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Extras
May 21st - 4:59 pm
AG Eric Schneiderman filed an amicus brief in a challenge to Montana’s campaign finance laws, which he deemed the “first significant challenge” to the Citizens United ruling.
Forty-three Roman Catholic dioceses (including NYC), schools, social service agencies and other institutions filed lawsuits in 12 federal courts challenging the Obama administration’s contraception health insurance coverage rule. (Here’s the complete list of plaintiffs).
The Albany County DA’s office has received no requests that it investigate JCOPE.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is choosing sides in contentious primaries in which fellow women lawmakers are involved – even if it puts her against powerbrokers like Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez.
Congress is dumbing itself down, or perhaps communicating more effectively, depending on how you look at it.
Rep. Charlie Rangel: “It would surprise me if the president could have time enough to get involved in any primary races. His concern is the party. His concern is the majority. I’m flattered that reporters would ask, but I would not have asked myself from the president…to get involved in my race.”
The anti-incumbent Super PAC targeting Rangel is soliciting small-dollar donations.
Taxi fares might be going up considerably.
…which does not sit well with Gothamist.
Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr. rapping with Doug E. Fresh. (No word on whether Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. might be next to take the stage).
NYT Public Editor Arthur Brisbane will leave his position on Sept. 1 of this year, completing a two-year term as in-house watchdog for the paper.
Long Island consultant Brad Gerstman is hosting a meet-and-greet – “not a fundraiser!” – for Rep. Steve Israel.
Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod chastised Newark Mayor Cory Booker for his “Meet the Press” criticism of the president’s anti-Bain Capital rhetoric.
“When you are president, as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country gets a fair shot.”
More importantly, is the president growing a mustache?
Google will donate space so Cornell University can have a temporary home for the applied sciences school it plans to build in NYC.
The Queens Democrats held off on endorsing a candidate for Assemblywoman Grace Meng’s seat.
Seventy-two percent of New Yorkers believe being thin is the key to being happy.
Mitt Romney is set to raise about $10 million during a fundraising swing through New York and Connecticut later this week.
Department of Financial Services Superintendent Ben Lawsky was elected to the Board of Directors of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors - the nationwide organization of banking regulators.
Senate Minority Leader John Sampson brought up the DN report that his leadership days are numbered during a closed-door conference today. No members stood to defend him.
North Country Tea Partiers are going to fundraise for congressional hopeful Matt Doheny.
The British government is backtracking on fracking.
Here’s US Senate hopeful Wendy Long telling YNN’s Casey Bortnick that she and her two primary opponents are doing “pretty well” at heeding state GOP Chairman Ed Cox’s directive to abide by Reagan’s 11th commandment. (She must have forgotten this….and this - or perhaps she simply doesn’t consider Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos a real contender).
Queens Dems Back Iannece For Lancman Seat
May 21st - 9:30 am
The Queens Democratic Party met this morning to designate candidates for the fall Assembly and Senate races, selecting, among others, Queens Community Board 11 Chairman Jerry Iannece for the 25th AD seat being vacated by Assemblyman and congressional hopeful Rory Lancman.
The vote was unanimous, according to a Democratic source present for the meeting.
Iannece is also president of one of the largest civic associations in the newly-drawn district (Bayside Hills). He’s a former Bronx prosecutor who is currently in private practice in Flushing, Queens.
Although the new 25th is the district in which Lancman currently resides, it is drastically different from the one he currently represents.
Some 75 percent of the district is new territory, made up of portions of Assembly members David Weprin and Grace Meng (currently the party-backed candidate running for the same House seat Lancman is seeking).
The new 25th AD is ostensibly an Asian-majority district, but, according to a Queens Democratic insider, Asian-Americans make up less than 40 percent of Democratic primary voters.
Iannece’s selection by the party is no surprise. He received the party’s nod in 2009 in a crowded primary for the NYC Council seat formerly held by state Sen. Tony Avella.
Iannece ended up losing the five-way Democratic primary in a surprise upset election won by Kevin Kim, an aide to retiring Rep. Gary Ackerman.
Kim went on to lose the general election to Republican NYC Councilman Dan Halloran.
