Archive for the ‘Lieutenant Governor News’ Category
NY: Judges Sue for Raise
Last Updated on Friday, 11 April 2008 09:30 Written by rslcpol Friday, 11 April 2008 09:30
Setting up an unprecedented legal showdown among the branches of the state government, the state’s chief judge yesterday sued Gov. David Paterson and the leaders of the Legislature to try to force them to raise judges’ salaries, which have been frozen since 1999.
“Today, owing to the near-decade-long pay freeze that they have endured, New York State judges … face the demeaning situation in which they can expect to earn less than first-year associates at many of the state’s law firms and considerably less than attorneys of comparable experience,” the judges’ lawyer, Bernard Nussbaum, said in court papers filed today in Manhattan.
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VT: Statewide Officials Go Without Pay
Last Updated on Friday, 11 April 2008 09:21 Written by rslcpol Friday, 11 April 2008 09:21
All but one of Vermont’s statewide elected officials had decided by Thursday to go without pay raises for the coming fiscal year, joining their highest paid staff who are affected by a newly declared salary freeze.
Secretary of Administration Michael Smith issued a directive Wednesday freezing pay for about 350 executive branch employees who earn more than $60,000 and whose positions aren’t covered by the union contract. Gov. Jim Douglas agreed the freeze would apply to his salary, too.
VA: Early State Ticket Could Help GOP
Last Updated on Monday, 7 April 2008 10:53 Written by rslcpol Monday, 7 April 2008 10:53
The election for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general isn’t until November 2009.But in the past two weeks, two Republicans have made their campaign plans official. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling announced he would back away from plans to run for governor, and instead run for re-election. And Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, declared for attorney general.
It may seem early to announce plans for an election in 2009. But for Republicans, who have lost the last two gubernatorial races, a U.S. Senate race and control of the state Senate, lining up their roster early could be a benefit.
Although other candidates could still come forward for all three races, and are likely to do so for the attorney general race, Bolling’s decision leaves Attorney General Bob McDonnell the only Republican currently planning a run for governor. (McDonnell won’t officially announce his intentions until later this year.) The strategy already has discouraged some from challenging Bolling.
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NY: Paterson for Gov… 2010?
Last Updated on Friday, 4 April 2008 01:50 Written by rslcpol Friday, 4 April 2008 10:55
The results of this survey probably won’t be made public (after you read the entire article you’ll see why). After all, what’s probably freshest on NY voters minds is stuff like this. This survey had to be done – and wisely so – so everybody could have science behind telling Governor Patterson: “What are you, nuts?”
A Republican Rotterdam resident wrote in to say that his wife received a polling call Wednesday night that purported to be about “the media and their coverage of elected officials,” but sounded a lot like someone trying to determine the degree of support – or lack thereof – for Gov. David Paterson in 2010.
(For the uninitiated, Rotterdam is in Schenectady County, which is in the Capital Region).
The questioner did not offer up the identity of the organization that had commissioned the poll, (and the respondent didn’t ask) which means this probably wasn’t conducted by one of the public outfits like Quinnipiac or Marist.
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SC: 2008 Election Candidates
Last Updated on Monday, 31 March 2008 06:08 Written by rslcpol Monday, 31 March 2008 11:43
Rest easy, no statewide races to speak of in 2008 – just a whole lot of legislative races – which are critical at this level, and especially this year.
Filing for office ended at noon Sunday. The following people filed to run in Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union counties. Candidates who filed in Columbia for races that affect these counties are included on the list.
A New Day In Virginia?
Last Updated on Monday, 31 March 2008 10:37 Written by rslcpol Monday, 31 March 2008 10:37
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling’s announcement that he will seek re-election rather than challenge Attorney General Robert McDonnell for the Republican gubernatorial nomination next year is arguably the first good news that the Virginia Republicans have had in several years. Mr. Bolling’s decision to run for governor with Mr. McDonnell as part of a unified Republican Party ticket spares the party a bitter primary fight between conservatives and gives the GOP team more than a year and a half to make the case voters should return Republicans to the governor’s mansion.
