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NY: Plan to Cut Local Government – Less is More
Last Updated on Wednesday, 3 June 2009 09:59 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 3 June 2009 09:59
From TimesUnion.com:
The “New N.Y. Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act” would allow people to easily petition for a vote on dissolving entities such as towns and villages as well as special fire, sewer and water districts. Supporters of the bill claim the sheer number of entities contributes to the state’s tax burden.
Senate Democratic majority spokesman Austin Shafran said the bill is expected to pass when it comes up for a vote later today. The Assembly passed the measure Monday. Gov. David Paterson has spoken in favor of consolidation, meaning the bill would likely be signed if senators approve the measure.
If the bill becomes law, the real political winner will be Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has spent months campaigning for the legislation. Cuomo can legitimately claim that he’s managed to succeed where politicians and policy advocates have failed for decades even if the bill’s passage results in the dissolution of just a few local districts.
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NY: AG Cuomo Says he has No Plans to run for Governor
Last Updated on Monday, 1 June 2009 10:15 Written by rslcpol Monday, 1 June 2009 10:15
From Daily News:
Primary fights are great for Democrats, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo asserts.
And no, he insisted again Sunday, he has no plans to challenge Gov. Paterson.
Intraparty battles can be “very productive” if they are “constructive and not destructive,” Cuomo told fellow Dems at a state party meeting in Westchester.
“The Democratic Party is essentially a party of primaries,” said Cuomo, who said his “plan” is to run for reelection.
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New York Dems on Brink of a ‘Civil War’
Last Updated on Monday, 1 June 2009 09:42 Written by rslcpol Monday, 1 June 2009 09:42
From New York Post:
DEMOCRATS are on the brink of an “all- out civil war” as unelected Gov. Paterson desperately fights to hold an office few think he can win at the polls next year, party insiders have told The Post.
The battle lines are pitting Paterson, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, a Paterson appointee, and several party functionaries against Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic leaders of the Legislature, and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who had a serious and unexpected public clash with the governor on Friday.
Cuomo, the highly popular son of former governor Mario Cuomo, is gearing up to run for governor next year and is seen by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and other senior legislative Democrats as their party’s strongest standard-bearer.
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NY: Polit Bureau – Who Wants to be AG?
Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 May 2009 01:48 Written by rslcpol Wednesday, 27 May 2009 01:20
Finally, out of the wood work comes A.G. candidates of all stripes hoping to succeed Andrew Cuomo who claims to not have his eye on the Gov’s chair. We mean he leads incumbent Dem Governor David Paterson 70% – 19% (No, that’s not a type-o) in a primary match up. Why on Earth would anyone think he was going to do anything but run for re-election. From Polit Bureau:
Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who ran for statewide office in 2006 but lost a Democratic gubernatorial primary to Eliot Spitzer, is this region’s best hope to get a Long Islander into the AG’s office. But Suozzi, according to multiple sources, is still unsure if that’s the job he really wants.
“It should be,” said one Democratic insider. “And it’s a great stepping stone. I think he will do it.”
To Suozzi’s credit, he’s publicly remained focused on the 2009 elections, where the Democrats will be in a pitched battle for the county Legislature. Suozzi also faces re-election himself, though most expect him to win that race.
Because the attorney general’s office has quickly become a stepping stone to the governor’s mansion, Suozzi wouldn’t sail through a primary. Multiple Democrats are ready to pounce if Cuomo makes the move.
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NY: Spitzer Itching for a Comeback?
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 May 2009 02:53 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 12 May 2009 12:32
Whatever happened to just going away? From Newsday.com:
Consider yourself warned. Ex- Gov. Eliot Spitzer, long on pride and short on shame, might try for a comeback, even if he now says otherwise.
Last week he showed up with wife Silda Wall at a Waldorf- Astoria fundraiser, schmoozing and posing for photos. He was quoted as defending his just-ousted transit appointee Lee Sander, in an implicit criticism of Gov. David A. Paterson. He’s been on TV – only after insistent invites, he noted on one station – holding forth on such matters as the AIG collapse.
Also last week, a Marist poll said 51 percent of registered voters (44 percent in the suburbs) would prefer him to Paterson as governor. This just means Paterson – whom Spitzer made his successor – has amazingly low ratings. But a true political creature would take it as the public craving his return.
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NY: Governor and Lawmakers Vow to Address Property Taxes
Last Updated on Thursday, 7 May 2009 10:55 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 7 May 2009 10:55
From CNYcentral.com:
Gov. David Paterson and legislative leaders said Wednesday they will try to finally curb the growth of some of the nation’s highest property taxes.
