NEW ITEM
In a new item to the family blog, I will be posting Michael's musings on NY State politics (which he writes for a column in The Jewish Star. Feel free to comment.
Eye On Albany
New Job, Old Tactics
Politicians try not to make sweeping pronouncements or promises. The trick is to under promise and over deliver Not the opposite. Governor Eliot Spitzer rode into Albany this past January on the back of a landslide victory and boldly promised that that on “Day One everything changes”. Only afterward have he and his team realized that it would be a unique challenge to fix everything and govern at the same time.
It only takes a quick look back at the new Governor’s first six months to see the tension between these forces. The fight over the replacement of Comptroller Alan Hevesi, the budget, campaign finance reform, congestion pricing, DNA database are all issues where despite his mandate Spitzer’s change agenda has come up short. What I am getting it is that being Governor is not like being the Attorney General.
Spitzer still seems to be playing the power game as if he is trying a major case or heading a major investigation Trying a case is win or lose but in Albany there is no winning unless all three members of the power structure agree. Sitting upstairs from him on the third floor of the Capitol are two men with as much power to decide the major issues as he has.
This leads us to our current situation. This past week, observers of New York State Politics were treated to some extraordinary political theater. Reports in the Albany paper, the Times Union, pointed an accusatory finger at Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, one of the “three men in the room”. The charge was that Senator Bruno used state resources, in the form of helicopters and vehicles belonging to the New York State Police to travel to political fundraisers and events.
To most of us that would sound like a gross misuse of the public trust that we have become somewhat familiar with in Albany. Senator Bruno is actually under investigation by the FBI concerning his outside business activities (our state representatives are entitled to hold down full time jobs since legislative work in considered part time). However, state law, as outlined by the New York State Ethics Commission, says that elected officials may travel for official business and then conduct political activity secondary to official activity. Several people have come forward to say that they met with Bruno officially during these trips. That would have been the end of the issue.
By the end of last week, we learned that Governor Spitzer had ordered the State Police to track Bruno’s movements and log them. This request was made back in April as the conflict between Spitzer and Bruno began to intensify in the wake of the 2007 state budget. The Governor’s office offered several reasons why such surveillance was legitimate but when one of them was found to be fabricated the whole incident has prompted a flood of questions over our new Governor’s modus operandi.
Spitzer has made no secret of his ambition to win a Democratic majority in the New York State Senate in the 2008 election. To Joe Bruno and the rest of the current Republican majority that ambition is nothing less than a declaration of political war. Spitzer’s team has apparently looked to go after Bruno in the same manner that they went after the various companies and industries that they took on from the Attorney General’s office; investigate, subpoena, leak to the press, and establish more leverage to make a deal.
The problem for the Spitzer administration is that Joe Bruno and the Republicans have even less incentive now to make a deal on any issue pending in Albany. Why should they make the Governor look good if he has pledged to defeat them come Election Day? And, with the possibility that the Governor misused the State police to investigate a political opponent swirling in the halls of the capitol, Bruno can sit back and watch Spitzer be on the defensive for a change.
The underlying issue here is more universal. How can opposing political forces, sworn to defeat each other each November, tackle major issues and fulfill the will of the people? The road to deal making and compromise will occur when the political cost of inertia is too high. That cost has never been too pricey in our state where incumbents rarely even face a serious challenge.
Since a Governor must govern, and Spitzer, who arrived in Albany with grand designs for change, has been unable to break the culture as he promised, the focus will likely remain on him to set aside his desire to crush Joe Bruno and move on getting things done. However, the Governor’s “salty language” comments towards Bruno and other officials in Albany will only serve to trap him in a zone where few accomplishments will be possible. Given the major issues that remain unfinished this year: power plant siting, a state DNA database, congestion pricing, and now medical malpractice premiums (in addition to tuition aid for yeshiva and non public school parents), it would behoove the new administration to look less at how they can unseat the Senate Republicans and more at how meaningful legislation can be enacted.
