Spin Cycle

As recently reported, Gov. David A. Paterson's inspector general Joseph Fisch (in photo) had an at-times testy interview with former Gov. Eliot Spitzer last fall, according to the transcript released. Fisch was inquiring about alleged Troopergate leaks to the latter's administration -- particularly to Spitzer aide Robert Hermann from Herbert Teitelbaum, then executive director of the state Commission on Public Integrity.

As pointed out by Newsday's John Riley, the published transcript includes this exchange:

Fisch: "Hermann had testified -- let me read, Governor, what he said, and then see if this provokes your recollection"

Spitzer: "Provokes? Or refreshes? Provoking tends to be easier than refreshing me."

Fisch: "Refreshes your recollection. I didn't mean anything insidious in that."

Spitzer: "I didn't either. I'm just observing, it's an article -- I think it's a factual statement that most would agree with."

What a darn shame Eliot Spitzer fell out of the governorship over his hooker habit. He was such a fun influence on the public dialogue and such a fine example of straight-shooting and considerate behavior.

Now transcripts have been released from the Paterson IG's office showing not only his enduring pomposity when interviewed in October ("My time is precious. What's your question, judge?") but an enduring bent toward deception, for example, over how he couldn't show up at IG Fisch's office because the press is surveilling him 24-7 (Fisch arrived at Spitzer's building and asked where all the press were; the Savant went into one of his tirades, transcripts show).

Said a retired pol who knew him: "If he's going once a week, he should be going twice."

Sure it was probably a lame fisch-ing expedition that once again exposed Spitzer's miserable demeanor. It's not like Joe Bruno was indispensable either.

But next time we start pining for the Savant's return, we'll have to examine the accounts of the documents released by Fisch here , here, and here.

First Cindy Adams reported it in the Post. Then Politico picked it up. Now, word is out that Tony Carbonetti, longtime employee of Giuliani Partners, has left the firm to work for prominent Long Islander and mega-successful Home Depot founder Kenneth Langone, a financial supporter of the former mayor and other Republicans, who was the palpably vindicated nemesis of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Carbonetti, according to a subsequent Ben Smith blog post, remains in the Giuliani political circle, the message being you can't read into his private-sector shift. There is a strong circle of alliance and friendship around Langone. Remember that Langone friend an former stock-exchange chief Dick Grasso, another old Spitzer target and Rudy ally, was publicly thanked by former Giuliani partner Bernard Kerik for providing refuge and counsel when the latter found himself in some rough going. Langone is starting a consulting firm, Smith reports, with Chris Henick, also once of the GP firm, "that will provide strategic advice."

The founding of the firm itself sounds like an interesting strategic move. Who knows? Maybe Carbonetti will yet prove to be the next state Republican chairman. We can only stay tuned.

(Photo from Web site of stern.edu).

Sometimes you get the impression that the Capitol in Albany is eating itself. Now the governor’s inspector general has released a report condemning the actions of the public integrity commission’s Spitzer-time director in the Troopergate affair. Timed with that, Gov. Paterson selects former prosecutor Michael Cherkasky as the new chair. Question: Does the commission under new stewardship go after those Caroline Kennedy leaks? Some degree of pushback, meanwhile, is expected from the current crew at the commission.

This SNL bit left over from the weekend featuring Spitzer next to Paterson advances the routine a little and features a bizzar-o caricature of the former governor that's more impressive for its depiction of madness than its accuracy. Your reviews more than welcome.

Consider yourself warned. Ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, long on pride and short on shame, might try for a comeback, even if he now says otherwise.

Last week he showed up with wife Silda Wall at a Waldorf-Astoria fundraiser, schmoozing and posing for photos. He was quoted as defending his just-ousted transit appointee Lee Sander, in an implicit criticism of Gov. David Paterson. He’s been on TV — only after insistent invites, he noted on one station — holding forth on such matters as the AIG collapse.

Also last week, a Marist poll said 51 percent of registered voters (44 percent in the suburbs) would prefer him to Paterson as governor. This just means Paterson — whom Spitzer made his successor — has amazingly low ratings. But a true political creature would take it as the public craving his return.

So much has happened since last year, it may be tough to recall how the upper-class Savant with lower-class business manners was foundering, even before the discovery of his hooker habit.

A longtime Spitzer friend, asked on Friday if a political return is planned, said: “No, not that I’m aware of.”

Why this round of interviews, then? “In those appearances he’s very knowledgeable about issues he speaks on. It’s not about his favorite polenta recipe. He’s always wanted to contribute to the public interest and make the state and the country a better place.”

How about this for public interest: Spitzer spends three years dispatching for a car service for lousy pay at night behind bulletproof glass, gaining weight by eating too much takeout — all with cameras rolling. Like that time they had Paris Hilton work on a farm.

Let’s just hope Spitzer avoids the cliche of penning a road-to-recovery story — or sharing some newfound religious or spiritual belief.

The "Hondo" feature runs on the NY Post sports page. After telling you which side of the big-league games he'd hypothetically be betting on, he usually has something pointed to say about, well, whatever else.

