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Campaign Finance Reform May Come with Mandatory Debates for Statewide Elections


cr cuomo

2014 NY gubernatorial debate (photo: C-SPAN)


With Democrats in charge of the state Legislature, there’s broad optimism that New York may finally create a state-level public financing system for electoral campaigns modelled after the program in place in New York City, including mandatory debates for candidates for statewide offices who receive public campaign funds.

In his executive budget released last month, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a voluntary public campaign financing program that would provide a 6-to-1 match for the first $175 of each contribution. The proposal also requires that statewide candidates, though not those running for State Senate or Assembly, participate in official debates before each primary and general election if they receive public funds, unless a candidate does not have an opponent.

Debates at the state level, particularly in gubernatorial contests, have been a thorny issue in previous elections. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, is notoriously averse to debating his opponents and has often limited the number of debates he agrees to participate in, and he almost always attempts to strictly dictate the terms of those debates.

In 2014, Cuomo refused to debate primary opponent Zephyr Teachout and would only partake in a general election debate open to all candidates, something he also insisted on in 2010, instead of any one-on-one with his Republican challenger, Rob Astorino. Cuomo used the messy 2010 debate to justify his lack of participation in debates. “I’ve been in many debates that I think were a disservice to democracy,” he told the New York Times in 2014. “So anyone who says debates are always a service to democracy hasn’t watched all the debates that I’ve been in.”

Last year, Cuomo did agree to one debate with his primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, who nevertheless hammered the governor for only agreeing to one, a scenario that played out quite similarly for the general election when Cuomo participated in one debate with Republican Marc Molinaro. The governor’s insistence on a low room temperature at the primary debate venue even triggered a discussion about sexism in the workplace.

Incumbent state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli participated in two televised general election debates last year after facing no primary challenger. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul similarly debated her opponent, City Council Member Jumaane Williams, twice before the primary though only one of the debates was televised. In an attorney general race with no incumbent, eventual winner Letitia James participated in a series of debates and forums in the Democratic primary, then agreed to just one general election debate against Republican Keith Wofford.

In New York City, the Campaign Finance Board, which administers the public matching funds program, organizes two official debates before each primary and general election for the three citywide offices of mayor, comptroller, and public advocate. Participation is determined based on financial thresholds for initial debates and additional nonpartisan criteria for subsequent ones. Participation is mandatory for any candidate receiving public matching funds.

Notably, the governor’s proposal only includes statewide candidates, which is more limited than the Fair Elections Act, versions of which have been introduced in the past in both the state Senate, by now-Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and in the Assembly by Speaker Carl Heastie. Both those public financing proposals included provisions for mandatory debates for all candidates who participate in the public campaign finance program.

But neither Stewart-Cousins nor Heastie have reintroduced the Fair Elections Act and it’s unclear if they intend to do so, indicating that Cuomo’s proposal may form the basis for negotiations with the Legislature. Asked about the Fair Elections Act and the governor’s proposal, a spokesperson for the Senate majority, Mike Murphy, simply said by email, “It is being discussed and we look forward to moving forward.” Heastie’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Jonathan Timm, a spokesperson for Senator Zellnor Myrie, who chairs the elections committee, said Myrie is working with other senators to improve on the governor’s budget proposal but had yet to finalize their plans. “The Senator is a strong supporter of public financing...and he is working with all parties to see how we can get to best system possible. Everything is on the table, including, possibly, debate requirements,” Timm said in an email.

Though a mandatory debate program is a desirable element for any public financing proposal, it’s not a top priority for advocates. “We don’t want the excuse of something not being perfect as a justification for not doing anything, which happens all too often in Albany,” said Alex Camarda, senior advisor at Reinvent Albany, a government reform group that is part of the Fair Elections for New York coalition.

What’s more important, he said, “is establishing the foundation for a public matching funds program in New York State and following the city model of improving it over time.”

He also said that though debates are important in informing the public and for allowing candidates to contrast their policy platforms, they tend to be more essential for elections that aren’t as high profile. For instance, the public advocate special election in New York City, which has 17 candidates, many of whom with little name recognition, running for a seat that many New Yorkers are unaware about. That’s the “poster child for the importance of debates,” Camarda said. Qualifying candidates in that field have now participated in two official, televised debates ahead of the February 26 vote.

