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Siena Poll And Controlling The Senate
May 14th - 12:24 pm
Republicans and Democrats this morning seem to be cherry picking from today’s Siena College poll results.
And there is indeed good news for both conferences.
For the Republicans, voters back the plan to provide sweeping tax cuts and credits to small businesses and a 46 percent approval rating of the chamber where they hold a narrow 32-29 majority — an unusually high number given the Legislature’s historically awful reputation with New Yorkers.
“Despite the fact that New York is a blue state, the Siena poll shows New Yorkers are pleased with the bipartisan results Senate Republicans have delivered,” said Senate Republican spokesman Scott Reif in a statement. “Working with the Governor, Senate Republicans have successfully controlled spending and taxes, and laid the groundwork for the creation of thousands of good jobs. We’re confident that when voters are reminded Democrats raised taxes and spending by $14 billion, and brought dysfunction and disgrace to the New York State Senate in their two disastrous years in the majority, they’ll vote overwhelmingly to keep Republicans in charge.”
But the poll also shows 56 percent of voters preferring to return Democrats to power following their tumultous 2-year term in power.
And voters across the board overwhelmingly back raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50.
“Today’s Siena Poll confirms that, by a nearly 20% margin, New Yorkers believe that Senate Democrats better represent their values,” said Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy. “Whether it is raising the minimum wage, protecting women’s health or standing up for the environment New Yorkers agree with the Senate Democrats’ agenda and prefer that the Senate returns to Democratic control this November.”
The stats on the minimum wage increase are especially stark and comparable to the sky-high approval voters had last year for imposing a cap on local property tax increases. That measure was ultimately bundled together with rent control laws for New York City. Naturally, we are watching this year to see what will be tied to the minimum wage increase.
“It even has support of 58 percent of Republicans,” said Siena College poll spokesman Steve Greenberg. “This is an issue that transcends upstate-downstate, Democrat-Republican. New Yorkers want to see an increase in the minimum wage. You generally don’t see that.”
Cross-tabulations also show 94 percent of Latino voters back the minimum wage increase.
These are eye-popping numbers. It would not be out of the realm of possibility for Senate Republicans to back a deal for a less-generous increase in order to get the issue off the table in an election year, like they did for same-sex marriage.
By the same turn, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver can could hold out and keep the minimum wage issue going in order to expand his own gigantic Democratic conference.
The Democratic-led Assembly may vote on their own minimum wage bill later this week.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has support past minimum wage increases, hasn’t taken a position on the Silver-backed bill. Administration sources said that raising the wage via executive order was looked into, but ultimately it was decided the only route was to go by legislation.
Cuomo is under zero political pressure to do a minimum wage increase this year: His name isn’t on the ballot this November.
Assembly Holds Minimum Wage Hearing
May 11th - 12:56 pm
Getting around to this a little late, but the Assembly’s minimum wage hearing in Buffalo is in process this afternoon.
A livestream of the proceedings can be seen here.
The Assembly’s bill is expected to be voted on as early as next week.
The measure as proposed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, increase the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50 and then have future increases tied to the rate of inflation.
The proposal is not supported by Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Dean Skelos, who plans to introduce a package of bills on tax credits and tax cuts for businesses in order to spur job growth.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has supported past minimum wage increases, hasn’t taken a position on the bill and said it would be difficult to get passed the GOP-led Senate. Cuomo, listing the top legislative priorities earlier this week, didn’t mention the minimum wage bill.
An increase in the state’s minimum wage enjoys broad support in voter surveys.
O’Donnell Shares A Story With Obama
May 10th - 12:14 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he didn’t talk to President Obama about same-sex marriage. But Assembly Danny O’Donnell did.
O’Donnell, a key sponsored of the legislation in the Assembly, married his partner John Banta earlier this year — a story that he shared with Obama when the president was touring the Albany nanotech facility.
NY1′s Zack Fink caught up with O’Donnell, who said he told the president that his wedding “didn’t do any harm” to heterosexuals.
Obama, O’Donnell said, laughed and promised he would remember that. Of course, Obama had already made up his mind at that point he was going to “go ahead and affirm” his support for same-sex marriage rites.
Obama the next day told ABC News that New York’s passage of the measure last June weighed heavily on his decision to endorse gay marriage.
Cuomo Raises For Assembly Dems
May 7th - 11:07 am
A reader forwarded this invite to an upcoming fundraiser that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will headline to benefit the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee.
The May 19 29 event will take place at the swanky Plaza Hotel in NYC. Tickets range from $1,000 a head to $25,000 for VIP sponsors.
This is a fascinating development on so many levels.
The first: After all the talk during the 2010 campaign of potential friction between powerful Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Cuomo, the two have managed to hammer out a fairly functional working relationship.
Also, this has to sting for the Senate Democrats, to whom Cuomo has not only refused to commit to supporting in their quest to win back the majority this fall, but arguably has actively screwed by working closely with the Senate Republicans and signing their gerrymandered redistricting plan into law.
A source familiar with the governor’s schedule says there’s no immediate plan for him to host a similar fundraiser for the DSCC.
