PFE Letter to Cuomo 12-23-10

The Manhattan Young Democrats were very excited to join forces with other NYSYD Chapters to help Senator-Elect David Carlucci win his State Senate this November! This month’s NYSYD Newsletter included a thank you from the man himself! Check it out in full HERE.

This November, with the partnership, the dedication and hard work of the NYSYD’s we were able to win a seat that many said was impossible to win. I extend my deepest and heartfelt gratitude for all of the blood, sweat and tears that the Young Dem’s put into my New York State Senate campaign.

The 38th Senate district, which represents Rockland and parts of Orange counties, has traditionally been held by Republicans, yet young Democrats throughout the region worked with many local organizations to help me win this hotly contested race. Without active young Democrats, this achievement wouldn’t have been possible.

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.

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.

“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.

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

Hey Pedro, remember -- primary in September!

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

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!*

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.

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)