Winners and Losers 11/14/14

The Senate Dems are still reeling in the aftermath of their disastrous Election Day showing, while the Republicans continue to gloat and the IDC does rhetorical damage control in the face an unclear future. In weirder news, it’s looking like Gotham’s mayor might just suffer from a sleeping disorder… Or maybe there’s something he isn’t telling us. But you can read more about that below, in this week’s Winners and Losers of the Week:

WINNERS

Andrew Cuomo – One week after winning the gubernatorial election, Cuomo has received more good news. The state’s budget surplus has grown to $5.1 billion since March, mostly due to settlements with banks and financial institutions. Now he gets to decide where and how the surplus money will be spent—all in all, not the worst fiscal issue to face as a governor. 

Marcos Crespo – The Bronx Democrat was a big hit at SOMOS in San Juan as word leaked out that he would be the next chair of the Legislature's Puerto Rican & Hispanic Task Force, a post that will make him the main organizer of the conference. Young and willing to speak his mind, Crespo seems poised to take the movement in a new direction. 

Rachel Haot – Have you been to NY.gov yet? It's easy to navigate. Designed to be helpful. Everything we would expect from Haot, who earned honors in her former job for redoing nyc.gov. The two sites do look a little too similar for our liking, but they both mazximize the big images, bold headlines and easy useability all generations crave in websites. 

Loretta Lynch – Until very recently, Lynch was viewed as the other U.S. Attorney in New York City. She didn't crave the headlines like her neighbor Preet Bharara, but she was able to effectively run her office and make some splashy busts during her tenure. Her selection to be the next U.S. Attorney General may have been a surprise to some, but it shows that hard work and persistence pays off—along with a good interview with POTUS.

Tim Wu – The Columbia law school professor and former candidate for lieutenant governor got some love this week from the White House. President Barack Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to adopt tough new rules preventing broadband companies from slowing down content and then charging a premium for entities to move their content to a faster lane. This is nothing less than a full-throated endorsement of net neutrality, a term Wu coined and a concept he has long publicly championed throughout his legal career.

LOSERS

Andrew Barovick – When the White Plains attorney sent out a nasty, racially charged tweet taunting Republican lieutenant governor candidate Christopher Moss, it was perhaps just a matter of time before he faced the consequences. And so earlier this week, as criticism and pressure continued to mount against him, Barovick resigned from his position as chairman of the New York City Bar Association’s Medical Malpractice Committee. Racist tweets: they’ll getcha every time.

Bill de Blasio – Showing up at ceremonial occasions is supposed to be the easy part of the job. And yet Mayor de Blasio has not only consistently arrived late to functions over his ten-plus months in office, he doesn't even bother to call in advance to make his BS excuse—and then doesn't apologize once he strolls in to address the waiting crowd. This week his MO caught up with him, as he angered the families of those who perished in the Flight 587 crash in Belle Harbor by missing a moment of silence for the victims. Mr. Mayor, don't you realize that these unforced errors overshadow everything else that you are trying to accomplish in your administration? Is that what's keeping you up at night, so you can't get to work on time in the morning?

Ken LaValle – After Democrats hammered away at their GOP opponents throughout the election cycle for failing to pass the Women’s Equality Agenda, one would think state Senate Republicans would lay low on women’s issues. Instead, this week LaValle rambled against the “affirmative consent” proposal for college campuses, which requires that consent be given actively and repeatedly throughout sexual activity, providing Democrats with yet another opportunity to cast Republican and Conservative party members as waging a war against women.

Terry Leonard – The 126 workers laid off this week from the Remington Arms manufacturing plant in the village of Ilion may be taking the brunt of it, but its mayor, Terry Leonard, can't be feeling too hot either—being that it was the second time in just four months that the arms manufacturer has dealt a serious blow to the livelihood of his community of just 8,000. Hang in there, Ilion.

Efstathios Valiotis – In the end, Alma Realty, the developer of Astoria Cove and the company of which Valiotis is the founder and CEO, got what it wanted, but had to cave to the demands of critics of the mega-project. Feeling the heat from Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Councilman Costa Constantinides and the Build Up NYC coalition, led by Gary LaBarbera, Alma broke down to agree to use union labor for construction, building maintenance and security, and to set aside 27 percent of the project's units for below market rents—the largest affordable housing percentage agreement in city history.