1. Darcy Burner WA-08 $47,589.77
2. Kay Hagan NC-Sen $27,568.33
3. Rick Noriega TX-Sen $22,627.38
4. Donald Barber NY-SD-51 $11,440.00
5. Barack Obama President $11,179.93
6. Paul Newell NY-HD-64 $10,425.00
7. Michael McMahon NY-13 $9,211.33
8. Gary Peters MI-09 $8,587.75
9. David Nachbar NY-SD-55 $7,751.00
10.Tracey Brooks NY-21 $6,085.00
That's right, fully half of the top 10 are New Yorkers and three of those five are state-level candidates, the first time any state level candidate have ever been in the top 10.
Don Barber is the highest ranked New Yorker at number 4. Number 5? Barack Obama. Wrap your head around that one.
Paul Newell comes in 6th, a strong showing and outpacing every federal candidate from New York on the list.
It is really heartening to see half of the list from New York, but also that three of those five are state level candidates. ActBlue is an amazing tool and I congratulate those candidates and campaigns that have embraced it. I also salute those donors who have given via ActBlue. The GOP doesn't have anything like it and their donors aren't as comfortable giving to candidates online.
Go New York!
P.S. If your campaign is not yet on ActBlue, change that. As you can see, ActBlue is a great tool even for state level candidates. This is a big part of how we run campaigns now. Get with it.
In yet more petitioning news, AD-64 primary challenger Paul Newell today filed petitions with 2,388 signatures on them, almost five times as the 500 he needed.
In a strong showing, Democrat Paul Newell filed 2,388 designating petition signatures with the New York City Board of Elections for his grassroots insurgent campaign to unseat Speaker Sheldon Silver. This is almost five times the required 500 for ballot access in the 64th Assembly District and should be more than enough to withstand any potential challenges.
"I am proud of the hard work done by our all volunteer team". Mr. Newell said. Newell's insurgent campaign collected the signatures without help from any paid signature gatherers. 52 volunteers witnessed petitions for Paul Newell over the course of the five-week petitioning period. Newell continued, "I am glad to move past the ballot access phase of this campaign. I look forward to continuing to focus on ending Sheldon Silver's culture of failure in Albany so we can deliver on the the affordable housing, quality schools and livable streets that Lower Manhattanites deserve."
"Lower Manhattanites are ready for change" explained Evan Hutchison, Newell's campaign manager. "There is no doubt that Paul Newell's community roots and grassroots support make him the real progressive and real change agent in this campaign".
This is a very healthy showing by Newell. Next up, fellow challenger Luke Henry and Shelly himself.
On the web:Paul Newell for Assembly.
Ruh-roh, Shelly. The New York Sun is this morning reporting what we've been hearing for the past couple of days, namely that Tom Golisano may be about to get involved in the AD-64 primary.
Billionaire Thomas Golisano has set his sights on the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, who may soon bear the brunt of the Rochester Republican's new political action committee.
Mr. Golisano, a three-time gubernatorial contender who is forming a PAC to spread his wealth to candidates across the state who pledge their support for his movement against Albany's establishment, is considering bankrolling an effort to topple Mr. Silver, the longest-serving Democratic speaker in state history.
The possibility that one of New York's wealthiest residents, a sharp-tongued, politically unpredictable businessman who has a history of saturating the state airwaves with his self-financed political ads, may target Mr. Silver has provoked some concern within the speaker's political operation, according to a knowledgeable source.
...
A campaign aide to Mr. Newell said the candidate has not had any contact with Mr. Golisano but would reach out to him shortly. A spokeswoman for Mr. Henry was not immediately available for comment.
Shelly enjoys a number of significant advantages in this race, not the least of which is his much larger campaign war chest. Shelly has been fundraising for decades with no opponents to spend it on. Golisano's money could greatly mitigate Shelly's financial edge.
Needless to say, this could make that primary rather interesting.
DFNYC recently held an endorsement vote in the Democratic primary races for US Congress in District 10 (Brooklyn) and NY State Assembly
in District 64 (lower Manhattan), Democracy for NYC members voted to endorse:
Kevin Powell, running against incumbent Congressman Ed Towns in District 10: 72%.
