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Michael Johnson
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Posts by Michael Johnson
ACS Pushes For Health Exchange Action With ‘Exchangopoly’
Mar 23rd - 4:27 pm
As Governor Cuomo mentioned this morning, there will be movement on a health care exchange if he has to put it in the extender bills. That’s good news for health care advocates like the American Cancer Society – who has turned to fun and games to stress the importance of the state moving quickly to implement an exchange.
They sent over this “Exchangopoly” board that is highlighted with deadline dates to implement many parts of the policy – starting with August first of this year when the state needs to open up a Request for Proposal for a marketing campaign promoting the health care changes. It’s worth a look for the calendar of dates.
Here’s a link to a full screen view.
Long Calls On Gillibrand To End ‘War On Women’
Mar 22nd - 12:30 pm
US Senate candidate Wendy Long is trying to turn the tables on an issue Democrats including her opponent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have been hammering across the country for the past few months – the war on women’s rights.
Long uses the New York Times story about growing calls for Nancy Brinker to resign from the Susan G. Komen foundation in the aftermath of their ban on contributions to organizations under investigation – which was criticized as a backdoor way to stop providing funding to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings – and she comes to Brinker’s defense.
“In 1982 Nancy Brinker promised her dying sister that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever and since has raised almost $2 billion in that crusade. It’s time for the liberals to end their politically motivated attacks on the Komen Foundation and let them get back to what the do best: raise money and awareness for breast cancer,” Long said.
Long goes on to blame Gillibrand personally for the attacks on Komen.
“Senator Gillibrand, who was Honorary Chair of the 17th 2011 Annual Race for the Cure in Albany and America’s Leading Liberal Senator, should be helping to end the unrelenting attacks on the Komen Foundation. It’s time for her to stand up.”
Long added, “Isn’t it time for liberals like Senator Gillibrand to call off their ‘War on Women’?”
Long is engaged in a primary battle with Republicans Bob Turner and George Maragos, and some insiders say one reason they think she would be a better candidate than the two men is because she can confront Senator Gillibrand on women’s issues more effectively. So, expect to see more comments like this because it will serve the dual purpose of trying to weaken Gillibrand for the general election while also making Long’s case that she is the best candidate to take on the Senator.
Independence Party Backs Hanna in NY-22
Mar 22nd - 10:00 am
The state Independence Party has continued its flurry of early endorsements by supporting moderate Republican Richard Hanna’s bid for re-election. They also endorsed him in 2008 and 2010.
Unlike the other recent endorsements we’ve seen, chairman Frank McKay doesn’t appear to be involved in the decision to back Hanna. On the press release, Vice Chair Tom Connolly makes the announcement and it includes statements from county leaders in Herkimer, Oneida, and Broome.
“Richard Hanna is an independent thinker who puts the needs of his constituents above all else,” Connolly said. “The Independence Party is proud to again support Richard Hanna in his bid to represent the people of upstate New York in the House of Representatives. He is a pragmatic businessman who is interested in finding solutions to make this nation better. We need his voice in Congress.”
You may remember that there was bad blood between McKay and some local leaders in the Mohawk Valley back in 2010, when the Independence Party backed Senator Dave Valesky – even though the word on the ground was that local leaders wanted to back Republican challenger Andrew Russo.
As for Hanna’s endorsement, it makes sense. He has been one of the most moderate Republican members of the NY Congressional delegation – voting to raise the debt ceiling several times when more conservative Republicans voted against the plan.
Kearns Victory Speech
Mar 21st - 7:31 am
As Liz broke down this morning, Democrat turned Republican Mickey Kearns scored an upset in the 145 Assembly special election last night – which baffled Democrats who thought this was a safe seat for the party’s pick, Chris Fahey. In his speech to supporters, Kearns said that voters who he talked to were grateful that he had given them a choice in the race – and not let party bosses decided who was going to Albany.
Here’s the speech:
And here is Fahey’s concession speech:
NY Congressional Lines Official
Mar 19th - 5:05 pm
The courts just ruled that the proposed lines that Judge Roann Mann put forth last week are to be certified as official lines for the next decade – as was expected when the state legislature failed to reach a deal on Congressional maps. The court did make 4 small changes.
