Spin Cycle

The Times' Danny Hakim today has a valuable story that demonstrates clearly what's been suspected for many years -- that fiscal analysis included in legislation is about as reliable as the "self-certifications" filed by many builders with government agencies.

District Council 37 wrote a bi-partisan pension-sweetening measure sponsored by Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn), at left, and Assemb. Peter Abbate (D-Brooklyn), at right -- as well as the fiscal "analysis" that it would have no monetary impact on the city -- which the city claims is actually $200 million.

This story, coming as public pensions are under scrutiny and state expenses are spiking, has a number of interesting facets, and is worth a close read here. Note the sponsors' reactions to the news that the "analysis" was performed by an actuary in the pay of the unions.

The story coincides with Gov. David Paterson's declaration against special pension bills that traditionally bloom in the spring in Albany.

All this is of a piece with Newsday's recent efforts to highlight controversial public pension practices, the latest of which is here.

Dan Janison

If Nassau Legis. David Mejias has interest in running for state Senate, he is going to have to wage a primary.

Jay Jacobs, Nassau Democratic chairman, said the party will be giving the nomination to Kristen McElroy, 38, a Garden City attorney and mother of three, making her first run to take on Republican State Senate veteran Kemp Hannon (left).

Mejias, moved into the Hannon’s district to qualify to run, was snubbed for the party’s nod after he angered Jacobs when he balked at backing a pay raise for county lawmakers.

Mejias, reached Friday, said that he will not challenge for the nomination, will support the party’s candidate and will “focus 100 percent on the Nassau Legislature.”

The party will also name Hofstra University ethics professor Roy Simon, 58, of West Hempstead to take on State Senate Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).

The Democrats' convention is scheduled for May 29 at the Cradle of Aviation in Garden City.

Rick Brand

The partisan war for control of the state Senate is prompting maneuvers on several battlefields. Here is the latest news from two of them.

Local sources tell Rick Brand that Brookhaven Supervisor Brian Foley would be the state Democrats’ top choice to challenge veteran Sen. Cesar Trunzo. He has $200,000 in campaign cash on hand, but before you bet on his jumping in, be warned that Foley is considered quite cautious. There’s family history too: His father, John Foley, lost a bid to unseat Trunzo back in 1982, by 7,666 votes. Still, Senate Democrats were said to be testing Foley’s name in polls. And Foley has had a conversation about it with Bob Master, the Communication Workers of America regional legislative director who also is state co-chair of the Working Families Party, which partners with Democrats in Senate races, Brand reports.

Speaking of the WFP, the party plans starting tomorrow to target Trunzo and Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) in an “issues” campaign, slamming the Senate GOP on paid family-leave. Which Democrat will face Hannon, though, also remains hazy. As Celeste Hadrick reported Friday on this blog, Legis. David Mejias (D-Farmingdale) agreed to rejoin the Democratic legislative caucus after talking privately with Nassau Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, with whom he’d been feuding. But sources say the Democratic organization has not reinstated its support for a Mejias race against Hannon -- whose seat seems to have been a topic of perennial discussion from the opposing party for time immemorial.

Dan Janison

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

While the sleeping habits of Democratic governors roars through the tabloid copy, coveted office space reserved for the lieutenant governor on the Capitol's third floor - the Legislature's domain - has been claimed by Joseph Bruno, the Republican Senate majority leader, who under the state constitution assumed the LG's duties with Paterson's ascension.

Bruno spokesman John McArdle cited precedent on Friday: Warren Anderson, then majority leader, did the same when Al DelBello vacated the lieutenant governor's post in 1985. As for some second-floor LG's space - in the governor's domain - McArdle said there is "no interest" from his side. He has also indicated "no interest" in taking over the second floor as governor.

Dan Janison

Sure, they were running mates. Sure, both are Democrats. Sure, they worked mostly in tandem as governor and lieutenant governor.

But it would be hard to find men with more different personal styles than Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson. It is a contrast that goes deeper than obvious facts of race and disability.

Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president who was the party's 2005 candidate for New York City mayor, knows them both.

"Monday night, I said a prayer for two guys who are friends of mine," said Ferrer, now in private life. "Both are blazingly smart, in different ways. One is impulsive, the other is thoughtful."

Paterson, says Ferrer, is "thoughtful and deliberate, and thinks things out a number of steps." As for advice, Ferrer adds, "the thing he will need to do - and it's easy to say now that I'm out of politics - is curb his natural tendency to be witty."

