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Albany
Ouch
Apr 4th - 11:22 am
According to a survey conducted in honor of April Fools Day for the Daily Beast by the consumer-research firm Experian Simmons, the Albany metro area ranks decidedly low on the funny scale – 28th out of 32.
(A reader notes that a total of 200 metro areas were surveyed, and so there are 172 less funny areas in which to live. True enough. The “ouch” headline was more about the supposed local punch line than our ranking, which I still consider rather low – personally speaking, that is).
Perhaps it has something to do with the seemingly endless winter…or maybe it’s the most unfunny supposed local punchline (which, for the record, I’ve never heard) that has Albanians feeling blue.
Meet The Littlest LCAer
Apr 1st - 5:46 pm
The LCA has a new member.
The Times Union’s intrepid Jimmy Vielkind today is celebrating the birth of Brooke Rose Vielkind, born at 12:52 p.m. on March 31 (nearly beating the on-time state budget!)
Jimmy reports that Brooke Rose and her mother, Katherine Rose Nadeau, are healthy and recovering at home.
Here’s how the new dad describes his daughter:
“Brooke came out pink as a peppermint pig, with a nicely fuzzed head (some blondish strands, some light brown…the genes are still fighting) and, when she shares them with the world, eyes the color of Levis.”
“We are so proud of her already…She’s meeting her grandparents today, and all agreed she’s a sweet, happy, beautiful little girl. We just say she’s perfect.”
Congratulations – and Mazel Tov! (from LB) – to Jimmy and Katherine!
Skelos Thanks Cuomo, Derides Dems
Mar 31st - 5:17 pm
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who is trying to link himself and his conference as closely to Gov. Andrew Cuomo as humanly (and politically) possible, followed the governor’s lead by taking a post-budget victory lap via a Web video released this afternoon.
Skelos took a shot at the Democrats right out of the gate, saying:
“For the past two years, when state government was controlled by the Democrats, New Yorkers were hit with late budgets that increased spending and taxes and drove jobs out of this state.”
“We promised to put an end to that dysfunction and restore fiscal sanity by cutting taxes, reducing spending and creating jobs. The budget we passed two days before the April 1 deadline fulfills those promises.”
“The budget spends less, taxes less and includes real reforms that will put New York back on the road to economic prosperity.”
(Two days early, eh? The majority leader is going by a different calendar than mine, apparently, although there’s been a lot of debate over what constitutes an “early” versus merely “on time” spending plan).
Skelos goes on to reiterate some of his favorite pre-budget talking points, promising to continue this trend of working in a bipartisan fashion with Cuomo to provide sane, adult leadership in Albany.
Not surprisingly, Senate Democratic spokesman Austin Shafran isn’t buying all that. He released the following response:
“The Senate chamber, which Senator Skelos blocked the public from yesterday, should be a place for bipartisan cooperation and united action, not political attacks. It is our hope the spirit of bipartisanship that gave us an on-time budget will continue and the promises we all made will be promises kept,” said Austin Shafran, spokesman for the Senate Democratic Conference.”
Common Cause Considers Suit Over Capitol Lockdown
Mar 31st - 3:45 pm
Common Cause/NY Executive Director Susan Lerner told me during a CapTon interview that her organization is “looking at” a possible legal challenge over the Legislature’s decision to restrict public access to certain parts of the Capitol during last night’s budget vote.
Common Cause is arguing that the “virtual lockdown” violated Article III, Section 10 of the state Constitution, which says:
“The doors of each house [of the Legislature] shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require secrecy.”
I suggested that perhaps a concern for lawmakers’ safety – recall that Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari said the protesters “threatened us” – might be a sufficient cause for taking extra security measures and shutting down parts of the Capitol normally open to the public. Lerner rejected that, saying:
I don’t think anybody’s arguing the budget debates required secrecy. They were telecast. The press was there. So what justification do you have, constitutionally? Convenience is not a constitutional value. This is straightforward language.”
“…I am sure that legislators who are used to being walled off from the people find it very challenging to have people who are angry actually observing what’s going on.”
My full interview with Lerner will air this evening at 8 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.
Mayor Bloomberg? About That Mailer…
Mar 30th - 1:34 pm
Mayor Bloomberg is taking some heat for the full-color mailer he sent out to NYC residents that slams Albany for trying to balance the state budget for “cutting billions of dollars” from the city and touts his own efforts to hold the line on taxes, create jobs and protect “vital services.”
Those claims didn’t sit too well with NYC Minority Leader Jimmy Oddo, who released a letter he sent to the mayor after receiving the mailer, in which he asked if “protecting vital services like police and fire” means the mayor’s own budget plans to close 20 fire companies is now off the table.
“Respectfully, I ask that the appropriate individual within your administration publicly state whether the aforementioned direct mail piece does, in fact, signal a change in administration policy eliminating the threat of closing any fire companies in the FY2012 budget,” Oddo wrote.”
Bloomberg has made clear his displeasure with the state budget, taking the unusual step of spending his own cash on a budget-related TV ad designed as pushback to union spots that criticize him.
LCA’s ‘Fistful Of Cuomos’ On Tap
Mar 30th - 8:49 am
Invitations to the Legislative Correspondents Association’s 111th annual show lampooning Albany politicians are being sent out this week, NYSNYS News’ Kyle Hughes tells CapTon.
This year’s show, entitled “A Fistful of Cuomos”, will be held on Saturday, May 7 and is returning to the Empire State Plaza Convention Center. The cocktail reception is at 7 p.m., the dinner and show start at 8 p.m.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos is scheduled to deliver a rebuttal. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as is traditional, has been invited to attend and respond, too. We’ll be keeping you posted with updates on his participation.
