Deja Mario? Going back to politics the Cuomo way is CRAZY
vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com
The first on-time budget in twenty years
IBM and AMD to build electronics silicon chip fabs in NYS
"Healthy Families" for uninsured as tax incentive without state cost
Major transit infrastructure redesign (MetroCard, AirTrain, GC North)
Merged, rationalised & tamed major off-budget authorities
Created jobs by cutting taxes
Passed the death penalty that Cuomo kept vetoing
http://www.johnfaso.com/
http://www.joinspencer.com/
http://www.jeaninepirro.com/
http://www.callaghanfornewyork.com/
- = -
Vasos-Peter John Panagiotopoulos II, Reagan Mozart Pindus BioStrategist
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/vjp2/vasos.htm
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---
[Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards]
[Yellary Clinton, Yellalot Spitzer & Angrew Cuomo: Nasty Together]
- = -
Vasos-Peter John Panagiotopoulos II, Reagan Mozart Pindus BioStrategist
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/vjp2/vasos.htm
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---
[Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards]
[Yellary Clinton, Yellalot Spitzer & Angrew Cuomo: Nasty Together]
v...@p.com
Probe Implicates Pol's Closest Allies, Relative
by Colin Gustafson, Assistant Editor, Queens Chronicle, 10/26/2006
A chiropractor. A union buddy. His election campaign's treasurer. A Little
League director who doubled as his political club's treasurer.
Whenever Flushing Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin needed to line his pockets
with extra cash, prosecutors allege he could count on a handful of trusted
associates to come up with the funds.
These second tier associates, dubbed "the Enterprise" by federal
authorities, allegedly aided the Assemblyman on a litany of fraud, money
laundering and embezzlement schemes for nearly a decade.
By the time investigators brought charges against McLaughlin last week,
his purportedly criminal clique had fleeced taxpayers, union members and
political contributors to the tune of more than $2.2 million.
The organizations they allegedly defrauded are many: the William Jefferson
Clinton Democratic Club, which McLaughlin founded; Local 3 of the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, where he was a business
manager; and the New York Central Labor Council, where he remains president.
One cohort, listed in the indictment as "Officer 3," was even alleged to
have plundered $95,000 from the Little League where McLaughlin played as a
kid. Government sources identified "Officer 3" as Carl BelGiorno, director of
the Electchester Athletic Association.
Despite professing no political aspirations of his own, BelGiorno agreed
to become treasurer of the Flushing based Clinton Club upon McLaughlin's
urging. Without questioning why, BelGiorno signed numerous blank checks on
the club's account before handing them over to the lawmaker, according to the
indictment.
BelGiorno did not return calls to his workplace, Petrocelli Electric
Co. in Long Island City, or the Electchester youth group's office.
"Foreman 1" also played a key role in the Enterprise, according to the
indictment. That figure has been identified as Thomas Schuette, a Long Island
based chiropractor and relative of McLaughlin.
Over several years, according to the indictment, Schuette furnished
Enterprise members with checks totaling more than $100,000. They were drawn
on accounts held by a street lighting contractor for whom he worked, a
management company he founded and the Nesconset based chiropractic office he
runs. Most of the proceeds from these checks went to renovating McLaughlin's
sprawling home in Nissequogue, Long Island, prosecutors said.
In August 2005, the Assemblyman reportedly rewarded Schuette by appointing
him director of an immigrants rights commission in the Central Labor
Council. The indictment states that the chiropractor had no prior experience
with immigrants issues and was, at first, apprehensive about taking the
position. But McLaughlin assured him the job would require minimal time and
effort. Prosecutors said the Assemblyman then set out to convince the labor
council's executive board to raise his relative's salary from $81,000 to
$94,000--while he secretly negotiated a deal to have his relative hand over
the salary to him.
With the raise, Schuette became the third highest paid member of the labor
council behind McLaughlin, and McLaughlin pocketed the $55,000 Schuette
earned during his six month stint at the helm of the commission, according to
the charges. The chiropractor did not return multiple calls to his Nesconset
office.
Schuette wasn't the only person to allegedly receive a no show job. The
indictment alleges that "Officer 2," was given a fictitious position on
McLaughlin's Assembly staff in exchange for kicking back 50 percent of his
taxpayer funded salary to the lawmaker. "Officer 2" has been identified as
Charles Washington, who was alternately treasurer and then secretary of the
street lighting division of Local 3.
Washington allegedly acted as the lawmaker's main conduit to a Local 3
checking account reserved for union social functions and family
picnics. According to prosecutors, that account became a reliable source of
spending money for McLaughlin. All told, Washington allegedly handed
McLaughlin more than $97,000 in cash payments from checks written on the
union's account.
Overseeing much of this activity, meanwhile, was "Officer 1," who was
allegedly the Assemblyman's second in command in the Enterprise. Government
sources identified this individual as McLaughlin's one time campaign
treasurer, Peter Manno. According to the indictment, Manno also held a no
show job on the state's payroll and acted as an intermediary between the
legislator and lower ranking cohorts. Neither Washington nor Manno could be
reached for comment.
When the Assemblyman grew concerned about detection by the feds during the
winter of 2004, Manno allegedly ordered Washington and BelGiorno to destroy
the checkbook they had used to draw from the Local 3 account. Manno's
instructions were simple: immerse the checkbook (a key piece of evidence in
the federal fraud charges) in water, so they could later claim it was among
the materials damaged when the basement of McLaughlin's district office
flooded earlier that year.