Today, Hondo (who they say got his nickname by wearing black sneakers like Havlicek's) goes yard -- with remarks on our former governor.

He writes: "Eliot Spitzer is the subject of this week's cover story in Newsweek. The only thing Client 9 seems to enjoy more than his hooker experiences is dredging them up for the media so his long suffering wife and daughters have to relive the torment."

Anyone feel like disputing that?

Attendance at the traditional Legislative Correspondents Association charity show, with its $300 ticket price, shrunk to what its fans and organizers found alarming.

The press presentation was "MacDave" in two acts -- Basically, Paterson as Shakespeare's MacBeth. As always, it had its high points, or low points, depending how you look at it.

A barb at Senate Minority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) that goes "Dean is Strange," to the tune of "Love is Strange."

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver sings "You Gotta Be" with the lyrics "You gotta be bad, you gotta be tough, you gotta be a shy-steh...."

Sen. Felix Ortiz sings: "I write the laws that make the strippers cry..."

Fomer Gov. Eliot Spitzer sings "Silda Yells" to the tune of "Silver Bells.."

AG Andrew Cuomo sings "I'll keep my pants on tight..."

Paterson is serenaded as "Secret Budget Man."

In response sketches, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith did a video presentation of himself conspicuously ignoring Sen. Dean Skelos, and his Democratic colleagues undermining him.

For the fourth straight year, Chris Callaghan, one-time GOP candidate for comptroller, weighed in with a Mark Russell-style performance (only wittier) highlighting various Albany buffooneries of the past year.

And Mayor MIchael Bloomberg sent along a video, a "news broadcast" written by his talented ringers, portraying his accidental filing in the Albany mayor's race and disastrous campaign to unseat the local incumbent, Jerry Jennings.

The latest episode in the comedy series known as the former governor of Illinois comes with word that Rod Blagojevich has signed on for the show, "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here," a survival-type reality program. Chi Tribune has details here.

Which only makes us notice that Eliot Spitzer, with more time served on the disgraced former big-state-Democratic-governor circuit, was so dull and pompous on Matt Lauer the other week that maybe he'd be inspired to get a new medium himself, like an appearance on "Punk'd" or a modified version of the show about speed-dating.

Or maybe a custom-made version of 'G's to Gents' hosted by Roger Stone?

Other show suggestions: 'Spitz at the Ritz'? 'Blago in Chicago'?

How about 'Jail or No Jail'?

For Gov. David A. Paterson, the question simply seems to have been: Why NOT move for a same-sex marriage bill?

He'd promised to do it. He supported the concept as a Manhattan lawmaker. His poll numbers have little place to go but up. Anyone who dislikes him for this would probably oppose him anyway.

It changes the subject from budget cuts, taxes and wars with unions.

City officials including Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker who is a lesbian, and Michael Bloomberg, the re-election-seeking mayor, are marketing the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion this summer as a destination for gay tourism.

Like it or not, momentum for legalizing same-sex marriage is building elsewhere. Recent legalization in Vermont and Iowa grabbed big attention. Take it as a sign that the politically vigilant Sen. Charles Schumer, not known to toss the dice casually, recently got on board for gay marriage.

For Paterson, it is a chance for a famous and symbolic high-profile success. Arguing for rights for a minority that traditionally did not "fit in" can only play to Paterson's strength.

But then there is the State Senate, where Paterson served as minority leader until 2006. This is where all kinds of Democratic plans have gone to die - a tradition that seems to survive even in this first year of the party's majority.

One gay New York City Democrat, an activist who's worked in government for decades, Tuesday privately expressed alarm ...

Continue reading "Paterson: All the reasons to go for same-sex bill" »

Former Republican State Senator Mike Balboni may be testing a return to his party’s fold.

GOP sources report that Balboni turned up at the North Hempstead Republican cocktail party three weeks ago and this month attended the Pat Cairo Family Foundation Dinner, an annual cancer fundraiser run by Nassau GOP vice chairman Joseph Cairo in honor of his late wife.

The dinner has become a must-attend event for county Republicans.

(State Correction Department photo)

Balboni, who represented Nassau’s North Shore 7th District for 10 years, outraged GOP leaders by quitting his elected office in early 2007 to take a job as the state’s homeland security chief with then-Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer.

But, of course, Spitzer resigned last year, succeeded by David Paterson, and Balboni subsequently left the state’s payroll Feb. 2. Balboni now heads the New York operations of Navigators Global, a consulting firm, as noted by the Anton Newspapers Group.

Celeste Hadrick

This on the Dopp case according to the AP:

Dopp has said commission Executive Director Herbert Teitelbaum leaked Dopp's testimony to another Spitzer aide in the 2007 scandal that became known as "Troopergate," apparently to protect Spitzer against claims state police were misused to embarrass a Republican foe.

Dopp said he plans to file a state Supreme Court petition arguing the commission's actions against him were arbitrary and unfair. He said the petition will be filed after the state inspector general issues a report on the claim against Teitelbaum.