Say what you will now that he's done, but nobody ever accused Spitzer of being a schmoozer or a raconteur. The Albany crowd knows that in private.....

Dan Janison

Last year, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno paid Roger Stone, a Republican strategist who continually draws attention in unusual ways, to advise him on matters related to his nemesis Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Stone departed after the famous crank/threatening phone call to Spitzer's father traced to Stone's Manhattan apartment.

All along, we had heard that Bruno communications director John McArdle internally resisted the hiring of Stone in the first place. Now, Stone is slamming McArdle for the departure last week of Ed Lurie as executive director of the state Senate GOP campaign, following the big loss of an upstate seat to Democrat Darrel Aubertine in a widely-watched special election. Stone's riff is below the "continued" click.

UPDATE: Bruno told New York magazine that low-key gig he had with the investment company had him providing "entree" to unions....Empire Zone gives full context here.

Dan Janison

Bitter regional rivalry surfaced in last week’s special Senate race in northern New York that could set a tone in the Capitol's partisan wars. While Democrats charged that GOP state funding of Long Island’s “wealthy” school districts bleeds their own, Republicans kept more to tradition by bashing their foes as beholden to New York City.

Cathy Calhoun, a state Democratic committee official who managed the successful Darrel Aubertine campaign — thus narrowing the Senate GOP’s majority to 32-30 — hurled 11th-hour zingers about Nassau and Suffolk school money at Assemb. Will Barclay, the Republican candidate.

“I would just tell all our school officials to lock up the safe for the next few days, because the same people who have taken our school funding away for years are here to help Will Barclay,” she said in a news release.

Calhoun cited GOP Long Islanders who traveled to the snowy burgs of the 48th Senate District to help Barclay. GOP volunteer Rose Marie Walker, the Oyster Bay board member, was quoted by Newsday as saying Long Island and the 48th “share a common bond.”

“The only common bond is that we’re both paying taxes to support wealthy Long Island school districts,” retorted Calhoun — calling Walker a “card-carrying member” of Nassau’s “infamous (GOP) machine” and listing among her partisan connections that she’s the mother of Assemb. Rob Walker (R,C,I,WF – Hicksville). Calhoun quoted Senate Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos as “gleefully” saying after last year’s budget, “What the Republican senators did was to drive aid to the suburban school districts.”

Tom Dunham, Skelos’ spokesman, on Friday said Calhoun had.....

Dan Janison

The biggest New York primary contest of its kind in decades has sent party operatives scouring results district by district for hints at what’s to come in next fall’s general election.

Numbers remain rough and unofficial, but it appears that more than 1.7 million Democrats voted in New York State’s presidential primary last week. Republican voters totalled just over 600,000, or 35 percent of Democratic turnout.

The major parties are already at war this year for control of the state Senate, where Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s Republican conference holds a slim margin. In two weeks, there’s a special election for a vacant upstate seat, and the spin from both camps is well under way.

“The contrast between the two parties heading into November couldn't be more stark,” declared state Democratic committee spokesman Jonathan Rosen. “There is palpable excitement at the grassroots level among Democrats all over the state...The Republican party is depressed, divided and on the defensive.” State and Nassau GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello, in photo at right, who earlier pinned hopes on a Rudy Giuliani nomination, said: “With Senator McCain at the head of our ticket, Republicans in New York and across the nation can look forward to a bright future.”

By Friday, the Democratic vote was 998,749 for Hillary Clinton and 694,493 for Barack Obama. Adding in the totals for dropouts still on the ballot, turnout hit 1,715,006 or 32 percent of the official number of registered Democrats. John McCain won New York on Tuesday with more than half of the reported 607,011 GOP votes, marking an official 20 percent Republican turnout. (Turnout percentages are a bit blurry; for one thing, so-called motor-voter programs in the 1990’s signed up some who failed to vote).

Dan Janison

When asked if he is concerned about his "older" conference members retiring, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno responded by asking "What is old?"

"I’ve got four of five members who you may consider seniors. I think that’s an asset," Bruno said this morning after speaking to a group of police officers. "It’s a great mix. We have youngsters in there, and you have some, like myself, that may be considered seniors."

Bruno, who is 78, has two senators his senior in his Republican conference: Caesar Trunzo, 81, from Brentwood, and William Larkin, from New Windsor, who turned 80 this week.

Though Bruno said he tells senators to "do what’s in their hearts," he did admit that he’d like them all to stay.

"People like Caesar Trunzo. He is the most respected individual in that Senate district. When we do polls, he is by far hear and shoulders above anyone else. Why? People love him. He’s committed . He’s in public service. That’s what people want. Do they care how old anybody is? They want a result," he said.