(1) The Brooklyn waterfront extending from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is placed in the same district, Ordered District 7, as it was under the existing plan. Two blocks in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, are then moved from Recommended District 7 to Ordered District 10 to chieve constitutionally mandated population equality.
(2) Wyoming County is united in Ordered District 27. The split of Ontario County, which was already split under the Recommended Plan, is reconfigured to ensure that Ordered District 23 achieves population equality.
(3) A zero population census block is moved from Recommended District 23 to Ordered District 27 to unify the Town of Canandaigua.
(4) A census block containing two people is moved from Recommended District 25 to Ordered District 27 to unify the Town of Hamlin. The split of the Town of Clarkson is shifted from the northeast to the southwest in order to achieve population equality.
Judge Mann’s proposal had been criticized for failing to protect incumbents or “maintaining the cores of existing districts” in several complaints that were filed. The court responded by essentially saying that they did not feel that the special master needed to take those things into consideration, especially when the state lost 2 seats.
Here’s an excerpt:
Insofar as Magistrate Judge Mann assigned no weight to protecting incumbents, we do not understand her to have concluded that she was legally proscribed from considering this factor, but only that she opted to assign it no weight for reasons explained in her Report. We adopt this reasoning and exercise our own discretion in the same manner. We note only that, in creating a redistricting plan that eliminates two congressional districts, it is impossible to protect all incumbents, thus presenting the judiciary with political choices.
The court also called for a status update on the state legislative lines for Wednesday at 3pm, immediately after the parties involved have to appear to confirm that they have implemented these congressional lines.
Here’s the full court ruling:
Here are maps showing the 4 small changes the courts made:
Here are the official maps:
Cohen Welcomes Latimer To Race With Attack On Prop Tax Record
Mar 19th - 1:53 pm
Democratic Assemblyman George Latimer announced today that he was going to run for the senate seat vacated by outgoing Democrat Suzi Oppenheimer. His likely opponent, Bob Cohen, was quick to welcome him into the race in a backhanded sort of way, attacking him for his past votes on property tax issues.
“We welcome Mr. Latimer into this race, but find it head-scratching, frankly, that he would bring up property taxes in his announcement. Westchester families pay the highest property taxes in America because of what George Latimer did as a county legislator and as an assemblyman. He and the other career politicians are directly responsible for the staggering property taxes Westchester families pay today,” said Bill O’Reilly, Cohen campaign spokesman.
“On top of that, Mr. Latimer voted against last year’s historic property tax cap vote and he went MIA for Governor Cuomo’s pension reform vote last week that will ease costs on local governments. We look forward to discussing all these issues at length throughout this campaign.”
The seat is likely to be one of the most competitive races this year. Bob Cohen only lost to Suzi Oppenheimer by a few hundred votes in 2010. And the new district, I am told, is more favorable to a Republican. Cohen also didn’t wait for the lines to come out before starting his campaign. He has already been on the radio with ads in Westchester County.
We should point out that the changes to the district are fairly significant. The new seat loses the towns of New Castle and Ossining, and also sheds part of White Plains and parts of New Rochelle. Meanwhile, it adds Bedford, Eastchester, and parts of Yonkers.
As of November, the voter registration numbers in the old district 89,892 Democrats to 47,481 Republicans. A quick scan of the break down by voting district suggests that Eastchester and Bedford will help bridge that gap a little.
Eastchester has roughly 8500 Republicans to 7000 Democrats with 6500 blanks. Bedford has only about 600 more registered Democrats, roughly 4200 to 3600 with 2200 blanks.
Bellavia Makes It Official
Mar 19th - 8:27 am
Iraq War veteran David Bellavia has become the first republican candidate to officially launch a bid for Congress in the new NY-27. The district picks up republican voters under the special master’s redistricting plan which is expected to be approved later this week, and is now expected to have a plus 7 in the Cook partisan voting rating.
