By Ross Barkan 5/16 1:12pm

Numbers Game

john-liu-getty

John Liu Pegs His ‘True Base of Support’ at 25 Percent

John Liu’s mayoral campaign may be hovering around ten percent in the polls, but according to the candidate himself, they understate his support by more than twofold. Indeed, a beaming Mr. Liu told a room full of teachers yesterday that if the surveys were accurate, he’d actually have the support of a quarter of the city’s Democratic primary electorate.

“My true base of support in the electorate is closer to 25 percent,” Mr. Liu, the city’s comptroller, exclaimed at a teacher’s union mayoral forum in Brooklyn. “You add on top of that the tremendous amount of labor support I’m going to have, that puts me very much in the running–much more so than other candidates who I don’t think have any piece of their base that is not being reflected in the public poll numbers.” Read More

By Colin Campbell 1/07 5:10pm

shots fired

Councilman Robert Jackson speaking at the press conference.

Pols Rage at Mayor for Comparing Teachers Union to N.R.A.

Last Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, frustrated with the current state of contract negotiations with the city’s teachers union, caused a political dust-up when he compared the leadership of the influential United Federation of Teachers to the National Rifle Association. Now, other New York City politicians are demanding an apology.

“Teachers want to work with the best, and most of them are not in sympathy with the union,” Mr. Bloomberg had said before pivoting to one of his preferred talking points when he pushes for tougher federal gun laws. “The N.R.A’s another place where the membership, if you do the polling, doesn’t agree with the leadership.”

Michael Mulgrew, the President of the U.F.T., said he was so infuriated by this comment that he organized today’s press conference on the topic. Read More

By Hunter Walker 3/13/12 12:22pm

Pension-apalooza

Peter Abbate (Photo: NYS Assembly)

Lawmakers Push For Legislation To Allow AG To Go After Pension Fund Fraudsters

Against the backdrop of the contentious turf war over Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pension reform plan, a trio of Democratic Assemblyman and several labor leaders are calling for passage of the Institutional Investor Recovery Act. This legislation would allow the Attorney General to seek damages and recoveries when public pension funds suffer losses due to securities fraud. Currently, the Martin Act gives the Attorney General broad powers to prosecute securities fraud, but it does not allow the State to recover losses on behalf of public pension funds. Pursuing losses from financial firms is a favored topic of opponents of the governor’s pension reform push who argue the focus should be on penalizing Wall Street firms that lost money from the pension fund rather than cutting benefits.

“All the focus on the issue of pensions has been on the benefit side of the equation. We need to look at what happened on the investment side. It simply doesn’t make sense that the pension funds have no practical way to recover investment losses caused by fraud,” said Assemblyman Peter Abbate the lead sponsor of the bill to update the Martin Act. Read More

By Colin Campbell 1/27/12 12:02pm

proclamations of war

Bill de Blasio (Photo: Facebook)

Bill de Blasio: Bloomberg Has ‘Re-Declared War on the UFT’

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a likely mayoral candidate in 2013, didn’t mince words when Roberto Perez recently asked him about Mayor Michael Bloomberg and teacher evaluations. The Mayor specifically referred to the United Federation of Teachers in his recent State of the City speech while calling for various education reforms.

“I was very disappointed in the Mayor’s speech, I have to tell you that,” Mr. de Blasio began. “I think the Mayor, after 10 years, has sort of re-declared war on the UFT. And I could not understand why that was productive.”

Mr. de Blasio contrasted Mayor Bloomberg’s style with that of Governor Andrew Cuomo. Read More

By Hunter Walker 1/12/12 5:38pm

Namecalling

Rupert Murdoch (Photo: Twitter)

Rupert Murdoch Wonders How 'Chicken Cuomo' Will Respond To 'Bloomberg's Bold Teacher Proposals'

News Corporation media mogul Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter today to weigh in on Mayor Bloomberg’s State of the City address. Mr. Murdoch praised Mayor Bloomberg’s education proposals, encouraged the United Federation of Teacher’s to drop their opposition to the initiatives and wondered how New York’s “chicken” governor will respond.

“Bloomberg’s bold teacher proposals today terrific. How will chicken Cuomo respond? If UFT refuses this money good teachers will scream,” Mr. Murdoch wrote. Read More

By Hunter Walker 1/09/12 12:47pm

Schoolyard Showdown

Governor Cuomo (Photo: Getty)

Governor Cuomo: 'Teacher Evaluation Is a Major Crisis For The State'

In his appearance on Fred Dicker’s radio show today, Governor Andrew Cuomo addressed the controversy over teacher evaluations. Last week, State Education Commissioner John B. King announced suspended millions of dollars in funding from schools in the five boroughs and nine other districts around New York that missed a deadline to agree on plans for teacher evaluation programs. Governor Cuomo, who called for an education commission to come up with an evaluation plan in his State of the State address last week, described the situation with as a “major crisis for the state.” Though he doesn’t plan on personally getting involved in the tense negotiations on evaluations going on between local school districts and teacher’s unions, Governor Cuomo said something has to give.

