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Well, Doesn’t This Look NICE
Jan 5th - 2:56 pm
Here’s an interior shot of the bridge of the USS Enterprise proposed convention center adjacent to the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.
They’re calling it the The New York International Convention and Exhibition Center, or “NICE.” Expect to that acronym thrown around a lot in the coming months. 
As Ken L. reported in The DN this morning, Genting New York and the state have actually been planning this for a while, with a letter of agreement inked on Tuesday. (Update: I incorrectly reported when the letter was signed earlier.)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in his second State of the State address yesterday that the new convention center would be a major economic boost to Queens, while providing for an alternative to the Jacob Javitts Center.
Here’s a fact sheet via Genting.
Cuomo, The Preacher Man (Updated)
Jan 5th - 1:34 pm
Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., one of the few lawmakers who hasn’t been shy about publicly voicing his criticism of Gov. Andrew Cuomo (and pretty much anyone else – and there are many – with whom he disagrees), had some rare words of praise for his fellow Democrat after the governor delivered his second State of the State address yesterday.
“He’s a good preacher; he preaches better than I do,” a jovial Diaz Sr. said. “He should become a rabbi or a priest or something.”
Since Cuomo is an Italian Catholic, becoming a rabbi would be a real trick. Diaz Sr., as you’ll recall, is a Pentecostal minister.
In reviewing Cuomo’s speech, the Bronx lawmaker also managed to get in a dig at another fellow elected official he often singles out for criticism: Mayor Bloomberg.
“Education, I hope, I honestly say this, I hope that he could do better than Bloomberg because what he said today he’s going to do, Bloomberg said that he was going to do that,” the senator said. And Bloomberg was a fiasco in education. So I hope that Governor Cuomo means what he said and that our children will finally, finally our children will get someone to defend them.”
UPDATE: Now that he has had more time to think about Cuomo’s speech, Diaz Sr. has apparently found more he doesn’t like. He released a statement expressing his “ardent” disagreement with the governor’s call to expand casino gambling in the state and also to expand the statewide DNA database to include anyone convicted of a felony or penal law misdemeanor. (Specifically, Cuomo said he wants NY to become the first state to collect DMA on “all crimes”).
“Governor Cuomo has already legalized gay marriage,” Diaz Sr. said. “Now he wants to legalize casino gambling. What’s next – legalizing prostitution and marijuana and drugs – all in good ‘faith’ to make money to raise tax revenues for the State?”
The senator’s full statement appears after the jump.
Pataki For Altschuler, Officially
Jan 5th - 12:48 pm
Former Gov. George Pataki has joined the growing group of GOP leaders backing Randy Altschuler’s second attempt at unseating Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop in NY-1 this fall, saying the Long Island businessman “has the kind of experience and common sense we so desperately need in Washington today.”
“In Congress, Randy will rein in spending, hold the line on taxes allowing the private sector to create jobs and get America back on track,” Pataki said in a statement distributed by Altschuler’s campaign. “I proudly and strongly endorse him for Congress in New York’s 1st District.”
This endorsement is a blow to Altschuler’s GOP primary opponent, George Demos, who has numerous ties to Pataki – not the least of which is the fact that two of the ex-governor’s political advisors, Rob Cole and Arthur Finkelstein, are running Demos’ campaign.
Demos stole Altschuler’s thunder, however, by responding to the Pataki endorsement long before it was officially announced (on Dec. 29, to be exact), effectively ending any hope Altschuler might have had of a big rollout.
Still, there’s no question that institutional support is far greater for Altschuler in this race, which is a significant difference from 2010, when the Conservative and GOP leaders in NY-1 were split over what was then a three-way primary between Demos, Altschuler and Christopher Nixon Cox, son of state GOP Chairman Ed Cox. Altschuler won the September election and came close – but not close enough – to ousting Bishop in November.
Altschuler called Pataki’s endorsement “tremendously important,” adding:
Governor Pataki’s endorsement speaks volumes about the continued momentum and strength that my campaign has demonstrated since I announced my intention to seek a rematch with Congressman Bishop last spring. I am fortunate to have the Governor on board with my campaign and know I can lean on him for advice and counsel.”
Altschuler now has the backing of Pataki, Ed Cox, state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long, Suffolk County GOP Chairman John Jay LaValle and Suffolk County Conservative Chairman Ed Walsh.
