|
This belongs to you. Take it back...
|
John McArdle 
Thu Oct 30, 2008 at 15:12:13 PM EDT
|
James Heaney, a reporter for The Buffalo News, does great investigative reporting for the News and also authors his own blog for the newspaper. Today he took a look at the New York State Legislature and its rather expensive public relations costs:
Many state Senators, and some Assembly members, have a press spokesman on their office staff. In addition, the Senate spent $1 million last budget year to employ 15 in its central press offices, and another 20 people and $1.3 million in something called the "Senate Communications/Director's Office." The boss, John McArdle, made $180,000 last year. Plus a state car.
...
Both chambers operate a variety of "communication" services. They employ web site designers, graphic artists, photographers, television producers, event coordinators and the like.
The Senate employs no fewer than seven photographers, including four full-timers, who make up to $42,600. I can't imagine there's enough work to keep them busy during the session, much less the other seven or eight months of the year.
The Assembly, not to be undone, has a "Radio/TV and Photography" department. Two of them, actually, one for the Democrats, another for the Republicans. They employ only one photographer, but 26 other people, at a cost of $1.5 million last budget year. Among the job titles: Reporter.
I think not.
Add up all the assorted PR functions and you have 87.5 jobs and $5.3 million in spending on the Senate side and 106.5 jobs and $5.5 million in the Assembly.
(Note: I must say that Heaney did link to us - see McArdle link above - and that is partially why I'm writing about this. The other part is that it's disgusting how much is being spent on PR.)
That doesn't factor in the mail and printing costs Heaney mentions in his piece, which also add up.
Let's think about this for a second. As a blogger, I work for free. I can record video pretty well (especially when I have a tripod in tow) and I have taken literally thousands of pictures of candidates over the last year. That doesn't even take into account my writing. I have contributed hundreds of posts to TAP and have read hundreds, if not thousands, of press releases and have seen the material that is put out. I work for free, except if you count the great readers we have here who always extend their praise, which is worth far more than any dollar amount.
That said, if these jobs pay THAT much money, where do I sign up? That's all I want to know. Where do I sign up? And if the New York State Legislature wants some REAL PR, how about hiring a set of bloggers to help out with online communications, which this state desperately needs.
|
|
Discuss
:: (3
Comments)
|
|
Mon Jun 09, 2008 at 10:36:51 AM EDT
|
Well, maybe it might just be a duck.
The widow of former state Sen. Ron Stafford last month bought a home from the elder son of Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno at an apparent premium, at a time when she is seeking legislation that would benefit her company.
Kay Stafford bought 303 Bulson Road, Brunswick, for $475,000 from Joseph M. Bruno. Town records show the three-bedroom residence on 17 acres, which is next to the senator's, is assessed at $74,100, with a total market value of $304,938. The deed transfer was recorded May 13. Stafford did not return calls.
...
Kay Stafford leads CMA Consulting in Latham, a company that state comptroller records show has received 199 state contracts since 1998 worth $94.6 million. Most of that work -- in computer programming services and technical database services -- came in recent years.
CMA would benefit from a law proposed by Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman David Gantt, D-Rochester, that would allow counties to install cameras at traffic lights. The bill would require technology offered by CMA Consulting.
Gantt has come under criticism for the measure because he long opposed traffic light cameras. He changed his position after CMA hired his friend and former staffer Robert Scott Gaddy as its lobbyist.
...
John McArdle, the Senate communications director, said Kay Stafford had been a friend of the Bruno family for 25 years, and she saw the home in Brunswick as an opportunity to live closer to her grandchildren, who live in Williamstown, Mass. At about the same time he sold his home, Bruno's son quit his $104,000 post as director of job order contracting at the State University Construction Fund on May 15, state records show. His state career began in 1995, shortly after his father rose to lead the Senate's Republican majority and Gov. George Pataki took office.
Hmmmmm...
|
|
Discuss
:: (2
Comments)
|
|
Mon Mar 03, 2008 at 09:15:27 AM EST
|
It's got to be tough to be John McArdle these days. It can't be much fun to confront the reality that the chances of still getting $180K salary and a state car from New York's taxpayers at this time next year are growing increasingly slim. This morning, he's even got to read Roger freaking Stone bash him in the pages of the New York Sun.
