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Hinchey Aide To Challenge Hanna
Mar 20th - 3:10 pm
Retiring Rep. Maurice Hinchey’s longtime aide, Dan Lamb, had hoped to seek his departing boss’ seat, but now that NY-22 has fallen victim to redistricting, Lamb has decided to challenge an incumbent Republican – Rep. Richard Hanna – instead.
“I’m running for Congress to help restore the American Dream that has unfortunately fallen out of reach for far too many middle class New Yorkers in recent years,” Lamb said in a statement issued this afternoon.
“Our country’s values and principles have been derailed by a radical, politicized agenda in Washington that Richard Hanna has fully embraced, and it’s time to help get our country back on track. Upstate New York has real challenges that need to be addressed.”
“Our infrastructure is crumbling, our economy is lagging, our schools are getting more and more crowded, our debt is growing, and all Richard Hanna and the Republican leaders in Congress offer are obstruction and political games. The best way to reduce the debt is to put people back to work. The Richard Hanna approach of cutting taxes for the wealthiest one percent and slashing vital programs, such as Medicare and education, is a recipe for failure.”
“It’s wrong for upstate New York and it’s wrong for the country. I’m running for Congress to turn this situation around.”
Lamb has served as as a district representative for Hinchey in the Binghamton district office since 1998, advising Hinchey on key issues, including job creation, economic growth, education, infrastructure development, flood recovery and hydraulic fracturing.
The new 22nd congressional district contains a significant portion of Hinchey’s former district, Lamb noted. It tilts slightly more Democratic than the old NY-24 that Hanna lost in 2008, but won in 2010.
According to a “state of play” memo circulated by the DCCC yesterday, 49.1 percent of voters in Hanna’s current district cast ballots for Obama in 2008, while 50.1 percent voted for him in the newly configured district.
In addition, Hanna – like four of his fellow GOP freshman – Ann Marie Buerkle, Chris Gibson, Nan Hayworth, and Tom Reed – ousted a Democrat in the 2010 midterm elections that were very good for Republicans. Since this is a presidential year, Democrats expect at least some of those seats to flip back into their hands.
So far, Lamb is the only Democrat to formally announce a challenge to Hanna (I think; it’s hard to keep track with all the line changes). There was some speculation that he might challenge Reed, but two other Democrats who had planned to run in NY-22 – Nate Shinagawa, vice chairman of the Tompkins County Legislature, and Ithaca lawyer Leslie Danks Burke – are already in that race.
Another Democrat who had considered a run for Hinchey’s seat, Sean Patrick Maloney, is now running against Hayworth; and former Ulster County Democratic Chairman Julian Schreibman is challenging Gibson.
Brooks Doesn’t Want To Talk About ‘Inside-The-Beltway’ Issues
Mar 20th - 8:27 am
ICYMI: Newly-minted congressional hopeful Maggie Brooks dodged questions during a CapTon interview last night about the so-called Republican “war on women” and the budget plan being proposed today by Rep. Paul Ryan, which is expected to again include an overhaul of Medicare – the very issue that cost the GOP NY-26 in last year’s special election.
In fact, the Monroe County executive flatly refused to discuss anything about her views on federal issues at all, other than to say that she believes Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will eventually be the GOP presidential nominee.
Brooks announced a long-speculated challenge to Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter yesterday – the same day a three-judge panel finalized new House lines that improve the county executive’s chances of victory (although the district still favors Slaughter and has a 5 percentage point Democratic edge).
Brooks said there will be time enough for her to lay out a platform. She dismissed the 10 questions the DCCC publicly demanded she answer – leading with her opinion on the Ryan plan – calling them “inside-the-beltway” issues that real people don’t care about.
“Today for me is about my announcement,” Brooks said. “Today for me is decision day – it’s telling the community that I have every intention to run for this new congressional set.”
“There will be plenty of time to talk about specific issues. There will be plenty of time for people to understand my federal platform. They know me quite well here at the local level. They know what my priorities are here: Property tax stability, jobs and the economy, preserving quality of life. Those are the things.”
“It’s very interesting to me. I looked at the list of issues that were sent my way today. And a lot of things on that list are very much inside the beltway items.”