But that pledge was immediately criticized as similar to unfulfilled promises from past years. Local school taxes and other property taxes are now 78 percent above the national average; on Long Island, for example, annual tax bills exceeding $10,000 are common.
Paterson, who is reviving his call for a cap on school tax growth, is seeking ideas from Assembly and Senate leaders that can become law this session, which ends in late June.
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NY: Governor’s Backroom Plan to Outflank AG Cuomo
Last Updated on Monday, 20 April 2009 10:44 Written by rslcpol Monday, 20 April 2009 10:44
From NYMag:
The day before Easter, David Paterson and about a dozen of his closest advisers and fund-raisers sat around a long table to plot the resurrection of his governorship. Paterson had just wrapped up another dreadful week. It started with a poll showing that most New Yorkers think he shouldn’t run for reelection; by midweek, the head of a state-employees union, angry over threatened layoffs, said Paterson “needs a good psychiatrist, or at least he should share the drugs he’s on.” Then Paterson was booed at a minor-league game in Buffalo.
Yet inside the hotel boardroom, the mood was upbeat, even fiery. Jon Cohen, a former Paterson official, urged the governor to strike hard at his most dangerous primary threat, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. “He’s out there mounting his own campaign, so we should take him out,” one attendee recalled Cohen suggesting.
Posted under Attorney General News, Dems Behaving Badly | No Comments
Gingrich Sees Cuomo in Governor’s Race
Last Updated on Friday, 17 April 2009 10:38 Written by rslcpol Friday, 17 April 2009 09:49
Big news for folks who haven’t been following events in New York closely these past few months. Andrew Cuomo will run for Governor of New York in 2010. It’s just a matter of how long he can draw out his roll out and fawning, positive press before the real scrutiny begins. From the New York Times:
Mr. Gingrich’s blunt warning brought into the open speculation that has been rippling through political circles for weeks: that Democrats may decide that Mr. Paterson is too weak to win election next fall, and turn to the popular attorney general to keep the governor’s office in Democratic hands.
“Yes, it’s true, the current governor’s terrible,” Mr. Gingrich told state Republicans on Wednesday night at the Sheraton New York Hotel in Manhattan. “Yes, it’s true, the budget’s indefensible. But let me tell you, if I had to bet money, you’re not going to face the current governor next year. You’re going to face Cuomo.
“So you’ve got to design a campaign that beats Cuomo,” he continued.
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Political Comeback?? Spitzer to run for Attorney General??
Last Updated on Thursday, 16 April 2009 01:03 Written by rslcpol Thursday, 16 April 2009 01:03
From the NY Post:
After launching a column on Slate.com, and giving interviews to National Public Radio and the “Today” show, the sources say, the disgraced former governor told friends: “My record as governor was disappointing, but the voters will remember my excellent two terms as attorney general.”
The sources say Spitzer, forever tarnished as Client No. 9 of a prostitution agency, expects Andrew Cuomo to run for governor next year, leaving open the AG job. Several Democrats are already being mentioned as potential candidates, including Nassau County Executive Tom Suozziand state Assemblymen Richard Brodsky (Westchester) and Michael Gianaris(Queens).
But Spitzer, whose resignation just 13 months ago led to the gubernatorial ascension of hapless David Paterson, might be underestimating the public’s memory. Even before Spitzer went on “Today” to resurrect his image as “the sheriff of Wall Street” and discuss his “gremlins,” a New York Times column recently referred to him as “that caustic echo of yesteryear.”‘
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NY: “Democrats Will Pay For This” – Budget gives GOP Political Ammo
Last Updated on Tuesday, 31 March 2009 11:52 Written by rslcpol Tuesday, 31 March 2009 11:37
It’s not quite the story yet, but expect to read a story or two in the future that talks about the perils of being the party in power during tough domestic times. In times like this, the GOP’s policy instincts are usually more sound than the Democrats who love to spend their way out of a hole. From the Daily News:
Gov. Paterson and his fellow Democrats are confirming everyone’s worst fears about Albany becoming a one-party town. Instead of demonstrating that they can be fiscally responsible in a crisis, they are acting just like stereotypical, out-of-control, big-government liberals.
They’re using their newfound dominance of state government to tax and spend with abandon, shaft the middle class, let criminals out of jail and cozy up to labor.
Republicans – shut out of the inner circle for the first time since the 1930s – can do little but gnash their teeth on the sidelines. Inside, though, they’re chuckling diabolically. They know just how much political dynamite the Democrats are handing them by passing this ridiculously bloated, irresponsible budget.
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