El Diario Endorses Change

El Diario, the oldest and largest Spanish language newspaper in New York City, has endorsed two pro-marriage equality candidates: Gustavo Rivera and Charlie Ramos.

Both candidates are running against powerful incumbents: Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. and Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr., respectively.  With a daily readership of over 290,000 people, the El Diario endorsement could potentially reach thousands of Bronx voters.

Of Gustavo Rivera, the endorsement reads:

The time has come to close the door on the politics of “me” and for the politics of “we” to reign. District 33 has a chance to do this on Sept. 14 by supporting Rivera.

To help elect pro-marriage equality candidates, visit the MYD 2010 Campaign Page.

Espada: Can’t Make This !@#$ Up

Could he sink any lower?

A letter dated July 31 was sent to the home of a Bronx woman who had signed a petition supporting an opponent of the Senate majority leader, Pedro Espada Jr.

In bold-face capital letters, it read “Notice of Legal Information Warning” and went on to say that the woman had been identified “as a person who has signed a legal document known as a petition.”

“Receipt of this letter is NOT an indication that you have done anything wrong,” the letter stated. “However, there is reason to believe that your signature has been obtained against the law.” The recipient was told to call “the Ballot Integrity Unit.” There was no answer at the number on Thursday afternoon.

The letter was signed by the “Concerned Citizens for Good Government,” but at the bottom of the page, in small type, it read “Paid for by New Yorkers for Espada.”

And yelling at protestors in Albany (the title of the Daily News coverage is priceless: CAN THE NY SENATE GET ANY FREAKIER? CAN IT????):

Want to do something about getting rid of this guy? Email me at vp [at] goMYD [dot] com to get involved.

Espada Confirms Our Worst Impressions of Him…Again

With crucial legislation (like the Revenue Bill that Republicans hate) waiting for a vote, Espada decides to take the day off depriving Democrats of their majority. You can’t make this stuff up, it’s too stupid. Here’s what the man said:

“I cannot participate in a legislative process that still has not addressed basic and important needs of our most vulnerable citizens. Working in the district today and tending to the needs of my constituents will be far more productive.”

Check it out the full article here.

Amazing Expose On The Politics Of The Failed NY Budget

If you haven’t listened to the “This American Life” episode from June 19, you should. Put it on while you’re working out, taking a bath or bored with your friend’s crappy story – I guarantee your jaw will drop at least once. Ira Glass rips into Albany, interviews Dick Ravitch and all around let’s us know that, while not the only state in budget shortfall (48 of them are), we’re amongst the worse.

Go ahead, click the link and edify yourself. Just stream the whole thing, it’s free – that’s what public broadcast is for.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/410/social-contract

Coup Crisis Redux: State Government Shutdown?

Instead of apologizing to taxpayers for shutting down the NY State Senate with the Coup last year, Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr and Minority Leader Dean Skelos are wrecking havoc again by making it impossible for the NYS Senate to pass a budget. The Senate has been passing emergency budget bills on a weekly basis for a while now. If a deal isn’t reached by Monday, government services will literally cease to be funded. State officials are preparing for the first-ever government shut down.

Paterson has proposed a budget with deep cuts to health care as a way to force the lawmakers to accept his proposals. Dems oppose the cuts, while Republicans are in unified opposition because the cuts don’t go far enough. (Hooray for the Party of No!) So far, Espada and Diaz have said they will not support the emergency budget bill to keep government operating.

The latest re: our favorite State Senator:

Both threatened to oppose future emergency spending bills – even if state government must go dark. For all of its dysfunction, Albany had never sunk that low.

If Paterson loses legal authority to spend money, no one can be sure what agencies will close, what programs will stop, what havoc will be wreaked.

[...]

Espada postured as defender of the downtrodden.

“We have to stop hurting working families and poor,” he huffed – as if those people wouldn’t be the hardest-hit victims of a government shutdown.

This is especially hard to take from Espada, the poster boy for government waste. As CEO of a chain of health clinics for the poor – financed entirely with state and federal funds – and he lives scandalously high on the hog. He has not only drawn a fat salary, but Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says he looted $14 million to support a flashy lifestyle.

His bank account is proof there’s plenty of fat in the state budget, yet he’s going to force a crisis rather than accept cuts.

Espada and Skelos – your state Legislature at work.

Daily News: Bill Hammond

One to Watch: Justin Brannan

We’re focusing a lot on the 2010 Senate race here at MYD. You can catch Emmy doing the “State of the State” presentation over at TV-myd and we’ll be hosting a number of events / canvasses / phone banks etc as we get closer to election time (want to help plan these? Apply for Field Director, applications due TODAY)

Hopefully, by 2012 we’ll have elected such stand-up State Senators that we’ll be in a different place than we are now! Nevertheless I’m keeping an eye out for the former hard-core band guitarist turned community activist, Justin Brannan who announced this week that he’s considering a 2012 Senate run. It’ll be interesting to see how his campaign rolls out in the next few years, right now his anti-corruption message is strong:

As for the platforms he is considering, Brannan views Albany as “the poster child for political dysfunction,” which is why he’s gunning for a Senate seat. “There is arrogance and complacency — an unfortunate symptom of incumbents going unchallenged and unchecked for years on end,” he reasoned. “There was a time when the Empire State was the model of efficient government throughout the country — responsible for some of the brightest government programs around. Today, our state government has been dubbed the most dysfunctional in the nation.”

