keep the horses. The drive to put them to pasture is gradually being exposed as nothing more than a big-money fix by an overzealous lobbying group.
Horsing around with cash(NYDN Ed) The drive to ban carriage horses from the city — and thow hundreds of New Yorkers out of work — was based on more than animal rights extremism. The higher power was illicit political cash. Rulings by the Campaign Finance Board certify that NYCLASS, the anti-horse ringleader, engaged in a concerted effort to funnel money into helping friendly City Council candidates in amounts far larger than permitted by law. The scheme laid out by the board was elaborate. Council candidates are entitled to generous public matching funds for their campaigns, on the condition that they abide by strict limits on their fundraising and spending. According to the CFB, Brooklyn Council member Laurie Cumbo and Manhattan’s Mark Levine, both participants in the matching funds program, hired a firm called the Advance Group as their campaign consultants. At the same time, the Advance Group was raking in substantial sums from NYCLASS — and sending out campaign literature urging voters to back Cumbo and Levine. Same candidates, same consulting firm, same office — and a clear end run around the caps on how much candidates can spend on their races under the matching funds program.
Why Isn't the AG and the Manhattan DA Enforcing the Election Law?
The
CFB determined under its rules that the Advance Group’s work on
behalf of both Council candidates and the supposedly “independent”
anti-carriage PAC really amounted to illegal coordination between the
campaigns and NYCLASS. The board properly fined Cumbo and Levine. And
its crackdown on the
out-of-bounds campaign spending by NYCLASS has done the city a huge
favor, by providing a badly needed glimpse into the big money play that
successfully swung the 2013 city elections. Using funds from donors that
included UNITE HERE — a union chaired by
Mayor de Blasio’s cousin John Wilhelm — NYCLASS slimed mayoral rival
Christine Quinn into oblivion.Now the FBI is probing the funding of the
attacks on Quinn, and de Blasio’s flip-flop that led to his vow to ban
the horses. The CFB needs to stay vigilant, making every effort to hold
NYCLASS,
the Advance Group and sponsored candidates to account for their actions
in the 2013 campaign. Among the others benefiting from NYCLASS spending
was Melissa
Mark-Viverito, who took free services from the Advance Group in her
successful bid to become City Council speaker.Did Speaker Mark-Viverito Break the Law By Taking Money From NYCLASS?
At the Same Time Advance's Levinson Was Working As An Illegal Campaign Consultant for Council Speaker NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito Also Received Money From NYCLASS
The CFB Finds the Advance Coordinated PAC NYCLASS $$$ and Campaign $$$
The Investigation Of the Advance Group NYCLASS Corruption Continues With Fines Against Two CN Cumbo and Levenson
City council members fined over money from anti-horse carriage group(NYP)Two city council members were slapped with hefty fines for accepting prohibited campaign contributions from a group at the center of the Central Park horse carriage brouhaha. Freshman member Laurie Cumbo (D-Brooklyn) was fined $7,868, and newbie Mark Levine (D-Manhattan) was fined $8,686 by the city’s Campaign Finance Board for accepting over-the-limit funding from a “prohibited source.” The board found that the funding source for both campaigns – New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Street (NYCLASS) – was too intertwined with the candidates’ consultant, The Advance Group (TAG).Campaigns are prohibited from coordinating with third-party groups that make “independent” expenditures. Yet TAG president and lobbyist Scott Levenson was political director for NYCLASS, and both groups shared the same office space.* Two NYC campaigns fined over cash from animal rights group(Newsday) But NYCLASS and The Advance Group were intertwined -- NYCLASS' political director doubled as The Advance Group's president, for example -- and spending by NYCLASS "could not be and" was "not independent" of the campaigns, the finance board said. The contributions were over the $2,750 limit as nonindependent spending and weren't reported by the campaigns, the board said. Cumbo and Levine responded with a joint statement, saying their campaigns are opposed to outside spending in elections.* 2 City Council members fined thousands for accepting improper campaign funds from anti-carriage horse group NYCLASS(NYDN)
"We take our obligation to avoid coordinating with any outside group spending money on our races very seriously," they said. "Although we disagree with the conclusions the CFB reached in our cases, we support the CFB's efforts to monitor the accurate reporting of independent expenditures in general. Thus we have chosen to settle these allegations by repaying to the CFB the amount of NYCLASS's investment in our races."* A lawyer for The Advance Group blasted the Campaign Finance Board’s penalties Wednesday. “The CFB has failed to offer one iota of evidence that coordination took place in this case,” said attorney Larry Mandelker. “This is a clear case of guilt-by-association.”
CFB Chair Gill-Hearn the Investigation Moving Forward
Two Weeks Ago True News Reported About the CFB's Investigation of Cumbo
Investigation Not About Quinn
The Big Crime of the is Mixing the Citizen Action PACs With the Public Funds (CFB) The Buzz going around the ever shrinking group who really know what is going on in this town, is that their are emails being look at between Advance and their political client CM Laurie Cumbo , and that those emails show no firewalls between the Citizens United PACs and the CFB campaigns.
