| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | Would you rather: Expose yourself, your staff, volunteers, political club members and community to some new or old variant of Covid-19 through thousands of required, non-socially distanced interactions…. … or get left off the ballot? With the virus far from contained in New York City but 2021 campaigns out in full force, it's a choice not many candidates are keen on making. Last year, by executive order, Gov. Andrew Cuomo shortened the 2020 petitioning period and reduced the number of required signatures for legislative and congressional races. But so far this year, hundreds of candidates vying for City Council, mayor, comptroller and borough president must still obtain hundreds to thousands of signatures to run. The state Legislature passed a bill Tuesday to cut those numbers down significantly — a New York City-wide position would require 2,250 rather than 7,500 signatures and a City Council candidate would need 270 instead of 900 signatures to qualify. But a big group of downstate politicos say they're not confident that legislation — even if it becomes law — would protect everyone involved. They also worry that even a reduction in signatures would still require the kind of face-to-face, particle-sharing, air-exchanging interactions that officials are specifically telling New Yorkers to avoid. Today, more than 100 candidates, local party leaders and activists are pleading anew with Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, legislative leaders and state Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs to waive all petitioning requirements for this year. Signers include Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who is trying for Queens borough president, and City Council Member Brad Lander, who is running for city comptroller. It's not something the groups and candidates would normally push, they wrote in a letter to the state's top Democrats . "However, given the specific circumstances of the 2021 elections, we feel canceling petitioning is warranted. Many of the party offices on the ballot this year will be uncontested, and the implementation of ranked-choice voting in the City of New York's June primary reduces the potential danger of 'spoiler' candidates affecting the outcome." In other words, nothing about this election is normal, so why not? IT'S WEDNESDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: EDurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com, or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold WHERE'S ANDREW? No public schedule available by press time. WHERE'S BILL? Holding a media availability. ABOVE THE FOLD: The Biden administration is planning to purchase an additional 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, marking a stepped-up effort to vaccinate the vast majority of Americans this year . Federal officials negotiating for the new supply expect to receive 100 million doses each from Moderna and Pfizer, in deals set to boost the nation's total vaccine capacity to 600 million. That would give the U.S. the ability to eventually vaccinate up to 300 million Americans, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday. "This is an aggregate plan that doesn't leave anything on the table or anything to chance," he said. "This is a wartime effort." Yet the companies will not deliver on those new shots until sometime this summer, raising the possibility of supply shortages that could stretch on for the next several months. POLITICO's Adam Cancryn and Rachel Roubein — Cuomo responds on MSNBC: "I say, amen. And the American people should say amen. You have the short-term issue, which is the confusion created when the Trump administration made so many people eligible but had no vaccines. That, we're going to work through. The president saying a 16 percent increase and states can count on that for 3 weeks, that gives us certainty." | | | | TRACK THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: A new president occupies the White House and he is already making changes. What are some of the key moments from Biden's first week in office? Find out in Transition Playbook, our scoop-filled newsletter tracking the appointments, people, and emerging power centers of the first 100 days of the new administration. Subscribe today. | | | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | "MTA STANDS FOR 'Money Thrown Away' during the overnight shutdown of the city's subways. The cash-strapped agency has not saved a cent by closing the subway to passengers from 1-5 a.m. each night since May 6, transit officials admitted Tuesday during a budget hearing with state lawmakers. The closures have instead cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority even more money, in part because overnight subway trains run on the same schedules as before the closure, but only cops and transit workers are allowed to board." New York Daily News' Clayton Guse — The MTA says it's losing $5 million for every month it puts off a fare increase. "NEW YORK CITY'S on-hand supply of first-dose coronavirus vaccine shots has dropped to about 7,700 , Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday — as he again beseeched officials to loosen restrictions on how many second-dose jabs must sit on ice in reserve. Though new supplies from the federal government are set to trickle in across Tuesday and Wednesday, the Big Apple entered Tuesday with only an estimated 7,700 first-dose shots on hand, down from about 19,000 the day before, de Blasio said during his daily press briefing. