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.

Anthony Weiner. Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons.

WINNERS

Adriano Espaillat –  Early last week it looked as though the race was over, but a series of BOE mishaps and a savvy court case later, and Espaillat is still in the game.  There may not be a redo election, as Espaillat hopes, but the outcome of the primary is currently in doubt, and his name is staying in the headlines. Even if he has to head back to the State Senate, he’s the man who brought Rangel to within an inch of the end of his Congressional career. With his name going national, Espaillat might have a much easier time winning the seat should he ever try again, especially if the venerable Rangel should choose to retire.

Bill Magnarelli and Catharine Young – Assemblyman Magnarelli and State Sen. Young made waves this week in Albany for something quite unusual – being the two lawmakers in each house who succeeded in passing the most legislation this year, per numbers guru Bill Mahoney’s NYPIRG report. Neither one of them is prone to splashy displays otherwise, so this is basically a coup for modesty and hard work. Nice.

Michael Bloomberg – Sometimes the mayor snaps at reporters. Sometimes he sounds completely out of touch. Sometimes, when he thinks people aren’t listening, he lets loose a swear word. Sometimes he pauses in the middle of his annual remarks on the Hot Dog Eating Contest Weigh-in ceremony to wonder who wrote his ridiculous pun-laced speech and asks, “Who wrote this s#*t?” The mayor, not fond of bull, was using his cut-the-crap attitude in an appropriate way to express the will of the people, who can no more tolerate that many puns in one sentence than the world’s fanciest billionaires. Let’s all just admit it – the mayor is pretty funny, and that can be a pretty great thing.

Anthony Weiner – Late last week, scandal-plagued former Congressman Weiner made his first foray into the public arena since resigning his office, when he went on Brian Lehrer’s show to talk about the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act. You may not have noticed that, which is why Weiner wins. He’s made his reentry into political life by talking on a subject of such massive importance that there was no way he could overshadow the actual news. He was heavily involved in the healthcare law, and this way, whichever outlet he decides to speak to next will no longer be able to claim he’s speaking “for the first time” since his departure from office. Brilliant.

Bald Eagle - The bald eagles of Narrowsburg, New York faced danger if town officials permitted a fireworks display near the national bird and formerly endangered species’s habitat. Thank the lucky stars (and stripes) the US Fish and Wildlife Service threatened the town with heavy fines if they went ahead with their potentially bird-immolating light show. The town moved the fireworks, the eagles were safe, the residents were cheered and patriotism was well-displayed. Compromise. God Bless America.

LOSERS

Marty Golden- What do women want? Maybe not a workshop about “posture, deportment, and the feminine presence.” Golden’s Bay Ridge Senate district isn’t exactly the hippest, but his well-meaning jobs seminar for ladies took us all the way back to a pre-Betty Friedan era whose social mores we can’t even appreciate ironically. Golden got an earful about it from every progressive and zeitgeist-y blogger there is, even drawing scorn from the Daily Show, which is kind of hard to come back from (ask Fran Narcington). The senator might need his own seminar — on how to help people find jobs without offending them.

NYC Board of Elections – The Board’s handling of the Rangel-Espaillat recount was a new low, even for the notoriously dysfunctional body, but, really, for years now each successive election has just been another disastrous opportunity for the Board to demonstrate its deep-seeded culture of cronyism and incompetence. If you think the Board’s ability to run a low-turnout primary in June was bad, just wait until November when all of the state races will be on the ballot along with the vote for President.

Nan Hayworth – After Sean Patrick Maloney’s commanding win in the Democratic primary, it became even clearer that Hayworth needs every last vote she can get to fend off her well-funded challenger. That’s why the Westchester County Supreme Court’s decision this week to bounce Hayworth from the Independence line for not having enough valid signatures was a blow to her reelection campaign. Hayworth could still be reinstated on appeal, but if she isn’t, the math gets a lot more difficult for her to win. Riding the Tea Party wave in 2010, Hayworth still only squeaked by the incumbent John Hall with fewer than 11,000 more votes—5,444 of which came from the Independence line. Now that her district has been drawn even more blue following redistricting, those Independence votes have more of a chance than ever of being the margin of victory—or defeat.  

Chris Collins – Just when it seemed like everything was back on track for Collins—whose resounding victory over David Bellavia in the Republican primary made him one of our winners last week—the former country executive committed an unforced error that quickly attracted national attention and ridicule. Collins has previously suffered from foot-in-mouth disease: note his comparing Shelly Silver to both “Hitler” and the “anti-Christ” and telling a female acquaintance that she could get a seat at the State of the State address in exchange for a “lap dance.” This time, he announced that “people now don’t die from cancer, breast cancer and some of the other things.” Regardless of whether this remark was taken out of context, as Collins claims, it makes him look out-of-touch and insensitive.

Seth Pinsky – The chief of the city’s Economic Development Corporation is now the head of an organization that has had to admit to illegal lobbying on behalf of the mayor’s economic development agenda at Willets Point, a charge that comes with no civil or criminal penalties, just ignominy. The charge is a black mark on what is supposed to be the mayor’s great economic development agenda, a far-reaching plan in all five boroughs meant to secure his legacy after 12 years in office, not undermine the law.

