|

August 2002 Archive
August
31, 2002
In the beginning, Andrew M. Cuomo had the glitz, the money and the reputation
for bold new ideas.But with nine days left before the Democratic primary for governor,
none of it seems to have mattered. His outsized personality, in comparison with his
relatively laid-back opponent, State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, seems to be working against
him.
(New York Times)
For a time yesterday afternoon, it seemed as if everyone in central New York
had shaken hands or posed for a picture with former President Bill Clinton and Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton, or at least strained for a glimpse of them, at the State Fair in
Syracuse. But not Andrew M. Cuomo, the former Clinton cabinet officer, who strolled past
the cows and tractors in another part of the fairgrounds.
(New York Times)
Andrew Cuomo appealed for senior citizen votes Saturday in Queens, a borough
where the struggling Democratic gubernatorial candidate hopes to tap his family's political
roots. "I'm from Queens. My family lived here all their lives," he told about two dozen
residents of the Atria Senior Center in Kew Gardens.
(Newsday)
Acknowledging the state faces hard financial times, Democrat H. Carl McCall
said Friday he would examine "all options" to cut costs if elected governor, including tax
hikes and layoffs, but also repeated his campaign pledge to boost education funding by $8
billion over four years.
(Times Union)
B. Thomas Golisano unleashed his spending in the past 11 days and forced
Republican Gov. George Pataki to open his campaign vault to protect his shot at the
Independence and Conservative lines.
(Times Union)
The Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the Bronx County Democratic leaders can determine
whether Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. is still "in sympathy with the principles" of the Democratic Party.
The judges upheld a lower court's findings that Espada could not be expelled from the Democratic
Party based solely on his February pronouncement that he was going to change his party enrollment
and join the Republican majority in the Senate.
(Times Union)
August
30, 2002
Andrew M. Cuomo intensified his attacks
against H. Carl McCall today in the third debate of the
Democratic gubernatorial campaign, raising familiar
complaints about Mr. McCall's performance as state
comptroller but using stronger language than he has on the
campaign trail.
(New York Times)
(New York Daily News)
Andrew Cuomo yesterday repeatedly questioned
Carl McCall's handling of the state pension fund, while
McCall largely ignored his Democratic rival in their third
gubernatorial debate .
(New York Post)
Andrew Cuomo repeatedly goaded him, but
Comptroller H. Carl McCall resisted retaliating during the
third debate between the two Democrats who want to become
New York's 54th governor.
(Albany Times Union)
A multimillionaire paper-cup mogul and a
former housing official who served in the Clinton
administration are adding vibrancy to the Democratic primary
race for lieutenant governor, which has a historic
reputation for dullness. Dennis Mehiel, owner of the
Sweetheart Cup Co., and Charlie King, a former Housing and
Urban Development official, have become entwined in the race
for governor, catapulting their own bids to prominence.
(Newsday)
In the race for the Democratic nomination
for governor, Andrew M. Cuomo has frequently been portrayed
as the pariah of the state Democratic Party. But at least he
is not Charlie King.Mr. King, who is running for the
lieutenant governor nomination, is virtually unknown to
voters.
(New York Times)
As Gov. Pataki showcased a spectrum of
supporters yesterday in Union Square, the Republican
incumbent was dogged by an issue that won't go away - thanks
to rival Tom Golisano.The Rochester billionaire, who is
battling Pataki for the Independence and Conservative lines,
has sued the governor and the city Board of Elections over
what he called Pataki's fraudulent scheme to pack the
Independence Party with new voters.
(New York Daily News)
Gov. Pataki yesterday picked up the
endorsement of three Democratic state legislators at a
"unity" rally in Union Square Park. Democratic Assembly
members Tony Seminerio (Queens), Carmen Arroyo (Bronx) and
Dov Hikind (Brooklyn) all crossed party lines to back Pataki
(New York Post)
August
29, 2002
In a free-form radio debate yesterday between the two candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, Andrew M. Cuomo accused H. Carl McCall of failing to block an unrealistic state budget and of stopping short of calling for the outright repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws.¾
(New York Times)
Former Gov. Mario Cuomo isn't on the ballot, but he was a hot topic in yesterday's Democratic debate between Cuomo's son, Andrew, and state Comptroller Carl McCall.
(New York Post)
Andrew Cuomo stepped up his criticism of his Democratic gubernatorial opponent H. Carl McCall in the candidates's second pre-primary debate Wednesday, but both men again saved their sharpest criticism for Republican Gov. George Pataki.
(Albany Times Union)
H. Carl McCall, the state comptroller and candidate in the Democratic primary for governor, yesterday began a statewide broadcast of his first commercial featuring Senator Charles E. Schumer.
(New York Times)
Four candidates are battling in a primary to determine who will be the Democratic nominee to succeed Assemblyman John A. Ravitz, the Republican Party chairman in Manhattan. Mr. Ravitz, who was defeated by Liz Krueger, a Democrat, in a hard-fought State Senate race in February, decided not to seek re-election for his Assembly seat.¾
(New York Times)
State Sen. Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) will be in court in the Bronx today in an effort to get the Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr., his party-backed opponent, tossed off the Democratic primary ballot.He is charging that the residency issues that drove Raysa Castillo, the party's original pick, off the ballot were so outrageous that the Democrats should be barred from substituting Diaz.
(New York Daily News)
As co-owner and columnist for New York City's most-prominent black newspaper in the 1970s, H. Carl McCall backed such ideas as racial job quotas and legal heroin for hard-core users, and once attacked Santa Claus as "no friend of the ghetto child."
