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Canestrari Latest Assembly Lawmaker To Retire
Apr 9th - 6:32 pm
Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari has been calling around to legislative allies this afternoon to say that he will not seek re-election this fall, sources confirmed late this afternoon.
Canestrari, 69, is expected to make a formal announcement at an 11 a.m. news conference in his Legislative Office Building office on Tuesday.
Canestrari, a Cohoes Democrat, has been the majority leader since 2007, taking over for Assemblyman Paul Tokasz.
One source says Canestrari, first elected to the Assembly in 1989, wants to travel.
“He’s 69,” the source said. “Normal people stop working in their 60s. That’s a long time to work.”
His retirement makes him the third Capital Region Democrat in the Assembly to announce their plans to retire. Assemblyman Bob Reilly, D-Clifton Park, announced he would not seek a new term, followed later by Assemblyman Jack McEneny’s announcement that he would retire.
Canestrari did receive the Albany County Democrats’ endorsement to run for another term at their convention in late March, though the local party’s blessing could easily be switched to another candidate.
Discarded Cigarette Butts Cause Minor Fire At LOB
Apr 9th - 4:19 pm
After being called to the Legislative Office Building for a reported structure fire, firefighters concluded that cigarette butts began to smolder–causing foam insulation to ignite and send smoke through the building’s ventilation system.
A firefighter on the scene tells me that discarded cigarette butts were getting pushed into the cracks of the stone tiles outside the east exit of the building (and probably a similar situation at other exits around the plaza). Over time, “thousands” accumulated underneath, he said.
The tile, which had visible char marks and emitting smoke, was removed and shortly after workers were told they could reenter the building just before 4 p.m.
more images after the jump:
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Cuomo Loses Grainger To Civitas
Apr 5th - 4:23 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s assistant counsel, Katherine Grainger, is leaving the administration to join Civitas Public Affairs Group as a principal and director of the firm’s new office in New York.
Grainger, who specializes in civil rights, labor, and education, will actually be launching the office for Civitas, a national firm based in Washington, D.C. that specializes in public policy at all levels of government.
Founding members of the firm previously worked for the Gill Action Fund, which is best known for its efforts to unseat anti-gay lawmakers and elect pro-gay-marriage candidates in gubernatorial offices and state legislatures around the country.
“Few people have Katherine’s experience, relationships, and reputation for making things happen and getting things done,” said Patrick Guerriero, a founding partner of Civitas Public Affairs Group (and former executive director of the Gill Action Fund.
“She is someone trusted by her colleagues who has been at the center of some of the leading public policy debates in modern state history. Her wealth of knowledge will be immensely beneficial to our clients.”
Grainger is a well-regarded and low-key presence in the administration. She joined the Cuomo team after working for the Senate Democrats – a stint that required her frequent presence in court during the infamous Senate coup of 2009. Prior to getting her start in state government, Grainger worked at NARAL Pro-Choice NY and the National Center for Reproductive Rights.
Among her portfolio of issues while working for the administration was the Marriage Equality Act – arguably Cuomo’s biggest policy achievement, at least on the national stage, since he took office last January.
Grainger’s decision to depart Albany is also notable because departures from the top echelon of Cuomo aides are rare. The work load for high-level staffers is considerable, and this governor is particularly hard-charging and known from demanding quite a bit from his staff.
Burnout rate at that level tends to be quite high. Nevertheless, we have seen few people leave the administration. The main exception is Steve Cohen, Cuomo’s former secretary, who left last summer after coordinating the administration’s successful push to get the gay marriage bill passed by the Legislature.
Interestingly, Cohen provided a quote to Civitas for its announcement on hiring Grainger. No current members of the Cuomo administration are quoted.
“Katherine is an outstanding attorney, a shrewd strategist, and a tremendously knowledgeable policy expert,” Cohen said.
“She was a critical member of the team that worked so successfully in Albany on behalf of the Governor. I have no doubt that the skill that made Katherine so effective in Albany will be a welcome addition to Civitas and a tremendous benefit to her clients.”
Transparency For The People, Not For The Lobbyists
Apr 5th - 11:04 am
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s aides are clearly unhappy with Monday’s Q-poll that included what they say is a leading question on transparency.
