| | | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin and Anna Gronewold with Jonathan Custodio | Presented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East | Regardless of whether you celebrated romance or patriotism over the double holiday weekend, you probably had more fun than Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The governor was in Washington, D.C., on Friday during a frenzied fallout from reports his administration withheld certain nursing home death numbers for fear of federal investigation. And he didn't emerge to address the situation until Monday, during a nearly 90-minute virtual briefing largely focused on telling his side of the story. Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, who was at the center of the latest snafu, was at the briefing table as usual, but did not chime in. Cuomo offered his closest attempt at an apology yet for the monthslong delays in releasing the data. His administration should have been more candid about their reasoning, he said, because the silence created "a void" which led to guessing games that presumed malicious intent. "Apologize? Look I have said repeatedly, we made a mistake in creating the void," Cuomo said. "The void allowed misinformation and conspiracy, and now people are left with the thought of 'Did my loved one have to die?' And that is a brutal, brutal question to pose to a person. And I want everyone to know everything was done — everything was done — by the best minds in the best interest, and the last thing that we wanted to do, the last thing that I wanted to do, was to aggravate a terrible situation." Cuomo said his staff had clearly communicated — through third-party channels — with members of the Legislature looking for the information, and suggested that perhaps their staff didn't pass along the messages to leaders. Spokespeople for both chambers pushed back on that claim as Democratic legislators expressed growing dissatisfaction with Cuomo's version of events. Both conferences have convened in various ways over the past week to discuss pulling back some of Cuomo's emergency powers and though they are not officially scheduled for any session days this week, remote voting means a full gathering is never off the table. IT'S TUESDAY. 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? In Albany with no public events scheduled. WHERE'S BILL? Holding a media availability. | | | | A message from 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East: For far too long, we have tolerated poor quality and profiteering in New York's nursing home industry. Albany needs to pass reform now to make sure nursing home owners are spending taxpayer money the way it's meant to be spent – on providing residents with the hours of quality care they need. We need your voice to make sure our loved ones are receiving quality care. Learn more about how you can help at https://investinqualitycare.org/take-action/ | | |
|  | WHAT CITY HALL'S READING | | MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in campaign contributions are flowing into the mayoral race, with some of the hottest spots in voter-rich areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to a new map released by the city's Campaign Finance Board . The board crunched data from donors to every candidate running for office in 2021, which includes several citywide positions as well as 51 City Council seats. For the mayoral race, the results provide a picture of each candidate's geographic base. And when overlaid with turnout numbers from the 2013 Democratic primary, the last competitive election for mayor, the data shows why City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Borough President Eric Adams are currently considered frontrunners. POLITICO's Joe Anuta "THE OVERNIGHT SHUTDOWN of New York's subways will start coming to an end next week — more than nine months after the system was closed to the public from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., MTA chairman Pat Foye said Monday. Straphangers will be able to ride trains and hour later — and earlier — starting Feb. 22, when the shutdown will continue from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., Foye said. Officials did not say when they expect full 24-hour subway service to return. The policy shift comes after Gov. Cuomo ordered the system closed overnight last May as part of an effort to disinfect trains of COVID-19 and kick out homeless riders. It also comes days after four homeless people were stabbed — two killed — over a 14-hour stretch on the A line from Friday into Saturday." New York Daily News' Clayton Guse "NEW YORK CITY will feel a bit more like itself soon, after state officials allowed indoor dining to resume this week and said they would permit sports and entertainment venues to operate at limited capacity later this month. The easing of restrictions, prompted by declining Covid-19 levels and the rollout of vaccines, has buoyed restaurateurs, business owners and performers, who have pushed for a reopening after seeing their industries hobbled by the virus for nearly a year. But some health and science experts said that such moves may be premature, warning that dangerous virus variants are continuing to spread and the number of people vaccinated in New York is a relatively small percentage of the state's population. 