Winners & Losers 7/8/16

How do you know who’s the top dog? See who can eat the most hot dogs! With Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio still squabbling like schoolkids well into the summer, can they settle it once and for all with a good old-fashioned Coney Island weiner-eating contest? If they don’t show, you can just sit back, grab the ketchup and mustard and polish off this week’s Winners & Losers.

WINNERS

John Flanagan – The state Senate majority leader raked in somewhere between $100,000 to $150,000 in outside income at his law firm last year, and he didn’t even have to do any “active legal work.” That’s a pretty nifty trick for the Republican lawmaker, who kept the cash flowing even though he said he’d step away from the firm when he took over as majority leader last year.

Steve McLaughlin – It might only be happening because of Cuomo’s clash with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie over daycare regulations, but the GOP lawmaker is going to finally get his legislative hearings on the Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh water contamination crises, with dates expected in early September. Now, the reps for those communities who were against the hearings better watch out for McLaughlin and others from the area, who will be out for blood (cough, cough, Kathy Marchione).

Tom Prendergast – Prendergast’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority doesn’t usually meet its deadlines, let alone beat them. So New York City-area residents will be happy to hear that the agency is rolling out a smartphone ticketing app for the LIRR and Metro-North four months early. That should make visits to Grand Central and Penn Station a lot less stressful for everyone.

Masood Syed – Eid Mubarak! Just in time for the Muslim holy day, this NYPD law clerk was reinstated after being suspended for refusing to shave his one-inch beard. The department will also review the no-beard policy, which some claim is religiously biased and inconsistently enforced. Don’t expect Bratton to open up the force to lumberjacks and wizards, but we could soon see more officers rocking Syed’s hip look.

Eric Ulrich – It’s pretty rare that an elected official’s financial disclosures reveal something positive, but the Queens councilman’s report revealed that he has some top-notch gambling skills. Ulrich said he won more than $10,000 from slot machines, and he did it in his district at the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct. With that kind of luck, maybe a longshot mayoral bid isn’t a terrible idea.

LOSERS

Andrew Cuomo – Start-Up New York could use a kickstart. Cuomo knew a little more about Bridgegate than what he read in the papers. Nearly 3,000 affordable housing units are in jeopardy because he can’t reach a deal. A key piece of the SAFE Act has gone nowhere. And now the Assembly speaker is attacking the governor for his favorite hobby of ribbing that tall guy from Brooklyn, old whats-his-name. It’s been a tough week of news for Cuomo.

Barry Diller – When you’re a billionaire like Diller, you get what you want: a glamorous wife, lavish vacations, and cloned puppies. But another Diller pet project – an elaborate new “Pier 55” island park that will jut out into the Hudson River – is now on hold thanks to a lawsuit seeking more input and environmental study. If these critics keeping dogging Diller, will he take his money elsewhere?

Andy King – Every press conference is splashy when you dress like New York City Councilman Andy King, but his one last week was big news: more than a dozen young women abducted and forced into prostitution. But King should have fact-checked first – the NYPD said 11 of the 14 girls are safe at home. Missing youths are a serious issue, but King made it a joke by not calling the families first.

Carl Paladino – While it may well have been a mistake, the tweet that read as though it was suggesting that U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch should be lynched has been huge embarrassment for one of Donald Trump’s top New York surrogates. News outlets around the country picked up the story and rehashed Paladino’s long history of controversial comments and emails. We’re pretty sure that wasn’t the look Paladino and his man Trump were looking for going into the RNC this month.

Frank Sedita III – The state Supreme Court justice probably thought he had left behind many of the criticisms leveled against him during his time as Erie County district attorney when he took the bench this year. But with family friend Steve Pigeon now charged after a state and federal investigation, accusations that Sedita let the political operative’s bad behavior slide, despite a steady stream of complaints about his underhanded, and possibly illegal, campaign tactics, are now being dredged up again.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the amount Senate Majority John Flanagan earned from his law firm in 2015. The actual amount is $100,000 to $150,000.