Winners & Losers
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Who’s up and who’s down this week?
There’s no better place to receive iffy news than while on a private flight: You’ve got a great view, time to reflect and the ego boost of being someone who gets to take private flights. So we can only hope Gov. Kathy Hochul was on one of her many expensive, fossil fuel guzzling flights around New York when she read the recent Siena College poll that showed her with just a 14 percentage point lead over Republican Lee Zeldin in the race for governor. There’s a long way to go until November, but Cuomo was polling much stronger than that against his Republican opponent at the same time in 2014, and Zeldin’s leading in the burbs. Fortunately for Hochul, Zeldin’s stance on abortion doesn’t seem like it’ll lift him off the runway.
Andrew Gounardes & Deborah Glick -
Speeding cars and reckless drivers beware: New York City’s 2,000 speed cameras in school zones are officially monitoring roads 24/7. While the bulk of the benefits will be felt in a city long plagued by motor vehicle crashes, Assembly Member Deborah Glick and state Sen. Andrew Gounardes fought hard in Albany to give Adams the greenlight to expand the cameras’ limited weekday operating hours to constantly on. Though the same might not be able to be said about the entirety of the legislation –what ultimately passed is a watered down version of the original.
Russ Maxwell -
In what’s being called a classic case of Albany pay-to-play, Maxwell’s Medical Answering Services company was awarded Medicaid transportation contracts worth an upwards of $400 million – at the same time he and his wife poured more than $230,000 into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign coffers, the New York Post reported. The couple continued their donation streak with Hochul, when Maxwell’s wife gave the governor $52,600 over the past year, and while the company continues under contract with the state Department of Health.
Mary Sullivan -
The president of the Civil Service Employees Association, the state’s largest public sector labor union, celebrated a significant victory for her 52,000 members this week when the union reached a deal with Gov. Kathy Hochul on a new contract. The union was granted incremental raises over the next five years, along with one-time bonuses. About 80% of the union’s members signed off on the contract.
Carolyn Maloney -
After 30 years in Congress, Maloney apparently hasn’t learned the basic lesson not to disparage the most high-profile elected official in one’s own party – the president of the United States. Maloney this week said that President Joe Biden was unlikely to run for re-election in 2024, then doubled down on the belief while apologizing for the gaffe in an interview days later. “I want you to run. I happen to think you won’t be running, but when you run or if you run, I will be there 100%,” she told CNN.
Carl Paladino -
The call is coming from inside the party. Republican congressional candidate Carl Paladino has reportedly been making “threatening” and “disturbing” phone calls to local Republican town chairs who have supported his opponent, state GOP Chair Nick Langworthy, in the heated primary for the 23rd Congressional District. The former gubernatorial candidate may have more in common with New York’s ex-governor than we thought.
Ydanis Rodriguez -
One boat an hour to Staten Island? That’s bad. Ferry, ferry, bad. Whether it’s a spike in COVID-19 cases, a work slowdown, the result of attrition with no new hires, or a combination of all three of them, it’s Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez’s problem. Now he’s got to prove his old reliable – and free – ferry is better than the slick little NYC Ferries and the (financially) underwater Metropolitan Transportation Authority.