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines both require two doses administered a few weeks apart to gain the fullest extent of their protection." New York Post's Nolan Hicks and Aaron Feis — "During the first few weeks of the rollout, the New York City's Health Department had published demographics in their vaccine dashboard, but the data was taken down before the new year. Those early numbers indicated stark disparities in the first two weeks of vaccine distribution for phase 1a. About five percent of those vaccinated are identified as Latino or Hispanic and Black or African American, but these communities make up 29% and 24% of the city's population, respectively. White people received about five times as much vaccine." WNYC's Gwynne Hogan — Thousands of teachers have had their vaccine appointments canceled. — Dr. Jay Varma says two masks are better than one. ZACH ISCOL plans to drop out of the crowded New York City mayoral race and has filed paperwork to run for city comptroller, according to information from the Campaign Finance Board posted Tuesday. The move brings him into a much smaller field. State Sen. Brian Benjamin, City Council Member Brad Lander, state Sen. Kevin Parker and state Assemblymember David Weprin are among the candidates seeking the citywide office, which is often seen as a springboard to the mayoralty. The former nonprofit leader who helped set up the state's Covid-19 center at the Javits Center has around $485,000 on hand, according to the latest campaign filings. POLITICO's Joe Anuta — Meanwhile former reality TV star and businesswoman Barbara Kavovit is entering the mayoral race. YIKES. "FOUR FORMER investigators at the city's police watchdog charge they were fired for speaking out against NYPD officials for withholding potentially damning cop body camera footage captured during last year's racial justice protests. The quartet of ex-Civilian Complaint Review Board employees contends in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that police brass stalled probes — and that the agency ruled in favor of cops to please Mayor Bill de Blasio or top NYPD officials. CCRB Executive Director Jonathan Darche 'often skewed policies' to cozy up to the mayor and the Police Department 'for his personal and professional gain,' the lawsuit alleges." The City's Reuven Blau "THOUSANDS OF ACTORS, musicians and other creative professionals in New York City are at risk of losing or have already lost their health-care coverage because of coronavirus-related shutdowns. With Broadway and other theater closures now stretching past 10 months, actors and others in the industry have limited options for keeping their health insurance, which is often provided through union plans that offer coverage based on time worked. Enrollment through the Actors' Equity Association, which covers actors and stage managers, has already dropped by nearly a quarter, with 5,509 members covered at the start of this year compared with more than 7,200 at the end of 2019." Wall Street Journal's Kate King | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "WHEN NEW YORK announced new vaccine eligibility guidelines two weeks ago covering millions of additional state residents, one particularly hard-hit group remained unmentioned : he nearly 50,000 people incarcerated in the state's prisons and jails. Now, with state supplies dwindling and no clear plan for vaccinating incarcerated people, the virus that tore through the state's correctional facilities in the spring is roaring back behind bars. At least 5,100 people living and working in New York's prisons have tested positive and 12 have died in recent weeks, outpacing even the early days of the pandemic. But how and when to vaccinate incarcerated people as millions around the state wait has raised legal, logistical and ethical questions that the state has so far struggled to answer. Across the country, the arrival of a vaccine was hailed as a harbinger of the pandemic's eventual end. But administering the limited supply has proved challenging, and correctional facilities — where more than half a million people have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic — present additional complications." New York Times' Troy Closson MOUNT VERNON, STILL ON BRAND: "Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of recommending that New York state oversee the city's finances in an escalation of her battle with Comptroller Deborah Reynolds over financial information necessary to prepare this year's budget. In addition to asking the city council to formally request that a state Financial Control Board step in, Patterson-Howard said she was urging the Westchester District Attorney's Office to investigate Reynolds. The mayor accused the comptroller of committing official misconduct and obstructing governmental administration by failing to be financially transparent. 'She does not want us to know the financial position of the city,' Patterson-Howard said at a Board of Estimate and Contract meeting broadcast on Facebook. 'What is Deborah Reynolds hiding?' The mayor spoke after Reynolds did not show up for the meeting, where she had been requested to provide details of how much money was in the city's 39 bank accounts and how much reserve funds were available in recent years." Journal News' Jonathan Bandler AT THE CAPITOL: — Budget hearings have begun: Transit advocates are concerned about how the governor's withholdings could affect projects across the state. — The Cuomo administration has not released a report on child care availability that has been in the works for years and was due last month. — Republicans in the state Senate unveiled a package of bills aimed at providing direct relief to restaurants and small businesses while the state works out a more long-term solution. #UpstateAmerica: If you've exhausted your list of new pandemic hobbies, how about "Knowing Knots"? "Ice Fishing"? You — yes you — can become an "Outdoors Woman In the Snow" through a series of free online DEC workshops. | | | | GET THE SCOOP ON CONGRESS IN 2021 : Get the inside scoop on the Schumer/McConnell dynamic, the new Senate Bipartisan Group, and what is really happening inside the House Democratic Caucus and Republican Conference. From Schumer to Pelosi, McConnell to McCarthy and everyone in between, our new Huddle author Olivia Beavers brings the latest from Capitol Hill with assists from POLITICO's deeply sourced Congress team. Subscribe to Huddle, the indispensable guide to Congress. | | | | |