To vote for this week’s ultimate political winner and loser visit City & State by clicking here.

Sean Patrick Maloney

This week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg rhymed when talking about “stop and frisk,” 2013 mayoral candidates dinged each other at the first mayoral roundtable, and campaign filings came in for June 26th Congressional primary elections. As we realized anew that cash rules everything around us, we whipped out our calculators to tabulate who, exactly, had won the week, and who had lost.

David Katleski – We can be sure New York Brewers’ Association president David Katleski is quaffing something in celebration after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement the state had decided to restore a special tax exemption for craft brewers in the state. Not only was the exemption restored, but additional measures to expand the craft brewing industry’s reach and potential retailing sites were like a delicious foam topper.

Jacques DeGraff – This week, the Rev. Jacques DeGraff, president of nonprofit organization 100 Black Men, among many other things, orchestrated what many considered a near-impossible feat – bringing all of the 2013 mayoral candidates together for a roundtable discussion. The talk was limited to minority and women-owned businesses, but it provided the candidates the chance to illustrate their stylistic differences a year-and-a-half before the election.

Sean Patrick Maloney – The former Spitzer and Paterson Administration aide running against Rep. Nan Hayworth netted an endorsement from former President Bill Clinton this week, which places him a couple of steps above President Barack Obama in terms of how actually helpful the former Commander-in-Chief is proving as a surrogate. Maloney also posted strong fundraising numbers, making the prospect of knocking the freshman Hayworth out of her seat after only one term seem less and less like a Congressional Democratic Conference pipe dream.

Richard Gottfried – Passing a bill to legalize medical marijuana has always been a priority for stalwart Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, but it’s never seemed less like a joke out of High Times than in recent weeks, after Gov. Andrew Cuomo paved the way for a realistic discussion of the herb with his plan to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in public. Between Assemblyman Joe Lentol’s toke talk and Assembly passage of the med-mar bill, even with the certain prospect of Republican Senate opposition, the bill is closer than it’s ever been before to becoming reality.

Peter Ward – Chalk up a couple more wins for the head of the Hotel Trades Council. First, Mayor Bloomberg praised Ward at a press conference for his leadership in putting together a deal on Willets Point, in which the two planned hotels will use union labor. And Ward is also getting support from Albany elected for his boycott of the Desmond Hotel over a new contract – even though his union only recently began representing those workers.

Ruben Wills – Trouble just seems to follow Queens Councilman Ruben Wills. Last year it was a saga over some relatively minor, ancient criminal misdemeanor charges that dragged on and on as Wills failed to deal with the situation. Now, Wills’s non-profit is being investigated over his failure to account for funds spent, and he’s seemingly failing to cooperate with the New York attorney general’s inquiries. All of that has led the City Council to take up an investigation, and his member item-doling privileges have been revoked. At least Wills retains his position as the treasurer for the Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus.

Howard Milstein – Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s wealthy campaign contributor is undoubtedly doing just fine with his own finances, but in his gig as chair of the state’s Thruway Authority, he is getting a firsthand look at what it’s like to try to scrape by without plenty of excess cash. S&P, the major ratings agency, downgraded the authority’s financial outlook this week, writing that “aggressive” toll increases may be needed to replace the aging and outdated Tappan Zee Bridge. The Thruway did maintain its A-plus rating, but if it can’t find the money somewhere else after the Obama administration rejected a $2 billion loan earlier this year, maybe Milstein can just bail out the Thruway himself.  

Joe Martens – Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week framed hydrofracking as not all good and not all bad, saying the truth is “very often in the middle” – though that’s a tough place to be for Martens, the governor’s top environmental official. With the news that the administration is mulling a plan to let the controversial natural gas drilling procedure move forward in select areas, and only in municipalities that permit it, many environmentalists are already in an uproar. The industry, which has been grumbling about the delays in developing regulations, has called the proposal a positive step, but they’re undoubtedly going to continue to press Martens hard on the other side too.

Don Hassig - Gaffe! Green Party candidate Don Hassig missed a press conference in his fight for Congress against Rep. Bill Owens because his van failed a New York State vehicle emissions test. He had to phone in to the press conference, and guzzle the embarrassment, which to his credit, he handled with good humor. This is what we call a teachable moment.

Chris Collins – Former Erie County executive Chris Collins has enough years behind him in political office to warrant some certain backing from his supporters, but his campaign filing for his 27th district Congressional bid shows his race is almost wholly self-funded – $250,000 out of $255,000 in filings are a loan he made to himself, and the rest comes from just five individuals. Western New York political observers said Collins’ poor showing has everything to do with what some perceive as past blunders, including his handling of Assemblywoman Jane Corwin’s run for Kathy Hochul’s seat last year in the special election, and Collins’ recent race for county executive, which he lost despite more than $1 million in support from donors.

To vote for your choice of winner and loser for this week visit City & State by clicking here.