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Source: Cuomo Admin ‘Campaigned’ For Biben To Run JCOPE (Updatedx3)
Feb 2nd - 1:01 pm
Two sources with knowledge of the process confirmed the NYT scoop that the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has quietly tapped a longtime top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Ellen Biben, to serve as its executive director.
The vote, which took place this past Tuesday, was not unanimous. Eleven of the 14 JCOPE commissioners voters in favor of Biben, a former federal prosecutor who worked in Cuomo’s AG office and now serves as state inspector general. The three who did not vote for her were all legislative appointees. Biben’s selection has angered the legislative leaders – particularly Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver – according to one source. UPDATE1: I’m now told Silver is actually completely OK with Biben and will be issuing a statement shortly.
One source said two of Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos’ JCOPE appointees voted for Biben and one abstained, but did not vote against her.
JCOPE members spent a long time behind closed doors in executive session Tuesday. They were known to be discussion the selection of a new executive director, but emerged without saying a word about their pick. (See Nick Reisman’s video below).
The commission also isn’t formally confirmining Biben’s hiring, even though she has, according to a source who received word from JCOPE Chairwoman Janet DiFiore, accepted the position.
“There’s no information to report at this time,” Theresa Schillaci, who has been more or less the acting director of JCOPE was officially formed last month, told Nick this afternoon.
I haven’t been able to get ahold of IG spokesman John Milgrim, who used to work in Cuomo’s press shop. One source told me Biben has already resigned her IG post and started her new job. Both the executive director’s position and running the IG’s office are full-time gigs. I can’t see how Biben would be able to do both.
According to one source familiar with how Biben was selected, a four-person search committee was formed that consisted of DiFiore, one Cuomo appointee, one Silver appointee and one Skelos appointee. The search committee reviewed resumes and then the majority voted to recommend Biben to the full 14-person commission.
“This was wired from the beginning,” the source said. “I think they had her in their sites from day one…Cuomo out-maneuvered everybody on this. The question is: How wide a net was cast and does it have holes in it?”
Another source said Biben’s selection was a foregone conclusion well before Tuesday and “her campaign was being run out of the governor’s office and aimed at a very select group of people: The search committee.”
UPDATE2: The WSJ’s Jacob Gershman reports the governor’s office “directly reached out to legislative leaders to promote Biben’s hiring” during the week leading up to Tuesday’s meeting.
The selection of Biben raises questions about the ability of JCOPE to be independent. The commission may find itself in the position of investigating the governor – its predecessor, the Public Integrity Commission, had to probe both Gov. Eliot Spitzer (for Troopergate), and Gov. David Paterson (for the Yankees ticket scandal and the David Johnson domestic violence mess) – and also has, for the first time, the power to investigate legislators.
The independence question led to the resignation of former PIC executive director Herb Teitelbaum, who was found by the former IG, Joseph Fisch, to have violated the Public Officers Law by sharing information with the Spitzer administration about the commission’s Troopergate investigation while it was still active.
JCOPE, which was formed last year as a result of the reform deal reached early in Cuomo’s tenure, has been under fire almost since its inception. A number of its appointees raised eyebrows and its proceedings have been criticized for a lack of transparency.
UPDATE2: Although the Cuomo administration hasn’t yet confirmed Biden’s selection, the League of Women Voters released a statement applauding her appointment, saying she will “contribute” to JCOPE’s overall goal of “strong oversight” to restore trust in state government.
Shooting The Messenger
Jan 30th - 8:36 am
ICYMI: Sen. Mike Gianaris is pushing back very strongly against the growing belief that a deal is in the works for a constitutional amendment that would reform redistricting in time for the 2022 election cycle, but leave the current partisan process in place for this year’s elections.
The idea that time has run out for reform this year, coupled with the suggestion that a promised veto from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s would not deliver the kind of structural change advocates are seeking, was floated last week by Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey.
As CapCon’s Jimmy Vielkind pointed out, support from a prominent goo-goo like Dadey (not to mention the New York Times editorial page, which so far is holding out for a Cuomo veto of the LATFOR maps), could provide the governor with some cover as he seeks a solution to the redistricting conundrum.
But that, of course, would (not to put too fine a point on it) screw the Senate Democrats, who are fighting to regain the majority this fall – a quest complicated by the GOP’s extremely gerrymandered plan.
Gianaris, who chairs the Senate Democrats’ fundraising arm, suggested during a CapTon interview last Friday night, that Dadey is off the reservation on this one, telling me:
“You know as well as I do that’s a lone voice in the good government community. The overwhelming number of people in that community are speaking out loudly that reform needs to happen now.”
“Mayor Koch, who was formerly aligned with people who are making that suggestion, has made it clear that he would prefer a gubernatorial veto so we can have reform now, that a constitutional amendment kicks the can down the road.”
