Gillibrand in her Senate office in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Aaron Clamage)

by Morgan Pehme

Kirsten Gillibrand is currently enjoying a career trajectory comparable to only a select few American politicians in recent memory—the most notable of whom occupies a certain Oval Office she’s already being discussed as a viable contender for in 2016.

Just a few years ago, such rumblings would have been unthinkable. When Gov. David Paterson plucked Gillibrand out of relative obscurity to fill the enormous shoes of Hillary Clinton, she had served a mere two years in Congress—and had never even run for office prior to getting elected to the House.

Two and a half years later, Gillibrand, 45, has a 60 percent approval rating statewide and is well on her way to carving out her own national profile, with a headline-grabbing record of legislative achievement over her brief time in office, including the 9/11 health bill and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” She has stood out as one of the nation’s most ardent advocates for women in politics and built a network of admirers as one of the Democratic Party’s most formidable fundraisers. Tina Brown has hailed her as “a total winner,” Jon Stewart has gushed over her on The Daily Show, Vogue has extolled her glamour in a tasteful spread, and no less a feminist icon than Gloria Steinem has said of Gillibrand, “Like Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm before her, she doesn’t just hold her finger to the wind, she is
the wind.”

The response to Gillibrand was not always so effusive. When Paterson initially selected her, the choice was generally panned, in part because of his bungling of Caroline Kennedy’s bid for the seat, and further fueled by the public grumblings of those who felt passed over for the post and the political powerhouses perturbed it was not their pick who had been anointed.

To read the full feature at City & State click here.

Wolfson takes to the Twittersphere to defend the Bloomberg administration

When Mayor Michael Bloomberg is under attack, one trusty weapon in Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson’s arsenal is the tweet.

Wolfson, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for government affairs and communications, has been garnering attention in recent months for taking to the Twittersphere to go after the administration’s critics, from elected officials like Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to journalists and news outlets like The New York Times.

“I think it has the benefit of being unfiltered and immediate, and those are two things that are difficult to find elsewhere,” Wolfson said of his use of Twitter. “Although it limits one to 140 characters, it does give you the freedom to say what you want to say, when you want to say it and speak directly to the audience that is following you.”

Wolfson, who has been tweeting for several years as @howiewolf, said he used the social media website during the 2009 Bloomberg campaign to engage Bill Thompson, the mayor’s Democratic challenger. And like many Twitter users, he regularly mixes in his outside interests (Major League Baseball, Bruce Springsteen) with work-related matters (proposed soda size restrictions, bike lanes).

Here’s a selection of his Twitter exchanges.

To read the full article at City & State click here.

State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky

A Queens man named Jesus Palomino recently swore in an affidavit that his mother could not have signed a petition form for two dozen candidates, including State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, on June 14th. The reason? The woman, Ana Rita Palomino, had been dead since February 5th, 2011.

The affidavit was produced by Stavisky’s opponent John Messer’s campaign and is posted below.

Queens Democratic party-backed candidates frequently petition in tandem and list each other on shared petitions. Stavisky is included with at least two dozen other candidates on this petition, according to her campaign, who said they were not familiar with the witness, Ashoka Bhattacharjee, who signed the petition form that includes the dead woman’s signature.

Messer campaign staff scrolled through the nominating petitions and knocked on signatories’ doors to verify the names. The campaign provided the affidavit to City and State, in which Palomino’s son Jesus wrote:

“I the undersigned do hereby swear and say that Ana Rita Palomino was my mother and she formally resided at 159-09 Goethals Ave in Jamaica, NY. The petition signature shown to me that desigantes Toby Stavisky for the office of State Senator and submitted to the Board of Election can not be that of my mother. My mother passed away in February 5th of 2011.”

A source close to the Messer campaign said the campaign intends to produce at least 51 sworn affidavits from people who claim their petition signatures are not valid, including ”two people who are being treated for Alzheimer’s at facilities out of state,” the source said.

To read the full article at City & State click here.

City & State: Were you surprised when Governor Cuomo announced that he was going to push for the decriminalization of marijuana possession up to 25 grams?

Richard Stratton: Not really, because I think that any smart politician really sees that the writing on the wall is that decriminalization and legalization is inevitable. They say there were three reasons why Prohibition ended: the Depression, the Depression and the Depression. I think the three reasons why ultimately marijuana will be legalized are the Recession, the Recession, the Recession, particularly in states like California and New York, where you have a major underground market that is huge. People don’t even begin to realize how much money is being made in the illegal market of growing and distributing marijuana. For the government not to be getting a piece of that is stupid.

