Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch has been circulating a "reform pledge," and insisting that legislative candidates sign on or be placed on Koch's "rogues' gallery." Oh, dear!
Celeste Katz reports that the entire Republican Senate caucus -- including erstwhile Republican caucus member Pedro Espada -- has signed on. If that isn't proof that this stunt is ridiculous, I don't know what is.
And that's the problem. Ed Koch has no power to get anything done; he's just getting his name in the news because ... well, because he can get his name in the news. His "reform plan" is little more than the usual stuff. It has three parts, independent redistricting, budget changes, and ethics.
The redistricting is just a rehash of a few of the ideas that have been talked about for years. Not nearly all of them, nor even a full set, just a few.
The budget changes include things that insiders have been talking about for a while, such as adoption of GAAP.
The ethics ideas are vague and general, including a "Blue Ribbon commission" to make recommendations on campaign finance.
It's clear that there was very little thought or effort put into this. Anyone who has been in politics for more than a couple of years could have come up with this list (with, perhaps, the exception of the GAAP recommendation). Koch probably just rolled off these ideas, and had someone write them down.
Meanwhile, he has nothing on campaign finance reform, despite being mayor when the NYC campaign finance system was first enacted. He has no recommendations for legislative rules reform, despite the Brennan Center's wonderful reports. And he has no specifics on how to achieve the reforms he says he is pushing.
The only reason anyone is bothering to talk about Ed Koch's thing is because he is Ed Koch, and knows how to get his name in the news. But it's pretty clear that he has no plan for going forward after the election, and while some committee chair or another might let him testify at a hearing, he's not going to get anything done.
There's a reason Koch isn't asking "How'm I doin'?" any more.
It's time for the second edition in our weekly roundup of news from the Democratic campaigns for the New York State Senate. We've just past the petitioning and July filing deadlines, and this edition is all about the numbers.
As always, if you see that we missed something, please include links to more news on New York State Senate campaigns in the comments. If you Tweet about any campaigns, please consider using the #NYSen10 hashtag. You can find all our challengers on Act Blue at the Change Albany Now page. If you'd like to follow these roundups on a daily basis, visit our blog or subscribe to our RSS feed. --Mike
Well, with the petition deadline having passed, New York does actually have a US Senate primary... such as it is, anyway. Gail Goode, a former prosecutor from the Bronx, has decided to try and run against Senator Gillibrand, and has apparently clinched herself a spot on the ballot by delivering sufficient signatures to the state Board of Elections. Goode previously tried to get on the ballot by asking the state Democratic convention to appoint her, but was rebuffed.
The inescapable feeling that I get from looking at Ms. Goode's record so far, and her website, is that this is a challenge based on a platform of, as BuffaloPundit puts it, "I'm not that northern woman."
2008 Shelly challenger Paul Newell went on Fox 5 last night to refute the irrational opposition to the proposed mosque near ground zero. Paul reminded viewers that America is a land of religious tolerance and once we start telling people where and where not they can have their places of worship, we become no better than Saudi Arabia. The opposition to this mosque has no rational argument unless one comes to the conclusion that all muslims are terrorists, which is obviously not true. Paul gives a great smackdown in the video below:
I have not been in Washington long but I've been there long enough to know that it's broken and we need to fix it.
As I travel throughout New York and listen to my constituents, it's clear that people have very little faith that Congress is working to solve their problems. Frankly, when they look to Washington they see a lot of people who are more concerned with scoring political points than improving lives and solving problems.
When I was first elected to the House in 2006, it was important to me to send a clear message to the people of NY-20: I wanted to be a representative for the people and shed some light on their government, so I became the first member of Congress to post my schedule, my financial disclosures and my earmark requests all online. Two years later, Speaker Pelosi made it a requirement for members of the House to post their earmark requests online.
I find that when you open the door toward openness and transparency, a lot of people will follow you through.
That's why I'm leading the way on an agenda of reforms that I believe will shine a light on the process and create real openness and transparency so that we can return some accountability to Washington that is sorely lacking today. I believe that through these reforms, all of us in Congress can be better representatives of the people and restore Americans' faith in government again.
