All Over Albany

Run for your lives! It's... Cutzilla?

This video from HANYS -- the state's big hospital lobbying group -- gets a +1 for creativity (and use of Playmobil). But we also have to mark it down for giving the legislature artillery. If there's anything legislators don't need, it's a tank.

Also: don't people always sort of root for Godzilla?

(Thanks, M!)

Reaction to the legislative assault on salt

All this should probably taken with a grain of... well... you know.

As you might have heard, state assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) has proposed a bill that would ban restaurants from using salt in the preparation of food.

That hasn't exactly gone over well. A quick spin around the table for reaction after the jump.

Also: a scan of Ortiz's other fun-filled legislation.

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Take a good look

New York State's problems with political corruption came up during this past weekend's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me -- and the panel ended up cracking on Albany (at the 4:10 mark):

Paula Poundstone: It must sort of smart a bit when you realize how hard your worked to get there... Before someone runs for office in New York, they should probably make them go look at Albany...

Peter Sagal: See what they think...

Poundstone: Yeah, exactly...

Sagal: It'd be like a scare-straight program for potential politicians.

Poundstone will be able to get a good look for herself in April. She's playing the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall April 24.

We're guessing it won't hurt that badly.

[via @amymengel]

photo: Paula Poundstone

Embarrassed to be New Yorkers

David Paterson's favorability ratings since becoming governor, as tracked by the Siena poll

The Siena poll out today reports that 54 percent of respondents said they agree that "What's going on in Albany makes me embarrassed to call myself a New Yorker."

SRI also reports that 55 percent of those polled said they think David Paterson should serve out his term. That reverses a recent slide for Paterson across a handful of polls:

March 2: Marist reports 66 percent say Paterson should stay stay

March 3: Quinnipiac reports 61 percent say stay

March 5: Quinnipiac reports 46 percent say stay

March 8: Siena reports 55 percent say stay

Not that people are warming back up to David Paterson. This most recent Siena poll reports that Paterson's unfavorable rating is at its highest point (67 percent).

Here's the full listing of the poll results.

Save the Parks rally

That sign in the back puts it rather plainly.

B has posted a handful of photos from yesterday's Save the Parks rally outside the Capitol. Among them: one of Jack McEneny rocking the bullhorn.

Based on comments in reports from the rally, it sounds like legislators aren't too keen on the idea of closing down parks. Of course, who knows what's going to happen behind closed doors when/if the state budget comes together.

Earlier on AOA:
+ Thacher Park is on official closure list
+ The campaign for Thacher Park

photo: B

Reports: Ford's out of Senate race

Both the NY Post and NYT are reporting that Harold Ford has decided to not run against Kirsten Gillibrand for the US Senate.

From a NYT op/ed by Ford that will run in Tuesday's paper:

"I've examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary -- a primary where the winner emerges weak-ened and the Republican strengthened."

A Siena poll out last week reported that KG led Ford 42-16 in a hypothetical primary matchup -- even though many voters statewide were less than certain about her overall candidacy.

So, who's up next?

The word going around of late has been that Mort Zuckerman -- the owner of the New York Daily News -- has been thinking about possibly running on the Republican line. Zuckerman has mainly been a supporter of Democrats -- but apparently he thinks a run as Republican could bypass a messy primary. [CityFile] [NYT] [OpenSecrets] [NYT]

Speed reading the coverage of David Paterson

In retrospect, not exactly a dream team.

We've read (too) much of the reaction to David Paterson's decision to exit the race for the governor.

Here are a bunch of the quick-scan highlights -- about lame duck status, Paterson's work habits, calls for resignation, the budget, Andrew Cuomo and... yet another SNL skit.

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Paterson: I'm ending my campaign

David Paterson just officially announced that he's ending his campaign for re-election. "I'm being realistic about politics," the governor said.

Paterson touted his record after taking over for Eliot Spitzer -- on issues such as the budget and the reform of the Rockefeller drug laws. "I fought the good fight, I did what was hard and I put the people first."

The governor said he's "looking forward to a full investigation" of the allegations surrounding aide David Johnson. "I have never abused my office, not now, not ever. When the facts are revealed, the truth will prevail."

Paterson said he will serve out the "308 days" remaining in his term (you know, not that anyone is counting.)

NYT: Paterson called woman who was seeking protection from aide

The New York Times has published yet another story about David Paterson and his reportedly influential aide, David Johnson. And while the first story fell short of the hype, the one posted tonight raises significant and specific questions about Johnson -- and the governor:

Last fall, a woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that she had been violently assaulted by a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson, and to seek a protective order against the man.

In the ensuing months, she returned to court twice to press her case, complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it. The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that the woman was visited by a member of the governor's personal security detail.

Then, just before she was due to return to court to seek a final protective order, the woman got a phone call from the governor, according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for her next hearing on Feb. 8, and as a result her case was dismissed.

Paterson released a statement tonight in response to the article. In it, Paterson says Johnson has been suspended without pay. He also says asking Andrew Cuomo to investigate the matter.

The full text is after the jump.

