The race to fill the job of City Council speaker is intensifying now that the election is over. Last week's Somos el Futuro conference of Latino lawmakers in Puerto Rico became an opportuntiy for the candidates to jockey for the support of their fellow Council members. The current speaker, Christine Quinn, will be term-limited out of office after unsuccessfully running for mayor. The process of picking a speaker is a complicated process, involving the 51-member Council, special interests and, most likely, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio. The speaker has authority over which bills are brought to the floor for a vote and discretionary funding. The Council will vote for speaker at its first session in January.
New in the Gotham Gazette
Videotaping police interrogations: In the United States, false confessions play a role in about one in four wrongful convictions overturned by DNA evidence. The confessions often come forth following hours of interrogation, resulting in a statement of guilt put on paper in front of the investigating detectives or on videotape. But advocates have long argued that a written or videotaped confession only tells part of the story. Capturing an interrogation creates an undeniable record that ensures the veracity of confessions. By Chester Soria. READ MORE.
Other Stories We're Following
Common Core Textbooks Have Plenty Of Typos (Daily News)
Federal Lawmakers Call On New Council To Fix Public Housing (Capital)
Citi Bike Station Placement Sparks A Lot of Complaints (NY Post)
MTA Successfully Fights Off Most 'Man-Under' Lawsuits (Daily News)
De Blasio's First Big Test Is Picking Schools Chancellor (Daily News)
State Won't Say How Many Assault Weapons Registered (Albany Times Union)
The Past And Future of The Tappan Zee Bridge (Lower Hudson Journal)
De Blasio's Many Promises (Crain's)
Former Stop-And-Frisk Judge Criticizes Court Ruling (Associated Press)
De Blasio Won Bigger Portion Of Black Vote Than Dinkins (NY Times)
Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio has started rolling out his transition team. He made it clear his wife Chirlane McCray will have a major role in selecting staff. The mayor-elect faces decisions on major appointments like police commissioner and schools chancellor. Before announcing his transition team yesterday, he met with Mayor Michael Bloomberg; both plan to meet periodically in the weeks leading up to the inauguration. De Blasio will have to begin to decide how he will work with labor and navigate his relationship with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature. The mayor-elect will soon head to Puerto Rico for a conference with New York's Latino leaders but plans to stay a little longer for some rest. De Blasio and his wife have yet to decide whether they will occupy Gracie Mansion; their son, Dante de Blasio, wants to live near his high school in Brooklyn.
How De Blasio Will Transform The City: With a resounding victory at the polls, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has declared a "progressive" mandate to counter the last 12 years under Michael Bloomberg. Now the Democrat has to match his fiery rhetoric with the more prosaic labor of governance. READ MORE
Today's policy agenda:
__ CITY HALL: It’s taken two years but the City Council has finally introduced a bill to act on recommendations made by a 2011 commission to reform New York City’s lobbying laws. The Council’s Committee on Government Operations has a hearing on the bill today, althought it already has the weight of the outgoing speaker and mayor behind it — even with less than 55 days to go until the de Blasio administration takes over. 10 a.m., 250 Broadway
__ ALBANY: Environmental advocates will gather to condemn Republican Party leader Ed Cox's stance on hydrofracking at 11 a.m. Senate Chambers, Capitol, Albany.
Other Stories We're Following
Support For Casinos Strongest Where No Casinos Will Go (Capital)
Brown May Discipline Students Who Blocked Ray Kelly’s Speech (Capital)
New Help For Poor Immigrants Facing Deportation (NY Times)
Coalition Seeks Public’s Advice on New York City’s Goals (NY Times)
Independence Party Fizzles at Polls (Daily News)
Developers Rush to Get in on Legalized Casinos (Daily News)
Cuomo Says de Blasio’s Pre-K Plan is Conversation For January(Politicker)
Schneiderman Offers Bill to Raise Military Tax Benefit (Albany Times Union)
Ray Kelly in Running For JPMorgan Job (NY Post)
Bloomberg’s Next Job (Wall Street Journal)
Millions Raised by AIDS Walk Spent on Rent, Not HIV Services (DNAinfo)
Bill de Blasio, a seasoned political operative from Brooklyn, proclaimed that the city had chosen a “progressive path” as he became the first Democrat to be elected mayor in more than 20 years on Tuesday. Riding a campaign that tapped into widespread discontent with the direction of the city under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, de Blasio trounced his main rival for the job, Republican Joe Lhota, with a margin of about 49 percentage points. It's the largest mayoral landslide since 1985. This means the end for Commissioner Kelly. De Blasio will now take his agenda to Albany, and it could be a paradigm shift for the relationship between city and state. He's likely going to bring a number of close allies along with him into office. Avoiding special interests will be a test for the new mayor. For example, the pro-de Blasio super PAC, New York Progress, spent more than $1 million on television ads painting Lhota as a Tea Party Republican.
In other races: Kenneth Thompson defeated Charles Hynes for Brooklyn DA, again. Voters approved of new casino businesses for the state. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will become the city's new comptroller. And voters sent 21 new members to the City Council, ushering in new left-wing era.
Voters reported problems to WNYC at 40 poll sites across the city, they vented about scanning glitches on Twitter, and NYPIRG surveyed 31 poll sites and found malfunctioning scanners at 19 of them.
MORE GOTHAM GAZETTE COVERAGE OF THE 2013 ELECTION
De Blasio's Election Could Mean Paradigm Shift In Albany: After years of being at odds with the head of the city that most of them represent, Albany Democrats now hope to have a partner to help them push a progressive vision through the state Legislature. READ
Cuomo Wins Big With Casino Ballot Measure: Gov. Andrew Cuomo scored a huge victory at the polls on Tuesday — and his name wasn’t even on the ballot. READ
Voters Squint As They Choose New Mayor: Small font size makes for headaches on Election Day.READ
Other Stories We're Following
Costa Wins Astoria City Council Seat (LIC Journal)
Republican Steven Matteo Takes Staten Island Council Seat Against John Mancuso (Staten Island Advance)
Helen Rosenthal Wins Upper West Side City Council Seat (DNAinfo)
The Brief, Ill-Timed Political Career Of Joe Lhota (Capital)
Corey Johnson Wins Landslide Victory For District 3 Council Seat (DNAinfo)
New York Is Investigating Advisers To Pension Funds (NY Times)
Two New York Counties Re-Elect Republican Executives (NY Times)
China-Based Investors, Developers Drop Huge Sums On NY Property (Crain's)
Cheap Natural Gas Hits New York City (Businessweek)
City Looking For Some Big Ideas For Downtown Jamaica (Daily News)
Two Big Greenpoint Apartment Towers Face Key Vote (Crain's)
Former Inmates Carve Their Own Path (Crain's)
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