2009: The year in review

In 2009, New York experienced unexpected – or unexpectedly close – battles for power at the federal, state and local level.

At the start of 2009, when President Barack Obama moved into the White House, Hillary Clinton, the runner-up in the Democratic primary, left her position as New York’s junior senator and became Obama’s secretary of state. To fill the vacancy, Gov. David Paterson appointed Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand in January, but Gillibrand would immediately begin to gear up for a primary race the next year while several high-profile Democrats, including U.S. Reps. Carolyn McCarthy, Steve Israel and Carolyn Maloney, considered a challenge. McCarthy and others saw Gillibrand, who was backed by the National Rifle Association, as vulnerable due to her support of gun rights. Ultimately, only little-known New York City attorney Gail Goode ran against Gillibrand in the 2010 primary.

In the state Senate, Democrats started the year in power after wresting control of the chamber for the first time in decades, but their majority would soon be called into question. On June 8, right before the state Senate was about to adjourn for the day, 30 Republicans stood for a roll-call vote for a change of leadership – with two Democrats, Pedro Espada Jr. and Hiram Monserrate, joining the Republicans, giving them a numerical majority. Chaos erupted on the floor as Democrats argued the vote was illegal and violated parliamentary procedure. Days later, Monserrate returned to the Democratic conference, but that left the chamber split at 31-31. The tie forced Gov. David Paterson to call for a special session, which started on June 23. Paterson had not yet appointed a lieutenant governor after former Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal, and so there was no lieutenant governor to break the tie. Starting at dawn, both Democrats and Republicans camped out in the chamber and tried to convene session – which ultimately disintegrated into a shouting match on the floor. The special session lasted a total of 25 days, many of them short gavel-in-gavel-out sessions without any business conducted while negotiators met with state Senate leaders behind closed doors. Paterson eventually appointed Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor in July. The following day, Espada rejoined the Democrats, giving them a majority once again. Republicans soon filed a lawsuit against Paterson’s appointment of Ravitch to break the stalemate in the chamber, arguing the appointment was unconstitutional, though an appellate court ultimately ruled in Paterson’s favor. State Senate Democrats would maintain control of the chamber until the November 2010 elections.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg won re-election against Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, garnering only 51 percent of the vote in an unexpectedly close race. Many civil rights groups were angered by Bloomberg’s third mayoral bid since he had extended the city’s term limits law to allow for his third run. Additionally, a New York City Council member named Bill de Blasio was elected public advocate, beating former Public Advocate Mark Green in a runoff, and used the position as a springboard for his successful mayoral campaign in 2013. Another city councilman, John Liu, was elected city comptroller.

OUR COVERAGE: In 2009, Editor Edward-Isaac Dovere published a groundbreaking investigative series about the Working Families Party that put City Hall News on the map. The online series scrutinized the WFP’s relationship with Data and Field Services, a private research firm with close ties to the third party. The sharing of staff and campaign services provided for a number of local Democratic candidates prompted federal and local investigations and put the labor-backed WFP on the defensive for years.

City Hall also published definitive profiles on several Democrats who considered running against newly appointed U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. One subject was Rep. Carolyn Maloney, whose nascent challenge to Gillibrand was undercut when she used the n-word in her interview with Dovere, and her apology made national headlines. Dovere also got the inside story on Rep. Steve Israel’s decision to forgo a run after the White House asked him to step aside, while David Freedlander profiled Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, an outspoken gun-control advocate who criticized the high marks Gillibrand received from the NRA.