“And it shows me that there are many, many people who are completely out of touch with what people in Monroe County are talking about. And that is their future, their jobs, the local economy, and the health of their family and the future of their children and grandchildren.”
“Those are the things that I want to talk about – the issues that are important to the people of Monroe County.”
Dueling Robos From Cuomo, Paladino In 145th AD
Mar 19th - 3:20 pm
The 145th AD special election has turned into a redux of sorts of the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, pitting a Democrat backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo against a fellow Democrat (running on the GOP line) supported by Cuomo’s defeated foe, Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino.
Paladino, who sat down with me at the GOP convention Friday for his first extended TV interview since his loss to Cuomo, is determined to keep his hand in NYS politics. While he’s not running himself, Paladino remainds mad as hell and hell bent on teaching his perceived enemies in Albany a lesson – including the four GOP senators who voted “yes” on same-sex marriage and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.
Earlier today, I posted a robocall Cuomo recorded on behalf of Chris Fahey, an aide to Rep. Brian Higgins who is running for former Assemblyman Marc Schroeder’s seat in a special election tomorrow. A WNY source just sent me a dueling call Paladino recorded for his favorite in the race, Common Council Member Michael “Mickey” Kearns.
Here’s the script of the Paladino call, which was sent to 145 prime Republican and Conservative voters today:
“Hi, it’s Carl Paladino. If you’re fed up with the status quo, it’s important for you to vote for Mickey Kearns for the 145th Assembly District on Tuesday.”
“On Sheldon Silver’s watch, our state has fallen into tragic decline. With intimidation, illusion and theater, Silver has made a mockery of the Assembly, pandered to public employee unions and expanded entitlement programs, inviting every Tom, Dick and Harry to climb on the backs of our taxpayers, costing us jobs and higher taxes.”
“Silver is afraid that Mickey Kearns will disrupt the status quo in his caucus. And he’s doing everything he can to stop Mickey. Silver already bought Chris Fahey as his puppet with a $150,000 campaign contribution. Help us send Silver a clear message that his reign and Albany corruption will end.”
“Help us take back our state. Vote for Mickey Kearns.”
Cuomo Robos For Fahey: ‘I Need An Assembly That I Can Work With’ (Updated)
Mar 19th - 8:31 am
In what appears to be his first foray on behalf of a Democratic candidate running in one of tomorrow’s special elections, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has recorded a robocall for Chris Fahey, an aide to Rep. Brian Higgins who is running in the 145th AD.
A reader forwarded a recording of the call, which you can listen to here. A few thoughts:
Interesting that Cuomo is wading in on behalf of Fahey, who is facing a fellow Democrat, Common Council Member Michael “Mickey” Kearns, who is running on the GOP line.
Kearns has tried to paint Fahey is little more than a “puppet” of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, continuing the long tradition of 145th AD candidates/incumbents in exercising some independence (at least verbally) against the Democratic leadership.
Higgins also once spoke out against Silver, and even backed former CNY Assemblyman Mike Bragman in his failed coup against the speaker.
There was a school of thought that Higgins would pay for that in this year’s redistricting, but he came out just fine with a district that’s even more Democratic than before.
The fact that Cuomo says he needs “an Assembly that I can work with” seems to suggest that he can’t work with the one that he currently has, which is weird, since his fellow Democrats in that chamber have been remarkably compliant when it comes to giving him what he wants – although not always happily.
Cuomo has made a point of focusing on the Buffalo area, much to the chagrin of some other upstate municipalities that wouldn’t mind a little more love from the gov.
As far as I know, the governor isn’t doing anything to assist any of the other candidates running in the three other Assembly specials taking place around the state tomorrow or the contest down in Brooklyn to fill the seat of former Sen. Carl Kruger.
If someone knows otherwise, please shoot me an email. Until then, here’s the Fahey/Cuomo call script:
UPDATE: Interesting twist: Two WNY Democrats emailed to note that Kearns was a big supporter of Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino’s 2010 gubernatorial run against Cuomo. In fact, Paladino is a contributor to Kearns’ campaign. So that provides an added incentive for Cuomo to want to prevent him from being elected.