Besides Bruno, six other Republican senators are in their 70s. Nine are in their 60s, with Sen. Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre joining their ranks on Feb. 16.

The eldest Democratic Senator is George Onorato of Long Island City. He will be 80 in November.

Melissa Mansfield

State Sen. Jim Wright from Oswego County, a member of the thin GOP Senate majority that makes Joe Bruno a player in Albany, is poised to announce his departure from the Senate, according to this report in the Daily Politics.

Maybe Gov. Spitzer and the Democrats shouldn't get their hopes up too much. The district is heavily Republican, and it would be an uphill climb for any D to take the seat.

Update: Newsday Albany Bureau Chief James Madore points out that while Sen. Wright is from a district that includes Oswego County, Wright is actually from -- as in, lives in -- Watertown, in Jefferson County.

Strategists on both sides of next year’s crucial state Senate elections have been assessing how much Republican Rudy Giuliani could help Long Island GOP candidates if he wins the presidential nomination — and whether Democrat Eliot Spitzer as incumbent governor could hurt Democratic candidates.

In Albany on Friday, Giuliani operatives filed the papers to qualify him for the Feb. 5 presidential primary in New York. State and Nassau Republican chairman Joseph Mondello, who was on hand, said: “I’m usually not that big a believer in coattails, but if we have Rudy Giuliani running... it helps every Republican Senator across the board.
Not to have him would not be good for any of us — or any of our candidates.”

As for his arch-foe Spitzer, Mondello quipped: “I think he will continue to partner with us — and will continue to be the issue.”

In one Nassau race, Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) appears headed for a...

Dan Janison

With Eliot Spitzer's raucous first year as governor winding down, some Capitol veterans have already begun to ask each other how - and even if - he will reach a budget agreement next spring with the State Legislature.

The queries may seem premature. But Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) remain engaged in a partisan war that is widely expected to extend at least until next year's election, when the results of Democratic efforts to take over the Senate will be known.

"Given the animosity between the governor and the legislature, they may have a hard time getting anything done," said Assemb. Philip Boyle (R-East Islip). Boyle, who'd served on the body between 1994 and 2002 and returned in February of last year, said he cannot recall relations as strained.

More on the topic is here.

Dan Janison

Speaker Shelly Silver is on WNBC this weekend, talking about his role as Spitzer/Bruno middleman:

"It's clear that they don't like each other. There's no question about it. And I am sitting between the two of them. I talk to both of them all the time. And I kind of feel like Henry Kissinger used to feel in the Middle East, doing shuttle diplomacy between the two of them."

The Joe v. Eliot feud continues. Bruno uses the negative findings of today's Siena poll on Spitzer and his plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens as an excuse to call the gov "unfit to govern."

Gov. Spitzer has not yet responded to the lets-get-the-IRS-to-investigate-Joe story, but Malcolm Smith has issued a statement that manages to take the high road and the low road at the same time -- urging a tax investigation of Bruno while explaining that he decided to not urge a tax investigation:

"Clearly, recent published reports have said that Senator Bruno could have a tax problem with the IRS. If the facts show there is something there, it should be looked into by the appropriate authorities. There were communications between my staff and the governor's staff about this matter. I want to be clear. We -- my staff and I -- decided not to pursue this matter after concluding it would be a distraction from us getting back to the people's business."

For those who have tuned out, the reference to published reports is likely a reference to a recent Village Voice piece suggesting that since Mario Cuomo once had to pay taxes on his family's personal use of the plane, maybe Bruno should be investigated for that, too. A follow up questioned whether Bruno had made personal use of campaign funds.

With the Senate GOP narrative about the Spitzer administration effort to discredit Majority Leader Joseph Bruno becoming less of a hot commodity in most news media, this story by the Bruno-vexed Times Union in Albany pushes the other way -- replete with officially-unanswered questions about the Brunswick Republican's meetings with the Lenora Fulani faction of the state Independence Party and interactions with an organization of weird description called NXIVM.

For years, Mayor Michael Bloomberg played nice with the Fulanistas and some of us recall that even the supposedly irascible Rudy Giuliani pulled punches when facing some questioning from her on the statewide campaign trail back in 2000 -- despite her faction's established history of anti-Semitic invective.

The NXIVM group has its own, separately odd story, related recently here in New York Magazine, with other facets broken by the New York Post, which turned the story in the direction of the Clintons here. Roger Stone, recently dismissed by the Bruno organization for his alleged bizarre phone call to Spitzer's father, is described as employed by NXIVM.

