New York State Assembly

From Downtown Express:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told Downtown Express Wednesday he is likely to support congestion pricing, but the Albany power broker also said passage is still in doubt.  read more »

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Michael Bloomberg will woo Assembly members at a dinner in Gracie Mansion Thursday.

An event for both the Assembly and the Senate is annual, but this year Bloomberg may have some specific goals in mind. Testifying in Albany today on Eliot Spitzer's budget—which cuts $500 million in fund promised to the city—he made the plea that New York City get its "fair share" of state money. The mayor is also hoping to get more legislators on board with congestion pricing (which both city and state lawmakers have to approve in order to tap into millions of dollars in federal funding), his proposed cigarette tax increase, and other issues.  read more »

The Assembly and state Senate are heading back to Albany on Thursday, according to a knowledgeable source. And Liz too! (added)

Since there is an agreement (sort of) on congestion pricing, and on campaign finance reform, expect some of that legislation to sail through both houses.

And maybe some gloating around the hallways about Eliot Spitzer's latest headache, courtesy of the Cuomo report.

New York City Congressman Gregory Meeks has been calling Hillary Clinton "Madame President" for some time now, but he is "very proud" of her closest competitor, Barack Obama, seeing him as a great choice for president — in 2016.

In a long-ish interview, Meeks also implied that he could see himself playing a role in the next administration, assuming, that is, that he first fulfills his quest of “helping Hillary Rodham Clinton become the next president of the United States of America."

Meeks, who alludes on his web site to his being part of a "generational shift" in black leadership, predicted that Clinton win among African-American voters.

"I think that as race moves on, you'll see that Barack will get his fair share but Hillary will get more than his share," Meeks said. "Cause that's one of the things that folks always forget about the black vote - it's never, and has never been, monolithic. The black vote has been something that always has voted their interest, you know."

Meeks also spoke on congestion pricing (he supports it), the future of the Democratic Leadership Council’s brand of Democratic centrism (he says the party should still be embracing it), the trips he has been taking on Clinton’s behalf. A (much) longer transcript is after the jump.  read more »

Here's the crowded hallway behind the Assembly Chambers where (mostly) Democratic Assembly members are hanging out, grabbing food and beginning to file into the conference room now that Sheldon Silver has arrived.

They're about to meet to try to reach consensus on how to approach the last four days of session.

The Queens Chronicle has a front-page story this week reporting that of all the state lawmakers representing that borough, only two support the mayor's plan to introduce congestion pricing.

"Of the borough’s six state senators contacted, only two — George
Onorato (D-Astoria) and Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) —
approved of the mayor’s plan. Not one of Queens’ 17 Assembly members
contacted favored the proposal..."

None of that comes as a particular surprise in light of the cool reception the mayor's plans have already gotten from the all-powerful Assembly SpeakerSheldon Silver. But it's nice to know where people stand.

Eliot Spitzer hasn't enjoyed particularly close relations with the Assembly since arriving in Albany. But recently, he's quietly had a number of Assembly members over to the mansion for wide-ranging breakfast and dinner conversations about policy. 

This morning, Spitzer had breakfast with the Assembly Democrats and Republicans from Western New York; last night, Assembly Democrats from Brooklyn dined at the mansion; Wednesday morning, it was Democratic Assembly members from Queens having breakfast at the mansion.

"He kind of asked us what was on our minds," said Assemblywoman Joan Millman of Brooklyn. "Many of our colleagues spoke about housing, the lack of affordable housing. I spoke about transportation."

"We all sat at a very large dining table," she said, "I thought it was a very free-wheeling conversation," she said.

Asked for an explanation, Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson pointed out that today's breakfast was "bipartisan, to discuss issues of importance to Western New Yorkers."

She added, "The governor looks forward to the opportunity to sit with other lawmakers and discuss issues of importance for this session and for their districts."

She confirmed that the other two meetings were exclusively with Assembly Democrats, with whom Spitzer has had a particularly tense relationship. (Although in fairness, how many Republican Assembly members are there in the city anyway?)

Speaking earlier today at a luncheon at the state Democratic Party spring meeting, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said that Democrats in New York need to focus on electing Hillary Clinton in 2008.

“As a leader of this state, we must deal with a reality that Washington deprives us of our fair share of federal support, year after year after year,” Silver said.

A Hillary presidency, he said, would help New York “finally get a fair deal on Capitol Hill.”

On his way out the door, I asked Silver about some of the Democratic Assembly members who have yet to get on board with Hillary.

“We’re an open party -- we’re an open committee,” Silver said. “But it’s fine. She’s going to win the primary. They’ll all be along.”

Two cities. Two Democratic conference fund-raisers. One night.

Last night, the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee had a fund-raiser in Saratoga while the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee had a fund-raiser -- with Eliot Spitzer -- in Manhattan.

