Podcast: The Rumble in Central New York

For those of you not keeping close tabs on central New York politics, you might have missed the recent tiff between Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner over a controversial deal granting a 15-year property tax exemption to a local developer. What began as a reasonable disagreement between two politicians on opposite sides of the aisle - Mahoney, a Republican, supported the tax break, Miner, a Democrat, opposed it - devolved into a war of words with sexist undertones. 

After Miner directed the city to file a lawsuit blocking the tax exemption, Mahoney took to the airwaves to blast Miner, urging the mayor to dial down the drama and saying that Miner "gets emotional and lashes out." Mahoney's words caused an immediate backlash, with certain observers labeling her comments as reflecting negative gender stereotyping.  

City & State columnist Alexis Grenell took Mahoney to task in her recent column for leaning on de-professionalization language used against women for decades. As Alexis pointed out, "When an elected official shows strength and assertiveness on behalf of his constituents, he's a fighter. Yet Miner gets tone-policed for the same behavior?" 

Alexis and I felt that the Mahoney-Miner disagreement was worthy of a larger discussion. On the latest episode of City & State's Slant podcast, we were joined by former state senator Cecilia Tkaczyk to parse the larger theme of sexism in politics, and whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo, an ally of Mahoney's, is the stalking horse in this dispute.

We also take a fun detour with a game of political fantasy football - what would a Hillary Clinton presidency mean for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's political future? 

Click here to listen to our latest podcast, and be sure to download and subscribe to the rest of our Slant podcasts through iTunes.