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Cuomo Proposes Electoral Reforms in Wake of Corruption Scandals

Ross Barkan — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:43:25 -0400

(Photo: Getty)

Two weeks ago, Democratic State Sen. Malcolm Smith was arrested and charged with trying to bribe his way into the Republican mayoral primary, prompting cries for reform from both ends of the political spectrum. Today, Governor Andrew Cuomo rolled out a series of proposals that he hopes will address many of these concerns.

"You've heard the expression pay to play, this is pay to run," Mr. Cuomo said at a press conference announcing the measures. "The allegations that the minor parties basically, on occasion, have used campaign contributions to determine who gets the line and it's almost that the line goes to the highest bidder."

Specifically, Mr. Cuomo proposed an end to the Wilson-Pakula Act, a 1947 law which mandates that a candidate must obtain the permission of party leaders to compete in that party's primary if he or she is currently enrolled in a different party. Instead, Mr. Cuomo said candidates would simply collect signatures to petition for a ballot line regardless of their enrollment.

In another attempt to reduce the power of the political parties, Mr. Cuomo said he wants to alter enrollment deadlines to make it easier for candidates to change their affiliation. Currently, if a voter or candidate currently decides to change their affiliation, it's is not valid until the next general election year. Under Mr. Cuomo's proposal, a voter’s party registration change would take effect in just three months, perhaps eliminating the need for Mr. Smith to deal with allegedly corrupt party bosses to begin with.

Echoing others who have called the State Board of Elections a "toothless tiger," Mr. Cuomo also said he would seek to create an independent enforcement unit at the B.O.E. that would be authorized to investigate possible violations of election laws.

Last week Mr. Cuomo additionally proposed a number of other legislative changes to toughen the state's bribery laws and make it easier for district attorneys to prosecute political corruption.

Rival Roasts Joe Hynes for ‘Apalling’ Conservative Party Endorsement

Colin Campbell — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:36:42 -0400

Ken Thompson (Photo: Facebook)

Last night, the Kings County Conservative Party backed their borough's district attorney, Joe Hynes, for re-election and, citing his safety record, they formally offered him their ballot line come November. Although Mr. Hynes has been endorsed by the Conservatives for years, at least one of his Democratic primary rivals, Ken Thompson, was outraged by the bipartisan embrace and released a statement detailing his disgust.

"It is appalling that DA Hynes would accept the endorsement of a fringe right-wing group which opposes a woman's right to choose, gun control and a minimum wage increase, supports the racial profiling of suspects, and sought to remove President Obama from office," Mr. Thompson said this morning.

He went on to outline many of the Conservative Party's positions listed in its "2013 Legislative Program," including support for profiling, stop-and-frisk and gun rights, as well as opposition to abortion, minimum wage and gay marriage. "That is not what Democrats are about—and it is radically out of step with Brooklyn," Mr. Thompson argued.

For their part, both the Conservatives and Mr. Hynes' statements focused on his accomplishments in reducing crime rather than outlining a specific policy agenda.

"We are pleased to recognize his hard work with the Conservative Party endorsement,” Conservative Chair Jerry Kassar said, while Mr. Hynes added, “I am enormously honored by the Conservative Party’s recognition of my office’s role in making Brooklyn streets safer. I am very proud of our record and gratified by the Party’s endorsement.”

Another Democrat, Abe George, is also running against Mr. Hynes this year.

Update (2:55 p.m.): Mr. George has now piled on.

“Brooklyn Democrats want a District Attorney who reflects their values,” he said in a statement. “Charles Hynes says he is a progressive Democrat, yet he is ‘honored’ by the support of a party that opposes gun control and marriage equality and supports racial profiling. As District Attorney, I will fight crime, protect civil liberties, and help move Brooklyn forward, not backwards.”

Lew Fidler Unloads Further on Simcha Felder

Colin Campbell — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:15:43 -0400

(Photo: Facebook)

Tells us how you really feel, Councilman Lew Fidler.