Highlighting the cyclical nature of NYC politics, Halloran is now the GOP candidate for Ackerman’s seat.
(He revealed last week he has to undergo surgery to remove a benign brain tumor, but has insisted he will remain a congressional candidate).
Lancman, meanwhile, is locked in a three-way Democratic primary battle for the post-redistricting version of Ackerman’s seat with Meng and NYC Councilwoman Liz Crowley.
The split calendar, with the federal primaries on June 26 and the state contests on Sept. 13, offers Lancman a Plan B should he lose his House bid.
But he has insisted he won’t be taking advantage of that loophole, so in essence, this is an open seat.
Iannece announced his candidacy in early April.
He was the first candidate to announce, but since then, Nily Rozic, chief of staff for Manhattan Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, has also registered a campaign committee to run for the seat.
Here And Now
May 21st - 7:00 am
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in Albany with no public schedule as yet.
Mayor Bloomberg is receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Webbys. (Hammerstein Ballroom, Manhattan, 5:45 p.m.)
Some two dozen elected officials and Westchester County GOP leaders endorse Republican 37th SD hopeful Bob Cohen outside the party’s HQ (214 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains) at 2 p.m.
NYC Councilman Oliver Koppell will endorse Sen. Adriano Espaillat’s congressional run at the Kigsbridge Armory in the Bronx at 10 a.m.
“The race is about the American dream, and I believe in it,” Espaillat said. “I’m a country boy from Santiago running for Congress. That says a lot about the US in terms of opportunity.”
A two-week seatbelt crackdown starts today and lasts through June 3.
The MTA is expected to again announce a new completion date for the $8.1 billion East Side Access project – the largest, most expensive mass-transit project in the U.S.
Students may soon be able to count classes in construction, culinary arts and engineering toward their graduation requirements, as the Board of Regents considers a plan that would allow them to forgo some of the traditional subjects. The plan will be discussed in Rochester today and tomorrow.
Cuomo has had two unusual face-to-face meetings with NYRA trustees – so private his office won’t even acknowledge them – and laid out a one-week schedule for an overhaul plan.
According to Cindy Adams, Cuomo is “never scared” and former Pataki administration Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro is joining former Gov. David Paterson on WOR to see if the “duo concept” works.
Liberals would like to see Cuomo pushing harder for the minimum wage increase he says he supports – at least in theory.
The Weekend That Was
May 20th - 2:50 pm
Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing of an American jetliner over Lockerbie, has died in Libya three years after he was released by Scotland on humanitarian grounds.
NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn wed her longtime partner, Kim Catullo, before a 275-person crowd of family and political luminaries that included Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both of NY’s US senators and various and sundry legislators and Council members.
The wedding provided Quinn “an opportunity to soften her sometimes tough image and to remind New Yorkers that she would be both the first female and the first openly gay New York City mayor,” the NYT’s Kate Taylor writes.
The NAACP passed a resolution endorsing same-sex marriage as a civil right and opposing any efforts “to codify discrimination or hatred into the law.”
Quinn and Catullo aren’t the weekend’s only newly-minted high-profile married couple. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wed his girlfriend of 10 years, Priscilla Chan.
Speaking of weddings, the NYT’s Vows Column is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
An aide to Rep. Charlie Rangel readily admitted he threatened to run against Sen. Bill Perkins if Perkins followed through with his plan to back his colleague, Sen. Adriano Espaillat, over Rangel.
Soon-to-be-former state Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs is staying active in politics and hosted a fundraiser for Rangel at his Nassau County home.
Former Sen. George Winner said he sees no similarities between the JCOPE leak about Sen. Tom Libous and Troopergate, but also believes Albany County DA David Soares should investigate. Soares’ office had no comment.
Lloyd Constantine, a former top aide to ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, writes: “For many people of a certain age, the real Cuomo family signature moment involved the manner in which Andrew assisted Republicans in their effort to maintain control of the state Senate, despite their rapidly shrinking popularity with New York’s voters.”
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle calls on Cuomo to “shed his penchant for backroom deal-making” for “the sake of accountability, the success of future legislation, and the respect of voters” who backed his calls for reform.