Tickets at $300 a head. Tables of 8, 9, and 10 are available. For more information, please contact Jean Gutbrodt at 518.455.2388.
The show rehersal will be Friday, May 6. Please contact your favorite LCAer (assuming you’ve got one) for ticket information on that.
Late Night At The Capitol Possible
Mar 29th - 3:17 pm
…at least on the Assembly side.
The Senate has already received messages of necessity and is expected to start passing the first of the budget bills – as CapCon’s Casey Seiler correctly notes, the easy stuff – this afternoon. Session is scheduled to start any moment now.
Things are a bit more complicated on the other side of the Capitol.
The Assembly, which was also scheduled to start session at 3 p.m., does not yet have any messages of necessity from the governor. Members are likely to debate and pass a package of domestic violence bills and then head in to conference.
Assembly Democratic spokesman Michael Whyland said he expects the Assembly will also pass budget bills tonight, but it depends on how conference goes. Things traditionally go a lot later in the Assembly, which has a penchant for late-night (or early-morning, depending on your world view) sessions at crunch time.
Again, the health care piece of the budget has yet to be nailed down, so we’re still waiting on that.
Somos, Take II
Mar 29th - 1:38 pm
It’s that time of year again – time for Democratic elected officials and would-be candidates (and perhaps even a few Republicans, too) to trek to Albany to pay homage to the increasingly powerful – and fast-growing – Latino community at the biannual Somos el Futuro conference.
I have yet back on whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be attending the three-day confab in Albany this weekend.
As you may recall, his almost no-show at the post-2010 election Somos in Puerto Rico caused something of a mini insurrection among attendees. Assemblyman Feliz Ortiz, chair of the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, which hosts the Somos conferences, made a bit of a public stink about that – and he ended up getting results.
Cuomo showed up at the tail end of the conference and spoke at a Monday morning breakfast. A number of people extended their stays to catch the then-governor-elect, but others had to leave to get back to work.
Ortiz was pleased by Cuomo’s change of heart and called his visit a “good beginning” for the new governor, who had come under fire during the election for the lack of diversity on the statewide Democratic ticket.
Former Gov. David Paterson also attended the November 2010 Somos, and Ortiz organized a sit-down between the incoming and outgoing executives, who very nearly were competitors in the never-realized primary.
Skelos: Thanks To GOP And Cuomo, Albany Works Again
Mar 29th - 1:13 pm
ICYMI: Here’s Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, insisting during a CapTon interview last night that his conference was not “steamrolled” by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but rather served as a vital partner with him in landing an (almost) budget deal that would not have materialized had the Democrats been in control.
Skelos rejected the idea that Cuomo threatened the Legislature into submission by holding the extender bill option over lawmakers’ heads, saying:
“Bottom line here: There was communication. There wasn’t yelling and screaming. When you shout at each other, you don’t hear what the other person is saying. Then you’re not listening to each other.”
That sounded to me like a dis on former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was, of course, the self-professed steamroller, although he was more often than not rolled by the Legislature – particularly Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
I asked Skelos if he agreed with the characterization by the DN’s Ken Lovett of Cuomo as a functioning steamroll, and he replied:
“I don’t believe so, and I don’t think he really wants to be referred to this way. He had a vision as to what direction this state should go. He proposed that in his February budget and also in his March amendments. We have a $132 billion budget, $132.5, and we’ve stayed within that framework – the Legislature and the governor.”
“I believe it’s the government functioning. There’s a lot of talk about dysfunction in Albany, and I’m removing the ‘dys’ part of that, and we are now functioning.”
Reisman To The Rescue!
Mar 29th - 9:07 am
I’d like to take this opportunity (before one of my blogging competitors does it for me) to introduce you to our soon-to-be newest CapTon member: Nick Reisman.
Regular CapTon viewers might recognize him as a frequent member of our Friday reporters roundtable. He became a go-to roundtabler a few months ago, and quickly got bumped to the top of our invite list, thanks to his insights and his willingness to trek to YNN’s Watervliet Avenue Extension studios after a long week chasing news at the Capitol.
Nick will be filling a reporting hole left by the departure of former CapTon contributor and Twitter enthusiast, Kaitlyn Ross, who moved on for a much warmer opportunity in Florida.
You’ll be seeing him first on the blog, and then later on the screen as he joins me in making the transition from ink-stained wretch to TV reporter – a switch with which he’ll be assisted by CapTon’s Mike Whittemore. Look for the two of them at our Capitol Bureau, sharing some rather cramped (not for long, we hope) quarters with Erin Billups, of NY1.
I’m very much looking forward to his arrival – and not only because it means I will get some much-needed assistance on the blog.
Nick is only 26, but he has several years of reporting under his belt. He graduated from SUNY Albany in 2007 with a degree in History and journalism and then interned at Gannett and the NY Daily News (my alma mater).
His first reporting gig was at The Post-Star in Glens Falls, where he started for 2-1/2 years. He’s now a member of Gannett’s Albany Bureau. Longtime Journal News readers might be familiar with the name “Reisman.” That’s because Nick’s father, Phil, is a veteran columnist for that newspaper (also a Gannett publication).
Nick has only been covering the Capitol for just under a year, but he has proven himself to be a very quick study. His writing is clear and his questions of elected officials are pointed. He is also a very able blogger, often beating me to the punch over at Politics on the Hudson.
I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Nick aboard. Look for him to start posting here in the coming days. He sent me this quote about his impending move:
“I can’t wait to get started on The CapTon team. The show and the blog both drive the conversation in state government, which is very cool.”
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