(Albany Times Union)
B. Thomas Golisano came to Albany Wednesday to unveil a plan for big property tax cuts, but bikinis got in the way.Golisano, jousting with Gov. George Pataki for the Independence line, drew the biggest reaction from journalists when he charged that Pataki's campaign employed young women in bikinis to collect Independence Party registrations on Long Island beaches
(Albany Times Union)
August
28, 2002
Two powerful leaders of teachers' unions stood shoulder to shoulder with State Comptroller H. Carl McCall yesterday and urged the state government to spend more money on schools, but both stopped short of endorsing him in his quest to become governor.
(New York Times)
Alan G. Hevesi stood before the congregation at the Unity Fellowship Church of Christ in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn last Sunday and spoke as much about the man he supports for governor as he did about his own race for New York State comptroller.
(New York Times)
After hearing reports of widespread irregularities in registering new voters to the Independence Party, the New York City Board of Elections took no action yesterday on complaints lodged by Tom Golisano, who is seeking the party's nomination for governor.
(New York Times)
The Queens Democratic Party's endorsement of a non-Asian candidate in the four-way primary race for a new Assembly seat representing Flushing sparked debate at a candidates forum last night. "I think it's an insult to the community that not a single Asian was contacted" by party officials who made the endorsement, said John Albert, 28, an Indian-born lawyer who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the Sept. 10 primary race.
(Newsday)
When it comes to the arena of politics, Alan Hevesi is a marquee player after three decades in the business. So, scoring the Democratic nomination for state comptroller ought to be a slam-dunk for the former college basketball all-star. But Hevesi, a former state assemblyman from Forest Hills and New York City comptroller, has been hobbled by his lackluster performance in last year's Democratic primary for New York mayor - finishing last in a field of four.
(Newsday)
Coming to the defense of Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Dennis Mehiel, the Green Party's candidate for governor said yesterday that he had fathered three children out of wedlock. "What is its relevance? People in politics in most other countries don't have their personal lives exposed. This is something that I think should be condemned in politics," college professor Stanley Aronowitz said.
(Newsday)
The most obscure Democratic gubernatorial primary in modern history finally made it onto the front pages. A cardboard-box kingpin with a penchant for progeny did what the son of a famous governor and the state's only black official couldn't do. He got some sex into a dud of a race.
(Village Voice)
There are women whose last names are too famous to change when they marry, and others whose husbands have names too famous not to take. And then there is Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, the seventh child of Robert F. Kennedy and wife of Andrew M. Cuomo, the son of a former governor who is now seeking that job for himself. Ms. Kennedy Cuomo, who runs a human rights organization, uses both names when she campaigns for her husband, and the privilege and burden of each are lost on few.
(New York Times)
Andrew Cuomo yesterday slammed his two opponents - charging Gov. Pataki is playing politics by not having a plan to rebuild Ground Zero and that Carl McCall has accomplished nothing as state comptroller.
(New York Post)
Parking-lot magnate and parolee Abe Hirschfeld has been ordered to stay away from gubernatorial hopeful Carl McCall and Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau, court papers show. The pair are two of 15 people the octogenarian oddball has been ordered to "have no contact" with "in person, by phone, by mail, electronically, by third person or by any other way" while he's on parole for conspiring to kill a business partner.
(New York Post)
August
27, 2002
Again casting himself as an outsider running against politics-as-usual in Albany, Andrew M. Cuomo focused his criticism yesterday on the office of his opponent, H. Carl McCall, saying the state comptroller should not be the sole trustee of the state's $105 billion pension fund. Mr. McCall, meanwhile, who is also running in the Democratic primary for governor, campaigned outside Syracuse, attending an annual comptroller's luncheon where the most pressing question put to him by voters was why there are no public bathrooms between Syracuse and Alexandria Bay.
(New York Times)
Democrat Carl McCall said yesterday that he's known for years that running mate Dennis Mehiel had fathered two children with two women while married to a third woman - and that voters will be just as understanding.
(Daily News)
Come election time, most candidates want the cops on their side, but in a Brooklyn Assembly race, incumbent Roger Green is being blasted for his blue wall of support.
(Daily News)
Carl McCall stood by embattled running mate Dennis Mehiel yesterday, insisting his explosive disclosure of fathering two out-of-wedlock children won't harm their Election Day chances.
(New York Post)
Andrew Cuomo and running-mate Charlie King flatly denied Monday that their campaigns were behind the disclosure that rival candidate Dennis Mehiel had fathered two children by two separate women after he had separated from his wife.
(Newsday)
Andrew Cuomo's aides were out trolling for people in City Hall Park yesterday to come hear their beleaguered candidate (the Economist magazine said he was "on course to get clobbered either in the Democratic primary or by the incumbent George Pataki") but without much luck.
(Newsday)
August
26, 2002
Dennis Mehiel, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, acknowledged yesterday that he had fathered two children by two women while still legally married to his first wife. The revelation quickly turned into an exchange of accusations between the campaigns of the two Democratic candidates for governor, Andrew M. Cuomo and H. Carl McCall, over who had leaked the story to the news media.
(New York Times)
(Daily News)
Since 1991, Adriano Espaillat and Guillermo Linares, two top Dominican-American elected officials, had been engaged in a feud considered fierce even by the rancorous standards of New York politics. Each recruited proteges to challenge the other's re-election, while their surrogates, groomed in their dueling Democratic clubs, vied for control of ground-level posts within the county Democratic organization.