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New York is waiting

Voters say they're still unsure about KG -- and even more unsure about Harold Ford.

Or, so it would seem from a Siena poll out this week.

The poll reports that voters continue to want someone other than David Paterson to be governor, continue to like Andrew Cuomo, continue to be unsure about Kirsten Gillibrand, and continue to think the state is headed in the wrong direction.

A few highlights after the jump.

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Rove/Dean at UAlbany

The ASP reports that Karl Rove and Howard Dean will engage in a political mixed martial arts bout a debate at UAlbany as part of the school's World Within Reach Speaker Series. The event is scheduled for April 8.

Details aren't posted, yet. But if this event is like the Colin Powell speech (also part of this series), it could be a tough ticket to get for people not connected to UAlbany. We'll update as we find out more.

It looks like Rove and Dean have participated in a handful of these debates -- last fall at DePauw University and Penn State; and just a few days ago in Portland and at Colorado-Boulder. Politics Daily reports the Rove/Dean fee for Colorado was $56k.

(Thanks, Patrick!)

Rove photo via Wikipedia | Dean photo by Flickr user Mr Wright

Ford on the Colbert Report

Harold Ford was on the Colbert Report last night. As Colbert remarked: "Evidently six minutes at my interview table counts as New York State residency." Ford continued to assert that he's "always been pro-choice" -- and said that his view on a same-sex marriage is "a changed position."

Colbert also recommended that Ford make a helicopter touch-and-go visit to Schenectady.

Kirsten Gillibrand was also on TV last night -- she talked with Rachel Maddow about Don't Ask, Don't Tell (KG is pushing for the policy to be repealed). That video is embedded after the jump.

Also: A Marist poll out yesterday reports that Gillibrand leads Ford in a hypothetical primary 44-27 (25 percent were "unsure").

And get this: the Marist poll also reported that Chuck Schumer's approval rating is now below 50 percent for the first time 2001.

Earlier on AOA:
+ It's on
+ Describing the candidates
+ Does she sound like a senator?
+ The quick scan of Ford/Gillibrand

It's on

You kind of get the feeling that Kirsten Gillibrand had just about enough of all the Harold Ford stuff yesterday. After tweeting about his "parakeet" comment, she then proceeded to seek out the media in an effort to repeatedly slam Ford.

To the AP: Ford was "unable to convince Tennessee voters to trust him or put their vote in him, and now he's moved to New York and thinks he should be senator."

To the TU: "I don't know who he thinks I am, but I'm certainly not going to be pushed aside by him and a few of his banker buddies." (Ford is on leave from Bank of America/Merril Lynch.)

To the NY Daily News: "He waltzed into his father's congressional seat after failing the bar. And then he comes to New York City and joins a big bank, and is now running with a few banker buddies and thinks he should be in the US Senate."

To the New York Times: "For him to say he is an outsider and an independent is laughable."

To the NY Post: "All we know about him is his record, which is abysmal for New York."

In polls people keep saying they don't know enough or have no opinion about KG. If this keeps up, you gotta think that will change -- for better or worse.

By the way: there is someone who has officially announced a challenge to Gillibrand for the Democratic nomination -- though his mom seems concerned that he's spending too much on campaign buttons.

Oh, yeah: In that clip above, Stephen Colbert named Harold Ford "Alpha Dog of the Week," in part for "Lifting your leg on New Yorkers and telling us it's just egg cream."

On parakeets

At the Capitol yesterday in Albany, Harold Ford said this about Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer:

"Understand that you are not elected to the United States Senate to be a parakeet, or take instructions from the Democratic leadership."

To which Kirsten Gillibrand (or whoever tweets for her) responded around noon today via Twitter:

"Parakeet?" I wouldn't allow my 6 yr old to engage in this kind of namecalling. And HF thinks he should be Senator?

Presumably she also wanted to add: "I'm rubber and you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks on you" -- but, well, you know, Twitter limits you to 140 characters.

Ford is also on Twitter. Sadly, there have been no @ responses between the two. Yet.

By the way: Ford had an op/ed piece in NYT yesterday about how the Democrats could chart a "better course."

Earlier on AOA:
+ Describing the candidates
+ Does she sound like a senator?
+ The quick scan of Ford/Gillibrand

photo: Flickr user Young in Panama

Describing the candidates

We couldn't help but notice the juxtaposition in coverage of Harold Ford and Kirsten Gillibrand this past weekend.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Ford, a five-term congressman from Tennessee, has given himself until the end of February to decide whether to challenge Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand in New York's Democratic primary, but in the first week of a statewide tour, he is quickly revealing what kind of candidate he would be: an effortless retail politician, equally at ease in baroque restaurants and Baptist churches, who makes instant, Clinton-like connections with voters.

And from the New York Daily News:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is turning herself into a leaner, meaner campaigning machine - showing a slimmer silhouette as a tough election battle looms.

Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) confirmed to the Daily News what observers have been noticing in recent months - she's dropped some pounds.

She declined to say how many, but outsiders are betting 15 to 20.

Let's just go on the record right now: we won't even think of voting for Harold Ford until we know how many calories he eats each day.

