Winners and Losers 8/08/14
Some teenagers just want to do whatever they can to get away from their parents. But Chiara and Dante de Blasio will be spending even more time with Mom and Pop this summer, thanks to unpaid internships they landed at City Hall. We’re not sure if that makes them winners or losers—so read on to see who’s up and who’s down this week.
WINNERS
Robert Cornegy - No parent should have to worry about their child’s safety at school, which is why Mayor Bill de Blasio signing Cornegy’s bill was so significant. The legislation, dubbed “Avonte’s Law” in honor of 14-year old Avonte Oquendo, who wandered out of his school building and was found dead three months later, will require audible alarms indicating an unauthorized departure from a school building. It’s tough to name somebody a “winner" as a byproduct of a tragedy like Oquendo’s disappearance, but Cornegy’s bill is an important response and a high-profile accomplishment for a freshman New York City Councilman.
Chris Gibson – Sean Eldridge has a lot going for him—youthful good looks, oodles of money, powerful friends and a husband who co-founded Facebook—but so far it hasn't added up to nearly enough support in his carpetbagger campaign against Rep. Chris Gibson, a middle-aged, retired U.S. Army colonel. Gibson holds a comfortable 27-point lead over Eldridge in a new poll, which also shows Eldridge is still widely unknown by voters in the 19th Congressional district.
Christopher Kay – Horse racing operations are losing money, this year’s Belmont Stakes was marred by poor crowd control and reporters have had trouble gaining access to “open” meetings, but the head of the New York Racing Association is still raking it in. Kay, brought in to help reform the troubled organization, was awarded a pay bump and a $250,000 bonus that nearly doubled his salary, a move attributed to unspecified benchmarks he has met. And to be fair, wagers are up, racing losses are down and operating costs have been cut—and, of course, the ongoing influx of racino money is still keeping NYRA afloat.
Gabriela Rosa – She may be going to prison, but at least she’s going to get respect when she’s inside. This week the Daily News reported that the ex-assemblywoman refused U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s offer to wear a wire in the Legislature. “She’s not a rat or a snitch,” said Rosa’s lawyer, sounding like he was auditioning to represent wise guys and gang bangers in the future. While Nelson Castro and Brian McLaughlin might deserve stitches in the opinion of many New York lawmakers, look for Rosa’s grateful former colleagues to help her find a soft landing when she gets out.
Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP - There is nothing more toxic in state politics these days than being linked to the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. Rob Astorino and Zephyr Teachout have made it issue No. 1. John Cahill is trying to gain traction in his race with Eric Schneiderman by questioning the attorney general's role in the commission. And even national Republicans have seized on Moreland to attack former commission co-chair and current congressional candidate Kathleen Rice. It seems like nothing positive can come from being associated with Moreland, unless you are the law firm that landed a fat $300,000 state contract to defend the commission, including a $550 per hour rate for top lawyer Michael Koenig's services—all on the taxpayers dime.
LOSERS
Dan Cantor - On the one hand, one could argue the Working Families Party is as powerful as it has ever been, leveraging its ballot line to get Gov. Cuomo to throw political capital behind electing a Democratic Senate. On the other hand, the party is facing a looming grand jury investigation with the news that a special prosecutor has begun issuing subpoenas to WFP member-unions looking into the party’s 2009 campaign activities. Cantor and company have been cleared once before by the U.S. attorney’s office, so it’s not time to sound the alarm just yet, but the news certainly puts a damper on the party’s otherwise strong summer.
Dov Hikind - It came out last year that the Moreland Commission was looking into the assemblyman's business dealings with Maimonides Medical Center, but this week it was reported that a criminal referral was made in the matter to U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. Preet Bharara may be leading Lynch in the number of headlines and lawmaker scalps, but Lynch is no slouch in prosecuting public corruption, so Hikind can't be happy he is in her crosshairs now.
Sam Hoyt and Maria Lehman – You have to give them credit for their unusual candor. At an April meeting of the Peace Bridge Authority, Hoyt, the authority’s chairman, and Lehman, New York’s project manager for the bridge, laid out the state’s strategy for winning over potential opponents to renovations to the bridge’s plaza and ramps—warts and all. The only problem was that unbeknownst to the officials, somebody was recording their remarks (which really should be assumed as a given in the age of smart phones) and the tape was released to The Buffalo News.
Norman Seabrook - It was no secret that Rikers Island is not a fun place to be, but news stories in recent years have revealed just how unacceptable the conditions at New York City’s notorious jail really are. Now there’s a U.S. Justice Department investigation to support all those allegations of violence and abuse by Department of Corrections officers against teens. Earlier this year, the DOC officers’ union leader, Norman Seabrook, took the time to belittle incoming corrections commissioner Joseph Ponte, who was brought in from Maine to reform Rikers—in part by reducing the use of solitary confinement. “One policy is that inmates can get a time-out now as opposed to going to punitive segregation,” said Seabrook, holding up a copy of The Cat in the Hat at an April press conference welcoming the new commissioner. Seabrook may think Ponte’s a sissy, but it might be time for him to change his tune, because obstinately championing the status quo has simply perpetuated Rikers' status as an embarrassment to the city.
Aaron Woolf- Last week, congressional nominee Aaron Woolf got very awkward when asked if being a millionaire makes him out of touch with voters in the North Country district in which he’s running. This week voters got another reminder that the Democratic nominee really might not be one of them, when a Daily News story noted that two of his Brooklyn restaurants received 83 health department violations over three and a half years. Never mind that both establishments have since cleaned up their act and now have “A” ratings for cleanliness —the guy trying to win an upstate district owns businesses where again?
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