At the statewide level, where the stakes are higher, voters tend to be more engaged. “In an era of social media and the 24/7 news cycle, debates are certainly not as critical as they once were,” Camarda said.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

E-Scooter Companies Ramp Up Lobbying for State and City Authorization


birdride inc

(photo: @BirdRide)


With Governor Andrew Cuomo proposing the legalization of electric bikes and scooters in New York and the New York City Council considering several bills to achieve that goal, the two prominent e-scooter firms looking to do business in the state are ramping up efforts to lobby lawmakers and other officials.

Bird and Lime are barnstorming New York with lobbyists as they seek to expand into what could be a massively profitable market. The e-scooter companies have already established a presence in hundreds of cities across the United States and the globe, presenting their products as affordable “micro mobility” alternatives that get people around while reducing carbon emissions and traffic congestion.

It’s an appealing argument that has been embraced as part of the broader public transit conversation by many elected officials and transit and street safety advocates, particularly in New York City with its crumbling subway system, slow buses, and crowded streets. And that argument is being spread widely through hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on lobbying.

At the state level, Cuomo has proposed giving municipalities the authority to legalize both e-bikes and e-scooters, which many, including Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, argue would need to happen first if the city is to act.

“Authorizing these transportation alternatives in a sensible and safety conscious manner will provide cheaper and more environmentally friendly transit options to New Yorkers and visitors who can use these options for work or leisure,” said Jason Conwall, a spokesman for Governor Cuomo, in a statement. The proposal includes mandates for the use of helmets, reflective gear, a bell or horn, and a maximum speed limit.

“It will also attract new businesses and generate job opportunities for New Yorkers, and align the state with many other states and cities that have successfully brought this technology to their residents,” Conwall added.

De Blasio has seemed open to legalizing e-scooters, though he has emphasized that public safety must be the first priority. “If I can see something that will create safety in this city and allow people to use e-bikes or e-scooters, I’m very open to that,” he said at an unrelated news conference in November. But while he is in favor of pedal-assist e-bikes, he has strongly opposed legalizing e-bikes with throttles, citing safety concerns, though without evidence.

At de Blasio’s behest, the NYPD has been cracking down and confiscating e-bikes, which are often used by immigrant delivery workers, and fining individuals and businesses (most of the fines are levied against individuals, as reported by Gothamist in January, contrary to de Blasio’s professed plan to target businesses). Meanwhile, the city launched a pilot dockless-bike program last year in July -- in partnership with Lime, CitiBike, and Jump -- which allowed pedal-assist bikes, which are similar to throttle bikes but run at slower speeds.

Scott Gastel, a city Department of Transportation spokesperson, said the de Blasio administration is reviewing the governor’s proposal. “If the State takes action to provide a local path to legalization, there will be a conversation about what makes sense for New York City,” he said in an email.

The City Council is already pushing that conversation, however, through four bills that were debated at a transportation committee hearing last month where Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg raised concerns about the “unregulated, illegal nature” of e-bikes and “particularly their speeds and irresponsible use by some.”

The bills in question -- sponsored by Council Members Fernando Cabrera and Rafael Espinal -- would remove restrictions against e-scooter and e-bike use, create a program to help throttle-bike owners to convert them to pedal-assist bikes, and create a pilot scooter-sharing program.

“Legalizing electric scooters and throttle electric bikes may seem like distinct issues, but they share a common theme: transit equity,” said Espinal, in a statement, “the principle that all people – particularly marginalized communities – deserve affordable, accessible, and safe transit options that get them where they need to go, whether that be for a job, a social engagement, or anything else.”

For certain City Council members, lobbying by e-scooter firms has presented a golden opportunity to attach e-bikes to the conversation, providing what they say is much-needed justice for immigrant delivery workers who have suffered under de Blasio’s crackdown.

“There’s no doubt that the reason that we’re talking about e-bikes today again is because of the money and the power that has been wielded by these tech companies, these e-scooter companies,” said Council Member Carlos Menchaca, in a brief interview outside City Hall. Menchaca has been among the most vocal critics of the mayor’s enforcement policy on e-bikes, calling the crackdown “discriminatory.”

Over the last year, Bird Rides Inc. has hired several firms to represent its interests including Blue Suit Strategies, Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz, the Mirram Group, Dickinson Avella Vidal, and Tusk Strategies, which has close ties to Council Speaker Johnson and is known for its successful effort in helping the ride-hailing service Uber avoid new regulations in New York City in 2015 (those regulations did pass in 2018).

David Estrada, Bird’s chief legal officer, is among several Bird employees who have also registered as lobbyists in New York. By the end of 2018, Bird had spent about $142,000 on its lobbying effort, according to city and state lobbying records.

