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.

Someone Else Hits the Phones!

It’s always fun to see other groups hit the phones for a legislative initiative. 

While it is kind of old-fashioned, blitzing the phone lines is a tried-and-true strategy for making sure legislative staffers know that you’re out there and you care on a given subject.

But it’s not just huge civil rights issues (*cough* New Yorkers for Marriage Equality *cough*) or (in the case of The Right) guns and abortion that get the phone line treatment.  Sometimes it’s something as simple as defending your local yogi from regulations, fees, and licensing requirements!  From Treehugger:

Yoga is soothing for the mind, body and soul–so too is it sustainable when it comes to low-carbon exercise. No high-tech gear, gadgets or electricity required.  Shouldn’t such a good, green thing be accessible to its students and teachers? I certainly think so. The state of New York seems to differ. They’re threatening to make being a yoga instructor or studio owner challenging with lengthy forms, tests and licensure procedures, in addition to expensive license renewals.

They go on to tell readers to phone in their support of bill S5701A to members of the state senate’s Higher Education committee, which will be dealing with the bill tomorrow.  From NYSenate.gov,’s Open Legislation site, here’s how the Senate summarizes the problem:

Recently the Board of Proprietary Schools released a letter instructing certain schools to cease student training requiring licensure as per S5001(1) of the Education Law. However, Sec. 5001(1) of the Education Law merely pertains to the licensure of trade, business, or computer training facilities. The letters were sent to yoga schools which do not fall under Sec. 5001(1) and are exempted from licensure under Section 5001(2)(f).  … The intent of the Board of Proprietary Schools was to mandate licensure for yoga schools who are teaching students to become instructors. … These amendments to the relevant sections of the Education Law clarify these pre-existing exemptions and permit yoga schools and other schools operating for the purpose of leisure, hobby, or personal enrichment to continue to function, protecting small businesses across NY State. (Emphasis added)

So what this looks like it’s really about is a state licensing board getting grabby and trying to force yoga studios and other small businesses into a licensing scheme that wasn’t supposed to apply to them in the first place.  The bill’s prime sponsor is the (awesome) Eric Schneiderman, who might be running for Attorney General this cycle.

Monserrate Committee Report Is Out

Full report made available by the Albany Times-Union here – the committee concludes Monserrate “showed a reckless disregard for Ms. Geraldo’s well-being and for the severity of her injury,” and is, as the NYT puts it, “unfit to serve.”

“The decisions made that night by Senator Monserrate as to the treatment of someone he ostensibly loved and cared for, were not consistent with the obvious need to obtain swift medical care for an injury of the seriousness of Ms. Giraldo’s,” the report states. “Whether the senator was worried for his political future or not, the evidence demonstrates both recklessness and callousness.”

The nine-member committee, led by Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat from Manhattan, also found that Mr. Monserrate’s actions damaged the reputation of the Senate and demonstrated “a lack of fitness to serve in this body.”

“Accordingly,” the report states, “the Select Committee recommends that Senator Monserrate be sanctioned by the full Senate, and that the Senate vote to impose one of two punishments: expulsion, or in the alternative, censure with revocation of privileges. The Select Committee recommends that the full Senate convene to consider, debate and vote on both resolutions as soon as reasonably possible.”

Senator Brian Foley (D-Blue Point, Long Island) has announced his plans to introduce an expulsion resolution ASAP.  Hopefully we’ll be able to stick a fork in Monserrate pretty soon and end this particular episode of the bad reality show that is our state’s government.

Musical Chairs: 2010 Preseason

In politics, pretty much every open-seat race, primary challenge, and retirement has a sort of trickle-down effect – when someone moves up (or tries to), others see opportunities to move into vacancies created by those seeking higher office.  You could liken it to a whole lot of people trying to climb the same ladder, or maybe a game of musical chairs (in some cases, full-contact musical chairs!).  When you’re talking about Democratic politics in NY, where most seats are categorized as “safe”, “safer”, or “safest”…the pressure surrounding a seat opening up can get intense.

As about eleventy million people consider running for Attorney General in 2010 – assuming, for the moment, that sitting AG Andrew Cuomo does run for governor like pretty much everyone and their mother thinks he will – about twice that many people are thinking of moving into the new vacancies the AG hopefuls would create.  And two times eleventy million people squared are looking at the vacancies that could be created in turn by those seeking to fill the AG hopefuls’ offices.  Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

And so the potential race for AG, with six potential candidates on the Democratic side ID’ed by the NYT, trickles down to Senate District 31, a strip of Manhattan and the Bronx running from the UWS up through Riverdale.  Via Manhattan Times, here’s a YouTube of Councilman Robert Jackson endorsing Mark Levine, founder of the Barack Obama Democratic Club, for (a) a seat that has not yet been vacated by (b) a senator who hasn’t even announced an intention to run for a higher office that (c) he pretty much definitely wouldn’t run for unless its current occupant runs for an even higher office. 

Is your head spinning yet?

(Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat is also said to be interested in the SD-31 seat.)

Ethics Reform? Ethics Reform!

At 3:14 this morning, Gotham Gazzette’s David King wrote:

There is talk around the capitol that an ethics agreement could be announced this week.  It may be a long shot as most legislators have returned to their districts tonight but it is Albany and anything can happen. The official line as of this evening remained “talks are ongoing.”