UPDATE: It'll be interesting to see if former Spitzer communications director Darren Dopp's future endeavors on behalf of Patricia Lynch's lobbying firm will involve business before Bruno's state Senate. Albany, after all, is a small galaxy.

Dan Janison

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno came under attack by Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith today. Smith asked Bruno to let go of the "Choppergate" investigations, in light of Friday’s report by the Albany County District Attorney that found no criminal wrongdoing in the governor's office.

When asked to respond to Smith’s plea to drop the investigations, Bruno responded later: "Malcolm Smith is a big dreamer. He keeps dreaming."

"He is welcome to his dreams, but his dreams next November will turn into nightmares, when this majority of Republicans is going to increase in membership. As nice a guy as Malcolm is, he’s going to stay the minority leader," Bruno said.

And Bruno then characterized his own statement as "very objective and very pragmatic."

In the Senate, Bruno holds a slim majority of 33 Republicans to 29 Democrats.

Melissa Mansfield

The latest of the mailings has gone out in the partisan war over the state Senate. The election for the post at stake, held by rookie Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) isn't until November -- of next year.

Liz B. describes the color piece here and more is expected from the Johnson fans today about the Yom Kippur timing. But you can't beat somebody without somebody else, and we still don't have a clue as to who the Republican candidate will be.

UPDATE: A national organization of Jewish Democrats issued a condemnation of the mailing. Click below for an excerpt of the statement.

The lawyer Joseph diGenova was on the forefront of seeking a pardon for VP assistant Scooter Libby. This is one fact cited in the Democrats' attack on his hiring by the Senate Republicans to dig up more on Choppergate. Said state Democratic chair June O'Neill:

“Joe DiGenova is not just a lawyer. He’s a partisan hit man. Whether it was his relentless pursuit of President Clinton, his attacks on Valerie Plame and Patrick Fitzgerald or his outspoken defense of Scooter Libby, DiGenova’s record raises serious ethical questions that should disqualify him from what is already a highly compromised partisan investigation.”

The fun never ends in Albany.

In the battle over the future of Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga race tracks, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s camp has lobbed criticism at the role of lawyer Neil Getnick, who’s made a career of helping crack down on private-sector fraud. Getnick was appointed in federal court to monitor the New York Racing Association when the organization faced criminal charges. As of July 25 his firm was retained as its integrity counsel.

Bruno’s crew, wary of NYRA’s recent selection by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to run the tracks, opposed a recent effort to keep Getnick on as monitor. Getnick tells Newsday:

"NYRA is right where it should be. It has reformed itself and it has
committed itself to stay on the path of reform, and to bring the rest of
the industry along with it. The sad fact is that those very good things
that NYRA has done and which NYRA stands for, is what makes some people
upset."

"I am not at all concerned about partisan political attacks. But I am
concerned that we be very careful to preserve the future working
relationship between NYRA and the Racing and Wagering Board. I am
absolutely determined, if it is at all possible, to work today, tomorrow
and into the future successfully with the Board. I'd ask everyone who's
playing politics to remember this is a very important state asset. Let's
preserve it, make it work for our citizens, and let's get beyond the
petty politics."

This story will have legs, so to speak, and there is much more to review. Stay tuned.

Dan Janison

Gov. Eliot Spitzer dropped in to the U.S. Open last week, where he joked a bit with John McEnroe about being conciliatory.

This was a good fit with the tennis match he's been holding against Sen. Joseph Bruno -- complete with their tantrums and throwing of rackets. Today, the Daily News editorializes about lobbying regulator David Grandeau's parting shot on the flights provided Bruno by business ally Abruzzese... Ad Spitzer!

But in Newsday, Raymond J. Keating remarks that the Sheriff of Wall Street has morphed into the icon of Business as Usual in the state Capitol. No Love-40!

Today's effort from the Post's Fred Dicker adds a grassy-knollish element with its description of a late-night, "black-car" rendezvous style adopted by the Spitzerites in the wake of the e-mail flap. The source attribution is one we cannot remember hearing lately: "an experienced public employee who demanded anonymity". This a line shot or 'out'?

And in the Sun, Jacob Gershman shouts from the stands that it's a double fault for our Gov. Eliot Savant.

In Albany, Gov. Spitzer is expected to effectively support keeping NYRA in the saddle despite earlier expectations. That concept seems to have drawn fire, in a way, from Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno -- see second and third paragraphs here. With legislative approval required, and with Bruno as Saratoga representative extensively involved in the biz on the public and private side for many years, it ought to get more complex and interesting.