The question was worded this way:
“Governor Andrew Cuomo and the leaders of the Senate Republican and Assembly Democratic majorities are being criticized for secrecy in negotiating major policy deals, then quickly voting at night on the measures. Do you think these closed-door negotiations were necessary to achieve major policy deals or not?”
Fifty-five percent of those polled answered “no.” And while the survey had the usually high numbers overall for Cuomo, the governor spent some time yesterday answering questions, with his own definition of transparency, namely that he considers open government traveling the state to explain his budget and agenda directly to voters (The great Bill Carey covered the story yesterday for Cuomo’s trip to Syracuse).
Today Director of State Operations Howard Glaser took it a step forward, telling Fred Dicker on Talk-1300 AM that transparency defined as letting bills age for three days is to the benefit of lobbyists and special interests.
The concern is that with bills readily available, unnamed interest groups can raise hell and get finalized deals altered and hold up the process.
The aging process is “kind of an early warning system” for the special interests that dominate Albany, Glaser said.
Glaser added that “nothing would happen” if a radical transparency was put in place.
Cuomo himself previously said last month that state government isn’t supposed to be a “debating society” and that action is required.
Bills are required to age for three days on lawmakers’ desks before they can be voted on. The governor has the power of waiving that process through a message of necessity, a power that Cuomo employed during the mega-deal on March 15, that included the introduction of final Tier Six legislation at 3 a.m.
In December, lawmakers approved an overhaul of the tax code and voted on bills that were printed on paper still warm from the photocopier.
On Dicker’s show, Glaser went on a lengthy defense of the administration’s transparency record, noting the hundreds of events cabinet officials and the governor have held around the state and the public portions of the cabinet meetings.
“It’s a no-brainer that this is a transparent process,” Glaser said. “Transparency for lobbyists — that’s a different story.”
Driving To Albany To Read Budget Bills Not A Fun Time
Apr 4th - 4:53 pm
In his second stop for his upstate victory lap today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave reporters his own definition of what is and isn’t transparency after a Q-poll today provided some unflattering numbers.
What is transparency: Cuomo giving presentations across the state on the meat and potatoes of the newly passed spending plan.
What isn’t transparency: Taking a field trip to Albany and getting bogged down in budgetary minutiae by reading the bills aging on lawmakers’ desks.
“In terms of specific transparency, the budget bills were printed in Albany,” Cuomo said. “They were sitting there for days, which is just what the constitution says. I don’t know that anybody would have gone to Albany, which is hundreds and hundreds of pages and I don’t think that’s the way government is supposed to communicate. You know, for me to say, we’ll get in a car, drive to Albany and sit here for three days and read all the budget bills. That’s not what government is about and that’s not transparency.”
Lisa Simpson and Principal Skinner’s goal of raising enough money via recycling to afford that class trip to Albany aside, the budget bills were also accessible online after they were introduced. It was in stark contrast to the flurry of legislative activity late into the night on March 15 and early March 16, when lawmakers passed a host of bills like the redistricting lines and Tier Six.
Cuomo added that he sees his job as one being the Great Explainer of all things budgetary in Albany.
“It’s my obligation to come to the people and say you live your life, you’re busy. Let me come to you and explain what I’m doing,” Cuomo said, adding, “I think people want to know what is going on in there government.”
Expect the booming niche tourism industry of traveling to Albany and reading budget bills in the Assembly chamber one at a time to die a slow and painful death.
Another Campaign Finance Reform Push In Progress
Apr 4th - 2:39 pm
Add campaign finance reform to the list of topics that will be up for discussion – at least in some corners – during the post-budget portion of the legislative session after lawmakers return from their two-week Easter/Passover break.
A series of local events highlighting legislators’ reliance on out-of-district campaign contributions is being held around the state this week and next as part of a build-up to the formal launch of a new coalition called Fair Elections for New York on April 17. (This separate from another campaign finance reform group called NYLead, which is made up of business interests that usually are on the giving end of the fundraising wheel).