(Newsday)
Eric Stevenson, a candidate for an Assembly seat in the Bronx, said that the borough's Democratic organization first challenged the number of valid signatures on his petitions. And when the city's Board of Elections determined that he had indeed exceeded the 500 signatures required, the organization took him to court, saying that his petitions lacked some details on their cover sheets, like the name of the Democratic Party.
(New York Times)
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo trolled for votes in Harlem's churches yesterday, calling for making discrimination a felony. "Racism is alive and well in America, and discrimination is alive and well in America," Cuomo said on the steps of Memorial Baptist Church. "And it's not easy to say, and it's not comfortable to say, but until you say it, you will never be able to solve it."
(New York Post)
August
25, 2002
As the fall elections near, the Latino vote is being contested as never before in a New York statewide race. Like Irish and Italian immigrants a century ago, Latino voters are poised to unsettle New York's traditional electoral math by their surging population and assertiveness. That has left both parties clambering for votes that until recently were assumed to be unshakably Democratic.
(Newsday)
Former federal housing secretary Andrew Cuomo said Sunday that if elected governor he would introduce legislation to make discrimination a felony.
(Newsday)
With time to kill on a recent statewide campaign swing, B. Thomas Golisano made a detour to downtown Buffalo. It wasn't a political stop but a possible business deal.
(Albany Times Union)
In recent years, observers say, Governor George Pataki's politics have changed to resemble those of a much different former governor -- Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican whose liberal leanings enraged conservatives in the GOP.
(Albany Times Union)
August
24, 2002
The gubernatorial campaign of Tom Golisano pressed ahead yesterday with efforts to challenge Gov. George E. Pataki's bid to register thousands of new voters in order to win the Independence Party's ballot line in the Sept. 10 primary.
(New York Times)
Andrew M. Cuomo began running these two similar television advertisements on his record as the secretary of housing under President Clinton. One, "Real Results," will be broadcast upstate; "Real Résumé" will be broadcast in the New York City area.
(New York Times)
At the end of a speech yesterday on his plan to reduce homelessness, Andrew M. Cuomo announced with a flourish that he was going to spend the night in a shelter in order to "bring light to places that have been in darkness for too long." Hours later, he headed to Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he bedded down for the night in a private room with his running mate.
(New York Times)
The Sept. 10 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor between Dennis Mehiel and Charlie King has taken on unusual importance to the strategic and financial plans of the party's candidates for governor, Andrew M. Cuomo and H. Carl McCall, who have given them outsized roles in the race.
(New York Times)
August
23, 2002
A small Philadelphia accounting firm donated
at least $24,000 in campaign contributions to H. Carl
McCall, the state comptroller who is running for governor,
less than a year after winning a lucrative contract from the
state, according to records filed with the State Board of
Elections.
(New York Times)
Taking on H. Carl McCall on an issue Mr.
McCall has sought to make his own, Andrew M. Cuomo and his
running mate yesterday criticized him for what they called
his failure to improve the academic performance of students
while he was president of the New York City school board.
(New York Times)
A day after New York State Democrats
abandoned plans for a television advertisement commemorating
Sept. 11, Gov. George E. Pataki became the first political
figure who was prominent in the attack's aftermath to
address it in a campaign commercial.
(New York Times)
A State Senate district in the Bronx that
started the day without any candidates on the Democratic
primary ballot ended the day with two, after an appeals
court restored the incumbent, Pedro Espada Jr., and the
party organization backed the candidacy of the Rev. Ruben
Diaz Sr., a city councilman.
(New York Times)
(New York Daily News)
Andrew Cuomo's campaign began its aggressive
end game yesterday, attacking Carl McCall's tenure as city
Board of Education president as a time of sinking test
scores and rising class size.The shift came as Quinnipiac
University pollsters acknowledged that their last survey -
which gave McCall a 16-point lead over Cuomo - used a new
method of calculation that may have exaggerated McCall's
edge.
(New York Daily News)
(New York Post)
An underdog candidate for a new Queens
assembly seat blasted an anonymous hit piece yesterday that
said he had been arrested for bribery, drunken driving and
driving with a suspended license."I have never been arrested
in my life," Francisco Moya said. "These tactics are
despicable and unconscionable."
(New York Daily News)
August
22, 2002
Andrew M. Cuomo may have projected a calm, polite
demeanor in last Sunday's debate. But, his advisers say, do not leap to
conclusions about a kinder, gentler Andrew. He is, they say, going
forward with a strategy that will reserve firepower until the final 10
days of the race, when he plans to unleash ads and tougher talk aimed at
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, his opponent in the Democratic
gubernatorial primary, and Gov. George E. Pataki. (New York Times)
The political battle between Gov. George E. Pataki and
Tom Golisano ratcheted up a few notches yesterday, as a state court
judge knocked one of Mr. Golisano's running mates off the ballot and Mr.
Golisano asked the Manhattan district attorney to investigate Mr.
Pataki's campaign for voter registration fraud. (New York Times) (New York Post)
Noach Dear, who was unable to run for re-election to the
Council last year because of term limits, wants to be known as a state
senator, and is pursuing that in a newly configured district anchored in
the more racially diverse East Flatbush and Canarsie sections in
Brooklyn. While Mr. Dear, 48, is perhaps the best known of the four
candidates for the nomination in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary, he is
by no means assured of victory. (New York Times)
Franklin Evans takes his right to vote so seriously, he
turns out for lowly school board elections. So he's especially upset
that someone used his identity in a burgeoning voter registration
scandal.Evans' name, Greenwich Village address and forged signature were
used to enroll him in the state's Independence Party - one of thousands
of bogus registrations submitted to the Board of Elections this month.