On Friday, in the wake of his party's humiliating defeat in a special Senate election in a northern district, Mr. Bruno accepted the resignation of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee's longtime director, Edward Lurie, who was in charge of the campaign's field operations. Calling Mr. Lurie a "mechanic who never had any strategic authority," Mr. Stone insists that Mr. Bruno pinned the blame on the wrong guy. The man, he said, who ought to have taken the hit is John McArdle, Mr. Bruno's tough-talking communications director whom Mr. Stone described as the primary force behind the Senate's Troopergate monomania.
"John McArdle is a believer in one thing: Troopergate," he said. "Anything that distracts from Troopergate, he's against. Bruno needs to fire McArdle."
Note to Bruno: Please do not fire John McArdle. He's doing a fine job for you and is worth every penny of our money you are paying him.
Then you have to go out and whine to the New York Times because your boss apparently no longer knows what the term "on the record" means.
"New York magazine did a tremendous disservice to its readers and to Senator Bruno by shamefully and purposely taking out of context comments Senator Bruno made several months ago to its reporter that clearly were not intended to appear in print," Mr. McArdle said. "It is especially troubling that this reporter chose to misrepresent his intentions and violate trust and access given him at a time when Senator Bruno was dealing with difficult personal and family issues."
Not that he didn't say these things, but that he didn't think they would be printed. Stuff like this:
"I provided the entrée. In that business, the biggest problem is access. I provided access." Bruno, who makes $121,000 a year in salary as majority leader, believes there is nothing improper about steering people he does business with in politics to open portfolios at Wright. There was no quid pro quo, he says. If Wright wanted to meet with trustees of a union looking to invest pension money, Bruno would make the phone calls. "My pitch to them was, 'If you like what they have to say, take it to the next level. If you don't, say good-bye.'?"
Or maybe this:
Ask him about his legacy, and he'll point to his mastery of the pork process. "Take a look around Albany. Take a look around Troy. Take a look at the airport. Do you think that airport would be there if I wasn't the leader?" he says. "You know how the airport got there? We're trying to close the budget and Shelly wouldn't close. So Pataki says, 'What's it take to close?' Shelly says, 'I need a library in Brooklyn.' 'How much?' Shelly says, '$65 million.' Pataki says, 'Well, that's all right.' It was a $100 billion budget. So I said, 'It's not okay with me. I don't have a single member in Brooklyn.' 'So what do you need?' 'I need $65 million for the airport.' Pataki says, 'Shelly, do you care?' 'No, I don't care, as long as I get my library.' Pataki says, 'Good. Done.'?"
This image can't be helpful either:
Joe Bruno has his loafers off in his vast sanctum on the New York State capitol's third floor. He saunters around on the plush white carpet in dress socks. There's a set of dueling pistols and pictures of himself in political postures, at groundbreakings or saddled up on one of his eight horses at a parade, in his Stars and Stripes cowboy shirt. Many of these pictures were taken a while ago, but Bruno, who will be 79 next month, somehow looks like he hasn't aged. There are three golf clubs in his office and a green Astroturf mat against one wall. Bruno picks up a five-iron, checks his grip, pulls the club back slow, and rips a clean, full swing.
"Ohhh." He stretches his back. "Ahhh." He puts down the club. "See, that's the problem. You should warm up when you do that shit. When you're my age, you have to warm up." He then plumps down in his cushy chair, picks up an empty water bottle from his desk, and wings it across the room at the garbage can.
Clank! A miss.
"Shit, first one I missed-first one I missed out of four," Bruno says. "Now, that's disturbing."
It kinda sucks to be John McArdle these days. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...
|
|
Discuss
:: (0
Comments)
|
|
Thu Feb 21, 2008 at 08:18:59 AM EST
|
|
There has been plenty of talk up in the 48th about fundraising outside the District. Most of the accusations accuse the other side of raising money in NYC or Albany. I wonder how well residents of the North Country will react to the news that Uncle Joe Bruno has taken his out of district, downstate fundraising to a new level. He's now trying to replace the loads of cash he's burned in the special election up there by cozying up to fat cats like Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida. He's got plenty of public goodies to offer those fat cats as well.