“This situation is not going away, we need the evaluations done because it’s how we improve education. Second, we need an evaluation system, because it was the condition of the federal funding and it’s not going to get better,” Governor Cuomo said. Read More

By Hunter Walker 12/29/11 3:42pm

Schoolhouse Rock

Scott Stringer (Photo: Facebook)

Manhattan BP Scott Stringer: 'The Incompetence of The Department of Education is Simply Staggering'

Manhattan Borough President and possible 2013 mayoral candidate Scott Stringer blasted the New York City Department of Education at a press conference today following the publication of a New York Times report documenting the DOE’s failure to claim millions of dollars in federal Medicaid reimbursements for services provided to students with special needs from 2006 to 2010. Mr. Stringer called for hearings investigating the missed reimbursements, which he described as a missed opportunity to curb school budget cuts and evidence of widespread problems at the DOE.

“This calls out for state and city hearings immediately, there’s no time to waste. This agency has been going down this perilous path for many years, but nobody could have imagined that, when it came for reimbursement, they would fail so miserably. I am shocked and I am outraged,” Mr. Stringer said.  Read More

By Hunter Walker 12/20/11 6:09pm

Strongly Worded Letters

Michael Mulgrew (UFT)

UFT Urges City Council to Back Living Wage Bill

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew sent a letter to all 51 members of the City Council asking them to support the “Fair Wages For New Yorkers Act,” better known as the “Living Wage Bill.” “Millions of New Yorkers are struggling just to make ends meet, and our members–their teachers and other educators–are seeing the effects of that harsh reality in our classrooms everyday. Children who are not being fed, clothed or housed properly cannot hope to concentrate,” Mr. Mulgrew wrote. ”The passage of the ‘Fair Wages for New Yorkers Act’ would be a step towards improving the lives of millions of New Yorkers, and consequently, their children,” wrote Mr. Mulgrew. Read More

By Azi Paybarah 8/25/11 4:24pm

suggested reading

Mayor Bloomberg Visits Department of Environmental Protection Crew Cleaning Storm Sewers in Preparation for Hurricane Irene August 25, 2011 (Photo Credit: Edward Reed)

Roundup: New Yorkers Brace for Hurricane Irene and George Pataki

2012: “[H]e’s simply not relevant anymore, and really hasn’t been for a while.” [Steve Kornacki / Salon]

2012: Pataki not endorsing Perry Saturday. [Andrew Rafferty / NBC]

2012: Pataki’s leaked website “embarrassing.” [Glittarazzi]

2012: “The population of reporters who never say mean things about people is smaller than a George Pataki 2012 house party.” [David Weigel / Slate]

NY-9: Weprin robos off Turner’s refusal to back Zadroga bill for Ground Zero volunteers. [Celeste Katz / Daily News]

NY-9: Turner said same-sex marriage “should not be an issue in this campaign.” [Anna Gustafson / Queens Chronicle]

NY-9: NARAL for Weprin. [Rick Karlin / Times Union]

NY-9: Turner keeps calling Weprin a “career politician.” [Courtney Gross/ NY1]

NY-9: Weprin and Turner tried saying something nice about each other. [Howard Koplowitz / Queens Campaigner]

NY-9: “[O]ne can only imagine how former Congressman Weiner will cast his vote. I suspect he will vote for Weprin.” [Henry Stern / Huffington Post]

Teacher Evaluations: Teacher reports can be released, court rules. [NY1]

Teacher Evaluations: UFT vows an appeal. [Sharon Otterman / New York Times]

Mortgage Probe: Americans for Financial Reform make the case for Schneiderman’s resistance. [Jimmy Vielkind / Times Union]

Mortage Probe: Buffett will dump $5 billion into Bank of America. [Ben Protess and Susanne Craig / Deal Book]

Fund-Raising: Rep. Ackerman mocks a Republican for alligator-hunting. [Celeste Katz / Daily News]

Executive Pay: Cuomo task force seeks info from Medicaid and social service providers first. [Michael Johnson / Capital Tonight]

Executive Pay: The move could yield “unprecedented analysis that could shine a light on executives who take home an outsize share of their organization’s revenue.” [Russ Buettner / New York Times]