(
New York Daily News)
City Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. emerged yesterday as the
leading contender to challenge State Sen. Pedro Espada for his South
Bronx seat.Sources said that besides Diaz (D-Soundview), who would not
have to give up his Council seat to run, another contender would be
David Rosado, who formerly held the state Senate seat before he was
defeated by Espada.Bronx Democratic Party officials have been casting
about to find a replacement for their original candidate, Raysa
Castillo, since a judge ordered her signature petitions invalidated over
the question of her legal residency. (New York Daily News)
Several independent polling experts took issue with the
Quinnipiac technique and questioned the value of last week's explosive
Quinnipiac University poll - showing Carl McCall surging far ahead of
Andrew Cuomo - saying that it inflated the size of McCall's support with
a questionable and undisclosed technique. (New York Post)
Andrew Cuomo yesterday hammered Gov. Pataki for failing
to push for "corporate responsibility," launching his second ad that
focuses on the domino-like collapse of several huge businesses. (New York Post)
Federal officials will investigate whether the chief
executive of a California Indian tribe violated the terms of his
probation by meeting with Andrew Cuomo shortly before the tribe donated
$25,000 to Mr. Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign, a probation official said
yesterday. (New York Sun)
August
21, 2002
For more than a year, the most famous
Democrats in New York State have remained studiously neutral
in the fight for their party's nomination for governor. But
now, advisers say, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and former
President Bill Clinton have concluded that a victory by H.
Carl McCall would help Mrs. Clinton's political prospects
and those of New York Democrats as a whole.
(New York Times)
(Albany Times Union)
Both candidates for the Democratic
gubernatorial nomination in New York are trolling for votes
by saying that they want the Indian Point nuclear reactors
closed. The Republican incumbent, in a shift, refuses to
rule out the idea.
(New York Times)
Touting his connections to the Queens
political establishment yesterday, Democratic Assembly
hopeful Barry Grodenchik received a slew of endorsements
from party bigwigs, including the borough president and her
predecessor.
(New York Daily News)
Suspicious signatures on a nominating
petition got a surprise candidate for the newly-created 22nd
State Senate District thrown off of the Conservative Party
ballot.The names of a judge and a dead man were among the
signatures on a petition nominating Ira Rudolph, 55, for a
spot on the party's primary ballot, said party spokesman
Jerry Kassar. (New York Daily News)
Carl McCall questioned why Gov. Pataki met
yesterday with two family members from opposite sides of the
Crown Heights riots, charging the governor has no track
record as a "peacemaker." (New York Post)
After his running mate fled the state amid
allegations that he voted twice, gubernatorial candidate Tom
Golisano has tapped a Staten Island Conservative Party
activist to join him on the ballot. Golisano wants former
County Chairwoman Marylou Shanahan to replace Daniel Mahony
as his Conservative candidate for lieutenant governor. (New York Post)
An influential state lawmaker yesterday
charged that Mayor Bloomberg's planned overhaul of special
education violates a new state law. "The attempt to
circumvent the deal we made in the school-governance law
shows bad judgment and bad faith," said Assemblyman Steven
Sanders (D-Manhattan), chairman of the Assembly's Education
Committee. (New York Post)
Gov. George Pataki's re-election campaign
faced an embarrassment yesterday when elections workers said
thousands of Independence Party voter registrations
submitted by Pataki's camp may be fraudulent. Bearing
phoney addresses and ages, forged signatures, and names like
Manuel Noriega and Romeo Shagwell, the registrations were
collected by workers paid bounties for each new voter by the
Pataki campaign. (Newsday)
State Senate candidate Charles Castro of
Jackson Heights has put out a Zelig-like campaign flier
showing him with fellow Democrat H. Carl McCall, a candidate
for governor. This is news to the McCall camp. (Newsday)
Comptroller Carl McCall, who calls himself
the "largest single investor in America," has used the power
of the state's $112 billion pension fund to insulate major
corporations from shareholder challenges on environmental,
human rights, and other issues, contradicting his own
progressive history and casting a cloud over his
gubernatorial ambitions. (
Village Voice)
At the first debate between the Democratic
gubernatorial candidates on Aug. 18, Andrew Cuomo exuded
kindness and generosity of spirit. He called his opponent,
State Comptroller Carl McCall, a "good man," even as he
politely asked him to cease what he characterized as attacks
on the Cuomo family. Afterwards, he told reporters, "I have
never said anything unkind about Carl McCall, I have never
said anything unkind about his family, and I never will."
(New
York Observer)
On a late-August morning three weeks before
Primary Day, Bill Mulrow, underdog candidate for State
Comptroller, surrounded himself with state union leaders in
a nondescript conference room at the state A.F.L.-C.I.O.
headquarters in Albany. Mr. Mulrow pulled apart his campaign
schedule to be at this event, a press conference announcing
the endorsement of the 2.3-million-member union. In the
words of Mr. Mulrow's spokesman, "This is big." (New York
Observer)
August
20, 2002
Carl McCall looked beyond the coming
Democratic primary yesterday and spent the day campaigning
against the Republican candidate for governor, George E.
Pataki, whom he accused of postponing difficult decisions
for the state until after the election.
(New York Times)
In a blow to the Bronx Democratic Party
organization, a State Supreme Court justice ruled yesterday
that the candidate backed by the party for a State Senate
seat be removed from the ballot because she did not meet the
residency requirements.The justice, Robert G. Seewald, said
the candidate, Raysa Castillo, a lawyer, had too many
inconsistencies in her claims of Bronx residency.