CS: You have dealt with a lot of marijuana. Is 25 grams a substantial amount of marijuana?

RS: No, it’s like an ounce. It’s not a lot of marijuana.

CS: Were you surprised at all when the Senate Republicans rejected Cuomo’s decriminalization effort?

RS: You know, I was surprised, because I’ve always believed that it’s a Republican issue. You’re talking about those values that Republicans supposedly hold dear, like personal liberty and less involvement of the state in our personal lives. That’s really what it’s about. The laws against marijuana do not make any sense at all. It’s so irrational and so costly to the American culture as a whole that you’d think that smart Republicans would say, “You know what? This is anti-American, and we should open it up and we should legalize it” —but they don’t.

CS: Don’t you feel the Republicans in the Senate would point to you as a case study as to why there shouldn’t be decriminalization of marijuana? That they would argue that’s it’s a slippery slope, and that if the government let you have a couple of grams, then soon enough a person could be on his way to becoming a multimillion-dollar drug smuggler like yourself?

RS: Since when are Republicans opposed to entrepreneurship? It’s American to make money. Again, I go back to Prohibition. Some of the greatest fortunes in this country and in North America came about as a result of Prohibition. The Kennedys, the Bronfmans and those other huge dynasties that were created on money that was made from illegal alcohol. So I don’t think it’s anti-American to make money, especially when it’s not something that’s particularly harmful. I was never involved in hard drugs, and I always felt that hard drugs were dangerous. I think there’s a lot to be said for the idea that it’s not “Just Say No,” N-O, it’s “Just Say Know,” K-N-O-W. People need to know about the harms of using drugs, using alcohol, using any of these things. They need to be educated about it, but to try to make it criminal to make people stop doing it, that doesn’t make sense…. There are millions and millions of people who use marijuana in this country and don’t create a problem for other people, who don’t go out and rape and murder and start shooting heroin after using it for awhile. I grew up during that whole Reefer Madness era and we would go to school and watch these movies about what marijuana was supposed to do to you, and we’d be high and laughing, thinking, “Oh, we’re going to grow huge breasts. Then, great! We won’t have to feel our girlfriends up. We can feel ourselves up.” So it’s nuts; it’s completely insane. It’s been interesting for me. Obviously a huge part of my life has revolved around this—and still does to some degree—but as an American I really feel that we always have to be vigilant about protecting our liberties as much as possible. That’s what makes us a great country and a great society, and wherever the government tries to encroach upon our personal freedoms, we have to be pushing back—always pushing back—and marijuana is a perfect issue for that. For me it’s always been a great symbol of what we need to do as Americans, how we need to engage with the government. Say: “No; no, you can’t tell me what I can and cannot do in the privacy of my own home as long as I’m not hurting other people.”

To read the full interview visit City & State by clicking here.

Bruce Gyory

Top Democratic consultant Bruce Gyory weighs in on the recent congressional primaries in our print issue out today:

Pundits do a good job of assessing winners and losers after electoral events like the recent congressional primaries. Few are better, for example, than City & State’s First Read on Fridays.

Yet while this last primary’s victors have already been determined, I would like to parse the significant factors underlying who won, who lost and why.

First, let’s look at the GOP Senate race. In statewide primaries generally the most potent combination a candidate can achieve is being dubbed the most conservative in the field and winning the designation of upstate’s horse. That is what Wendy Long rode to victory.

The GOP registration breakdown is 53 percent from upstate, 30 percent from the suburbs (Long Island, Westchester and Rockland) and 17 percent from New York City. But in terms of who actually votes in GOP primaries, upstate is in the driver’s seat. In the 2010 gubernatorial primary, the regional split in the vote among Republicans was 66 percent upstate, 25 percent in the suburbs and 9 percent in New York City.

The preliminary returns in this year’s Senate primary show upstate voters casting 60 percent of the GOP vote, the suburbs accounting for 27 percent and the five boroughs making up the remaining 13 percent. Long carried upstate by a wide margin, enabling her to win a majority in a three-way race. Long first demonstrated her strength upstate at the GOP convention. In a Republican primary, Turner’s base in New York City and Maragos’ in Nassau simply were too slender to carry a statewide primary.

