Yet another reason that Carl Palin-dino would be a miserable failure as a Governor, is that he would fill our government with political hacks with ethical weaknesses (even more so than usual). The Times just published an enlightening expose:
But some of the people whom Mr. Paladino has recruited to run his campaign are plagued by brushes with the law and allegations of misconduct, an examination of public records shows.
His campaign manager failed to pay nearly $53,000 in federal taxes over the last few years, prompting the Internal Revenue Service to take action against him. An aide who frequently drives Mr. Paladino on the campaign trail served jail time in Arizona on charges of drunken driving.
Another adviser has been indicted on charges of stealing more than $1 million from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's re-election bid last year. And Mr. Paladino's campaign chairwoman left a local government position amid claims that she had steered $1 billion in public money to a politically connected investment manager.
Their backgrounds could raise questions about the kind of cabinet Mr. Paladino, a Republican, would assemble if elected in November and cast doubt on his ability to radically remake the dysfunctional culture of Albany, government watchdogs said.
And who did Palin-dino hire to be his campaign driver? Why, the crazy teabagger Rus Thompson, who is certainly qualified to be a campaign driver, but not a communications strategist, because he is a teabagging blogger with a DUI. But at least Palin-dino's campaign manager, Michael Caputo has an enlightened view of this:
In an interview, Michael R. Caputo, the campaign manager who ran afoul of the I.R.S., said, "This is a campaign of junkyard dogs, not pedigreed poodles."
Yeah, people who live their lives ethically are "pedigreed poodles." Only pussies don't go around embezzling funds and cheating the IRS! And of course, only a multimillionaire businessman has the real-man mentality to protect our state from all those pedigreed poodles and their elitist ethics!
"I have a plan, I have an agenda, I have positions. Carl Paladino has a platform. I want to make sure New Yorkers all across the state understand the difference between them."
First it was the Jews, when Carl Paladino compared Shelly Silver to Adolf Hiter and earned the absolute outrage of the Jewish community. Then it was African-American's, with whom Paladino has an especially checkered past . Now it's Italian-Americans, a community somewhat more likely to vote Republican that the last two but a community where Andrew Cuomo has solid roots.
They will keep slinging mud. They will keep bringing up the Democratic nominee's father. They will keep pushing and needling him for not running an active enough campaign, complete with sly Italian references and whatever else they can cook up under the belief that they are getting under Cuomo's skin, convinced that they can make the candidate his own worst enemy.
"This game is not played in short pants," said Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo. "We will keep popping smoke and dropping it in his hole until he comes out. The only question is: How much will he be coughing when he emerges?"
Democratic State Sen. Diane Savino, head of the New York Conference Of Italian-American Legislators, is out with a letter telling GOP gubnernatorial candidate Carl Paladino that ethnic references have no place in this year's governor's race...
Savino wrote, in part:
...
"In an environment where people still believe it is acceptable to degrade our shared cultural heritage, whether it be mob references or the buffoonery of the "Jersey Shore", it is simply unacceptable for you to lower the discourse even further, particularly in a gubernatorial campaign," she wrote. "New York State faces great challenges ahead. As someone who aspires to be the Chief Executive of the State of New York we ask that you show leadership and immediately cease and desist any attacks based on Mr. Cuomo's ethnicity or that of any other individual."
We all knew from his racist and sexist e-mail habits that Carl Paladino is not exactly New York's most tolerant guy. But the continued ethnic attacks on some of New York's largest ethnic groups makes it all the more clear that Carl Paladino is not fit to lead as diverse a state as New York. We need a governor who understands and respects our ethnic diversity, not one who plays ethnic groups off each other to divide and conquer.
Of course it's obvious what Paladino's strategy will be to deflect these attacks. Last time he trotted Thurman Thomas in the classic conservative response of "I can't be a racist because I have this good black friend". This time he'll need to find a notable Italian-American who can attest to the fact that Paladino really does love the Italian community. He'll need a notable Republican Italian-American, someone New Yorkers can trust, someone who has a history of opposition to Democratic policies...