(New York Times)
Andrew Cuomo, trailing H. Carl McCall in the
polls for the Democratic nomination for governor, said
Monday that he plans to focus criticism on his opponent's
performance as state comptroller for the past eight years.
(Albany Times Union)
Gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo on Monday
warned he would trim the state work force to deal with
budget deficits, even considering layoffs if necessary.
(Albany Times Union)
The new 39th Assembly District in Jackson
Heights-Corona has a dubious distinction: Of the 151
districts in the state, it has the fewest number of voters.
That's because the district, created for Latinos in Queens
to elect their first state representative, is one of the
most heavily immigrant communities in the nation, with many
residents who are not yet citizens.
(Newsday)
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate
discusses George Pataki's term as governor, the commuter tax
and the World Trade Center with Times reporter Shaila Dewan.
(New York Times)
August
19, 2002
The Democratic candidates for governor met
in their first debate yesterday, and for one hour
steadfastly avoided attacking each other, agreeing on
several key issues and reserving any ire for Gov. George E.
Pataki.
(New York Times)
(Albany Times Union)
It was a 30-minute ride from a heliport to a
campaign stop in Manhattan, but during that time, Tom
Golisano, the billionaire third-party candidate for
governor, lost no time unleashing sharp, and relentless,
criticisms of the man he hopes to unseat.
(New York Times)
A State Supreme Court referee recommended on
Friday that Raysa Castillo, the candidate backed by the
Bronx Democratic Party organization to run for the senate
seat now held by Pedro Espada Jr., be removed from the
ballot for the Sept. 10 primary.
(New York Times)
(New York Daily News)
August
18, 2002
H. Carl McCall is in the pulpit, caught for
a moment in the spirit of a black church in Rochester. He
sheds his usual reserve and turns to the story of Moses to
explain why he is running for governor after more than 30
years in New York politics.
(New York Times)
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall on Sunday
declined a request to outline what he thought might be the
good qualities of his opponent for the Democratic nomination
for governor, former federal Housing Secretary Andrew
Cuomo. Cuomo, in turn, complained that McCall had done
less with investments from the more than $100 billion state
pension fund that he controls than his predecessor as
comptroller, Republican Edward Regan.
(Newsday)
(New York Sun)
August
17, 2002
The muted primary contest between Gov.
George E. Pataki and Tom Golisano flared yesterday, as Mr.
Golisano launched an advertising barrage against the
governor and the Pataki camp accused him of lying.
(New York Times)
On any given recent weekend, it has been
difficult to ignore the distinct sights and sounds of
politics amid the street fairs, block parties and parades in
the University Heights section of the Bronx. That is
because that part of the Bronx is the scene of a race for a
newly-drawn seat in the State Assembly, one for which there
is hearty competition between two relatively new faces to
elective politics.
(New York Times)
In his first serious attacks on Gov. George
E. Pataki during this campaign, Tom Golisano, a third-party
candidate for governor, unveiled three new ads yesterday.
His campaign said the television ads, one 60 seconds long
and the others 30 seconds, are to be broadcast heavily in
all markets statewide.
(New York Times)
August
16, 2002
H. Carl McCall has become a strong
front-runner in the race for the Democratic nomination for
governor, according to several Democratic Party strategists
and a major poll released today, even though Andrew M. Cuomo
has waged an aggressive campaign.
(New York Times)
(New York Post)
For the first time in their long, parallel
careers, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is featured in a
campaign advertisement for Gov. George E. Pataki. This
30-second advertisement began to be broadcast statewide
yesterday.
(New York Times)
Democratic state comptroller candidate
William Mulrow picked up the endorsement of the largest
state employees union Thursday in what could prove a
substantial boost to his primary race against Alan Hevesi.
(Albany Times Union)
The redistricting of legislative boundaries
every 10 years gives politicians the jitters as they face
the prospect of representing new neighborhoods, which can in
turn invite challenges to their re-election. But it appears
that the Queens delegation to the state Legislature has
nothing to worry about this year.
(Newsday)
August
15, 2002
With some investments from businesses in China, Willets
Point Industrial Park could be transformed into a vibrant productive
community with 40,000 jobs.That's what Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin
(D-Flushing), envisioned on his recent trip to China, where he met with
leaders and heads of businesses to discuss potential projects for
downtown Flushing.
(New York Daily News)
Adding to the infighting among Brooklyn Democrats, Rep.
Edolphus Towns endorsed former Councilman Martin Malave Dilan's bid to
unseat State Sen. Nellie Santiago."The district has been somewhat
neglected over the past several years, and Martin has demonstrated his
commitment and love for the community," said Towns yesterday as he stood
with Dilan and several other endorsers on the steps of City Hall. "I'm
endorsing him enthusiastically."
(New York Daily News)
A candidate for the Assembly seat in the new 39th
District is urging locals to register to vote before today's state
primary election deadline.Jose Peralta joined local Latino leaders this
week to register voters as he set his sights on representing the people
of Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst.
(New York Daily News)
A Bensonhurst legislator has lashed out at the mayor's
plan to move community superintendents to Manhattan, charging it will
muzzle local input in the schools."It is a symbol that the
superintendents are going to be totally accountable to the mayor," said
Assemblyman William Colton (D-Bensonhurst, Gravesend). "That's exactly
the symbolism I don't agree with."