Walter Ayres of the state's public-integrity commission just put out an unusually pugnacious press statement saying that commission nemesis Darren Dopp -- who's refused to appear before it saying its Spitzer-related probe was a fix -- has dropped his civil suit against the commission.

In part, Ayres states on behalf of the commission: “The withdrawal of this suit represents yet another occasion that Mr. Dopp has withdrawn from the opportunity he claims to crave – to publicly tell his version of events. Mr. Dopp has yet to appear in a forum where he would appear in public, under oath, and facing possible cross-examination on the witness stand.”

Word from the other side when we get it. As we've said before, this dispute could help shape the body's future role by way of precedent. For full statement, click 'continued' bar below.

Continue reading "Panel: Ex-op Dopp opts to drop suit v. ethic cops" »

From Albany's perpetual fun-fest, James T. Madore tells us:

State Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) injected Eliot Spitzer into Thursday’s debate on the Senate floor over the budget process.

Marcellino and his fellow Republicans, in the minority this year for the first time in 43 years, were complaining about being excluded from budget talks.

'What we are doing to this budget process is what Client No. 9 did to that young lady in that hotel in Washington,' Marcellino said. His comment came a couple of days after the one-year anniversary of Spitzer’s resignation amid a prostitution scandal centered on his tryst at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) denounced Marcellino, saying he had violated senatorial decorum. “I’m personally offended. I demand an apology,” Parker said.

There was no immediate apology.

Sen. Neil Breslin (D-Albany) admonished he colleagues to 'disagree but not be disagreeable.'

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's one-time public-relations aide Darren Dopp, who was caught in the center of his boss's get-Bruno blowup, says he won't participate in his ethics hearing Wednesday, citing legal action he filed late Monday against the state Public Integrity Commission, the AP reports here. He essentially suggests the commission probe was a fix and a farce. His full statement is on LoHud here. Now Walter Ayres, on behalf of the commission, has issued a response disputing Dopp's claims. Full text after the 'continued' click. You could say it's all water under the bridge, yet such a big deal was made about ethics regulation at the outset of the Spitzer administration -- with the approval of so much of the public -- that this could be big toward determining what the commission becomes in the aftermath of the man who gave 'reform' a bad name.

Continue reading "Dopp bops ethics cops: Ex-Spitzer aide blasts probe" »

Now in his second big power-authority job, Nassau’s Richard Kessel, right, finds himself drawing political static.

Last month the New York Power Authority, which Kessel chairs, agreed to cede hundreds of millions of dollars to help fill the state’s massive operating gap. Assemb. James Hayes (R-Amherst), called it “outrageous” that “they’re using surplus NYPA funds from selling our hydropower on the open market to fund pork-barrel spending in Albany,” as reported by Tom Precious in the Buffalo News.

Kessel, tapped by Gov. David Paterson for the post, denies the transfer would affect NYPA operations, saying: “We certainly work with the governor’s office. These are extraordinary times. Had we not contributed the money it would have come from education or health care. . .”

Stemming from Kessel’s previous role heading the Long Island Power Authority, his most vocal public critic continues to be Conservative Party activist George Marlin, whose “Street Corner Conservative” blog features a “Richie Kessel NYPA Watch.”

A recent sample: Marlin, of New Hyde Park, filed a freedom-of-information request for schedules and phone documents with the assertion that while heading an authority based to the north, Kessel “is solely focused on spending time in his native habitat, Nassau County.”

“That’s incorrect,” Kessel replies. “Most of the time I’m upstate. I’m on Long Island sometimes because of energy projects that impact Long Island . . . But a preponderance of my time and effort are aimed at upstate.”

When Marlin faulted Kessel for LIPA’s current woes in a recent Long Island Business News piece, lawyer Arthur J. Kremer, the former Assembly Ways and Means Committee chairman, responded in print by defending Kessel, alleging errors, and slamming Marlin’s record directing the bi-state Port Authority in the 1990’s. Marlin — who famously fell out with Gov. George Pataki — responded in part by noting Kremer lobbied for LIPA during Kessel’s tenure.

Kessel’s allies note that Patrick Foye, who was Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s economic development director, is a Marlin friend. By all accounts Kessel and Foye were not friends when the latter was LIPA vice-chair.

Today, the bigger buzz in the electro-political world seems to involve Larry Schwartz recently replacing Bill Cunningham as Paterson’s top aide. Cunningham was perceived as a Kessel ally. Schwartz, on the other hand, goes back with current LIPA boss Kevin Law, with whom he worked under Suffolk County Executive Pat Halpin.

Recently, sources said, deputy state energy secretary Paul DeCotis emphatically told a LIPA advisory board the utility will not be merged into the Kessel-run NYPA.

(Newsday Photo, 2007 / J. Conrad Williams Jr)

Bill Murphy reports on his wide-ranging interview with Nassau Executive Tom Suozzi, still rumored to be a possible contender for the U.S. Seante appointment:

Suozzi now admits he was susicious of being manipulated when appointed to head a commission on property taxes by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who had beaten him in the Democratic primary for governor.

