Winners and Losers 01/16/15

After a tough season in New York, heads have been rolling. Rex Ryan got bumped from the Jets, but landed with the Bills. Tom Coughlin stayed on with the Giants, but he had to fire some top assistants. Andrew Cuomo had a lackluster fall campaign too, and now he’s been reshuffling his lineup. Did any of the moving pieces make our list? Read on.

WINNERS

Eugene Fahey - The third time is a charm for this veteran Buffalo judge. Fahey has been on the shortlist of Court of Appeals judges for the last two go-arounds. This week Gov. Andrew Cuomo tapped him to take the place of retired judge Robert Smith. It's a prestigious appointment, and assuming Senate Republicans don't make a stink, he will soon join the state's highest court. 

Tom Libous - Last year, the Binghamton state senator was a candidate for one of the biggest losers of the year. This year, things are looking up—the Southern Tier, where Libous’ district is located, could yet get a casino, and the region will also be a strong contender to win $500 million from the governor’s latest economic development scheme. Turns out being Cuomo’s buddy does have its benefits. 

Eva Moskowitz - The CEO of Success Academy Charter Schools scored a win this week when a Manhattan appeals court ruled that charters have a right to share space in public schools. Raising the charter school cap is expected to be a major issue this legislative session, and if it happens it would be a boon for Moskowitz … plus, Cuomo doesn’t exactly have the greatest of relationships with traditional public school teachers right now. 

Bill Mulrow - Mulrow was picked to replace Larry Schwartz as secretary to the governor for Cuomo’s second term, instantly making him a very powerful man to know in New York. It will remain to be seen how he will handle his new position—Cuomo is rumored not to be the easiest person to work for—but we can only hope Mulrow gets a better nickname then his predecessor.  

Polly Trottenberg - The New York City transportation commissioner may have been one of the first in the de Blasio administration to make a truly "historic" announcement when she reported 2014 saw the fewest pedestrian deaths since the city's record keeping began in 1910. Last year 134 people died in such incidents, compared to 180 in 2013. Not bad for a freshman effort. Still, the commissioner is not content cruising on the initial success of Vision Zero, as she plans to redesign notoriously dangerous roadways, enhance bike lanes and focus on other traffic improvements in 2015 and beyond.  

LOSERS

Bill de Blasio -  De Blasio rolled out IDNYC to great fanfare this week—so much fanfare that people had a hard time even making an appointment to get one of the new municipal identification cards. Things might have gone more smoothly if the IDNYC website didn’t slow to a crawl forcing residents to wait on the phone forever to make an appointment. The Mayor was already taking shots for failing to show leadership in regards to the NYPD rift, and this just gave the tabloids more fodder to hit their favorite target. 

Debbie Buckley -  The former assistant superintendent of the Buffalo school system can't be sleeping well these days. She was fired back in 2012 for mismanaging anti-poverty funds she oversaw, but probably thought she was in the clear until her son was busted this week and charged with stealing federal money. The U.S. attorney's office wasn't shy in suggesting other arrests are coming down the road, even telling reporters that Buckley's signature is on the same documents as her son. It just doesn't look good for Buckley. 

Jeff Gural - The owner of the Tioga Downs Racetrack in the Southern Tier said last week that he intended to resubmit his plan to expand his business into a full-fledged commercial casino, assuming the state reopened the bidding process. This week the state did just that, but that doesn’t mean Gural has reason to celebrate. That’s because the board made it be known that plans they’d already rejected—like Gural’s—would probably not make the cut a second time around, unless they are beefed up. Time for Gural to get to work. 

Patrick Lynch - The controversial police union leader has landed on this losers’ list before due to an unproductive battle with Mayor Bill de Blasio that is testing the public’s patience with both men. But this week it increasingly seemed that Lynch has overplayed his hand: relatively few officers heeded his call to ban the mayor from their funerals if killed on the job, Lynch’s demand for an apology from de Blasio was angrily questioned by some cops, and members of his own Patrolmens’ Benevolent Association are now preparing a challenge to his leadership. Still a lot of rounds in this fight, but looks like Lynch may have lost this one. 

Nicole Malliotakis - The Staten Island assemblywoman put up a spirited fight in her effort to be the Republican Party's candidate in the yet to be set special election for the 11th Congressional District. Just days after Rep. Michael Grimm resigned, Malliotakis was making calls, meeting with party leaders and even traveling to Washington, D.C. to try and muster up support. In the end, she had to bow out, as the Staten Island GOP threw its weight behind the borough's District Attorney Daniel Donovan—as expected. She gets an A for effort, but she still lands on the losers list this week.