SUSAN ARBETTER ON ccSCOOP
Oy, Albany!
May 29, 2010
The hoopla of the State Democratic Convention notwithstanding, there was plenty of substantive political stuff happening this week. Now, don't be misled; nothing actually got done. But, issues were "on the table," “being discussed,” and legislators were finding “a win-win” for all New Yorkers.
Unfortunately there weren't that many people here in Albany at the table to see any of it. The reason? The already anemic press corps was divided in two: one half covering Cuomopalooza in Rye Brook, NY; the other remaining in Albany on budget-watch. Or, as I referred to it today, to myself, in my own mind, and without any transparency, “Budget Non-Watch.” |
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Actually, I was glad I was left in Albany—something that was made clear to me by one returning reporter's assessment of the convention. "Well THAT was a big waste of time," she told the assembled crew. That said, there was one new bit of information that we gleaned from the gathering: According to Marist pollster Dr. Lee Miringhoff, who was there (and who spoke with me from the floor of the convention during Cuomo's acceptance speech), it appears that pleasing upstate New York lawmakers has made it onto someone's "List of Things Not to Forget."
We know this for two reasons. First, rather than making race or gender a priority, it's clear from Cuomo's choice of a white man to run as his Lieutenant Governor, Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, that geography trumped all other factors.
Second, it was clear early on, perhaps even before the convention according to one source I spoke with, that Democratic chair Jay Jacobs would bow to pressure from upstate county Democrats who were quite vocal about demanding that their pick for Attorney General appear on the primary ballot. That candidate is Eric DiNallo, former Commissioner of the State Insurance Department, Spitzer's old deputy at the AG's office and former prosecutor. He's also the guy that Spitzer credits with reaching back into an old closet of under-utilized statutes and pulling out a dusty remnant of law called the Martin Act. The Martin Act gives extraordinary prosecutorial powers to the state's top cop. It was this legal ray gun that the former AG used with such success to eviscerate Wall Street bigwigs and the current AG is using to prosecute pay-to-play fraudsters formerly employed in the Office of State Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
DiNallo had wooed this group of rural Democrats (from places like Columbia, Chemung, and Chenango counties) quite effectively a few weeks ago during its annual gathering in Niagara Falls. DiNallo emerged victorious from the storied political competition and rite of passage among statewide candidates in New York—the Rural Democratic Conference Straw Poll. Thanks to his attentiveness and a position paper he wrote promising more upstate AG attention, he whomped the other four candidates, including the one preferred by Andrew Cuomo—the only woman in the group, Nassau DA Kathleen Rice.
This victory, while epic in its own way, is absolutely meaningless, unless you want the Rural Democratic Conference to feel as if it's "being heard," which Jacobs does. So, even though a candidate needs 25 percent of the convention delegate votes to appear on the September primary ballot, all five candidates running for Attorney General will in fact be on the ballot.
It's what we call "The New Math." Yes, somehow all five candidates received 25 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile back at the Capitol, there has been no movement on a state budget at all, though Speaker Silver floated the idea of a tax on the rich again. You might remember, he floated a tax on the rich last year, which morphed into a tax on New Yorkers making over 200K. It earned the state far less in revenue than projected. This year the tax was shot down by both Andrew Cuomo and current Governor David Paterson.
So, what can we cross off our "to do" list? Nothing! But hey, this is Albany where "almost" counts as substantive, and where five people can garner 25 percent of a vote! It's like magic.
What to Look Forward To
By Friday we hope to know whether the Governor's furlough plan for state workers is constitutional or not; if state parks will be open for Memorial Day or not; and whether a portion of the Environmental Protection Fund will somehow be re-distributed (or not). By next Wednesday, the legislature has to make two key decisions—whether to reform Power for Jobs or let the program die, and whether to raise the cap on charter schools. I wonder if Arne Duncan will consider employing The New Math when grading New York State's Race to the Top application. Frankly, it's our only hope.
Susan_Arbetter@wcny.org
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