Bellavia has flirted with running for Congress on multiple occasions. He stepped aside for Chris Lee during the 2008 campiagn, and pushed hard to be both the republican and conservative party nominee during the special election, but was passed over for Assemblywoman Jane Corwin who lost to Hochul.
Bellavia is likely to face competition from several better funded republicans including former Erie County Executive Chris Collins, who the Buffalo News’ Bob McCarthy reported is all but certain to run.
Also, because the Congressional and state legislative primaries are split this year it’s possible that Senator Pat Gallivan could seek the GOP nomination in NY-27 and if he loses could then turn around and run for re-election to the state senate. He would have to get the okay from senate leadership, but his district is a safe GOP seat, so they probably wouldn’t stand in the way.
Congressional primaries are on June 26 and the state legislature’s primaries are now slated for September 11.
Another note from Bob McCarthy’s piece, link above, is that Erie County Minority Leader Jack Mills might also run for the seat and would be willing to commit half a million dollars of his own money to the race.
Senate GOP Says Special Master Didn’t Take Incumbency Into Account With CD Lines
Mar 14th - 2:53 pm
Senate Republicans have submitted their response to the congressional lines that Special Master Judge Roann Mann compiled, and much like their response to the first drawing by Mann, they take serious issue with the way Long Island is constructed.
The Special Master’s final plan has the 2nd and 3rd Districts running east-west as opposed to the traditional plans that ran north-south. Incumbents Democrat Steve Israel and Republican Pete King now only maintain less than half their existing districts, where as they would keep roughly 85 percent of their districts under the Senate GOP’s proposed plan.
In the letter to the judge, the Senate GOP argues that the courts historically have taken incumbency into consideration and are wrong in not doing so this time around. Here’s an excerpt:
Therefore, even if this Court rejects incumbency protection as a legitimate redistricting criteria—and, as explained below, the Court should not—the Recommended Plan is inconsistent with other traditional redistricting principles in its treatment of districts 1, 2, and 3 on Long Island.
The also raise concerns about the redrawing of the district in Queens that Bob Turner currently holds, arguing that it cuts up Jewish and Russian neighborhoods that are traditionally linked. And they argue that the court should not have removed Saratoga, Washington, and Warren Counties from Congressman Chris Gibson’s current district – leaving him with only roughly 44% of the same constituents.
In Western New York, they argue for Kathy Hochul’s current district to be removed entirely from Erie County so that Livingston and Wyoming Counties aren’t split up. It’s a plan that would make it extremely hard for Hochul or any other Democrat to carry the new 27th District.
Kolb Informs Special Master That State Lines Are ‘Anticipated’
Mar 14th - 11:02 am
As Liz mentioned in Here and Now, all objections to the special master’s final congressional lines need to be filed by today at noon.
Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb did not make any objection to those lines but his attorney did send a letter to Special Master Roanne Mann informing her that legislative action on the Assembly and State Senate lines is “anticipated” for “on or about” today. Mann had given lawmakers until tomorrow to file an update on the status of the state lines.
In the letter, Kolb also includes that the legislature might take up bills for a constitutional amendment reforming the process, as well as a bill that would change the primary date for the Senate and Assembly seats. Currently, that primary would be held on September 11, while the Congressional and US Senate primary would be on June 26th. There has been a push from good government groups and the Governor to have just one primary day.
Maragos: Turner Decision Is ‘Very Strange’
Mar 14th - 10:21 am
Last night, NY1′s Bobby Cuza caught up with the three GOP US Senate candidates that have been running for the seat to get their reaction to Bob Turner’s decision to run. Both Wendy Long and Joe Carvin welcomed the Congressman to the race, but Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos had a different take.
“I think it is very strange in the way that he would announce 72 hours before the convention without any endorsements. It’s very odd. One would have thought that if you were serious you would have lined up, if you had thought about it before, you would have had a few endorsements in his belt. But yet he just came out and announced it without any endorsements. Very odd for a sitting Congressman.” Maragos said.
Maragos went on to say Turner’s decision was “a little late and without any basis.” And he suggested it was more about hope than strategy.
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