Regionalism was also bolstered by ideology. Long was perceived to be the most conservative candidate in the race (e.g., carrying Suffolk County). Her endorsement by the Conservative Party became the seal of approval for right-wing Republicans.

To read the full article at City & State click here.

Via City & State.

Aaron Short with this amusing new feature in the print edition:

Marty Markowitz first became a state senator in 1978 and was elected Brooklyn borough president in 2001. Over that time he’s accumulated a lot of stuff: shovels from ground-breakings, embroidered jerseys, alcohol and collectables from his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers. Markowitz’s favorite objects lean toward the nostalgic and the sports-related, but he waxes most emotional about his pet bird, “Beep,” an African gray parakeet. He keeps several photos of Beep on his desk, next to his wife and family.

To read more from City & State click here.

Rug with the Borough of Brooklyn Seal “When I became borough president in 2002, I called an artist from Park Slope who made rugs and asked her to make me a rug with the Brooklyn logo—and this is what she did. She took about six months.”

Leather briefcase “The bag I started using on January 1, 1979 when I was first elected. It has been repaired at least three times. It’s not as if I can’t afford a leather bag, but it’s been a part of me through 11 terms in the State Senate, and three terms here. It’s part of my DNA. I’ve kept it and repaired it as best I can, but you can only do so much.”

Espaillat Eyes Senate & Concedes to Rangel

City & State reports that State Sen.Adriano Espaillat, who conceded defeat on Monday in his contested primary race against Rep. Charles Rangel, declined to say whether he would run for re-election to the state Senate.
But Espaillat signaled that he would run for his seat, revealing at a press conference Monday that he had given district leaders permission to circulate petitions on his behalf after the June 26 congressional primary.
“I authorized some of the district leaders to begin circulating petitions after the 26th, after Election Day, and I will be considering my personal decision as to whether or not I will accept those signatures and move forward with re-election,” he told reporters outside his district office. “I promise you that in 48 hours, I will have that answer for you.”
Petitions to run for the state Senate and Assembly are due by Thursday. A source close to Mark Levine, an Espaillat ally who had been planning to run for Espaillat’s seat, also confirmed the senator will run for re-election. The source said that Espaillat will use his own petition signatures and not get on the ballot through a Levine vacancy committee, as had been speculated.
During the campaign, Espaillat said he only had his sights on the congressional seat, not his own. Rangel, the longtime congressman who faced his toughest primary challenge in over four decades in office, seized on Espaillat’s comments, saying that he didn’t know where the senator would find a new job when he lost.
Whether he runs for re-election or not, Espaillat could be a serious candidate for Rangel’s congressional seat again in two years. Espaillat, who is Dominican, came within 1,000 votes of ousting the incumbent, capitalizing on changing demographics and redrawn lines that made Latinos a majority in the district.
“There’s no question I come out of this process strengthened,” Espaillat said. “I think two years down the line is a long time. I will not make a decision right here, but I feel very strongly that I have been strengthened in this process.”
Espaillat could also find himself taking on the state’s other leading Dominican elected official, Assemblyman Guillermo Linares. Linares said he would run for Espaillat’s state Senate seat after Espaillat announced his run for Congress, and reiterated his intention to run when Rangel initially declared victory.

Synagogues Get Anti-Terror Dough

Last week, U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced that New York would be receiving $3.4 million from the Department of Homeland Security to protect Jewish schools and temples vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The money, which is over 30 percent of the total allocated for the country, will be distributed to 42 organizations throughout the state. Rep. Jerry Nadler secured $825,000 of that grant money for 11 Jewish nonprofit
organizations in his district, one of which is the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue at 30 W. 68th St.
Nadler was the author of the High-Risk Non-Profit Security Enhancement Act,
legislation that creates grants for “soft targets” of terrorism, like schools and religious institutions, to enhance their safety measures and ensure they are able to protect themselves from attack. He worked with the United Jewish Communities, the American Red Cross, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, United Way, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the American Hospital Association and the UJA Federation of New York to secure the funding and identify recipients.
“This funding will make it possible for more charitable institutions and the people they serve to get the proper tools to secure themselves against potential terrorist attacks,” Nadler said in a statement. “The threat against these organizations is, unfortunately, very real, and it is the obligation of government to protect potential targets from attacks by those who espouse hatred and violence.”
The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue will receive $75,000 in funding for security purposes for Fiscal Year 2012.