I wonder how much Snooki is charging for public appearances these days?
Yeah, there should be caveats aplenty with reading this poll and one would think that being caught red handed sending racist emails as well as ones depicting, ahem, bestiality, would severely effect the popularity of a major party candidate for governor of the state of New York. Looks like, at least as far as this Quinnipiac poll, you'd be wrong.
Among likely voters, the Democrat Cuomo has a paltry 49% to 43% lead over Paladino, the blowhard Buffalo businessman who won a shocking and decisive victory last week in the GOP primary, the Quinnipiac University poll finds.
Quinnipiac's findings are in stark contrast to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday that showed Cuomo with a more robust 54% to 38% lead.
Cuomo "might be a victim of his own excess," Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said. "Politicians and polls have depicted him so relentlessly as a sure thing that he might be a victim of the 'throw the bums out' attitude that hits incumbents in this angry year."
Lots to digest and lots to take with a mighty hefty grain of salt in this poll, but maybe it's time to also start hitting Carl on his crazy policy ideas as well. Yeah, he's a racist, a kook, a sexist and probably an anti-Semite - and plenty of people still don't know that. They should definitely be educated to that fact. But, it's also plainly obvious that it's time to start making the case against Carl on substance as well, no matter how you read this poll.
His Manhattan jaunt began early on Monday with an interview at the headquarters of Fox News, where he seemed awed by the hive of activity around him well before 8 a.m. "Why do you guys get up so early?" he asked a reporter.
After Paterson, what New York needs is a Governor who is hard-working. We do not need a Governor who is going to lay in bed all day and read the heritage foundation website. Our state has too many problems for a lazy, ideologically-blind, old crank to take the helm for the next 4 years.
Andrew Cuomo has announced he will indeed investigate Ruben Diaz Sr. for parking his campaign fans at his church, in clear violation of rules governing non-profit entities.
The good thing about Democracy is that there's always an election sometime in the not-too-distant future. Diaz may have cruised last Tuesday but if this investigation gains traction, voters in the district might treat Diaz's corruption the same way the voters of the 33rd treated Pedro's in 2012.
Rick Lazio, having found the ticket for actually getting people to notice he exists, has resorted to straight-up bigoted lies in his crusade against moderate, peace-loving Muslim New Yorkers. Check out this ridiculous advertisement:
He calls Imam Rauf a "terrorist sympathizing Imam."
If someone like Imam Rauf is "terrorist-sympathizing," then Rick Lazio is a bigot who hates all muslims. If the Cordoba House is something repugnant to conservatives like Rick Lazio, they are saying that no muslim can be moderate enough to not be a terrorist. And that is called bigotry, ladies and gentlemen.
At least most New Yorkers aren't falling for his strategy of demonize and divide:
Cuomo leads Lazio 60-26% and Paladino by 60-27% percent.
In a three-way race, Cuomo garners 56% to 19% for Lazio (identified as a Republican) and 12 percent for Paladino (identified as an independent). In a three-way race identifying Paladino as the Republican and Lazio as the Conservative, Cuomo leads 56% to 16% for Lazio, and 14% for Paladino. Lazio's primary lead over Paladino among enrolled Republicans is down to 13 points, 43-30%, down from a 20-point lead in July, the poll shows.
But then, isn't it always true that bigots are usually people who are failures in their own lives who seek to divert attention to others to distract from their own failures? Thanks for reminding everybody of that, Mr. Lazio.
I'm loving the wonkiness coming out of the Cuomo camp these days. After the 250-page "New NY Agenda," the campaign has now released Power NY, a 150-pager on energy policy.
None of this is truly revolutionary in clean energy circles, but it's incredibly heartening to have a gubernatorial candidate embrace what is largely consensus among clean energy policy supporters as stated policy. It's a pretty comprehensive plan involving efficiency, smart grid, and increased use of renewables. Definitly worth a read.