“Everybody was telling me, ‘This is going to a set-up. This is going to be a problem for you.’ But this is what I’m focused on and I know that it’s my number one issue in the county. So I decided if I’m not going to do it, who else is going to do it? So it might as well just do it. So I did it,” Suozzi said in an interview Wednesday.

There may have been grounds for Suozzi’s fears. After the first meeting of of the Commission on Property Tax Relief, a top Spitzer aide, Lloyd Constantine, sidled up to Suozzi and said he ought to think about creating a local income tax to ease property tax bills.

That would have been political suicide for Suozzi in heavily-taxed Nassau County. Luckily for Suozzi, Newsday reporter Sid Cassese was standing nearby and overheard the conversation.

Aides to Spitzer scrambled to explain that Constantine merely wanted Suozzi to make the public aware of alternatives to property tax. “I was not suggesting it was a good idea,” Constantine explained.....

Continue reading "The full Suozzi: On Senate seat, Spitzer and so on..." »

In the Village Voice this week, Tom Robbins first contemplates the Albany shenanigans of Assembly geniuses Brian McLaughlin and Anthony Seminerio. And then he tells of an interesting case of evident nepotism: About how Owen Johnson Jr., namesake son of the Suffolk senator, is on the Senate majority's payroll, apparently attached to the office of Brooklyn Sen. Martin Golden. Robbins also cites the domestic dispute with a roommate that led to the younger Johnson's arrest. Worth a look, with an eye to his allusion to Spitzer's short-lived reform era.

This is the week of the broken alliance.

So on Wednesday, as noted here, the state Working Families Party, which went all out for the Eliot Spitzer-David Paterson ticket two years ago, launched an advertising assault against the new governor’s proposal for a 4 percent cap on school-related property tax increases.

“Tell David Paterson,” urges the narrator of one ominous 30-second spot, “hurting schools is the wrong answer.”

Despite this verbal whack, the minor party is backing a number of candidates this fall who support the cap. And it is too late in the election calendar for WFP to cancel endorsements for lawmakers who voted for it.

“This is a disagreement on principle between us and the governor. It’s not the first, and we had them with Spitzer as well,” said Dan Cantor (left), the party’s executive director. “If the governor continues to drift away from working families, he’s going to keep hearing about it from progressives like us.”

When money gets tight, coziness becomes the first casualty.

On the heels of last week’s Senate vote for the tax cap, the 600,000-member New York State United Teachers broke from past practice and refrained from endorsing the Senate Republicans, who backed the tax-cap.

NYSUT president Richard C. Iannuzzi ....

Dan Janison

Continue reading "Busted political-bond week in NY: When $$ gets tight" »

We tire of chewing Troopergate cud, and yet, there was something ambiguously arresting about the August 2007 testimony of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's state police liaison William Howard in Albany County District Attorney David Soares' probe, explaining an e-mail he wrote before the first news stories broke about former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's habits with state police aircraft. In the e-mail Howard said “the impending travel stuff implies more problems... I think timing right for that move.”

"That move"?

“I didn't know what they were going to do with this stuff, but I knew that Darren [Dopp] was collecting the information,” Howard testified. “...I didn't know what the move was. It could have been to ethics, it could have been to the IG (Inspector General)... I didn't know what the move was going to be and didn't know that it was going to be a media move....”

“I figured they were collecting it for a purpose, and I figured that purpose was that somebody would have a conversation with somebody, you know, at a high level and say look, you know, we've got to move the ball. We've got to get together.”

Elizabeth Moore

John Edwards could have put it this way: "I did not have kids with that woman!"

Had he done this bit of Bill Clinton revision, Edwards would have given Friday's show of admission and refutation a bit of historical heft.

Instead, we have your standard-issue sex scandal besieging another politician. This leads some of us to wonder when the National Enquirer will fall from its lofty pedestal as the political newspaper of record.

Until that moment, spinmeisters could at least lighten up the dialogue for their clients.

Imagine if a damage-control consultant had Sen. Larry Craig go out there after his cringe-inducing arrest, wag his finger Bubba-style, and say with accuracy: "I did not try to have sex with any women."

Jim McGreevey could have done the same.

Eliot Spitzer, for whom it was a business doing pleasure, might have crafted his own non-denial denial with something like: "I refrained from ordering the disclosure of any sensitive security data ....

Dan Janison

Continue reading "Edwards and the art of denial: Pols are a breed apart" »

Among a cache of Choppergate-related documents released today by Albany District Attorney David Soares is a revealing e-mail from then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s chief-of-staff Richard Baum to the governor on July 3, 2007 – days after a critical story in the Times Union of Albany about Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno.

Baum urged Spitzer to ratchet down the enmity between the governor and Senate GOP. Baum suggested calling five Republican senators including Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) and four Democrats "to make them feel there’s a way out of the madness and you’re the reasonable one. I’d just tell them you’re willing and ready to work with them despite what’s going on in the papers."

Spitzer replied, "If u e-mail numbers I will make calls now."

LaValle, reached Tuesday night, confirmed receiving the governor’s call but not acquiescing to his demands.