De Blasio Hires D.C. Hand
Jan 3rd - 5:44 pm
NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who is one of a handful of Democrats gearing up for a 2013 mayoral run, has hired a veteran D.C. operative to serve as his new communications director.
Gabby Adler has come on board with de Blasio to replace Matt Wing, who departed in September and joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s press office about a month later.
Adler most recently served as the communications director for the Democratic side of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
She previously served as the DCCC’s midwestern regional press secretary during the 2010 campaign cycle.
Prior to joining the DCCC, Adler worked as Iowa Rep. Dave Loebsack’s spokeswoman, and did a stint on Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.
Adler is a Los Angeles, CA native, but this isn’t the first time she’s worked in New York. In 2006, she handled press for then-Nassau County Legislator Dave Mejias’ failed challenge to GOP Rep. Pete King.
De Blasio has longstanding ties to the national Democratic Party. He worked in the Clinton administration (at HUD, which was run by Gov. Andrew Cuomo) and also served as the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s first successful US Senate run in 2000.
Queens Hospital Executive Admits He Bribed Kruger
Jan 3rd - 4:33 pm
A Queens hospital executive is the latest domino to fall in the ongoing bribery and corruption case of now former Sen. Carl Kruger.
Robert Aquino, the former CEO of Parkway Hospital in Queens, pled guilty today to bribing Kruger in exchange for preferred state contracts.
“Robert Aquino was all too willing to make sure a bribe was paid to preserve his job as CEO of a hospital,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bhara. “Like others in this case, he chose to fight his battle with money under the table rather than to play by the rules. And like others in this case, he now faces the prospect of jail. This Office remains committed to breaking the chains of corruption that weigh down New York politics.”
The 54-year-old was accused by prosecutors of funneling $60,000 to Kruger in order to curry favor with the Brooklyn Democrat. Aquino admitted to one count of felony conspiracy to commit bribery. He faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.
Kruger resigned his seat last month after pleading to a pair of corruption charges.
Ulster County Executive: NYC DEP An ‘Occupying Nation’ (Updated 2x)
Jan 2nd - 2:26 pm
Ulster County Exectuive Mike Hein is upping the ante in his ongoing battle with the Bloomberg administration, accusing the NYC Department of Environmental Protection of acting like an “occupying nation” within his county, siphoning off precious drinking water for downstate residents without much thought or care about the impact on the community that is home to its watershed.
Hein, who just started his second four-year term, accused DEP of “polluting our waterways and causing massive regional economic hardships.” He urged Mayor Bloomberg to pay a personal visit to Ulster County to “see firsthand the damage being wrought by NYC DEP’s broken policies and out-of-balance bureaucratic influence.”
The county executive also said his constituents are essentially required to subsidize NYC water rates as the result of “no win” legal proceedings. Already cash-strapped rural towns have to choose between costly legal proceedings to defend against tax litigation and settling for less than the DEP’s fair share of property taxes, Hein alleged.
“The people of Ulster County fully appreciate the importance of providing water to their neighbors, the millions of NYC residents and businesses. That being said, the balance between providing that water and protecting our pristine environment, our economy and our taxpayers has been grossly manipulated by the NYC DEP and unfairly titled in NYC’s favor,” Hein wrote.
A Hein spokesman told CapTon producer Michael Johnson that nothing in particular spurred the county executive’s letter. He merely wanted to issue a personal appeal to the mayor in the latest chapter of an upstate-downstate struggle over water has been going on for years.
Most recently, Hein accused the city of breaking the law through unregulated releases of turbid water from the Ashokan Reservoir into the lower Esopus Creek. Last month, he sought the DEC’s intervention, filing a petition he said would be the precursor to a full-blown lawsuit.
Hein, whose position is relatively new (full disclosure: it was created by a charter revision commission headed by my father, Jerry Benjamin), has been speculated to harbor ambitions for higher office – perhaps Congress, although it’s unclear what the lines in his neck of the woods are going to look like after this round of redistricting is done. There has been some speculation that Rep. Maurice Hinchey’s district, NY-22, could be on the chopping block.