But the associates who fueled McLaughlin's graft for years may have
ultimately helped give him up to the authorities. Federal prosecutors said
none of the four Enterprise members had been charged with a crime, but would
not confirm whether they had copped pleas, saying only that "the
investigation into all parties is still ongoing."
Whatever the case, McLaughlin and his apparent co conspirators haven't
avoided intense criticism and public scrutiny since the indictment was
announced. Former colleagues reacted to the allegations with a mixture of
shock and outrage. "Power corrupts and (McLaughlin) has no scruples," said
Julia Harrison of Flushing, a former member of the City Council who worked
closely with the legislator in the 1990s. "I have no respect for the man."
Other elected officials and their staffs were tight lipped about the
federal probe, which threatens to engulf numerous past associates and firms
connected to the Flushing Democrat.
McLaughlin's Chief of Staff Phyllis Shafran was not named as an Enterprise
member, but the indictment repeatedly cites her role in abetting McLaughlin's
nefarious schemes.
According to prosecutors, McLaughlin's chief of staff "performed highly
questionable tasks on McLaughlin's instruction, even when she didn't know
what his intentions were or why she was being asked to perform certain
tasks."
Those alleged tasks include:
* Signing time sheets for Washington in his sham Assembly post;
* Vouching for inaccurate time sheets that claimed Manno had worked
as much as 20 hours a week when he was, in fact, away on vacation with
his family;
* Relaying her boss' orders to have BelGiorno cash a $2,000 Clinton
Club check, which McLaughlin apparently used to buy a plasma screen TV
for a friend; and
* Handing over another Clinton Club check--this one for
$7,500--which the lawmaker reportedly used to make a $750 payment on
his rent in Albany before pocketing the remaining $6,750 in cash.
Shafran was also cited as being instrumental in abetting a pass through
scheme engineered by McLaughlin to funnel sham campaign contributions to two
City Council members, including Tony Avella, prosecutors said. The chief of
staff reportedly handed over a $2,000 check--drawn without authorization from
the Local 3 account--to Enterprise members who allegedly used the money to
reimburse union members' wives for writing $250 personal checks to the
candidates. Shafran did not return multiple calls for comment.
Avella insisted he was unaware of any wrongdoing when he accepted the
contributions during the 2005 general election. "No, I didn't know," he said
in an interview. "There was no way I could have known when so many people
were giving all these donations."
Asked if he would give the illicit funds back, the councilman said his
campaign staff had already done so--not because they discovered the money's
origin, but because they were required to reimburse the city for what he
called "surplus funds" that, under campaign finance law, exceeded election
spending limits. The sham contributions happened to be part of that surplus.
Similar claims of ignorance echoed throughout the Queens political
landscape last week. Elizabeth Crowley, a cousin of Congressman Joseph
Crowley and a political ally of McLaughlin, has been reported to be one of
three female friends with whom he had "a close personal relationship,"
according to the indictment. She denied knowledge of any wrongdoing by the
Assemblyman last week.
John Dorsa, who presided over the Clinton Democratic Club for part of the
time McLaughlin and BelGiorno were reportedly looting it, insisted he had no
inkling of the alleged scheme. "No comment," he said when reached by phone
last week. "All I know is what I'm reading in the papers."
Thomas Van Arsdale, 82, who resigned as head of Local 3 just a week before
McLaughlin was indicted, said he, too, never suspected the Assemblyman might
have been stealing behind his back. The lawmaker is accused of fleecing the
union for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if the allegations prove
true, Van Arsdale expects union leaders to seek restitution.
According to the retired union chief, McLaughlin's underlings were able to
operate with impunity in Local 3 for so long because the account they
allegedly pilfered was "a low priority account set up for picnics" and so
didn't fall within the purview of union authorities. Local 3 officials were
not very concerned with the actions of rank and file member and had vested
enough trust in McLaughlin to assume nothing was wrong, he said.
When asked if there were any warning signs, Van Arsdale said the union
received a few anonymous letters alluding to foul play, but the charges
weren't specific or damning enough to warrant concern.
When pressed as to why he never detected any possible corruption in his
years dealing with the Assemblyman, Van Arsdale replied sharply, "Look, have
you ever had a wife, or a child, or a brother that you trusted? Because if
so, you'd understand how this happened. We've had a man in our midst who
appears to have no conscience and we made a mistake in trusting him."
He added, "And, yes, I am disturbed by that."
McLaughlin is scheduled to appear before Judge Kenneth Karas in
Manhattan federal court on Thursday.
--Additional reporting by Liz Rhoades and Christopher Henderson
v...@p.com
Hevesi apologizes for 'bullet' comment
BY JAMES T. MADORE STAFF WRITER from Newsday.com June 2, 2006
State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who has been expected to cruise to
re-election, told an audience of thousands at Queens College yesterday
that U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer would "put a bullet between the
president's eyes if he could get away with it."
Hevesi apologized at a news conference several hours later, saying he
had chosen words that were "stupid and moronic" in an attempt to
convey his admiration for fellow Democrat Schumer's unflinching
criticism of President George W. Bush, a Republican. Hevesi said he
called Schumer to express his regrets.
The gaffe occurred early in Hevesi's comments, which were typically
unscripted, at a graduation ceremony. He followed Schumer, who
recalled how his life was changed after a long-ago breakup with a
girlfriend.
Hevesi said, "I shall carry with me the image of Senator Chuck Schumer
getting dumped at the airport. ... We really feel bad for poor Chuck
-- United States senator. The man who, uh, now how do I phrase this
diplomatically, will put a bullet between the President's eyes if, ah,
he could get away with it. The toughest senator, the best
representative. A great, great member of the Congress of the United
States."
