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Sheldon Silver
Assembly Dems To Make Final Primary Date Change Push (Updated)
Apr 17th - 12:28 pm
As evidenced by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s OpEd in the Middletown Times Herald-Record this morning, the Assembly Democrats still haven’t given up hope of getting the Senate Republians to give up their opposition to moving the state legislative primaries to coincide with the court-ordered June 26 House and US Senate contests.
According to one majority conference source, Silver mentioned he would be making a last-ditch push for the switch when the Legislature returned to Albany this week. The speaker’s announcement came during one of the last closed-door conferences, however, and many members were likely not paying attention or not present.
The Democrats remain hopeful they can convince the Republicans to settle on a July date, (remember, the GOP had been pushing for August – if anything), but, the source cautioned, the timeline is very short here, adding: “If it can’t be done this week, it can’t be done at all.”
Also, it should be noted that congressional signatures were due yesterday, due to the accelerated calendar caused by the Jun 26 primary date. The source insisted this isn’t a problem, but it seems to add a wrinkle to this whole situation. If you extend the signature date for state lawmakers because you move their primary, but don’t extend the congressional signature window, don’t you open the system up to challenges?
The Republicans have been pretty consistent in their refusal to budge on this, and it’s difficult to understand why.
One might argue that the Democrats (in both houses) have more to lose, with several of their members who are running for Congress perhaps enjoying the insurance policy that two primaries brings – the option to run for their current seats if a bid for higher office doesn’t work out. At least one – Assemblyman Rory Lancman – has ruled that out, though.
More importantly, insisting on two separately primaries cuts into the Senate GOP’s traditional message of fiscal conservatism. It has been estimated that every statewide election costs as much as $50 million, with the already cash-strapped local governments forced to pick up the tab. As my source said: “$50 million is $50 million; we can beat them up on that.”
In his OpEd, Silver wrote:
“Realizing their costly and unfair error, Senate Republicans now cynically propose an August primary date, knowing full well that voter participation in midsummer will be minimal if not outright suppressed and that the votes of military personnel may not be fully counted.”
“The League of Women Voters, Common Cause, NYPIRG and a host of other concerned organizations have repeatedly called upon the Senate Republicans to join us in our call for a unified, early primary election date. But because of political gamesmanship, our local governments will need to hold yet another expensive election.”
“So, the next time you hear about the need for mandate relief, ask your Republican senator why his majority played politics with New York’s primary election and our soldiers’ right to vote.”
The missing link here is Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has expressed his opposition to having two different primaries, but hasn’t yet expressed a preference for a particular date or expended any political capital to make a change occur. Given the Senate Republicans’ desire to maintain their close relationship with the governor, it’s possible they would be open to reconsidering their stance on this – if he would only ask.
UPDATE: Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos is responding to Silver’s OpEd, which he called “misleading and disingenuous,” with an OpEd of his own that he has submitted to several newspapers today. SoP was provided with a copy, which appears in full after the jump. An excerpt:
“(T)he Senate Republicans attempted to foster a bipartisan compromise that would have moved all of the state’s primaries to a single day in August this year, avoiding the busy last few months of the state legislative session and saving taxpayers even more of their hard-earned money. The Speaker, and his Democrat colleagues, refused to discuss the issue.”
“The Speaker’s take-it-or-leave-it negotiating position is even more surprising given that the New York City Board of Elections said they would be forced to shell out untold taxpayer dollars to cover the overtime costs necessary to comply with holding just the congressional primaries in June. ”
“Further, due to the ongoing Department of Justice review of the state legislative lines, a requirement in a reapportionment year, a June legislative primary is impractical.”
Silver Sets Minimum Wage Public Hearings
Apr 12th - 2:46 pm
Speaker Sheldon Silver today set three public hearings starting April 23 that will “seek input” from the public on his proposal to increase the state’s minimum wage by $1.25.
