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Cuomo Donates Gay Marriage Bill For Ex-Wife’s Auction
May 14th - 2:23 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has donated his signed, personal copy of the bill that legalized same-sex marriage to auction raising money for The RFK Center For Justice and Human Rights, the organization run by his ex-wife Kerry Kennedy. The highest bid as of this afternoon is $2,250.
The same-sex marriage legislation in New York is Cuomo’s crowning achievement so far as governor. The measure took on heightened significance this week after President Obama said New York’s approval of the law last June weighed heavily on his decision to say he personally support the gay marriage rites.
The bill includes the governor’s signature, frame and the pen he used to sign it.
H/t @thomaskaplan
Schumer Cheers For Gillibrand
May 14th - 1:53 pm
During a stop in Syracuse today, Sen. Chuck Schumer praised junior Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and confidently predicted her re-election in November, regardless of which of her three would-be Republican opponents wins the June 26 primary.
In response to a question posed by YNN’s Bill Carey, Schumer said:
“Well, I think the more the merrier. I don’t think any of the three could stack up to Senator Gillibrand. I think over the last several years she’s worked hard, succeeded, gotten to know the voters, so I think she’s going to do real well no matter which of the three is the nominee.”
“…Any party, whether nationally or in New York, that moves too far to the extreme loses. When Democrats move too far to left, they lose. When Republicans move too far right, they lose. And it may be happening to them now.”
Schumer’s comments come on the heels of a Siena poll released this morning that found Gillibrand continues to lead her three GOP opponents – Rep. Bob Turner, Wendy Long and Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos – by more than 30 percentage points.
The same poll found two thirds of Republicans remain undecided about which of the three they will support in the primary.
Morse Makes Hay Of Espada Verdict (Updated)
May 14th - 1:12 pm
Albany County Legislature Chairman Shawn Morse seized on the conviction of former Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. on four counts of felony theft (so far) from his taxpayer-funded Soundview Health Clinic to tee off on his Democratic primary opponent, Sen. Neil Breslin, for voting to accept Espada back into the conference following the 2009 coup.
“I am glad to see today’s guilty verdicts for disgraced ex-Senator Pedro Espada,” Morse said. “This is yet another step in cleaning up our state Government and giving New Yorkers the Legislature they deserve. ”
“While I hope this is the final end of Pedro Espada’s role in government, we still need to take ahard look at how this situation arose, and the bad choices that were made that allowed him to lie, cheat and steal from the taxpayers for as long as he did.”
“My opponent, who was one of those who supported Mr. Espada in exchange for keeping his position in the Majority, now admits that he ‘shares in the guilt’ and the ‘shame’ for his past support. Mr. Breslin may admit his guilt now, but it would have been far better if he never supported Mr. Espada for Majority Leader in the first place. ”
“The damage that Neil Breslin’s support of Mr. Espada did to the state, to his reputation, and to the reputation of Democrats as a whole is still being felt. The next time Mr. Breslin is offered the chance to support a criminal in exchange for more power, I hope he thinks better of it.”
Breslin has repeatedly made clear his less-than-friendly feelings about Espada – at one point (after the coup was settled and the Democrats had returned to the majority, thanks to the retun – with strings attached – of Espada and his co-conspirator, former Sen. Hiram Monserrate, to the fold) even saying that his colleague was a “crook” who belonged “in jail.”
The senator even used that statement in a campaign ad back in 2010 – the year he successfully fended off a primary challenge from Luke Martland.
But it’s also true that Breslin ultimately did not object when his fellow Democrats voted to allow Monserrate and Espada to return to the conference, restoring him to his post as Insurance Committee chairman. Last January, Breslin was tapped by Democratic Leader John Sampson to serve as deputy minority leader, a position that carries a $20,500 stipend (lulu).
NOTE: A reader reminds me that Morse has a Senate Democrat connection of his own. He hired the consulting firm Red Horse Strategies to run his campaign. The firm’s founders left the public payroll in 2008, but have retained ties – and contracts – to the conference on and off since then.
UPDATE: Breslin’s response:
“I believe we as elected officials need to hold ourselves to a higher ethical standard. The people entrust us to do what is right and we have a duty to represent them in the most honest and ethical way possible. No one with a criminal record should ever be elected to office.”
“I called for former Senator Espada’s ouster long before his conviction today. I am proud to say that I have been one the most outspoken voices of reform in the New York State Senate. I will continue to be that voice of reform because the people of Albany and Rensselaer Counties, and all of New York State deserve no less.”
Siena Poll And Controlling The Senate
May 14th - 12:24 pm
Republicans and Democrats this morning seem to be cherry picking from today’s Siena College poll results.
And there is indeed good news for both conferences.
For the Republicans, voters back the plan to provide sweeping tax cuts and credits to small businesses and a 46 percent approval rating of the chamber where they hold a narrow 32-29 majority — an unusually high number given the Legislature’s historically awful reputation with New Yorkers.