AND LO! The sun rose this morning on a new ethics deal being promoted by Republicans in the Assembly and Democrats in both houses:

Senate Majority Conference Leader John Sampson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb today announced the introduction of sweeping ethics and campaign finance reform legislation. The legislation will include provisions agreed to by both the Senate and Assembly that would require greater disclosure from lobbyists and restore an independent lobbying commission, provide greater information regarding legislators’ outside sources of income and create a body within the New York State Board of Elections to enforce greater adherence to campaign finance laws.

Policy details in the senate’s press release.  It’s a start! 

Senate Republicans are complaining that they were left out of the negotiating process, but really, after the Senate GOP spent last summer trying out a new and more creative way of making Albany dysfunction even worse, and just following the recent conviction of their former leader on felony corruption charges…who would want to bring them in on ethics reform?  Seriously.

From My 82 Year Old History Professor:

This is what my 82 years young history professor sent me in an email when I asked for his thoughts on the NYS Senate debacle:

Re the New York Senate fight, you have to understand that all through American history, the New York state legislature – both houses – have been totally dysfunctional and often corrupt. It goes back go the delegation sent to the convention which resulted in the Declaration of Independence until today. It has always been a disgrace and will continue to be so until major changes are made in its rules and procedures.  There is important business to be done before the Senate breaks for its summer recess and it will not happen.  We would be better off with one house and with a more equitable distribution of seats passed on population.

NY Appellate Court Issues Temporary Restraining Order on Espada

You can find a full copy on Senator Smith’s website here. 

Up For Auction

A bit of levity from one of our readers: 

Hat Tip: Steven

What’s Wrong With The Democratic Party in NY–And What You Can Do About It

Yesterday, I went to the rally being held at City Hall in support of a Democratic majority in the Senate. 

It wasn’t a rally. It was a press conference. A press conference with a handful of politicians, flanked by another dozen-or-so “third-party validators” who had hastily come together to “protest” the GOP coup. 

It was clear that this was a top-down orchestration. They weren’t tapping into the groundswell of grassroots anger about the coup. There were precious few non-political types there. It was also not a very broad coalition–mostly incumbent NYC Dems. No Democratic U.S. Senators or Representatives. 

I understand the need to vehemently protest what has happened. But it’s been 48 hours since this coup occurred. And neither this press conference nor the Dems’ movements up in Albany indicate there has been any semblance of critical thinking about the situation. No semblance of a plan to move forward in a productive fashion. No introspection about what had gone wrong; just a knee-jerk reaction to say, “WTF–you can’t do that!” 

Councilman David Yassky alluded to how a lot of NYers must be feeling about this whole mess when he spoke: “This is what makes people cynical about politics.” Yes, he’s right–but just saying that isn’t enough. 

We’ve mentioned before that the silver lining out of all this may be that New Yorkers will start paying more attention to the depth of dysfunction in Albany and begin to hold their representatives accountable for their actions (and inactions). The other good that may come out of this is if we–as Democrats–begin to set the bar higher for ourselves. That we don’t let the Espadas and the Monserrates stick around while it’s politically expedient until they screw us. That we decide the caliber of Democrats should be better of our own accord. 

What can we, as young Dems living in NY, do to make that happen? We would love to hear your thoughts. Here are some of the ideas we’ve put forth on this blog and as an organization previously. 

• Immediate actions: 
  • Call the County Committees of the Bronx and Queens to make sure they don’t support Monserrate and Espada in the 2010 elections
  • Go to the Drinking Liberally meeting on June 19th in the Bronx to powwow about how to deal with Espada
• Longer-term actions: 
  • Run for the Democratic County Committee of Manhattan (This is the org that decides who gets on the ballot with a “D” next to their name. Watchful eyes in this arena are important to ensure our party’s candidates are qualified and best represent us.) Email our Vice President, Ben Yee, if you want more info: vp [at] goMYD [dot] com
  • Join an Issue-Oriented Committee to formulate MYD’s policy platforms and strategize about how to influence pols to adopt our positions. IOCs also play an important role in educating our membership about policy and politics through events like panel discussions like this one. 
  • Help us develop our NYCivics 101 section on this website to educate and inform New Yorkers about how their government works or develop profiles about politicians in our borough and across the state (email newmedia [at] goMYD [dot] com if you’re interested)
  • If you are a high schooler or college student who wants to start a chapter of MYD on your campus, we have a very easy chartering process. We’ll support you in getting your chapter up-and-running and you’ll be plugged in to everything we have going on as well. Email our Secretary, Taylor Stirek, for more information: secretary [at] goMYD [dot] com
  • One final idea we’re working on is to train young people in New York about how to organize and advocate for the issues that matter to them. If you’re interested in helping us empower young people in this way, contact me at president [at] goMYD [dot] com

You can use the Contact Us form to get in touch with other ideas–or feel free to leave a comment below. 

A more effective, responsive, and quite frankly, honest Democratic Party starts with you. 

View the rest of the photos from the presser here. 

Woke Up This Morning

To this coverage of yesterday’s events: 

A defiant Mr. Espada said he would enter the chamber for a session on Thursday even if the Democrats kept the doors bolted shut. As he was being trailed by a large group of reporters down a corridor in the Capitol, Mr. Espada pulled a gold key out of his pocket, grinned and said: “I’ve got the key. I’ve got the key.”

Nearby, amid the crush of camera crews, a clown dispatched to the Capitol by The New York Post added to the carnival atmosphere.

Sigh.

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