“Hello, this is Governor Andrew Cuomo. I’m calling to urge you to vote for Chris Fahey on Tuesday, March 20th in the special election for state Assembly.”
“Chris will be a strong partner in revitalizing Western New York’s economy, bringing good-paying jobs to hard-working middle-class families.”
“Chris is committed on continuing the much-needed reforms to clean up Albany. We’ve made great progress in this state over the past 15 months, but I need an Assembly that I can work with to continue the progress.”
“Please this Tuesday, March 20th, vote for Chris Fahey for the state Assembly. Thank you very much.”
He’s Got No Strings…
Mar 13th - 7:38 am
The March 20 special election is right around the corner, and Democratic Common Council Member Michael “Mickey” Kearns is kicking his campaign for the 145th Assembly District up a notch with an ad that slams his opponent as nothing but a “puppet” of Speaker Sheldon Silver.
The ad hits the airwaves today and will remain up through the election, according to a source close to Kearns.
Opposing Silver is a long-running tradition for Western New York Democrats.
Rep. Brian Higgins backed former Assemblyman Mike Bragman’s failed coup attempt against Silver back in 2000 when he was serving in Albany.
Buffalo Comptroller Mark Schroeder, who vacated the 145th in January to take his current job, routinely voted against Silver for speaker – often casting the lone “no” vote – and regularly criticized him publicly, particularly on his perceived lack of support for UB 2020.
Kearns, a Democrat running on the Republican line, is facing off against political newcomer and Higgins aide Chris Fahey on the Democratic line.
Again, WNY politics is awfully confusing and party affiliation is often fungible. Kearns has said he’ll caucus with the Democrats if he’s elected. More background is available here.
The text of Kearns’ ad appears below. It is not the first to hit the airwaves; Fahey has already been up with an ad, and is receiving a help from the Democratic State Committee.
“Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver wants another puppet to do his bidding in Albany. That’s why he spent over $100,500 to support Chris Fahey – so he can pull Fahey’s strings to vote for Silver’s New York City special interest friends. We can’t afford another puppet in Albany.”
“On the other hand, Mickey Kearns will be an independent leader. He’ll work to cut taxes in Albany, and stand up to party bosses to help create jobs here. Mickey Kearns: Independent leader, no strings attached.”
Robach Offers Insight Into Tweaked LATFOR Lines
Mar 10th - 7:49 am
ICYMI: Republican Sen. Joe Robach revealed yesterday that the the changes to the LATFOR-drawn Senate and Assembly maps are indeed complete, and he has been informed that the University of Rochester has been moved back into his district.
“The one big change that I’m hearing is going to occur from people speaking up going through the process of the committee hearings; it sounds like the U of R is going to be put back into my district,” Robach told YNN Rochester’s Casey Bortnick.
“Not that we wouldn’t advocate for the U of R, which is…Rochester’s biggest employer, anyways. But I am glad to have it geographically in my district – somebody who’s from here, rather than someone from Erie County. I think it makes all the sense in the world.”
The first Senate GOP proposal broke Monroe County into six different pieces, including three in the city of Rochester alone.
U of R (go Yellowjackets!) would have been represented by Robach’s Buffalo-area colleague, Republican Michael Ranzenhofer, whose district was to have stretched from Erie County to Monroe County.
This upset Rochester Mayor Tom Richards and U of R President Joel Seligman, who argued the university and its medical center should have local representation.
We’ve been hearing for some time now that the changes to the original LATFOR plans were complete. Actually, the Assembly’s proposal appears to have been done for at least a week, and has been in bill drafting an awfully long time, if you believe Assemblyman and Democratic LATFOR co-chair Jack McEneny.
Robach said he had learned of the change in his district at a meeting held before he left Albany last week, explaining:
“There are going to be some small alterations. Monday we’ll probably be seeing more hard lines, and we’ll probably actually be voting on them next week. I went to a meeting before I left Albany about the commission, they’re getting ready to do the lines to vote on them.”