“Despite the fact that New York is a blue state, the Siena poll shows New Yorkers are pleased with the bipartisan results Senate Republicans have delivered,” said Senate Republican spokesman Scott Reif in a statement. “Working with the Governor, Senate Republicans have successfully controlled spending and taxes, and laid the groundwork for the creation of thousands of good jobs. We’re confident that when voters are reminded Democrats raised taxes and spending by $14 billion, and brought dysfunction and disgrace to the New York State Senate in their two disastrous years in the majority, they’ll vote overwhelmingly to keep Republicans in charge.”
But the poll also shows 56 percent of voters preferring to return Democrats to power following their tumultous 2-year term in power.
And voters across the board overwhelmingly back raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50.
“Today’s Siena Poll confirms that, by a nearly 20% margin, New Yorkers believe that Senate Democrats better represent their values,” said Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy. “Whether it is raising the minimum wage, protecting women’s health or standing up for the environment New Yorkers agree with the Senate Democrats’ agenda and prefer that the Senate returns to Democratic control this November.”
The stats on the minimum wage increase are especially stark and comparable to the sky-high approval voters had last year for imposing a cap on local property tax increases. That measure was ultimately bundled together with rent control laws for New York City. Naturally, we are watching this year to see what will be tied to the minimum wage increase.
“It even has support of 58 percent of Republicans,” said Siena College poll spokesman Steve Greenberg. “This is an issue that transcends upstate-downstate, Democrat-Republican. New Yorkers want to see an increase in the minimum wage. You generally don’t see that.”
Cross-tabulations also show 94 percent of Latino voters back the minimum wage increase.
These are eye-popping numbers. It would not be out of the realm of possibility for Senate Republicans to back a deal for a less-generous increase in order to get the issue off the table in an election year, like they did for same-sex marriage.
By the same turn, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver can could hold out and keep the minimum wage issue going in order to expand his own gigantic Democratic conference.
The Democratic-led Assembly may vote on their own minimum wage bill later this week.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has support past minimum wage increases, hasn’t taken a position on the Silver-backed bill. Administration sources said that raising the wage via executive order was looked into, but ultimately it was decided the only route was to go by legislation.
Cuomo is under zero political pressure to do a minimum wage increase this year: His name isn’t on the ballot this November.
Espada Guilty On (At Least) Four Counts Of Theft (Updatedx3)
May 14th - 12:13 pm
At last, a decision from the long-deadlocked jury mulling the fate of former Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.
NY1 political reporter Grace Rauh is in the courtroom and reports the Bronx Democrat has been found guilty on felony four counts of theft.
This story is developing very quickly. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: This is a partial verdict. The jury is continuing to deliberate.
UPDATE2: The jury passed a note to the judge indicating they are now deadlocked, explaining: “We cannot reach a unanimous decision on any of the remaining counts.” That would include all the counts against Espada’s son, Pedro G. Espada.
UPDATE3: According to Rauh, the judge accepted a hung jury on the remaining counts.
Long On GENDA: ‘Serious Risk’ Of Losing Endorsement
May 14th - 11:24 am
This time last year Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long was warning (mostly Republican) state lawmakers who planned to vote for the same-sex marriage bill that they would lose the organization’s coveted endorsement.
This time around, his warning on the proposed Gender Non-Discrimination Act remains strident, but for now at least doesn’t carry the same ultimatum.
“I think someone who votes for the GENDA would run the serious risk of losing the endorsement,” Long told me in a phone interview. “We don’t hold all legislation to the same standard, but certainly if a legislator voted for this they would run the risk of having the local leaders not being too happy with them.”
Long last year went through several iterations of warning Senate Republicans of the consequences of voting for same-sex marriage before finally settling on denying any lawmakers who voted yes the ballot line.
Ultimately four lawmakers on the Republican side in the Senate voted in favor of the bill: Sens. Jim Alesi, Mark Grisanti, Roy McDonald and Steve Saland.
Alesi announced last week he is retiring at the end of the year. McDonald and Saland, whose districts cross party lines, were not given the Conservative Party’s backing.
Grisanti, a freshman lawmaker who is seen as the most vulnerable of the GOP’s conference heading into November, had his district redrawn by his colleagues to lie solely within Erie County, throwing the decision to the local party. That did little to help Grisanti, who was denied the Conservative line.
Earlier this morning the Conservative Party released a bill memorandum to Senate lawmakers opposing the GENDA bill.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he is working on a GENDA measure with lawmakers, but was skeptical a deal would be made this year.
Brennan Center: Public Financing Leads To Diverse Donors
May 14th - 11:08 am
The Brennan Center for Justice released a study this morning pointing to the racial and economic diversity of political donors in a public financing system.
The Brennan Center studied the impact of public financing in the New York City system and found that nearly 90 percent of the city’s census block groups had at least one person who gave $175 or less to a city council candidate in 2009.
More minority groups tend to participate in donating to New York City political races, the study found.
The report also found there is a greater impact of donations from predominantly non-white and poor neighborhoods.
The report comes as a Siena College poll released today shows New York voters are split on the issue. Regionally, the campaign-finance overhaul polls highest among New York City residents at 46 percent.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver introduced a bill earlier this year that would create a statewide version of the public financing system that’s in place for New York City. Senate Republicans say they oppose using taxpayer money for funding political races.