(New York Daily News)
Catching a Giants workout on Wednesday, Gov. George
Pataki said he would like to bring the Super Bowl to New York but dodged
questions about his personal chances of winning the big political game
on Nov. 5.
(Albany Times Union)
Former federal Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, who is
seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, last year accepted
$44,500 in campaign contributions linked to a movie producer accused of
being a mob associate.
(Albany Times Union)
The money from the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, a
43-member tribe that operates a casino in Indio, Calif., arrived in Mr.
CuomoÍs campaign account on July 30, two weeks after the Democratic
candidate met with the convicted CEO, who is still on probation, and
other tribal officials at the 1,700-acre reservation east of Palm
Springs.
(New York Sun)
August
14, 2002
H. Carl McCall, the state comptroller who is
running for governor, is campaigning on his record of
pursuing corporate wrongdoers, highlighting his lawsuits on
shareholders' behalf. When it comes to driving down legal
costs of such cases, however, Mr. McCall has left others to
take the lead role. Campaign records show the three law
firms he has hired to mount the shareholder battles are all
major contributors to his campaigns.
(New York Times)
Andrew Cuomo, who has sniped at his rivals
for taking money from scandal-ridden companies, last year
accepted $44,500 in campaign contributions tied to a movie
producer accused of being a mob associate.
(New York Daily News)
Bronx State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. was a
Democrat again yesterday, at least for the moment.His
expulsion by Bronx Democratic Party officials for canoodling
with Albany Senate Republicans was upheld Friday by a judge.
But on Monday, an appeals court judge issued a stay, letting
Espada remain in the party for now.
(New York Daily News)
New York state should be collecting taxes on
the sales of cigarettes and gasoline by Indian vendors to
non-Indians, Comptroller H. Carl McCall, a gubernatorial
hopeful, said Tuesday.
(Albany Times Union)
Instead of expounding on his favorite theme
of how Gov. George Pataki has failed New York, H. Carl
McCall on Tuesday found himself hotly defending the
triumph-over-poverty life story that has become the hallmark
of his gubernatorial campaign.
(Albany Times Union)
August
13, 2002
George E. Pataki returned campaign cash from
WorldCom, but not Adelphia Communications, Tyco
International or Global Crossing. H. Carl McCall gave up
ImClone Systems money, but not Global Crossing money. Andrew
M. Cuomo hedged on Enron, returning some but keeping most.
In the current wave of corporate scandal and collapse, the
old question of which campaign contributions a politician
should or should not keep has taken on a new urgency.
(New York Times)
Reports to the state show that much of H.
Carl McCall's campaign staff recently went on the payroll of
his choice for lieutenant governor, Dennis Mehiel, a highly
unusual cost-sharing that is saving Mr. McCall's
gubernatorial campaign thousands of dollars.
(New York Times)
(New York Post)
It wasn't the governor's idea, Fernando
Mateo said. Nor did it have anything to do with the $400,000
he had raised for George E. Pataki. Or the legislative
support he feels Mr. Pataki has provided the Dominican
community.
(New York Times)
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall on Monday
was appointed lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit
against fallen telecommunications giant WorldCom Inc., some
of its officers and directors and its accounting firm,
Arthur Andersen LLP.
(Albany Times Union)
The Pataki administration is coming under
fire for failing to collect up to $250 million a year in
cigarette taxes from sales made by Native Americans and
out-of-state sellers.
(New York Post)
Records reveal gubernatorial hopeful Carl
McCall never lived in a public-housing project, despite his
repeated claims to have done so.
(New York Post)
A powerful lawmaker is proposing a sweeping
package of reforms to try to turn around New York state's
troubled middle schools. "Obviously there's a crisis in the
middle schools when you look at the test results," said
Assembly Education Committee Chairman Steve Sanders
(D-Manhattan).
(New York Post)
Bringing his gubernatorial campaign back to
the topic to which he has devoted his career, Andrew Cuomo
yesterday launched a two-day tour to highlight some of the
state's most impoverished urban and rural areas of New York
that Cuomo said have been neglected under Gov. George
Pataki.
(Newsday)
Republicans accused billionaire businessman
B. Thomas Golisano of flouting state contribution limits in
his efforts to aid possible running mates as he seeks the
Conservative and Independence party nominations for
governor.
(Newsday)
One of the candidates for state comptroller
said Monday he would try to become the authoritative voice
on state budget revenue projections if he wins the office
this November. Bill Mulrow, who is locked in a Democratic
primary battle with former New York City comptroller Alan
Hevesi, said the tough fiscal times facing New York dictate
that state budgets be developed according to reliable
revenue estimates.
(Newsday)
August
12, 2002
Strolling through the Edenwald Playground in
the Bronx during a neighborhood old-timers' day celebration
on Saturday, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, a state senator facing a
tough re-election battle, passed out business cards instead
of campaign literature.
(New York Times)
The hottest political battle in the Bronx
rolls into court and the Board of Elections this week.State
Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., his expulsion from the Democratic
Party upheld by a judge Friday, is expected to appeal.
(New York Daily News)
Sweat dripped from the brows of the three
candidates for governor of New York as they campaigned in 90
heat at Sunday's Dominican Day parade.
(Albany TImes Union)
Gov. Pataki vowed yesterday to keep pushing
legislation to require background checks of people serving
the vulnerable elderly.
(New York Daily News)
Gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall lashed
out at Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo for not returning
campaign money from a former member of the Enron board.
(New York Post)
Flushing's new Assembly district was
carefully crafted, state officials say, to boost the chances
of an Asian American being sent to Albany. But now some
community leaders, including two Asian-American candidates,
are complaining that Democratic Party officials did not even
consider an Asian for the seat before endorsing Barry
Grodenchik, who lives outside the district and works as an
aide to the Queens borough president.