The gaffe came a day after Hevesi received unanimous backing from the
state Democratic Party for a second term and suddenly spotlights what
has been a largely forgotten race. During his mostly nonpartisan
speech at the party's Buffalo convention, he said, "We are going to
murder the Republicans. We are going to do that because the people
want reform. ... "
Asked by Newsday about those remarks, Hevesi said he wasn't a violent
person. "There's no violence in my history," he said. "I don't own
guns, so I wish you'd put this in context."
At the Manhattan news conference, Hevesi apologized to Schumer, Bush
and Queens College/The City University of New York, which he attended
and where he taught for many years. "I made a remarkably stupid,
incredibly moronic, totally offensive statement in attempting to
compliment Chuck Schumer, and I am abjectly apologetic for the level
of stupidity which that comment reflected, and the offense it may have
given," he told reporters.
College officials declined comment. But people who witnessed Hevesi's
speech said the Bush comment received little reaction from the crowd
of about 10,000.
"There were no cheers or boos. There was no discernible reaction,"
said Jay Hershenson, a CUNY vice chancellor.
But one spectator, C.W. Post criminal justice professor Harvey Kushner
said, "As a citizen of this country I'm appalled that he would make a
remark like that about the president. To say that is beyond contempt."
Hevesi's apology should end the matter, said Schumer spokeswoman Risa
B. Heller. "Comptroller Hevesi was trying to make a point, he went too
far and it was inappropriate and wrong."
A White House spokeswoman did not return a telephone call seeking
comment.
At the State Republican convention at Hofstra University, Saratoga
County treasurer J. Christopher Callaghan, who was endorsed yesterday
as Hevesi's November opponent, expressed surprise and condemnation.
"It's disgusting to make any sort of reference in that regard," he
said. "It raises some serious questions about his judgment and about
his fitness for office."
Some political observers doubted Callaghan would gain from the fiasco.
Hevesi "popped off, which he shouldn't have done, and he apologized,"
said Maurice Carroll, of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute. "He's going
to win in a walk."
Staff writers Zachary Dowdy and Bryan Virasami contributed to this
story.
vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com
ORESKES.. Cuomo said that prayer was the best preparation for a nuclear
attack. He also urged everyone to read ''The Butter Battle Book'' by
Dr. Seuss for a clearer understanding of the issues.. According to
Lieut. Col. Marvin Shiro, a spokesman for the state's Office of Military and
Naval Affairs, 11 areas, including New York City, have been designated as
areas for evacuation plans. He said that only the Plattsburgh area had such a
plan. Colonel Shiro said the state was continuing to work on plans for the
other sites, except for New York City, where he said the City Council had
voted to refuse to cooperate. In 1982 the Council voted to reject a proposal
to develop plans for removing city residents upstate in the event of a
nuclear attack.
Civil defense plan adds to nuclear war debate March 1, 1982 CSM p7 Richard
L. Strout President Reagan wants to increase this year's civil defense budget
from $117 million to $252 million.. At home, Newsweek magazine says that
fallout shelters are "making a comeback."
CITY SAYS NO TO 'CRISIS RELOCATION' June 10, 1982 NYTimes A1 B20 LESLIE
BENNETTS The City Council yesterday rejected the Reagan Administration's
proposal for the development of a plan to remove New York City residents to
"host" areas upstate in the event of a nuclear attack.. Mayor Koch also
expressed his opposition to the Reagan plan, saying it would be "impossible
to evacuate in any timely, acceptable way." The resolution was specifically
limited to evacuation planning in the event of nuclear attack. However,
Federal officials cautioned that those funds would be difficult to extricate
from a larger program because as little as 10 percent of the $4.2 billion
might be used for nuclear evacuation as opposed to other disaster relief
efforts.. Inspector Robert Littlejohn of the New York Police Department's
Office of Civil Preparedness defended the concept of crisis relocation. "I
think you have to be prepared for an eventuality," he said.. Councilman
Robert J. Dryfoos, Democrat of Manhattan, criticized the entire idea as
"voodoo preparedness," comparing its efficacy to that of having school
children practice diving under desks during air-raid drills in the 1950's..
Since the mid-1970's, planners for New York State have been developing
relocation plans for 11 areas of the state, including New York City, but no
evacuation plan for the city has been officially adopted.
v...@p.com
October 17, 2000, Tuesday SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 35 POLITICS 2000
HEADLINE: GOV SAYS HIL AS BAD AS CUOMO Warns of threat to upstate
BYLINE: By EDWARD LEWINE in Buffalo and JOEL SIEGEL in Horseheads, N.Y. DAILY
NEWS STAFF WRITERS With Robert Gearty
HORSEHEADS, N.Y. - Gov. Pataki plunged into the Senate race yesterday,
charging that Hillary Rodham Clinton's economic proposals are so similar to
former Gov. Mario Cuomo's, "It's 1994 all over again."
Launching what aides say will be at least a half-dozen days of aggressive
campaigning with Rick Lazio, the Republican governor warned that Clinton's
election as senator would return upstate to the economic suffering it knew
under Cuomo.
"When you take a look at Mrs. Clinton, when you think of her policies,
it's Mario Cuomo redux," Pataki said at a rally in Buffalo. In Syracuse, he
said, "We 're not going to turn back to Cuomonomics or Hillarynomics."
Lazio added, "We are not going back to the old ways, the old Cuomo ways."
It was a new line of attack, which tries to exploit Pataki's high approval
ratings upstate and Cuomo's lingering unpopularity in the region.