First up on the target list were Sens. Dave Valesky, John DeFrancisco and Steve Saland, all of whom rely on big dollar donations, many of which come from outside their respective districts, to feather their campaign nests. Advocates are championing a so-called a fair elections law that establishes a public campaign finance system with a requirement that matching funds be given only in connection with locally-raised, small-dollar contributions.
According to Common Cause NY, which is providing the data employed by local groups in these grassroots events, two of every three dollars Saland has received since 2005 came from donors who live outside his Hudson Valley district, and 96 percent of his contributions were higher than $200.
(Remember, Saland is one of the four GOP senators who reaped significant contributions from the pro-gay marriage community after crossing the aisle last summer to vote “yes” on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s bill allowing gay couples to legally wed).
Common Cause says more than 80 percent of the cash raised by Central New York senators Valesky (a Democrat/IDC member) and DeFrancisco (a Republican) came from outside their respective districts. Both also raised more than 75 percent of their campaign cash from corporations and big organizations rather than small-dollar individual donors.
The concept of requiring lawmakers to raise money locally is not new, according to Common Cause’s Susan Lerner. Connecticut has a public campaign finance system that requires a certain percentage of locally-raised money in order to qualify for matching funds. Arizona has an in-district only provision in its law.
According to Lerner, the fair elections bill is still in development. It will be modeled after NYC’s public campaign finance system, which has contribution limits and allows only a small portion ($175) of larger contributions to be matched with public funds.
Various iterations of campaign finance reform legislation have passed in Albany over the years. Lerner expressed hope that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver will agree to sponsor this bill, as he has sponsored previous versions, but she cautioned that no formal ask has yet been made.
Cuomo included campaign finance reform among his priorities – along with ethics and redistricting reform – during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign. So far, he has succeeded in pushing through an ethics overhaul (although the resulting watchdog, JCOPE, has come under fire) and gotten the Legislature to do first passage of a constitutional amendment that would change the redistricting process for the next round of line drawing after the 2020 Census.
Cuomo did not, however, stick to his pledge to veto any redistricting plan draw that wasn’t independently drawn. He signed off on the gerrymandered LATFOR Senate and Assembly maps in a deal that also included Tier VI, expansion of non-Indian gambling (another constitutional amendment), expansion of the statewide DNA database, and the teacher performance evaluation system.
The good government community was split over whether to excoriate Cuomo for whiffing on his veto pledge or accepting the half a loaf of the constitutional amendment. Lerner was in the first camp, but she was pragmatic when I asked whether she believes the governor indeed intends to push hard for campaign finance reform – something he hasn’t shown any sign of doing yet.
“This is his remaining priority on the list of things he wanted to accomplish,” Lerner said. “He said ethics, redistricting and public financing. We are looking to help him achieve his goal of real reform for the campaign finance system.”
UPDATE: I’m told there will be local events in Binghamton and Buffalo tomorrow and one next Tuesday in Troy, too.
Has The Press Helped Burnish Cuomo’s Image?
Apr 4th - 11:53 am
Yet another poll today shows Gov. Andrew Cuomo with sky-high approval ratings across the board, even while the survey shows there is growing public unease over the administration’s penchant for secrecy.
Quinnipiac pollster Mickey Carroll says the governor should thank the press for what he considers the largely positive coverage. Some LCAers and members of Cuomo’s press shop may disagree, but here’s Carroll’s reasoning:
“The head guy — the governor — they like the way he’s doing it and I think I’m accurate in saying most of the news stories and all of the editorial comment and all of the goo-goos, you know, Common Cause, everybody that talked about this said, ‘Boy oh, boy the governor really put things together — a budget on time.”
Challenged a bit, Carroll added: “Maybe I’m wrong. Let me step back for a minute and say the preponderence of official comment and of civic comment was, boy, this is a good deal, well done. People agree that it was well done.”
The governor in the last month was able to achieve a landslide of legislative victories, including Tier Six and a deal on redistricting while also passing an early budget. But the Tier Six legislation wasn’t released until 3 a.m. and bleary-eyed legislators approved the measure at dawn.
But Carroll insisted Cuomo’s numbers are a reflection of the coverage.