Luke Henry, running against incumbent State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Paul Newell in District 64: 67%.
DFNYC also held an endorsement vote in the State Senate race in District 25, but neither Senator Martin Connor nor Daniel Squadron achieved the 60% necessary for the DFNYC endorsement.
I'm puzzled by the Henry endorsement, ambivalent about the Powell endorsement and truly baffled by the lack of an endorsement in SD-25.
The Obstructionist Is State Assembly leader Sheldon Silver the master of passive-aggressive politics, or the guy who keeps bad things from happening to good people?
Silver's handling of congestion pricing was the latest example of his secretive way of wielding power. He has a remarkable ability to seem to hold two contradictory positions at the same time. Officially, he was in favor of it, because, he says, it would help his district, where we're currently stuck in traffic. But philosophically, he was against it. A personal-injury lawyer by trade, he saw it as just one more overly ambitious big idea from the uptown technocrats-the same people who tried to give the city follies like the West Side stadium, which he also stopped. Plus he was feeling rushed; the mayor wanted to make this momentous change without sufficient time for him to think things through.
Over three decades in Albany, which is consistently cited by good-government groups as one of the most dysfunctional state governments in the country, Silver has become the master of the process. With all the tumult of the last couple of years-Joe Bruno, the leader of the State Senate, under federal investigation; George Pataki, an uninspired Republican governor, replaced by Eliot Spitzer, imperious and quickly self-immolating, leaving David Paterson in his place-Silver has been a constant. Perhaps a bit too constant. For many, even in his party, he's the embodiment of the status quo, too engaged in the maintenance of his own power. Which brings us back to congestion pricing. Silver's job is to keep his assemblymen happy and increase his majority-currently 106 of 150 seats are filled by Democrats-and many of them worried they'd be hurt by congestion pricing.
Haven't had time to read the whole thing yet. Have at it.
There much difference of opinion on this blog with regards to Sheldon Silver. Some see him as a good Democrat, and others see him as a bad democrat (look at the capitalization). But one thing should be clear to all: he is no reformer.
There are many examples of what I believe indicate his contempt for reform, but none is more glaring than his 2002 weekend in Las Vegas at the Paris Las Vegas hotel, where he recieved roughly a 90% discount on a $1,500 hotel room and where the hotel's parent company, Caesars, just coincidentally wanted to build casinos in New York. Even more coincidentally, Shelly had dinner with lobbyists for Ceasars while he was in town- but hey, that's the treatment regular people get too, right?
In recounting this rediculous episode, the New York Times wrote:
Plenty of elected officials need reminding that they were elected to serve, not be served. They were not elected to have their swimming pools built or the roads to their houses repaired, courtesy of the state. Government service is not meant to be a lifestyle enhancer.
Too many politicians figure they can get away with little things because everyone knows you can't be bought for a free dinner or a plane ride.
(snip)
Petty, cheesy morsels of corruption are like the proverbial ''broken windows'' of violent crime. If we all shrug our shoulders and look the other way, the consequences can be dire.
Caesars was later fined by the state lobbying commission, which policed lobbyists, but not legislators. Shelly was not accused of breaking any laws, but he did use $15,000 of his campaign money to hire lawyers.
In the end, Shelly probably didn't do anything illegal. But are these the actions that a reformer would take?
Check out this video (hat tip Azi), of Paul Newell and Luke Henry each saying they are both in their race all the way. I don't think either of them should drop out anytime soon, but Shelly certainly does benefit from a divided opposition.
How bout instead of the candidates telling us which one of them is more electable against Shelly, why doesn't one of our local media orgaizations conduct a poll?
It must be taxpayer funded campaign mailer season. AD-64 challenger Luke Henry sends along this scan of today's entry, this one being sent at your expense by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver:
If it looks like a campaign piece and it walks like a campaign piece...
