Note: Senate Republicans Are Not Fiscal Conservatives

by: BingChester

Fri Feb 19, 2010 at 10:28:01 AM EST

Senate Republicans added 98 new taxpayer-funded positions, bringing the total to 420, and granted raises to a host of others, Dems charge.  In addition, Republicans created the new office of GOP Minority Policy Development, which has four people and costs $260,000, Senate records show.

Senate Republicans are on pace to spend $17.5 million, a jump of about $3.5 million from the $14 million that was available before the botched takeover.

Let's not forget that the ethics law "passed" by the Senate Republicans was a meaningless gesture of half-hearted reform.  And let's also not forget that the day of the coup was the same day that the Senate was to vote on earmarks and Malcolm Smith put forward a plan denying Pedro Espada the allocations for his infamous Soundview health facility.  Of course after Pedro came back to the Democratic fold, those earmarks magically found their way back into the member items.  

Our state is run by a cabal of greedy individuals looking to pay back their friends, employ their family, and line their own pockets.  The continued abuse of member items and the length to which the Senate Republicans went to snatch back power from the elected majority goes to show how important that pork spending is to New York Senators.  We've lost any notion of a meritocracy, where money is handed out to projects and people that have earned the support of government.  We need a new system where member items are split between both parties equally and closely scrutinized to avoid throwbacks to campaign contributors.  We also need a fair system for creating Senate jobs, to avoid situations just  

Novello pleads, avoids jail time; Seminerio pleads

by: simonstl

Fri Jun 26, 2009 at 10:41:37 AM EDT

Everyone's watching the courthouse for the Senate suits, but Liz Benjamin reports on Antonia Novello, our former state Health Commissioner under Pataki, who I think I used to see on television constantly:

Former state Health Commissioner Antonia Novello avoided jail time today by agreeing to plead guilty to one count of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree - a Class E felony.... Under the deal she must pay the state $22,500 in restitution and do 250 hours of community service at an Albany Health Clinic, reports the DN's Glenn Blain.

UPDATE: Novello gets to keep her medical license, Blain informs me. She also has to pay a $325 fee to the court, a $50 DNA surcharge, and a $5,000 fine.

She can't commit any crimes for the next three years, or faces jail time. (More from CapCon.)

And in case anyone missed it in the scrum over the past few days, Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio resigned and pleaded guilty to receiving "corrupt payments". That looks like a heavier-duty sale of services, and I doubt he'll avoid jail time. Sentencing will be October 20th.

Why Democrats need to rebuild trust in government

by: simonstl

Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 13:07:44 PM EST

A few years ago, I wrote about opportunities for Democrats to thrive as a reformist party. I still think the arguments there are worthwhile, but over the last four years I've started thinking that there is a much more basic reason that Democrats need to get their act together and act democratically.

The Republicans have spent most of the last forty years destroying trust in government, and thrived on it. Even their worst disasters - Watergate, Iran-Contra, and, um, the last eight years - fed into their core story of the dangers of government. In their telling, if a Republican was found corrupt, well, that's a government problem. If a Democrat was found corrupt, that's both a government problem and a problem with the party that wants to create bigger government.

Breaking this cycle is hard. We all know how Jimmy Carter's story gets told, after all. Beyond that, running on promises of reform always carries the risk of damaging the cause of reform, when reformers prove to be all too human. Eliot Spitzer is a painful reminder of this - not just for the prostitutes, but also for the way he set out to destroy his enemies. Reform can't just be a path to power.

Voters right now are deeply cynical. I like to joke that Obama's timing was good, because things had become so bad that voters were now cynical about being cynical. That created an opportunity, and we'll have to see what he does with it at the federal level.

At the state level, while I certainly welcome hearings on reforming the legislative process, the "Three Men in a Room" process hasn't changed at all. Paterson reverted to it last year claiming that the timing of his coming to office required it. This year it's the budget crisis that's requiring it. Unfortunately these things tend to become a habit, and once ingrained don't go away with better times.