The Washington Post
July 25, 1984, Wednesday, Final Edition
SECTION: First Section; Op-Ed; A17
HEADLINE: Mario Cuomo, Artful Arranger
BYLINE: David S. Broder
Before you file the Democratic National Convention away, pause a moment to
admire one of the most artful bits of political positioning you will ever see.
Consider, please, the work of New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, one of the most
artful manipulators since Machiavelli.
That is not an idle comparison. Professor George H. Sabine wrote that the
16th-century royal counselor had "the shrewdest insight into points of weakness
and strength in a political situation . . . the most objective estimate of the
limitations of a policy, the soundest common sense in forecasting the logic of
events. . . ." All that may be said of Mario Cuomo.
He started with a realistic appraisal of the main factor in 1984
Democratic politics -- Walter Mondale. He knew that during the 1982 New York
gubernatorial primary, Mondale ignored his debt to Cuomo for his help as the
1980 New York chairman of the Carter-Mondale ticket and sidled up to New York
City Mayor Ed Koch, the favorite for nomination until Cuomo upset him. That
memory defined the limit of his own moral obligation to Mondale.
Yet his judgment told Cuomo that Mondale was the man with whom he should
make alliance. He did so early -- and in a way sure to attract attention to
himself. In conversations with reporters in September 1983, he suggested
that Mondale was mishandling the challenge of Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, his
most serious opponent, by not criticizing Glenn's early support for
Reaganomics.
Then, in questions he put to Glenn and Mondale at the candidate forums he
had organized, Cuomo pushed the two men into debate, and used their responses
as the rationale for endorsing Mondale.
When Gary Hart replaced Glenn as the main threat to Mondale, Cuomo again
intervened, taking personal responsibility for the Mondale effort in the vital
April New York primary. When Mondale trounced Hart in New York, Cuomo was
stamped as a kingmaker.
But that is where he wanted it to stop. He did not want to be on the ticket
in 1984, a year when common sense dictated that Ronald Reagan would be hard to
beat. To forestall any move by the party power brokers to draft the eloquent
governor of New York to head the ticket, Cuomo had spent two years hiding his
light under a bushel, refusing almost all out-of-state political invitations.
The result was that when reporters like myself wrote that the Democrats
had in Cuomo a man of Reaganesque television skills, a man who could reduce
complex propositions to unforgettable and emotionally charged anecdotes, they
responded, "Boy, he sounds great. But we've never seen him."
But it was going to be more difficult to forestall Mondale's desire to
draft Cuomo as a running mate. Cuomo first put him off by talking of his
pledge to New York voters in 1982 to serve out a full four-year term. But
when Mondale asked him to give the keynote address, Cuomo understood that he
was being set up: the better the speech Cuomo gave, the stronger would be the
Mondale-aided movement among the delegates to draft him for vice president.
In order to stay off the 1984 ticket, Cuomo needed a way to force Mondale
to declare his running mate before the convention -- something no
non-incumbent nominee had ever done. Mondale provided the opening when he
opted for a lengthy set of interviews with vice-presidential hopefuls. Cuomo,
of course, stayed aloof from this exercise. When he met with Mondale on July
5 in Boston -- ostensibly to discuss the keynote speech -- he reaffirmed his
own unavailability.
In Boston, Cuomo publicly urged Mondale to announce his choice before the
convention opened. In private, he reportedly underlined that advice by
telling Mondale that the process had turned into a public-relations disaster,
making himlook weak and indecisive, and that Mondale had to end it. When
Mondale seemed hesitant, Cuomo, according to this account, made his
recommendation specific: Pick Geraldine Ferraro and announce her. Within a
week, Mondale did just that, telling Cuomo over the phone, according to Cuomo
aides, "I'm doing what you said."
On keynote night, uninhibited by any fears of a Mondale-led draft for the
No. 2 job, Cuomo delivered a speech that dazzled the delegates and the
national audience. Instantly, the hall filled with talk that "we're running
the wrong man." But before it could take hold, Cuomo had fled back to New
York, leaving the 1984 stage to Mondale and Ferraro. Somehow, a supply of
"Cuomo in '88" buttons appeared, and became instant best-sellers.
An observer might think that Cuomo now enjoys the best of all worlds. He
has a claim on the loyalty of the man who will be titular leader of the
Democratic Party for the next four years, but not a 1988 candidate for
president unless he is the incumbent. He has helped elevate a running mate
who boosts the ticket but is not herself, at this point, a plausible 1988
presidential contender. And he has given the Democrats of the country a
delicious taste of the talent he might bring at the head of that 1988 ticket
himself.
To all of which speculation, Cuomo said the other evening, "You're wrong.
Mondale is going to win. And I'm going to end up where I want, as a New York
judge."
That comment does not do Cuomo justice. It makes him sound less like
Machiavelli and more like Pinocchio. And he really is Machiavelli.
Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA)
April 2, 1985, Tuesday
SECTION: News in Brief; Pg. 2
HEADLINE: Lack of budget ties up New York State public funds
DATELINE: Albany, N.Y.
