Last week, Downtown Express ran an article profiling both Newell and Henry as the challengers to Shelly. It contained this passage about Henry:
Henry, however, thinks he would not be less powerful than Silver. He claimed that if elected, he would have as much access to the governor as Silver does, since Lower Manhattan is key to the development of New York City and the state as a whole.
I thought this quote was a little counter-productive, as the whole point of replacing Silver is to change the system where the Assembly Speaker is essentially a co-Governor, actually having stronger veto power than the Governor within the Assembly. I emailed the Henry campaign for clarification and got this response:
The question and my response related to access to the governor. I believe I'll have the same access to the governor that Speaker Silver enjoys because of Lower Manhattan's importance to New York City and the state as a whole. In fact, I fully intend to develop an even stronger working relationship with the governor. I'm confident I can do so because the Speaker is so often at odds with the governor as a result of employing legislative tactics to quash the governor's legislative priorities without debate or the opportunity for compromise. I am running in order to diminish the amount of unilateral power that the Speaker wields so that the executive and legislative branches can work together to solve the state's problems, and so that I can bring needed change home to the 64th Assembly District.
Then I emailed Newell for his comment, and he had this to say:
The problem is not with whom Sheldon Silver has access to, but who has access to Sheldon Silver. After 32 years in Albany's cloistered rooms, Silver listens only to the special interests and power brokers who keep him in power. Shut out of that room are working and middle class Lower Manhattanites concerned about affordable housing, quality schools and livable streets. If Luke Henry wants Sheldon Silver's access to power brokers, he is not only naïve, but misguided. My goal is to be accessible to Lower Manhattanites.
I fear that Shelly will benefit greatly from a divided opposition, but it seems like that's what we've got, folks. |