“These hearings are an important next step in the process to raise the minimum wage,” said Silver in a statement. “It is important for our communities to speak up. Raising the minimum wage fairly rewards low-wage workers, helping those who are striving to help themselves and in the process, giving a boost to local economies.”
Silver first proposed raising the minimum wage in January to $8.50, making it one of the highest in the country. The proposal would also tie future increases to the rate of inflation.
Nearly all of the states that border New York have higher minimum wages.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos has called the increase a “job killer” though some GOP lawmakers, like Sen. Mark Grisanti, R-Buffalo, are yet to take a position.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not taken a position on this proposal either. The Committee to Save New York, a coalition of business interests aligned with Cuomo’s fiscal agenda, hasn’t taken a side either in the fight.
Silver’s hearings come as lawmakers would be in the second week of post-budget session work. The powerful speaker raised eyebrows when he didn’t tie the wage increase to certain items in the budget, suggesting he was playing some sort of long-game strategy on the issue.
The proposal certainly heartens key groups within the Democratic-led Assembly’s base, including the labor-backed Working Families Party.
Here’s the hearing schedule:
Monday, April 23, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building
163 W. 125th Street
Manhattan
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.
Common Council Chambers
233 East Washington Street
Syracuse
Friday, May 11, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.
City Hall, Council Chambers, 13th Floor
65 Niagara Square
Buffalo
Canestrari: Silver’s Not Going Anywhere
Apr 11th - 2:55 pm
Retiring Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari said he believes Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver when he says he has no intention of following any of the chamber’s senior members into retirement.
“He and I have talked about it because we talked on a couple of occasions about my decision and his thoughts on that,” Canestrari told me in a CapTon interview that will air tonight at 8 p.m. and again at 11:30 p.m.
“He didn’t want to see me go. On the other hand, he said: How much golf can he play? And as much as he likes that activity and likes going to hockey games, his life couldn’t be that. He likes what he’s doing, and that sense of accomplishing and getting things done.”
“So, he won’t be retiring, I can’t imagine, for a very, very long time – if ever.”
That’s more or less what Silver himself told me during a sit-down in his office last month after news broke of the retirement plans of another longtime Albany Democrat, Assemblyman Jack McEneny.
“I like this job,” the speaker said. “I like the ability to be able to accomplish, and at the point when I no longer have that ability, that’s when I’ll think about retiring.”
Canestrari didn’t want to speculate on who might replace him as majority leader, but he did suggest it’s entirely possible Silver will break with tradition and go with someone from Long Island instead of an upstater.
Assemblyman Bob Sweeney, a Suffolk County Democrat, has been mentioned as a wildcard contender for the No. 2 spot. The odds-on favorite – at the moment – is Assemblyman Joe Morelle, who told Politics on the Hudson this afternoon that he trusts Silver to make the right decision, adding: “I don’t think this is a position you apply for.”
Silver’s Defense Of Moonlighting Lawmakers
Apr 4th - 3:33 pm
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver reiterated today that there’s no talk of a pay raise, but gave a lengthy defense of a part-time Legislature that allows state lawmakers to collect an outside salary on top of their $79,500 base pay.
Silver, who is “of counsel” to the law firm Weitz and Luxenberg, said the part-time Legislature allows people of all walks of life to get elected.
“… One of the unique things that we do have the founders of state Constitution provided for a citizen Legislature,” Silver told our YNN Rochester colleagues. “They envisioned people who come from different walks of life. A Joe Morelle, who comes from the business community, who’s out there understanding the needs of small business because of his involvement in that fashion. There are teachers, lawyers, accountants, undertakers — that’s who makes up the state Legislature and their expertise in their own fields contributes to the overall expertise. The salary now is not for full-time job, although most of the people do work full time and when those issues are ultimately raised those will be some of the considerations. But, remember: our founding fathers saw fit to have the public involved in the Legislature not professional politicians who have to vote to keep their jobs.”