"I told him that it was something that he needed to speak to the majority leader [Bruno] directly and he kept trying to push me in different directions. And I said to him only he had the key to putting discussions and negotiations on a reasonable road."

LaValle also recalled telling Spitzer that he had worked with five governors since joining the Senate in 1976. "I found the methodologies he used to be very troubling. He kept pushing me. And I said, ‘Look, don’t ask me. You as the governor need to...

James T. Madore

Continue reading "Spitzer reach-out was more like a grilling: Sen. LaValle" »

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer reportedly approved the move to have statements submitted rather than testify when Attorney General Andrew Cuomo last year was probing choppergate, or troopergate, or whatever we're calling it in retrospect this week. This, while the Savant said he was cooperating...Oh well.

Mike Gormley of the AP has a report here.

Records released by DA Soares today are still being combed...Stay tuned.

A trusted New York racing savant has alerted us to an amusingly-named pair of horses that ran at Saratoga at the outset of the summer season: "Luv Gov" and "Ninth Client."

In this entry, one racing blogger had a good time with the tabloid-headline-bred monickers -- an apparently UNcoincidental reference to Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced governor and prostitute procurer.

On Monday, "Ninth Client" tied for first against 18-1 odds. On the Daily Racing Form site, racing writer Steve Crist said: "Ninth Client... named for former Gov. Spitzer's status in an FBI surveillance report as "Client No. 9" -- went to the front... turned back a bid from Lime Rickey in midstretch and then dead-heated..." (The full report is here.)

Luv Gov ran on Saturday with less success.

But wait -- it gets cuter.

Turns out these horses come out the stables of Mary Lou Whitney -- the prominent longtime socialite of Saratoga and other residences who once was married to Cornelius Vanderbilt "Sonny" Whitney. We are assured earnestly by those in the know that there is no connection to the fact that she served for a little while as honorary chairwoman of Empire Racing Associates -- one of the firms that was vying to replace New York Racing Association last year as operator of the tracks at Belmont, Saratoga (where attendance is down this year) and Aqueduct.

As it happened Spitzer, in one of his higher-profile decisions before becoming known as Client No. 9, chose to keep NYRA in charge. The rest is history -- and fodder for humor. You know -- like, he Spitzed the bit, he scratched early in the term, or a horse named State Trooper was nowhere to be found, or he wasn't stable, all that. Other quips welcome to post, but please remember we're kind of a family newspaper here.

They've been conducting a protest campaign on the matter for some time, but four men who say they were fired as doormen and porters at an E. 57th St. luxury building owned by Bernard Spitzer are now calling on Gov. David Paterson to return a $3,500 contribution from the ex-governor's dad.

For the full release, click continued bar below.

The latest state Board of Election filings show Bernard Spitzer contributed the money last Jan. 18 -- a couple of months before son Eliot was forced out of office in a sudden eye-popping prostitution scandal. By the way, the elder Spitzer last week kicked in $4,000 to Councilman David Yassky's campaign for New York City comptroller and $100 to Isaac Abraham, who's running to replace Yassky in his Council seat.

Continue reading "Elder Spitzer wrote pols checks in '08 -- one for Dave" »

Gov. David A. Paterson — his new administration perceived by the most generous of Capitol veterans as still "a work in progress" — today announced his appointment of Terryl Brown Clemons as $178,000 acting counsel, Dennis Whalen as $178,000 interim director of state operations and Joe Baker as his $165,000 acting deputy sectretary for health and human services.

Note that two are "acting" and one is "interim." Are national searches are being conducted? No word yet from the governor's office. As the announcement notes, these appointments do not require Senate confirmation.

Clemons most recently served as first assistant counsel to the governor. She'd previously been an assistant deputy with Eliot Spitzer's attorney general's office. Whalen was deputy secretary to Spitzer beginning in January 2007 and was executive deputy health commissioner in the Pataki administration and began his state government career in 1974. Baker worked in the attorney general's office between 1991 and 2006.

Sen. Dean Skelos’ ascent will make him the sole suburbanite and the only Republican among the three men who run New York government.

In this way, the 60-year-old majority leader from Rockville Centre instantly becomes the odd man out at a table with two Manhattan Democrats, Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Be warned, however: This three-way dynamic can prove surprising by sparking personal dramas that defy party and geography.

As governor, Democrat Mario Cuomo sometimes seemed to get along better with the GOP-run Senate than with the Democratic-run Assembly. Retiring Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) repeatedly sided with Silver against Republican George Pataki. And during the short tenure of Eliot Spitzer, the ruling troika split clearly and bitterly along party lines — but only after Silver and Bruno bucked Spitzer in tandem to install Nassau’s Thomas DiNapoli as comptroller.

Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, who’s known Skelos for decades, predicted yesterday that Skelos “will be a strong constructive opposition to the governor. He’s not going to oppose him just to oppose him, and he will be a strong partner when he can be.”

First, Skelos’ majority — now at 32-30 — needs to survive the next election. This year’s budget and most other legislative business already have concluded.