New York State government lost its legal authority to spend its treasury
funds Sunday night when its fiscal year ended without a new state budget
being adopted. Gov. Mario Cuomo and state legislature leaders insist it will
only be a few days before a new budget is in place. They are trying to reach
final agreement on a new spending plan expected total more than $39 billion.
vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com
p16 coalition in the city elections of 1901: Seth Low, was the "Fusion"
candidate of Republicans, the independents, and the reformers had
rediscovered the tripartite formula for their successful participation in the
city's political contest - state legislative investigation, charter revision
from Albany, and Fusion in the city election
p19 growth of the city was further encouraged by the opening of the Erie
Barge Canal in 1825, since this permitted shipping goods in bulk relatively
quickly and cheaply between the interior and the East. The Appalachian
Mountain range was for decades a towering barrier blocking land
communications with other ports, which meant that when railroads came, rail
service in and out of New York on the water-level route paralleling the
Hudson-Mohawk and the Erie Canal system also enjoyed a competitive advantage
p21 fourty thousand manufacturing establishements, with the largest
factory work force in any American city (nearly a million industrial workers)
and the largest manufacturing payroll (close to $3 billion a year). The
garment industry is the dominant one, but printing and publishing are also huge
p51 city sales tax (the chief money maker for the city government after
the property tax, although first adopted in 1934 as a "temporary, emergency"
measure for the relief of the unemployed) has been tripled in rate in a
generation
p59 maneuvers on the part of one group to procure municipal services
precipitates countermeasures by opposed factions, and political battle is
joined. Therein lies a partial explanation of the unsymmetrical, sometime
sillogical, pattern of city functions
p75 Indeed, it was even customary, during the depression decade, for
eligibles - those who had passed civil service examinations and were
registered on civil service eligible lists - to form numerous separate
associations to promote their interests. In many of the larger agencies there
are also religious fraternities - Catholic Holy Name Societies, Protestant St
George Societies, Jewish Shomrin Societies - made up of employees of the same
faith. These, too, often have political goals
p80 Twenty-five years ago [Gvt by Ppl 1933 pp240-5] Denis Brogan, an
English observer of the American political scene, noted the importance of
what he called "the three B's" - betting, booze, and brothels - in state and
local politcts in this country.. business racketeering and labor
racketeering. The "business" groups often assume the guise of associations of
the kind that regulate conditions in an industry both economically and
politically, Under this protective coloration, some alleged business
associations have taken to providing "services" for their members, which
often means nothing more than that they will refrain from committing violence
upon their victims if the victims join the association and contribute
regularly to it. In the same fashion the "labor" gangs often disguised as
unions threaten work stoppages and violence in order to exact tribute from
employers
p109 alternative to formal rules is the slow growth of custom, but in a
time of rapid change the contestants cannot wait for the slower process of
informal adjustment and accomodation. This is perhaps the basic condition
which now accelerates the transition from custom to formality that has long
been underway in the city and other governments. There have been at least
four special sources of this long-term trend: distrust of men in government
and parties; strict judicial cinstruction of the powers of municipal
corporations; strategic and tactical advantages of formalization; and the
requirements of technology
p124 The number of registrants invariably reached its peak in presidential
years, dropped to about two thirds of this maximum in mayoral and
gubenatorial years, and dropped to less that one half of the
presidential-year figures in the odd years immediately preceding presidential
elections, when almost the only offices to be filled were judicial
p127 Enrollement, however, is not a reliable index of part strength in
elections. Consistently a far smaller number of the voters in any election in
New York City cast Democratic ballots than enroll in the Democratic party
p129 may one day seek favors from the government through political
channels is likely to be strengthened if he makes his demand as a member of
the party in power
p135 Assembly districts have long been the smallest political subdivisions
in the state in which there are contests for elective office. At one time the
wards in New York City (abolished with the adoption of the charter in 1936)
of the old Board of Aldermen (supplanted by the City Council in 1936) were
perhaps slightly smaller, but not significantly so. Assembly DIstricts could
thus be easily managed from a political clubhouse (described below) and were
thus highly convenient units for party organization. Another factor
underlying the development of the Assembly District as a unit of party
representation is that until 1938 state assemblymen were elected annually..
Richard Croker became the leader of Tammany Hall.. convenient to delegate or
surrender to his District Leaders power over all th emunicipal offices in
their districts.. male Captain and a female cocaptain in each Election
District.. called upon by the constituents of their respective parties to get
favors of a personal nature.. establish personal liaison with as many voters
as possible
p139 Democrats in Queens have had internal factional struggles for their
county leadership. And in a brief but bitter struggle, the self-selected
candidate to succeed Thomas Curran, long-time Republican leader in Manhattan
who died in 1958, was defeated
p151 Wilson-Pakula Law, for example, requiring the assent of county
executive committees to allow candidates of one party to be nominated by
another party as well, was enacted by agreemnt to block Congressman Vito
Marcantonio of the American Labor party, whose supporters penetrated both
major parties in his district and prevented those parties from putting up
candidates to oppose him. When the parties differ on the Election Law, they
usually manage to work out some compromise, although the Republicans, who
occasionally capture both houses of the state legislature and even the
governorship as well, can sometime override Democratic opposition. Even then,
however, they often find some basis of agreement because the Democrats could
raise such a hue and cry about alleged violations of the sanctity of the
two-party system that the Republicans would be embarassed. When the Democrats
hold the governorship, they have no trouble blocking changes in the Election
Law proposed by the Republican legislative majority
p159 To strenthen their hand in negotiations, th eLiberals often nominate
candidates of their own, then have these candidates withdraw if they are
satisfied with the results of their threat to make an independent stand, and
have their party committees endorse the major-party candidates who are
aceptable to them. In 1956, for example, 52 Liberal candidates withdrew from
the election and were replaced by Democrats, whose names withdrew from the
election and party lines on the voting machines
p160 Democrats, on the other hand, are somewhat more intimately associated
with labor leaders in the city, but the Republican party sometimes gets
important labor support, particularly from some of the craft unions. The
Liberal party receives its chief financial support and leadership from the
International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, and its policies and strategies
are hardly distinguishable from those of the union
p176 It is a good year for the Republicans in New York City when they can
send as many as a dozen assemblymen and seven or eight senators to Albany.
