According to the New York Times, David Paterson, Governor of New York State, announced Monday that he will create a special panel that will review "cases involving legal immigrants who are at risk of deportation for minor or old convictions."
The announcement comes as the federal government has taken an increasingly hard line in its interpretation of existing immigration law, leaving a growing number of legal immigrants who have criminal records facing deportation.
"Some of our immigration laws, particularly with respect to deportation, are embarrassingly and wrongly inflexible," Mr. Paterson said in a speech on Monday at an annual gathering of the state's top judges.
"In New York we believe in renewal," he added. "In New York we believe in rehabilitation."
Our campaign for the NY State Senate has just entered its fourth week and everywhere I go the buzz is building and people tell me how excited they are to talk to a citizen candidate with fresh ideas.
Last week we held our first Live Blog -- an Online Town Meeting on The Albany Project: Good questions and great fun.You can read the whole conversation here. Thanks again to TAP for hosting!
I love collaborations so I was delighted to be part of a conference on cultural tourism hosted by Dutchess County Tourism & the Dutchess County Arts Council earlier this week. Arts, history and tourism are huge economic drivers for our region. By thinking creatively we have a real opportunity to both build our local economy in a sustainable way and create new jobs in the building trades, hospitality, food services, arts and on and on. Kudos to Mary Kay Vrba and Benjamin Krevolin for spearheading this great brainstorming opportunity and to Lydia Higginson for her gracious organizing skills.
The very next day, Mary Kay, Lydia and Dutchess County Tourism hosted a Welcome Reception for Walkway Over the Hudson's new Executive Director Elizabeth Waldstein Hart. It was held at the delightful new Poughkeepsie eatery Cafe Bocca on Mt. Carmel Street in the shadow of the Walkway -- and the foods prepared by Erik Morabito, a fan of supporting local farms were yummy.
In my own continuing commitment to our local farmers, Friday I will participate in the Buy Local Agricultural Conference hosted by Congressman Scott Murphy in Lagrangeville's Tymor Park. I look forward to strategizing with small business owners, farmers, consumers and others to explore the best way to build this essential economic engine.
My grassroots campaign is all about talking directly to the voters and bringing your voices to Albany. Thanks to Dutchess County Legislator Jim Doxsey for introducing me to his constituents in the Fairview section of the Town of Poughkeepsie Saturday.
On Saturday, May 1, please join us for canvassing in the city of Hudson in Columbia County. Meet us at 12:30 pm @ Parlour Coffee House, 742 Warren St in Hudson to get your walk lists. By the way, Parlour's comfy chairs and sofas are a favorite gathering place with an excellent selection of coffees and teas!
I'd like to welcome everyone to this evening's live blogging event with the Democratic candidate for NYS Senate in the 41st District, Didi Barrett.
Didi is here to answer your questions and probably ask a few herself. Let's have a great conversation and don't be shy. Hop in and enjoy the back and forth.
The 41st District is my district and I am very pleased to see a strong candidate step forward to take on Steve Saland, who has been part of the problem for over 30 years.
But Didi will need our help. With that in mind, we are taking this opportunity to begin an Albany Project blograising event. We have set a goal of 100 donors over the next week. Any amount, large or small, will be appreciated. If you like what you hear tonight, please donate and tell your friends about Didi.
I have asked her to send along an intro for tonight's event:
Hello New York Netroots!!
My name is Didi Barrett and I'm running for New York State Senate. I am excited to participate in my first Live Blog Town Hall
I want to thank The Albany Project for this opportunity and am looking forward to a great converstation.
I'm guessing that since you read this blog, you have had enough of the Albany antics.
Enough scandals.
Enough blaming the other side of the aisle.
Enough decisions behind closed doors.
Enough of the craziness that has come to characterize our state government!
But it would be equally crazy for us to expect that the politicians, who got us into this mess, can lead us out.
Albany needs fresh faces and new ideas.
I'm not a politician; I am a citizen candidate who is stepping up to the plate to be part of the solution. Simply put: I believe in open, ethical government that serves the people.