Skelos comes to power as nominations are being locked in for state legislative seats, in a year many believe looks bleak for the state GOP.

Joseph Mondello, the state and Nassau party chairman, praised colleague Skelos but sounded less than certain of victory ...

Dan Janison

Continue reading "Skelos: Of three in a room, the odd man out" »

State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo, who was a trusted Eliot Spitzer aide for many years, may be on a hot seat as he faces a tough problem involving one of the companies his office regulates. Details are daunting, but the bottom line is that Dinallo faces a high-stakes choice of whether to push MBIA Inc., a major insurer of municipal bonds, to put $900 million cash into its insurance unit.

If you have the patience to wrestle with the concept of credit default swaps, there are two accounts -- one from the Times here and the other from Bloomberg News here, both published last week -- worth reading. Another narrative is here, from Conde Nast. For any of you finance sophisticates: Does this mean trouble ahead or is it a brief tempest?

Dan Janison

It strikes some observers at the Capitol that Gov. David Paterson might be overdoing the private message that his administration represents a total change from predecessor Eliot Spitzer. Paterson is in office because Spitzer chose him as a running-mate against the advice of some senior Democrats, then won in a landslide. Paterson has changed top personnel and the tone of dealings with other key pols, but any basic shifts in philosophy or their impact remain to be seen.

Dan Janison

The ouster of the New York Power Authority’s chief executive appears related in part to an uproar over the agency’s former inspector general, who’s the focus of a widely-publicized state-police probe headedby Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Insiders expect Roger Kelley’s Aug. 1 departure as the authority’s president to clear the way for Gov. David Paterson to tap Richard Kessel (left), the former Long Island Power Authority chairman, for the post which paid Kelley (right), an appointee of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, $235,000 a year. Mark Harrington's full story is here.

Cuomo’s office has been inquiring about NYPA’s ex-inspector general, Daniel Wiese, a former top state police official once close to both Spitzer and Gov. George Pataki, and his handling of an authority security contract. Sources believe this was the last in a series of issues that battered the CEO.

Dan Janison

Differences between Barack Obama and John McCain now command the spotlight, with standard party-line clashes expected on abortion, guns, taxes and Iraq. Expect sniping to intensify around race, class and terrorism.

One Republican operative tells us to expect McCain to exhume Obama’s support for ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s aborted license plan for illegals — perhaps eclipsing McCain’s own past fight with his GOP rivals on immigration. Obama said in February: “We have to solve the overall (immigration) problem and this driver's license issue is a distraction.”

Obama's most hawkish critics are slamming the Democrat on the Mideast — while Obama looks like he’ll keep lashing McCain to George W. Bush on the grinding war and the sinking economy.

Dan Janison

Gov. David Paterson’s move to have state agencies honor out-of-state same-sex marriages casts a sudden spotlight on the issue five months before a make-or-break election that decides if Republicans keep their Senate majority. And as impassioned as debate promises to be on the merits in Albany, the perception of who gains politically seems to differ as well.

“It’s not quite the same as Eliot Spitzer’s drivers’ licenses for illegals, but it’s good for us,” said a Republican operative. “It gets the Republican base engaged. We can tell people we are the one thing standing between New York State and the loonie-left abyss. When you poll gay marriage, the numbers are off the charts against it. There are levels of comfort — people are most comfortable with civil unions.”

A Democratic official involved in gay issues, while lukewarm about Paterson overall, said he admired his foresight. As for fallout, “most people don’t care about gay marriage,” the official said. “The gay community has matured, younger people generally either support it or at least don’t oppose it. Everyone now knows someone who’s openly gay, unlike years ago.”

A court fight over Paterson’s order, and action on clashing bills in both houses, will keep this in the public eye.

Dan Janison

Gov. Paterson has tapped a one-time political rival, Galen Kirkland, to head the state’s Human Rights Division.

In 1985, the pair vied for the Democratic nomination in a state Senate race after the death of Leon Bogues. Paterson beat Kirkland more than two to one in votes cast by the party committee, and served in the Senate until becoming lieutenant governor last year.

Kirkland has spent much of the past 23 years working for the attorney general’s office, under Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo, most recently in the attorney general’s civil rights bureau.
“He will continue to be a vital advocate for those in need of a powerful voice,” Paterson said last week.

Kirkland succeeds Spitzer appointee Kumiki Gibson, one of a handful ousted by Paterson. Weeks after becoming commissioner, six division employees accused Gibson in a federal lawsuit, oddly enough, of discrimination.

James T. Madore

More than a century ago, Justice John Marshall Harlan became the U.S. Supreme Court’s “great dissenter.” Last week, in a much more modest forum, rookie Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) did a lot of dissenting — though any claim to greatness will be subject to debate.

Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith chose Johnson last year for the 15-member local-efficiency commission to explore merging special tax districts and other government entities. In its 71-page report, endorsing “big changes” and issued last week, Johnson’s name appeared in footnotes as objecting or abstaining on no less than a dozen of the panel’s 33 recommendations. That’s more than any other member, including Nassau Comptroller Howard Weitzman, who objected to seven.