“It’s a promise for future consideration, which, if the Republicans couldn’t keep their promise from before November of 2010 ’til January of 2011, why should we believe that they’ll keep their promise to make a second passage and put it up for a referendum on an amendment years from now?”
“It’s obviously a tactic that’s designed to avoid the problem entirely.”
Maybe. Another big goo-goo redistricting player, Common Cause New York, has been very outspoken in its opposition to LATFOR’s maps, and is planning another public condemnation after the commission’s public hearing today.
But when I asked Common Cause’s Susan Lerner last week whether her organization is planning a legal challenge, she adopted a wait-and-see attitude that I found surprising, considering the vehemence of her rejection of LATFOR’s plan.
McEneny: LATFOR Lines Delayed At Cuomo’s Request
Jan 27th - 8:46 am
After numerous delays on Wednesday, reporters were told LATFOR’s Senate and Assembly lines would likely be released sometime around noon yesterday.
Then came word from the executive chamber that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had scheduled a closed-door cabinet meeting in the Capitol’s Red Room at noon, and would hold a Q&A with reporters after the get-together.
Suddenly, LATFOR’s planned released was pushed back again to sometime around 2 p.m. – in other words, sometime after Cuomo finished chatting with the press.
This was handy for the governor, because it saved him from having to get down in the weeds on the subject of the legislative lines. Instead he could simply say that he hadn’t yet seen the plan and discuss in general terms his desire to let the process play out.
Later, Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto issued a statement reiterating Cuomo’s veto pledge. But the governor himself never utter the so-called “v word” during his lengthy and wide-ranging discussion with the LCA.
Assemblyman Jack McEneny, LATFOR’s co-chair, told me on CapTon last night that the release was deliberately delayed “because we wanted (Cuomo) to have his press conference and focus on the issues rather than be into minor differences out of 213 possible districts.”
“It seemed to make sense and frankly we could use the time to make sure everything was fed in properly,” the assemblyman continued.
When I pressed McEneny on whether Cuomo had specifically requested the delay, he replied:
“I have no idea why, but as a courtesy to the governor, he was more comfortable having the lines come out after.”
Common Cause Keeps LATFOR Lawsuit Powder Dry
Jan 27th - 8:12 am
For all its criticism of the LATFOR Assembly and Senate redistricting maps released yesterday, Common Cause New York isn’t quite ready to go the legal route – yet.
ICYMI: Common Cause Executive Director Susan Lerner shared the organization’s initial reaction to the Legislature’s plan during a CapTon interview last night.
And while she had pretty much nothing good to say, she was reluctant to commit to a legal challenge at this time.
“It’s too early to tell; we’re just evaluating,” Lerner told me. “These are just our preliminary sense of where some of the problems are.”
“We haven’t gotten behind the maps to look at the data, and we won’t know until we do. Our full analysis…will be coming in the next couple of days.”
It’s quite clear now that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had hoped to present the world with a deal on a constitutional amendment that would amend the redistricting process in time for 2020 in an effort to take the edge off the incredibly gerrymandered plan revealed yesterday.
Those talks were confirmed earlier this week by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and were reconfirmed on CapTon last night by LATFOR co-chair Jack McEneny (oddly, his Senate counterpart, Mike Nozzolio, didn’t want to discuss negotiations).
According to McEneny, negotiations are ongoing.
Lerner’s good government colleague, Dick Dadey of Citizens Union, seemed to be laying the groundwork for what CapCon’s Jimmy Vielkind might call a Cuomonian argument in favor of a constitutional solution here.
According to Dadey, a veto from Cuomo of the LATFOR plan – while historic – would not achieve the “structural reform” for which goo-goos year, nor deliver a more fair redistricting plan for 2012.
Another View Of The Texas Redistricting Decision
Jan 25th - 1:12 pm
The Supreme Court’s unanimous rejection last Friday of district lines that had been drawn by a federal court in Texas and favored Democrats sparked considerable concern here in New York – particularly among the good government set – because it upheld the redistricting power of state lawmakers and determined a lower court had not been sufficiently deferent to the plans drawn up by the GOP-controlled state Legislature.
Goo-goos worry this will provide Gov. Andrew Cuomo with the wiggle room he is widely believed to be seeking to get out of his frequently repeated pledge to veto any redistricting plan that isn’t proposed by an independent (read: non-legislative) entity.
There has been a lot of talk about an agreement between Cuomo and the legislative leaders on a constitutional amendment that will overhaul the redistricting process for the 2022 elections. (According to CapCon’s Jimmy Vielkind, negotiations on a potential deal that would include first passage of said amendment is what’s holding up the release LATFOR’s lines today).