Bruno chases cold cash in warm weather
As Senate staffers and political operatives work the wintry counties of the contested 48th Senate District, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and a top aide collected campaign cash and planned some golf in Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday.
For the third year running, Bruno raised funds at Mar-A-Lago, Donald Trump's seaside estate.
Bruno's trip, which normally includes several rounds of golf, comes as Trump proposes to join with developer Louis Cappelli on a $700 million project to transform the Concord Hotel near Monticello into a major destination.
Cappelli has said the project he proposes with Empire Resorts, owner of Monticello Raceway, will seek state financial resources and regulatory approvals from the Division of Lottery and the Racing and Wagering Board.
It gets even better though and I have a simple question to ask. Why are the taxpayers of New York paying John McArdle $180,000 a year (we give him a car as well) to raise funds for the Senate Republicans? Can anyone answer that one for me?
Bruno and aide John McArdle planned to host attendees who pay $2,000 per person and $3,000 per couple to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, the Senate Republican political organization said.
So, here we have Joe Bruno and his aide, both well paid by the citizens of New York, raising cash to replace what they've spent in the 48th by essentially dangling even more public funds in front of extremely wealthy gambling tycoons with plans to build yet another gambling operation here in the Empire State with still more "state financial resources."
At Donald Trump's house. In Florida.
Nice.
|
|
Discuss
:: (2
Comments)
|
|
Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 11:14:31 AM EST
|
Those are the words of Bruno's spokesman, John McArdle, a man we pay $180,000 a year and provide a car for for the purposes of lying on Bruno's behalf and acting as a partisan attack dog.
John McArdle, a spokesman for Mr. Bruno, said: "We've cooperated with the inquiry. He's not been accused of anything, and I think that's all we're saying."
Not exactly the strongest statement from John. I really expect more of our public servants...
|
|
Discuss
:: (0
Comments)
|
|
Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 11:10:02 AM EDT
|
|
As we mentioned yesterday, the silly season for the battle for the state Senate has already begun in earnest. The fight for the Senate next year will be fierce, but who says anyone has to wait for next year?
Shortly after his election in February, State Sen. Craig Johnson found himself under fire from something called "the North Shore Committee for Truth."
"As taxpayers, parents and Long Islanders, the actions of state government have a tremendous impact on our lives," begins an e-mail sent by the committee to selected residents in Johnson's district. The missive accused the rookie state legislator of failing to fight funding cuts for local hospitals and school aid.
No committee members' names were included in the letter, titled "Craig's Closet." Not surprisingly, Johnson blasts its charges and contests its factual assertions.
Reports filed this week with the state Board of Elections shed some light. On April 26, the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee transferred $5,000 to the committee, which is registered out of the Westbury home of its treasurer, Christine Nagy, an enrolled Republican.
The article goes on to describe a TV ad being run against freshman Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a perfectly legitimate thing to do. But whay on earth does a public employee, a very highly paid public employee, Bruno spokesman John McArdle, seem to be running the effort?
Stewart-Cousins was even the subject of a TV attack ad unveiled by the GOP yesterday, with the tag line: "She just isn't getting the job done." Will one against Johnson follow? "Stay tuned," said Bruno spokesman John McArdle.
Do we really need to pay someone $180,000 dollars a year to be actively involved in partisan politics? We apparently furnish him a state car as well.
This can't be legal, right?
Oh, right. This is New York.
|
|
Discuss
:: (0
Comments)
|
|
Mon Feb 05, 2007 at 09:44:56 AM EST
|
|
I really want to keep the focus today on what we can do to get Craig Johnson elected to the state Senate tomorrow, but this is important, too. This morning's Newsday contains a piece about the final days of the special election in the 7th District that quotes Senate Minority Leader Malcom Smith as telling a church congregation in Westbury yesterday that, should Craig Johnson win that seat, that AT LEAST two Gop Senators may be induced to switch parties.
Down to the wire in 7th
Remark by Senate's minority leader that a Johnson win could mean a black majority leader irks Republicans
Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith told a Westbury congregation yesterday that, should Craig Johnson win the special election, at least two Senate Republicans could switch parties and he could become the first black State Senate majority leader.
...
