Democratic Senate Candidate Jim Generro, running against long time incumbent Frank Padavan, is imploring voters to elect a Democratic Majority.  He promises they will focus on New York City. He is quoted as saying:

it’s also a contest between keeping the old, failed Republican leadership that caters to upstate and the suburbs at the expense of New York City and a new Democratic leadership that will be New York City?based. That’s why this race is so exciting.”

Let’s hope that failed Republican leadership maintains its’ majority so there will be someone in this state that cares about us!

Tags: Articles, New York State, The Equalizer by The Equalizer
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How many times have you heard some intellectual lightweight say they don’t bother voting because one vote doesn’t matter? Then how many times does that person turn around and run for an office representing about 350,000 people?

Actually, I never hear anyone say the first thing, but local Democrats managed to find that someone and got her to run for the state senate.

According to Joe Spector in a recent Democrat and Chronicle article:

Democratic state Senate candidate Paloma Capanna, who is running in a district that includes Webster, failed to vote in most elections between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s, a review of records shows.

Capanna didn’t vote in the general elections in 1994, 1997, 1998 and 1999, according to the Monroe County Board of Elections. The board also had no record that Capanna voted from 2000 through 2003.

She voted in the general elections in 1995 and 1996, and appears to have voted in every election since 2004, records show.

(snip)

Capanna said Monday she was unsure whether the records were accurate. She said she would have to check with the elections board and review her voting record. She said she has moved several times within Monroe County, so the records may not have been updated.

“That doesn’t sound correct to me,” she said, adding, “I don’t know that any person has a perfect voting record.”

Spector did a follow up in the D&C political blog yesterday:

Democratic Senate candidate Paloma Capanna said she checked with Monroe County Democratic Elections Commissioner Thomas Ferrarese today and he confirmed that she hadn’t voted in elections from 2000 to 2003.

She said he could not find records that show whether she voted between 1997 and 2000. Still, the county provided Gannett News Services with records earlier this weekthat showed Capanna didn’t vote for seven consecutive years, between 1997 and 2003.

Capanna said her missed votes reflects what many voters go through — busy professional and personal lives that often lead people to not vote in elections. She pointed out how only 32 percent of voters in Monroe County voted in 2007.

“It’s certainly no reflection on my enthusiasm for the democratic process,” she said.

Moreover, she said she started voting consistently in 2004 after she was bothered by the fact that Rep. James Walsh, R-Syracuse, was running unopposed. She said that election prompted her to be more involved in politics, leading her to run for the Democratic nomination against Walsh in 2006 and leading her to run for Senate this year.

“I think the voting record does reflect my journey to the point where I’m on the ballot right now,” she said.

Her Republican opponent, Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, has criticized Capanna for missing votes, saying how can she expect people to vote for her when she didn’t vote herself.

Capanna, a Webster defense attorney, also recognized that when she explained earlier this week she missed voting one year — she said it was 2002 — because of a court trial, she realizes that the court was closed on Election Day. She said she was so tied up with the trial, she missed the election.

Another great candidate recruitment job by the Democratic Party.  This, along with Jon Powers’ overstated claims about his charity and his arrest for disorderly conduct, and Dave Garretson being a tax cheat, really shows what a great job Democrats do in checking the background of their candidates.

To be fair, you have to give Paloma credit — she’s actually voted in three elections in a row before running for senate!

Tags: Articles, New York State, The Equalizer by The Equalizer
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Liz Benjamin is reporting that Siena College has released polling on several more Senate races and Buffalo area Democratic incumbent Bill Stachowski is trailing challenger Dennis Delano by a 49-36 margin. This is bad news for Stachowski an incumbent for over 20 years.

Also, David Nachbar and Kathy Konst both appear to be dead in the water.

Tags: David Nachbar, Jesse, Kathy Konst, New York State by Jesse
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For most state lawmakers, the most common and cost effective way to travel is by car.  Not for Democratic Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver.  The speaker frequently takes indirect flights to the capital, with a stopover in Washington that’s 200 miles in the wrong direction.

