Winners and Losers 01/23/15

There are only a few things certain in life. Death. Taxes. And Sheldon Silver in the Assembly speaker's chair. The Albany mainstay has survived pretty much anything thrown at him in his two decades as leader of the Assembly, but a stunning five-count criminal complaint may be too steep of a hill for the Manhattan Democrat. Read on to see who else made our Winners and Losers. 

WINNERS

Preet Bharara - Don't call it a comeback. Preet's been doing it for years. After being passed over for U.S. attorney general and having a few high-profile convictions overturned recently, some wondered if the hard charging U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York was in a funk. Well, that question was answered with his bombshell criminal complaint against one of the most powerful lawmakers in the state, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. 

Ray Kelly -  A year ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave Kelly a nice gig as a special adviser in setting up a college in New York to provide emergency preparedness and homeland security training. This year, the governor boosted Kelly’s responsibilities, tasking him with a comprehensive review of the state’s counterterrorism readiness. Plus, the fact that he’s no longer the New York City police commissioner means he can relax, sit back and give Mayor Bill de Blasio advice on tense police relations—just like a Monday morning quarterback.

Eva Moskowitz - While the state’s teachers union has a huge battle ahead of them, the horizon is looking bright for charter schools. Cuomo at the State of the State/budget address said he would push to raise the state charter school cap by 100. The governor doesn’t seem to have much faith and support in public schools—but charters seem to be the exception to his rule.

Dean Skelos - When the Moreland Commission’s investigations started leaking out it looked grim for state Senate Republicans, with questionable campaign expenditures by GOP senators like George Maziarz and Greg Ball—both of whom declined to run for re-election. But now it’s looking much worse for the Assembly Democrats, whose leader, Speaker Sheldon Silver, is accused of taking $4 million in bribes and kickbacks. And with Silver weakened, it only strengthens the hand of Skelos.

Christine Quinn - The Women’s Equality Party has already propelled one woman to Albany. After stumping for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s new third party line, the former New York City Council speaker has snagged a position as the governor’s special counsel. An added bonus for the Chelsea Democrat is that she can remain in New York City and report to Albany as needed. 

LOSERS

Budnarine Behari - The captain who let five Rikers Island guards hogtie and brutally beat an inmate in 2012 was fired this week along with the men he oversaw. And thank goodness—Behari was involved in another savage incident at the jail just eight months after the first encounter, and these are just the episodes on record. We applaud Correction Commissioner Joe Ponte for finally showing Behari the door, but remain perplexed as to why this didn’t happen a long time ago.  

David Hantman - The global head of public policy for Airbnb took a verbal thrashing from lawmakers at a New York City Council hearing this week. At times it seemed like they were just lining up to lay into him for what they allege is Airbnb’s facilitation of illegal hotels. Councilman Jumaane Williams delivered perhaps the most memorable attacks, repeatedly chastising the company for not making any effort—as he saw it—to comply with the city’s laws, saying: “You have to see how you do not come off as good to people like us.” While Hantman made a display of trying to cooperate, they didn’t even pretend to be in a like mood, leading to a long afternoon at City Hall. 

Karen Magee - Does anyone happen to know how high the NYSUT president’s blood pressure rose during Cuomo’s speech on Wednesday? Cuomo’s proposed education reforms dominated the State of the State/budget address and while the fight has just begun, no one doubts the union has a huge fight to overcome this budget season.

Melissa Mark-Viverito -  There's no such thing as free advice--just ask the New York City Council speaker. Mark-Viverito's campaign spent $20,000 retaining a law firm to represent her in the city Conflicts of Interest Board's noncriminal ethics probe into the unpaid assistance the Harlem Democrat got from the Advance Group, which has business before the city, while she was vying for the speakership. 

Sheldon Silver - His conference is still standing behind him. But that's about the only good thing that happened this week for the Assembly speaker, who was slapped with mail and wire fraud and conspiracy charges and accused of pocketing more than $4 million in kickbacks over the past decade to do the bidding of special interests. If the arrest wasn't bad enough, the U.S. attorney seized nearly $3 million of Silver's assets. Albany pols have been able to slip out of criminal charges in the past, so there may be some hope for Silver... though this case looks pretty tight.