There has been much discussion today over whether us here at TAP are "anti-Assembly" because of our criticism of Sheldon Silver. But not enough is being discussed about the positive alternatives being presented by Shelly's challengers. For example, there is this nugget from Streetsblog's profile of Newell last week, on reforming Albany:
there should be a limit on the number of bills each legislator is allowed to sponsor. All bills should be submitted to a committee within a certain period of time. Committees must report bills out within 30 or 60 days, depending on the type of bill. Within 30 to 60 days of receiving the bill, they must hold at least one hearing. That hearing must be public, and then report the bill out to the floor for a vote within 30 to 60 days. If a third of legislators sign a release petition, then a bill should be submitted to the floor for a vote. Thereby saying that a bloc of legislators supporting the bill can demand that it be voted on.
All debate should be recorded... Legislators are always going to have conversations behind closed doors, and that's fine. Not everything should take place in public; I understand that that's how it works. But all bills should have public debate, and all votes should be recorded.
And then you can get into conference committees. Every bill should have a conference committee between the state, the Senate, and the Assembly to work out the differences between those bills in public. This is standard stuff that's found in almost every other state legislature.
That's the process stuff; that's the democracy aspect... The ethics stuff is the second thing. We need real campaign finance reform. We need clean money, clean elections, real public financing of elections. It's got to be voluntary because of constitutional issues, but this is already the law in Maine, Vermont, Arizona -- it just came online in Jersey now. In Maine and Vermont and Arizona almost every candidate uses it. What you do is you collect a certain number of donations from people in your district, so in Arizona, if you can get a thousand people in your district to give you five dollars -- I think for New York, five's a little low -- the state will fund you enough to run a campaign in that district. If you are outspent by a privately funded candidate, the state will, by steps, go up to quadruple [the initial public funding] amount. Of course a candidate could still outspend you, but you will have enough money to get your message out and run a campaign. I cannot believe that any candidate for public office would rather spend hours a day on the phone begging people for money -- asking Bruce Ratner and the developers for money -- when they could get it from public financing. That way, in one fell swoop, you eliminate the campaign finance influence on our politics.
Number two, legislators should be required to disclose all outside income. We technically have a part-time legislature. They work about 65 days a year. Many of them have other jobs. Sheldon Silver works for the Weitz & Luxenberg law firm. We know that he does work for them; that's the one thing he is required to disclose. We don't know how much they pay him, how those payments are disbursed. We don't know what work he does to earn this money. We don't know what clients are involved. In essence it is secret payments for secret work. We have no idea what that is, and if that's not a basic recipe for corruption in government, I don't know what is. People choose to be in public office, and when you do, you give up some of your privacy rights. All public officials should disclose all their income, from every source. There's no compromise on that.
This is great and substantive stuff, and a lot of this could be implemented unilaterally by the Assembly tomorrow if they wanted it. I ask all of the Shelly-philes to comment here and tell us what is wrong with these reforms.
UPDATE: Simon, in the comments notes astutely:
That's how the game is played, and played well, in our legislature. Don't take up the easy reforms a house could actually implement by itself, but instead change the topic to worthy but much harder things to implement. Then we can all return to the usual finger-pointing fun without having to make any actual changes.
One of the reasons I look forward to a Democratic Senate takeover is that we'll finally be able to gauge just how serious the Assembly is about the content of their one-house bills when there's a real chance of them being implemented. In particular, I hope Democrats retain their appetite for campaign finance reform once they're in power.
(Thanks to Paul for crossposting this. I was hoping to post my own response last night, but got carried away with other work. I'll be posting my own thoughts about this later today. - promoted by phillip anderson)
First let me say that I have great respect for the Working Families Party, and I intend to ask for their endorsement. WFP has, by in large, been a force for progressive change in New York State. I have disagreed with a number of WFP decisions -in particular their support for conservative Republican State Senators. I recognize, however, that the WFP is trying to use its influence as wisely as possible in an impossibly corrupt Albany and that they do so with the interests of poor and working New Yorkers in mind. Often, this requires supporting the status quo to maintain a foot in the (generally closed) door. It is in this spirit that I read Mr. Cantor's critique on my campaign. I do not agree with the strategy, but I do understand and respect it.