The fervor over the planned Cordoba House a few blocks from the World Trade Center continues with no end in sight. Statewide Republican candidates such as Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino have stumbled over each other to figure out who can sound like the stronger opponent against the plan and which one of them can call Andrew Cuomo an American-hating terrorist for his lack of outrage. National Republican leaders have jumped in and called on proponents to, uh, "refudiate" the charges that the sponsors are tied to Islamic terrorist organizations and that they don't want to destroy America.
Personally, I have a question that I'd like the opponents to "refudiate". Prove to me and the rest of us that you're not ignorant Islamophobic racists. Go ahead, I dare you.
A full month after Luke Martland called on Senator Neil Breslin to fully disclose his list of clients, citing numerous credible sources, the Senator continues his refusal to confirm that there is no conflict of interest in his being an of counsel attorney at a union-busting and insurance-lobby law firm while the Senator sits as Chairman of the Insurance Committee in the Senate.
Today, Luke Martland adds gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo to his list of sources to bolster his argument:
BRESLIN IGNORES MARTLAND'S CALL FOR FULL DISCLOSURE OF TAX RECORDS, LAW FIRM CLIENT LIST AND SALARY
Andrew Cuomo Called for Full Disclosure in Acceptance Speech
June 3, 2010
(Albany) - Thirty days have passed since Senate candidate and former prosecutor Luke Martland called on 14-year incumbent Neil Breslin to release his tax records, law firm client list and salary. Martland released his own state and federal tax records to the press on Monday, May 3, 2010.
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"It has been a month since I called on Neil Breslin to release his tax records, law firm client list and salary," said Martland. "If Breslin has nothing to hide, why doesn't he simply disclose this information," questioned Martland.
Martland's call for Breslin to release this information has been echoed by the Attorney General, the press, a large bar association and a federal judge.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called for full disclosure of outside sources of income for lawmakers at his nomination acceptance speech last week.
::
Despite these calls for full disclosure, Breslin has repeatedly refused to divulge his law firm client list and law firm salary.
For the record, Cuomo's statement reads as such, from the transcript of his campaign announcement video:
My Clean Up Albany Plan will enact strict new ethics laws, require full disclosure of all legislators' outside income, and have a real independent monitor, because self-policing is an oxymoron.
I'm assuming Sen. Breslin is supporting the future Governor's election. But will he actually take action and reveal his client list, or will he prove Cuomo's axiom that "self-policing is an oxymoron" is true? A recent interview in the Legislative Gazette by Faith Burkins-Gizmet reveals Breslin's arrogance:
Martland recently called on Breslin to release his 2009 tax forms, including income from the law firm where Breslin is of counsel, Hiscock and Barclay.
Breslin maintains he has already done that, providing the documents to the Albany Times Union in January after the newspaper asked all lawmakers to disclose their finances.
Martland also demanded that Breslin release a list of his law firm's clients, citing that the public has a right to know if there is a possible conflict of interest.
Breslin said he finds this argument "absurd." He said none of his clients have any business with the Legislature, and they are guaranteed confidentiality by law. He said it would be an ethical violation if he were to disclose his clients' names.
There's nothing to be read from this except arrogance. Breslin seems to believe if he keeps on ignoring these calls that they'll simply go away. How he sees this stubborness helping his campaign is something I simply can't fathom. If he would only reveal the client list as Martland and Cuomo are saying, his challenger and this blogger would have to find something else to write about, right?
As it stands, without a list of names to confirm there is no conflict of interest, there's no proof there is none. But there is proof that, as Cuomo said, self-policing is an oxymoron:
Breslin's continued refusal to provide full disclosure. And that's only one of the reasons Senator Breslin needs to be offerred a retirement package in September's Democratic primary.