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | "THE SAME DAY that a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and tried to stop Congress from certifying President Biden's electoral victory, the brother of Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York received several troubling text messages. 'Your brother is putting your entire family at risk with his lies and other words,' one of the messages read, according to a criminal complaint. 'We are armed and nearby your house. You had better have a word with him. We are not far from his either.' The message included a picture of a home near where Mr. Jeffries's brother, Hasan Jeffries, a history professor, lives. The source of the threats on Jan. 6 remained unclear until Tuesday, when federal authorities in New York City arrested a California man and charged him with sending those messages, among others." New York Times' Jonah Engel Bromwich | | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | "AMONG THE DOZENS of pardons and commutations former President Donald J. Trump issued before leaving office, one name has left some law enforcement officials reeling : Jaime A. Davidson, notorious in upstate New York for planning a 1990 robbery that ended in the murder of a police officer. The commutation bypassed the typical federal process for seeking clemency, and was championed by an advocate who was herself granted a pardon in 2018. Experts said Mr. Trump's decision to cut Mr. Davidson's life sentence short was evidence of the problems that arise when presidential allies exert strong influence. And after a re-election campaign that emphasized law and order, with rallies that sometimes featured the pro-police Blue Lives Matter flag, Mr. Trump's decision was a baffling anomaly that upstate politicians, prosecutors and police union officials received with dismay." New York Times' Troy Closson | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Soon you can get your lotto tickets delivered! — 31 school districts in New York are under financial stress. — Oh yeah, students are definitely cheating more during remote learning. — Protesters who were violently arrested at a Mott Haven demonstration in June are proposing a reparations fund rather than litigation to address their claims. — Oh my: A barge ship loaded with polluted sediment dredged from the Gowanus Canal sank in the Gowanus Bay. — New York state parks saw record-high visits in 2020. — Mayoral candidate Ray McGuire released a proposal to bring back 500,000 jobs lost during the pandemic. — De Blasio said city schools will be open at "full strength" next fall, despite skepticism by the teachers union. — Andrew Yang backs a city residency requirement for newly-hired NYPD officers. — A plainclothes NYPD officer was shot after chasing a man in the Bronx and is in stable condition. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Joe Carella … Heather Nauert … Holly Bailey … Meredith Kelly … Keith Olbermann … Kayla Ermanni … Jared Favole MAKING MOVES: Shaun Donovan's mayoral campaign brought on several new staffers from Biden's presidential campaign: Brendan McPhillips, who directed the campaign in Pennsylvania, was named campaign manager. Rameera Robbalaa, who organized northeastern states for Biden, was named organizing director. Jeremy Edwards was the Georgia press secretary and will be Donovan's press secretary. Donovan also hired Aicha Bama as political director and Candace Wint as operations director. MEDIAWATCH — Avery Miller will be senior editorial producer for CBS' "Face the Nation." She most recently was a producer for ABC's "World News Tonight," and has covered every election since 2000. EXPECTING — "MSNBC anchor Katy Tur pregnant with baby no. 2" — Page Six … Announcement | | REAL ESTATE | | "THE MADISON SQUARE Garden Political Action Committee has donated to seven members of the New York City Council , a group that will play a decisive role in the future of the arena, city records show. Both MSG's owner, James Dolan, and the political-action committee have also given to candidates for comptroller and mayor this cycle, city records show. Mr. Dolan has also donated in the past to citywide and borough president candidates. But the donations to the council members, and two other candidates for council seats, come at a critical time for the future of the world's most famous arena, which is eight years into its 10-year special permit granted by the City Council in 2013 that allows it to operate. The donations also come as Gov. Andrew Cuomo discussed acquiring part of the Garden for his expanded Penn Station project." Wall Street Journal's Katie Honan "THE COVID-19 pandemic has been hell on New York's tourism-heavy hotel industry. New data released by the Department of City Planning showed 146 of the city's 705 hotels have closed — or 20 percent. The closures account for 42,030 or one-third of the city's 128,000 hotel rooms. The hotel industry won't fully recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2025, the analysis said. But the head of the New York City Hotel Association said the industry's depression is worse than portrayed by the city." New York Post's Carl Campanile
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