Extras
May 18th - 5:07 pm
After all that, Facebook shares ended their first day of trading on the stock exchange just over where they started – $38.
POLITICO looks back on the worst political gaffes made on Facebook.
Sen. Tim Kennedy will avoiding putting WNY Conservatives in the “touchy situation” of considering his candidacy after he voted “yes” on gay marriage last summer by not seeking their endorsement.
Sen. Kevin Parker said it would be a “step up” for his Democratic conference if Cuomo is simply “not involved” instead of actively opposing issues they deem important.
The US Justice Department gave preclearance to the Assembly’s redistricting plan.
Former VP Al Gore is dating.
Bill Clinton will not be endorsing Rep. Charlie Rangel – or anyone else – in the upcoming primary.
…which makes former Clinton aide – and current Rangel primary opponent – Clyde Williams very happy.
Someone should inform Google that Rangel is not, in fact, dead.
Asked about his support from an anti-incumbent Super PAC, Sen. Adriano Espaillat said: ”I’m not going to say no.”
Might Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s failure to further the Middle East peace process spur her to return to government work in some capacity after she gives up her current post?
NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn will be wearing a bridal gown when she weds her longtime partner, Kim Catullo, tomorrow.
Mayor Bloomberg continued to defend the NYPD’s controversial (and changing) stop-and-frisk policy, saying it saves lives.
Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef took his sales tax beef with Sen. David Carlucci to the airwaves.
Carlucci’s response: “What’s next – a tax on breathing?”
About 30 county employees who are CSEA members picketed outside Carlucci’s Nanuet office today.
Congressional hopeful Chris Collins has hit the campaign trail, visiting two farms in Wyoming County this week.
Conesus Town Attorney Gregory J. McCaffrey is the new Livingston County DA.
Camille Rivera writes of the fight for the rights of low-wage workers beyond May Day.
Sarah Jessica Parker is the latest A-lister to host a fundraiser for President Obama.
The state Health Department is moving to close Soundview in the wake of former Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.’s conviction on theft charges this week.
Congressional hopeful/NYC Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley needed some prompting from Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch when asked for her position on stop-and-frisk.
In a a move seen as retaliation for her decision to run against her county party chairman cousin’s hand-picked candidate, Crowley will likely be left off party petitions when she seeks re-election as a district leader this fall.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has invested $12.9 million worth of pension fund cash in the Hicksville headquarters of Sleepy’s, one of the nation’s largest mattress retailers.
Ex-US Sen. Ted Kaufman, VP Joe Biden’s former chief of staff, says he will encourage his longtime friend to run for president in 2016.
Grisanti’s 2nd TV Ad: UB2020 = Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
May 18th - 2:03 pm
More campaign news from Sen. Mark Grisanti, who is arguably the Republicans’ most vulnerable member this fall, thanks to a confluence of factors that include his “yes” vote on same-sex marriage, his fist-fight at the Seneca Niagara Casino in February and the general craziness of Western New York politics.
Grisanti just released this ad – the second of this election cycle to date, with November still six months out – indicating just how worried the senator and his allies are about defending his seat this fall. (As Nick noted earlier today, Grisanti also has mailers out).
Much like ad No. 1, this spot focuses on UB2020, a key issue for Buffalo and a majority victory for the freshman Republican, and the jobs it will generate, although the first spot also highlighted ethics reform, which this one does not.
The Buffalo News’ Bob McCarthy reported yesterday that the Senate Democrats are still trying to decide who they’ll back against Gristanti, and continue to consider former Erie County Legislator Chuck Swanick, a Democrat-turned-Republican who has already received the Conservative Party’s endorsement.
As far as I know, no other senators – not even those facing primary challengers – are already on the air.
Kaye Wants To Make Cuomo’s 1st Appeals Court Pick ‘Really Hard’ (Updated)
May 18th - 1:25 pm
ICYMI: Former Chief Judge Judith Kaye joined me on CapTon last night to discuss the Commission on Judicial Nomination’s novel new approach to finding a replacement for retiring Court of Appeals Court Justice Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, who is hitting the state’s constitutionally mandated retirement age of 70.
The imminent departure of Ciparick, who, like Kaye, was appointed by former Gov. Mario Cuomo, will present Gov. Andrew Cuomo with his first opportunity to make his own appointment to New York’s highest bench.