Smith said in an interview after he spoke that there is a "zone of potential agreement" in which at least two GOP senators would switch parties, enough to give Democrats control of the Senate for the first time in decades because Lt. Gov. David Paterson would cast the deciding vote.
"There are a few that are floating in the ZOPA," he said. He would not give details about the Republican legislators who might switch.
Who are these two Senators? Why exactly would they be willing to flip? Should reformers welcome this move? Was John McArdle just born that way?
My thoughts on the flip...
|
|
There's More...
:: (11
Comments, 613 words in story)
|
|
Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 14:36:34 PM EST
|
|
Pretty good deal if your name is Jared Abbruzzese. Get your buddy, who just happens to be the state Senate Majority Leader, to throw a nice chunk of public money at your for profit business and get a little action for yourself. Not bad, eh?
From the New York Times:
Bruno's Friend Was Given Stock Incentive, Document Says
While Joseph L. Bruno, the State Senate's majority leader, was helping to direct state assistance to an upstate technology company, the company was rewarding Mr. Bruno's friend Jared E. Abbruzzese with a stock incentive for his role in securing state aid, according to a company document.
Nice. More crony-licious goodness on the flip....
|
|
There's More...
:: (0
Comments, 214 words in story)
|
|
Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 14:07:50 PM EST
|
Nathaniel Brooks for the New York Times
Perhaps it's his coffee. Joe "Brunogate" Bruno spoke to the New York Times for today's edition and, man, is that guy grumpy! Oh, and his long time chief counsel hit the road Friday afternoon. The guy just can't seem to catch a break.
His Omnipresence May Show His Clout, but Now Bruno Is on the Defensive
But at what should be his crowning moment, Mr. Bruno finds himself on the defensive as never before. The F.B.I. is investigating his business ties, newspapers are exploring his financial relationships with people seeking help from the state, some Republicans are grumbling that he is tarnishing their troubled party, and for the first time, a member of his conference, Senator John J. Bonacic, a Hudson Valley Republican, is calling on Mr. Bruno to step down.
....
"I have 33 votes in my conference, as I sit here, out of 34," he said.
And Mr. Bruno bristled at news reports that the federal government was investigating his decision to award a $500,000 member item grant - the type that goes to individual lawmakers' pet projects - to Evident Technologies, a company with a former director, Jared Abbruzzese, who had business dealings with Mr. Bruno. Mr. Bruno said that the state gave aid to Evident before he did, and that the money was intended to keep the company from moving out of state.
"It gets me a little bit excited, because they all want to moan and groan and point to Evident," he said in his office. "Evident is one of the most worthwhile projects to be funded that I have funded. Now the fact that a friend of mine, it turns out, that I had a financial relationship with - too damn bad. What am I, a second-class citizen? Is he a second-class citizen? We vetted that through the whole process, O.K.?"
"I'm getting crucified," he said. "And you know something? Tomorrow, if I had that situation to do over, I'd do exactly what I've done."
More on the flip....
|
|
There's More...
:: (5
Comments, 676 words in story)
|
|
Wed Nov 29, 2006 at 11:10:22 AM EST
|
|
X-posted at dailyKos
Joe Bruno is something of a dick. As we have noted here, both the State Senate and the Assembly have released information about their pork "member item" spending. We haven't played with the Assembly stuff much yet, but when wycatz first opened up the doc dump from the State Senate, he noticed the password security on the docs right away. Not only had the Senate folks released a pile of very un-user friendly data, they had actually placed security on their stuff to prevent anyone from actually using or organizing this material into something that might actually, ya know, be of benefit to the public.
Now, the Albany Times Union tells the tale of the data dicks:
Member-item data disputed
Assembly staff -- but not Senate -- gives ground on pork barrel spending files
With some fanfare in recent days, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno have released thousands of records revealing for the first time the names of lawmakers who sponsored so-called member items, taxpayer money earmarked by politicians for pork barrel projects each year.
But lost in that event was a behind-the-scenes effort by the staffs of Silver, D-Manhattan, and Bruno, R-Brunswick.
They manipulated the computer files they gave the public and the press so they would be difficult for the public to use.
|
|
There's More...
:: (9
Comments, 509 words in story)
|
|
|
|
|
|