Still more striking is the degree of Democratic domination of the City
Council.. Proportional representation was abandoned after the 1945 election..
Democrats have recovered their old crushing majority; 24 of the 25 councilmen
elected in 1949 ran on the Democratic ticket, 23 in 1953, and 24 in 1957
p179 bargain with the enemy in order to weaken his grass-roots offensive.
When such deals are made, wor dis passed through the ranks of the minority
party that their is no enthusiasm in th eparty leadership for specified
candidates and he campiagn for them never gets out of low gear.. joint
nomination.. especially for judgeships and district attorneyships
p187 1936, when the leader sof the garment worker's unions rejected the
admonition of Samuel Gompers to stay clear of political parties and decided
to organize the American Labor party, either the ALP or Liberals (led by
labor leaders who opposed the left-wing ALP leadership and broke away in 1944
to establish their own political organization).. In 1948, if the heavy ALP
vote for Henry A Wallace had gone to Harry S Truman, the Republicans would
not have taken the state
p234 The department head who wishes to expand his field of choice when he
appoints a bureau chief must thus be inventive, patient, and persistent. One
method to which he may resort is to reorganize his department, creating new
bureaus or redefining the functions of existing bureaus. He may thus argue
that new qualifications are required for bureau chiefs, enlarging the number
and types of competitors who may take the examination. Another method
sometimes used by a department head is to propose the transfer of an elegible
civil servant from another bureau or department, appointing him as bureau
chief with the consent of the city's Personnel Department. Still another
method is to persuade the Personnel Department that a simultaneous "open
competitive" and "promotion" examination should be held, hoping that higher
standards of examining and wider competition will enlarge his field of
choice; or the department head may petition successfully for an open
competitive examination only, arguing that there is not sufficient
competition within the ranks to justify a closed promotion examination. All
these efforts tend to yield narrow gains in freedom of choice by the
department head. He is more fortunate if he has an opportunity to appoint a
"provisional" bureau chief as his own choice while the examination process is
under way. There is some chance that the provisional appointee may be
allowed to compete and thus become eligible for regular appointment, and the
department head will at least have had his choice in office for a time
p263 The configuration of claimants on each side of every controversy is
often composed of quite disparate groups. On birth control questions, for
example, Protestant and Jewish groups may be joined with medical associations
and welfare groups, as well as with planned parenthood organizations. On the
handling of child welfare cases, a professional society of social workers was
at odds with Catholic groups. Increase of governmental medical services for
the public may be backed by the American Public Health Association, yet
opposed by medical societies. Traffic and parking regulations may set bus
companies and truckers and taxicab operators and garage owners and the
American Automobile Association against each other, and may possibly arouse
businessmen in the areas affected. Neighborhood groups threatened with
displacement by new roadways or civic improvements may battle with all their
strength against planning and motorist and cultural groups. The divisions are
not always neat and symmetrical. Any combination of elements, including
parts of the bureaucracies involved, may form to support or oppose an agency
on any question
p283 The architects of these arrangements, including the school officials
and the religious group leaders, presumably anticipate peace and equillibrium
as a consequence of this controlled competition.. 54 local boards, each
conssting of 5 unsalaried members, appointed by the Borough Presidents (14
boards in Manhattan, 10 in The Bronx, 20 in Brooklyn, 8 in Queens, and 2 in
Richmond). Through these local boards, whose formal responsibilities are
ambiguous, the Borough Presidents, the Assembly District leaders, assemblymen
and councilmen, parent groups, local religious and patriotic groups, and
other local interests find opportunities to influence assistant
superintendents
p297 The instability of the Traffc Department's relations to other agencies
led Mayor Wagner in 1955 to establish an Interdepartmental Traffic Council,
its seven members being the Traffic Commissioner, the Police Commissioner,
the Sanitation Commissioner, the City Administrator, an assistant to the
Mayor, and two members of the City Council. Its history has not demonstrated
that it can solve the Traffic Commissioner's major dilemmas. For example, one
of its conclusions in 1957 was the alleviation of traffic congestion in the
garment district should be regarded as a part of a comprehensive plan for the
whole area, embracing land use, zoning, building rehabilitation, new
constrution, as well as traffic flow, methods of loading and unloading, and
parking, a long-range task assigned prayefully by the Traffic Council to the
City Planning Commission. Meanwhile, the Traffic Commisioner must wait
p321 Port of New York Authority.. extending roughly 20 miles in every
direction from the Statue of Liberty. Established in 1921 by a compact between
the states.. free many of the region's piers used by the railroads for world
shipping.. In 1928, it opened two bridges between Staten Island and New
Jersey. In 1931, it opened a third such bridge, acquired the Holland Tunnel
(which had been built earlier by a different interstate body), and finished
the George Washington Bridge. In 1932, it opened a Union Inland Freight
Terminal in Manhattan, for handling less-than-carload freight and
transferring much trucking congestion away from the crowded waterfront. In
1938, the first tube of the Lincoln Tunnel
p391 over the design of buildings, bridges, dockes, and other structures
on public lands; and over the maintenance of monuments, sculpture, and
paintings.. But the [Art] Commission must act within sixty days after
submission or its consent is not necessary.. articulate constituency: the
Fine Arts Federation.. What the Commission cannot inspect, it cannot
disapprove; one battle over a disapproval will consume its resources for weeks
p406 first aim of the leaders of the city's bureaucracies, in seeking
autonomy, is to minimize the burden of supervision they receive from other
participants.. most important strategic method is to secure wide acceptance
of am inviolate status, a taboo against "political interference" or the
intervention of "special interests".. conscious of their experience and
knowledge in their specialized fields, and they are aware that they will
probably bear the brunt of error while others claim the credit for their
success. Their leaders regard as necessary the protection of their group
values and their settled traditions against the enthusiasm and whims of
"amateurs" or "innovators"
p407 opportunities for "outside" intervention do arise, as when the courts
invalidate an existing procedure and prescribe a new one, or when
technological progress compels an important change in picture..