Roger Stone has quit the employment of the Bruno camp, according to a news release issued late this morning. We're still awaiting details of who exactly was supposed to have sneaked into his apartment and faked his voice electronically to set him up -- presumably while concealing the whereabouts of Judge Crater.

To clarify, here's text of the alleged Roger Stone call. If this were indeed a setup -- and not a flamboyant hired gun getting his jollies in a strange way -- then why would the governor's side give new exposure to the loan affair which has stained Spitzer?

"You will be subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Committee on Investigations on your shady campaign loans."

"You will be compelled by the Senate sergeant at arms. If you resist this subpoena, you will be arrested and brought to Albany."

"And there is not a goddamn thing your phony, psycho, piece of s- - - son can do about it, Bernie. Your phony loans are about to catch up with you."

"You will be forced to tell the truth and the fact that your son's a pathological liar will be known to all."

Now Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno wants a look at those private e-mails presumed to contain potential dynamite in Albany's partisan war.

He keeps his rhetoric on the offensive by calling for top Spitzer aides' firing, in an aerial exchange with Darren Dopp's lawyer, who says it's Bruno who ought to be fired for his misuse of state resources.

The legislature will be making another of its post-scandal efforts to close a barn door by cracking down on the use of state resources. Why can't these guys just act like adults and judiciously drive or take the train? How tough is it?

Want to see a fairly good ad? Check out this GOP Senate item on Westchester Democratic Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who didn't do a very good job on school aid last year and whose seat will be a key battleground next year when Bruno and Spitzer fight for control.

These will be coming to LI soon enough:

And, here's an account of the Spitzer verbal poke with a bit more detail -- as filed by our James T. Madore:

Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) got a huge round of applause when Gov. Eliot Spitzer mentioned his name at today’s meeting in Albany of the Family Planning Advocates.

When the clapping died down, Spitzer left little doubt in what he expects from Johnson in a future vote on the state budget.

“You don’t know how glad I am you are there, Craig,” Spitzer said, referring to Johnson’s victory in a special election last month, and the GOP’s slim hold on the Senate majority.

Spitzer added, “We will be counting the votes very shortly. I’m not putting you on the spot.”

Suffolk Executive Steve Levy’s diatribe against the county legislature’s Presiding Officer William Lindsay included repeated references to Albany and the relationship between two other Democrats, Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

“For goodness' sake, Eliot Spitzer is getting more cooperation on reform from Shelly Silver than I am from Bill,” Levy said in an interview from Albany, where he was speaking on school expenses. “When I see Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno sitting down with Eliot Spitzer to bring about reform in ethics, workers’ compensation and budget matters…I’m trying to do the same here in Suffolk and I’m not getting that type of cooperation.”

Lindsay declined to respond, saying “his comments are unfortunate and I’m going to leave it at that.”

But there are disconnects in Levy’s comparisons:....

James T. Madore

State Sen. Michael Balboni of East Williston apparently wasn't the only Republican senator approached about a job in the new administration of Democratic Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer.
Nassau Republican sources say Spitzer has reached out to other GOP senators who have Democratic-leaning districts -- including Serphin Maltese, who represents part of Queens and who barely won re-election last month.
Unlike Balboni, who accepted Spitzer’s offer to become the state’s homeland security chief, Maltese, a longtime Conservative Party activist, turned aside Spitzer’s approach, sources said.
The buzz, of course, is that by picking off a few Republicans, Spitzer could whittle away GOP leader Joe Bruno’s slim majority in the state senate and help swing it to Democratic control.

Celeste Hadrick

OK so we're very late getting back from that holiday weekend.
But at least Gov.-elect Spitzer livened up the political gossip world today by plucking Sen. Mike Balboni, a Nassau Republican who's been looking for a new gig, as his new top public-security adviser.
There are a lot of angles to this news:
- The impact on embattled Joe Bruno's somewhat slim Senate majority.
- The impact on the embattled Joe Bruno's somewhat slim deputy majority leader, Dean Skelos.
- The scramble among Democrats to win a winnable seat in a special election.
- The scramble among Democrats to run for a winnable seat in a special election.
- And, oh yeah, by the way, a well-respected safety professional asking:
"How irresponsible is this appointment? A politicized public-safety office!"
"Protecting the people of the state of New York is not akin to a volunteer fire department," he fumes. "This is not a hobby."
The announcement is below. We welcome your sincere thoughts.