The Mayor Supports The WFP, Just Not Enough To Vote The WFP Line

Bill deBlasio has declared that he is planning to vote for Andrew Cuomo on the Democratic ballot line rather than the Working Families Party line which he was instrumental delivering to the governor despite his first term being an obstructionist opposed to the WFP agenda. The mayor, having the veneer of being the progressive darling, has been the face of WFP for their 2 mailings (that I have received so far) to encourage voters to cast their vote for Andrew Cuomo but on the WFP's line. If the mayor refuses to vote on the WFP, then why should anyone else? Why should the deal that Cuomo agreed to to get the WFP ballot sway any left-of-Cuomo voter if everyone involved in the deal has abandoned the WFP?

Campaign finance, the only systemic reform that was a tenet of the agreement, will certainly be the thoroughly tossed onto the trash with or without a massive electoral turnout for the WFP. The NY DREAM Act, minimum wage increase (though probably not pinned to inflation), and declarative right to an abortion will be pointed to as the WFP deal being consummated to the satisfaction of Cuomo, deBlasio, and the coalition partners that make up the WFP. What Bill Lipton and Dan Cantor (state and national directors of the WFP respectively) can claim as a victory, but no one who has put a significant amount of thought into it, that anything else other than whacking at the leaves and surrendering to plutocracy rather than earnestly challenging the status quo; to accept that 'it's just the way things are' that one individual with a million dollars is of greater value than the lives of a million sorry souls.

Imagine if the WFP deal was just campaign finance, and without the far more achievable but laudable goals that I expressed would be passed in Cuomo's next term. That as a condition of the WFP deal an explicit amount of money was declared to induce voters to vote the WFP, and that campaign finance reform be the central issue to his campaign. Cuomo would have likely balked at such a deal, since there was no viable escape clause but that it being so ironclad should have been the purpose. The two possible outcomes would been that the WFP would have been left with Zephyr Teachout as the nominee though the unions that pay the bills would have bolted from the party but the Democratic Primary would have still occurred only with Teachout continuing on in the general election challenging the incumbent governor to answer criticisms from the left; alternatively had the WFP been able to narrow the deal to just campaign finance reform then Cuomo could have only one metric to be judged on whether he kept his side of the bargain passage and funding Fair Elections, no half measures or partial victories to be claimed as face saving feats. Democratic takeover of the State Senate in either scenario would have been inevitable, either by the influx of voters in the general election given a real choice between status quo candidates and a truly viable insurgent in Teachout or Cuomo deliver on this new hypothetical deal and transfer of the set amount of campaign cash to WFP to target not only the open seats in the state senate but towards the challengers of incumbent Senators who voted for Majority Leader Skelos (including the IDC senators). Even if the senate isn't taken over by the Democrats (who already hold a majority of seats, and only due to the IDC are in minority) in 2014 the Democrats would win the senate and eventually make the IDC irrelevant in 2016 or 2020 presidential election. 

IDC's State Senators Switching Sides, So It Must Be Election Time Again

The following is an excerpt from an email WFP sent June 26th (a week after NYS legislative session ended) claiming victory due to the IDC joining with the Democrats in the State Senate:

Sean,
BIG NEWS: the Independent Democratic Conference in the New York state Senate is breaking with the Republicans to form a new progressive majority coalition with the Senate Democrats!This is huge. Republican control in the state Senate has been the biggest roadblock to every progressive goal, from public financing of elections to raising the minimum wage to the Women's Equality Act. With this new coalition, the Republicans should be headed back to the minority.


But even with the IDC on our side, we still need to win in November. At this point, we'd be holding on to the majority by a thread -- a projected one-seat margin. We can't afford to lose a single seat.
There are three progressive Democrats in swing districts elected with the help of Obama's 2012 wave. Holding those seats will take real work. There are also three formerly Republican held open-seats that could be ripe pick-up opportunities to expand the majority.

So what does victory look like according to WFP? State Senators that caucused with obstructing Republicans while in session switch sides yet again to feign loyalty to avoid primaries and the only repercussion for being fairweather friends, why having their primary opponents lose financial support and be left free to switch back to the Republicans after the election.

In a state that often is pejoratively referred to a being liberal, the so-called liberal elected officials bear a striking resemblance to the Washington Generals with Republicans standing in for the Harlem Globetrotters. Liberal alternative candidates being outmaneuvered to ensure the intentionally-losing-on-policy Democrats remain to pantomime putting up fight for progressive values that they so reflexively betray. Majority of the voters of New York State voted against Republicans in the general election of 2012, and the Republican majority only existed by a handful of State Senators who ran as Democrats but then crossed the aisle as naked-opportunists.  
Leader of the IDC, State Senator Klein apparently is not very good at math as the NY Daily News reported him saying "Klein said it's not enough just having a Democratic majority. It's key to elect Democrats who support a more progressive agenda. A push to strengthen the state's abortion laws wouldn't pass currently because the Dems don't have the sufficient 32 votes." There are currently 5 IDC State Senators, 29 Republican State Senators, and 29 Democratic State Senators, so to state their wasn't enough Senators precludes the 5 IDC Senators is farcical at best. Were the IDC to remain with the GOP majority, while intending to wait  for the Democrats to take 4 or more seats from the GOP, why would the Democratic conference welcome back the IDC backstabbers? Why would the Democratic Party ever trust the IDC State Senators and withdrawal support of their primary opponents? Doing either would invite ever quicker dismissal of values the rank-and-file Democrats hold and the average voter is promised as the central motivation for voting Democratic in November.  