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TN: Longtime Dem Politician, Former LG – Finally Retires From State Senate
Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 March 2008 03:45 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 26 March 2008 03:20
To say that an institution of Tennessee politics is moving on would be a VAST understatement. This seat will be picked up by Republicans in November. It would’ve been picked up if Senator Wilder had stayed – but it’s best that he’s moving on – finally.
NASHVILLE – Former Lt. Gov. John Wilder announced minutes ago that he will not seek re-election to the state Senate seat he has held for 44 years.”I wanted to do what God wanted me to do, and I didn’t know exactly what that was,” Wilder said in a rambling speech on the Senate floor shortly before noon today.
After long deliberations, he said, “I decided not to run for re-election” for the Somerville seat. Wilder compared service in the Senate to being a soldier.
He closed his speech with this cryptic remark: “If I don’t change my mind, that’s what I’m going to do” – referring to retiring from the Senate.
Democrat Wilder, 86, was unseated as lieutenant governor in January 2007 by Republican Lt. Gov. Rom Ramsey. At 36 years, he’d been the longest-serving presiding officer of a legislative body in the United States until that point.
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VA: LG and AG Present United Front In Governor’s Battle
Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 March 2008 09:48 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 26 March 2008 09:48
“One of the kind of indirect benefits of this decision is it does enable our party to avoid a battle between myself and Attorney General McDonnell. I would stress that that wasn’t the reason for the decision, but it is one of the benefits of the decision. I think that most Republicans across the state like me, and they like Bob McDonnell, and the last thing that any of them wanted to have to do was pick sides between the two of us,” Bolling said in a conference call with reporters this afternoon.Bolling had confirmed earlier today the news that he will not seek the Republican Party gubernatorial nomination in 2009 in favor of making a run at a second term as lieutenant governor. The move all but hands the gubernatorial nomination to McDonnell, who like Bolling was elected to his statewide office in 2005.
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NY: New Governor’s Campaign Funds Being Dissected
Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 March 2008 02:15 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 25 March 2008 01:51
Wow – rare that advocacy groups aren’t up in arms over something. The honeymoon will over soon enough. The standard that’s being applied here is wonderfully double. There are probably more political leaders in Albany than care to be counted who wish they could get a pass like this on their own ethical issues. Rest assured – some enterprising legislator will introduce a bill soon enough that will prohibit such spending from campaign funds. And the then advocacy groups will weigh in – albeit quietly.
Governor Paterson’s use of campaign funds to pay for hotels, clothing, and services is being dissected by the press but appears to be escaping the scrutiny of the state’s official investigatory bodies.Lawmakers and advocacy groups have been largely muted on the matter as well, while almost every new day of Mr. Paterson’s nascent administration brings a fresh round of questions about his use of campaign donations. A Republican senator who is chairman of the Investigations Committee, George Winner, said Republican lawmakers have not discussed the possibility of investigating Mr. Paterson’s use of campaign money.
A professor of political science at Baruch College, Douglas Muzzio, said there is a real reluctance in political circles to call off the honeymoon that greeted Mr. Paterson on his first day in office and a fear among elected officials that if the new governor is put under a microscope for his campaign expenditures, Albany lawmakers could soon face the same scrutiny.
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VA: General Assembly and 4 Would Be Governors
Last Updated on Monday, 24 March 2008 09:53 Written by rslcpol Monday, 24 March 2008 12:51
Watch for a rematch of the 2005 Virginia A.G.s race between potential Democrat nominee for Governor and failed A.G. candidate Creigh Deeds and potential Republican nominee for Governor A.G. Bob McDonnell.
Each of the four men who would be governor came out of the General Assembly session with an accomplishment they could add to their campaign brochures next year.
Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, lost on his proposal to establish a bipartisan redistricting commission, but the issue gained such prominence that it could give him a good-government platform in 2009.
“I think we raised the profile of the issue,” Deeds said.
Del. Brian J. Moran, D-Alexandria, who plans to challenge Deeds for the Democratic nomination to run for governor next year, made a fiery floor speech on the next-to-last-day of the session in support of $1.5 million in funding for “Alicia’s law,” a program to help fight Internet sexual predators.
Although efforts by Moran and Deeds to insert the law in the state code failed, an amendment to the budget funded the program.
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