A sampling of his reimbursement voucher forms from last year, which were provided by the state comptroller’s office, show the speaker paying in the range of $500 to $760 for round-trip airfare, more than four times the price of traveling on Amtrak.

Lawmakers who drive to the Statehouse are reimbursed by the state at a rate of 50 cents a mile, which comes to about $175, including tolls, for a round-trip with a starting point in Manhattan. Round-trip, governmental-rate Amtrak tickets come to a total of $110.

State records show that Mr. Silver is a “chairman’s preferred” member of US Airways’ frequent flier program, called “Dividend Miles.” One way to qualify for the status is to earn 100,000 miles within a calendar year.

Thanks to his preferred status, Mr. Silver frequently flies first class. As a chairman’s preferred member, he is entitled to priority check-in and boarding, guaranteed seating, reserve choice seats, and first-class upgrades when they become available. “Life is better when you’re Preferred,” the US Airways Web site states.

Silver also has a state-issued car in which he sometimes uses a driver.  Obviously by Silver using a driver, this would have an added expense.  All of which is paid for by John Q. Taxpayer.  He also prefers not to take a train to Albany because there are too many distractions from other passengers, many of whom are lobbyists.

Too many distractions from other passengers?  Are you kidding me?  I know last time I took a train to NYC, I could not take it, mainly because all of those lobbyists that continuously badgered me during the entire train ride!  Why is an act like this not regulated?  Is it any wonder our state budget is out of control?

Tags: Articles, New York State, Sherman by Sherman
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We at monroerising.com have indicated in previous posts that the Cat Whisperer, Democratic Assemblyman and party chairman Joe Morelle has earned our grudging respect for his work with the local Democrat Party.  While I don’t agree with most of his politics, this morning I found myself in complete agreement with his comments on the front page of our daily “newspaper” the Democrat and Chronicle.

From the fish wrapper:

ALBANY — In what one critic called “an absolute indication of legislative failure,” more bills were introduced in the New York Legislature this year than any other state, with fewer than 9 percent becoming law, according to a study.

The state’s 212 lawmakers introduced 18,239 bills, but only 1,634 were passed by both houses, the study by the New York Public Interest Research Group found.

The critic who made the “failure” comment, Susan Lerner of New York Common Cause, said the Legislature plays a “shell game,” with lawmakers introducing bills they know have little or no chance of passage.

That way, “the logjam remains unabated, and everybody gets to brag,” she said.

Some lawmakers disagree.

“I consider introduction of legislation to be something akin to brainstorming,” said Assemblyman Joseph Morelle, D-Irondequoit, and chairman of the Assembly Committee on Insurance.

Morelle introduced 239 bills, of which 23 passed both houses.

Limiting the number of bills could concentrate power, he said, and likely would turn single-topic bills into complicated, multi-subject pieces of legislation. “There will still be the same number of ideas,” he explained. “They will just be drafted differently, because I don’t think you can put a limit on people’s ideas.”

Then Joe Errigo comments and makes an excellent case why people should never vote for him or anyone else in the minority:

Too often, being in the minority party, you either surrender your bill to a majority party member, who will sponsor it as his or her own, or get shut out, he said. “We’re all elected. We all want to represent our constituents in the best way possible ,but, you know, it just doesn’t happen.”

Please Joe, do yourself and all members of any legislative body’s minority party a favor — the next time a reporter calls, don’t take it!

Back to my point — Anyone who measures the success of government by how many new laws are passed misses the point.  We live in republic — legislators introduce bills, they are debated and if there is consensus they are passed. 

To put that nonsense on the front page is BS. I for one an tired of the professional government reformers — people who make their living off of criticising state government.  They are enabled by newspapers who love to focus on the negative and play off of people’s cynicism.

If the want to write about failures, maybe they should start with the success they’ve had in making a difference over the past 15 years — that would be quite a story!