Carl Kruger not just corrupt, closeted self hating gay

Carl Kruger is 1 of 8 Democrats in 2009 that voted against gay marriage has been outed by the FBI in the course of the corruption investigation that his live-in boyfriend helped launder money. Though all the claims of the State Senator's homosexuality is speculative, what isn't is the fact that Senator Kruger is not long for keeping his seat... and I say good riddance to bad garbage!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/nyregion/11kruger.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&pagewanted=all

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2009/12/gay-marriage-fails-24-38.html

Monser-Rat!

Today in response to my State Senator betraying his Democratic Party, I called to have my displeasure with him as a constituent and I am guessing I'm not the only one since the constituent liaison who picked up the phone kept fumbling the name of his boss.

It went a little something like this.
HM staffer: "Senator Malcolm's ... I mean Hiram Monserrate's office, how can I help you?"

Me: "I'm a constituent and would like to leave a message for the Senator."

HM staffer: "um, so where in Smith's I mean the senator's district do you live?"

Me: "[Gave address]"

HM staffer: "What's the message?"

Me: "He's a disgrace."

1 Seat Closer

Craig Johnson Won Tuesday's Special election putting the Democrats 2 seats away from taking power in State Senate for the first time since 1965. I suspect that Spitzer and State Senate Minority leader are not going to push too hard to persuade GOP senators that hard because having a boogieman Republican Majority around is helpful. 2008 will be the election that the Democrats take the majority, Serph Maltese will certainly be an out going Senator,

Balboni Appointed To Spitzer Adminstration

The special election that will need to occur fill State Senator Balboni (R) is an opportunity for the Democrats to pick up another seat in the Republican controlled Senate.

State Senate Majority Joe Bruno being Investigated by the FBI

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, called a press conference this evening to confirm he is being investigated by the FBI, which has launched an inquiry into his business dealings through his consulting company, Capital Business Consultants. It's not yet clear, though, what the FBI is investigating. Yet.

The senator refused to discuss what, exactly, the FBI is looking into. He declined to say whether it has anything to do with Evident Technologies Inc. - the company to which he steered $500,000 via two state grants with no strings attached. Bruno has personal ties to several of Evident's directors, Jared Abbruzzese, one of the company's founders and a former co-chair, and Wayne Barr - both of whom share the senator's interest in horse racing.Abbruzzese is being investigated by the state Lobbying Commission for providing his plane to Bruno for several trips, including a fund-raiser and a tour of several Kentucky horse farms that Barr arranged.One thing you should disregard, though, is Bruno's claim that he is "not a target" of the investigation. Here's why:[Washington attorney Stanley M.] Brand said that distinctions in a federal criminal manual between a "target," someone the Justice Department has decided to seek charges against, and a "subject," someone under investigation who could be upgraded to a target, are largely meaningless in a practical sense. "You can't take these distinctions to the bank, because the Justice Department can change your status whenever it wants to," Brand said.

Brand was talking about Conrad Burns, and you can see how well that bit of verbal legerdemain worked out for old Burnsie. Same, too, with Bob Ney, who claimed he wasn't a "target" almost until he was indicted. He's now going to be sentenced to prison next month.

This story also gives me an opportunity to do something long overdue, which is to tell you about a new SoapBlox blog that's opened up shop right in my political neighborhood. The Albany Project is dedicated to shining a much-needed light on corrupt, obscurantist the New York state legislative apparatus (ranked as the worst out of all 50 by the Brennan Center). The site's already been following this story closely, and it'll be the place to go for continuous coverage of this potentially explosive news.

Count the State Senate Seats needed...

In the 35th State Seante District Andrea Stewart-Cousins will probably beat Senator Nick Spano

In the 24th State Senate District Mathew Titone beating Citycouncilman Lanza for Senator Marchi's open seat.

In the 2nd State Senate District Brooke Ellison could beat Senator John Flanagan

In the 47th State Senate District John Murad winning the district that Ray Meier is vacating in his run for congress (which he is losing by the account of the public polls and non-partisan Congressional Quarterly's opinion).

In the 11th State Senate District Nora Marino has 3 to 1 Democrats for every Republican registered in her district as she runs against Padavan.

I am sure I've missed a couple of other susceptible districts. The Democrats only need four more seats to win control of the State Senate, and I am sure the next election after the Democrats take control of the senate you will see about a dozen Republican State Senators will retire because they will not want to be in the minority. The Democratic takeover of the state senate will certainly be before the redistricting for the 2012 election which will cause a critical mass of seats change hands to the Democrats. After the 2012 elections the State Seante could very well have 43 seats and look like the state assembly today with veto proof majority.

Update on Utica Area NYS Senate Seat

An update about that Utica area NYS Senate seat mentioned recently. Apparently, Adirondack Bank president Tom Clark has put out feelers about the possibility of his running for the New York State Senate seat held by his fellow Republican Ray Meier, but only if Meier gives up the seat to run for the U.S. House seat currently represented by Sherwood Boehlert. Speculation is that Boehlert is considering retiring. If he does, Meier's made it know that he's interested in running.

-Walter Rath