“I have to be frank,” Johnson says. “There are several flaws in commission’s final report that I think, as my dissents showed, cannot be overlooked.”

He said there was “almost no analysis of the cost savings of any of the initiatives,” and little recognition of differing government structures by region.

That said, Johnson also cited bills he has introduced to help change special-district arrangements for the better.

The report shows that Johnson, Weitzman and three elected upstaters opposed steps bulleted by the commission toward countywide management of fire protection services. Another member, Assemb. Sam Hoyt (D — Buffalo) told Newsday’s Liz Moore: “Frankly, I think there are too many elected officials who simply pander to the fire departments and the volunteer firefighters.”

Johnson treads warily on local turf; Long Island Republicans would love to win back his seat in November. Most objections scattered through the reform report came from the panel’s 6 elected officials. One exception: Chairman Stan Lundine, the former lieutenant governor, joined Johnson, Weitzman and ex-Troy Mayor Mark Pattison objecting to a proposal in the report to make government and school-district employees pay at least 10 percent for individual health coverage, and 25 percent for dependents.

For the full report, click here. Note: Harlan's famous dissent was in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), in which the majority of the court upheld racial segregation as constitutional under the concept of "separate but equal." More here.

Dan Janison

The reported focus by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo' office has been on former state police Col. Daniel Wiese, whose kept close relations with back-to-back governors Pataki and Spitzer and now has a $180,000-a-year Power Authority job.

Now Fred Dicker writes of a private security contract through the authority that he suggests lies at the heart of suspected political surveillance of legislators. Plausible enough, in theory, but there are no specifics -- so far.

When Wiese was up for the Power Authority post in 2003, Assemb. Richard Brodsky obtained this gushing praise from then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, as the Times writes here. The same nugget brings up the mystery of exactly what Sen. Dale Volker was talking about at that hearing last week.

Dan Janison

The upcoming retirement of Judith Kaye, after 15 years as top judge on the state’s highest court, has sparked intense speculation over a successor. And a back-chamber battle for the prized appointment may be brewing.

When David Paterson became governor last month, Jonathan Lippman, at right, had widely been considered the favorite. He’s served since 1996 as the chief administrative judge running the massive court system — the longest tenure to date in the post. A Kaye appointee, he’s credited with many initiatives, including the introduction of specialty courts and rule reforms.

But state sources say Theodore T. Jones, Jr., at left, is emerging as a leading contender to succeed Kaye in leading the 7-member Court of Appeals. Jones joined the court in February of last year, an Eliot Spitzer nominee. Before that he served for many years as a state Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn.

If tapped, Jones would be the court’s first African-American chief judge.

Some suggest another name in play may be Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, an appointee of Gov. Mario Cuomo, who’s served on the court since January 1994. She’d be its first Latina chief judge.

Kaye reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 this year. A Cuomo nominee, she became the court’s first female judge in 1983. Today, four of the judges are women, two chosen by Republican Gov. George Pataki.

Court watchers note that Paterson’s counsel is James Yates, who’s served as a state Supreme Court justice — and has himself been on lists of envied eligibles for the high court.

Dan Janison

When he took over the governorship after being elected in a record landslide, Eliot Spitzer brought with him a mostly insular cadre of advisers, mostly lawyers, from the state attorney general's office, under the aegis of the law-man and reformer.

Lt. Gov. David Paterson, elected on the same ballot, was different -- steeped in legislative comptromises, neighborhood assistance grants, and the city's and Democratic Party's leading African-American power circles.

Now, in the month after Paterson was suddenly thrust into the top spot, his different sensibility and life experience is reflected in his cabinet picks. And in a notable Capitol micro-trend, an unusual proportion of them have election experience of their own.

The experience ranges. Jim Yates, counsel, was elected to the state Supreme Court in the late 1990's, but is mostly considered a top jurist. On the other end, Carl Andrews, inter-governmental affairs director and a former state Senator, has been involved in U.S. Senate and other campaigns, has run for Congress, and served as a political lieutenant to the since-convicted former Brooklyn Democratic boss Clarence Norman Jr.

Dr. Jon R. Cohen, special adviser, a Democrat from Nassau, comes from the medical world but ran as a health-care candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006 until Spitzer picked Paterson for the slot. And Bill Cunningham, now the governor's senior adviser, ran for Suffolk County executive five years ago.

This reminded one wag at the Capitol of the old, facetious slogan often cited by Gov. Mario Cuomo: "Integrity is no substitute for experience."

Dan Janison

Two state boards created to resolve disputes involving labor unions have been hindered by vacancies that have prevented valid votes from taking place -- and therefore backlogged their caseloads. Before departing, Spitzer nominated for the Public Employment Relations Board Rosemary Queenan, but her past professional ties could conflict with participating in a pending case involving the state troopers' PBA.

The Times union describes the situation here. There also has been coverage in the Chief-Leader (subscription only).

Given new Gov. David Paterson's more extensive direct and indirect union ties than his predecessor, unsexy but important PERB doings might draw more attention than usual from the news media in general, at least for a little while.