Every time he’s asked about whether he’ll be backing his fellow Democrats in the Senate, Cuomo has said there’s a time for politics and a time for governing. The political time, he says, comes after the legislative session is over.
Well, the session’s not technically over until June 21, and this DACC fundraiser is taking place a month before then.
Just saying.
ALSO: Nick Reisman reminds me of the dust-up between Cuomo and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb during which, according to Kolb, the governor threatened to “go after” Assembly Republicans if they didn’t vote “yes” on last December’s tax code reform.
Six Assembly Republicans eventually voted against the bill, along with two Democrats. Cuomo insisted the story about his strong-arming was inaccurate.
Silver Gaggle: Teacher Evals, Fake Pot And Campaign Finance Reform
May 1st - 5:04 pm
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver gave a wide-ranging gaggle with reporters this afternoon, admitting that “you probably can’t” keep teacher evaluations out of the hands of general public after only parents are allowed to view them.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. You probably can’t,” Silver said in response to a question from Gannett’s Jon Campbell on the logistics of limited disclosure of evaluations.
Silver, D-Manhattan, did say that he expects the issue to be resolved by June 21, the end of the legislative session, a sentiment that’s shared by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“It’s being discussed,” Silver said. “Clearly, I can’t give you a timetable, except I’m pretty sure we’ll address the issue before the end of the legislative session.”
The disclosure of teacher evaluations has been firmly supported by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but is a sensitive issue for teachers unions, who point to other public employees not having their evaluations released to either the general public or a narrowly defined portion of the populace, like parents.
In the gaggle, Silver sounded like Cuomo at times when acknowledging both sides of the issue.
“There are a lot of thoughts on it and that’s what’s being discussed right now. Clearly, parents have a right to see it, on the other hand no public employees has their evaluations available to the public,” Silver said.
He added: I think everybody seems to be on the same page and that’s what we want to achieve. How you achieve it is still under discussion.
Other topics:
*Silver said the criminalizing of synthetic marijuana, a measure passed by the Republican-led Senate on Monday, will be taken up in the near future: “We intend to move it forward. I can’t tell you when at this point.”
*On campaign-finance reform, Silver said a “true bill” would have a public financing option.
“One of the problems with it is the SC allows for Super PACs, number one, number two it allows for wealthy candidates with unlimited expenditures and that’s something we really have to come to grips with,” he said. In public finance, you can at least provide a minimal level of funding any candidate who has support regardless of their own personal assets.”
Assembly Candidate: Cut My Pay 10 Percent!
May 1st - 4:43 pm
Here’s an interesting consequence of the whispers over whether lawmakers will boost their own $79,500 base pay after Election Day: a Republican Assembly candidate says not only does he oppose the idea, he’ll take 10 percent cut if elected.
“I don’t think there should be a pay raise. In fact, I think the size of state government should shrink by 10 percent,” Kieran Lalor said. “I learned as a Marine Corps infrantyman that you always lead from the front. I think lawmakers should take a 10 percent pay cut.”
But doesn’t stop there. He says he won’t take a pension, a lulu or even a per dim.
“If we’re reforming pensions for cops and firemen and things like that, other state workers, again I wouldn’t accept a pension on that,” said Lalor, who launched an unsuccessful bid in 2008 for the House seat now held by Rep. Nan Hayworth.
Lalor says he would give the money either to charity or back to the state’s treasury.
Lalor’s potential Republican primary opponent is former assemblyman and one-time gubernatorial hopeful Pat Manning in the Dutchess County district.
Goo-Goos Like, Not Love With Silver’s Campaign Finance Bill
Apr 26th - 10:37 am
In a memorandum being circulated this morning, good-government advocates call Speaker Sheldon Silver’s measure to create a public financing system for political campaigns “a good first step forward” but then pick apart some of the wider loopholes in the legislation.
“This bill provides a strong step towards the campaign finance reforms that we hope to see enacted this session,” the groups Citizens Union, League of Women Voters and NYPIRG write in the memo. “We applaud Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the members of the Election Law Committee for jumpstarting this session’s discussion of how to repair our broken system of campaign finance.”
In particular, the group’s applaud the six-to-one match for donations up to $250, restrictions on public funds for candidates who face little opposition and the requirement that participants in the program commit to a public debate, among others.
But the advocates take issue with several areas that need improvement:
–Auditing provisions need to be “beefed up”
–Have an independent board overseeing the system should have the power to enforce campaign-finance laws even for those candidates who opt out of the system
–Address housekeeping committees used by parties to raise vast amounts of cash
–Close the “loophole” of allowing corporate subsidiaries and union affiliates that aren’t included in the overall calculation of annual limits.
Public financing is opposed by Senate Republicans, who hold a 32-29 majority, and argue that taxpayer money shouldn’t go toward potentially corrupt politicians. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said yesterday he favors a public financing system, but noted the difficulty of getting it through the upper chamber.
Silver, too, has acknowledged the difficulty of getting his bill through the Senate, where Minority Leader John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, introduced a version of it.
