| We often talk about reform as if it's never happened - perhaps reasonably, as the last major changes to New York State government that make reformers genuinely happy took place a long time ago. Here's one telling of such a happy story, starting when reformers:
had been quite prepared to be disappointed by the Governor he had called "a typical Tammany politician." But Al Smith's speech to the prominent liberal Democrats, independents, and "federal" Republicans on the commission at first meeting had certainly not been pro forma. Mangled cigar stub stabbing out from his wet lips at the vested, watch-fobbed civic leaders before him, he has rasped, "Is this commission going to do something, or is it just going to offer a report? Are you going to have something definite that can be put into effect to benefit the state? Because if you are not, the sooner you report and go out of existence, the better." (100-1)
What made the report... a remarkable document was its clarion tone and its clarity. Viewed as part of the long reform movement in New York State, which set much of the tone for Progressivism in the United States, it was the summing up of this movement. The essence of the spirit of reform was captured in its 419 pages, so completely did the words they bore synthesize both its philosophy and passion.... (104-5)
Al Smith on the stump was a political weapon of the highest caliber... (108)
For a while, dreams had seemed so near to realization. Genuine accomplishment had seemed close... (111)
Reorganization, of course, was the key to all the hopes of Smith... No sooner had he been returned to office in 1923 than he hurled down the gauntlet to the Legislature with a special message... that restarted the three reorganization amendments down the tortuous road to law. The Legislature passed the amendments consolidating state departments and reducing the number of elected state officials in 1923 and 1924, after battles in which Walker and Democratic Assembly leaders fought for every vote. (141)
I have, well, some similar doubts about Andrew Cuomo. At the same time, though, I look at his agenda and think it looks awfully familiar, a needed echo of one of New York State's greatest governors. Cuomo's history, while not Tammany, doesn't exactly shout "committed reformer" to me - but he certainly could prove to be one, even an effective one.
This is a very different gamble for reform from 2006, but could it be a more effective one?
(And yes, I worry about one of the nastier side effects of Smith's reform - New York was stuck with Robert Moses and his own forms of corruption for the next 45 years. The quotes are from Robert Caro's The Power Broker.) |