NYT Silent On Local Impact of Citizens United Even After Two Councilmembers Were Fined
NYT's Not Even One Story today About the CFB Fines
The NYT has written several times on the national impact of Citizens United but never on the impact of that special interests big money supreme court decision on the 2013 NYC election. Not Even Today after the CFB fined two city council members who were helped by the Advance Group campaign consultant who used the Citizens United PAC they controlled to help their candidates. Both the Daily News and NYP which reported on the fines, limited their coverage on the fines without comment on how far the CFB could go. Nobody except this blog is doing the investigative reporting that shows the depth of corruption of the Advance Group and the Citizens United PACS in the 2013 city elections. Have these PACs made NYC government worse (if that is possible)? Have these PACs and lobbyist consultants committed crimes? Stay Tuned.
Media Continues to Ignore U.S. Attorney Plea to Investigate Corruption
Bharara to Journalist: Stop Copying My Press Releases; No Investigative
Reporting Equals More Corruption
More on US Attorney Preet Bharara
Window Dressing to Fix City's Racial Segreation?
Opportunity? GOP Name Recognition is Relatively Mediocre
G.O.P. Sees Chance as Schneiderman Seeks 2nd Term as Attorney General(NYT) As he accepts his party’s support for re-election on Wednesday, Eric T. Schneiderman is facing a hodgepodge of criticism from Republicans, who say they have a realistic chance of dethroning him in November. * * Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown reportedly asked that he be withdrawn from consideration as a candidate for lieutenant governor on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s ticket this year, The Buffalo News reports:
Will de Blasio Hold the Left in Place When Hillary Moves to the Center? Stay Tuned
BILL CLINTON ON DE BLASIO’S ‘BRILLIANT’ START -- Capital’s Gloria Pazmino: Bill Clinton said at a Harlem restaurant Tuesday that he thinks Mayor Bill de Blasio is having a "brilliant first year." Introducing Clinton, de Blasio said, "He's been so kind in the time since I became mayor, taking time to advise me and coach me. When President Clinton speaks, I play close attention, he's been an incredibly wise voice in my life he's been the example that I borrow from all the time."
Brooklyn is Open for New Leadership
With retirement announcements from Assemblywomen Joan Millman and Rhoda Jacobs this week, there are now six open state Assembly and Senate seats in Brooklyn, the Daily News reports:A combination of term limits, unexpected retirements and indictments has created an historic number of openings in Brooklyn state politics. “For the first time in 50 years, six state Assembly and Senate seats have opened across Brooklyn, prompting a rush to fill electoral pockets that, in many cases, have changed dramatically since the last time they were contested,” writes the Daily News. “From Flatbush to Carroll Gardens and farther east to Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant, shifting demographics promise to upend the political landscape…”
More Races Councilman Cabrera Will Challenge Senator Rivera, Won’t Rule Out Joining IDC(NYO) * Financial firms scale back New York municipal bond holdings fearing proposed teachers’ contract could raise deficits(NYDN) UBS Global Asset Management slashed allocations for New York City bonds by half for most of their wealthy clients’ portfolios. The Atlanta-based RidgeWorth Capital Management Inc. has also pared down its holdings, Bloomberg reported.
I, Robot de Blasio's Jobs Team
What . . .Not One Member of the Mayor's Jobs Team Mentioned High Taxes and Regulations Are Keeping NYC's Unemployment Numbers High?
NEW JOB FORCE -- Capital The mayor has assembled a 30-member task force to create higher-wage jobs across the city and enhance the manufacturing sector. The task force, dubbed "Jobs for New Yorkers," will be headed by an 11-person team that includes Kyle Kimball, president of the city Economic Development Corp.; Jennifer Jones Austin, who headed the mayor's transition team; Vincent Alvarez, president of the city's Central Labor Council; and, on the corporate side, Fred Wilson, a managing partner at Union Square Ventures.
In the Same Week the Mayor Creates A Job Force He Says He Will Not Fight to Keep Jobs In NYC
Mayor de Blasio will not grant tax breaks in a bidding war with New Jersey to keep businesses in New York: official(NYDN) * JPMorgan, RBC putting 4,500 workers in Jersey City | Capital * JPMorgan, RBC Win N.J. Tax Grants Valued at $300 Million ... *Battle of the Hudson(NYP Ed)When asked if New York City would match the $300 million in tax breaks to lure JP Morgan Chase Bank and Royal Bank of Canada to Jersey City, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen said Gotham would not try to match it to keep them here.
“This is not a game we’re going to play,” Glen said this week.
If the Queens Organization Siding with the WFP's Liu to Save Parkside Mom?
The failed mayoral candidate will be picked as the Queens Democratic Party's candidate on Monday. A Liu candidacy means two members of the five-member breakaway Democratic faction in the Senate are facing primaries from traditional Democrats this year.The Queens Democratic Party, which had been courting Liu, is set Monday to designate him as their candidate so his name can appear on party nominating petitions circulated in the district. He has already met with key union leaders and hired consultant Neal Kwatra, a former chief of staff to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman with deep union ties.
