2013: The year in review

The year was full of talk, with Albany focused on how to root out corruption after several politicians were arrested and with mayoral candidates campaigning up and down New York City.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, however, wasted little time debating legislative details and signed the SAFE Act, making New York the first state to pass gun regulation legislation in response to a shooting that killed dozens at a Connecticut elementary school. The legislation expanded a ban on assault weapons and reduced the allowed size of gun magazines from 10 rounds to seven. It also attempted to keep firearms away from mentally ill people. The SAFE Act proved controversial with gun rights activists and Republican lawmakers, who griped that they did not have enough time to properly vet the measures when the governor fast-tracked them by arguing gun violence constituted an emergency.

When the Legislature failed to pass an ethics measure, Cuomo convened the Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, which quickly became known as the Moreland Commission in a reference to the law that permitted such a commission. From beginning, Cuomo faced questions about how independent the body would be. Reporting by the Daily News, City & State and The New York Times on how Cuomo’s inner circle influenced the commission led to its demise a year later – and that would lead federal investigators to examine what transpired.

Meanwhile, the arrests continued: Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith and Republican New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran were cuffed and charged in an elaborate bribery scheme to land Smith on the GOP line in the mayoral election. State Sen. John Sampson and Assemblyman Eric Stevenson were also arrested and charged in corruption scandals.

Downstate, much of the year centered around the mayoral primaries. Then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio seized on New Yorkers’ fatigue after a dozen years under Bloomberg and promised change from policies he argued contributed to income inequality and led to heavy-handed, biased policing. This message helped de Blasio defeat then-City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who was close to Bloomberg, and narrowly avoid a runoff with former Comptroller Bill Thompson for the Democratic line. De Blasio also benefited from former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandals and the indictment of Comptroller John Liu’s campaign aides.

After former MTA chief Joe Lhota bested supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis and nonprofit executive George McDonald in the Republican primary, he lost soundly to de Blasio.

One mayoral contender, then-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, dropped out of the race to run for city comptroller. Stringer won the spot after beating Eliot Spitzer, who was plotting a political comeback after he resigned as governor amid a prostitution scandal in 2008.

News reports questioned why three of four lanes leading from Fort Lee, New Jersey, were closed without warning due to a Port Authority traffic study, which flummoxed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie but largely left New York officials unscathed.

OUR COVERAGE: City & State ran a long feature looking at who could be the next first lady of New York City, which included interviews with the spouses of every major candidate in the race.

The magazine also compiled its first power 100 list, focusing on major Albany players.