By the way: Ford is at the Capitol in Albany today and says he's strongly considering a challenge to Gillibrand for the Democratic nomination. [@kaitlynross1] [@WNYT]

Earlier on AOA:
+ Does she sound like a senator?
+ The quick scan of Ford/Gillibrand

Does she sound like a senator?

A Siena poll out this week reported that only 29 percent of respondents said they would like to vote for Kirsten Gillibrand for US Senate in November -- 45 percent said they preferred someone else. That's a trend that's pretty much held steady since KG was appointed to replace Hillary Clinton a year ago.

So why don't voters seem to warming to Gillibrand? The NYO's Reid Pillifant recently offered a theory that was new to us: it's KG's speaking voice. From his Pillifant's piece:

"Kirsten Gillibrand has what I would call a non-regional American young female's accent," wrote Dr. Bert Vaux, a sociolinguistics scholar at the University of Cambridge, who was asked by The Observer to analyze Ms. Gillibrand's public speaking. "Though I lack the phonetic expertise to put my finger on what exactly is involved in this, her voice quality is of the sort that is typically associated with pre-workforce-age white American females. Judging by the case of this woman, this speech pattern has now extended into higher age ranges."

Pillifant goes on to note that Harold Ford is an excellent public speaker. Here's Ford speaking at a MLK Day event this week (with Gillibrand in the background).

We always thought the KG/Tracy Flick comparison was cheap and wrong. But we have to admit that when we watched her "accept" the appointment last January, we thought: "It kind of sounds like she's running for student body president."

A few other bits about Gillibrand/Ford after the jump.

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A quick scan of the Paterson budget

David Paterson at today's budget presentation.

Updated at 1:44 pm

The Paterson administration officially released its proposed 2010-2011 state budget today. David Paterson called the state's financial picture "lugubrious" and said his proposal was "a budget of necessity." He also criticized past budgets: "We can no longer afford this spending addiction."

A (relatively) quick scan of the proposed budget is after the jump. It includes items about a soda tax, wine in supermarkets, speed cameras, The Egg and ultimate fighting.

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The quick scan of Ford/Gillibrand

We've put off writing about the potential Harold Ford challenge to Kirsten Gillibrand all week.

It's probably because whenever the story's come up, we've just thought, "Dude. Run. Don't run. Make-up your mind. All this non-campaigning campaigning is boring." (Maybe we're fatigued by Andrew Cuomo.)

So it goes. Here's the quick scan of the whole week of will-he-should-he-what-if...

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Paterson enters the octagon

"Sources" tell NYDN that David Paterson will include a measure legalizing ultimate fighting in his proposed budget plan later this month.

Reps from the Ultimate Fighting Championship have been lobbying for legalization in NY the last few years -- and apparently Paterson sees this as a way to generate revenue. A Bronx assemblyman floated the same idea earlier this year.

Colonie assemblyman Bob Reilly has been one of the most outspoken critics of legalizing MMA. That prompted a UK paper to wonder if Reilly was "the most hated man in MMA."

photo: Flickr user Lee Brimelow

State of the State speed read

You could spend half an hour listening to David Paterson's State of the State speech from today... or you could skim through this quick scan version.

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Poll: almost half of New Yorkers "disappointed" by same-sex marriage vote

So reports the Siena poll out today.

When asked if they were "pleased" or "disappointed" by the state Senate's rejection of the same-sex marriage vote, 47 percent of respondents said they were disappointed (41 percent said they were pleased).

The poll also asked people whether they would like to change the current system in which state legislators can have outside jobs (perhaps this question was prompted by the Joe Bruno trial). Sixty-three percent of respondents said they favored "changing the system" (31 percent said they favored keeping the same).

Of those people who said they wanted to change the system, 43 percent said they wanted legislators to "publicly disclose the size and source of their outside income." Twenty-six percent said they'd like to see legislators prohibited from having other jobs -- with no pay increase. And 23 percent say they'd like to see legislators prohibited from outside jobs -- but with a pay raise.

Here are the results broken down by demographic categories.

Speed reading the coverage of the Joe Bruno guilty verdict

We've sifted through the coverage of Joe Bruno's conviction on federal corruption charges.

Here are a bunch of the quick-scan highlights...

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Speed reading the coverage of the state Senate same-sex marriage vote

Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson speaking before yesterday's vote.

Updated Thursday at 5:30 pm

We've sifted through the coverage of yesterday state Senate vote on the same-sex marriage bill. Here are a bunch of the quick-scan highlights, including details of a protest planned for tonight...

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Inside The Capitol Press Room

The Editors were guests today on Susan Arbetter's new statewide public radio show, The Capitol Press Room. We talked about Upstate vs. Downstate, celebrity, the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and weltanschauung. The segment starts at the 43:00 mark.

It was great to see Susan in her radio "hut" in the press room (we'd call it cozy.) And, yes, it's been a while since the Editors were on live radio.

Election results highlights

The boards of elections for Albany, Saratoga, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties all have results from yesterday's election posted online.

Here's a quick scan of some of the notable results.

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