Daily News Says Two IDC Members Have Challenges, It is Close to 2 and A Half
Queens businessman and activist S.J. Jung is mounting a primary challenge against veteran Democratic Sen. Toby Stavisky. Stavisky's Son Evan from the Parkside Group Was Sen. Tony Avella and Raised Most of the Funds for Him. Evan Stavisky is the top player or clog in Crowley's Democratic Machine.* Queens Dem Party boss
Liu and the CFB
New York City lawyers are attempting to dismiss a suit by former mayoral candidate John Liu, who is eyeing a state Senate seat, charging that the Campaign Finance Board unlawfully denied his mayoral campaign millions in public-matching funds, The Wall Street Journal writes* City lawyers are asking the court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by failed mayoral contender John Liu, accusing him of “assaulting the integrity of the city’s campaign-finance system,” the Wall Street Journal writes. Mr. Liu, who is trying to revive his political career with a bid for state Senate, is suing the city’s Campaign Finance Board for denying him millions of dollars in public matching funds thanks to the allegations.
Lots of towels out there green taxi cuts, full service LICH Hospital, Banning member items, horse-Carriages
-
@nypost He cannot address these questions, bc there is just no way accounting/paying retro raises in the future fits guidelines. -
.
@nicolegelinas the Mayor has thrown in the towel on this point, no ? Might be nice f he answered some questions on it -
@powellnyt@nicolegelinas Lots of towels out there green taxi cuts, full service LICH Hospital, Banning member items, horse-Carr
Nicole Gelinas
Michael Powell
True News
CITY & STATE REPORTS—DE BLASIO: According to a new poll, 64 percent of New York City voters would be willing to consider other alternatives to Mayor Bill de Blasio if he were up for reelection today, including Donald Trump, Eva Moskowitz, Liam Neeson and Michael Bloomberg:*Mayor Bill de Blasio: ‘We Have to Take Back the House’(NYO)
Cuomo's Government Funded TV Commerical Re-Election Campaign
A Politically Incorrect Scandal With No Press
Nobody Notices that Bertha Lewis is Connected to A Data and Field scandal in the 2009 elections and the NYCLASS PAC Scandal in the 2013 Election
Former ACORN honcho rakes in the green at new group(NYP)Former ACORN head Bertha Lewis, a friend of Mayor de Blasio, is raking in benefits at her new nonprofit — even as she recruits board members with checkered pasts. TBI honored de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, Thursday night at a Chelsea gala where sponsorships cost up to $50,000. Lewis worked on the de Blasio campaign and was a member of his transition team. She formed TBI after the 2010 fall of ACORN, a left-leaning collective of community-based organizations that was rocked by a series of scandals and probes. The group was cleared of wrongdoing. However the investigation of the WFP's Data and Field by the office of the Staten Island DA is trying to continue, but is being tied up in court by the WFP lawyers. The Staten Island investigation of WFP has gotten almost no press attention. Either has the Bertha Lewis ties to Scott Levension of the Advance Group, who is being investigated by the FBI an investigation no doubt being pushed by Bloomberg appointee to the CFB Rose Gill Hearn for his work with the anti-horse carriage PAC NYCLASS and well as working on both sides in campaigns he was involved in. As noted by City & State, the Bertha Lewis-led nonprofit the Black Institute continues to operate out of the Advance Group offices, unlike NYCLASS, Ms. Lewis is close to Mayor Bill de Blasio. "It is interesting to note that the Black Institute shares office space with the prominent consulting firm the Advance Group, which has deep ties to Mayor de Blasio, Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and WFP candidates generally. Until her recent departure from the Advance Group, both the firm and the Black Institute had the same spokeswoman, Chelsea Connor, who handled press inquiries for both organizations."Megadonor Ken Langone tells
Killings by the Gun Surge in North Bronx, Council Demands More Cops
Homicides
Reported and confirmed shootings
Two Trees Government Sugar and Mold
A Brooklyn developer who cut a deal with Mayor de Blasio to create more affordable housing runs a building that’s dangerous and mold-infested, tenants say.
Tenants accuse developer Two Trees of moldy apartments(NYP)Last week, the City Council approved Two Trees Management’s plan to transform the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg into a mixed-use development with 700 low-income units. At 125 Court St., a modern 11-story building with 321 affordable and rent-stabilized units, there are split and buckling floors teeming with mold, and a broken elevator that often gets stuck and traps people — including a visiting Post reporter. In 2012, tenants filed a class-action suit in Brooklyn Supreme Court accusing the company of violating Department of Housing Preservation and Development rules on rent. Two Trees founder David Walentas, 75, made his fortune buying 2 million square feet of waterfront industrial space in 1979 and transforming it into the luxe Dumbo neighborhood. The company has $3 billion worth of commercial and residential real estate.*2 shot, 1 stabbed after large dispute at Brooklyn park
GWB
investigation: Port Authority executive director Foye testified before
grand jury
- See more at:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/gwb-investigation-port-authority-executive-director-foye-testified-before-grand-jury-1.1018059#sthash.A9KxPBvT.