However, to say that "an attack on [Silver] from the left is, well, intellectually shallow and politically naive" is, while anything but naïve, intellectually dishonest.
Looks like Shelly's bringing out the big guns a whopping four months before a single vote is cast. Voters across the 64th AD got this flyer in the mail yesterday:
Sheldon Silver is pulling out all the stops as Paul Newell's grassroots challenge gains traction. Despite having more than $3 Million in his campaign fund, Silver has already turned to third party special interests to fund his campaign.
Yesterday, 1199 and the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) filled 64th Assembly District mailboxes with a 2-sided, full color 8½" X 11" mailer praising Silver. GNYHA and 1199, which recently gave $100,000 to Republican Joe Bruno, have long been recognized as among the savviest operators in Albany's lobbying culture.
Paul Newell responded to the piece, saying "The problem is not the mailer itself, it is the pay-to-play culture in Albany. Silver and Bruno have put the word out that the way to get something from New York State government is to spend big money supporting the status quo." Newell continued, "No amount of special interest money will hide the fact that Sheldon Silver has been failing the people of Lower Manhattan for decades."
The highly unusual timing of the piece - more than four months before Silver's first contested primary in 22 years - is clear proof that Silver is concerned about community organizer Paul Newell's campaign. Evan Hutchison, Newell's Campaign Manager reacted, saying "We knew that Sheldon Silver's millions in special interest money would come into play, we just didn't expect him to start calling in favors so early in the campaign. They are obviously scared". Newell has already knocked on over 4,000 doors and distributed over 10,000 flyers to voters in the district.
In another sign of concern, Silver recently hired high-priced campaign consultants BerlinRosen to manage his defense against Newell's aggressive grassroots campaign. The hire is Silver's first such move in over 20 years.
Today, BlogPac is thrilled to announce our first endorsement in the Blue to Bluer campaign: Paul Newell for New York State Assembly. Newell is running against New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the Democratic primary, which will take place on September, so we will have a lot of time to grow familiar with Paul, and work on this campaign. You can visit Paul's website here.
...
New York is one of the bluest states in the nation, and as such should be a national leader when it comes to progressive policy. In 2009, after Democrats take control of the State Senate (right now, they are only one seat away), it is imperative that Democrats have progressive leadership in the State Assembly that can make it happen along with Governor David Paterson. It is in this way that defeating Sheldon Silver can help bring progressive change across the entire nation, and not just to New York State.
Paul Newell for New York State Assembly, and for progressive leadership around the country. No ask for activism today--just an introduction. In the coming days, BlogPac will be unveiling more endorsements in Blue to Bluer, and also offer more ways to become familiar with the endorsed candidates. If you have more candidate suggestions in your local area, please email me at christopher_j_bowers@yahoo.com. Let's keep building the progressive movement from the ground up.
You can read my nomination of Newell over at Open Left and here's some video I shot of Paul this morning:
The 33-year-old attorney who lives in the East Village should get the hang of it soon enough: Two weeks ago, he took a leave of absence from his job to launch a full-time campaign to oust the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver. Although the fliers Mr. Henry is handing out say "Choose Change," his motto might as well be "Get Rid of the Roadblock."
"Speaker Silver is the obstacle toward real reform," he said yesterday."Nothing is going to change in the state Assembly while he's still there and you can sit back and watch or do something about it and people want to do something about it, and I am one of them."
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Mr. Henry's campaign Web site details his stance on a host of issues, indicating that he'll advocate repealing the Urstadt law so that local officials would have control over the city's rental laws; fight for public financing of state elections and a ban on political contributions from lobbyists and corporations, and work to create universal health care coverage in New York State.
...
"Silver is an obstacle towards making progress on these issues. None of these issues are easy and they require a real professional legislator and experts who can look at these issues seriously and everything that is done in Albany is done in a ham-handed way," he said. "Removing Silver is a way towards achieving progress on these issues."
"I need to get a few thousand people to vote for me," he said. "Sheldon Silver is a very powerful man in Albany. He's not that powerful downtown."
Mr. Newell is running on two issues: accountability and "affordable" housing, both of which, he said, Mr. Silver is against.
