Reality Check

State Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx, Westchester), who heads the state senate Democrats’ campaign organization, should get props for the most appropriate reaction to the trouble Gov. Paterson finds himself in and his decision to suspend his campaign.  From the Journal News’ Politics on the Hudson blog:

State Sen. Jeff Klein, D-Bronx, who also represents parts of Yonkers, Mount Vernon and several other communities in Westchester, issued a statement earlier today about the troubles facing Gov. David Paterson.

“It is unfortunate that at a time when our state is in the midst of a severe economic crisis and we need to direct our energy to putting New York’s fiscal house in order, we are embroiled in chatter about who will or will not be on the ballot nine months from now. We need to keep our eye on the ball. I’m focused on the budget and finding ways in which we can better protect the people’s money, put more tax dollars back in people’s pockets and restore the financial health of our state. Political conversations can be had after we’ve met our obligations and responsibilities to New Yorkers.”

Word.

Ladies and Gentlemen: U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner

When Anthony Weiner breaks through the fake DC collegiality and tells it like it is on healthcare (“I mean, you guys have chutzpah. The Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance companies.”) the Republicans get offended and ask that his “words be taken down” (disciplinary procedure for “inappropriate language”).

So Anthony Weiner retracts his statement, and then goes on to say (this is at about the 2:25 mark in the video):

Make no mistake about it, every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.

Awesome.  My favorite moment is when the Republican asks that his words be taken down the first time, and Weiner just crosses his arms and tells him “you really don’t wanna go here.”  The Video:

Avella Planning Campaign Against GOP State Senator (Who Voted Against Marriage Equality)

This story has been floating around for a while, but it’s jumped from likely to extremely likely: it looks like former NYC Councilman Tony Avella is going to take on GOP State Senator Frank Padavan in Queens.  From the Queens Times-Ledger:

Avella said he will probably jump into the race by the end of the month and plans to focus on the same issues he championed on the Council, such as fighting overdevelopment and ethics reform, along the campaign trail.

Avella’s earned his reputation as a reformer and someone unafraid to tackle tough challenges.  He attempted an uphill primary against Bill Thompson for the Democratic nomination for mayor last year.  He opposed the extension of term limits for city officials that Mayor Bloomberg forced through, and didn’t take try to take advantage of the extension once the deed was done.  So Avella looks like he’s got the right resume to bring some change to Albany, and he definitely knows the score:

“The one thing I found surprising on the Council is how little power the city has and how much of the legislation I introduced was dependent on Albany,” he said. “I think I have the reputation for being a reformer. If there’s any place crying out for reform, it’s Albany. I want to make government more responsible and ethical.”

Word.

Keep your eyes on this one, and get psyched for it.  Frank Padavan is one of the 30 Republicans who voted no while polling indicated the majority of New Yorkers were ready to say yes to marriage equality as long ago as last summer.  Padavan is also one of the 30 Republicans without whose help the coup could not have happened and our state would not have been held hostage by two opportunistic senators, both one of whom is still in the senate.  So essentially Frank Padavan is:

• For turning Albany into even more of a mess than normal
• Against equal rights
• (A Republican)

Get psyched for this campaign – it’ll be one of (hopefully) several opportunities for NYCers to take our government back in 2010.

Thought The MTA Was An Issue Last Year? Things Could Get Even More Interesting.

Ben Muessig at Gothamist is one among many reporting today that a fare hike jumping monthly metrocard rates to over $100 may be on the way.

Meanwhile, the Daily News reports that members of the Assembly are speaking out against the MTA’s threat to charge students to commute to school (right now students can commute for free).  All of this is against the backdrop of teachers unions and others getting ready for a rally today against the proposal to hit up half a million students for money to help plug the MTA’s shortfall.

Unfortunately, the $800 billion needed to plug the MTA’s budget gap is going to have to come from somewhere.  But taking money from students trying to get to school is, well, dumb.

We’re going to be hearing a lot more about this as the politics play out.  It’s no coincidence that the Transport Workers Union is running ads on 1010WINS this month.

Fingers Crossed: Stimulus Money May Stimulate Moynihan Station!

Investing in our mass transportation infrastructure: this is a key, key function of government, and one that ours has ignored for way too long.  This is why one of the two key rail hub in New York is the nasty maze underneath Madison Square Garden known as Penn Station.

But hope is on the horizon!  The forever-stalled project to turn the old Farley Post Office into a real live honest-to-goodness train station may actually happen, thanks to the injection of stimulus funds for the first phase of the project.  At right is a pic of an atrium planned in a Moynihan Station concept.  Sunlight and trains! In the same place! Amazing!

Stuff like this is a perfect demonstration of good economic stimulus in action – instead of budget-busting tax breaks that may or may not actually cause businesses to hire more people, make more stuff, or do anything else particularly useful for getting the economy back on track, this money can go directly to employing people (yay!) who will be working on laying the groundwork for increased economic activity (in this case, better rail access).