It just goes to show that being in the same party doesn’t necessarily mean working together on policy or politics. Assembly Democrats have bucked the governor on a variety of issues -- picking a comptroller, agreeing to a budget, awarding pay raises for legislators -- while Senate Democrats have largely been more accommodating.

I'm guessing that the governor's choice about where to go last night wasn't a hard one.

Jennifer Cunningham, the influential executive vice president from 1199 SEIU who was an integral part of Andrew Cuomo's attorney general campaign, has just joined the Knickerbocker SKD consulting firm.

Cunningham will be working alongside Josh Isay, who worked on Cuomo's 2002 gubernatorial race, as well as Micah Lasher and Stefan Friedman, among others.

The firm doesn't include lobbying among the services it offers, which may limit the extent to which Cunningham can deal directly with state officials to affect the upcoming cuts in health care spending. In a press release, she said she was thrilled to "be able to continue to assist 1199 in a strategic consulting capacity."

The full statement from Knickerbocker is after the jump.  read more »

UPDATE: Cunningham will still be lobbying lawmakers on 1199's behalf, since she'll also be working with another firm, Featherstonhaugh, Wiley, Clyne & Cordo.

-- Azi Paybarah

Here's a novel reaction to today's news from Albany:

Bronx Assemblyman Peter Rivera is going after U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia for his decision to announce more charges against Bronx state Senator Efrain Gonzalez, Jr. today -- just as lawmakers were getting back to Albany to vote on their pay raises.

Rivera, who is the chair of the New York State Assembly Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, told me, "I don't understand the logic why he would pick the day we're in session to re-indict an individual again, when we're in session. Allegedly, and this is something I learned from the media, allegedly we're up here doing pay raises. Is the point to discuss, when the coverage is going to be 'pay raise' or 'no pay raise,' a member of the legislature gets indicted?

"Sound judicial policy would keep politics out of the administration of justice."

-- Azi Paybarah

Just two days after Mayor Bloomberg made headlines with yet another initiative to fight illegal guns, Andrew Cuomo announced his own gun control plan this afternoon while receiving an endorsement from the NYC Sergeants Benevolent Association.

Cuomo said that he had not personally conferred with the mayor or reached out to Bloomberg's staff at City Hall about the plan -- a statewide coalition of mayors to stop the flow of illegal guns. (Ring a bell?)

But as it turns out, his campaign had reached out. And, according to the mayor's press office, Cuomo did too.

"I shared the proposal with the mayor's office in advance," said Wendy Katz, Cuomo's press secretary, who emphasized that the proposal was not coordinated with City Hall.

Katz also stressed that the coalition Cuomo proposed is not a rip off of the national one the mayor has spearheaded but that it is "building on the one that he formed in 2000," which followed the Smith & Wesson agreement that established gunmaker codes of conduct.

(Interestingly, that proposal was the one that prompted the New York Post to report in 2000 that Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer were "at each other's throats over getting credit for the Smith & Wesson safer-guns deal.")

Is this another example of an aspiring politician following Bloomberg's lead?

Or was the timing merely coincidental?

Here's what Stu Loeser had to say about the matter: "Cuomo did speak with Ed Skyler, who is heading up the mayor's gun initiative, this morning as a courtesy head's up. He called this morning before the event, I don't know if they connected before the event or after."

And, he added somewhat diplomatically, "The more the issue of illegal guns is talked about the happier we are."  read more »

Anyway, judge for yourself: the release is after the jump.

- Jason Horowitz

Here's something worth keeping an eye on: an announcement in the New York State Assembly of hearings on redistricting.

For good government types, redistricting would be a dream, wresting the reigns of power from the autocratic hands of legislative leaders and giving citizens a legitimate chance at unseating sinecured incumbents from their purposefully drawn districts.

But will Sheldon Silver really want to change any part of the system that has allowed him to compile a 105-seat, veto-proof majority?

Blair Horner, legislative director for NYPIRG, thinks Silver may not have a choice, optimistically telling Newsday's Lauren Weber that "it'll be hard for them to have hearings and then do nothing, especially with a new governor coming in who wants to see some changes."

Anyone out there want to take that bet?

Lord Richard Rogers--the architect who almost lost his job on the Javits Center expansion--is no Lenora Fulani Lenora Fulani. That's one of her allies in the Independence Party, attorney Harry Kresky explained it during a party meeting on Saturday in midtown.

According to Kresky,

Shelly Silver, the speaker of the New York State Assembly [and] Anthony Weiner, a congressman who ran for mayor, both Jews by the way, essentially said that unless this architect recanted, backed down,and said that he is pro-Israel, and that he attended the meeting by accident, that they would make sure he didn't get the contract. And unlike Dr. Fulani, this architect backed down and recanted. So that's the level of muscling that's going on in the Independence Party and in the country right now.

By the way.

--Azi Paybarah

The Web site of the New York State Assembly still lists Clarence Norman as the Assembly Member from Brooklyn's 41st District, but the ex-boss's bio has vanished. And there's apparently "no picture available."  read more »