*As a general reminder, MYD doesn’t endorse in primaries even ones possibly 2 years away, we just inform!*

MTA: Show Me Your Books ! (Its The Law)

A new era of transparency began this Monday for hundreds of our state public authorities – whether they like it or not.

For decades these agencies were able to keep multiple sets of books that advocates dubbed a “shadow government” – books that they were not obliged to share with anyone. This practice is now history with the passing of the Public Authorities Reform Act. It requires many of these quasi-governmental corporations to be more transparent and required even to subject themselves to independent audits.

“We certainly have the authority now to recommend that board members be censured, that they be warned and in the most extreme cases, we can recommend to the governor or to the local appointing authority that board members be removed from office,” said David Kidera, Acting Director for the Independent Authorities Budget Office.

But this information isn’t just for government officials like Liu or DiNapoli. The information is also going to be available online for anyone with an internet connection and a whole bunch of time ! Click here for your chance to play junior auditor.

NYT Paterson Article #2 Arrives

So the big New York Times expose that was rumored to outline resign-able offenses has never materialized, and probably won’t. Instead there have now been two anything but flattering articles, the second of which was published last night.

First, on Tuesday there was a profile of Paterson’s senior adviser David W. Johnson which goes into his troubled past and sudden rise to be one of the most important players in Paterson’s administration. That being said, it’s not entirely convincing in the sense of actually showing Paterson to be a bad governor. Anonymous staffers indicate Johnson is not a good adviser, and the article sort of wonders aloud if a criminal background, especially (unproven) allegations of domestic abuse, should preclude someone from rising to such a position.

Now comes the second article, which is much more to the point of Paterson’s ability to govern. It is worth a full read, and casts the Governor as someone who is detached from the job and seemingly out of his depth. Key summary:

Those interviewed describe the governor as remote from the most seasoned people around him, and increasingly reliant on people whom he feels comfortable with but who lack deep experience in government, including his former driver, David W. Johnson, and his former Albany roommate, Clemmie J. Harris Jr., who retired from the State Police on disability a decade ago and has been appointed special adviser to the governor.

Some lawmakers say that despite the state’s crippling crisis, Mr. Paterson has seldom engaged with them, beyond denouncing them. And several former state commissioners say he has virtually no involvement with those he has running major agencies, only rarely participating in policy meetings.

Some Questions:

Will there be a third article?

If you were thinking about donating money to Paterson’s campaign, which launches officially tomorrow – do these articles give you pause about his right to or chances for re-election?

And finally – assuming for a moment Spitzer could have acknowledged his indiscretions but not been forced from office for them, would NY have been better off with him as a disgraced one-term governor than with his replacement?

Paterson Aide’s Quick Rise Draws Scrutiny (NY Times)

As Campaign Nears, Paterson Is Seen as Increasingly Remote (NY Times)

Schumer To Giants: If You Are A NY Team, You Should Practice In NY

The NY Giants organization had planned to discontinue their regular summer training at the University of Albany as soon as the practice facility adjacent to the new Meadowland Stadium was ready to go. The potential lose of this seasonal tourist staple has worried local business leaders and university officials who have been petitioning the team’s front office to reconsider.

Senator Schumer, a self described Giants loyalist, went so far as to call John Mara, the team owner, to discuss the merits of the Giant’s remaining at the SUNY campus. His office released this statement:

Holding the training camp in Albany is good for both the Giants’ morale and cohesion and the local economy.  What’s more, the training camp has become one of the favorite ways for Capital Region families to spend a summer day and, quite frankly, it is the Giants last physical link to New York State.

The New York Giants have been practicing at the University of Albany’s campus since the Dan Reeves era and the facility has benefited both the team and the region … Each year, thousands of fans come to the University of Albany’s campus to watch their Giants and pump money into the local economy … We’ve now got all of our New York teams training in Upstate and I’m committed to keeping it that way. Anything we can do to keep the fans and money pouring in is a score in my book.

According to the NFL insiders discussions between both the team and the school are looking good and it seems very likely that the team will be returning for another summer upstate.

Now Senator, is there anything your office can do to help us fix up the defense…

Senator Quits In Face of Congressional Paralysis

U.S. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a centrist Dem, announced he will not seek a third term yesterday. On the heels of the loss of the Kennedy seat in Massachusetts, the news sent Dems “reeling” — but the real story is why he’s quitting when he could pretty easily win re-election. His announcement offers a depressing insider’s perspective on just how dysfunctional Congress has become:

“For some time, I have had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should,” Mr. Bayh said. “There is too much partisanship and not enough progress — too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous challenge, the people’s business is not being done.”

“This is colored by having observed the Senate in my father’s day,” Mr. Bayh said. “It wasn’t perfect; they had politics back then, too. But there was much more friendship across the aisles, and there was a greater willingness to put politics aside for the welfare of the country. I just don’t see that now.”

“In my father’s day, you legislated for four years and campaigned for two; now it’s full time. The politics never stops,” he said. “My bottom line is that there are a lot of really good people trapped in a dysfunctional system desperately in need of reform.”

But to New Yorkers, legislative paralysis is nothing new. Come to our General Meeting tonight to hear our President Taylor Stirek speak about the dysfunction in Albany — and what we as MYDers are going to do about it in 2010.

See you at 461 Park Ave S, New York, New York, NY 10016 @ 7PM! map

Times – Democrats Reel as Senator Says No to 3rd Term

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