He accuses the speaker of "blocking development of 'affordable' housing in downtown for 20 years" and also blames him for "killing" congestion pricing, an issue, he said, that is "the perfect demonstration of Sheldon Silver's contempt for the democratic process and the concerns for Lower Manhattanites."
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He has hired a campaign manager, Evan Hutchison, a grassroots campaigner for General Wesley Clark and Senator Kerry in the 2004 presidential race. And he's prepared to tap into personal funds. He feels confident, however, that voters across the state will fork over cash once he informs them the identity of his opponent. "There are millions of people in this state who don't like Sheldon Silver. Some of them use the Internet and some of them answer phone calls," he said.
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In Washington State, he landed his first paid political job, a field organizer for what would be the final campaign of Rep. Tom Foley, the U.S. House speaker whose defeat in 1994 has ironically given Mr. Newell confidence in retrospect. "It taught me that a sitting speaker of a legislative body can be beaten in his home district," he said.
This is stinging, even by the Times' board standards. But can one really argue with it?
Rarely does one man have a chance to do so much harm to so many.
New Yorkers should remember Monday as the day Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, used the power of his office to deprive them of $354 million in federal funds to help mass transporation, ease traffic congestion and improve the air that all New Yorkers breathe.
Backed by his Democratic conference, the speaker killed congestion pricing in the most cowardly way: without even holding a vote. Mr. Silver said so many members of his own conference were against the plan that it would never pass. How many? Who knows? The speaker hid behind closed doors to keep the public from watching his cronies do the deed.
(snip)
We've seen Mr. Silver's style of leadership before. In 1999, he cavalierly killed the commuter tax, costing the city, so far, more than $5.5 billion. It's always difficult to pinpoint the motivations of the opaque and narrowly political Mr. Silver. Certainly, the speaker has made little effort to disguise his personal dislike for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who proposed congestion pricing. But there is no place for personal grudges in leading the state and city of New York.
The congestion-pricing plan was not perfect, but it improved over time. Mr. Silver did not seem to put any effort into addressing the concerns of its opponents or into moving his members to do the right thing.
He failed to put New Yorkers' needs before his personal agenda. That makes him unworthy of his office.
Shelly's idiot cheerleaders will have you believe that none of this matters because the vote in the Assembly Democratic caucus was overwhelmingly opposed to pricing. However, one item they selectively ignore is that the GOP minority was largely in favor of it, and the only point of debate was if Tedisco could actually deliver the unanimous vote of his conference.
Of course, we will never know if Tedisco would have been able to deliver his conference unanimously or if it actually would have passed the whole Assembly, but the vote wouldn't have been by as wide a margin as Shelly's brown-nosers would like to portray it.
Additionally, Azi has an explanation why pricing was never brought to a vote:
It should be noted that one practical reason that Silver didn't bring the bill to the floor for of the state Assembly for a vote, where his Democratic conference outnumbers Republicans 107 to 43, is that if he did, and if the Republican minority decided to vote together for the measure, it could have passed with a minority of support from the Assembly Democratic conference. And that would have established a precedent which would destablize the absolute control Silver has in that house.
It's democracy as defined by the members of an unassailable supermajority.
Poll below the fold- I fully expect it to be freep'd, but I don't care.
We would remind everyone that a consensus among the majority of the Assembly majority does not constitute a majority of the Assembly. We would also note that voters have the right to know their representatives' stance on key issues, regardless of whether legislators proactively use their "right and ability" to share their points of view. This is just one highly charged example of Assembly leadership protecting its members from accountability with their constituents.
In another thread, I asked where Luke Henry's statement was. Well, ask and you shall receive. Henry chimes in in an emailed press release:
"The conference has decided that they are not prepared to do congestion pricing," Speaker Silver, April 7, 2008
A Leadership Vacuum
What happened in Albany today is, unfortunately, more of the same. "The failure on congestion pricing is just the latest example of Speaker Silver's back-room, last-minute style of governing," said Luke Henry, Democratic challenger to Speaker Silver for the 64th Assembly District seat. "No part of this city would benefit more from congestion pricing than Lower Manhattan," said Henry. "That Speaker Silver would not even bring this important and progressive piece of legislation to a vote shows that he cares more about protecting his own interests than improving the lives of downtown New Yorkers."
