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Ed Koch
Memories, Sweet Reform Memories
Jan 26th - 3:50 pm
Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s New York Uprising reform operation sent over a highlight reel of various state lawmakers and candidates all fervently pledging their support of independent redistricting during the height of the 2010 campaign season.
That was then. This is now.
The people under the most pressure are the Senate Republicans, all of whom signed Koch’s three-pronged pledge (it also included budget and ethics reform), only to turn around and pass a constitutional amendment that would overhaul the process in time for the 2022 elections but leave it in all it’s partisan and un-independent glory this year.
The Senate Democrats are, unsurprisingly, crying foul.
You know who looks really smart here? All those Assembly Democrats who took their cues from Speaker Sheldon Silver and refused to sign the pledge. At least Koch can’t point at them and declare them “enemies of reform.”
Dear Mayor Koch
Jan 26th - 11:25 am
Senate Democrats are gleefully distributing the letter Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos sent to former New York City Mayor Ed Koch pledging to champion an independent redistricting process.
As we know by now, this year’s dicennial round of legislative line drawing is anything but independent, with Republicans drawing lines so that Democratic lawmakers in Queens are being pitted against each other. Plans are also underway to create a 63rd Senate district in the Albany area.
In the July 2010 (when Republicans were in the minority) Skelos pledged to Koch that the GOP would commit to an independent process “in line with what your organization is calling for.”
Koch last year undertook the New York Uprising campaign that pressured candidates into vowing a host of good-government reforms, including independent redistricting. Koch said that if any candidates broke their word he run around the state yelling “liar, liar, pants on fire.”
In a good example of zagging where others zigged yesterday, the Mike Gormley of the AP called up Koch, who was not happy with the events here in Albany.
The Republican-led Senate did pass a Constitutional amendment that would create an independent panel for redistricting, but that would not take practical effect until the next round in 2022.
Of course, Democrats had a chance to pass independent redistricting themselves during their sole 2-year term in the majority and failed to do so. Then-Democratic leader Malcolm Smith made the tactical error of promising to redistrict the Republicans “into oblivion” at the time.
We expect to see redistricted state lines sometime this afternoon.
Koch, Catsimatidis Collaborate For Turner
Dec 7th - 4:35 pm
Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch may have settled things with President Obama over Israel, but that isn’t stopping him from headlining an upcoming fundraiser for Rep. Bob Turner – the freshman GOP congressman he helped elect to former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Brooklyn/Queens seat.
As you’ll recall, the veteran Democrat crossed party lines this fall to help Turner in the Democrat-dominated and heavily Jewish NY-9 after Weiner’s Twitter scandal-induced resignation.
Koch has a history of helping Republicans – particularly when it comes to Israel, on which he is especially Hawkish. In this case, he hoped to send a message to Obama about his disappointment with the White House’s “open hostility” to the Jewish state.
After Turner’s election, Koch quickly bestowed an early endorsement on Obama after his UN speech. (The former mayor was also invited to the White House – an invitation he readily accepted.
This change of heart has not dampened Koch’s support for Turner, apparently. He’s headlining a Dec. 19 event for the congressman along with Democrat-turned-Republican donor and supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis.
Also on the host committee: State GOP Chairman Ed Cox, state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long, Manhattan GOP Chairman Dan Isaacs, and a number of prominent Republican donor types.
It has been widely speculated that Turner would be a short-termer because NY-9 would be eliminated in the redistricting process that is costing New York two House seats. But everything I’ve heard indicates that’s not, in fact, the case. The GOP is very interested in protecting Turner, who was hailed as a conquering hero after his special election win.
The latest scenario I heard today during the down time chatter in the Capitol hallways is Reps. Gary Ackerman and Carolyn McCarthy could be forced into the same district, which might lead to quite a primary battle – assuming they both run.
Strange Bedfellows, Long Island Edition
Oct 27th - 1:08 pm
Rep. Pete King, an outspoken Long Island Republican, and former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, an equally outspoken Democrat, have joined forces to assist a judicial candidate candidate running in the upcoming Nov. 8 election – one who just so happens to be related to onetime GOP power broker and former US Sen. Alfonse D’Amato.
Jerome “Jerry” Murphy, who’s married to D’Amato’s daughter, Lisa, is running for Supreme Court. According to Koch he “shares our values, our respect for law and order.” He’s also the father of seven children, which, King says, enables him to “understand the problems our families are facing.”
H/T for this video, which doesn’t mention the D’Amato connection, to Newsday’s SpinCyle.
The paper’s Rick Brand and Dan Janison aren’t surprised to see these two veteran pols collaborating – despite their party differences – because they’ve long been political allies. Also, Koch has a habit of crossing party lines to endorse candidates – newly-minted Rep. Bob Turner (NY-9) is the latest example. Also, as one of just a handful of Republicans in the NY congressional delegation (he’s the dean of the GOP members, actually), King has a long history of working across the aisle.