Those efforts are ongoing and Bird signed retainer agreements with several of firms to work throughout this year. Blue Suit, for instance, signed an agreement to be paid $3,000 each month through March 2019 to lobby before city officials. Connelly McLaughlin & Woloz signed on for a $6,500 monthly retainer through the end of the year. The Mirram Group’s contract, which extends till August, is expected to cost $10,000 per month. Ostroff Associates is expected to receive $5,000 each month till the end of July. And Tusk Strategies’ contract was the costliest, at $25,000 per month for the full year.

Neutron Holdings, Lime’s parent company, similarly hired James F. Capalino & Associates, Urban Strategies, and Yoswein New York to lobby local and state officials for both e-scooter legislation and for expanding its dockless bike share service into New York.

“We are working with both state and city officials to improve transportation options for all New Yorkers,” said Phil Jones, Lime’s senior director of East Coast Government Relations & Strategic Development, in a statement. “Shared dock-free scooters can make transportation reliable and affordable for all New Yorkers—especially underserved communities that do not have easy access to mass transit.”

The company had already spent about $146,000 by the end of last year and plans more. Capalino & Associates’ contract runs through the end of 2019 with a $10,000 monthly retainer. Urban Strategies was retained to work for the company through the end of May for $5,000 each month.

Menchaca is adamant that e-scooter legalization should only happen along with e-bikes, and the e-scooter firms also seem on board since it advances their interests. “I was very clear from the beginning...that we’re not even talking about e-scooters till we figure out what’s going on with the e-bikes and fix that problem,” he said. “They understood that so they’re gonna play...They’re savvy. We’ll do it together.”

And he seemed to partly excuse the de Blasio administration, even as he criticized the “discriminatory focus from the NYPD” on immigrant workers. “We can’t move that much because of the state, the state needs to move to unlock our ability to legislate this,” he said. “So I wouldn’t say that the administration’s not listening.”

Does the mayor really care? “I think we’re gonna make the mayor care,” Menchaca said.

Council Member Antonio Reynoso sees the issue as indicative of a larger de Blasio problem. “The way we’re thinking about it is we’re gonna leverage the lobbying effort made by the e-scooters to make sure that we get justice for the e-bike folks,” he said in a brief interview in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

“I think it’s less about whether or not the mayor cares about lobbyists and immigrants and more about the mayor just being bad on transportation policy,” he added. “Let’s put it in perspective. Who it affects, how it affects them is kind of second to the mayor not understanding that he’s a proponent of car culture in a significant way. So whether it’s e-scooters or e-bikes, I think to him, who’s advocating for it is second to just bad policy.”

De Blasio finds himself increasingly isolated in his position. E-scooters and e-bikes are one of those rare issues where the interests of transit and street safety advocates on the ground line up with those of large firms with a profit incentive.

“It is indeed disturbing to continue to see Mayor de Blasio...continuing to criminalize the use of an e-bike which is an efficient, sustainable mode of transportation,” said Marco Conner, deputy director of Transportation Alternatives, in a phone interview he gave while riding a CitiBike, the bike-sharing program that de Blasio has expanded and which started to offer pedal-assist bikes as part of the city’s L-train shutdown mitigation plans. “Meanwhile, he’s en route to inviting e-scooter-share companies and has also legalized pedal assist e-bikes.”

Conner said the mayor’s argument that e-bikes are illegal and so the NYPD must enforce the law doesn’t hold water, particularly considering the mayor’s rhetoric about making New York the “fairest big city in America” with strong “sanctuary city” protections. The crackdown, he noted, exposes low-wage immigrants to the criminal justice system, opening them up to potential interactions with immigration authorities. “Every New Yorker jaywalks daily. Police officers jaywalk daily,” Conner said. “That’s illegal under local statute but you don’t see that kind of targeted crackdown.”

He also suggested that the city should institute a buy-back program for e-bike owners, similar to the NYPD’s regular gun buy-backs that take guns off the streets.

Conner did have concerns, however, about the governor’s legalization proposal, particularly the helmet and reflective clothing requirements, which he said are “well-intended” but would discourage the use of e-bikes and e-scooters. It would also harm the existing CitiBike program, which doesn’t require either, he pointed out.

“Helmet sharing is not a thing and will never be a thing,” he said, while the reflective clothing rule is “a recipe for subjective and racially disparate enforcement.” The governor’s proposal also gives motor vehicles the right of way over e-bike and e-scooter riders, which Conner said should be reversed.