Feds Sequster Could Shut 57 NYCHA Centers
Growing chorus of City Council Members Demand NYCHA Centers stay open(Witt, Out Time Press)
City Council members with large amounts of public
housing developments in their district vowed this week to ensure the de
Blasio Administration doesn’t shutter 57 NYCHA-operated Community and
Senior Centers that will lose their funding on July 1. The centers were put on life support last year following
the federal sequester, but it did affect center sites run by
community-based organizations. This includes the Department of Youth and
Community Development (DYCD) assuming operation of 45 NYCHA Community
Centers and the Department for the Aging (DFTA) assuming operation of 4
NYCHA Senior Centers.
NYT Joins With the WFP Pressuring Cuomo to Pass Public Financing
NYT's Blind Side On the Effect of Citizens United On the NYC's Public Campaign System in the 2013 Election
The NYT has written several times on the national impact of Citizens United but never on the impact of that special interests big money supreme court decision on the 2013 NYC election.The Times keep pushing for a state public finance system modeled after the city's, without understanding how the CFB was abused by the political PACs in 2013. The NYC press is focused on Jay-Z and a Baldwin nut, while not reporting on how our city government was mugged by special interests Citizen United PACs and the lobbyists political consultants who do their bidding in the last election. The control of the real estate industry in the city over the media is clearly the reason for the lack of PAC coverage. Have these PACs made NYC government worse (if that is possible)? Have these PACs and lobbyist consultants committed crimes?
How the Citizens United PACs Took Over New York's City Hall . . .
Only the Blogs Report on PAC Corruption in New York City
Is Fixing Elections and Destroying Democratic Elections Important in NYC?
In 2013, NY PACs Rushed to Fund Campaigns(Voices
of New York)"Names of the real estate firms that paid for the push were
nowhere to be found" in their mailings. In New York’s 2013 elections,
candidates for office weren’t the only
ones raising and spending millions of dollars to influence the outcome.
In the biggest surge of outside campaign spending since New York City
adopted a public campaign finance system in 1988, 50 separate political
action committees spent almost $16 million. The spending binge was a
result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in
the Citizens United case, which opened the floodgates to unlimited
spending by independent groups in political elections. The back-door
money went for TV ads and mailings aimed at helping
favored candidates win election, and trying to make sure their opponents
lost.Thanks to a preemptive move by the city’s Campaign Finance Board
to
mandate disclosure of the spending, New Yorkers at least got to know the
names of donors and how they were spending their money. But unlike the
limits imposed under the city’s campaign finance laws, which allow only
individual donations up to $4,950 per candidate, the sky was the limit
as long as the PACs remained independent of candidates’ campaigns.
Records show that the PACs spent as little as $1,200 (by a union
representing school cafeteria employees and crossing guards) and as much
as $4.9 million (by a real estate group). The second biggest
expenditure was by the United Federation of Teachers, a city election
powerhouse representing 200,000 teachers and educational employees. The
UFT plowed $3.5 million into the elections, most of it to support races
by City Council candidate
Working Families Party Honors Queens Officials
Speaker to Push for Free Lunch and Moreops
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito ready to battle Mayor de Blasio for free school lunch, more cops(NYDN) City
Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said she’s ready to battle her
ally Mayor de Blasio over his snub of Council proposals to hire more
cops and give all city schoolkids free lunch.* De Blasio aides insist that the
contract brokered with the United Federation of Teachers is fiscally
sound, and that the mayor’s disagreement with Comptroller Scott Stringer
on the matter “did not represent a significant conflict,” the Times reports: * The Post’s Bob McManus writes that de Blasio’s budget makes it clear that he is a man
who pays his political debts, even at the expense of fiscal prudence. The Council proposed $94 million to hire 1,000 new officers and $24
million to extend free lunch to all students — but de Blasio left both
ideas out of his executive budget last week.
de Blasio Food Stamp Changes Removes Work Provisions, But No Free School Lunch for All The de Blasio stamp: Moving to boost dependency(NYP Ed) The city’s Human Resources Administration just informed able-bodied, childless adults that they no longer need to do anything in exchange for their food stamps. Until this Monday, New York City required able-bodied adults without dependents to work or to participate in a work-placement program for 20 hours a week in order to maintain their food-stamp eligibility. (Mothers with children are exempt from the work requirement.) Federal law limits healthy, childless recipients who refuse to seek work to three months of food stamps over a three-year period. That same law, however, allows states and cities to request a waiver of the food-stamp work requirement, if their economies are less than robust. The Obama administration grants those requests as a matter of course.* New York City school antipoverty advocates thought de Blasio would champion a push to get students more free food, but food programs have been left alone as the mayor’s prekindergarten and afterschool programs have taken off, the Journal reports: * Free Student Meals Bid Stalls Under de Blasio(WSJ)
de Blasio Food Stamp Changes Removes Work Provisions, But No Free School Lunch for All The de Blasio stamp: Moving to boost dependency(NYP Ed) The city’s Human Resources Administration just informed able-bodied, childless adults that they no longer need to do anything in exchange for their food stamps. Until this Monday, New York City required able-bodied adults without dependents to work or to participate in a work-placement program for 20 hours a week in order to maintain their food-stamp eligibility. (Mothers with children are exempt from the work requirement.) Federal law limits healthy, childless recipients who refuse to seek work to three months of food stamps over a three-year period. That same law, however, allows states and cities to request a waiver of the food-stamp work requirement, if their economies are less than robust. The Obama administration grants those requests as a matter of course.* New York City school antipoverty advocates thought de Blasio would champion a push to get students more free food, but food programs have been left alone as the mayor’s prekindergarten and afterschool programs have taken off, the Journal reports: * Free Student Meals Bid Stalls Under de Blasio(WSJ)
Celebrity Journalism Builds An Uninformed Public to the Corruption that has Taken Over the Campaign Process
An Uninformed Populace
John Wilhelm, cousin of New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio, sidestepped questions about an FBI investigation
into a $175,000 donation to NYCLASS, an animal rights group that
attacked de Blasio’s mayoral opponent Christine Quinn, the Daily News report UNITE HERE! gave the $175,000 to the anti-carriage horse group NYCLASS
on June 1, and two days later, NYCLASS passed along the money to a
political action committee that was funding a flood of TV ads attacking
the candidacy of then-City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
In addition to being affiliated with UNITE HERE!, Wilhelm was a top fund-raiser for de Blasio’s campaign. Under
the law, independent political action committees like the
anti-Quinn group, which was called New York City is Not for Sale, cannot
coordinate their activities with any candidate’s campaign. The de
Blasio campaign has denied that any coordination took place. UNITE HERE!
