Source: Kenneth Lovett / New York Daily News

It’s officially patronage season for Gov. Paterson and his pals.

Paterson, with just five months left in his term, is quietly doling out five cushy commissioner posts on the Parole Board — long considered a patronage dumping ground.

The five lucky Democrats are in line for six-year appointments that pay out $101,600 a year — and stretch well through the four-year term of the next governor.

Chief among Paterson’s picks for the cozy commissioner slots is Seny Taveras, a longtime Paterson aide going back to his days in the state Senate.

Another is ex-Cattaraugus County Democratic District Attorney Edward Sharkey, who was bounced from office at the polls last fall.

The other fortunate members of the 101G club are:

• Henry Lemons, the former acting board chairman whose term has expired.
• Richard Clarke, a former city cop and security boss for the Westchester County Parks Department.
• Lynn Anne Tabbott, a former assistant attorney general under ex-attorney general turned disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Shockingly, Paterson had tried to do away with the posh positions he’s now filling.

Read the rest here.

Source: Sally Goldenberg / New York Post

A former employee of the Working Families Party says he was so disturbed by the labor-backed group’s practices that he walked out after only one week on the job.

In an exclusive interview, Brooklyn resident Patrick Crooks said he was encouraged by higher-ups to falsify names and addresses on sign-up sheets supporting the left-wing party’s push to repeal a state law that took rent regulation out of the city’s hands and gave it to the state.

“I saw that everyone else was doing it [putting down fake names] and my field manager was encouraging it . . . just so it looked like other people had been signing . . . But from my second day onward I decided not to do it . . . It just didn’t seem right to me,” Crooks, 26, from Maryland, told The Post.

Crooks’ charges come amid a probe of the WFP by the feds and the city Campaign Finance Board. He revealed a litany of shady practices that prompted him to quit, including:

* Being misled about the type of work he was hired to perform — fund-raising and canvassing instead of policy work;

* Getting a paycheck from the party’s former political arm, Data and Field Services, although the job posting he responded to was for the WFP, and

* Receiving instruction to collect money and signatures in buildings that had “no trespassing” signs and only leave if forced out by police.

Read the rest here.

SPECIAL NOTE FROM BYRC PRESIDENT JONATHAN JUDGE: The New York State petitioning process needs serious and immediate reform if we ever are to hope for a better crop of public servants.  Not only does the Brooklyn Working Families Party allegedly forge signatures for other kinds of petitions, but they probably also do it for designating petitions.  So have many Brooklyn Democratic leaders and Brooklyn Republican leaders.  That’s because in court, it is far more difficult to prove signature fraud to eliminate an illegitimate candidate from the ballot than it is by nitpicking variations of street names, the use of maiden names, and of course using every technicality of election law to your opponent’s disadvantage.  Take note of this fact: the petitioning process is a corrupt politician’s dream come true. Let’s implement reform and make ballot access their worst nightmare.

Source: Peter Baker / New York Times

The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether the House of Representatives should be enlarged to produce a fairer distribution of political power.

A group of voters appealed to the court after a special three-judge panel in Mississippi last week rejected their lawsuit seeking to at least double the number of seats in the House in the interest of evening out the sizes of Congressional districts.

The appeal may be just a quixotic bid, given that four justices would have to want to hear the case for the Supreme Court to hear it. But it raises a provocative and largely overlooked issue in a country that prizes itself on a one-person, one-vote democracy: Even in the House, which is supposed to be the most representative government body, some votes are actually worth a lot less than others.

Because each state gets at least one seat, no matter how small its population, and because the overall size of the House essentially has not changed in a century, the number of people represented by a single congressman can vary widely.

According to census data last year, the 960,000 people in Nevada’s Third Congressional District had the same voting power in the House as the 523,000 people in Wyoming’s sole district. That means a Wyoming voter has nearly twice the influence as a Nevada counterpart.

Read the rest here.

Source: Harold Egeln / Brooklyn Daily Eagle

SOUTHWEST BROOKLYN — As the controversy over Arizona’s new law to fight illegal immigration entered a new phase on Tuesday with the U.S. Justice Department filing suit against the state, the furor over the issue erupted at a Brooklyn meeting and in a congressional campaign.

The topic reached fever pitch when a public discussion of issues involving alleged illegal immigrants — such as Mexicans supposedly getting first preference over native-born Americans in Brooklyn’s hospital emergency rooms and packing Bensonhurst tenements — took place at a recent town hall meeting held by state Sen. Marty Golden.