bureaucracies tend to absorb them reluctantly and slowly, modifying them if
possible to fit into going procedures with the least change in settled
habits.. rhetoric often has an imperialistic sound, their tactics are
sometimes aggressive and turbulent, but their concrete goals remain
conservative
p413 "promotion from within".. amount of "new blood" that the city
bureaucracies must absorb is minimal, and practically all of it is at the
lowest ranks
p423 Teachers' Union of New York City became Local 5 of the American
Federation of Teachers, AFL. In 1935 the Teachers' Guild was organized by an
insurgent group in protest against the left-wing ties of the teachers' Union,
and in 1941, upon the expulsion of the latter from the AFT, the Guild became
the AFL affiliate. Neither the Union nor the Guild, nor the two together,
ever commanded a majority membership among teachers, although they have
provided much of the militancy and strategy to the whole array of teachers'
groups
p455 Democratic part leaders were for many years successful in preventing
centralization of a number of city functions originally located in county and
borough offices. Not until the administration of Fiorello La Guardia was it
possibel to establish one city Department of Parks, a single city Sheriff
(under the merit system), and integrated Department of Public Works, and a
single City Register, for the division of these operations among the five
subdivisions of the city provided the county party organizations with
generous numbers of jobs and other rewards. Indeed, despite the centralizing
achievements of the La Guardia period, the borough offices remain, a New York
Post survey recently revealed, centers of patronage and preserves of the
parties able, because of the party leader interest in them, to stand off all
attempts at official investigation, reorganization, and reform
p489 William Randolph Hearst, for instance, was reportedly invited by
Charles F Murphy, then head of Tammany hall, to pick the Democratic mayoral
candidate in 1917 so that Tammany could be sure of haning the Hearst papers
on his side. Hearst had earlier utulized his newpapers to secure his
ownnomination and election to Congress, and then his nomination for mayor,
and finally his nomination for governor. Joseph Pulitzer and Roy Howard were
also "kingmakers"
p497 1882, when the City Reform Club.. John Jay Chapin, his cousin William
Jay Schieffelin, Richard Welling, and Theodore Roosevelt.. Good Government
Clubs (dubbed "Goo Goos" by the regular party leaders) which played a
considerable role in the 1894 election of reform Mayor William L Strong. The
founding of the Citizens Union in 1897 was primarily an act of the City
Club's leaders (Cutting, Welling, Schieffelin, Kelly, Elihu Root.. Carl
Schurz, Nicholas Murray Butler, Jacob Schiff, and J pierpot Morgan. The Union
thus began its life as a municipal political party,establishing for that
purpose district clubs.. first candidate for Mayor, Seth Low in 1897, was
defeated because Republicans refused to join a Fusion movement, but in 1901
Low was elected with joint Citizens Union and Republican support. Thereafter
the Union's role as a municipal political part began to decline.. When the
vestigial district organizations were finally liquidated in 1918
p505 Citisens Budget Commission, established in June, 1932, had its origin
in the city's financial crisis of that year.. to participate in decisions
concerning the city's financial rescue.. "focus citizen activities on th
epoint where spending originates".. Trustees in 1932 included Peter Grimm
(president of the Real Estate Board of New York, 1927-1931, as well as
long-time president of William A White and Sons, one of the city's largest
real estate firms), Henry Bruere (president of the Bowery Savings Bank),
Lewis E Pierson (Irving Trust Company), WIlliam Church Osborn (a leading
attorney), Raymond B Fosdick (like Bruere, a former commissioner of the
Mitchel administration), Thomas J Watson (president of the Merchants
Association)
p510 [Central Trades and Labor] Council has played no important in the
leadership of the Liberal party established in 1944, although some of the
Council's member unions joined with some CIO unions in launching that
party. The Council has preferred instead to rely upon its traditional pattern
of close affiliation with the leaders of the city's majority party. Whether
this tradition will be modified as one of the consequences of the pending
merger with CIO unions into a new AFL-CIO Council is uncertain, but the
persistence of the long-established pattern is suggested by the 1957 choice
of a building trades union leader - Harry Van Arsdale, of the Electrical
Workers - to succeed Lacey as Council president and presumably to head the
merged organization whe it is formally established in 1959
p523 The criminal courts, listed in ascending order according to the
severity of the maximum penalties they may impose, are the Magistrates'
Court, the Court of Special [General in Manhattan] Sessions, and the County
Courts. The civil courts, arranged in ascending order according to the
authorized maximum dollar amounts of claimed damages they may handle, are the
mUnicipal Court, the City Court, the Trial and Special "Terms" (divisions) of
the Supreme Court, which also possesses, but rarely exercises, jurisdiction
in criminal cases. The special courts are the Surrogates' Court, for wills,
estates, adoptions, and guardianships, and the Domestic Relations Court of
the City of New York
p542 A man who wants to be a judge must normally be a party insider, and,
in addition, must be prepared in many cases to donate substantial sums of
money to the organization of the appropriate party leader whose influence
will be the chief factor in his nomination for appointment or election. This
practice obtains even when the aspirant has worked long and hard for his
party and is well qualified for the post. And he is expected, once in office,
to contribute generously to his party in its fund-raising campaigns. Some