represents food service, hotels, transportation, textile,
laundry manufacturing and distribution, airport and gaming workers.
Wilhelm stepped down as president in late 2012, according to the union’s
website, but he’s still chairman of the board and assistant to the
president for benefits. His wife, Elizabeth Gilbertson, is chief of
strategy of UNITE HERE!
Health, the labor-management trust fund that provides health benefits to
UNITE HERE members. * If de Blasio goes ahead with his plan
to ban horse-drawn carriages 24 percent of voters say they would be
more likely to vote against him and only 15 percent say they would be
more inclined to support him, according to a new poll by City &
State Reports, the Daily News writes:
There’s a bigger spread among likely voters: 31% say a ban would make
them less inclined to support the Democrat for reelection, and 11% said
it would sway them de Blasio’s way.*
Will the Assembly Which Paid for Hush Funds for Sexual Abuse Stop Blocking the Passage of A Sex Trafficking Bill?
Advocates for a bill that would increase penalties for sex trafficking are calling on the Assembly to pass the stand alone bill instead of holding out to get the full 10-part Women’s Equality Act, the Times Union writes: .
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NYP Joins True News Is Going After the Gray Ladies Selective Coverage of News
Missing Mulgrew
The Post writes that UFT President Michael Mulgrew's comments about charter school supporters weren't as surprising as the fact that New York City's paper of record, the Times, didn't report them:
Saturday Daily News Picks Up on the Friday's NYP's UFT Taping Story Sabotaging Education Reformers
Friday
According to the New York City Independent Budget Office, the number of New York City teachers quitting their jobs has dropped by 11 percent since 2000, while racial disparities among teachers’ placements persisted, the Journal writes:
Thursday
King: Cuomo, lawmakers should learn from year one of pre-K(Capital)
Ed commissioner says it’ll take years to get expansion right* de Blasio added millions in the executive budget for charter schools, with $26.9 million budgeted for the current fiscal year, and an extra $217.9 million next year, an increase from the preliminary budget unveiled in February, Capital New York reports:
Saturday
School critics say teachers union deal doesn't help kids — it's 'petty politics'(NYDN) After teachers union president Michael Mulgrew gloated about the labor deal in a leaked recording, critics of the $5.3 billion deal are fighting back, saying the contract isn’t good policy. Michael Mulgrew said he’s at war with education reformers — and now they’re fighting back over his dismissive comments and the teachers contract they say condemns students to subpar schooling. Jenny Sedlis of Students FirstNY, a pro-charter, anti-union group, called Mulgrew’s victory lap “shameless.”“For anyone that thought this was about kids, we know this is the truth,” said Campbell Brown, a former CNN anchor and outspoken critic of the union. Critics said a close reading of the memorandum of agreement between the city and union reveals the new process of terminating teachers in the 1,200-strong costly Absent Teacher Reserve doesn’t actually increase the likelihood they’ll be canned.*IT'S 'PETTY POLITICS': School critics slamming teachers union $5.3 billion deal and UFT boss Michael Mulgrew(NYDN) * Mulgrew’s wicked game(NYDN Ed) Mayor de Blasio just struck a major deal with a union boss who boasts about using negotiations to gut reforms he claimed to support.
He Who Picks Judges Controls Judges Decisions, Silver Gets Over Hush Fund $$$
Judge tosses lawsuit against Sheldon Silver over secret settlement with Vito Lopez accusers (NYDN)
A
judge Monday threw out a lawsuit seeking to force Assembly Speaker
Sheldon Silver to reimburse the state for a $103,000 secret payout to
two sex harassment victims of pervy former Assemblyman Vito Lopez..The
lawsuit filed last June by Albany gadfly Robert Schulz argued
Silver should be on the hook for the payout to the Lopez accuser because
he did not go through proper Assembly channels in dealing with the
complaint. In a 7-page decision, acting Albany County state Supreme
Court Justice
Kimberly O’Connor ruled that because Silver’s decision was
discretionary, it made him “immune from civil liability, and the
complaint against him must be dismissed.”