Mr. Fidler, who yesterday criticized Senator-elect Simcha Felder for vowing to cross party lines and caucus with the Republicans, took another pass this afternoon in a lengthy statement where he demanded Mr. Felder himself answer questions about the decision.

"Simcha is correct that the parties are not a religion, nor should they be," Mr. Fidler wrote. "But being open and honest with the voters should be."

Additionally, Mr. Fidler recalled the time Mr. Felder, a former colleague in the City Council, avoided voting for now-Speaker Christine Quinn by exiting the room, arguing even an abstention such as that would be more noble than outright joining the GOP conference.

"Several years ago as a member of the City Council, Simcha agreed to support a candidate for Speaker and then conveniently went to the men’s room at the time of the vote," he continued. "I’d much prefer that behavior to the overt choice to mislead. Simcha and I will, I hope, continue to be friends….but he needs to answer the questions or they will haunt him from the first day he takes office."

Although Mr. Fidler requested Mr. Felder personally answer his questions about when the senator-elect specifically decided to join the Republican caucus, or what he was promised in return, it doesn't seem the councilman will immediately get his wish.

“As Senator-elect Felder said repeatedly from the moment he began his campaign, he would caucus with the group of Senators that would most benefit his district. When he takes office in January as a member of the Majority Conference, the people of Brooklyn will benefit from his decision," Mr. Felder's spokesman, Kalman Yeger, said in a statement when reached for a response. "Simcha looks forward to working with all of Brooklyn’s elected officials – Democrats and Republicans – to provide the most and best to their shared constituents, and firmly believes his decision will enable him to do so.”

View Mr. Fidler's full statement below:

Statement from Councilman Lew Fidler Regarding Simcha Felder’s Move to the Republican Party:

A Challenge that Simcha Felder Must Answer.

Yesterday, I expressed my disappointment in my friend and former colleague Simcha Felder’s decision to caucus with Republicans and asked for an explanation. Through a spokesman, Simcha issued a statement which on its face lacks any substantive credibility.

Throughout the campaign, Simcha had assured the voters---and me personally---that he would sit with whichever party delivered the most for his district. Transactional for sure, but apparently honest. I took him at his word as did most voters.

Simcha’s explanation yesterday was a subtle yet wholly significant explanation from what he had promised. It waxed poetic about philosophies and abounded with some nonsense about the Republicans in the Senate being compassionate towards the poor and for the middle class.

That begs the question: When did Simcha Felder come to understand the philosophies of the political parties? What changed about the philosophies of the parties since the election that Simcha was not aware of before the election? If he knew, the philosophies of the parties before the election, why did he not state publicly that he would sit with the Republicans? That is the true issue here…..was Simcha Felder being honest with the voters of the district? Since it would be hard to imagine that Simcha learned anything about party philosophy after the election, Simcha did a disservice to the voters of his Senate district. Surely, countless thousands chose him over his Republican opponent because he was the Democratic Party candidate.

Therefore, Simcha---and not his spokesman---owes an answer to those questions---and specific answers, not pabulum---to those questions.

Additionally, if Simcha chooses to revert to his transactional answer, then he needs to tell people what pieces of silver were offered and by whom. Whatever was promised is being paid for out of the public till and the public has a right to know that as well.

I applaud the statement made by my friend and County Leader Frank Seddio. To those that differ, I would suggest that there is a huge difference between endorsing candidates of other parties from time to time and running on a party’s line and then without any intervening event, indicating that the other party is more consistent with the candidate’s own philosophy and organizing the legislative body with the other side. Simcha is correct that the parties are not a religion, nor should they be. But being open and honest with the voters should be.

Simcha needs to answer those questions. If he can’t, and does not think he can philosophically be a Democrat, he ought to do the right thing and change his party enrollment. As Democrats, we are free to---and should---disagree on issues all the time. But when you believe that the other party shares your philosophy of government more than your own, then you should change parties. To thine own self, be true.

Several years ago as a member of the City Council, Simcha agreed to support a candidate for Speaker and then conveniently went to the men’s room at the time of the vote. I’d much prefer that behavior to the overt choice to mislead. Simcha and I will, I hope, continue to be friends….but he needs to answer the questions or they will haunt him from the first day he takes office.