The Governor came in with many promises; it is time for him to deliver.
Eye On Albany
New Job, Old Tactics
Politicians try not to make sweeping pronouncements or promises. The trick is to under promise and over deliver Not the opposite. Governor Eliot Spitzer rode into Albany this past January on the back of a landslide victory and boldly promised that that on “Day One everything changes”. Only afterward have he and his team realized that it would be a unique challenge to fix everything and govern at the same time.
It only takes a quick look back at the new Governor’s first six months to see the tension between these forces. The fight over the replacement of Comptroller Alan Hevesi, the budget, campaign finance reform, congestion pricing, DNA database are all issues where despite his mandate Spitzer’s change agenda has come up short. What I am getting it is that being Governor is not like being the Attorney General.
Spitzer still seems to be playing the power game as if he is trying a major case or heading a major investigation Trying a case is win or lose but in Albany there is no winning unless all three members of the power structure agree. Sitting upstairs from him on the third floor of the Capitol are two men with as much power to decide the major issues as he has.
This leads us to our current situation. This past week, observers of New York State Politics were treated to some extraordinary political theater. Reports in the Albany paper, the Times Union, pointed an accusatory finger at Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, one of the “three men in the room”. The charge was that Senator Bruno used state resources, in the form of helicopters and vehicles belonging to the New York State Police to travel to political fundraisers and events.
To most of us that would sound like a gross misuse of the public trust that we have become somewhat familiar with in Albany. Senator Bruno is actually under investigation by the FBI concerning his outside business activities (our state representatives are entitled to hold down full time jobs since legislative work in considered part time). However, state law, as outlined by the New York State Ethics Commission, says that elected officials may travel for official business and then conduct political activity secondary to official activity. Several people have come forward to say that they met with Bruno officially during these trips. That would have been the end of the issue.
By the end of last week, we learned that Governor Spitzer had ordered the State Police to track Bruno’s movements and log them. This request was made back in April as the conflict between Spitzer and Bruno began to intensify in the wake of the 2007 state budget. The Governor’s office offered several reasons why such surveillance was legitimate but when one of them was found to be fabricated the whole incident has prompted a flood of questions over our new Governor’s modus operandi.
Spitzer has made no secret of his ambition to win a Democratic majority in the New York State Senate in the 2008 election. To Joe Bruno and the rest of the current Republican majority that ambition is nothing less than a declaration of political war. Spitzer’s team has apparently looked to go after Bruno in the same manner that they went after the various companies and industries that they took on from the Attorney General’s office; investigate, subpoena, leak to the press, and establish more leverage to make a deal.
The problem for the Spitzer administration is that Joe Bruno and the Republicans have even less incentive now to make a deal on any issue pending in Albany. Why should they make the Governor look good if he has pledged to defeat them come Election Day? And, with the possibility that the Governor misused the State police to investigate a political opponent swirling in the halls of the capitol, Bruno can sit back and watch Spitzer be on the defensive for a change.
The underlying issue here is more universal. How can opposing political forces, sworn to defeat each other each November, tackle major issues and fulfill the will of the people? The road to deal making and compromise will occur when the political cost of inertia is too high. That cost has never been too pricey in our state where incumbents rarely even face a serious challenge.
Since a Governor must govern, and Spitzer, who arrived in Albany with grand designs for change, has been unable to break the culture as he promised, the focus will likely remain on him to set aside his desire to crush Joe Bruno and move on getting things done. However, the Governor’s “salty language” comments towards Bruno and other officials in Albany will only serve to trap him in a zone where few accomplishments will be possible. Given the major issues that remain unfinished this year: power plant siting, a state DNA database, congestion pricing, and now medical malpractice premiums (in addition to tuition aid for yeshiva and non public school parents), it would behoove the new administration to look less at how they can unseat the Senate Republicans and more at how meaningful legislation can be enacted.
The Governor came in with many promises; it is time for him to deliver.
posted by Chortkov at 8:09 AM
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