Has Queens Boss Crowley and His Mini Me Parkside Split? Or Has Cuomo and His Mini Crowley Folded to the WFP?
Parkside Avella Split? Or Did the News Get It Wrong and Crowley Covering His Ass?
EXCLUSIVE: Queens Democratic Party pushing for John Liu to run against Tony Avella(NYDN) Party officials want Liu to go after Avella in the Democratic primary now that Avella has switched to the Independent Democratic Caucus.
Parkside Doll Toby Stavisky Gets A Primary
Queens businessman and activist S.J. Jung is mounting a primary challenge against veteran Democratic Sen. Toby Stavisky
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WFP Saying It Wants Public Financing But
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Has Queens Boss Crowley and His Mini Me Parkside Split? Or Has Cuomo and His Mini Crowley Folded to the WFP?
Parkside Avella Split? Or Did the News Get It Wrong and Crowley Covering His Ass?
EXCLUSIVE: Queens Democratic Party pushing for John Liu to run against Tony Avella(NYDN) Party officials want Liu to go after Avella in the Democratic primary now that Avella has switched to the Independent Democratic Caucus.
Parkside Doll Toby Stavisky Gets A Primary
Queens businessman and activist S.J. Jung is mounting a primary challenge against veteran Democratic Sen. Toby Stavisky
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WFP Saying It Wants Public Financing But
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The Dems Attack During the GOP Convention
Former GOP AG Dennis Vacco: “There was never a substantive, coordinated effort (by the Republicans) to build on the successes of ’94.”* Republicans Aim for Broad Appeal in Race Against Cuomo(NY1) * When Rob Astorino opposed fracking(Capital)Cuomo challenger quietly approved fracking-waste ban as county executive* GOP CONVENTION SIGHTS AND SOUND BITES: A wrap up of top quotes, talking points and observations from Day 1 of the Republican State Convention: (City and State) * Rob
Astorino takes to airwaves to slam Gov. Cuomo as ‘down-in-the-mud’
politician in response to ad labeling him as extremist(NYDN) * Westchester County Executive Rob
Astorino, the Republican candidate for governor, claimed that Gov.
Andrew Cuomo’s staff refused to allow Astorino to sit in the front row
at President Barack Obama’s speech in Tarrytown, The Journal News writes * New super PAC called "New York 2014" appears. Treasurer is Lisa Lisker, who serves same roll for many GOP cmtes
* Democrats go old school Daily News in mocking Rob Astorino over seating complaints(NYDN) * Sharpton Wades Into the LG Fray(YNN) * Just A Hint of GOP Conflict(YNN) * GOP Counting On Upstate Turnout(YNN) * Astorino, Moss Are Upstate Bound(YNN) * Moss Says He Will Have A Role As LG(YNN) * In Speech, Astorino Mocks Renovation Flap(YNN) * Democrats Blast Astorino Speech(YNN) * At least 100 protesters rallied outside the GOP convention to call out Astorino for his positions on abortion rights, women’s issues, labor issues and housing, Gannett Albany reports: * The Astorino Truth Squad—run by the Westchester Democratic Committee—released a spoof of the famous Daily News Newt Gingrich crybaby cover with Astorino at the center—a jab at the gubernatorial candidate for alleging that he was kept from sitting in the front row, the Daily News reports: * A political operative with ties to Cuomo was researching Astorino’s past more than a month before he announced his bid to run for governor in March, part of an effort on the part of Cuomo’s allies to define the Republican before he can define himself, the Times reports:
* Democrats go old school Daily News in mocking Rob Astorino over seating complaints(NYDN) * Sharpton Wades Into the LG Fray(YNN) * Just A Hint of GOP Conflict(YNN) * GOP Counting On Upstate Turnout(YNN) * Astorino, Moss Are Upstate Bound(YNN) * Moss Says He Will Have A Role As LG(YNN) * In Speech, Astorino Mocks Renovation Flap(YNN) * Democrats Blast Astorino Speech(YNN) * At least 100 protesters rallied outside the GOP convention to call out Astorino for his positions on abortion rights, women’s issues, labor issues and housing, Gannett Albany reports: * The Astorino Truth Squad—run by the Westchester Democratic Committee—released a spoof of the famous Daily News Newt Gingrich crybaby cover with Astorino at the center—a jab at the gubernatorial candidate for alleging that he was kept from sitting in the front row, the Daily News reports: * A political operative with ties to Cuomo was researching Astorino’s past more than a month before he announced his bid to run for governor in March, part of an effort on the part of Cuomo’s allies to define the Republican before he can define himself, the Times reports:
Putin Nyet: How the Mulgrew's UFT and the Scott Levenson's Advance Group Illegally Took Over NYC's Government
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Court Gridlock By NY Pol Corruption Trials . .