District Leaders can apparently extract as much as a year's salary plus an
additional "campaign fund" of several thousand dollars
p615 [City Council] With the minority now reduced to one Republican, or
two at most.. Minority Leader, Stanley M Isaacs, an experienced, informed,
persistent politician, keeps a spotlight of publicity on Democratic policies
and maneuvers. Though he cannot block them on the floor, his success in
raising the hue and cry has probably deterred or altered many measures that
might well have passed routinely and in obscurity
p628 In these three fields of formal powers - the enactment of local
laws, the expanse budget, the capital budget - the Boardof Estimate has the
dominant role
p629 The Mayor introduces the budget and the Council ratifies it after the
board is finished with its initial transformation of the Mayor's budget, but
thereafter the Board (aided by its trusted agent, the Budget Director) is
undisputed master of the expense budget's many changes during the fiscal
year.. Board of Estimate supervises the "assessable improvements" system of
the city, the Board's CHief Engineer approving those costing less than
$10,000, the Board itself acting upon all other proposals of Local
Improvement Boards in each Borough or taking the initiative itself
p681 Most of the 36 nominees for Mayor have been lawyers: this was the
case for 28, or three fourths of all nominees. Eight have not been lawyers:
Low, Hearst, Waterman, Thomas, Pounds, Corsi, McAvoy, and Christenberry. Of
the eight nonlawyers, five have been Republican nominees, three have been the
candidates of third parties
p683 36 nominees for the Mayoralty may be described as follws: 14 would
seem to belong to the Irish group (including Robert F Wagner, who was the son
of a German Methodist father and an Irish Catholic mother, himself a
Catholic married to a Protestant, and his children Catholic, is a delight to
both ticket-balancers and electorates); 12 to "old stock" ethnic groups
(British and Dutch primarily); 5 to the Jewish group (which by the logic of
politics is both a religious and an ethnic group); and 5 to the Italian group
(including Fiorello H La Guardia, who as an Italian Protestant with Jewish
[mother] ancestors plus multilingual capabilites was almost a "balanced
ticket" in himself)
p689 Six Mayors have been reelected, La Guardia winning three
terms. McClelan, Hylan, Walker, O'Dwyer, and Wagner (all Democratic nominees)
were twice elected. Low and mitchel, although renominated, faile dof
reelection. The city's electorates have chosen seven Catholics and five
Protestants as Mayors. The first four Mayors (Van Wyck, Low, McClellan,
Gaynor) were Protestants. The first Catholic Mayor was Mitchel, a Republican
and Fusion nominee; La Guardia was the only subsequent Protestant
Mayor.. sixty-year period since 1897. The four years of Van Wyck, the two
years of McClellans's first term, the seven years of Walker, the one year of
O'Brien - fourteen years in total - may be described as Tammany years. This
span of years is exceeded by the eighteen years of Fusion Mayors: Low, two
years; Mitchel, four years; La Guardia, twelve years
p697 office of Mayor is the end of a career, not an office which leads to
higher posts. The office uses up the man. Wagner's 1956 nomination for the
Unites States Senate was the first break in a sixty-year tradition which has
inexorably consigned Mayors to comparative obscurity after
p713 Bargaining and accomodation are equally characteristic of the
relations between one core group plus its satellites and other core groups
with their satellites.. core groups themselves do not exhibit solid internal
unity; each is in many respects a microcosm of the entire system
p719 Since each decision center in the city's government and politics has
attained a high degree of self-containment, the problem of exerting popular
control over them has been complicated. For one thing, it is difficult to
assign responsibility for unpopular policies. For another, and more
importantly, the capacity of these many separate centers to maintain their
essential autonomy, to outwit efforts to supervise them from outside each
center itself, or to adulterate the effects of such efforts
vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com
Tom Robbins July 26, 2006 villagevoice.com But according to Suozzi,
Spitzer threw a royal tantrum over the presence of the multi-tabbed book of
talking points, threatening to walk out on the debate then and there if it
wasn't removed. "He got very hostile. He was really yelling," Suozzi told
reporters later. Suozzi was still marveling at what he insisted had been his
rival's over-reaction when he walked over to a Beekman Street pub crowded
with supporters where he stood on a chair to address his troops. "He was
really freaking out," said a clearly delighted Suozzi.
The following five quotations are from Alec Flegon's Dictionary of English
Sex Quotations (London: Flegon Press, 1996): L.D. Brown, a member of
Clinton's former security staff and bodyguard in Arkansas, stated that
Hillary is "as foul-mouthed as any sailor you'd ever meet." (p. 147) As
reported by Bill's security staff, Hillary frequently erupted in
expletive-filled tirades against him. "I can't believe you would ask a
f***ing question like that!" Or, about his shaky driving, "You're gonna get
us f***ing killed!" (p. 147) Hillary to Larry Patterson, an Arkansas state
trooper and Clinton bodyguard from 1986 to 1993, who was bringing a judge's
wife to the Little Rock airport: "What the f*** do you think you're doing? I
know who that whore is." (p. 171)
LESLIE EATON NY Times October 27, 2006 During almost three decades in the
public eye, Andrew M. Cuomo has attracted a lot of adjectives. Smart,
sure. But also abrasive, ambitious, argumentative, arrogant, autocratic..
The primal scream emitted by Howard Dean following his third-place finish
in Iowa dubbed the "I Have A Scream" speech has quickly gained cult-like
status on the Web
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/multimedia/v/deanscreamvideo.htm