Assembly Democrats Pump $1.6M Into Races

If you think all the money is going into control of the state Senate, guess again.

Assembly Democrats spent $1.6 million in recent weeks on its candidates and campaign committee, campaign-finance records show.

Democrats control 102 of the 150 seats in the Assembly, but there are 19 open seats this year. Democrats transferred nearly $200,000 to Democratic candidate Angelo Santabarbara for an open seat in the Albany area.

They have also spent $2.5 million on behalf of candidates this election cycle. The most—$219,455—going to Democratic incumbent Anthony Brindisi of Utica. The full list is below.

Having control of 50 seats in the Assembly is an important threshold for Republicans: It allows them to block an override of a veto from the governor.

Assembly Republicans have spent $1 million on its candidates this year, including $364,000 in transfersto candidates’ campaigns in the past few weeks.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver spent about $27,000 of his $3.1 million campaign warchest over the past few weeks. He spent mainly to pay for his trip to the Democratic convention in Charlotte—including $2,341 at Gleiberman’s, a Jewish deli where he held a fundraiser there (above).

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Randy Weaver Endorsed By Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

As a Democratic county legislator in predominantly Republican Steuben County, Randy Weaver knows a thing or two about working across party lines. As a pharmacy owner for nearly 30 years, he’s familiar with New York’s regulatory climate. And as a fiscal pragmatist who supports government downsizing and campaign finance reform, he’s got the right ideas about cutting spending and taking the money out of politics.

He is the Democrat and Chronicle’s choice in the state Assembly’s 133rd District.

Weaver’s opponent is Republican Bill Nojay. Because Nojay refused to meet with the Editorial Board to discuss in depth his priorities and other issues, this page cannot in good conscience consider his candidacy.

Weaver offers a combination of forward and original thinking that’s rare in political circles. His position on hydrofracking, for example, is nuanced. Environmental concerns aside, he questions the perceived economic benefits, suggesting jobs will go to out-of-staters, whose need for housing will elbow aside local fixed-income renters. Those concerns need answering.

On campaign finance, he leads by example, running a shoestring campaign in the district that includes southern Monroe, part of Steuben and all of Livingston counties. Weaver would give the district a legitimate seat at the table, and the district would benefit.

WLEA UPDATE: 6:41pm, Bill Nojay has issued the following statement about the above D&C editorial:

“The editors at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle are all liberal Democrats. I didn’t bother with the interview because their endorsement was predetermined. The good news for Republicans and fiscal realists is that no one changes their vote because of some liberal newspaper editor. Most voters are smarter than that.”

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The Shame of Sheldon Silver

Even before the Vito Lopez scandal exploded, Sheldon Silver was one of the most corrosive, backward influences on our state Government. But with the spreading of the Vito Lopez scandal, it was unearthed that Sheldon Silver not only used taxpayer money to settle with Vito’s victims, but covered it up in his typical secretive, smoke-filled room manner:

Even as Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, the man at the center of the scandal, agreed to give up his power base as chairman of the Democratic Party in Brooklyn, it was Mr. Silver’s decision to make the payment and keep the allegations against Mr. Lopez secret that drew the most outrage. Public advocacy and women’s groups, and even some Democratic lawmakers, expressed shock that the state would pay so much without public disclosure. Governor Cuomo – who had previously called for Mr. Lopez’s resignation over a separate set of allegations – became the most prominent voice calling for an ethics investigation as well.

Shelly is trying to spin this as a one-time lapse in judgement. But unfortunately, he has done things like this before:

Crothers, 32, was a young staffer for an upstate Republican assemblyman when she brought an internal complaint in 2001 with the Assembly that she was raped by Silver’s then-counsel Michael Boxley.

Crothers and her boss met directly with Silver, who she said was callously eating pretzels as she recounted her story.

Silver initially put out a statement backing Boxley, who denied the charge. An internal Assembly investigation was inconclusive, and Crothers and Boxley agreed the matter was closed. She never filed a criminal complaint.

Several years later, Boxley was led out of his Capitol office in handcuffs after another legislative aide accused him of rape.
Boxley was charged with felony rape and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor sexual assault.

Now, this is not to say that Sheldon Silver is pro-rape. But the problem with Sheldon Silver is that he is pro-opaque government and pro-protecting his cronies at whatever the cost, even if that cost is protecting rapists and sexual abusers. Shelly is the most powerful defender of an Albany government that is above accountability by any means, either at the voting booth, in the legislature itself, disclosure of conflicts caused by outside employment of legislators, casino-sponsored bribery of his office, or his opposition to a legislative ethics panel that is independent and has teeth, a panel that might have made a different decision on whether to hide Vito’s misdeeds.

So the Vito scandal is really just another sub-plot in the story of one man’s quest to keep the Legislature completely immune from outside accountability. Sheldon Silver must resign his position as Speaker of the Assembly. Immediately.

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Morelle: It’s Time To Consider A Pay Raise

Assemblyman Joe Morelle, a key upstate legislative ally for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and possibly the next majority leader in the state Assembly, told Liz on Capital Tonight that it’s time to consider a possible pay increase for state lawmakers.