Redistricting reform advocates, including former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, have made it clear they won’t consider a 2022 deal sufficient. (Recall that Cuomo did not actually sign Koch’s three-pronged reform pledge, but instead wrote a letter in support of it back when he was running for governor in 2010; Koch considered that good enough at the time).
In the meantime, a redistricting expert is taking an alternate view of the Texas decision. As usual, the devil’s in the details. Here’s his take:
” The Texas decision deals with court remedies where plans have been enacted by legislatures and approved by governors and not to plans vetoed by a governor or resulting from an impasse.”
“There’s a big difference. The Texas decision would impact New York if the governor signed a plan, it was challenged, and then some parts were rejected by a court. Then the court would only redo the parts that were illegal or send it back to the Legislature to redo.”
“That’s what happened in 1996-97 when New York’s congressional plan was rejected for racial gerrymandering. Only the illegal district (and the neighboring ones) were corrected by the Legislature after remand by the court.”
“People are taking the decision as meaning only that redistricting is best left to the legislatures. That is not what the decision means as a broad general conclusion. Courts have and will defer to legislative redistricting choices and will draw plans when legislatures fail or when they draw illegal plans. Texas just tells us that courts can’t draw from scratch.”
New Lines Coming Wednesday Morning
Jan 24th - 5:29 pm
We’ll be getting the new proposed state legislative boundaries Wednesday morning soon after lawmakers have the redrawn maps email blasted out to them, Assemblyman Jack McEneny said this afternoon.
“We’ll send it to the members via email and then we’ll post it on the LATFOR website,” said McEneny, the Assembly co-chair on the lawmaker-driven panel. “I assume the Senate will do something similar.”
McEneny said he had not seen where the 63rd Senate seat will be drawn, but it is expected to be carved out of multiple existing districts in the Capital Region.
LATFOR’s website can be found here.
Boundaries for the state’s now 27 House districts are yet to be drawn and are not expected tomorrow.
In addition to looking over each district with a fine-toothed comb, we’ll be watching for what Gov. Andrew Cuomo says and might do.
He continues to make his threat to veto the lines because they aren’t drawn by an independent commission, but included in the tea leaves is this New York Times story that includes door-opening comments. A gubernatorial veto would send the matter to the courts, a possibility Cuomo has called “chaos.”
Also: what does this mean for the primary date? U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe is yet to rule on when New York will hold its federal primary, but has indicated he is leaning toward August. The conventional wisdom was the release of the redistricted lines would coincide with the primary date ruling.
Kolb: The Fix Might Be In On Redistricting
Jan 6th - 8:27 am
ICYMI: Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb said last night on CapTon that he’s not convinced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s repeated claims he’ll veto any redistricting plan drawn up in the traditional, political manner by state lawmakers.
Cuomo has admitted a veto would likely cause “chaos,” putting the redistricting power in the hands of a judge who (theoretically) is politically beholden to no one.
The governor has also insisted – with varying degrees of certitude – that anything other than an independently drawn plan won’t receive his approval. Cuomo reiterated that claim in the written version of his State of the State address, but skipped over the topic in the delivered version of his speech.
That caused some observers – including Kolb – to question Cuomo’s motives.
“I’m not sure that I believe that yet – that he would actually veto a legislative plan,” the minority leader told me last night.
“Maybe I’m a little cynical because I’ve been around a little bit longer now. Maybe deals have already been constructed or talked about or set up as far as how the redistricting maps role out, advisory panel named. Do they cut a deal for 10 year from now? There are all sorts of things that politically could unfold with this process.”
“So I’m just, shall we say, waiting to see exactly what’s going to happen. But I wouldn’t guarantee anything. Something could create a change in what he has said so far because politics are at work or deals were struck with the two leaders.”
(It’s worth noting that Kolb and Cuomo had a bit of a falling out recently, and the minority leader said he hasn’t discussed redistricting – or anything else – with the governor).
The 10-year plan – in other words, making the redistricting process independent in time for the next Census through a constitutional amendment – is what the Senate Republicans want to do, even though they all signed ex-NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s reform pledge to support an independent commission this year.
I asked Koch last week if he could support a deal that kicks the can down the road; his response: Absolutely not.
CapCon’s Jimmy Vielkind wondered this morning whether the governor’s decision to include a call for campaign finance reform in his delivered SoS while omitting redistricting indicated a willingness to horse trade one for the other – particularly when it comes to the Senate GOP, which is VERY interested in redistricting, but has balked at campaign finance reform in the past.
Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey rejected that suggestion, telling Vielkind:
“Redistricting is going to be off the table fairly soon, one way or another.”