Which parts of New York City government are most corrupt? Gothamist reports on which agencies produced the most cases at the city’s Department of Investigation between 2011 and 2013:
The federal judge in former state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s second corruption trial, due to start Monday, has agreed to Bruno’s request for shorter court days on the condition that Bruno doesn’t use the early dismissal time simply to chat with the press outside the courthouse. (TU) Tomorrow, former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno will return to U.S. District Court in Albany to face trial for the second time. The charges center on hundreds of thousands of dollars in “consulting fees” Bruno received from businessman Jared Abbruzzese, or companies controlled by him, between 2004 and 2006.The federal corruption re-trial of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is set to kick off Monday in Albany. Bruno was convicted in 2009 on two of eight charges. But the convictions were thrown out after the US Supreme Court in a different case watered down the honest services statute that was used by the northern district US Attorney’s Office. Despite saying during the initial trial that it was not a case about quid pro quo, the feds are taking that tact this time around. The case involves $280,000 consulting fees Bruno received from a businessman and friend, Jared Abbruzzese while the upstate Republican was still majority leader. Bruno, during an interview with the Albany NBC affiliate aired Sunday, insisted he’s innocent.* Opening arguments for former Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s trial on corruption charges were set to begin today for a second time, Gannet Albany reports:
More on Albany Corruption
Team Comrie Smell Smith's Blood, Smith Trial Starts June 5th
Leroy Comrie to Challenge State Senator Malcolm Smith in Primary: NY1 has learned that former City * Queens Deputy Borough President Leroy Comrie will run for the state Senate seat held by indicted Sen. Malcolm Smith, even if he has to run in a primary against the current senator, whose federal bribery trial is set for June, the Daily News reports:
CM Hallorian Arrested
New York City Councilman Dan Halloran, indicted on federal corruption charges, has rebooted his law firm while awaiting trial, with one client saying he met repeatedly with Halloran in his district office, a violation of city law, the Post reports:
.@ChrisCQuinn says she is referring use of office by dan halloran to da's office, says he can't take a step right latel
Corrupt Dan Halloran
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Sen. Sampson pal in US Attorney's office quick to turn mole for corrupt pol: legal papers(NYP).
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Court Gridlock By NY Pol Corruption Trials . .
Which parts of New York City government are most corrupt? Gothamist reports on which agencies produced the most cases at the city’s Department of Investigation between 2011 and 2013:
The federal judge in former state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s second corruption trial, due to start Monday, has agreed to Bruno’s request for shorter court days on the condition that Bruno doesn’t use the early dismissal time simply to chat with the press outside the courthouse. (TU) Tomorrow, former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno will return to U.S. District Court in Albany to face trial for the second time. The charges center on hundreds of thousands of dollars in “consulting fees” Bruno received from businessman Jared Abbruzzese, or companies controlled by him, between 2004 and 2006.The federal corruption re-trial of former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is set to kick off Monday in Albany. Bruno was convicted in 2009 on two of eight charges. But the convictions were thrown out after the US Supreme Court in a different case watered down the honest services statute that was used by the northern district US Attorney’s Office. Despite saying during the initial trial that it was not a case about quid pro quo, the feds are taking that tact this time around. The case involves $280,000 consulting fees Bruno received from a businessman and friend, Jared Abbruzzese while the upstate Republican was still majority leader. Bruno, during an interview with the Albany NBC affiliate aired Sunday, insisted he’s innocent.* Opening arguments for former Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s trial on corruption charges were set to begin today for a second time, Gannet Albany reports:
More on Albany Corruption
Team Comrie Smell Smith's Blood, Smith Trial Starts June 5th
Leroy Comrie to Challenge State Senator Malcolm Smith in Primary: NY1 has learned that former City * Queens Deputy Borough President Leroy Comrie will run for the state Senate seat held by indicted Sen. Malcolm Smith, even if he has to run in a primary against the current senator, whose federal bribery trial is set for June, the Daily News reports:
Judge Refuses to Delay Sen. Malcolm Smith's Trial - Hamodia WHITE PLAINS - A New York state senator accused of corruption
won’t be able to delay his trial until after his primary, a federal
judge said Monday, setting the trial for Malcolm Smith, a Queens
Democrat, to June 2
More on the AEG Cover-Up
CM Hallorian Arrested
New York City Councilman Dan Halloran, indicted on federal corruption charges, has rebooted his law firm while awaiting trial, with one client saying he met repeatedly with Halloran in his district office, a violation of city law, the Post reports:
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Corrupt Dan Halloran
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Those papers also disclosed for the first time that Sampson's mole -- federal paralegal Samuel Noel -- later became a cooperating witness for prosecutors investigating the Brooklyn senator after Noel's betrayal was uncovered last year. New York Political Consultant Charged in Corruption Case(NYT) Melvin E. Lowe, whose clients include the State Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and top real estate developers, faces nine criminal counts. An influential political consultant whose clients include the New York Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and leading real estate developers, including Forest City Ratner, was arrested on federal corruption charges* Melvin Lowe Political consultant Lowe, 53, was busted in October on federal fraud and tax violations. A former top aide to Sampson, he was accused of defrauding the state Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee out of $100,000 by using a false invoice for printing services. No trial has been set.