Wanted: GOP Mayoral Hopeful With Vague Conservative Impulses, Massive Personal Wealth a Plus

Colin Campbell — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:09:29 -0400

(Photo: Wikimedia)

On a brisk mid-October day, Tom Allon announced he was dropping out of the highly competitive Democratic mayoral primary and would instead be a contender in the far sparser Republican field. “Theodore Roosevelt cleaned up New York by telling truth to power and truth to the public,” he declared, standing before the equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt on the Upper West Side. “I plan to run a campaign that will talk about the hard truths facing our city, and ideas I have to fix our growing problems.”

The event’s august backdrop may have oversold its symbolic importance. It’s impossible to find a neutral party who thinks Mr. Allon, a local newspaper publisher whose weeklies include Our Town and The West Side Spirit, is anything but a long-shot to replace term-limited Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2013. But as no fewer than five heavyweight Democrats are already in contention for the office, each of whom has raised over a million dollars, Mr. Allon’s move highlights the fact that Republicans, so far at least, are still on the hunt for a formidable standard-bearer.

Sensing the vacuum, former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. announced Monday night that he has also left the Democratic Party in hopes of securing the Republican line for mayor. However, as he only changed his registration to independent, the aspiring candidate will need the support of three of the five GOP county chairmen to proceed. Mr. Carrión, a relatively prominent Latino pol with over a million dollars in his campaign account, could be very tempting to the party’s leadership. Whether or not he will ultimately be their candidate is unclear, as are most of the details of Mr. Carrión’s nascent campaign.

Besides Mr. Allon and Mr. Carrión, only Doe Fund founder George McDonald has stepped forward for the GOP. Mr. McDonald, whose nonprofit is dedicated to helping the homeless and the formerly incarcerated get back on their feet, told The Observer that he’s building up his campaign but has yet to formally announce his intentions. “We’re raising money, and we’ll make a filing on January 15,” he said, vowing to raise $16 million in the next 12 months. “When we make that filing, it’ll be clear this is a serious campaign run by serious people.”

Signaling a certain amount of discontent with the field, however, hypotheticals have been bandied about in the city’s Republican circles for months, despite the fact that the most commonly named fantasy candidates have offered little to indicate they want the job. The dream candidate for most Republicans is undoubtedly Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has the citywide stature and law-and-order biography to compete for many of the moderate Democratic voters who kept Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg in power all these years. “Go for it, Ray!” The New York Post and Daily News editorial boards identically crowed last April, while the leader of the state’s Republican Party proclaimed Mr. Kelly a “superb” mayoral candidate. For some time, praise continued to be heaped on him from all corners, but the commotion eventually died down when Mr. Kelly dropped no hints he might consider entering politics.

Even Mr. Giuliani’s name has been tossed into the ring. In her Page Six column last month, Post columnist Cindy Adams broadcast “an unconfirmed—also, so far undenied—rumor” that he was angling to return to Gracie Mansion, a claim The Observer also heard in some of the city’s business circles at the time. Mr. Giuliani’s spokeswoman quickly shot down the trial balloon, but one can’t help but wonder whether his name would have been floated at all if a certain amount of anxiety hadn’t set in.

Meanwhile, Democratic State Senator Malcolm Smith has been actively courting Republican officials in hopes of securing a spot on the ballot himself. “I’ll meet with anybody that’s interested in running on the line,” Bronx GOP Chair Jay Savino told us before Mr. Smith arrived at one such meeting in August. “I’m more than willing to sit and talk and see what they want to talk about. I don’t know what Senator Smith has to say. I didn’t reach out to him, he reached out to us.” At one point in the night, Mr. Savino, on the way back from a phone call and a cigar outside, said the discussion had been “interesting” so far.

He paused and then repeated the assessment. “Interesting.”