Conservative Party GENDA ‘An Orwellian Thought-Crimes’ Bill
May 14th - 10:01 am
Not surprisingly the state Conservative Party is opposed to the Gender Non-Discrimination Act, reiterating their opposition in a memo to state senators today that calls the proposal “Orwellian.”
From the bill memo:
If this bill is added to the definition already included in “hate-crime” legislation it sanctions the state to equate a person who expresses opposition to transgenderism as the moral equivalent of racist and misogynists, no matter how the opposition is stated.
This bill is an Orwellian thought-crimes bill and assumes that if you disapprove of cross-dressing or transgender behavior you are morally repugnant and should be ostracized in the same manner as members of the KKK or Nazi groups.
It is unfortunate that this bill, while proposing to protect a specific class of people from being victims of crime – albeit they are already protected – in its zeal to protect actually promotes hate – hatred toward those opposed to transgendered behavior.
GENDA is a major priority of LGBT advocacy groups like the Empire State Pride Agenda, which held its lobby day last week in Albany and pushed state legislative leaders in closed-door meetings to consider the legislation.
GENDA has been a long-sought item for the LGBT movement, but was overshadowed by the push for same-sex marriage legalization that successfully passed the Republican-led Senate last year. The Conservative Party drew a stark line in the sand last year on the marriage bill; declining to endorse any candidate who voted yes on the measure.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week said in a Red Room that he was working with the Legislature on a GENDA bill, but was skeptical it would pass this session.
Here And Now, Poll Position Edition
May 14th - 7:00 am
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in Albany with no public schedule.
Hundreds of senior citizens from across the state are expected at the LOB’s well for their lobby day.
There’s a hearing on the Fidler-Storobin Senate race ballot count at 10 a.m. in the Brooklyn office of the Board of Elections.
At 1 p.m., Sen Mike Ranzenhofer will discuss legislation he is sponsoring that would close a loophole that gave a WNY man who killed his wife the sole rights to her remains. (Room 332 of the Capitol).
President Obama is back in New York. This time, he’s in Manhattan to deliver the commencement address at Barnard College.
He’ll also tape an appearance on “The View” (this reportedly was supposed to be the setting for his big gay marriage announcement), and attend two campaign events/fundraisers.
Good news greets Obama in New York: He continues to enjoy a comfortable (although slightly diminished) two-digit lead over Mitt Romney here, according to today’s Siena poll.
The poll also found more than three quarters of voters support raising the state’s hourly minimum wage to $8.50 and some two thirds back the Senate GOP’s package of $200 million worth of bueinss tax cuts. Smell a deal in the offing?
Also: While Cuomo’s favorable/unfavorably rating is down slightly – from 72-22 to 68-24 – and his job approval has slipped from 63-36 to 56-43. They’re still very high.
Great news for the Legislature: Both houses have hit their record high favorability ratings, with a plurality of New Yorkers viewing the Senate in a positive light (46-43). The Assembly is at 42-44.
However, watch out Republicans: By a 56-38 percent margin voters say they would like to see Democrats win control of the Senate. The key bloc: Independents, who say 48-43 that control of the chamber should change hands.
And now, headlines…
The governor has signaled he’s willing to sign off on a pay raise for legislators, but not when his own re-election is approaching. So, it’s “now or never,” according to an administration source.
Cuomo has a thing for task forces and commissions, even though he pledged when he ran in 2010 to reduce their number.
Despite the governor’s claims to the contrary, it was Cuomo’s office that urged Obama to change the location of last week’s visit from GlobalFoundries to the Nanotech complex.
The Weekend That Was
May 13th - 5:24 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Semi-First Lady Sandra Lee were in the Hamptons this weekend.
Speaking at the UNC Chapel Hill commencement, Mayor Bloomberg decried the gay marriage ban passed in the state last week.
Mitt Romney discussed the “preeminence of family” and reiterated his opposition to gay marriage while delivering the commencement speech at an evangelical Christian university in Virginia Saturday.
In the broad resegregation of the nation’s schools that has transpired over recent decades, New York City’s public-school system looms as one of the most segregated, despite the diversity of its population.
A “scheduling issue” kept Sen. Bill Perkins from an event where he was expected to endorse Rep. Charlie Rangel.
Rangel backtracked (via a spokeswoman) from his comment Friday that he doesn’t “give a damn” whether President Obama endorses him in the June 26 primary.
(For the record, that was hardly the first time he’s said such a thing).
Says the NY Post: “(I)f Charlie Rangel is interested in preserving a shred of the scant dignity remaining to him, he should just pack it in.”
Former Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, now Cuomo’s go-to guy in Western New York, has had to subvert some of his past positions in order to serve the governor in his new job.
Mohawk Valley officials don’t entirely agree with how the Cuomo administration allocated millions of dollars said to be earmarked to help communities recover from the closure of correctional facilities.
John Heilemann writes: “From the moment last June that Andrew Cuomo signed the bill legalizing gay marriage in New York, Barack Obama knew the ludicrous pretense that his views on the issue were ‘evolving’ was living on borrowed time.”
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