The NY Christian Nationalist Party GOP has chosen former Congressman Rick Lazio as its nominee for Governor. While Lazio is clearly the safe choice for the GOP, being neither a Dixiecrat (Levy) nor an utter and complete freak job (Paladino), he categorically cannot win the race for New York Governor in 2010. He lacks the energy and fundraising prowess that would be necessary to even have a chance at beating Cuomo in such a heavily-Democratic state as NY and his past electoral history is underwhelming to say the least.
So let's pop that Chanpagne. I'm officially calling this race for Cuomo. Barring some huge unknown scandal, it's over.
I'm sure there are more than a few people from outside Rochester who are asking themselves just who Bob Duffy is this morning. Back in 2007, the Rochester mayor sat down with DMI's Mayor TV
I don't know, but if this is any indication, we will.
There's lots to digest among these 250 pages of policy details, but overall it's clear that Cuomo wants to be governor because he wants to govern. On first glance, most of these proposals sound great, but mostly everything is subject to legislative approval, and to put it nicely, our legislature doesn't really give a rat's ass about transforming New York for the better, especially if that transformation will step on the toes of some powerful special interests, as many proposals in Cuomo's plan seem likely to do.
It's also gutsy of Cuomo to announce such a sweepingly detailed plan considering how far ahead he is in the polls. The cautious thing to do would be to stay mum on specifics because it would give his opponents less to attack him with. Personally, I'm glad Cuomo isn't acting cautiously at this early stage because if we're going to drain the Albany swamp, we need to throw caution to the wind.
In terms of the substance of the plan, here are a few first impressions:
* There is a lot of great stuff on Albany reform. Cuomo is promising to veto any gerrymandered redistricting and also a reform of campaign finance. I hope he sticks to his guns when the pressure mounts on this, as the Legislature is not going to accept this without being dragged kicking and screaming.
* There are some things in here that are going to not please the public employee unions, like a wage freeze for all state workers. The public employee unions are going to have to make sacrifices along with everyone else in the state in these dire economic times, but they aren't going to take it easily. Although I applaud Cuomo's willingness to ask for sacrifices from his own base, I personally disagree with a wage freeze and a new pension tier. A smarter move would be to to pay state employees more upfront and not give any kind of pension. Public employes can contribute to their own retirement accounts out of their paychecks like private sector workers, and in compensation for the removal of pensions, those paychecks should be substantially increased. There's a reason why NY is going bankrupt and that reason is pensions. And pensions also contribute to lower up-front pay, which discourages attracting young talent and discourages mobility in the public sector labor market. Need evidence? Only 14% of the state's workers are under 35.
* Cuomo is also calling for a constitutional convention to fix a lot of the structural problems with the way the state operates. This is a good idea.
* I'm very glad that Cuomo is running on municipal consolidation. Everybody agrees that the vast number of local government bodies are the driving force behind the inexorable rise in property taxes, and it would be good to build upon last year's municipal consolidation statute. Cuomo also wants to clean house with the redundant state agencies and authorities, and more power to him.
* Great stuff on infrastructure, including creating a state infrastructure bank, although the plan does not specify how much capital will be used to seed it.
* I would have liked some more specifics on the environmental agenda, but I doubt Cuomo could be worse than Paterson in this regard.
Yesterday evening I got an email from a prominent upstate Democrat I know, dropping me some information on a brewing situation with next week's New York State Democratic Convention.
The message was short and to the point: a number of people believe that the convention is effectively being rigged by the newly out of the closet Cuomo campaign in order to get their preferred candidate the Democratic nomination for Attorney General--that candidate being former Republican and fellow down-stater Kathleen Rice.
One of these people, the Montgomery County Democratic chair, went so far as to write a letter to state committee members encouraging a fair and open convention process, a letter I got my hands on a copy of.
Dear State Committee Member,
I wanted to take a minute to write about next week's convention, and the race for Attorney General.