More About Sampson Arrests
Arroyo's Election Petit
As
of Friday, it took 126 days on average to get a repair done that
required skilled labor. That's two-and-a-half times what de Blasio said.
- See more at:
http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/politics/political_news/206877/mayor-s-speech-may-not-have-given-whole-picture-of-city-housing-authority-repairs#sthash.W3MmWhsG.d
Ocean
Hill-Brownsville Panel Discussion at Museum of the City of New York -
See more at:
http://www.edwize.org/ocean-hill-brownsville-panel-discussion-at-museum-of-the-city-of-new-york#sthash.6An62IFR.dpuf
Ocean
Hill-Brownsville Panel Discussion at Museum of the City of New York -
See more at:
http://www.edwize.org/ocean-hill-brownsville-panel-discussion-at-museum-of-the-city-of-new-york#sthash.6An62IFR.d
What Bill de Blasio subscribes to(Capital)
JUICY READ -- “Sulzberger scion’s star rises,” by Joe Pompeo: “As the [‘Innovation’] report beganto ricochet around the media echo-chamber, adding fuel to the fire of Abramson's departure, [33-year-old Arthur Gregg] Sulzberger was seen at his desk on the third floor newsroom looking sad, dejected, betrayed. A few weeks later, he was in a conference room participating in one of more than 20 internal presentations his team had arranged as a result of the report's unexpected publication. … Sulzberger [said] that the report … was not meant for a universe of bloggers and subscribers and shareholders and advertisers and competition.
“At the same time, now that the report had been exposed to that universe, he admitted, the Times was better off for it. He said it had sparked a lot of good conversations around the building. … ‘I was some mix of heart-broken and terrified,’ said Sulzberger, according to sources who were present. ‘That was 96 pages of self-examination and criticism of an institution I love.’ …
“TO HEAR INSIDERS TELL IT, Sulzberger's stock has risen as a result of the whole ordeal. And one can't help but speculate as to the significance of that elevated cachet in terms of his family's succession plans for the fifth-generation of Times leaders. … Sulzberger graduated from Brown in 2002 with a degree in political science. He cut his teeth at The Providence Journal and The Oregonian before landing at the Times as a metro reporter at the beginning of 2009. … The following year, he was named Kansas City bureau chief and then returned to New York in 2012 as an editor on the metro desk, where he displayed a knack for getting stories onto A1. …
“[H]e and his teammates have more presentations to give about the Innovation Report, including a session with the board of directors on June 19. … Sulzberger Jr. turns 63 this fall. He was 40 in 1992 when he took over as publisher from Punch, who resigned at the age of 65.” http://goo.gl/aSRj0g
Media Bistro on @CityAndStateNY's new partnership w/ @wpix http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/wpix-partners-with-city-state-to-expand-political-coverage_b121749 …
* The Justice
Department should block the proposed $45 billion merger between Comcast
and Time Warner Cable because it will concentrate too much power in the
hands of one company, the New York Times writes: Veteran Journalists to Start Politics Site for Bloomberg(NYT) John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, political journalists known for their detailed, gossip-filled books on the past two presidential campaigns, will join Bloomberg in the coming days to start a new site that will focus on American politics and policy. The new project, Bloomberg Politics, is part of a broader strategy put in place by Justin B. Smith, who was appointed chief executive of Bloomberg Media Group last summer after serving as president of Atlantic Media.The cost of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann for Bloomberg: $1 million-plus per man, per year through 2016.
President Obama made jokes about FOX News and Hillary Clinton at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays the VP on TV, teamed up with real life VP Joe Biden for a Correspondents Dinner video that features several VIP cameos.
NYS gave Time Inc. $7 million in cash and $3 million in tax credit to move to lower Manhattan (and not New Jersey). http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/nyregion/with-tax-incentives-new-york-and-new-jersey-fight-for-jobs.html …
* The state Public Service Commission will review the Time Warner Cable-Comcast merger deal under new regulations passed by lawmakers in April, which will force Comcast to show evidence that the merger is in the public interest, the New York Post writes: http://goo.gl/eI0Nrl
Cuomo pledges "hands-on" review of TWC-Comcast merger by state regulators http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2014/05/cuomo-pledges-hands-on-review-of-twc-comcast-merger/ …
Philly newspaper auction is over: "Inquirer co-owners Lewis Katz and H.F. 'Gerry' Lenfest won control..."
POLITICO
Big Money (on the left and on the right): http://politi.co/1huXCgJ
Last 100 Days in Washington Coverage
Terrorism
Tunisian Man Accused Last Year of Terrorism Pleads Guilty to Lesser Counts(NYT)
Cleric Convicted of All Terrorism Charges(NYT)
A man who federal prosecutors said last year had wanted to commit acts
of terrorism pleaded guilty on two counts of fraud and misuse of visas
to facilitate an act of international terrorism.
Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, a former imam who prosecutors said had “devoted
his life to violent jihad,” was convicted of 11 terrorism-related
charges on Monday.
More on Terrorism
TLC says 800 summonses to outerboro taxi drivers/owners issued for pick ups in the yellow taxi-only zone
.@TishJamesLetitia breaks city rules with rental property but she denies despite records via