“Arizona! Arizona!” chanted some people in the audience of about 200 people at the meeting held at St. Finbar’s Church Center in Bath Beach. Arizona’s action is viewed by critics as unfairly targeting Hispanics, violating civil liberties and smacking of racial profiling.

While several applauded the “Arizona!” call, others sat in shocked silence. Without the senator there (he was in Albany taking part in budget negotiations) and only city agency representatives presiding, there was no response given.

Among those in the auditorium were two Republican candidates, Michael Allegretti and Michael Grimm, vying for the 13th Congressional District post now held by freshman Congressman Michael McMahon, a centrist Democrat. McMahon’s seat is targeted as vulnerable by the National Republican Party.

Read the rest here.

Source: Edward Isaac-Dovere / City Hall News

A collection of elected officials in Brooklyn are backing candidates running against Vito Lopez’s preferred choices for state committee spots, putting them at odds in a race that could ultimately determine who holds the title of county leader in the years ahead.

Jumaane Williams, Tish James and Diana Reyna are endorsing Lincoln Restler, the 26-year-old activist seeking the male state committee spot in the Assembly district represented by Joe Lentol, which covers Ft. Greene, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Restler is running against Warren Cohn, the son of Lopez ally Steve Cohn, who retired shortly after Restler announced his candidacy earlier this year.

Restler is one of several people hoping to unseat long-serving incumbent members of the state committee in Brooklyn in what amounts to proxy opposition to Lopez’s leadership.

“If there was ever a moment where voters are disgusted with the status quo, it is right now, right here in New York City, in New York State, in Brooklyn,” Restler said Wednesday, during a break from campaigning. “We’re coming full force.”

In addition to the three Council endorsements, Restler has also gotten an unofficial nod of support from Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who, along with James and Reyna, serves on the committee on vacancies Restler has appointed for the petitions he is carrying. Running on a platform of reforming the judicial selection process and getting the county committee to back more committed progressive, Restler said he hopes to repurpose some of the field success and voter engagement of the 2008 Obama campaign in his and other state committee races.

The three endorsements, Restler said, fit with that approach, which he said he hoped would eventually lead to a win in September and, eventually, a replacement for Lopez at the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.

Read the rest here.

Source: Maggie Haberman / Politico.com

A source close to GOP Senate hopeful David Malpass’s campaign tells me the candidate has agreed to run on the third-party line being created by Republican gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino.

The line, for which petitions will begin circulating next week, will no longer be called “taxed enough already,” but will be known as the Taxpayers’ Line, the source added.

It’s a recognition of the importance that a minor-party line plays in the GOP’s long odds for statewide victories this fall, and a data point from the lack of a consensus ticket between the Republicans and the Conservative Party this cycle.

It also comes as the bid by Ed Cox, the state GOP chairman, to create his own third-party line is on life support and not expected to survive the week, according to sources.

Malpass has, as I noted yesterday, $2.4 million in cash on hand and is making the argument that he’s better poised than his primary rival Bruce Blakeman to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Conservative nominee Joe DioGuardi, who worked hard with that party’s grass roots to prevent the other two from securing a ballot spot, is trying to petition his way onto the GOP line.

Read the rest here.

Source: Edward-Isaac Dovere / City Hall News

New Yorkers, be prepared to choose between the primary and general election—because the city cannot afford to put on both.

As the stalemate over picking a new executive director continues, there is not enough money to cover costs for holding New York City’s November general election after paying for primary operations in September, according to the current reading of the city budget by the Board of Elections.

The assessment of the Board of Elections shortfall—pegged at approximately $19 million less than what the agency’s staff says will be necessary to conduct its appointed tasks through the coming fiscal year—was announced Tuesday at the regular meeting of the commissioners at its headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

According to finance officer John Ward, the city budget passed last week leaves the Board $9 million short of the “personnel services,” or payroll budget, and an additional $10 million short of the OTPS, or “other than personnel services” budget used to pay for the new voting machines at long last being introduced this year to bring New York into compliance with the Help America Vote Act, as well as to bring those voting machines to the polling places.

Board of Elections staff say that the current budget allocates enough money for either one drop-off and pick-up of voting machines, presumably for the primary elections, and then not to be able to pay to bring the machines back out for the general, or to leave the pricey new voting machines sitting in polling places from September through November.

“The choice is right now, we can send the truckers out and once back, but the second time becomes a question,” the Board’s general counsel, Steven Richman, explained to the commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting.