We’ve also been hearing for several weeks now that a vote on the legislative lines is imminent. Conventional wisdom is that won’t occur until there’s a final deal on an accompanying constitutional amendment that would change the process for the next round of line redrawing in 2022.
We haven’t seen any amendment language yet, though drafts have been shared with good government groups. There was supposed to be a conference call yesterday in which Cuomo administration aide Jeremy Creelan briefed goo-goos on the amendment, but it was cancelled after word leaked to the press.
This whole redistricting mess is likely to culminate next week, since March 15 is the special master’s deadline to release her own tweaked House maps.
The Legislature would have to act before then on its own congressional plans if it wants to supersede her – if a deal could be reached, that is, which had not happened as of last night.
‘Anyone But Carvin’ (Updated)
Mar 7th - 9:37 am
Rye Town Supervisor Joe Carvin, the third Republican to enter the fray against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, is making his case in Watertown today, and as he does so, an upstate GOP county chairman is making the case against him.
A reader forwarded this letter sent to fellow chairs yesterday by Franklin County GOP Chairman Jim Ellis, who calls Carvin’s opponents for the GOP line, attorney Wendy Long and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, “real choices” to run against Gillibrand, but rejects the “hedge fund trader” supervisor as too liberal for Republican tastes.
“(I)t’s clear that his views have more in common with President Obama, who he voted for, than our party,” Ellis wrote.
“He supports abortion rights, which I do not and can not support; he has not voted in any Republican primary and he stands a good chance of being questioned on his investment company.”
“With just a few days until our nominating convention, we can’t afford to nominate a candidate who is out of step on the issues that matter and questionable on the performance we need,” the chairman continued.
“In the case of Mr. Maragos and Ms. Long, we have two candidates who can unite the Republicans and Conservative efforts in New York State to send Ms. Gillibrand and her President packing in November.”
The Conservatives appear en route to picking Long to carry their banner against Gillibrand in November. Their convention will be on March 19 in NYC, while the Republicans are gathering in Rochester on March 16.
Update: Carvin campaign spokesman Bill O’Reilly sent over this response.
“Chairman Ellis has every right to support his own candidate in this race, but to suggest that Joe Carvin is not a conservative Republican is preposterous. But more than that, it is inaccurate. Mr. Carvin is a staunch fiscal conservative, and he backs it up with action. No town supervisor in New York has governed more conservatively. He slashed spending by 25% in Rye and is working to dissolve the town — and his job — to save taxpayer money.
Mr. Carvin, who donated to Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney in the 2008 Presidential race, strongly opposes late-term abortions and he is a firm believer in Ronald Reagan’s ‘Peace Through Strength.’ The fact that he speaks five languages, including fluent Spanish, only makes him more valuable as a candidate in espousing the Republican message to groups Republicans should be talking to. Those are the facts.”
Saratoga County Conservatives Dump McDonald (Updated)
Mar 2nd - 1:40 pm
The Saratoga County Conservative Party’s executive board unanimously agreed today not to support an endorsement of Sen. Roy McDonald, saying the Republican lawmaker has, over the past year, “supported numerous measures that do not represent a conservative approach to governance.”
Oddly, the press release announcing this decision makes no mention of McDonald’s most significant vote that imperiled his standing with the Conservative Party – his “yes” on same-sex marriage.
Instead, the release cites McDonald’s support last December of a “3 billion dollar tax increase even though his campaign pledge was not to support taxes,” and his backing of a recent attempt to “weaken the tax cap” by allowing school districts to bond out pension costs.
“We believe Mr. McDonald has abandoned his supporters in the conservative party and thus are no longer willing to support him,” the release concludes. “At this time we have not endorsed any candidate
for the position of New York State Senator and welcome interested parties to contact Party Chairman Robert Zordan via email at robertz59@aol.com to arrange for an interview by the executive committee.”
The $3 billion tax increase was, in fact, the so-called tax code reform deal that the Legislature cut with Gov. Andrew Cuomo late last year. All 32 members of the Senate majority voted “yes,” so it will be interesting to see if any other local Conservative committees follow Saratoga’s lead and use that as a justification for yanking Row C from GOP lawmakers.