UPDATE: NYC DEP spokesman Farrell Sklerov just issued this response, calling the County Executive’s letter a cheap political stunt. Here’s the statement:
“This is not the first time County Executive Hein has resorted to cheap political stunts. Unfortunately, he rarely is supported by the facts. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is actually an economic engine upstate, investing $1.5 billion over the past two decades in watershed protection efforts that support sustainable economic development with good jobs for local communities. We also contribute more than $130 million per year in direct tax revenue and employ nearly 1,000 upstate residents.
Not only that, but DEP sprang into action following the devastation of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, providing emergency help with recovery efforts and spending millions of dollars to help local businesses and homeowners get back on their feet. At the end of the day, DEP provides one billion gallons of water a day to nine million New Yorkers, including one million upstate, thousands of who are in Ulster County. By every measure the product is outstanding.”
Update 2: And Hein spokesman JJ Hanson just fired back.
“This is yet another example of the DEP’s disgraceful spin machine attempting to deflect from reality. It is not that far of a drive for the Mayor to visit Ulster County and see for himself what the facts actually are.”
Group Sharpens Push For Asian Representation (Updated)
Dec 30th - 11:32 am
As the proposed maps for new state and federal offices remain a closely guarded secret in Albany, the Asian American Legal Defense Fund filed a complaint in U.S. District Court to push for an independent process.
The group argues that with the growing Asian population in New York — 32 percent in the last 10 years alone — the redistricting process must take those figures into consideration.
The argument is similar to one made during the last redistricting process in 2001-02 when Hispanic and Latino groups pushed for greater representation.
“The Asian American community must be represented in the NY redistricting process because its political power is particularly weakened by the current district lines,” said Jerry Vattamala, Staff Attorney at AALDEF’s Democracy Program. “Asian Americans voters constitute a majority only in one NY state assembly district and not a single state senate or Congressional district. No Asian American has ever been elected to the NY state senate or the U.S. Congress.”
The organization earlier this year unveiled its own proposals for new lines in what they called the “Unity Map.”
Redistricting, which must be done every 10 years based on the most recent Census data, is often a highly litigious process. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly promised to veto lines not drawn by an independent commission.
Update: I’m reminded that Common Cause’s proposed maps also created Asian-influence districts for the ninth congressional and 16th Senate district.
As we’ve noted before, Senate Republicans under Dean Skelos are making a concerted effort to reach out to Hispanic voters, whose numbers have swelled in suburban New York City.
Political Power Struggle Brews In NY-15 (Updated)
Dec 29th - 2:41 pm
Talk of stretching veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel’s historic Harlem-centric district to include parts of the Bronx and Westchester has touched off a nascent power struggle between two NYC Democratic county organizations.
A Bronx Democratic source said it’s not sitting well with his side that the lines of NY-15 might be manipulated northward to maintain Rangel’s so-called “black” district, making up for the steady increase of Hispanic voters in its current confines, while letting Manhattan retain control.
According to this source, there’s talk – and a plan floated by the NAACP – that NY-15 would be carefully redrawn to maximize black voters, but also keep the Bronx’s share less than Manhattan’s, percentage-wise.
That would enable Manhattan to determine the Democratic designee in regularly scheduled elections and select the candidate in a special election – should Rangel someday decide, as has been widely speculated for years now, to retire mid-term and try to hand-pick his successor.
This source was prompted to call by our CapTon post on Rangel’s recent Pura Politica interview with Juan Manuel Benitez, during which the congressman mentioned the proposed changes to his district and expressed frustration with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for confusing redistricting process with his consistent talk of a veto.
“There’s no guarantee he would have support in the Bronx,” my source said. “We just don’t know him. It would be new territory for him, a large amount of new territory.”
Rangel has already signaled his intention to seek yet another term next year, although he’s likely to face several primary challenges – again.
But the fight brewing here is really more about who comes after Rangel, and who would have the most control over either selecting that successor or boosting a favored candidate.
It’s no secret that Manhattan Democratic Chairman/Assemblyman Keith Wright is interesting in running for Rangel’s seat when the veteran congressman finally calls it quits. He clearly stands to gain if the committee he controls has the ability to choose a special election candidate or vote for the party’s designee in the primary.
UPDATE: Jeffrey Wice, a redistricting attorney who is working for state Senate Democrats, emailed the following:
“Voting Rights Act requirements and the need to maintain an effective minority district will determine how this district will be redrawn.”