The 41st District, in the Hudson Valley, encompasses most of Dutchess and all of Columbia counties. These are hard times for the people in the Hudson Valley, as well as the rest of what we once proudly called The Empire State. Fifteen thousand of our neighbors right here are out of work and several longtime economic pillars have either closed or shipped more jobs overseas.
Until we fundamentally change the way business is done in Albany we will not be able to turn our economy around. We cannot truly help Main Street until we fix State Street.
I strongly believe that a country founded on the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness should not deny anyone the right to marry the partner of their choice. I would advocate for the passage of a bill in New York State that guarantees Marriage Equality to everyone. And while I'm on the subject of human rights, I am unequivocally Pro Choice.
I am running for the New York Senate because Albany needs creative thinkers and new ideas. With more than 20 years as a leader in the not for profit community I am an experienced problem solver and outside the box thinker.
I'm not afraid to make tough decisions and forge coalitions. Most of all, I am not afraid to challenge the dysfunctional status quo of state government. I will not sit idly by as our families are overtaxed and underserved, while corruption, inertia and indifference plague Albany.
This is our moment in time. We are ready for a New York State Government that works for us, the people, not the politicians. We can win this race. Let's do it!!
Independent redistricting is the classic, perennial dream of the New York reform movement. It's a simple idea, really: citizens should choose their legislators, not the other way around.
However, as the system of drawing legislative districts in New York amply demonstrates, in this state, it really is the other way around. It works like this: the two houses of the legislature, which in practice means their respective leadership, draw the districts from which the members of that house are elected. This has led to outlandish phenomena like the 52nd Senate district, which is usually described as 'Abraham Lincoln riding on a broomstick'.
The consequences of the scheme are arguably at the core of the crisis of governance this state currently faces. And now, maybe, finally, things have gotten so bad that something will be done about the rot.
Back in 2006, I ran for the NYS Senate in the 41st District which includes a little more than half of Dutchess and all of Columbia County.
That race was an amazing educational experience for me about politics and campaigns, but most of all, it also gave me a keen insight into what kind of district this is. I met thousands of people in my travels and learned things about our communities that were both surprising and humbling. Although I lost that race, some good came from the experience because the day after the election, Phillip Anderson and I created The Albany Project in my home in the Hudson Valley.
I say all of this as background to talk about what is happening this year in the 41st District.
In short, I am endorsing a terrific candidate who has what it takes to win this year...and serve the Hudson Valley for many years to come. I am endorsing Didi Barrett for the State Senate and I am asking you to do the same.
I have met with her on a number of occasions and find her to be exactly what this district needs to finally have real representation in Albany. Her experience in the non-profit world, her knowledge of the area and her passion to serve will carry her far in the Fall.
But you will have a chance to get to know her and ask her some questions yourself.
Next Wednesday, April 21st from 7:00-7:45 PM, Didi will be taking your questions during a live blogging event here at The Albany Project. We have had some pretty great sessions in the past and I encourage to get to know Didi and get ready to be impressed.
Mark it in your calendar and join us next Wednesday. You won't be sorry.
Spring is here, and life is coursing again through all creation. Some of this appears to be resurrecting the corpse of Eliot Spitzer's career in public service.
Full disclosure: I'm a big fan of Eliot's, still have a sticker from his 2006 campaign in my collection, and consider his TV ads to be some of the best ever produced, a pitch-perfect mix of aspiration and persuasion.
"I love politics," Spitzer told [Peter] Elkind, author of "Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer."
"The substance, the debate about the issues. As for a race in 2010? It is just hard to see," he said. But he added, "I've never said I would never consider running for office again."
So let's game this out. A race against the dragon-slayer Gillibrand? Unlikely. A death-match against Andrew Cuomo? Equally unlikely. Charles Schumer? Also not going to happen.
That leaves Attorney General, which he's done before, and Comptroller. Of the two, the latter seems more likely; and given that it would be perfectly reasonable to assume little love lost between Spitzer and Silver selectee Tom DiNapoli, the 2014 Comptroller race might be very interesting indeed.
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.
If you didn't read about it here this A.M., you might have caught the story via Liz or Azi: DSCC's newest, unutterably tone-deaf fundraising letter.