Bottom line, infrastructure spending is investing in America, essentially.

Then again, even with the allocation of the stimulus funds, the future of the Moynihan Station project isn’t certain.  From the Observer:

All is not to say that a shiny new train hall is about to become a reality. With the project always collapsing under its own ambition, the state and Port Authority in 2009 restructured it into “bite-size chunks,” in the words of one official, and the stimulus money is going toward just the first phase, $267 million in infrastructure work that would build new entrances along Eighth Avenue and expand an underground concourse on the western end of Penn Station’s platforms.

Taken in isolation, this first phase does not seem a project worth the significant money being devoted to it, and now the concern becomes whether the second phase will indeed ever happen. Private developers the Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust-a partnership between which once planned a far grander scheme that involved moving Madison Square Garden-still say they are interested, and Amtrak has signed an agreement to move to the Farley Building, should a train hall be built.

But the history of the project dictates this will never be as easy a task as it seems. The question with the potential start of construction within months is whether or not Moynihan has actually turned a corner.

More on this from City Room.

Holy #%@&, What Happened Yesterday?!

Yesterday was one frakking eventful day in NY politics.  Let’s review:

Good News: The NYS Senate voted overwhelmingly to tell Hiram Monserrate to take a hike.

"I feel a lot better about us as an institution right now, that we finally did something that was correct. It was a step forward," said Albany Senator Neil Breslin.

Word.

For those who have blocked out this one and/or weren’t following the story, Monserrate is part of the “thug and thief” tag-team that started the state senate coup last summer.  He was convicted of misdemeanor domestic assault charges recently but acquitted of felony charges, prompting many to demand that the senate Fire Monserrate.

While Monserrate will go to court to overturn the senate’s decision, the panel that recommended expelling him did a great job digging up a long line of precedents on the right of state legislatures to expel members for intolerable conduct.  I doubt Monserrate will succeed in overturning this.

Bad News: We got thumped in yesterday’s special elections for four assembly seats.

Republican Bob Castelli (who is a fan of the tea partiers, apparently) beat Westchester County Legislator Peter Harckham by about ten points.  I volunteered for Harckham, who is a great guy and one of the best and most effective legislators in Westchester, and his campaign did pretty much everything right.  Democratic voters are angry and dismayed and don’t want to come out to vote for Democrats.  Young people were especially absent on this one – on a college campus (SUNY Purchase) with over 1,000 registered to vote, only 25 pulled the lever on election day.  The state controls tuition, marriage equality, and tons of other key issues – young people need to come out and vote, if only to fight for our interests in the face of state budget squeezes.

Elsewhere, David Weprin held on to his brother’s old Assembly seat in Queens, but other than that, we lost yesterday, failing to capture a vacated Republican seat in Nassau County and failing to hold onto a Democratic seat in Suffolk County.

Against the backdrop of these setbacks, etc, our leaders clearly need to learn a key lesson.  To avoid a backslide into Republican dominance, Democrats will need to be bold, buck the national leadership when the national leadership is failing, show a commitment to fighting for results.  We need to be a party worth believing in.

I’m-Just-Not-Going-To-Characterize-This News:

NYC Councilman Larry Seabrook turned himself in to the Feds yesterday after they announced an amazing, sixty-six page indictment.  From the DN:

The litany of larceny for the married politician ran the gamut from funneling $322,800 to his girlfriend through dicey nonprofits to collecting $177 in expenses for a $7 bagel and diet soda.

"I don’t know about the bagel," said his defense attorney, Murray Richman. "But bagels can be expensive."

I’m shocked his lawyer didn’t claim instead that a $177 bagel is only a little worse than the $175 burgers available at the Wall Street Burger Shoppe.  *Sigh*…

There’s an Election Next Tuesday. For Reals!

Last fall we had town, city and county elections, and a congressional special upstate.  We won the Congressional special (yay!), but Jon Corzine lost the NJ governorship to this guy, we lost ground in Nassau County, and Democratic county executive Andy Spano got whupped in Westchester.

And then Massachusetts happened, and I’m still kind of shocked that a popular sitting Democratic attorney general in Massachusetts lost to this guy.  Seriously, what happened?