(Newsday)
August
11, 2002
As allegations of corporate wrongdoing
continue to rock Wall Street, Democratic gubernatorial
candidate H. Carl McCall on Saturday said he will donate a
$25,000 campaign contribution from indicted ImClone founder
Sam Waksal to charity.
(Albany Times Union)
August
10, 2002
Barraging the airwaves with ads, Tom
Golisano, the billionaire making a third-party run for
governor, reported today that his campaign spent $12 million
in the last four weeks, a record pace for a statewide
campaign.
(New York Times)
(Albany Times Union)
H. Carl McCall's choice for lieutenant
governor, Dennis Mehiel, has thrived at running companies on
the brink, amassing considerable wealth in the process. The
rewards of his success, federal records show, have also
included several loans at below-market interest rates,
somewith no interest at all, from the companies he controls.
The practice is legal, but the recent wave of corporate
scandals has made it highly controversial.
(New York Times)
Nearly a year ago John C. Liu made history
when he won a City Council seat in Flushing, Queens, one of
the city's major centers of Asian-American life, and became
the first New Yorker of Asian descent to win elective
office.Since then, courtesy of legislative redistricting, a
new Assembly district has been created in central Queens.
Anchored in Flushing and 53 percent Asian in population, it
was designed to make the district ripe for the election of
an Asian-American candidate.
(New York Times)
The Democratic gubernatorial primary has
escalated into a full-scale advertisement war. Former U.S.
Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo released his second
television ad in two days on Friday, focusing on corporate
responsibility. Cuomo's rival for the Democratic nomination,
state Comptroller H. Carl McCall put up a radio ad that
focuses on his black heritage for the first time in this
campaign.
(Albany Times Union)
August
9, 2002
Tension among the Democratic candidates for
governor reached a new level yesterday as Andrew M. Cuomo
released a television commercial that State Comptroller H.
Carl McCall's campaign called the race's first attack
advertising.
(New York Times)
(New York Daily News)
Andrew M. Cuomo, the former secretary of
housing and a Democratic candidate for governor in the Sept.
10 primary, released a 30-second advertisement that will be
shown today on New York City stations and run for about 10
days, his campaign aides said.
(New York Times)
Jamaica Center was visited yesterday by the
head of the Assembly Committee on Tourism, Arts and Sports
Development, who was touring cultural and heritage sites as
part of a promotional campaign.Assemblyman Joseph Morelle
(D-Rochester) met with economic developers to discuss ideas
to attract people to the downtown area for entertainment,
shopping and historical tours.Morelle, former head of the
Assembly Small Business Committee, was invited by
Assemblywoman Vivian Cook (D-Jamaica).
(New York Daily News)
The state Republican Party filed lawsuits
Thursday in an attempt to kick B. Thomas Golisano's two
running mates off the Sept. 10 primary ballot, claiming
their petitions contain fraudulent and invalid signatures.
(Albany Times Union)
Charles Castro claims he is a "decorated"
cop whose life "reads like a movie script" - including eight
medals during a "distinguished" 17-year career in the NYPD -
and is worthy of being elected to the state Senate. But
Castro fails to tell prospective voters he is a disgraced
cop whose controversial career ended with his firing.
(New York Post)
August
8, 2002
The Democrats' choice to oppose Bronx state
Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. appears to have a residency problem,
dealing a potential blow to the party's dream of wresting
control of the Senate from Republicans this year.
(New York Daily News)
The extra time and money Republican Gov.
George Pataki has spent to woo New York's diverse Hispanic
community has paid off, according to the 10th annual survey
released Wednesday by a consortium of nonprofit
organizations.
(Albany Times Union)
Gov. Pataki took nearly $25,000 in donations
from the scandal-ridden telecommunications giant WorldCom
and a member of its board of directors who helped audit the
firm.
(New York Post)
His body in Israel but his mind firmly
focused on Jewish voters in New York, Andrew Cuomo yesterday
continued a whirlwind tour that comes just 34 days before
the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
(Newsday)
August
7, 2002
The Republicans who control the State Senate
tried to persuade two, and possibly three, Brooklyn
Democrats to switch parties this year, and at least one is
likely to make the jump, Senate officials in both parties
say.
(New York Times)
Dawn had barely come yesterday, and
Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr. was already perched at the
entrance to the Kingston Avenue subway station on Eastern
Parkway. Impeccably dressed in a dark blue suit, Mr. Norman,
the Democratic Party leader of Brooklyn and a 20-year
incumbent, insisted that his re-election battle was a
difficult one that demanded nearly 24-hour vigilance.
(New York Times)
This 30-second commercial, in Spanish, is
the second in H. Carl McCall's campaign for the Democratic
nomination for governor. Two Spanish-language television
stations, Telemundo and Univision, began broadcasting the
spot yesterday. A similar radio commercial is also on the
air.
(New York Times)
A group of insurgent candidates are mounting
spirited, low-budget campaigns against Brooklyn's Democratic
organization.The loose coalition calls itself The People's
Ticket and includes candidates for judgeships and slots on
the Democratic State Committee, as well as for state
Assembly and Senate.
(New York Daily News)
Just weeks before the Democratic
gubernatorial primary, Andrew Cuomo left Tuesday on his
second trip to Israel in five months, rejecting suggestions
the visit was politically motivated.