Or, to quote Sen Dem head honcho John Sampson:
"The Senate Republicans have done it. Just because people do it, does that make it correct? Does that make it illegal? I think the bottom line is...this is a fundraising initiative. Nobody's twisting anybody's arms. If every [sic] knows me, there's always access, free access, for everybody to come and talk to me about any single issue."
Well, that's just brilliant - the other guy does it too, so what's your problem?
The answer is simple: because there's an appearance of impropriety. Lame-ass cop-outs like pointing at the other guys don't cut it. There's a reason we voted for Democrats and gave them a majority: to end this kind of Bruno-esque (apparent, too-close-to) pay to play.
You can say many things about the Murdoch Post's Fred Dicker - call him crotchety, irritating, a pain in the ass. What nobody disputes is that the man has the best sources in casino Albany.
And today, we learn that Senate Democrats have put a big fat For Sale shingle on the front door.
ALBANY - Democrats in the state Senate are up for sale - and they don't come cheap!
The Capitol's scandalous "pay to play" culture descended to a new low as Democratic lawmakers told top labor leaders that they would have to pony up $50,000 each in donations if they want special access, The Post has learned.
In a shocking letter to union bosses who are battling state budget cuts, state Sen. Jeff Klein of The Bronx offered to sell them "chairmanships" on a newly created "Labor Advisory Council."
"Advisory Council chairs will have the unique opportunity to advise the Senate Dems on the structure and focus of the Labor Advisory Council," says the letter from Klein, chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
"In addition to all meetings, conferences and events that are included with Advisory Council membership, the advisory chairs will be invited to an exclusive meeting with the Senate majority leaders," the letter states.
A refresher: the Act, introduced by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky - D-AS-92, currently running for Attorney General - held out several core goals:
- expand broadband access to 85% of the state
- lower consumer prices for cable and phone services
- protect net neutrality.
Best of all, the measure was calculated to be revenue-neutral for the state's coffers, with funding coming from the sale of a state-wide, new cable channel to whomever agreed to provide the infrastructure. In short, Progressive policy at its best.
Koch, 85, is at the forefront of a new effort to clean up the dysfunctional cesspool of state government that is Albany World.
The former "How-Am-I-Doing?" mayor of New York City is organizing a coalition to plan the electoral takedown of incumbent state legislators who block reform. The idea is to elevate candidates who are committed to reform.
Koch correctly sees the entire state Legislature as the problem. Reading his comments to The New York Times, one comes away with the impression that he'd be happy to cashier the whole lot of them if only one could.
"I don't believe the good ones are good enough and the bad ones are evil," Koch told the Times.
Today, ten Democratic County Chairs announced their support for our campaign to succeed Andrew Cuomo as New York State's next Attorney General.
This is the first set of public endorsements from Democratic county leaders for any Attorney General candidate, and I am very grateful for and humbled by their words of support.
The Democratic County Chairs include: Mayor Shawn Hogan (Steuben), Bethany Schumann-McGhee (Montgomery), Keith Ahlstrom (Chautauqua), Judith Baker (Ontario), Mark Bellardini (St. Lawrence), Harold Bush, Jr. (Wyoming), Barbara Hetzel (Allegany), Judith Hunter (Livingston), Kate Lacey (Cayuga) and Carolyn Schaeffer (Yates).
These endorsements come from across New York - including the Southern Tier, Western New York, Central New York, the North Country, and the Capital District - as well as from a diverse set of Democratic leaders, including the longest-serving Mayor in New York State, and the youngest elected Democratic county chair. Next week, I will continue my travels to Upstate New York to discuss my rural agenda.
Our campaign is gaining momentum and we have no intention of slowing down. Having raised the most money during the last filing period, and having earned the first public support from county leaders - I feel we are well-positioned in the campaign for the Attorney General of New York.
In less than two months, the Coffee Party movement has grown to over 100,000 members nationwide. And in three days, National Coffee House Day will officially kick off the movement to reform our political culture in all fifty states.
New York is playing its part in about a dozen fledgling organizations that will meet in the afternoon of Saturday, March 13, 2010. From Downstate to Upstate, the Empire State is set to become one of the hot spots of the movement to cool down the rhetoric so we can once again speak to our common goals as Americans.
