Winners & Losers 07/15/16

It’s been a tough week for many New Yorkers and a vacation sounds great. Which may be why the Mayor is once again returning to his ancestral homeland and New York Republicans are either heading to Cleveland or running the other direction fast. Even many of those sticking around are taking staycations with the help of Pokemon Go. Check out our Winners & Losers list to see who will be taking off on a high note and who needs to get out of town.

WINNERS

Bill Bratton – New York City’s top cop was showered with respect from all corners of the city this week. Even when Bratton’s comments raised eyebrows, such as him saying Black Lives Matters protesters’ accomplish nothing and simply yell and scream, the mayor came to his defense, responding by saying he disagreed, but, nonetheless, believed he and Bratton think so much alike that they’re virtually telepathic. On the Council side, the speaker brokered a compromise with the administration and effectively thwarted votes on the Right to Know Act reviled by Bratton as an unprecedented intrusion into his department. Oh, and, the general public was pleased to see shootings hit a historic low over the past six months.

John Flanagan - The battle for control of the state senate may still have Flanagan stressing, but at least his party’s fundraising numbers shouldn’t be giving him too much of a headache. The state Senate GOP has $3.4 million on hand four months from November, more than quadruple what their counterparts in the Democratic party have. And with Gov. Andrew Cuomo appearing to only be giving lukewarm support at best to Democratic candidates, Flanagan couldn’t have asked for a much better summer election season.

Beth Mooney – The president of KeyBank has plenty to celebrate this week, as the Federal Reserve gave final approval to the banking giant’s merger with Western New York’s First Niagara Financial Group. The approval marks one of the final steps in moving the merger forward after a long and arduous process.

Zephyr Teachout - Though Cuomo tried a verbal version of the old “I can’t see you" routine by not saying her name, “the Democratic nominee for Congress in that district” got the endorsement from the most powerful democrat in the state.  Gamechanger! …OK maybe not, but any support will help in tight close race for NY-19.

Howard Zucker - The Cuomo administration and its health chief have donea lotto support HIV-positive New Yorkers and end the AIDS epidemic and now seeing results. New numbers from the Department of Health show new HIV diagnoses have reached their lowest point since the state started tracking 15 years ago. And with PrEP use growing and more state support coming, those numbers should keep on tracking downward.

LOSERS

Jose Armas – Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is charging Armas’s Armor Correctional Health Services for defrauding taxpayers and failing to provide adequate medical services, including medication, mental health services and hospital treatment at the Nassau County Correctional Facility, where 12 inmates have died since the company was first contracted in 2011.

Wayne Isaacs – Even if he is eventually cleared, the three-year NYPD veteran’s life has changed forever after video footage has raised questions about whether his shooting of Delrawn Small was justified. Isaacs says Small punched him at least twice before the off-duty officer fatally shot the Small, but mayor De Blasio called the video “disturbing,” and said it’s hard to make out exactly what happened. Now the state attorney general is investigating, and many are waiting to see what he concludes.

Eric Schneiderman – It may have been politically motivated, but it still isn’t fun getting subpoenaed by Congress. The attorney general is going to have to give testimony in front of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee in regards to the multi-state probe of Exxon Mobil and whether the company lied about its knowledge of climate change’s effects, and while nothing will most likely come of the testimony, it can’t be the way Schneiderman had planned to go to Washington.

Robert Williams – What kind of villain tries to stop something as cute and kind-hearted as rubber duck races for charity? Well, Williams and his state gaming commission did just that, ruling earlier this summer that the “game of chance” cannot be conducted on state property, in this case the Erie Canal.  Luckily the agency had a change of heart after state Sen. Rob Ortt called for the practice to be allowed at his native North Tonawanda’s Canal Festival and Gov. Andrew Cuomo obliged.

Howard Zemsky – As if the head of the state’s economic development agency didn’t have enough to deal with, as the feds continue to look into the distribution of money on projects throughout upstate, Zemsky is now under the microscope for Empire State Development’s follow up on promises made by developers receiving state assistance as part of the state’s Excelsior Jobs Program, as a result of an audit from state Comptroller Tom Dinapoli’s office. Zemky, a well-respected Buffalo developer who came to the position with much fanfare, must be wondering if he made the right move.