Congestion Pricing Benefits Lower Manhattan
Congestion pricing was proposed a year ago to deal with the pressing environmental, public transportation, and traffic problems facing our city. Traffic to and from three bridges and one tunnel congests lower Manhattan, and virtually every subway line traverses the district. The reduced congestion, cleaner air, faster transportation times, and improvements to public transportation would greatly benefit the residents of the 64th Assembly district.
"The voters, the City Council, the Mayor, and the Governor all support congestion pricing - why doesn't Speaker Silver have the same courage and vision?"
Both challengers are smart to make this an issue and do so immediately. Shelly essentially spit in his constituent's faces today. He needs to be called on it.
Challenger Paul Newell is calling out Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for his punt on congestion pricing. The fact is that no district in all of New York would have benefited more from congestion pricing more than Shelly's own. His constituents should be absolutely furious as Shelly has once again decided to ignore their interests once again. From an emailed press release:
Today, Paul Newell, Sheldon Silver's challenger in this year's 64th Assembly District Democratic Primary, criticized Silver's backroom dealings denying accountable government to New Yorkers, saying "Sheldon Silver's failure to even schedule a vote on congestion pricing shows his contempt for both the democratic process and concerns of Lower Manhattanites."
Newell continued to criticize Silver's deceptive approach. "New Yorkers deserve a legislature that openly debates issues rather than quietly killing them behind closed doors. After 32 years in Albany, Sheldon Silver's culture of failure denies accountability and representation to 19 million New Yorkers, and stifles innovative policy solutions. Congestion Pricing is too important an issue to be swept under the rug by Sheldon Silver".
Silver's secretive pre-emption of any vote on the issue comes on the heels of his refusing to disclose his highly suspicious side income with a powerful NY law firm. "Silver's continuing trend of secrecy and his subversion of the voter's right to have their leaders actually lead had caused too much damage to our state," Newell added.
Congestion pricing is of vital concern to Lower Manhattan. Newell pointed out that the 64th Assembly District includes the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, with the Holland Tunnel just a few blocks away, saying "There is no community in New York State more directly impacted by traffic congestion than ours".
Only 2.3% of Lower Manhattanites drive to work and the vast majority of Downtowners use public transportation. These riders stood to gain from congestion pricing with urgently needed improvements at the Brooklyn Bridge, Whitehall Street, East Broadway, Bowery, Grand Street and South Ferry subway stations and increased service on the M15 bus line.
Noting that all three Lower Manhattan City Councilmember supported the home rule message, Paul Newell asked why Silver is so out of step with the district's needs. "It's clear that Silver views his constituency as the caucus in Albany and not the people of Lower Manhattan What is the point of being represented by the Speaker when he fails to stand up for our vital concerns?".
Well put and Newell is smart to pound Shelly on this issue. In the context of the interests of people of the 64th AD, Shelly's deep sixing of congestion pricing is simply indefensible.
While Gov. David Paterson and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno have embraced congestion pricing, the third man in the Albany power triangle, Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, has been his usual reticent self. Worse, Mr. Silver has said that he would not put a congestion pricing bill to a vote until after the state budget, now officially late, is resolved, perhaps by the end of the week. That's cutting it close because the deadline for collecting $354 million in federal money to implement congestion pricing is Monday. Mr. Silver can do better.
Congestion pricing has been put through its paces, many of them dictated by Mr. Silver. At his urging, a commission composed of representatives of top city and state elected officials was appointed. It markedly improved on Mr. Bloomberg's plan. Mr. Silver also asked for the City Council to approve the plan first, providing cover for state legislators to follow suit.
Now it is Mr. Silver's turn. He needs to schedule congestion pricing for a floor vote this week while there is still time to meet the federal deadline.
Once again, Michael Bloomberg has defied public opinion polls and noisy skeptics, lined up bipartisan support from the Democratic governor and the Republican State Senate and won over city lawmakers in support of an idea that would have a profound impact in New York City.