A coalition of wealthy donors and activists, meanwhile, have created the group NY-LEAD, meant to spur lawmakers to create the system.
Another Duane Re-enters Political Arena
Apr 25th - 2:47 pm
Sen. Tom Duane’s brother, John, has created a campaign committee to run for the NYC Council in the 19th CD in Queens – a district currently represented by Dan Halloran, who is the sole Republican running for Congress in the newly-drawn NY-6.
John Duane is an attorney who served in the state Assembly for a single two-year term in the 1980s, and, as he put it, “was beaten by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, who swept the Democratic district.”
He tried to return to the Assembly in 2010, running for the seat vacated by Democrat Ann-Margaret Carrozza, but lost to Ed Braunstein, a former aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and a nephew of powerful Albany lobbyist Brian Meara.
City&State’s Chris Bragg reported back in January that John Duane was mulling a potential challenge to Halloran and had started meeting with people to discuss the race. Bragg said Duane is popular in progressive labor circles and speculated that the Queens Democrats might back the former assemblyman in what could shape up to be a crowded Democratic primary in the 19th.
Democratic State Committeeman Matt Silverstein has already announced his intention to seek Halloran’s seat (assuming it still belongs to him in 2013 – if he wins in NY-6 this fall, there will be a vacancy a lot earlier). NYC Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.’s brother, Paul, who has been trying to break into the family political business for some time now, is also reportedly interested.
Community Board chairman Jerry Iannece was also reportedly a contender, although he has signaled he’s more likely to run for Rory Lancman’s seat now that Lancman is running for Congress in NY-6 and has said he won’t try to retain his current post even if he’s unsuccessful on June 26.
Higgins Formally Announces Assembly Run
Apr 25th - 10:14 am
Albany County Legislator Chris Higgins released a YouTube video this morning formally introducing himself as a candidate to succeed retiring Assemblyman Jack McEneny.
In the video, Higgins, also a Democratic Senate aide, name-drops Gov. Andrew Cuomo for doing “an excellent job” in his 16 months, but says more work needs to be done.
Higgins also says that as a “full-time Assemblyman” he would work to get the Albany area its fair share of resources.
As a county legislator, I have fought hard for my constituents and for our progressive values. I’ve voted no on overwhelming tax increases because I know seniors and working families are stretched too thin. And I’ve written and passed legislation to keep our roads and neighborhoods safe, protect our environment, and improve the health of our communities.
As your full-time Assemblyman, I’ll be focused on finding creative ways help our state and ensure that the Capital Region gets its fair share of state resources for our schools, hospitals and law enforcement.
The Democratic primary to succeed McEneny is a busy one, with at least four other candidates seeking the seat: Frank Commisso, Bryan Clenahan, Patricia Fahy and Margarita Perez. Commisso has emerged as the county party’s preferred candidate.
The full script is after the jump. More >
Silver Sees Uphill Climb On Campaign Finance Overhaul
Apr 24th - 8:10 pm
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in an one-on-one interview that he did not expect the Republican-led Senate to immediately embrace his campaign-finance bill, but remained hopeful Gov. Andrew Cuomo would push for the measure.
“We believe campaigns should be about debates on issues and not about raising money,” he said.
But Silver also said talks have been mainly at the staff level on campaign finance reform, though the governor said in New York City today he’s pushed throughout the legislative session for an overhaul.
“Our staffs have spoken and he’s aware that we’re going through with this bill in the Assembly,” Silver said. “I think he realizes that the Senate is going to be a tough hill to climb in order to get it into law.”
Cuomo was not necessarily enthused about Silver’s bill, which is modeled on the New York City public financing system, and has said he will author his own bill to be voted on by June 21, the end of the legislative session.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, meanwhile, has said he’s opposed to public financing in part because taxpayers would fund political campaigns of people who they don’t necessarily like.
“I know personally I don’t believe taxpayers should be paying for campaigns or individuals’ campaigns who they may not support,” Skelos told me on June 19.
It’s a sentiment that’s shared by Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long, who said the program could actually lead to more corruption cases with small-time donors being used to inflate donations.
But Silver shrugged off that complaint.
“It’s money going to clean up government number one,” Silver said. “Number two, we provide a mechanism to fund it on a tax return of up to five dollars by individuals who want to participate in it. Also we dedicate fines from banks and unfair mortgage practices to specifically fund it.”
Senate Minority Leader John Sampson says he introduced a version of Silver’s bill this afternoon.
“I would hope that the Senate Republicans allow this bill to move forward and join us in supporting this important reform. We have seen the terrible effects and influence that money has had on all levels of our government,” Sampson said.
The governor hasn’t put out his own bill and in classic fashion says he won’t until a deal is reached. So why is Silver putting his bill out now?
“I think what’s important is down the road our members want to show clearly that our members support this,” Silver said. “This is a bill that’s supported by many good government and weould like to put it in play so the public can weigh in.”
As for Cuomo, Silver said he was hopeful some form of campaign finance would occur.
“I believe he would be open to it,” he said. “He’s said he’s open to it. The difficulty is the Senate is not open to it.”
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