(Assemblyman Gary Finch, for the record, is the state Legislature’s professional undertaker).
Legislative leaders, including Majority Leader Dean Skelos in the Senate, have denied there’s talk of boosting lawmakers’ pay, which would certainly come after the general election in November in order for it to take effect for the new legislative session in 2013.
But all have said they feel lawmakers deserve their first pay bump in more than a decade, which was then tied to increasing the number of charter schools in New York.
“I think you’re premature in determining that, whether there will even be a pay raise. I think the men and women of the Legislature work hard on both sides of the aisle. You see it here in Rochester, but right now there’s no discussion of it,” Silver said today.
One suggestion in the past has been raising lawmakers’ pay by eliminating the so-called part-time Legislature. Lawmakers tend to get themselves in the most trouble when it comes to their outside dealings. Throwing cold water on the idea is likely the state ethics law that past last year come into effect, lawmakers will have divulge more information about their outside income and the work they do in the private sector.
He also argued that the part-time Legislature affords lawmakers some independence, reasoning they can make tough, unpopular votes without the fear of losing their only job.
“It’s happened, but it gives people the independence to be able to do what’s right rather than always sending out a poll. We could pass laws by computer if it was a measure of you know, leadership is listening, leadership is also leading. Telling people what’s right and doing what’s right is just as important as working for your constitutents,” Silver said.
Silver: No Thought To Retirement
Mar 30th - 7:48 am
ICYMI: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told me last night on CapTon the recent retirement decisions of several majority members and rumored potential departure of at least one more does not cause him to reflect on the day that he, too, might throw in the towel.
Silver has served in the Assembly for over three decades – a good decade more than Assemblyman Jack McEneny, who noted earlier this week that the 20-year mark was a milestone that marked the end of public service for himself and several colleagues (former Rep. Mike McNulty, for example).
But the 68-year-old speaker told me he plans to keep serving as long as he is physically able to do so, enjoying the job and able to deliver for his constituents on the Lower East Side.
“I know what I’m doing in the future; I am running for re-election, there is no question about that in anybody’s mind,” said the speaker, whose last significant challenges came in 2008 when he easily defeated two primary opponents – his first in some 20 years.
“I like this job,” Silver continued. “I like the ability to be able to accomplish, and at the point when I no longer have that ability, that’s when I’ll think about retiring.”
“But right now, you know, I represent a community that I think I’ve made a difference in. My community was the victim of the 9/11 terrorist attack. I like to think that I was a catalyst for rebuilding a lot of the area that was attacked when others were skeptical about it.”
Silver, who has been speaker since 1994 and is currently the longest-serving leader at the Capitol, also said he doesn’t give much thought to breaking the record of former Speaker Oswald Heck, a Schenectady County Republican who was speaker from 1937 until his death in office in 1959.
Heck was the last speaker from upstate. Silver is on track to surpass Heck’s longevity in the post in 2018.
“I do know he was there a long time,” Silver said when I brought up Heck. “And I know all he got was a developmental center named after him, so I didn’t look at that as a milestone or an accomplishment that I necessarily want to achieve.”
“When I think that I have been productive, and I’m representing my constituents in an appropriate fashion – and I might say, enjoy doing it – when that ends, that’s when I will end.”
From time to time, there’s idle speculation at the Capitol about who might replace Silver as speaker, but the general consensus is there would likely be a complete free-for-all battle and then an interim/placeholder selected while the various factions fight it out.
Silver has never given any indication that he’s grooming a successor.
The speaker, often referred to as the Capitol’s political chess grandmaster, has survived a lot – mostly through his zen-like (and sometimes maddening) ability to play the long game, more or less waiting out his opponents.
He lived through 12 years as the loyal opposition to GOP Gov. George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, foiled a coup attempt by former Assemblyman Mike Bragman in 2000, weathered Gov. Eliot “the steamroller” Spitzer and now has managed to get along with hard-charging Gov. Andrew Cuomo, largely by giving him pretty much everything he wants from a policy perspective (even things the Dems were never expected to go along with, like Tier VI and the property tax cap).