Tags: Cincinnatus, Joe Morelle, New York State by Cincinnatus
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Boy, when it rains it pours.  Roll Call is reporting that Charlie Rangel failed to report $70,000 in profits on the sale of a Florida Condo on Congressional disclosure reports.  From their story:

On his financial disclosure form for calendar year 2004, Rangel reported that he bought a condo in the Miami Beach area town of Sunny Isles, Fla., for between $100,000 and $250,000. He listed the value of the condo that year at between $50,000 and $100,000.

But according to Florida land records and local real estate listings, Rangel and his wife purchased the condo for $335,000. On his 2006 disclosure form, Rangel reported selling the property for between $250,000 and $500,000, but the following year he amended that report, setting the sales price between $100,000 and $250,000. Florida land records place the actual July 2006 sale price at $405,000, meaning that the Rangels made a $70,000 profit on the deal, which was never reported on Rangel’s financial disclosure forms.

Roll Call sent Rangel’s attorney, Lanny Davis, a detailed list of questions on Friday about errors in the Congressman’s financial disclosure forms. Davis and Rangel issued statements Sunday evening in which Rangel essentially admitted that there were likely numerous errors in his forms. “While over the years, I delegated to my staff the completion of my annual House financial disclosure statements, I had the ultimate responsibility,” Rangel said. “I owed my colleagues and the public adherence to a higher standard of care.”

Rangel said he would hire a “forensic accountant” to review all of his disclosure forms going back 20 years, and to provide a report to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which Rangel said he will then make public. Davis said Rangel’s decision “shows that he has nothing to hide, and does not believe he has done anything intentionally wrong.”

This is block buster stuff.  How much longer can Eric Massa hold out on returning Rangel’s tainted money?

When Joe Biden said that Obama was “clean”, was he contrasting him to the Honorable Congressman from Harlem?

Tags: Articles, Cincinnatus, Democrat and Chronicle, Local Congressional Races, New York State by Cincinnatus
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Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver must be feeling the heat.  According to the New York Sun, one of his political opponents is using rape charges against his former top aide against him in his primary campaign for the Democratic nomination for his Assembly seat.

The mailer was sent out yesterday to more than 35,000 residents in the Lower Manhattan district where Mr. Silver is facing a primary challenge from two political opponents. It includes a letter from Elizabeth Crothers, a former legislative aide who accused the speaker’s former chief counsel of raping her in 2001.

Ms. Crothers is supporting one of Mr. Silver’s opponents in the race, Paul Newell, and has taken an active role in the campaign by publicly criticizing Mr. Silver for his handling of the rape allegation — and accusing him of attempting to cover it up.

She writes in the mailer that when she went to the speaker for help after she was allegedly raped, he defended his former aide, Michael Boxley. Two years later, Mr. Boxley was indicted on charges that he raped a different legislative staffer, and he pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct.

“When I was powerless and alone, Sheldon Silver sat silent. His decision to protect a close political advisor had devastating consequences on more than one life. Like many politicians today who believe they are above the law, Sheldon Silver put his own political ambitions above justice. New York deserves better,” she wrote.

(snip)

Mr. Perrin said he has no ties to Mr. Silver or the candidates seeking to unseat him. He said he read about Ms. Crothers in the newspaper and decided to help her tell her story.

“I know it’s incredulous that people actually do something about something they read that bothers them, but we are those people,” he said. He said he wanted every elected official in New York to learn a lesson from Ms. Crothers.

“If a young woman on your staff says another staff member raped her, you don’t just hold a press conference and say, ‘I have complete faith in my staffer.’ That’s not what you do,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Silver, Sisa Moyo, has said that the speaker has acknowledged that he was wrong about Mr. Boxley and has felt anguish over what Ms. Crothers went through.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. 

Tags: Articles, New York State, The Equalizer by The Equalizer
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It seems to me that a number of people who I would ordinarily consider normal have the desire to serve in Washington. I wonder if Kathy Konst has that desire.