Disabling the Training Wheels

A special training camp for children with disabilities will be held in New York City for the first time this summer. Lose the Training Wheels, a nonprofit organization that teaches people with disabilities to ride two-wheeled bicycles, is holding a free camp for children Aug. 6–10 in Brooklyn sponsored by the National Down Syndrome Society and the Lyle Foundation. The event will be held at the Aviator Sports & Event Center in Floyd Bennett Field, at 3159 Flatbush Ave.
The program uses special adaptive bicycles that are designed to gradually transition kids to riding regular two-wheeled bikes without any assistance.
Children who ride a bike on their own gain the benefit of independent transportation, a new form of exercise and a boost in self-esteem.
Participants must be at least 8 years old and have a disability. They must be able to walk without an assistive device and sidestep to both sides, as well as be under 220 pounds and have a minimum inseam measurement (taken from the floor with sneakers on) of 20 inches. All participants must be able to attend a 75-minute session for each of the five days of camp. Those with their own two-wheeled bikes are strongly encouraged to bring them to the first day of camp in order for instructors to plan on transitioning the child by the end of the week.
Registration is limited; email bikecampnyc@gmail.com for more information
or to sign up.

Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Slacking off: Adam Minegar carefully balances himself while walking across a slack rope line in Riverside Park.

Via Wiki Commons.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn on Friday joined Smart Power NY, a coalition of community organizations, elected officials, and environmentalists supporting the Astoria Repowering Project, an effort to rebuild an existing Queens power plant to be more environmentally friendly. “Changing the way we are dealing with energy, changing the way we are dealing with power is a citywide issue,” said Quinn, adding that project could “help every resident of the city of New York.” Backers of NRG Energy’s project say it would cost $1.5 billion, increase energy output enough to power 320,000 homes, and create 500 construction jobs. State Sen. Michael Gianaris said that the project was a “win-win-win-win-win situation” and had “no opposition.” In May, NRG submitted a proposal for the project to the governor’s Energy Highway Task Force; support from the task force would aid NRG in securing a long term contract with the New York Power Authority, which it needs to acquire financing for the project. An NRG representative said that the proposal was “the premier project in New York City” and the only one with permits by the Department of Environmental Conservation in order and shovel ready.

To read more from City & State click here.

Fracking explained. Illustration courtesy of Wiki Commons.

The Cuomo administration has hinted it may allow hydrofracking to move forward only in municipalities that express support for the procedure, and this week Gov. Andrew Cuomo explicitly said that “home rule” should be a factor in deciding where to allow it. But the technology is such that drilling for natural gas in some locations and not in others doesn’t make sense, several lawmakers argued yesterday. “You may have a town that says no, but if the town next to it says yes … well, it’s horizontal hydrofracking we’re talking about,” State Sen. Tony Avella, an outspoken opponent of the controversial practice, said at a rally on the steps of City Hall. “The pipes are going to go a long distance underground and we’ll have contaminated water seeping into the water supply of a town that never wanted it.” State Sen. Liz Krueger said that polluted water from a single source could contaminate crops and livestock, which would in turn spread through the state. “If one county does it, it can contaminate other counties,” she said. “We are all one when it comes to this issue and we are all interdependent, literally and figuratively.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

State Senate

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he’ll back both Democrats and Republicans on a case-by-case basis.

Manhattan

Rep. Charlie Rangel re-affirmed his support for Guillermo Linares’ Senate bid.

Julie Menin has already maxed out on fundraising for the Manhattan BP race.

Brooklyn

Simcha Felder is in talks with a top GOP operative about managing Felder’s campaign – perhaps indicating the Senate GOP is behind his candidacy.

Opponent David Storobin continued to hit golf balls during a Jewish prayer at a recent charity outing.

Andrew Gounardes’ Senate campaign keeps hammering away on the Marty Golden/Feminine Presence story.

Elsewhere

Sean Patrick Maloney announced his campaign team against Nan Hayworth.

Cuomo’s next big push will be for campaign finance reform.

The New York City Board of Elections is chafing at criticism, but nonetheless is seeking improvements.

Mayor Bloomberg mocked the Board of Elections (again.)

To read more from City & State click here.