There was initially speculation that Spitzer and then Cuomo would try to take Silver out, but after that Bragman coup, the speaker spent more time attending to the needs of his fractious and disparate conference. E
ven though there are sometimes grumbles about his heavy-handedness, there have been no serious moves from inside the conference to take him out since then.
The Truth According To Denny Farrell
Mar 29th - 7:34 am
ICYMI: Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Denny Farrell took a break from debating budget bills with GOP lawmakers yesterday to sit down with me in his Capitol office to provide a behind-the-scenes view of how this deal got done.
Farrell, who was elected in 1974, was unusually candid (although he’s making that something of a habit these days), revealing, for example, that he believes Gov. Andrew Cuomo knew all along he would eventually give in on the so-called millionaire’s tax – despite his repeated claims to the contrary.
Farrell, who has longstanding ties to the Cuomo family forged during Mario Cuomo’s first run for governor, recalled when Andrew Cuomo floated the idea last November of a complete tax code overhaul during a closed-door meeting of the black and Latino legislative caucus.
“The governor said…’there should be a progressive system. Look at the people at the bottom that are not getting a break.’ He talked about it. When I heard that I knew right away that he was thinking on it.”
“So, he knew all along where it was. If he ‘d have said anything like that in his first year, everybody would have said: ‘He’s just another taxing Democrat.’”
Farrell also challenged Cuomo’s desire to kill member items for good, noting the governor has plenty of economic development cash to dole out on his own – or, as the assemblyman put it: “The governor has people who walk around with money in their pockets.”
“And their job is to go place to place to do what they can to bring jobs in,” Farrell continued. “And they want to have the money right away, so we give them that loose money so they can help people do certain things.”
“That’s what member items is also…I don’t get very many federal things, state things in my district…there are programs within my district that would like to get some help from the state, and this is the way we can do it.”
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a close Farrell ally, tried and failed to get member items back into this year’s budget. Farrell suggested that despite the governor’s tough talk, this issue might not yet be dead.
He floated the idea of going back to line-item grants in the budget that are directed by individual legislators, rather than a lump sum of cash allocated to the rank-and-file by the legislative leaders.
Silver: Hearings On Minimum Wage Coming
Mar 28th - 5:39 pm
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says he’s ramping up his post-budget push for increasing the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 through hearings across the state.
“We are going to be doing hearings on that right after the break both downstate and upstate,” Silver said this afternoon. “We hope to be able to pass that bill and it passed the Senate and the governor.”
The measure, which would also tie future increases to the rate of inflation, was not a sticking point for the speaker in the budget negotiations, nor did Silver link it to the Tier Six pension overhaul that passed earlier this month.
So it raises the question: How can Silver get the measure passed the GOP-led Senate — where Majority Leader Dean Skelos referred to it as a “job killer” — and convince Gov. Andrew Cuomo to go along with it as well?
Cuomo, who has garnered the support of the state’s business community with his fiscal agenda that leans conservative on taxes, has said he’s studying the issue before committing to the specific bill.
But Silver insisted this afternoon that he’s not seeking leverage.
“This isn’t about leverage,” he said. “It’s a matter of what’s right. It’s a matter of stimulating the economy of New York. Remember these are the lowest wage earners of New York. Money that they receive will go back right into the economy.”
Still, Silver has been known for beating tactile retreats in the past — most recently on last’s year state budget that included deep spending cuts — and then quickly reorganizes a swift legislative win.
Silver: ‘We Have To Close It Tonight’
Mar 26th - 2:38 pm
The major elements of the state’s $132.5 billion budget could be finalized by this evening, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told reporters this afternoon.
“Wednesday or Thursday I think is — the reality is we have to close it tonight,” Silver said. “I think it’s very likely to happen. We’ve been making good progress, everybody’s been cooperating, everybody’s been compromising.”