If she does, she must really regret her decision to take Tom Golisano and Steve Pigeon up on their offer to bankroll her run for the state Senate if she abandoned the race for Democratic endorsement for the 26th CD.

The two main contenders, Jack Davis and Jon Powers have savagely attacked each other. Davis has sent between 15 and 20 pieces of mail advertising his website with all the negative stuff on Jon Powers. Powers has responded with hard hitting television commercials.

I’m looking forward to primary night because I don’t have the faintest idea of who is going to win this one. It appears that Alice Kryzan doesn’t have the financial resources to compete, but Powers and Davis have done such a good job trashing each other, anything is possible.

If Kathy Konst had stayed in this race, she’d probably stood an excellent chance to win it and be strong enough to compete with Chris Lee in November. Instead, she took what she thought was the easy route and now has to defend the likes of Malcolm Smith who is ethically challenged and resorts to playing the race card when he is caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Taking the easy way out isn’t always the way it seems.

Tags: Articles, Cincinnatus, Democrat and Chronicle, Kathy Konst, New York State, Presidential Politics, The Equalizer by Cincinnatus
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As we reported yesterday, the leader of the Senate Democrats basically invited his supporters to commit some felonies related to paying off public officials.  According to minority leader Malcolm Smith, supporters should view the possible takeover of the New York State Senate by the Democrats as an initial public offering of stock. 

Presumably, the “stock” being offered by the Senate Democrats is ownership of their votes in next year’s legislative session.  Malcolm Smith encouraged supporters to buy in early - by contributing large amounts of cash to the Senate Democrats now - or face the prospect that the same amount of influence would be much more costly later.  “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.”

The Senate Republicans (and most anyone else who read this story) were understandably horrified by the remarks, and in an interview, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos stated,  “You cannot threaten people to give contributions.  That’s thuggery.  And I think that’s totally inappropriate to make those sorts of statements.  Quid pro quo is a crime; you go to jail.”

Can you predict what came next?  If the Senate Democrats had any kind of honor, they would have removed Malcolm Smith from his leadership position. 

Instead, Malcolm Smith offered the lamest of excuses for the remarks (”I was just kidding” does not cut it in elementary school and it doesn’t cut it when you are the leader of the Senate Democrats), and then played the race card.  According to a story in the New York Times, he ”called on Mr. Skelos to apologize for the ‘thuggery’ comment and suggested that his remarks had a racial tinge.  ‘I think that demeans his position and has questionable overtones.  I call on him to apologize,’ said Mr. Smith, who is black.”

Let us review: the leader of the Senate Democrats tells everyone that his conference’s votes are for sale, and when he is confronted about it, he plays the race card. 

I think I just threw up in my mouth.

Tags: Articles, David Nachbar, New York State, Occam, Richard Dollinger by Occam
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Is there any better poster boy for Albany reform than Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver?  According to the New York Post, Shelly’s at it again:

SHELLY RIPPED FOR

50G LAW LOAN

By FREDRIC U. DICKER

Posted: 4:08 am
August 7, 2008

ALBANY - A political rival yesterday blasted closed-mouthed Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for lending $50,000 to a small company that funds personal-injury lawsuits and could be hurt by efforts to limit lucrative awards to trial lawyers - including those at Silver’s law firm.

“You have Sheldon Silver putting the interests of [law firm] Weitz & Luxenberg and the Trial Lawyers Association above that of New Yorkers,” charged Paul Newell, who is challenging him in the Democratic primary.

“Silver is employed by Weitz & Luxenberg for an undisclosed salary for undisclosed work on behalf of undisclosed clients, and if that wasn’t bad enough, he now is personally investing in companies that have business before the state.”

 

Silver has lent at least $50,000 to Counsel Financial Services, an Upstate company that finances small law firms specializing in personal-injury cases, The New York Times said yesterday.

 

Silver, who has blocked efforts to cap payouts in such cases, refused to comment.

Tags: New York State, The Equalizer by The Equalizer
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