It's amazing how much can change in three weeks. The cosmic shift in SD-33, where we have a completely different candidate in the driver's seat, highlights just one of several changes to the second version of the BingChester State Senate Horserace Ranker. I'll be referencing the quarterly financial filings to help guide my analysis as well as some general thoughts and opinions on the state of the races. For those of you too lazy to jump over the fold, here's the overall picture:
1- Gustavo Rivera
2- Mike Kaplowitz
3- Tony Avella
4- Regina Calcaterra
5- Susan Savage
6- David Carlucci
7- Charlie Ramos
8- Joanne Yepsen
9- Dave Mejias
10- Didi Barrett
Bridget C. Riley, a young registered Democrat from Bay Ridge, has challenged the petitions of New York State Senate candidate Mike DiSanto.
Mike DiSanto (D,WF) is running in the 22nd Senatorial District, currently represented by eight-year incumbent Senator Martin J. Golden (R, I,C).
According to voter registration records and campaign finance disclosures, Bridget Riley currently resides with Raymond J. Riley, Chairman of the Board of Raymond Riley & Associates and longtime donor and employee of Senator Martin J. Golden. Atlas Shrugs in Brooklyn has also revealed that Ms. Riley is related to Raymond Riley, the current manager of 13th Congressional candidate Michael Allegretti's (R) campaign (http://atlasshrugsinbrooklyn.wordpress.com/).
Mike DiSanto is not surprised by the challenge and stated "Everyone in the community knows my signatures are valid. I owe it to the more than 2,000 registered voters who took the time to sign my petitions and support democratic elections to fight this challenge in court."
Commenting on the fact that first time candidates are typically knocked off the ballot by entrenched incumbents, DiSanto stated "We live in a democracy and do not crown kings in America. I will not be intimidated by those who seek to undermine the political freedoms that our country was founded upon."
Mike DiSanto is fully committed to reform in Albany and was one of the first candidates to sign New York Uprising's pledges. NY Uprising, founded by former Mayor Ed Koch, advocates for meaningful reform across New York State. Mike sees his campaign as "a fight against the corruption that has overtaken Albany and created the most dysfunctional state legislature in the country"
The 22nd Senatorial district includes parts of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Sheepshead Bay, and Marine Park.
In 2008, Martin J. Golden was uncontested in his run for State Senate and received a total of 42,804 largely from Republican voters. A total of 3,815 votes came from Independence Party voters. The total number of unrecorded votes (left blank) was 40,559.
District 22 Voter Enrollment 2010:
Republicans: 33,494
Democrats: 77,881
Independent/Did Not Identify: 40,059
Democratic Advantage: 44,387
For more information about Mike DiSanto and his campaign, please visit www.DiSanto2010.com
Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call.
(Source: Wikipedia)
One of the five Democrats vying to replace Cuomo, Sean Coffey, is poised to dump another $1 million of his own fortune into his campaign, bringing his self-funding tally to $3 million.
(Source: Elizabeth Benjamin, New York Daily News, May 19, 2010)
Three million dollars is a lot of money. It is twice as much as Rick Lazio has raised. Democratic voters may go along with a Sean Coffey; he certainly is investing in a lavish campaign to be the Democratic Party nominee for New York Attorney General. But shouldn't Democratic activists vet this first time candidate before he is the nominee? Is it in anyone's interests to find out any Wall Street scandals after the primary?
"Democracy is a two-way street, and our campaign's new website will give the people of Eastern Long Island a chance to ask me questions, provide thoughts and solutions, and take part in what is becoming an energetic and growing community," Calcaterra said. "I'm lucky to have such a strong base of support in the district, and the contributions of Suffolk County residents to my effort is making this new website possible."