(Albany Times Union)
Three states have barred teachers and other
school staffers from recommending that a student be put on
Ritalin or any other psychoactive drug - and New York may be
joining them. State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) -
concerned about the growing use of Ritalin to control
hyperactive, disruptive and distracted students at the
behest of educators - proposed such a bill last year and
hopes to get it passed in the next legislative session.
(New York Post)
August
6, 2002
Andrew M. Cuomo called for the outright
repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent,
low-level drug offenders yesterday, and took his rivals in
the campaign for governor to task for not doing more to roll
back the so-called Rockefeller drug laws.
(New York Daily News)
(New York Times)
Andrew Cuomo yesterday admitted that he and
Gov. Pataki have at least one thing in common: They've both
smoked pot.
(New York Post)
With his own party divided over the primary
in the governor's race, powerful state Sen. Martin Connor
(D-Brooklyn Heights) is trying to get a prominent
conservative on the November ballot. Connor, a lawyer who is
considered an expert on election law, has been hired by
self-financed gubernatorial hopeful Tom Golisano to help get
Golisano on the ballot. Golisano, a multimillionaire owner
of a payroll company, covets the nominations of the
Independence and Conservative parties and also hopes to
create a new ballot line for himself.
(New York Daily News)
August
5, 2002
With a mounting charge of insurgent
candidates forcing Brooklyn's entrenched
Democratic leadership on campaign trail, Sandra Roper who has
bone to pick with the county party is taking
on its top dog, Clarence Norman.
(The Brooklyn Paper)
Andrew Cuomo called for a 25 percent
reduction in auto insurance premiums for New York drivers
yesterday and attacked Gov. George Pataki for siding with
insurers.
(Newsday)
August
4, 2002
Carl McCall is walking a tightrope in the
campaign for governor. His balancing act was on display one
recent Sunday, when he stood at the lectern of a black
church in Mount Vernon, in Westchester, and talked about
wanting to "make history" and "do something that's never
been done before."
(New York Daily News)
August
3, 2002
After a week of intense campaigning and
long-distance sniping, the two Democratic candidates for
governor of New York were ready to sit across from each
other Monday and discuss their differences. There is just
one problem: no one will give the public a way to listen.
(New York Times)
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall is dragging
the Democratic primary for governor into the "gutter," and
the man who will ultimately benefit is Republican incumbent
George Pataki, former Gov. Mario Cuomo said Friday.
(Albany Times Union)
Setting up a potential political war between
New York's two largest state workers unions, the
55,000-member Public Employees Federation on Friday voted to
back Republican Gov. George Pataki's bid for a third term.
(Albany Times Union)
A high-level Board of Elections official
yesterday said "it's clear" that Conservative Party
politician Daniel Mahony illegally voted twice, as the
Manhattan DA's office moved forward with its probe.
(New York Post)
August
2, 2002
B. Thomas Golisano, a billionaire making
his third minor-party run for governor, filed petitions
yesterday in his bid to enter the Conservative Party primary
against Gov. George E. Pataki.
(New York Times)
Amid mounting criticism from Democrats,
environmentalists and Westchester County residents, Gov.
George E. Pataki yesterday announced a safety review of the
Indian Point nuclear plant and its evacuation plan.
(New York Times)
(Albany Times Union)
Gov. George E. Pataki unexpectedly took
sides in a spat between the two Democratic candidates for
governor yesterday, reprimanding H. Carl McCall for saying
that Andrew M. Cuomo "had to run home for dad" for help in
the Democratic primary.
(New York Times)
Andrew Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign is
paying just $5,000 a month for office space advertised at
$30,000 a month, a cut-rate deal that his opponent said
violates state campaign finance laws.
(New York Daily News)
Conservative candidate Dan Mahony signed in
to vote at two different Manhattan polling sites in last
year's race for mayor - but didn't cast his ballot twice,
his spokesman said yesterday.
(New York Post)
August
1, 2002
Former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo landed squarely
in the thick of the Democratic primary for governor
yesterday as State Comptroller H. Carl McCall suggested that
his opponent, Andrew M. Cuomo, had to "run home for dad" for
support.
(New York Times)
(New York Post)
In the 10 years since she was first elected
to the State Senate, Nellie Santiago has never faced an
election without a Democratic primary challenge. Still, Ms.
Santiago, who represents Bushwick and Cypress Hills in
Brooklyn, has typically won easily with wide margins over
little-known opponents.Coasting to victory this year is
shaping up to be a far more difficult matter for Ms.
Santiago. She is opposed in the Sept. 10 primary by Martin
Malavé-Dilán, a former city councilman who represented much
of the area for 10 years before being forced out of office
by the city's term-limit laws.
(New York Times)
This is a new 30-second commercial from the
campaign of B. Thomas Golisano. It is titled "Three
Thousand." For transcript and analysis:
(New York Times)
As Gov. George Pataki made economic
development announcements upstate Wednesday, his Democratic
opponents discussed curbing corporate fraud and reforming
education at events in New York City.
(Albany Times Union)
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall is under
fire in court papers that allege conflicts of interest in a
WorldCom-related case because of a past job he held and his
political fund-raising activities.
(Albany Times Union)
(Newsday)
The New York City Board of Elections is
investigating whether B. Thomas Golisano's Conservative
running mate, Daniel Mahony, illegally registered to vote
twice and cast two ballots in the latest presidential and
mayoral elections.
(Albany Times Union)
(New York Post)
Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) said
yesterday he'll introduce legislation in the next session
banning judges from unmasking undercover cops when they
appear in court.
(New York Post)
|