However, none of the Republicans we talked to thought the eccentric senator, who once held a press conference in Times Square to denounce Lil Wayne, would be their pick. Notably, Mr. Smith briefly led his chamber during an especially chaotic period, until his fellow Democrats decided another lawmaker was needed to head their caucus. That’s not all the baggage he brings to the race: federal prosecutors are currently investigating a charity he funded with taxpayer dollars. While Mr. Smith declined to speak with us in August, The Observer would later bump into him again as he made his pitch to Republican activists in Brooklyn Heights at the end of October. After a very brief address, during which he vaguely described himself as pro-business, Mr. Smith concluded, “I went to school at Jesuit college; I’m a good guy. We’ll talk to you later, take care. God bless.” He then walked out the door.

“I think this is just the beginning of the mayoral candidates drive,” Brooklyn’s Republican chairman, Craig Eaton, said after the event. “I think we’re going to hear from a lot of other people over the next couple weeks. And we’re looking forward to it. We will have a good candidate on the Republican line.” Mr. Eaton would later indicate a preference for Mr. Carrión.

The candidate on many Republican lips is businessman John Catsimatidis, a supermarket magnate who owns the Gristedes chain in New York City. Earlier this year, Mr. Catsimatidis was ranked as the 132nd richest person in America by Forbes, and, with a net worth of $3 billion, he could easily finance a mayoral campaign himself. But while confident in his abilities, Mr. Catsimatidis isn’t exactly chomping at the bit.

“If we end up with nobody, I might consider it, yes,” he said last week. “It’s just a lot work and a lot of dedication that goes into it. Can I do the job? I could do the job with my left pinkie.”

Mr. Catsimatidis expressed hope somebody else, perhaps Mr. Kelly—or at least some wealthy individual—will run instead.

“If you talk about candidates for mayor with no money, it’s like a joke! You guys want to fool around with a bunch of guys with no ability to run, you can do that!” he exclaimed. “When you’re running in a mayor race in New York City, either you have to have name recognition like Ray Kelly, or you have to have somebody who has enough money that they can get name recognition.”

The grocery tycoon, who said he was “trying to be as optimistic as I can” that a credible alternative would step up to the plate, described what he felt were the dire consequences if one of the Democratic candidates ended up winning next year. “They’re nice people, but would you trust them with a $70 billion budget? One of the things that nobody looks at, but one of the reasons that New York City has been successful in getting international capital, money from Europe, from Russia, the Middle East, Asia—they have confidence in Bloomberg’s ability to manage the city and they have confidence in Ray Kelly’s ability to keep the city safe. I’m concerned that if you have a minor league player, that the capital will dry up.”

However, Mr. Catsimatidis said, there is still plenty of time. “There’s no deadline; you can jump in February, March and April,” he said. But with the State Legislature actively considering moving the 2013 primary date from September to June so that the city’s slow-moving Board of Elections has enough time to schedule a runoff election, candidates may have to start collecting signatures by March in order to land a spot on the ballot. Meanwhile, every day on the calendar provides an opportunity to build name recognition and construct an effective campaign operation, and the clock is ticking.

“You’d like to have some clarity to this by the end of the calendar year, or by the end of winter,” one Republican consultant said. “I don’t really see anybody that has any ability to do that today. But it’s still relatively early, so hopefully by post-holidays you’ll start to see more seriousness.”

Jerry Kassar, the chairman of Brooklyn’s Conservative Party, concurred. “They really have to have this thing decided by the first week of February; they’re going to have to have petitions on the street by early March,” he argued, while conceding a later primary date would allow another month or so to find a candidate. “There’s no advantage to drag this thing out. The Republican Party needs to have made up their mind; there’s a lot of work ahead.”

As for the likely suspects, he added, “I guess right now, George from the Doe Fund does not seem have taken off, as far as I can tell. I don’t believe he’s picked up much strength. I don’t believe Senator Smith is at all being taken seriously in Republican circles. I do think Catsimatidis remains available to them in the event that they feel Allon is not philosophically workable, or can’t bring enough resources to make it a race.”