I organized the Albany County Coffee Party to make sure Albany itself wasn't left out; within a matter of days, one for the city of Albany sprouted up as well.
But this movement is about more than just one blogger, or one city. A complete list of all the New York Coffee Parties are linked to below the fold. And since this movement is bigger than just one state as well, then if you've just heard of the Coffee Party Movement or are not really sure what we'll be doing on Saturday or what we're about, the video directly below makes it clear and simple:
Looks like fun, huh? Click "There's more" to see if there's a New York Coffee Party organizing in your neck of the woods.
It seems in tough times, when no one thinks the folks now in the Senate are doing a great job, incumbents are having trouble raising campaign cash.
"They are relentless in their calling lobbyists this year, mainly the Democrats in the Senate, and it's unbelievable," a prominent lobbyist with strong Democratic ties told The Post yesterday.
"None of us has ever seen anything like it."
A lobbyist with strong GOP connections said legislators "are all crazed because they're scared of running this year and not having the funds they think they need to do it."
In the initial interview, Calcaterra shared her views on why it's important to have a regulated Wall Street to help Main Street. She also expressed her support for marriage equality, discussed property tax reform and ethics reform.
In her second interview with TAP, Calcaterra provided updates on her campaign, thoughts on the expulsion of Sen. Hiram Monserrate (she called for his resignation in October and, last month, for his expulsion) and her opinion of the ethics reform bill passed by the legislature.
CALCATERRA ON THE CAMPAIGN
"The campaign has done tremendously well very early and keeps gaining steam. We have had great success in our daily engagements with voters of the 1st Senate District. Hard working men and women are paying attention to the issues and are providing a clear and strong indication that voters of eastern Long Island want meaningful change."
"In fact, more residents of the district contributed to our campaign financially than that of my opponent, who is a 34-year incumbent. Interestingly, my candidacy has also drawn the support of admired Americans like Pete Dawkins, a West Point legend, Heisman Trophy winner and former Brigadier General of the U.S. Army and Marie C. Wilson, co-founder of Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day, founder of the Ms. Foundation and founder and President of the White House Project. Additionally, our campaign has already begun receiving endorsements from the Women's Campaign Forum, NARAL Pro-Choice New York and the National Organization for Women in New York State, which is also gratifying given how early it is in the electoral process."
"Taking on an entrenched incumbent has always been difficult in New York, and will be this year, but we've gained good traction early which has already proven to be a tremendous help."
CALCATERRA ON MONSERRATE'S EXPULSION
"As a victim of, and witness to, childhood domestic violence, I am far too familiar with how emboldened the abuser gets when he/she gets away with their actions. If Monserrate remained as a sitting New York State Senator, in the eyes of abusers and victims, he did in fact get away with it. His continuation as a sitting New York State Senator could have led to a decrease in domestic violence reporting. A victim's decision to report domestic violence is most often influenced by fear of retaliation from their abuser or a belief that our criminal justice system cannot or will not stop the violence. Then, added on top of that belief was the assumption that Monserrate's actions were sanctioned by those in power, our Albany lawmakers."
"We have a long path to walk before New Yorkers will begin to look toward our state legislature with a sense of gratitude or appreciation, but the expulsion of Monserrate by his colleagues was a significant step along that path. Worth noting is that the Democratic Senate majority had a difficult decision to make, given how closely the Senate is split and the implications that doing the right thing could throw the leadership structure into turmoil. But even with knowing that, they made the right choice and put decency, integrity and the best interests of good government first. That is a welcome step in the right direction for honest government in Albany - and the kind of step that New Yorkers hadn't seen for a long time."
"New York is still in a recession. We have an ever-widening budget gap, 8.9 percent unemployment, children in 16.3 percent of all New York families living below the poverty line, and overtaxed residents who can no longer afford to live here. The New York State Senate has critical work to do and it should not have had to even waste the past few months investigating how to rid the Senate of Hiram Monserrate. However, now that he has been expelled it is time for the Senate to get back to the people's business."
Via Liz, here's a direct quote from Senator Eric Adams that supports the exact point that RebootNY is making about the State Senate.