This is the first time Kaye is heading up the commission, which is charged with coming up of a list of three to seven names from which Cuomo is required to pick. The judge noted that in the past, “there have been a lot of complaints that there’s not a wide enough process, there are just too few applicants. She is determined that will not occur again on her watch.
“It’s a really, really serious responsibility, and we have decided to travel around the state – the commission – and raise consciousness about the court, about the vacancy, about the application process, because at the end of this we’re not going to hear any complaint that our search was too narrow,” Kaye explained.
“We want to know that we have really searched out, scoped out the state. We need a New York lawyer with a minimum of 10 years experience. We want to be sure that the message reaches every person who would like to apply, and all of the very most qualified people so that the governor, in the end, has a great choice. And we want to make his choice really hard.”
The commission has until Dec. 1 to complile its list. That date happens to fall on a Saturday, but Kaye insisted it’s a hard and fast deadline that will be met.
The first of the commission’s three scheduled information sessions was held this week in Rochester. There will also be one in Albany, and another in New York City. Kaye did not rule out the possibility of additional dates and locations.
During our chat, I noted that 70 seems awfully abitrary for a forced retirement age – particularly these days when many people opt to, and are able to, work well into the 80s or even their 90s. At the state Supreme Court level, justices who hit the 70 mark may be certified to continue serving for a two year period, but cannot serve past the age of 76.
The US Supreme Court has no retirement age, justices are appointed for life – or until they decide to take themselves out of the game, whichever comes first.
Kaye said there’s a bill in the Legislature that would increase the Court of Appeals retirement age to 80. Apparently, a number of other states have tackled this issue in recent years, but New York hasn’t gotten around to it yet.
UPDATE: Assembly majority spokesman Michael Whyland writes:
“The age requirement needs a constitutional amendment (since the retirement age is in the constitution) which is amended by resolution. The Legislature (both houses) passed the resolution last year and we are required to wait until next year before we can give the resolution second passage.”
Here And Now
May 18th - 6:52 am
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City with no public schedule.
LG Bob Duffy is in NYC, too. At 10 a.m., he delivers remarks thanking members of the NY National Guard for their service after the 9/11 attacks. (Tribute WTC Visitor Center).
At noon, Duffy will be at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he’ll join fellow elected officials for a “jobs and investment announcement.”
Today’s Facebook IPO is likely to result in 1,000 new millionaires, most making in the $2 million to $5 million range. But conspicuous consumption is not considered cool at the company.
Even though he had nothing but kind words for his estranged wife, Mary, RFK Jr. was waging an intense custody battle for the couple’s four kids that friends said contributed to her suicide.
RFK Jr. said Mary Kennedy suffered from depression and “was in a lot of agony for a lot of her life.”
There will be a wake for Mary Kennedy today, with funeral services planned for Saturday morning at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bedford. Burial will follow in Hyannisport, Mass., where the Kennedy family has a compound.
JCOPE is developing agency rules that could end up forcing the Committee to Save NY to name at least some of its donors.
The federal government paid New York $700 million more in 2009 than the state needed to care for residents with developmental disabilities who lived in its institutions, according to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The governor’s decision to end NYC’s fingerprinting for foodstamps policy takes effect in 45 days.
“Poverty and hunger are not crimes,” said Cuomo. “So we shouldn’t treat the poor or the hungry as criminals.”
The state still requires fingerprints from applicants for welfare, a practice started by Cuomo’s father, Mario Cuomo, when he was governor.
…The NYT would like to see Cuomo push the Legislature to end that, too.
Somehow, the NYT’s Thomas Kaplan honored Nik Wallenda’s request to be interviewed while walking on his 1,200-foot long practice wire in Niagara Falls.
Extras
May 17th - 5:35 pm
NYC proposed offering buyouts to hundreds of teachers who have been floating in the system for more than a year without a permanent classroom position, as part of a change in labor practices outlined by Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.
Manhattan BP Scott Stringer and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal are hosting a town hall meeting tonight on the UWS mosquito infestation. The assemblywoman Tweeted: “Be there, or risk being bitten.”