And once again, his big plan-this time, to impose a toll on cars driving into midtown Manhattan-faces a immovable obstacle in Sheldon Silver, who often seems to be the most powerful politician in New York.
(snip)
Of the three people who actually control the state's unwieldy, anachronistic state government, two-Governor David Paterson and the Senate majority leader, Joe Bruno-support the plan. Mr. Silver, as is his wont, has not taken a clear position either way, instead expressing vaguely defined concerns about the details that are available while demanding more information about the aspects that have yet to be worked out.
In voting to endorse congestion pricing, the City Council recognized the plan for what it is: the biggest boost for New York mass transit in decades.
The Legislature must show the same wisdom. Albany lawmakers - notably Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Democrats - should approve pouring the billions of dollars that would flow from congestion pricing into transportation improvements.
Ball's in your court, Shelly. Hope you do the right thing, or you better be prepared to do a lot of 'splaining to your district come September.
Silver doesn't usually hire campaign consultants because he doesn't usually have to campaign.
The speaker usually faces only token Republican opposition in his Democrat-dominated district on the Lower East Side, which hasn't posed much of a problem, given his considerable clout and fundraising prowess (not to mention his control of the member item system).
This year, however, for the first time in two decades, Silver has (at the moment, anyway) not one, but two Democratic primary opponents: Paul Newell and Luke Henry.
Paul Newell Calls for Sheldon Silver to Act on Congestion Pricing
Paul Newell today called for Sheldon Silver to stop pandering to special interests and stand up for the children in his own district by stopping his equivocating on congestion pricing. Newell, a lifelong Downtowner and community organizer, is challenging Silver in September's Democratic Primary for New York's 64th Assembly District.
"Sheldon Silver's continued fence-sitting on the issue of congestion pricing is endangering its possibility of passage, and with it, he is endangering the lives of countless children in the Lower East Side, Chinatown and Battery Park City. Congestion pricing is the best hope to combat the terrible epidemic of asthma that is gripping the children of our district and children all over congested parts of New York City. Speaker Silver's callousness to their needs is breathtaking."
Asthma is tolling a public health disaster on the children of the 64th District. News reports indicate that roughly 1-in-5 children enrolled in the P.S. 124 after-school program are afflicted with Asthma. An air sample taken by the Daily News last June found that the air on Canal Street at rush hour had 500,000 particles per cubic centimeter, the highest of any sample taken by that survey.
The 64th Assembly District includes the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, with the Holland Tunnel just a few blocks away. The one-way tolls on the Verrazano and the Holland Tunnel mean that tens of thousands of out-of-town trucks and private vehicles a day use Lower Manhattan as a thoroughfare to avoid tolls. By ending this free ride, Congestion Pricing would solve this problem immediately.
Newell went on to note that while only 2.3% of Lower Manhattanites drive to work in the congestion zone, "the vast majority of Downtowners use public transportation every day. Why is Silver so unconcerned about securing a long-term source of revenue for public transportation?" Newell continued "This is a vital public health and quality of life issue for the overwhelming majority of Downtown families. Sheldon Silver's absence on the issue exemplifies the broken system in Albany where a legislator's personal power alliances take precedence over the concerns of New Yorkers."
Citing Canal, Broome, Allen and Pike Streets, Division Street, West Street, Christie Street, and Delancey Street as examples of where "the levels of congestion, noise and air pollution are unacceptable" Newell asked "Of 150 assembly districts in New York, none benefits so clearly from Congestion Pricing as the 64th. What interests is Silver serving here instead of showing the leadership our community deserves?"
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Supporting congestion pricing in the 64th AD is a no-brainer- some of the worst asthma zones are in that district, and its revenues will also be very strategically important in securing money to extend the second avenue subway to lower Manhattan. Yet, again, Shelly continues to take an important issue and subordinate it to being a bargaining chip in some political deal.
With Paterson and Bruno on board for pricing, Shelly is the last roadblock. I feel if he lets it fail, the voters in his district will remember this with a vengeance come September.