Koch At LATFOR: I’m Clearly Not An Ideologue
Sep 21st - 12:14 pm
Former Mayor Ed Koch brought his call for independent redistricting to a LATFOR hearing in New York City today.
Koch, in a feisty mood as usual, told the panel of legislators charged with redrawing district boundaries that he was tired of seeing state government’s unusually high incumbency rate continue.
“That’s pretty good, I don’t know where the odds are better. But that’s not good in an American democracy. And when you look at me, I’m clearly not an ideologue. I mean, I cross party lines all the time,” he said to which people responded, “All the time!”
Koch has had something of a winning streak lately. His New York Uprising campaign, which includes lawmakers pledging for an independent redistricting commission, was seen as successful when an ethics overhaul package passed the Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
And, as for the aforementioned cross endorsements, Koch backed Republican Bob Turner in his upset win over Democrat David Weprin in the ninth congressional district special election.
But the independent redistricting issue may prove difficult.
A key good-government group, Common Cause, broke with the other reformers to say there was no chance of an independent redistricting because of legislative dithering, according to an Op/Ed in today’s Times Union. Instead, the group says fair and reformists lines can and should be still drawn early next year even if the commission isn’t in place.
A survey from Quinnipiac University released this week found 77 percent of New York voters back the independent commission.
And Citizens Union today didn’t exactly double down on their call for the commission, but said Albany should at least pass some form an independent panel in time for the 2012 round of redistricting.
“Legislators must return to Albany this fall and pass redistricting reform,” said Dick Dadey, Executive Director for Citizens Union. “It’s high time we ended the fallacy that despite all historical evidence to the contrary, LATFOR will somehow draw fair lines this decade. Who holds the power of the pen at the moment the final lines are drawn is really what matters. Legislators currently have a conflict of self-interest that needs to be removed. Only with a more independent body will we finally see an end to decades of partisan gerrymandering.”
Koch: God Put Jews In Swing States
Sep 19th - 12:03 pm
Following last week’s big win by his preferred candidate, Rep. Bob Turner, in the NY-9 race, former Ed Koch spoke of taking his opposition to President Obama’s Israel policy national in advance of the 2012 election – particularly to states with a high concentration of Jewish voters.
Yesterday, the former NYC mayor was interviewed by a national media outlet -National Public Radio’s Guy Raz, to be exact – for a story about the so-called “Koch factor.”
Koch, who stumped in Florida for Obama in 2008 (after his first choice, Hillary Clinton, lost the Democratic presidential primary), said he would not likely go so far as to cross party lines and endorse a Republican against the president next fall.
(It wouldn’t be the first time; in 2004, he backed George W. Bush against John Kerry, and he tacitly supported Ronald Reagan, too, although he likes to say: “I never actually voted for him, but I loved him.”)
He did, however, say he might “stay home” if the Obama administration doesn’t heed his call to change its approach with Israel.
“What the president can do is what Jack Kennedy did in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962,” Koch told Raz, referring to the letter Kennedy sent to Nikita Khrushchev indicating any attack on a country in the Western Hemisphere by the Soviet Union would be seen an attack on the US. “…That would be the optimum.”
Koch again confirmed the report that an unnamed White House official called him before last Tuesday’s special election in NY-9 to discuss his Israel concerns. The discussion, which the former mayor refused to discuss in detail, did not assuage his concerns.
“Jews are only 2 percent of the American population,” Koch acknowledged (warned?), “but God put them in Florida and Pennsylvania…where their votes are extremely important.”
Koch’s New/Old Crusade: Redistricting Reform
Sep 14th - 1:09 pm
Fresh off his big win last night in NY-9 (vicariously, through Congressman-elect Bob Turner), Ed Koch plans to return his attention to a crusade he launched last year with (so far) somewhat less success: Redistricting reform.
The former NYC mayor plans to use next week’s LATFOR hearing in Manhattan to remind the media – and elected officials – of the NY Uprising pledges signed by so many Assembly members and senators who were anxious to be branded reform “heroes” at a time when then-gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo was pledging to clean up Albany.
Koch will be joined by his NY Uprising compatriots, New York Civic founder Henry Stern and Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey at a 9 a.m. press conference on the City Hall steps in Lower Manhattan. LATFOR is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. in the Assembly Hearing Room at 250 Broadway, which, for the upstaters among you, is across the street from City Hall.
The former mayor is no doubt hoping his success in crossing party lines to endorse Turner and make the NY-9 special election in part a referendum on President Obama’s Israel policy will help jump-start the stalled push to establish an independent redistricting commission.
Interestingly, the subtext of the NY-9 special was all about redistricting, with much speculation about what will happen now that the Democrats’ assumed sacrificial lamb, Assemblyman David Weprin, failed to win.
