City Hall News:
Bill Samuels, the Democratic activist and former finance chair for the Senate Democrats, will launch a largely self-funded campaign for lieutenant governor next Monday in an announcement at the Capitol. Samuels will also launch an effort to target one or two incumbent senators of either party each cycle whom he believes are standing in the way of reform.
A successful private businessman who has been involved with many local and national Democratic campaigns, Samuels' past political efforts include leading a group called the Blue Tiger Democrats and being a force behind the Albany Project website. The effort will take an innovative view of the office of lieutenant governor: rather than aspiring to be the vice-governor, Samuels will cast his campaign as a run for State Senate president, a refashioning of the office into a force to reform the state Legislature from within.
Samuels pushed back, however, on the idea that he would be a sort of public advocate for the state, saying that the scope of his work as institutionalized watchdog would be much narrower than that which Bill de Blasio is charged with having in relation to city government.
The lieutenant governor, Samuels said Tuesday in an interview with City Hall, "is the constitutional president of the Senate. We know there is no given power, though you have a vote in case of a tie. But you are there. And as a result, I've defined the prime role of the lieutenant governor is to marshal support around the state over the next four years, to finally reform and make our Legislature the best in the country."
This is, frankly, the best news for reformers in this state since the election of Eliot Spitzer.