The new ReginaCalcaterra.com is interactive, fully integrated with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and will serve as the centerpoint for the campaign's online social networking. Calcaterra launched her initial website and Facebook presence earlier this year; response to her online efforts was so strong the campaign undertook an effort to rebuild and relaunch to better accommodate those seeking to communicate with the candidate and her campaign. The campaign plans to continue to grow its web presence through Nov. 2 to match the groundswell of grassroots support it has seen in recent months and weeks.
Calcaterra's Website was completely paid for through her campaign funds, a stark contrast to incumbent Ken LaValle, whose website is funded entirely by taxpayer dollars and provides no interactivity with residents of the First Senatorial District. LaValle's site, which is also managed by taxpayer-funded legislative staff members, has repeatedly taken political shots at Democrats this year - billing taxpayers for these election-year, partisan missives even as the state has struggled with its budget crisis and faced shut-down several times.
"It's high time my opponent stop using tax dollars for his own political purposes and treating the wallets of Suffolk residents as his own personal piggy bank. It is a new day in politics and I cannot wait to bring a new ethical attitude to Albany," Calcaterra said.
http://www.reginacalcaterra.com
Or, The Gubernatorial Candidate Came To Town And All I Got To Talk About Is This Lousy State Senate Primary
It's been two years since I first attended the Albany County Democratic Party picnic. This weekend it was actually back in Albany County, but alas, I was unable to afford a ticket. Nevertheless, I revelled in the memories of having been the only volunteer for the first challenger to State Senator Neil Breslin there, and two years ago I paid close attention to the press coverage of the State Senate primary...which amounted to a single print story published less than a fornight prior to primary day...
But this year, the Albany Times Union made up for my lack of attendance in their prominent print story about the picnic published in this weekends' widely-circulated Sunday edition. And even though Democratic gubernatorial candidate and surefire newsworthy victor-to-be Andrew Cuomo was there, instead the biggest paper in SD-46 lead with this:
You couldn't get into the Albany County Democratic picnic Saturday without passing Tim Carney.
The Albany man pressed laminated palm cards into the hands of his fellow partisans, telling them he has a plan to lower property taxes by raising income taxes. Nearby, blue-shirted volunteers handed out stickers touting Luke Martland, a former prosecutor. The men have one thing in common: They believe Sen. Neil Breslin, a Bethlehem lawyer seeking his eighth term, has become part of the problem in a problematic chamber.
"We have some good visibility, and people see that we're a serious campaign who can turn out volunteers and turn out people," Martland said. "I've met a lot of people, and just talking to them about the dysfunction, and how the current Senate can't even pass a budget while their taxes are up as a result and jobs leave the state, and how I'm going to fight to change that. Is it Breslin's fault alone? No. But partly his fault? Absolutely."
Emphasis mine - SP
There's eight weeks to go in this primary cycle, two years later, and if it ain't in print, then it ain't real. This challenge may be controversial, but I've never seen press coverage like this, so it's definitely real.
So for the next eight weeks, get ready for a fit-to-print, real campaign (and for more details below the fold).
Writing at POLITICO, Maggie Haberman profiles Democratic women challenging incumbent Republicans in the State Senate, and notes that The Year of the Woman Hits New York:
The Year of the Woman candidate has arrived in New York for the 2010 cycle, with an unprecedented slate of 10 female hopefuls vying for legislative office on the Democratic side in a state known as politically progressive but lagging at the state level.
With help from EMILY's List over the last few years, the state Senate Democrats now have 10 women competing in districts ranging from swing-county Suffolk in Long Island to more rural areas of upstate New York.
"I think it is reflective of a larger pattern throughout the country," said state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), who is the recruitment chair for the political arm of the Senate Democrats. "Women in both parties throughout the country are looking at who's in office and saying, 'Oh hell, I can do better than that!'"
Assemblyman Greg Ball is fond of burnishing his blue collar credentials and even portraying himself as a pro-labor candidate with a few symbolic gestures while frequently implying that his anti-immigrant crusade is driven by a desire to protect American workers (never mind that the president of the country's largest labor federation has condemned the Arizona anti-immigrant law that Ball wants to bring to New York). Despite these attempts to cultivate the image of a working class hero, Ball remains a conventional conservative opponent of workers rights. Like the yellow-dog unions of old, Greg Ball may purport to be labor's friend, but in reality he's precisely the opposite. No matter how many press releases Ball churns out , he cannot conceal his anti-worker voting record.
