Winners & Losers 3/11/16

Seems like everybody who’s anybody wanted to get involved in state politics this week. Mets legend Mike Piazza showed up at the Capitol and took home “the first official baseball bat of New York State.” And “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson wrote a letter to Cuomo calling prisons to go vegan. Anderson’s plea was quickly rebuked. Maybe Piazza can teach her - and the rest of this week’s losers - about losing.

WINNERS

Mike Caputo – It’s never a bad week when your name, face and exploits are splashed across the front page of a major paper’s Sunday edition,. The longtime political pot-stirrer and part-time radio host recounted his globe-trotting tales of intrigue for The Buffalo News and ended up in the A1 spot. If that weren’t enough, Donald Trump, who Caputo is pushing as the GOP nominee for president, is far ahead of his Republican rivals in New York, according to a poll from Siena College.

Kriner Cash – In a move that surprised many involved in education, 10 schools in the Buffalo district were removed from the state’s receivership list, reducing the total by more than a third. While this gives Cash less control over what goes on at those schools, it looks like good for the district, something the Buffalo Public Schools superintendent has seen a lot of since taking over last year. Graduation rates are up, the school board is less contentious than it used to be and now he has fewer schools to get off receivership.

Fred Dixon – As anybody who has waited in line for a rainbow bagel lately knows, New York City’s tourism industry is booming. This week Dixon, CEO of the tourism-marketing agency NYC & Company, announced that the city is expecting another record-high year of nearly 60 million tourists. Dixon has just enough time to celebrate with a selfie-sticked photo on top of the Empire State Building before getting back to work to reach the city’s goal of 67 million tourists in 2021.

Letitia James – The New York City public advocate won a lawsuit filed on behalf of 10 older or disabled residents who said they were unfairly removed from the New York City Rent Freeze Program when their relatives died, winning $130,000 in legal fees and damages for the plaintiffs. Three of the plaintiffs died since the lawsuit was filed, but the advocacy spurred the city to change its policies so those in the program have six months to reapply if their close family member dies.

Jack Martins – As the national political goings on show, primaries can bloody a candidate before the general election. Martins may have bypassed this now that the Nassau, Suffolk and Queens Republicans and Conservatives have thrown their support behind his bid for retiring U.S. Rep Steve Israel’s congressional seat.  Apparently they’re big fans of his football skills.

LOSERS

Steve Banks – For all the de Blasio administration’s pillorying of the Post, City Hall seemed to be paying close attention to the tabloid. City staff threw away a homeless woman’s belongings after a photograph of her alongside carts full of her possessions landed on the cover of the Post. A de Blasio spokeswoman said the belongings were seized to protect her and prevent her from being harassed by the Post. Department of Homeless Service staff and other outreach workers, who Banks currently leads, have known about the woman since 2009, but have not been able to convince her to move into a shelter. So, let’s see if tossing her stuff helps DHS build that long-sought trust.

Chris Collins – The Western New York congressman drew attacks from labor groups and state Sen. Marc Panepinto this week after a group circulated a press release highlighting fines to one of his companies leveled by the New Jersey Department of Labor for its failure to pay prevailing wage on a state-funded job. The company’s president they are in compliance with the DOL and are working to rectify a misunderstanding, but it never looks good for a company owned by a congressman to be accused of violating labor laws.

Kathleen Gilmartin – Gilmartin wasn’t the person who actually posted a job ad last year that stipulated that “no haitians” need apply. But that didn’t stop her medical staffing company, Interim Healthcare, from getting hit with a $100K fine from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman this week. The company is implementing new checks to prevent any discriminatory job ads going forward, and the financial penalty is sure to provide plenty of incentive to follow through.

Thomas King –Not that the State Rifle and Pistol Association’s lawsuit against the SAFE Act was likely to go anywhere in the first place, but King’s announcement that his organization is dropping its lawsuit because the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia makes a Supreme Court victory impossible seems to not only hammer that point home, but also give them a bit of an easy way out of an already sinking ship.

Angela Wozniak – Even those long familiar with the ways of Albany are shaking their heads about this one. The Republican assemblywoman from Cheektowaga was formally sanctioned this week when an ethics investigationfound that she had sexually harassed a staff member. That’s bad enough for any politician. Except Wozniak was elected to replace former Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak, a man who you may remember resigned after several female staff members accused him of … sexual harassment.