“There’s been a lot of advocacy around the need for campaign finance reform, and the governor wanted to focus his reform agenda on ethics and redistricting before getting to it. Now there’s plenty of room to pick up the gauntlet on it.”
Morelle Slams Senate GOP Over Redistricting
Dec 31st - 10:20 am
For months now, the Senate Democrats have been slamming their Republican counterparts for reneging on their pledge to ex-NYC Mayor Ed Koch in support of independent and nonpartisan redistricting.
Now Monroe County Democratic Chairman/Assemblyman Joe Morelle is joining the fray, telling YNN’s Casey Bortnick in an interview earlier this week that he’s “very disappointed” in the Senate majority and believes the GOP’s redistricting about-face has “really slowed this process down and made this very, very difficult.”
“The governor has said that he will not sign a bill that’s done in the traditional way with legislators from both houses deciding what their own lines should look like, but we’re getting to the point of a bit of a crisis,” Morelle said.
“And it’s possible at some point the courts might step in and appoint someone to design the districts for us. I think that would be a mistake. But frankly, given the Senate’s real problems and the disingenuousness that they’ve demonstrated the last several months, we could very well end up that way.”
Morelle, like many of his fellow electeds, expressed concern over the time crunch that will be caused by moving up the 2012 primaries, as mandated by the DOJ.
A June primary, which has been championed by the Assembly Democrats (the Senate Republicans prefer August) would require the redrawn districts to be approved in February – at the latest.
There’s increasing talk about the Capitol that the Boards of Elections won’t be able to handle the compressed time frame, however, and the DOJ has basically left the whole mess up to Judge Gary Sharpe, who’s expected to rule any day now.
Highly Recommended
Dec 13th - 8:27 am
Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson is catching heat for his appointment of attorney Ravi Batra to Albany’s new ethics watchdog: JCOPE.
Batra, who is filling the Senate Dems’ lone committee seat, has been operating in Democratic circles – particularly legal/judicial circles – for some time.
He was connected to disgraced former Assemblyman/Brooklyn Democratic boss Clarence Norman, who was sentenced in 2007 to three to nine years behind bars for selling judgeships, and drew the attention of the Brooklyn DA, although he was never charged with anything himself.
A colorful character, Batra might be better known to some Capitol watchers as the attorney who initially defended former Sen. Ada Smith when she was accused of throwing coffee in the face of a staffer. (Smith’s defense was eventually taken over by Jim Long, who worked as a counsel to the Senate Dems).
Batra has also been a steady Democratic contributor and fundraiser – including to now-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Back in 2009, for example, Batra organized an Election Day fundraiser for then-AG Cuomo along with supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis. (Remember: That was when a potential Cuomo-David Paterson primary was still a distinct possibility for 2010).
From what I can tell, Sampson – a Brooklyn Democrat himself – made his decision about Batra pretty unilaterally. He was even cautioned against the selection by certain members of the conference, who warned him the fallout that is now occurring would definitely take place.
In hopes of countering that, Batra released a slew of pro-Batra recommendation letters from various high-profile individuals – from ex-Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau to Reps. Eliot Engel and Gary Ackerman to NYC Councilwoman Inez Dickens and Westchester County Board Chairman Ken Jenkins. (The letters appear after the jump).
Sampson took responsibility for picking Batra, and also insisted he was the right choice, releasing the following statement: “I am confident that my appointment…will help bring integrity back to the halls of our Capitol.”
Gonzalez Reaches For Reform Mantle In 54th AD
Aug 22nd - 2:36 pm
My downstate colleagues have been doing a pretty thorough job covering what might be the most interesting of the six Assembly special elections to be held Sept. 13: The three-way Democratic battle for the Brooklyn seat vacated by Darryl Towns, who is now Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s housing czar.
For in-depth coverage, try here, here or here.
What makes this race noteworthy is the presence of Make the Road NY organizer-turned-candidate Jesus Gonzalez, who is running against the Brooklyn Democratic machine with the support of the labor-backed Working Families Party.
Gonzalez is trying to catch hold of the reform mania that swept into Albany with Gov. Andrew Cuomo last fall by releasing the white paper that appears below. It’s pretty standard good government stuff: Public campaign financing, non-partisan special elections (specifically, a bill being pushed by Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries), and independent redistricting.
Gonzalez is running against NYC Councilman Erik Dilan’s chief of staff, Rafael Espinal, and Darryl Towns’ sister, Deidra Towns. If he manages to pull off a victory on primary day, I believe he’ll be the first WFP-only backed candidate to win outright.
Many candidates have been cross-endorsed, but I don’t think – and someone should correct me on this one if I’m wrong – the party has managed to elect anyone at the state level without the added assistance of a major party, although there is precedent for that at the NYC level with Councilwoman Tish James.
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