The Westchester County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed that Mary Kennedy hanged herself.
Sen. Chuck Schumer went after Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin for “defriending” the US to avoid paying taxes on whatever he earns when the company goes public tomorrow.
The WFP isn’t happy with Mark Zuckerberg.
Who will the Senate Democrats run against Sen. Mark Grisanti? Says one local Dem: “At this point, they would put up Genghis Khan if they thought they could win the seat. It’s a purely utilitarian position of what works.”
Billionaire Joe Ricketts, the man pitched to fund a Super PAC campaign to revive the issue of Obama’s controversial former pastor Jeremiah Wright, is bankrolling the growing NYC news start-up DNAInfo.
Jon Huntsman for mayor of NYC? Alex Pareene says: “Yes, please.”
Former – and would-be future – Assemblyman Pat Manning’s residency is in question, thanks to a voter registration card he filed in Massachusetts in 2008.
Mitt Romney’s latest tactic: Lavishing praise on Bill Clinton.
It’s official: There will be no Americans Elect candidate in the presidential race this year.
Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney is facing a primary challenge from Village of Walden Mayor Brian Maher, who recently biked across the newly-drawn 101st AD to kick off his campaign.
In case you were curious, Sen. Adriano Espaillat does indeed give a damn about an endorsement from Obama, which he would very much appreciate receiving.
Rep. Charlie Rangel, on the other hand, says he doesn’t need Obama’s endorsement to win, but would “welcome” it.
NYC’s unemployment rate has ended its nearly yearlong climb and dipped to 9.5 percent – down from 9.7 percent in March, but still well above the 8.1 percent national average.
Anti-fracking groups in New York applauded Vermont’s statewide fracking ban – the first of its kind in the nation.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s super NYC Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. (This is the kind of cover some pols only dream of; hopefully, he’s already got one framed).
Savino: Cuomo Could Do For Med-Mar What He Did For Gay Marriage (Updated)
May 17th - 4:30 pm
ICYMI: During our CapTon chat yesterday, I asked Sen. Diane Savino if Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reluctance to get on board with medical marijuana might be due to his widely-speculated White House aspirations.
Savino, who is the new Senate sponsor of the med-mar law (she took it over from longtime Democratic sponsor, Sen. Tom Duane), suggested Cuomo could be a national leader on this issue, setting an agenda for other governors – and even perhaps the president – to follow, much like he did with same-sex marriage.
“He’s a leader, he’s not a follower,” she said. He’s led the way on a whole host of issues, and particularly one of the most prominent ones right now on the national scene, and that’s marriage equality.”
“He didn’t wait for the federal government to do it. He said: New York State should step forward and take its place in history. And I’m assuming that if Andrew Cuomo ever became president of the United States he would take that same position with him to Washington. So, if he were to lead on this issue in New York, he would also lead on this issue on the federal level.
This whole medicinal pot issue is a little thorny, since marijuana is illegal under federal law – period, end of story, even in states that have passed legislation or ballot initiatives making the drug legal for use by people who are sick, those individuals are still subject to arrest by federal officials for possession or cultivation.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, most recently Connecticut. But that has has not prevented individuals and dispensaries from being prosecuted under federal law by the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Interestingly, there’s a new poll out today that found a vast majority of Americans think President Obama should respect laws in states where growing and selling marijuana is legal for medical purposes.
Even though Obama said in 2008 that he considered the “basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors…entirely appropriate” and did not plan on using the DOJ’s resources to circumvent state laws, the department has continued to raid, and in some cases shut down, dispensaries and cultivation facilities in at least nine state since he took office.
UDPATE: Gabriel Sayegh, of the Drug Policy Alliance, made the following point, which he said is “nuanced, but important”…
“You write that ‘patients … are still subject to arrest by federal officials for possession or cultivation.’ Not entirely true. The Department of Justice has made pretty clear – in the Ogden Memo, and other recent documents as well as statements – that they are not going to arrest patients who are following state med marijuana laws.”
“They have targeted some dispensaries in places like CA and CO, and they’ve done some saber-rattling around the country, but in short, patients are not being arrested by the feds and the feds have said they won’t arrest patients.”
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