“It’s reflected in Quinnipiac numbers,” he told a group of reporters. “Your reporting, your reporting, your reporting, is reflect in Quinnipiac numbers thaty say 68 to 19, Governor Cuomo is doing a good job.”
Cuomo press strategy has been to keep the shrinking ranks of the Capitol press corps more or less at arm’s length, save radio interviews on Talk-1300 and The Capitol Pressroom. He has never sat for an on-camera television interview on either the local, state or national stage since taking office in January 2011.
His press team is known for its aggressive style and they move quickly to challenge any perceived slight in a tweet, blog post or errant comment made in public. Complaints over blog-driven “snark” are frequent.
Cuomo seems to have cast the Legislative Correspondents Association part of the so-called beltway (or I-787) mentality that grips Albany, choosing to release video taped messages to the public directly in order to make his appeals in a fractured 24-7 news environment that has no hard deadlines and a never-ending stream of minutae-laden tweets.
‘It’s An Age Without Heroes’
Apr 2nd - 7:56 am
ICYMI: Assemblyman Jack McEneny sat down with me on CapTon last Friday to explain why he has decided not to seek re-election this fall after 20 years of serving at the Capitol and some 40 in public service.
McEneny talked about how much things have changed and the difficulty of leading in what he called “an age without heroes.”
“You don’t find it in sports – you’ve got the steroids scandals and the extraordinary paychecks,” the Albany Democrat said.
“You don’t find it in business with Enron and Wall Street. You don’t find it in the clergy anymore, and you certainly don’t find it in politics.”
“It’s an age without heroes, and it’s difficult to be in a leadership position in that type of thing, and when people do mess up, there’s a media guilt by association – whether warranted or not.”
But what about Gov. Andrew Cuomo, I asked, noting his unusually high approval ratings and the fact that he has managed to maintain his popularity through two budget cycles now – far longer than anyone expected.
“The polls change,” replied McEneny, who hasn’t been shy about disagreeing with Cuomo on several issues, including the ongoing executive vs. Legislature power struggle and redistricting.
“I remember George Bush Sr. went from like 75 percent in April to lose in November,” the assemblyman continued. “But I think with Andrew Cuomo, even the people who have disagreements with him on one thing or another…they feel good about Andrew Cuomo.”
“They feel good particularly in the light of his immediate predecessors…I think they feel the ship of state actually has a real captain who’s going somewhere.”
McEneny also told me he’s unlikely to endorse a successor, joking that if the line of would-be replacements gets any longer someone might need to apply for a “parade permit” to get them all into one room.
He did say, however, that he would come out in opposition against anyone who intends to make the job of representing the Capitol City a part-time gig, or doesn’t support the Albany Convention Center – a project he believes in (he also serves on the authority commission).
And Now Something Completely Different
Mar 30th - 2:26 pm
It is indeed an unusual budget season.
A very talented choir from Talent Unlimited High School in Manhattan was up at the Capitol this afternoon to serenade us all on the staircase outside of the Assembly chamber on the third floor.
Between their voices and the sunlight flooding the staircase thanks to the refurbished skylight, it’s a pretty nice sight here at the Capitol. Only yards away, there were the decidedly undulcet tones of lawmakers debating the spending plan. One thing that this building is good for are the acoustics.
Enjoy.
Parker Stands By His Tweets
Mar 29th - 5:26 pm
Sen. Kevin Parker told my NY1 colleague Zack Fink and The DN’s Ken Lovett this afternoon that he had no qualms about his comments on Twitter that took issue with the three “white men in a room” putting together the $132.6 billion spending plan.
“I guess there are a lot of inequities that go on in Albany everyday,” Parker said.
Earlier in the day, Skelos called the comments inflammatory, saying it appeared the Brooklyn lawmaker “couldn’t help himself.”
In the tweet, Parker seemed to suggest that Skelos wanted state government power brokers to be all white.
“Was I wrong about that? Talk about what he said,” he said.
Parker said he was trying to make a larger point about Asians, Hispanics, blacks and other minority groups were not represented in the budget process.
“Look at his conference — how many African Americans does he represent in that room,” Parker said.
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