But Morelle, D-Irondequoit, wouldn’t commit to saying whether he would vote for a pay raise and would want to see the legislation first.

“Fourteen years, and I know this is not popular, but fourteen years for people to not go without some increase in compensation, is a long time,” Morelle said in the Thursday interview. “Now admittedly we have been through some very difficult fiscal times, those are continuing, tough economic times. And only in the last couple of years the Legislature has stepped up in partnership with the governor to address some of those concerns.”

There’s rampant speculation that the Legislature will return after the November elections to vote for a pay increase that could also be tied with a salary bump for Cuomo’s own commissioners and department chiefs.

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Sources: Carbone is GOP Choice to Replace Esposito

Multiple sources tell YNN that the Republican candidate expected to be announced Thursday for Monroe County’s 16th Legislative District will be familiar to voters.

Republicans are expected to announce Dr. Joe Carbone will once again run for the seat. Carbone ran for the district just last year against incumbent Vinnie Esposito.

Esposito won re-election, but announced earlier this week that he’s resigning next Friday to take a job with Empire State Development.

County Democratic Party sources tell us that current Irondequoit town board member Stephanie Aldersley will be recommended to fill Esposito’s seat until the November election.

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A State Legislator Says Pay Raises Are Coming

Retiring Assemblyman Daniel Burling, R-Warsaw, Wyoming County, got big applause on the Assembly floor last month when he gave his farewell speech and said, “Certainly the people of New York state are well served, and I will be back (after election day) to vote for your pay raise.”

Burling, who is retiring at year’s end, told Gannett’s WGRZ in Buffalo this week that he believes lawmakers will approve a pay raise after the election—as widely expected—and the standing ovation he received was “because I actually stood up and said what a lot of people were thinking.”

Burling said he believes that by raising legislators’ pay, they’ll be able to attract better candidates.

“I think if you look at the comparison for pay in my district where the average salary is maybe $45,000 or $50,000 a year that does sound like a lot of money,” Burling said, “but mind you we’re running a $140 billion industry here in New York state and to get qualified people to the legislature, who are not lawyers and not professional politicians I think they have to be compensated fairly.”

Lawmakers receive a base pay of $79,500 and most get stipends, ranging from $9,000 to $45,000, for leadership posts. They haven’t had a raise since 1999, and there’s the speculation is that they’ll give themselves a raise after the November elections.

They would have to do it this year, because sitting lawmakers can’t give themselves a raise—and a new Legislature would be seated in January.

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Assembly Expects To Pass Cuomo’s Teacher Evaluation Bill

The state Assembly is expected to approve Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s bill to allow for limited disclosure of teacher evaluations to parents and the public.

“I think it strikes a reasonable balance and pushing for accountability and transparency, and I think we’re not going overboard with the disclosure,” said Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes, Albany County.

Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Assembly Democrats, said the measure is expected to pass the Assembly.

“We will discuss it with members and we anticipate that we’ll pass the bill,” Whyland said.

Senate Republicans haven’t indicated whether they will pass the bill by the end of session Thursday.

Unions have been in talks with Cuomo and lawmakers over how much of a teacher’s evaluation to make public next year. But if lawmakers do nothing, unions fear that the evaluations would be made completely public because of a court case in New York City that made the evaluations in the city public.

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Third Candidate Seeks 133rd Assembly Seat

There’s a third candidate in the race for a Rochester-area Assembly seat.

Democratic Party officials confirm Steuben County legislator Randy Weaver will run for the Assembly seat vacated by Republican Sean Hanna. Hanna is running for the State Senate this fall.

This is Weaver’s second attempt to run for the Assembly. He ran a write-in campaign in 2010, but his petitions were ruled invalid.

Two Republicans, Richard Burke and Bill Nojay, will face off in a September primary for the GOP nomination.

The new 133rd District includes four towns in Monroe County, all of Livingston County, and four towns in northwestern Steuben County.

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Hornell’s Randy Weaver may run for Assembly

It seems Randy Weaver may run for Assembly after all.

A Democratic Designating Petition obtained by the Tribune lists Weaver as a candidate for the 133rd Assembly District after he announced in April that business concerns would prevent him from running for Assembly this year.

Contacted earlier today, Weaver declined to comment on whether he was running for office.

“I will probably be talking about that at a later point next week,” he said.

Weaver owns and operates Maple City Pharmacy and is a Steuben County legislator. He lost a write-in campaign for Assembly in 2010.

More information will be available in Thursday’s Evening Tribune.

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David Koon to Seek Old Assembly Seat

A familiar name is putting his hat back in the ring for his old district seat.
Monroe County Democratic Party sources tell us that David Koon will once again seek the 135th Assembly District.

Sources tell us Koon is circulating petitions to get on the ballot for his old seat.

Koon was the Assemblyman for the 135th from 1996 to 2010, when he lost the district to current incumbent Mark Johns.

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