Dan Janison

As posted on Friday, Gov. David Paterson revealed a party personnel change in a conference call on Friday with Democratic county leaders.

So far, downstater David Pollak quits as state co-chair and upstater June O’Neill stays as sole chair. Paterson reportedly told the party leaders that it was dysfunctional to split authority between two co-chairs, a concoction of Spitzer's, who had little use for the party apparatus.

Sources say candidates have been interviewed to replace Edna Ishayik as executive director.

Dan Janison

The six-member State Investigation Commission, probing earlier probes of the disgraced Eliot Spitzer’s Choppergate farce, is supposed to include no more than three members of the same political party. But ex-Gov. George Pataki was able to appoint his longtime aide, Republican John Cahill, to the panel because Alfred Lerner, a longtime Republican, re-registered as an unaffiliated voter. So the real mix is 4-2 Republican.

Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s report on Choppergate last summer didn’t make the SIC’s publicized critique list. But the SIC would seem likely to chat with the Cuomo team once it hears outgoing Spitzer Inspector General Kristine Hamann’s story about how her probe was supposed to link up with his. Stay tuned.

Dan Janison

As a man of so much spite and so little irony, Eliot Spitzer could scarcely have guessed that his clearest economic legacy as governor would consist of turning himself into a public-works project for government investigators.

Now a gaggle of paid inquisitors from a half-dozen public agencies is rushing in to carry off trophies and teach lessons from the downfall of the Sheriff of State Street. Even an investigation of three other investigations has been announced — by the state Investigation Commission, a model of bureaucratic survival first created to take on organized crime in the 1950s.

The bipartisan panel has set its sights on the performance of the Albany County district attorney, the state inspector general — who quit yesterday — and the state Commission on Public Integrity — and their roles in probing the Spitzer farce known as Choppergate.

This scope of SIC interest happens to fall on executive offices occupied by one-time Spitzer allies and appointees. In this uber-prober role, the panel bears the clear stamp of Albany’s waxing power center, the legislature, whose leaders appoint four of the commission’s six members. These include three former assemblymen and a former counsel to state Sen. Cesar Trunzo (R-Brentwood). There’s a businessman who once was New York Mayor John V. Lindsay’s campaign manager and then his deputy mayor, as well as a former top aide to Gov. George Pataki.

So Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno — who got to choose two of the three Republican members......

Dan Janison

Continue reading "Probing grounds: The Spitzer legacy" »

Given the charged responses by Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and his Investigations Chairman George Winner to Albany District Attorney David Soares’ explosive “Troopergate” report, you can bet Republicans are looking to squeeze the disgraced Eliot Spitzer’s misdeeds for an electoral edge.

But nobody seems to have pinned down how much the Spitzer administration may have helped advertise the ongoing federal probe of Bruno’s business affairs. One insider suggested Spitzer’s office kept close contact with U.S. officials, but another noted the investigation started by 2004. By all accounts, Bruno loyalists remain nervous.

Dan Janison

Roger Stone's latest self-promotion, a letter purportedly sent to the feds in November telling of Eliot Spitzer's prostitution procurement, might or might not be authentic -- "Forget it Jake -- it's Stone town" -- but one federal official tells Newsday that the probe began before the missive's reported date anyway.

Some of us are still waiting for Stone to proclaim the results of his O.J.-like phone-bill probe that he suggested at one point would indicate that someone somehow set him up on that crank call from his apartment to Spitzer's father a few months ago.

Now that he's put in the paperwork, maybe he can send a bill for back expenses to Joe Bruno, who retired him when that embarrassing episode broke.

Which raises that same question posted earlier: Who's government is this? The people or the intriguers?

Dan Janison

Why don't we just suspend democratic elections in the style of a South Asian dictatorship and have Roger Stone choose our leaders? That way you don't have to be elected with 70 percent of the vote. Between this and Hevesi, elections are getting nullified in New York. Talk about a democratic republic in crisis. Here is the latest from the Miami Herald which tells us how the master of Democratic disaster tipped off the feds, which if it holds up blows up the workaday narrative about how alert bank employees heard this and that and activated red flags etc....Then again, in Stone's world, you really have to have proof. Was the letter authentic?

Dan Janison

Beware, pornography fans. After the latest series of sensational disclosures, the main occupation of the Capitol in Albany remains political power. And that's what this drama is about, even if sex provides a major pastime.

The ascension of a substitute governor leaves Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno secure in their clout. They may never enjoy as much status as they do today.

Gov. David Paterson spent part of his first week in office responding to questions about his past conduct. That tempest goes on - keeping heat over any such conduct off the lawmakers for the moment.

Even if Paterson finds himself jammed up, which powerful state player would regret the loss of Eliot Spitzer and move to oust his successor before the term is out?

Top legislative guns will prefer a struggling but collegial former peer in the executive chamber any day to a self-righteous rookie who won the job in a popular landslide on a vow to rattle the status quo.

Before Paterson's dalliances became front-page news....

Dan Janison

Continue reading "Paterson and women: It's the power, stupid...." »