The budget drama comes as the Board enters the fifth month of its deadlock over selecting a new executive director to replace Marcus Cederqvist, who resigned in February. Four Democratic commissioners along with the Staten Island Republican commissioner are backing deputy executive director George Gonzalez, while the remaining four Republican commissioners and the Staten Island Democratic commissioner are backing J.C. Polanco, the Republican commissioner from the Bronx who serves as the Board’s secretary. (Polanco arose as the Republican choice after former Council Member Anthony Como abandoned his plans to seek the post to instead run for State Senate against Joe Addabbo.)

Read the rest here.

Source: Ned Berke / Sheepshead Bites

I know we already posted today about State Senator Carl Kruger, but I just came across this article in Courier-Life exposing the extravagance of that shyster, and his smugness in rebutting it.

Kruger’s been dipping into his $2.1 million campaign war chest – the largest in the State Legislature – to pay for all kinds of crud unrelated to getting reelected. Of course, it’s been a longtime tradition for state representatives to use leftovers from their reelection campaigns to fund a more comfortable living situation, but the shocking degree to which Kruger is making it rain shows just how far out of touch he is with his constituents.

Read the rest here.

Source: Anemona Hartocollis / New York Times

After being caught off guard when the city’s health commissioner first proposed the idea, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Tuesday that he was leaning toward seeking a ban on smoking at city parks and beaches.

Mr. Bloomberg said the ban made sense because it would cut the health risks of secondhand smoke and reduce littering by smokers.

“We’re talking about banning smoking on beaches and in parks, and it’s partially because you can breathe the air,” Mr. Bloomberg said when he was asked about a ban. “It’s in the open air, but the air wafts in your direction. But it is also because people take their cigarette butts and the packages and just throw them away.”

“When you ask people in our parks and beaches,” he added, “they say they just don’t want smokers there.”

The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, said Tuesday that smoking was the leading preventable cause of death among residents, killing 7,500 New Yorkers per year, more than AIDS, drugs, homicide and suicide combined.

He said a smoking ban would be the equivalent of bans on loud radios and glass bottles on beaches, and could save millions of dollars in trash cleanup.

Read the rest here.

Source: Allison Leigh Cowan / New York Times

Few cities are as generous as New York when it comes to matching political contributions raised by candidates for public office.

In big election years, the city has given anywhere from $4 million to $42 million to candidates in an effort to limit the influence of special interests and level the playing field for candidates of modest means.

There were, though, supposed to be limits to the city’s generosity. Candidates who accepted taxpayer money and did not empty their campaign accounts in the course of their election fights were obliged by law to return all surplus money to the city.

But the city, while handing out a total of roughly $120 million to candidates over the years, has been unable to recover much of the money it is owed.

Read the rest here.

Source: Edward-Isaac Dovere / City Hall News

Dan Donovan, the Republican attorney general nominee, clearly has Michael Bloomberg’s support. The mayor endorsed Donovan at his campaign kick-off, speaks warmly of him whenever given the chance and has already hosted a fundraiser for the Staten Island district attorney at his townhouse.

Who else will benefit from his financial and popular largess is, for now, unclear.

Which is not to say that Bloomberg, comfortable in his (for now) term-limited last round at City Hall and facing a potentially spiraling investigation into his campaign contributions thanks to the indictment of John Haggerty, will be sitting out this election year. Political events have already started appearing on his public schedule, including a short speech at the Republican State Convention dinner in early June to introduce former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a board member of his foundation and a charter-school advocacy ally.

And there will be more, on behalf of specific candidates.

Read the rest here.

Source: Andrew J. Hawkins / The Capitol

When Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb took over from Jim Tedisco over a year ago, he said his goal was to run competitively in all 102 districts held by Democrats. And if he was ever going to pull it off, this would be the year to do it.

Voter anger at incumbents is at an all-time high, especially toward Democrats, who control all three braches of government. Republicans made significant gains last year in key swing counties like Westchester and Nassau. And the Assembly minority won three out of four February special elections, two of them flipping seats that were previously held by Democrats.

Conditions are just right for a strong Republican showing in the Assembly this year. Even Republican State Chair Ed Cox seems to think so, when he alleged on air that Speaker Sheldon Silver was anticipating losing as many as 25 seats in November.

So naturally, as election season begins to heat up, the Assembly Republicans are seeking to tamp down expectations, knowing that if they cannot hit that mark, their minority status will likely be permanent.

“If we get to 52, 53 or higher, that’s going to be great,” Kolb said of his current 42-member conference.

Read the rest here.