“The district will need to be redrawn in a way so that the minority communities will be able to elect their candidate of choice. This will require weighing African-American and Latino voting histories to determine the most effective way to comply with the law.”
Rangel: Cuomo Being ‘Unfair’ On Redistricting
Dec 23rd - 1:57 pm
There has been a lot of speculation about Cuomo 2016 after the freshman governor’s stellar performance during his first year in office, particularly when it comes to wrangling seemingly impossible bipartisan deals out of the Legislature – something that has largely eluded President Obama.
But one veteran New York Democrat says he’s reserving judgement on whether Cuomo is presidential material until after he deals with the thorny issue of redistricting.
Asked by my NY1 colleague, Juan Manuel Benitez, if he thinks Cuomo might be headed to the White House in four years, Rep. Charlie Rangel replied:
“No, no, no, no. But he’s doing a fantastic job on being a new but very, very successful govenor. And he has my complete support, and clearly, as you pointed out, he manages to go right down the middle and to get people to negotiate and finally come out successful.”
“He’s got another big problem in his hands. Every ten years the lines of public officials, geographically are changed because we are growing in population, but we don’t grow in the size of the political body. So, the New York State Assembly, their districts are gonna get larger, the New York State Senate and of course the lines of the members of the United States Congress.”
“I concentrate in the Congress of course because we lose two congressional seats, which means we are gonna have to pick up population to make up for the fact that we’ll have two less, we’ll only have 27. And the governor says that Legislative body should not do it, but an independent group should do it. So, you ask me that question after the lines are drawn and I’ll give you a better answer.”
Rangel, who has fallen from grace considerably since his ethics mess and subsequent censure, nevertheless still remains a prominent figure in New York politics. He’s also the dean of the congressional delegation, which explains why he’s acting as a spokesman for his colleagues on redistricting.
Keep in mind, too, that Rangel is one of the so-called Harlem “Gang of Four,” which included former NYC Mayor David Dinkins, former Manhattan BP Percy Sutton and former state Secretary of State Basil Paterson, who happens to be the father of former Gov. David Paterson. Rangel was a big David Paterson fan and ally, and he had some choice words for Cuomo back when the then-AG was headed toward a possible primary challenge against the state’s first black governor.
Cuomo, as you’ll recall, has threatened to veto any redistricting plan that is not drawn up by an independent commission, which doesn’t exist at this point. Rangel said he thinks it’s “not fair” to leave sitting members of Congress – not to mention anyone who might want to challenge them or run for any seats that might open up – in the dark on the process, particularly since the primary is going to be early this year (thanks to the DOJ).
New York needs to lose two House seats this year, which means four sitting members will end up having to decide between running against one other and early retirement.
“(T)he direction has to be decided so that we will know where we are running,” Rangel told Benitez.
“I mean, some people, I have a Harlem district as you know, it has Washington Heights, it has the West Side and the famous El Barrio. But some people have said that I should be in Westchester, up in The Bronx. But they don’t know, I don’t know, so we shouldn’t have that frustration.”
The full Rangel interview will air tonight on Benitez’s Spanish-language show, “Pura Politica,” on NY1 Noticias at 6 p.m. The re-air is 11 p.m.
Four LI Senators Mail Cuomo On School Construction
Dec 22nd - 1:01 pm
A group of four Long Island Republican senators hope Gov. Andrew Cuomo reconsiders his veto of measures designed to fix clerical errors that resulted in the state Education Department denying funding for schools’ capital construction projects.
“School administrators face a blizzard of paperwork each day and clerical oversights occasionally occur,” Sen. Owen Johnson said. “It would be unfair, however, to penalize the taxpayers of an entire school district merely because of an administrative oversight. I am calling on Governor Cuomo to include language within his 2012-2013 State Budget allowing the Babylon United Free School District to be fully reimbursed for a project already approved by the Department of Education and included in a prior State Budget.”
The senators, including Lee Zeldin, Senate Education Chairman John Flanagan and Kenneth LaValle, write that the money is already appropriated for the capital construction, about $15 million.
Even though it’s four lawmakers, the letter is reminder of the power of the so-called “Long Island Nine” a voting bloc of Republican senators from Long Island who often push for education aid and assistance to the school districts of Suffolk and Nassau counties. Chief among them is Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos of Nassau County.
Senate Republicans last year were able to reconstitute the Long Island Nine after running table in 2010.
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