The absence of any mention of gay marriage is curious, since state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long made it quite clear in the lead-up to the vote last summer that any Republican who joined the Democrats in voting “yes” would lose his party’s endorsement.
One of the four Republicans who didn’t heed his warning – Sen. Mark Grisanti – recently lost the backing of the Erie County Conservative Party, which will control the endorsement decision if the Senate GOP redistricting plan that redrew Grisanti’s seat wholly inside Erie County is eventually approved. In Niagara County, a piece of which is currently represented by Grisanti, the local Conservatives are continuing to support the senator.
Here’s an interesting side note: McDonald is sitting in former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s seat. Bruno, who was a major player in Saratoga and Rensselaer counties, had a change of heart on same-sex marriage last year and urged his former GOP colleagues to vote “yes.” I don’t think that really has anything to do with this rather odd release, but thought it was worth pointing out.
The abandonment by the Saratoga County Conservatives caps off a pretty bad week, politically speaking, for McDonald. He lost the support of several local GOP committees in his district, including the in town of Wilton, where he served as supervisor for more than two decades.
The Wilton GOP endorsed Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, who hasn’t even formally announced a primary challenge to McDonald yet, though he has admitted he’s “seriously” considering it.
McDonald was in the CapTon studio this week for an interview on an unrelated matter (a hearing he had held on PTSD with his fellow vet, Sen. Lee Zeldin), and seemed unconcerned about the possibility that he might face a primary this fall (or, June 26, if the Senate GOP ever comes around to the Assembly Democrats’ way of thinking on moving the primary date to conincide with the court-ordered House and US Senate contests).
UPDATE: A reader noted that based on the issues laid out here, McDonald shouldn’t be alone in losing the Saratoga County Conservative Party’s nod. Republican Assemblymen Jim Tedisco and Tony Jordan also both voted “yes” on the tax code reform deal.
I reached the party’s chairman, Robert Zordan, this afternoon, and he said it wasn’t any one vote that turned the table for McDonald, but rather a “preponderance” of issues.
“We don’t expect everyone to vote in lockstep with how we would vote,” Zordan told me. “Otherwise, we should run ourselves.”
When I noted the absence of any mention of gay marriage, the chairman said “it’s one of many issues, but the conservative approach on finances is what really has this state in trouble right now.”
Erie County Envy
Feb 28th - 4:09 pm
Don’t be surprised to see Onondaga County GOP Chairman Tom Dadey push a hometown candidate in the 2014 gubernatorial race.
During a press conference at which he announced his endorsement of US Senate hopeful Wendy Long in Syracuse today, Dadey said he learned a key lesson from Carl Paladino’s 2010 success, which may not have resulted in putting the Buffalo businessman in the governor’s office, but netted his home county, Erie, the largest share of the weighted vote in the upcoming statewide GOP convention.
That gives Erie County and its GOP chairman, Nick Langworthy, considerable clout when it comes to picking statewide candidates – not only in this cycle, but also two years from now when AG Eric Schneiderman, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are all up for re-election.
“The next time we run a gubernatorial candidate against the Democrats, we’re going to run somebody from Onondaga County,” the chairman said. “A lot of people voted for Carl Paladino – all walks of life – on the Republican line – and Erie County is the largest county.”
(The weighted vote is recalculated every four years based on party turnout in the governor’s race).
As I reported earlier today, Erie County now accounts for 11.4 percent of the weighed convention vote, while Onondaga County is just 3 percent.
Swanick Makes It Official
Feb 24th - 5:19 pm
The state Democratic Party is yet to officially endorse, but Chuck Swanick, the former chairman of the Erie County Board of Legislators, is formally challenging Buffalo Republican Mark Grisanti with the backing of the local Conservative Party.
In a news release sent over this afternoon, Swanick puts the word “Democrat” in the headline.
There’s no mention of his stance on abortion, but it is said to be more nuanced than simply pro-choice or pro-life.
“I am a Democrat, I am a fiscal conservative and have always believed that cutting government comes before raising taxes, that deficits are a drag on the economy and at the end of the day government’s role needs to be limited to providing the services we need and that we wouldn’t get from the private sector,” Swanick said.
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