Winners & Losers 4/29/16

Is anyone ever 100 percent a winner? Or if you’re, say, a 12 percent loser, should you even make this list? As always, we present the week’s Winners & Losers, but we’ll leave it to our wise readers to determine the final percentages.

WINNERS

Bill Bratton & Preet Bharara – While Bharara has been stamping out corruption and Bratton improving police-community relations, there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned gang bust to grab the tabloid headlines. And the biggest gang bust in New York City history, with 87 suspects from two warring Bronx gangs charged, definitely gets the headline writers at the Post and Daily News salivating.

Jim Dwyer – The Gray Lady’s investigation into low wages and working conditions for nail salon workers got results last year, but the Times’ Dwyer may have surpassed that effort with his recent coverage of delays to New York City’s Water Tunnel No. 3. The de Blasio administration quickly reversed course, scrounging up $305 million a day after Dwyer’s story hit the newsstands. This week, Dwyer’s take on the holes in the state’s investigation into de Blasio is putting pressure on state Board of Elections Chief Enforcement Officer Risa Sugarman to explain her selective investigation process.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – While many people pushed to block the controversial Constitution Pipeline, perhaps the most visible opponent was a member of one of America’s most prominent political dynasties. Kennedy headlined a protest earlier this month against the pipeline, which would have carried natural gas from Pennsylvania into New York. This week the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced it had found the pipeline application insufficient. Kennedy is no doubt a skilled organizer and activist, but it probably didn’t hurt that Gov. Andrew Cuomo was, at one point, an in-law.

Bill Larkin – It looks like the 88-year-old state senator will have a much easier re-election after a potential Democratic challenger, Assemblyman James Skoufis, declined to run against him. Larkin has served in the state Legislature since 1979, causing us to wonder: What’s the world record for the oldest elected official?

Eric Schneiderman – The AG fought for the people this week, notching wins against some of the institutions that everyone seems to hate. The ticket re-sellerswho outgun John and Jane Showgoer for Beyoncé tickets. Health insurance companies stingy in their hepatitis C drug coverage. An antiquated Board of Elections that could do more to move voter registration online. Plus, he’s taking on Rensselaer County D.A. Joel Abelove, who seems to have undercut Schneiderman’s authority to investigate deaths at the hands of police. Oh, and we are awaiting the Donald taking the stand to defend Trump University in court.

LOSERS

Bill de Blasio – The mayor fled from the press twice this week: climbing into his car as reporters trailed him Monday and leaving a scrum Thursday while peppered with questions about his allies’ fundraising and subpoenas issued to his office and inner circle. The mayor has also limited questions while trying to focus on his budget proposal, but that was overshadowed by a plan for the struggling municipal hospital system that critics described as “magical thinking.” Additionally, his legal department filed court papers backing a group looking to build a nursing home on toxic land against parents’ wishes. And it came out that top administrative officials knew about a controversial move to lift restrictions on a Lower East Side property and frantically sought to reverse it before the scandal broke.

Joe Percoco – The former Cuomo aide prefers it when he’s not mentioned in the news at all – so he can’t be happy with the negative press he’s getting this week. First, a Wall Street Journal article raised questions about potential conflicts of interest with his ongoing role in the Cuomo administration despite his new private sector role. Then, he got dragged into the ongoing de Blasio fundraising scandal. Maybe it’s time to actually pass the reins to someone else.

James Sampson – The sitting president of the Buffalo School Board failed to get 500 valid signatures to secure his place on the ballot in next week’s election. Yes, school board voter turnout is embarrassingly anemic in the city, but come on! More than 260,000 people live in the city, 140,00 of them eligible voters, and you can’t get 500 valid signatures? Even worse, Sampson grabbed his West District seat in 2013 by getting his predecessor, Ralph Hernandez, kicked off the ballot in a similar fashion. How do you not see that coming?

Risa Sugarman – The state Board of Elections’ chief enforcement official caused quite a stir when her report recommending prosecution for the de Blasio team was leaked. But you better have your affairs in order if you’re going to accuse the mayor of “willful and flagrant” violations of the law. Now, skeptics are asking why this is a big deal now when it’s been a common practice. Why wasn’t the governor’s top aide included in her referral, when he had been in on it, too? And why were similar money-moving actions by the Cuomo-controlled State Democratic Committee left out? We’re not saying the report isn’t valid, but it has Sugarman’s boss’s gubernatorial fingerprints all over it.

Emma Wolfe, Ross Offinger & Jonathan Rosen – Maybe it will all blow over. Or maybe de Blasio will find himself out of a job – or worse. Whatever happens, it’s no small matter to receive subpoenas in connection with a probe into the mayor’s fundraising. That’s what happened to Wolfe, de Blasio’s intergovernmental affairs director, top fundraiser Ross Offinger, and BerlinRosen, a firm run by de Blasio’s close associate Jonathan Rosen. The worst part? For all their troubles, they didn’t even secure a Democratic Senate majority back in 2014.