Any bill printed and introduced before midnight tonight could be voted on by Wednesday Thursday under the Legislature’s required aging rule.
The budget is due Sunday, but already lawmakers are putting the finishing touches on a deal that includes plans to merge gambling oversight, a new infrastructure improvement plan for the state and a 4 percent boost in education spending through competitive grants.
Already aging on lawmakers desks are budget bills for transportation and economic development spending, public protection and general government allocations and a merger of state operations measure.
Still be haggled over is how where and how allocate $250 million worth of competitive education grants, plus language that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is seeking that would expand his post-budget powers by transferring money between agencies.
“There’s no agreement yet, but it’s under serious discussion,” Silver said of the competitive grant issue.
Meanwhile, Assembly Democrats and Cuomo are both pushing for the enactment of a statewide health-insurance exchange, part of the federal health-care overhaul that’s currently being challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The governor has said he prefers a legislative route for the exchange, but said on Saturday he is considering an executive order to force the exchange into existence.
Kearns Plays Nice
Mar 22nd - 1:11 pm
ICYMI: Newly-minted Assemblyman Mickey Kearns assured me last night that he’s prepared to be a “team player” in Albany and work with his fellow Democats, despite the fact that he pledged not to vote for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and ran a decidedly anti-Silver campaign.
I asked Kearns how he expected to get anything done at the Capitol if he insists on continuing his independent approach in a place where seniority and majority rules. I noted that his predecessor, Mark Schroeder, who was also anti-Silver, was often frustrated in his efforts – particularly when it came to UB 2020, although that was a very complex issue with a lot of competing interests. Nonetheless, Schroeder largely blamed Silver when the measure failed to move.
“..The thing is, the one thing I know is you meet with people, you talk with them, you have discussions, you communicate. I have a lot of experience in the private sector. Obviously, I have governmental experience. I’m a Democrat, I’m a lifelong Democrat. When I ran for this office, I said I would caucus with the Democrats. Unfortunately, the party bosses in Buffalo didn’t want to give me that opportunity. And the voters sent a message – a clear message to them – that they wanted an independent voice.”
The Buffalo News reported this morning that Silver refused to say yesterday if Kearns would be allowed to caucus with the Democrats after his upset defeat of the party’s preferred candidate, Chris Fahey, a top aide to Rep. Brian Higgins. Silver told the BN he hadn’t yet heard from Kearns, who won on the GOP line with support from Carl Paladino, and so had “no idea” what he did and didn’t want to do upon arriving in Albany.
Silver did issue a statement late Tuesday night welcoming all four Democrats – including Kearns and Didi Barrett, who has not yet been declared the victory in the too-close-to-call 103rd AD race, but his comments to the BN seemed to contradict that.
Well, Kearns is in Albany today, and he sat down with Silver, according to the Assembly Democrats spokesman, Michael Whyland. The two had a “good conversation,” said Whyland, who added: “(kearns) has indicated he
wants to conference with the Democrats and will adhere to Democratic principles.”
After the meeting, Silver confirmed to Gannett that Kearns had indeed asked to caucus with the Democrats. The majority conference will be “discussing” that request, the speaker said.
Special Election Cleanup
Mar 21st - 6:29 am
There were upsets at both ends of the state last night as the race for ex-Sen. Carl Kruger’s Brooklyn seat was too close to call, with both candidates declaring victory, and an insurgent Democrat backed by Carl Paladino defeated an aide to Rep. Brian Higgins in Buffalo’s 145th AD.
In the 27th SD, which is only slated to exist for another eight months, thanks to the Senate GOP’s redistricting plan and the desire to create a so-called “super Jewish” district, both Republican David Storobin and Democratic NYC Councilman Lew Fidler insisted they had won – yet another bizarre twist in a campaign that has been full of them.