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

Amazon Fallout, State Transit Hearing, Second Public Advocate Debate & More: The Week Ahead in New York Politics, Feb. 18


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

This week we're watching several storylines, even as it is a quiet week in city and state government in terms of action at the City Council and State Legislature, with both bodies largely on the annual mid-February break.

One is the continued fallout over the end of the deal to bring a massive Amazon campus to Queens. There will also be continued dissection of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 30-day amendments to his executive budget plan, which were released at the end of this past week and will help set the stage for the legislative and budget negotiations are set to heat up as the April 1 deadline for a new state budget fast approaches. Those negotiations are now also going to be influenced by what happened with the Amazon deal, including the fact that Cuomo is attempting to sow division in within the Senate Democratic conference, which he has blamed for sabotaging the deal based on the opposition of Senator Michael Gianaris.

Another key storyline this week is the special election for Public Advocate, which will enter its final week. The vote is set for February 26, one week from Tuesday, and there will be the second official televised debate on Wednesday night this week, with seven "leading contenders."

As always, there are several events to be aware of this week - see our day-by-day rundown below.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
Monday is the Presidents Day holiday.

At 8:30 a.m. Monday morning, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will give remarks at the Association of Towns 2019 Annual Meeting, in Manhattan.

At 11 a.m., City Council Speaker Corey Johnson will host "#BreakThePatent Rally with Council Member Carlina Rivera, Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, Former State Senator Tom Duane, PrEP4All Collaboration (#BreakThePatent Campaign) and Advocates" at the New York City AIDS Memorial in Manhattan.

Mayor de Blasio will appear on NY1's Inside City Hall on Monday in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.

Tuesday
Tuesday marks one week until the special election for Public Advocate.

At noon on Tuesday in Brooklyn, "Mayor de Blasio will make an announcement about Vision Zero." "After, the Mayor will attend the wake of Detective Brian Simonsen." "Later, the Mayor and First Lady McCray will host a Black History Month Celebration where they will honor Me Too Founder Tarana Burke."

At 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Comptroller Scott Stringer will deliver remarks at the New York Immigration Coalition Policy and Legislative Breakfast in Manhattan. At 6:30 p.m., Stringer will hosts a Lunar New Year Celebration in Flushing.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the State Senate will hold the first of five public oversight hearings on the “effectiveness of New York’s transit networks.” The hearing will take place at 250 Broadway in Manhattan.

On Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. at Lincoln Center, "11:45 AM Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and Secretary to the Governor and Chair of the New York State Council on Women and Girls Melissa DeRosa Unveil the 2019 Women's Justice Agenda."

Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. will be U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat’s State of the District event, at Our Children’s Foundation in upper Manhattan. Several other elected officials will attend.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Comptroller Scott Stringer will host a Lunar New Year celebration at Flushing Town Hall. Stringer will honor State Senator John Liu, the Korean American Family Service Center, and Sun Yup Kim, President of the Korean American Business Council of New York.

Wednesday
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, this week’s Max & Murphy will air on WBAI radio -- 99.5FM and wbai.org -- and feature interviews with public advocate candidates Jumaane Williams and Ydanis Rodriguez.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the 2019 Charter Revision Commission will meet in the City Council Chambers at City Hall for an “issues forum” discussing instant runoff voting and other electoral reforms, the redistricting process, the structure of the Campaign Finance Board, and “alternative campaign finance mechanisms.”

At 7 p.m. Wednesday will be the second official televised debate in the special election for Public Advocate, airing on NY1 television and the NY1.com website, among other places. The “leading contenders” debate will feature seven candidates seeking the position. The vote is set for Tuesday, February 26.

Thursday
At 8 a.m. Thursday, James Patchett, President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, will join Crain’s for a “Business Breakfast Forum” at the New York Athletic Club, discussing “the Amazon deal, EDC’s biggest projects and the de Blasio administration’s economic-development agenda.”

At 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will deliver his State of the Borough address at Samuel Gompers High School in the South Bronx.

Friday and the weekend
Mayor Bill de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show at 10 a.m. Friday.

Friday is the deadline for members of the public to apply to serve on the city’s new Civic Engagement Commission.

At 1:30 p.m. Saturday, U.S. Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, and State Senators Michael Gianaris, Brian Benjamin, and Robert Jackson will host a “Town Hall for Democracy,” discussing opportunities to get money out of politics and reform New York’s election system. The town hall will take place at Washington Irving High School, near Union Square.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will hold her annual State of the Borough event at the NYU Skirball Center.

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette



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