If Democratic activists want an activist government, we have to convince voters that government can be trusted. Unfortunately, at present the State Legislature may be in Democratic hands, but neither house is operating in an open democratic fashion, one that lets voters see what they're getting from the people they elect.

If we can get over that problem, we'll be well-placed to get things done, and to get them done in a way that earns trust rather than raises suspicion. We can't blame the Republicans any longer - it's time to step and demonstrate that the Republicans were wrong all along.

Can we do it?

Corruption in NY

by: chenangofreethinker

Wed Dec 10, 2008 at 23:56:23 PM EST

Assemblymen Anthony Seminerio is the type of person that needs to be booted out of Albany. He is exactly what is wrong with Albany, he is so useless, he was selling his votes cause he is unable to think for himself.

On tape, Seminerio was captured promising clients of his bogus "consulting firm" a full menu of insider's influence in return for payoffs.

"I am at your disposal. You tell me what you want. ... I'll take care of you," Seminerio told a hospital official in March. A month later, the assemblyman called another hospital executive to boast of his political access.

"That kind of relationship you can't buy for a million dollars," said Seminerio - who then reminded the official that he was owed a check.

With friends like him..... Supposedly, there are a few other assemblymen who may have been lobbying with the Tony Semz!!

Corrupt Democrat #2
Judge-elect Nora S. Anderson, how fitting, she should just like resign, or be recalled, or something. She is not fit to be a judge, especially in a Surrogate court. Nora was indicted for campaign finance fraud.

According to the NY Times

Nora S. Anderson, who last month won the election for Manhattan Surrogate's Court judge, was indicted Wednesday on charges that she concealed the source of $250,000 deposited into her campaign account to make it appear as though the payments came from herself.  

As taxpayers we should be appalled. Can anyone help define what the process would be, to complain, and speak out against this person? She does not deserve a judgeship if you ask me.

And can anyone else tell me, whats with all the corruption lately?

Smith 'jokingly' sells Dems

by: simonstl

Wed Aug 20, 2008 at 15:00:48 PM EDT

Every now and then I have to marvel at the utter cluelessness of a politician who steps so far off-message that he actually ends up attacking the main theme of his own campaign. Now, I know, this is ordinary lately - John McCain does it on a regular basis.

However, when it's the Democratic Leader of the State Senate, Malcolm Smith, in the middle of a campaign where Democrats have promised to change the way the Senate runs and free Albany of its overwhelming lobbyist tinge - well, you know, it really makes me worry.

Here's what he apparently said, courtesy of the never-cheerful (but not contradicted on this) Fred Dicker:

"The whole thing was incredible. Malcolm got up there and thanked everyone for coming and told them we should think of his fund-raising event as being like an IPO, an initial public offering.

"He said we should get in early because then it doesn't cost as much. The longer you wait to get in, he said, the more it will cost you and if you don't get in at all, then it will be painful after November, after the Democrats win the majority," the lobbyist continued.

"Then he referred to [Bronx state Sen.] Jeff Klein about four times as his 'enforcer,' who is going to be brutal, aggressive, about collecting the contributions, and that he was the one managing the IPO."

Really? This is the guy who's going to lead the New York State Senate to a bold new era of reform, of transparency, of voters having more control than lobbyists?

My own translation of that is pretty simple:

"Buy us Democrats now, while it still seems a bit risky. That'll be a lot cheaper than trying to buy us later, when we'll expect a lot more of an investment for the same return."

And that, to put it bluntly, is putting himself and his party on the block, with enforcers to make sure they get paid. "Get in early" to buy Democratic stock while they're cheap?

It's not a secret that Albany's corrupt, but do supposedly reform-minded Democrats really have to embrace it like this?

CapCon now reports that Smith is trying to claim this was a bad joke and that he's firing his spokesman, who apparently didn't have a response ready when asked about this bizarre statement.

I'm still going to work to get Don Barber elected - but I guess it's too much to hope that he not only wins but vaults to Senate Majority Leader.