The unofficial tally, according to the NYC Board of Elections: 10,756, Storobin; 10,636, Fidler, with 757 paper ballots to be counted. The machines were impounded. This one’s likely going to court.
Even if Fidler manages to eke out a paper ballot win, this race was still a blow to the Senate Democrats as they gear up to try to take back the majority this fall.
They will say that special elections are unpredictable animals and not indicative of general election results, and they’re right. But this is a Democrat-dominated district – albeit with conservative-leaning pockets of voters who can swing both ways, politically – and the race was widely viewed as Fidler’s to lose.
Even the GOP didn’t fully expect to win.
But here we are, with another unexpected special selection situation for the Republicans to crow about, a good election-year storyline. First Rep, Bob Turner won last year’s contest for ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s old Brooklyn/Queens district (which no longer exists, thanks to redistricting), and now Storobin leads in this battle for a different Brooklyn seat.
And again, it sounds like the Orthodox Jewish community played a big role in this race. Ditto the Russian community.
Also worth noting: Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t lift a finger to assist Fidler and the Senate Dems, while he did record robos for two of the Assembly Democratic candidates – Chris Fahey (who lost) and Didi Barrett (locked in a too-close-to-call race).
In the 145th, Common Council Member Michael “Mickey” Kearns trounced Higgins aide Fahey – 7,106 to 5,357 – a blow to the establishment Democrats and a win for the insurgent, anti-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver set.
Kearns, who was backed by Paladino, released one TV ad during the campaign, and it accused Fahey of being a Silver “puppet.” Fahey, on the other hand, had an ad that featured his boss, Higgins, who is preparing for a re-election bid himself in a newly-drawn – and supposedly safe – Buffalo/Niagara Falls seat.
The Buffalo News called Kearns’ win a “stunning upset,” and Dems on the ground who emailed me throughout the night were downright baffled about how this had happened.
It was also a redemption of sorts for GOP County Chairman Nick Langworthy and ex-County Executive Chris Collins political team after last year’s NY-26 special election loss of Assemblywoman Jane Corwin to Rep. Kathy Hochul. (Kearns ran on the GOP and Conservative lines, but has said he’ll caucus with the Democrats).
One insider suggested the real loser here was Higgins, who looks very weak after not being able to get his own aide elected in his own backyard.
This insider suggested maybe Hochul would re-think her decision not to primary Higgins and focus on him instead of running in the newly-drawn, +7 GOP NY-27. Seems a long-shot, especially since petitioning started yesterday for House races, but you never know.
Another insider noted the long history in the 145th of anti-Silver statements. (The seat’s last occupant, Buffalo Comptroller Mark Schroeder, cast the lone “no” vote in the speaker’s re-election to his leadership post).
Also, according to this source, Fahey, who has never held office before, started 15 points down in this race, so his loss to an established elected official with name recognition shouldn’t come as such a shock – no matter what the internals said.
In the other three Assembly specials, Shelly Mayer, the Senate Democrats’ former counsel, won an easy victory for Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano’s old seat in the 93rd AD. She was essentially unopposed.
The 103rd AD race was almost a dead heat, with Democrat Barrett and Republican Richard Wager separated by just 154 votes, and an estimated 1,000 absentees left to count.
In the 100th, Democrat Frank Skartados easily defeated Republican John Forman to win back the seat he lost to the late Republican Assemblyman Tom Kirwan by just 15 votes in 2010.
Silver issued a late-night statement – sent out by DACC, not the Assembly itself – offering a warm welcome to four new Democratic members, despite the fact that Barrett’s race hasn’t yet been called.
“I am delighted that unofficial tallies show that four new Democrats were elected tonight, bringing our Assembly Majority conference to 101,” Silver said.
“We welcome them to the New York State Assembly as we work to produce an on-time budget that protects working families.”
Even without Barrett, the Democrats have succeeded in preventing the Republicans from gaining back their veto-proof majority. So that’s something.
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