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By David Freedlander 2/21/12 10:05pm

Profiles

Answering The Call Fundraiser For Haiti Earthquake Victims

The Voice of The Opposition: Can Tom DiNapoli Defend Labor From The Albany Onslaught?

Tom DiNapoli peered out of the 15th-floor windows of 110 State Street in Albany—“The Taj McCall,” the comptroller’s staff call the building, after Carl McCall, the predecessor of Mr. DiNapoli’s who shepherded the building to completion—and pointed out the landmarks below. There was City Hall. Over there, an historic church. To the side, the Hudson River. And right in front, the red granite roofs of the Capitol.

“You see, when they fire their cannons at me, they don’t quite hit. They come up just short,” said Mr. DiNapoli, tracing an imaginary shot with his finger from the statehouse to where he stood, an office just out of reach of the governor’s supposed artillery.

Among the incoming ordnance are Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to add a 401K-style sixth tier to the pension fund, a plan to take away some of the comptroller’s ability to audit government contracts, and the governor’s push for greater flexibility over governmental spending. Read More

By David Freedlander 9/27/11 9:57pm

Profiles

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The Hizzoner Grifter: Outside of Courthouse, A Different Picture of John Haggerty Emerges

Talk to G.O.P. political operatives, or customers sitting at some of the Irish bars in eastern Queens, or even former aides from the Bloomberg re-election campaign, and they will tell you that the last person they expected to in the dock at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, accused of stealing over $1 million from Mayor Mike Bloomberg, is John Haggerty.

But there he was Monday morning, surrounded by a team of lawyers—including former New York State attorney general Dennis Vacco, a longtime friend and mentor—staring without expression as prosecutors submitted into evidence what they say are falsified budgets, bogus checks and deceit-laden memos that showed that Mr. Haggerty lied to the campaign about his plans for an Election Day ballot security operation. He did so, they say, in order to help himself to some of the mayor’s millions in order to buy out his brother in the Haggerty family home that had been left by his late father. They portrayed him as a political hack, as someone insecure and needy and thirsty for recognition from higher-ups in Team Bloomberg. They made a note of his bragging that he was better at making sure voters got to the polls than anybody else hanging around the campaign offices. Read More