"I have a news flash: I don't know many elected officials that don't have a credibility problem. And if that becomes a criteria on who can sit in office and who can't, than we're in trouble."
Well, Eric, I have a news flash: Credibility SHOULD be a criteria of who can sit in office and who can't...so what does that mean about office holders? They should be removed?
Cross-posted at RebootNY . Check us out and get involved!
Hat tip to an interesting piece by the New York Times for a thought-provoking dialogue between academics, good government experts, and politicians on Friday. It's important that many people from both sides of the aisle recognize the problems of our dysfunctional government and debate solutions on curing the culture of corruption eating away the heart of Albany.
One person who definitely gets it is Kenneth Sherill, a Professor of Political Science at Hunter College. He writes:
The Legislature's core problems can be solved by changing its members and its rules - and sadly for the many good members, it increasingly seems as if you can't change its rules without changing its members. We need independent, nonpartisan apportionment of districts, serious campaign finance reform, and a liberalization of the rules of each house.
We agree entirely. We know that New York State government has the potential to work. It's worked in the past. New York used to be a model of effective government throughout the country, responsible for some of the brightest government programs around. Through strong leadership and a culture of responsibility, our politicians stood up for us. It's only in the recent era that we the people have been subverted by corruption and dysfunction by those who claim to represent us.
The answer is to kick out the trash currently occupying our state government and elect those who will stand up for our interests. With better leaders, we can change the way the state is governed and promote transparency, efficiency, and fairness. With a fair system of government, we can finally get back to a government that works for the people and responds to our needs.
Gerald Benjamin, a Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York, reminds us that some in the state have been down this road before.
The governance system needs serious fixing, as I've elsewhere argued. But ungovernable? Remember, we used to say that about New York City. No more. We found leaders that could make the city work. Now we have to use this election to do the same for the state. And then follow with the hard work of fixing the system itself.
We can change our state. It starts by booting out those who have failed us and electing those who will pus us first.
In what has got to be one of the longer episodes of foreplay on record, Harold Ford announced today that we won't be favored with an announcement of his purported Senate run until David Paterson stops hogging the limelight.
Playing hard to get, are we, Harold?
If we look back, that run began with the startling Times piece that first alerted a stunned world to this possibility on January 6th.
I'm not comparing myself to Bobby Kennedy by any stretch, but he was opposed by the liberal establishment too," ... "Eleanor Roosevelt was the biggest opponent to him running"
Gack. Bad Eleanor. Oh wait, she was actually dead at the time. Still is, in fact.
And as of today, the newest word from Mr. Ford schedules the climactic moment, will he or won't he, for next week.
That's elastic enough to stretch into July at least, if he keeps this up.
I'm Eric Dinallo and I'm running for the New York State Attorney General. I wanted to introduce myself to The Albany Project readers by way of an op-ed that I wrote for the Gay City News this past week concerning Marriage Equality and its future in New York.
As a bit of history, during my time as the New York Superintendent of Insurance, I ordered all insurance companies doing business in New York to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who were legally wed elsewhere even though the right for gay and lesbian couples to marry was being denied by the courts.
As a result of that regulatory action, New York insurers must now provide the very same property, life, and health insurance policies and benefits to those same-sex married couples that are available to opposite-sex married couples under the state's insurance laws.
Unfortunately, Marriage Equality failed to pass the Senate this past year, but the fight is not over. As a former Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan D.A.'s office and the Chief of the Investor Protection Bureau in the Attorney General's office, I understand the laws and rulings in place here in NY against discrimination. Marriage Equality is, above all, a civil rights issue and I want to share with you how we can turn the tide here in New York to make it a reality.
As a public servant, I feel I have an obligation to protect what is fair and do what is right. As AG, I will fight discrimination wherever it is found. Read the full op-ed after the break:
I'd like to welcome everyone to this evening's live blogging event with the Democratic candidate for NYS Senate in the 41st District, Didi Barrett.
Just want to remind everyone that Didi will be here tomorrow evening for a live blogging session.
Back in 2006, I ran for the NYS Senate in the 41st District which includes a little more than half of Dutchess and all of Columbia County.