I'm sure you saw today's New York Times article, which suggests that the convention process is being manipulated to benefit one candidate, at the expense of other qualified candidates. I think that's wrong, and it's not what the Democratic Party is all about.
Our party is blessed with a number of qualified candidates for Attorney General, and they all deserve a chance to get on the ballot, unimpeded. Democratic primary voters - and not a handful of insiders - should decide who our nominee is this fall. Regardless of whether or not you have chosen your candidate, I hope that you would agree with me that the process should be open and democratic.
I have endorsed Eric Dinallo, who won the Democratic Rural Conference Straw Poll by a convincing margin of two-to-one over the second place candidate -- earning nearly as many votes as all of the other candidates combined. Eric has secured the endorsement of 26 County Chairs from across our state, demonstrating the broad appeal of his candidacy - and, in my view, proving that he'll be our strongest possible candidate in the general election. Eric's not a career politician; he's an independent thinker and a fierce advocate for justice. From fighting violent crime as a prosecutor, to taking on Wall Street in the AG's office, to battling Big Insurance as Insurance Superintendent, Eric's shown that he has the experience, creativity, strength - and the independence -- we need in our next Attorney General.
Like many Upstate Democrats, I'm uncomfortable with the idea of a handful of party insiders determining who gets on the ballot. Please join me in telling our party leaders that we want a Democratic convention that's truly democratic.
Look forward to seeing you next week,
Bethany Schumann-McGhee
Montgomery County Chair
Why would the newly minted leader of the NY Democrats, a guy who is already pretty much expected to win by at least a two thirds majority, interfere in the party process to pick a former Republican to run for his old job? Particularly one who treated her former gig as Nassau County DA as a chance for political grandstanding, pontificating about drunk drivers and sex offenders, which I'm sure are the most pressing sorts of crimes in the second richest county in America.
Short answer? Rice is apparently counting on Cuomo's coattails to get her into office. Cuomo reportedly favors her, and the convention delegates are afraid to cross him over the issue. Moreover, if you look into the records, Cuomo has been fundraising for Rice since October of 2009, which may help to account for the couple million dollars in cash which vaulted her into the top tier candidates past people like Eric Schneiderman. That leaves you with an AG who completely owes their job to the new Governor, which is not the way that elections are supposed to work.
The "why" of the thing doesn't really matter at that point. What does matter is that with half the state's county chairs already backing Dinallo, and Rice having fallen flat with both the public and the party faithful outside of the New York City area, a convention that crowns Rice with the nomination is going to meet with a great deal of skepticism--skepticism at best--from the Democratic base if the process isn't unquestionably fair and impartial. A secret ballot would be a good start on that; so would guaranteeing the state committee members from NYC the right to vote as they choose, rather than as the party machine dictates.
Last but not least, speaking from my own perspective. Having a handful of people from downstate select the next AG candidate through internal arm-twisting--including running roughshod over the only candidate to make a serious appeal to rural New Yorkers in, well ever--is an absolute disaster for those of us still trying to build the party out here in the red parts of the state, since it confirms all the worst cliches about state government being run solely of by and for New York City.
I know, Andrew Cuomo doesn't need to care about that--he's still going to win by ten or twenty points even if he never sets foot on a farm or a state park. But he should care, because every voter that we convert up here means a little more support for good government, a little less partisan gridlock, and maybe one more vote in the State Senate over some vital issue to make this a better state.
We're doing all we can up here to change the dynamics in New York State with almost no help from the state party or the state elected officials. Please do not make a mockery of our efforts with some kind of inside baseball hack-job of a convention.
I love New York. I grew up here, I'm raising my three daughters here, and I want New York to work for them like it worked for me. I want to leave them a state that is better, fairer, and stronger than ever before.
Sadly, our state government has failed our people. It has been paralyzed all too often by partisan politics and corruption.
We must change all that. It's time to overhaul our government -- clean it up, pare it down and make it work.
That's why I'm running for Governor. But this campaign can't succeed without your help, so my first step is asking you to join me today.