BUT! We can turn over a new page next Tuesday, when voters in LI, Queens, and Westchester will be electing four new assemblymembers:

• Queens (AD24) – Weprins! Former Assemblyman Mark Weprin moved over to the City Council, so his brother David, who was on the council and ran unsuccessfully for NYC Comptroller last year, is now running to replace Mark in the assembly.  By the way, Mark and David’s father served in the seat before them, so that assembly seat has been in the Weprin family’s hands since 1971…which is kind of amazing.  Weprin, a Democrat, is running against Bob Friedrich, who’s registered as a Democrat but running as a Republican.  It looks like Friedrich may also be a marriage-equality flip-flopper – several sources say he said he was for it when he was running for city council, but it seems he switched positions in order to get the backing of the Conservative party.
• Westchester County (AD89) – I think this is the one to watch.  County Legislator Peter Harckham is running to replace Democratic former Assemblyman Adam Bradley, who is now the new mayor of White Plains.  I’ve met Harckham – he’s great.  Fiscally responsible, reform-minded, and he’s all about results and getting things done.  But the 89th district in northern Westchester is not a lock for Democrats.  Democrats took some punishment in the 2009 elections in Westchester, but Harckham’s independence ought to help him out.  His commitment to dealing with local issues in a realistic and straightforward way instead of resorting to easy demagoguery has earned him the region’s key newspaper endorsement.  Turnout is key here.  If you have free time on Tuesday and you’re from Westchester, go home and help out!
• Suffolk County (AD3) – Assemblywoman Patricia Eddington resigned her seat to run for local office in Brookhaven, and Eddington staffer Lauren Thoden (warning – video and audio may automatically play when you open the page) is running to replace her.  Republican Dean Murray is her opponent.  David Singer calls this one a “jump-ball”.
• Nassau County (AD15) – takeover opportunity? – the Republican incumbent here resigned to take a job in the administration of new Nassau County Exec Ed Mangano, who shocked everybody by beating Tom Suozzi.  Local civic activist and repair shop owner Matt Meng is the Democrat running here, but Republican Mike Montesano has an edge because of the GOP’s registration advantage in this district.

Next Tuesday may be seen as a test of Democratic strength ahead of the 2010 general election campaign.  And given that whoever holds the state senate after the dust settles in the 2010 general will essentially control congressional redistricting…the 2010 elections are going to be huge.

FYI: It’s Now Illegal to “Lock and Load While Loaded”

A funny exchange recounted by Liz Benjamin:

Reporters covering Mayor Bloomberg’s press conference this morning on a new bill that would make it a crime to carry guns while drunk, were stunned when Sen. Jeff Klein, the bill’s sponsor, said it wouldn’t apply to firing ranges or hunting grounds, the DN’s Erin Einhorn reports.

The following exchange ensued:
(Josh Robin, NY1): “You can be drunk under this legislation in a firing range, with a gun?!
(Klein): “Yeah.”
(Bloomberg): “Don’t go to a firing range.”

I can only imagine the faces of the reporters after that exchange. Turns out that the Mayor’s joke aside, it was all just a misunderstanding, and it is illegal to lock and load when you’re loaded, even when hunting or at the shooting range.  Bloomberg’s press spokesman later explained:

“Under the bill there is, however, one common-sense difference in the way the law is applied at these places. Because brandishing and firing guns are common activities on hunting grounds and at firing ranges, they are not by themselves cause for suspicion and does not empower a police officer to administer a breathalyzer. By contrast, in places other than hunting grounds and firing ranges, brandishing a gun is by itself suspicious and can be cause to administer a breathalyzer.”

Then Liz recounts:

[Bloomberg’s spokesman] responded to a follow up to say that if a police officer happened upon a group of hunters near a pile of discarded beer cans and determined the hunters had a blood alcohol level of .08 or greater, he or she could, indeed, arrest them.

The idea of an officer approaching drunk people with guns and attempting to place them under arrest seems like a BAD TERRIBLE IDEA.

Yes, This Exists: “Nightlife Town Hall”

Via the SoHo Journal:

Own a bar? Like bars? Live above a bar and hate that particular bar? Have an opinion or suggestion about bars in your neighborhood? Then please attend Thursday’s Nightlife Town Hall and have an open discussion with your elected officials and the New York State Liquor Authority.

Some people may think this stuff is a waste of time, but I love that stuff like this exists.  It’s nice to remember that politics isn’t all about the huge battles like marriage equality.  Democracy in America really does deal with the little things, too. 

Time, place, and other details available here.

Dystopian Future (Coming to a Democracy Near You?)

Imagine if you saw this in the newspaper during election season:

New York has become one of the few states in the world to censor the internet.

The new law, which came into force on January 6, requires anyone making an online comment about next month’s state election to publish their real name and zip code.  The law will affect anyone posting a comment on an election story on the New York Observer’s PolitickerNY website, as well as other New York news sites.

It could also apply to election comments made on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Substitute “South Australia” for “New York”, The Advertizer for the New York Observer, AdelaideNow for PolitickerNY, and “postcode” for “zip code”… and this is an actual news article.  No joke.

The South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, defends the new law:

The AdelaideNow website is not just a sewer of criminal defamation, it is a sewer of identity theft and fraud," Mr Atkinson said. "There is no impinging on freedom of speech, people are free to say what they wish as themselves, not as somebody else."

Overreaction much?

The worst part?  Both the ruling Labor Party AND their Liberal opposition supported this bill.  WTF.

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