The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights would provide New York's 200,000 domestic workers with the basic labor protections that have been afforded other workers for nearly a century, such as a day off every week, overtime pay, paid sick days, the right to form a union and recognition under the state's Human Rights Law.
According to a study by Domestic Workers United and Datacenter, 26 percent of domestic workers earn wages below either the poverty line or the minimum wage rate. Thirty-three percent have reported verbal or physical abuse. Although half report working overtime, few have received overtime pay. Only 10 percent receive health insurance from their employers. And because 93 percent of domestic workers are women and 95 percent are people of color, this injustice tends to affect New York's most marginalized communities.
Given the opportunity to extend labor rights most workers take for granted to those discretely toiling by the thousands across New York State, Assemblyman Greg Ball courageously followed his party's leadership and showed domestic workers who was boss (hint: not people too poor to make campaign contributions) by voting against the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Sadly, this betrayal is not shocking coming from a man who allegedly exhibits extreme personal disrespect for those trying to make a living in the service sector.
Now that the financial disclosure reports are in, its time to look at the financial breakdown of State Senate district 11, featuring incumbent Frank Padavan vs. challenger and former NYC Councilman Tony Avella. Many people have called this the most contested senate race for the November elections and that's exactly what the financial disclosure reports indicate.
Although Padavan currently has an advantage for cash on hand, $121,420 to $39,214, Padavan did start the campaign cycle with an opening balance of $99,029. The more telling story is the closeness in the money received this past quarter between the two candidates, with Padavan receiving $94,705 in contributions vs. Avella's receipt of $83,532. Moreover, of that amount, Padavan received $43,405 in individual contributions vs. Avella's receipt of $34,794 in individual contributions.
Both candidates have received party support, with Padavan receiving $10,000 from the NYS Republican Campaign Cmte and Avella receiving $5,800 for an in-kind contribution from the NYS DSCC, as well as contributions from other Democratic candidates. Like Padavan's last election, he likely will receive the Conservative and Independence Party endorsements, having donated $500 to the NYS Conservative Party, $100 to the Queens Conservative Party, and $200 to the Independence Party. Avella has not made any donations to the Working Families Party, although he has received their endorsement in the past when he ran for City Council.
Union support could very well make the difference in this race. Padavan received large contributions from DC-37 ($1500) and the AFL-CIO ($1,000) while so far Avella has received union contributions from the Plumbers Local #1, and the Sheet Metal Workers. Though that may surprise some people since unions typically donate to Democratic candidates, Padavan has a strong record of union support, leaving the union endorsements up for grabs between the two candidates.
Avella has not taken donations from lobbyists while Padavan has no objection to doing so, giving him a fundraising advantage. However, given the strong name recognition both candidates have in the district, as long as Avella can keep the fundraising gap close, this race will come down to the wire in November.
I was disappointed when Desiree Hunter dropped out of this race last week, but the silver lining is that there will now be less candidates splitting the anti-Pedro vote. And a big chink of that vote will now be going to Gustavo Rivera. I don't know much about Rivera, but I'm inclined to support him if only because now the WFP machinery makes him the only challenger capable of beating Pedro.
His website is sparse on detail but he seems to support marriage equality and seems to be in the Democratic mainstream on most issues.
The National Organization for Marriage, the best-funded and most media-visible anti-marriage equality group in the country, is in the midst of a Summer for Marriage bus tour of (mostly) state capitals designed to gin up opposition to gay marriage.
NOM front man Brian Brown said the plan is to:
get on the road and meet people face-to-face, sharing with them the importance of marriage and how critical the future of marriage is to our country.
Brown's message is not resonating. The first two stops, in Augusta, ME, and Concord, NH, drew less than 100 people, and the "crowd" at the third stop, in Albany, NY, today was closer to 50 than 100.