I’m among those who suggested yesterday’s outcome was bad for upstate Democrats like Rep. Kathy Hochul, or maybe Rep. Brian Higgins, who, as a reader pointed out, was on the wrong side of the failed 2000 Assembly coup against Speaker Sheldon Silver – a man with a very long memory.
Another reader said Weprin’s loss was bad for Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who survived a difficult re-election bid last year and then had to undergo cancer surgery. Politico’s Alex Isenstadt had a different take altogether, saying the downstate Democrats are in trouble after Weprin’s loss, because they’ll have to find someone among their numbers to sacrifice.
Sen. Chuck Schumer said during a conference call today that he assumes, based on past performance, that the GOP-controlled Senate and Democrat-controlled Assembly will cut a Solomonesque deal that costs each side one seat. He refused to speculate about who might get screwed in the process.
An independent redistricting commission would potentially be bad for both sides, since it takes the deal-making capability out of the equation.
Koch: Time Never ‘Righter’ For 3rd Party Prez Candidate
Aug 12th - 4:03 pm
In an exclusive interview with the conservative Website Newsmax, former NYC Mayor Ed Koch suggested he might not vote for his fellow Democrat, President Obama, insisting it’s time for an independent candidate to enter the fray.
Koch floated conservative commentator George Will for the job, but said he would be “supportive” if his longtime friend and ally, Mayor Bloomberg, changes his mind about 2012 and decides to run.
” The time has never been righter for a third party candidate,” Koch said. “…Let me be clear, I am a proud Democrat, I believe in Democratic principles, and I would love to vote for the Democratic president, but I can’t unless he establishes some leadership.”
Koch endorsed Obama in 2008, but has since fallen out of love with the president – largely due to his dealings with Israel.
The former mayor is trying to make the NY-9 special election to fill former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s vacant House seat a referendum on Obama and his Israel policy by endorsing Republican Bob Turner over Democratic Assemblyman (and observant Jew) David Weprin.
If the 2012 race comes down to a choice between any of the eight Republicans currently in the field and Obama, Koch said he will likely opt not to vote. He also recently left the door open to potentially endorsing “modern Republican” Rudy Giuliani, apparently having gotten over his belief that his fellow former mayor has a “personality problem.”
As for last night’s GOP debate, Koch said he felt former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the winner – basically because he made no missteps and “was not damaged” – while Jon Huntsman lost because he failed to impress anybody.
The former mayor graded Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s performance as “subperb,” adding: “Her presentation, her demeanor, the way she handled herself, were all good.”
Siena: NY-9 Is A Race, Weprin Just 6 Pts. Up (Updated 2x)
Aug 10th - 9:30 am
A new Siena poll finds Democratic Assemblyman David Weprin leads GOP businessman Bob Turner 48-42 percent among likely voters in Democrat-dominated NY-9 with five weeks to go before the Sept. 13 special election to fill ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s vacant House seat.
Siena pollster Steve Greenberg called the NY-9 contest “wide open,” adding:
“With a low turnout expected and limited media exposure in the nation’s most expensive media market, the test of both campaigns will be to mount strong voter identification efforts and effective get-out-the vote operations.”
“The campaign that does a better job on those crucial campaign tasks will likely produce a victory for their candidate.”
Turner, who received about 40 percent of the vote in his failed challenge to Weiner last year, leads by a six-point margin among Brooklyn voters, who account for about one-third of the district.
Queens voters favor native son Weprin by 10 points. He also has a two-to-one advantage over Turner with Democrats, but Turner leads nearly six-to-one among Republicans and retains a slim four-point lead with independents.
Weprin is up 56-35 with Jewish voters – a hotly-contested voting bloc, thanks in part to former NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s endorsement of Turner and his desire to make this race into a referendum on President Obama’s support – or lack thereof, in Koch’s mind – for Israel.
Koch’s support could make a difference for Turner.
Silver For Weprin
Jul 12th - 4:02 pm
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver this afternoon issued a statement in support of Assemblyman David Weprin’s special election bid to replace ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, saying the Queens Democrat can be counted on to be a “strong voice for Israel in Congress.”
“I have known David Weprin, and his family, for years,” said Silver, who replaced Weprin’s father, Saul, in the speaker’s seat after the elder Weprin’s death in 1994.
“We have worked together on many issues important to New Yorkers in general, and the Jewish community in particular. David Weprin has always believed in the safety and security of the State of Israel.”
Silver, as you’ll recall, is an Orthodox Jew. Weprin is an observant Jew who routinely describes himself as “shomer Shabbos.”
But Weprin has come under fire for being, for lack of a better way of putting it, not Jewish enough.
The Orthodox newspaper Hamodia ran a scathing opinion piece that accused the assemblyman of paying for the Democratic nod in NY-9 with “his very soul,” noting in particular his “yes” vote on same-sex marriage.
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