Regardless of whom they choose, the party’s leaders have stated that they only want one candidate running, with no primary contest to divert their attention from the grand prize. “This race is too important,” Chairman Eaton explained. “We need to find the candidate that’s going to win. If one of the people who have expressed interest in running, if there’s a consensus that there’s another candidate [who] has a superior chance of winning—I think the other candidates need to look and say, ‘It’s about the party; we need to step aside and look at other opportunities.’”

Mr. McDonald, at least, might be willing to heed such a call, depending on the other candidate’s credentials. “As far as I’m concerned, I think I would make a better mayor than any of the folks who are running,” he said to explain his mayoral aspirations. When we asked if he would drop out if he felt another candidate was more capable, Mr. McDonald quickly replied, “In a New York minute. I don’t covet the job.”

Mr. Allon, however, has said he’s in it for the long-haul, guaranteeing a Republican primary should the party’s leaders decide on somebody else. “I’m going to primary anybody who comes up,” he told The Observer when he announced his party switch. “You can’t jump in late and expect other people are going to cower.”

For their part, Democrats certainly aren’t cowering from their eventual Republican opponent, sarcastically nicknamed “billionaire yet to be named” by at least one of the 2013 candidates’ operatives. Although candidates running on the GOP line have held onto City Hall for two decades, next year could be the party’s greatest challenge yet. According to the unofficial results from this year’s presidential election, President Barack Obama received over 80 percent of the vote against Mitt Romney in the five boroughs—an increase from when he ran in 2008—and two-thirds of the city’s voters are now registered Democrats.

Outside of an education rally a few weeks ago, we asked one potential Democratic candidate for mayor, Comptroller John Liu, what he thought of the Republican field so far.

“I’m quaking in my boots,” he joked.

Tom Allon Slams His Newly-Minted Mayoral Rival Adolfo Carrión

Colin Campbell — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:07:22 -0400

(Photo: Facebook)

Last night, The New York Times broke the news that former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión had left the Democratic Party and would now be seeking to run for mayor on the Republican line. Of course, there are other potential hurdles Mr. Carrión will need to overcome for this electoral endeavor, including securing the support of the GOP county leaders and beating potential primary rivals. One such rival is Manhattan Media C.E.O. Tom Allon, another former Democrat and the only Republican candidate who has formally announced his candidacy so far. Needless to say, Mr. Allon seems displeased with the former borough president's candidacy.

Accordingly, Mr. Allon blasted out a five paragraph statement ripping Mr. Carrión over a $10,000 fine he received for using an architect in a personal renovation project who was simultaneously involved in a development that needed his approval.

"We need him to explain how a systemically corrupt one-party system that has allowed 30 elected officials over the last 10 years to be indicted or sent to jail relates to his own serious lack of judgment and ethical breach which resulted in a $10,000 fine levied by the city’s conflict of interest board," Mr. Allon declared.

Notably absent was any criticism of Mr. Carrión for his Democratic past or his career in President Barack Obama's administration, likely because of Mr. Allon's own Democratic past and his decision not to weigh in on the presidential race. Also unmentioned were two other possible Republican opponents, Doe Fund founder George McDonald and businessman John Catsimatidis. Mr. Catsimatidis announced today he would soon register an account for his potential campaign.

View Mr. Allon's full statement below:

"New Yorkers need to know why Mr. Carrion raised more than $1 million for a race for Comptroller and then walked away with the money and never made the race. Why should he be allowed to use this money now? And why should he be allowed to keep the funds if he now says he will flout New York City's campaign finance rules?

"New Yorkers need to know why he was appointed to both national and multi-state jobs in the last few years and then left them so quickly. Is this an example of the level of Mr. Carrion’s commitment to public service?

“If we continue to numb ourselves to accepting candidates who are found guilty of ethical violations by the conflict of interest board, and others who disregard hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines by city agencies, as well as candidates who allow and defend illegal campaign fundraising, then how will we ever have a serious debate about the critical issues facing New York?

“The issue of systemic corruption is real and I believe that before this campaign is over we will see a new municipal corruption scandal the likes of which the city has not seen since the 1980s ‘City For Sale’ days.”