Check out the site, especially the part about 'New York doesn't work'.
We all know that Christopher St. Lawrence wears many hats: Town Supervisor, Rockland County Sewage Commissioner, Chairman of Ramapo Local Development Corporation, Harvard graduate, Lieutenant Governor candidate, but now he's a super cop?
St. Lawrence is putting himself right in the middle of the Lawrence Taylor rape scandal by declaring himself the police commissioner for the Town of Ramapo and appearing in virtually all the town's interviews concerning this case. St. Lawrence, as Town Supervisor may, in fact, be a civlian commissioner of his town's police department (we'll check into that), but he is not a law enforcement officer, he doesn't carry a badge, and it's disingenuous to see him present himself as such to CBS News. See the clip below:
As many of you are probably aware, last weekend was the annual Democratic Rural Conference, which brings together Democratic activists and party members from New York's 47 rural counties, along with state and local elected officials at the highest level, for 24 hours of networking, free booze, popularity contests, and inadequate air conditioning. This is my report on the 2010 DRC.
For Governor David Paterson, the Q Poll has one piece of good news. His favorable rating is up to 38 percent - the highest it has been since earlier this year. The last four Q Polls had Paterson's favorable rating under 30 percent. That favorable rating is padded by New York City, where respondents had a 49 percent favorable rating of Paterson. Elsewhere, Paterson's favorable rating was between 31 to 35 percent.
In the hypothetical Democratic primary between Paterson and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Cuomo wins 60 percent to 23 percent. Paterson would defeat Republican Rick Lazio 41 percent to 37 percent but Cuomo would win easily over Lazio 62 percent to 22 percent.
In the race for the seat currently held by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, 2009 New York City mayoral candidate Bill Thompson would defeat Gillibrand in a primary, according to the poll. Among registered Democrats, Thompson beats Gillibrand 41 percent to 28 percent.
What is interesting about this though is that Gillibrand fares better than Thompson against Rudy Giuliani in the general election. Giuliani would defeat Gillibrand 50 percent to 40 percent while the former New York City mayor would knock off Thompson by a 52 percent to 36 percent vote.
Gillibrand's favorable rating is similar to where it was when she was appointed to the post. She has a 26 percent favorable rating - only one percentage point higher than what it was in January 2009.
For Thompson, the favorable rating isn't much better. His favorable rating comes in at 25 percent, so while he might be ahead of Gillibrand in a primary, his favorable rating isn't higher and is right on par with Gillibrand. So while some question Gillibrand's viability as a candidate, her prospective challengers have never fared any better in this department.
But perhaps the most interesting finding in the poll was Governor Paterson's job approval rating. His favorable rating and electoral ratings aside, his job approval rating is at 40 percent. His disapproval rating is at 49 percent. So while his disapproval rating is still high, having the approval rating he has at this point is encouraging for him. It also might help him in his argument that he can run in 2010 and be a viable candidate, although other polls down the road might change that.
The Governor's numbers continue their swan dive in to record "holy crap" territory in today's new Siena Poll.
The numbers for Paterson are pretty much universally bad, but the one that really sticks out is this one. Only 12 percent of New Yorkers are prepared to vote for Paterson next year. A whopping 71 percent are looking to vote for an unnamed "someone else." The Governor even loses out to his immediate predecessors as New Yorkers would prefer to see Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, or even Eliot Spitzer back in office over Paterson.
"Voters are pining for the days of Mario Cuomo (39 percent) and George Pataki (33 percent) as Governor," Greenberg said. "A plurality of Democrats and independent voters would choose Mario and a majority of Republicans chose George. While 14 percent of all voters want to see Spitzer back in the Capitol, only eight percent would opt to have Paterson as Governor if choosing among the last four to hold that office."
That's gotta hurt.
In other news, a majority of the state now supports Marriage Equality for all New Yorkers, support that is strongest in New York City, but is strong in all regions of the state.