'I can't imagine a good science-based argument' for the push to reopen, said Joseph Osmundson, a clinical assistant professor of biology at New York University." Wall Street Journal's Charles Passy and Ben Chapman REPUBLICAN BILLIONAIRE John Catsimatidis, who flirted with running for mayor as a Democrat, will not jump into the crowded Democratic primary. The supermarket magnate told POLITICO last month he was considering switching parties to jump into the Democratic field — disappointing Republicans who had hoped he would be their party's standard bearer. "I have considered running for Mayor of New York City as a Democrat. But, due to the fact that 38 candidates are declared at this time, I will not be seeking to run on the Democratic line," Catsimatidis said in a statement to POLITICO. But he has still not ruled out a run for mayor altogether: He said he may seek to run on the Liberal Party ballot line. POLITICO's Erin Durkin — The deadline to change parties ahead of the June primary has been extended to Tuesday. ANDREW YANG has enough donations to qualify for taxpayer matching funds, his mayoral campaign said Sunday. The former presidential hopeful, who launched his bid New York City mayor last month, said he has raised more than $250,000 from donors living in New York City. Under the city's campaign finance rules, candidates who hit that threshold with at least 1,000 local contributors can get campaign money from the city, with small contributions matched at a rate of 8-to-1. The campaign expects to take in more than $2 million in public funds, according to a memo issued Sunday, when the city's Campaign Finance Board verifies the numbers. POLITICO's Erin Durkin — Yang's co-campaign manager previously disparaged him on social media. "IN THE PREDAWN hours of Jan. 19, 1996, long before he was a candidate for mayor, then-NYPD Sgt. Eric Adams turned left off Atlantic Avenue onto Classon Avenue in Brooklyn. He was heading home after studying for the lieutenant's exam at a friend's house. That's when he noticed the dark-colored sedan pull inside his lane and a gun barrel pointing out of the driver's side window. And that's when he heard someone in the car call his name. Adams stomped on the accelerator and the bullet hit the rear window of the car he was driving, shattering the glass. And all these many years later, Adams can't help but wonder if the shooter was actually one of his fellow police officers. 'I'm not sure,' he told THE CITY. 'I was at the peak of the fight with the Police Department. I don't know if some officer, someone in their drunken rage, said, 'Enough of this guy.''" The City's Greg B. Smith FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Manhattan District Attorney candidate Diana Florence will announce a plan to create a public defender liaison within the DA's office if elected. In addition to hiring a point person to work with public defense attorneys, she would hold monthly meetings with public defenders and offer a joint training program for junior prosecutors and junior public defenders, the plan says. Florence, a former assistant DA in Manhattan, would also create a DANY Court App for prosecutors and defenders to coordinate when cases are scheduled, and hire public defenders to work in the Conviction Integrity Unit. — Rep. Jamaal Bowman will endorse City Council Member Brad Lander for city comptroller. The newly-elected Bronx and Westchester congressman, who defeated a longtime incumbent in a primary challenge from the left, called Lander a "proven progressive," citing his work on police reform and workers' rights legislation. Lander also endorsed Bowman in his challenge to then-Rep. Eliot Engel. | | | | GET TRANSITION PLAYBOOK TO 100K: In three months, our scoop-filled Transition Playbook newsletter has grown from zero to more than 90,000 subscribers. Find out what's really happening inside the West Wing, who really has the ear of the president, and what's about to happen, before it occurs. Transition Playbook chronicles the people, policies, and emerging power centers of the Biden administration. Don't miss out, subscribe today. And once you do, we'd be grateful if you could spread the word to your friends and colleagues, or, even better, post about Transition Playbook on Facebook or Twitter using this link: politico.com/newsletters/transition-playbook | | | | |
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | THOSE waiting for hard evidence that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's political prospects have diminished because of the ongoing controversy over his handling of the spread of Covid-19 in nursing homes are going to need to keep on waiting . A poll released by the Siena College Research Institute on Tuesday found that most of Cuomo's numbers have held steady. The poll was conducted from Feb. 7-11. That's after the Jan. 28 release of a report from Attorney General Tish James that highlighted how the Cuomo administration undercounted the number of deaths of nursing home residents. But it was just before a New York Post story detailing the administration's refusal to release these numbers. A total of 56 percent of respondents said they view Cuomo favorably, compared to 39 percent who view him unfavorably. That's basically the same as the 57-39 he received in January and 56-39 he received in November. Only 39 percent said that he has done an "excellent" or "good" job at "making public all data about Covid-related deaths of nursing home patients." But that was "the issue on which voters most harshly grade Cuomo," Siena spokesperson Steve Greenberg noted. POLITICO's Bill Mahoney "SOME DEMOCRATS in Albany have floated the legally dubious idea of threatening to rescind Gov. Cuomo's pandemic powers and issue subpoenas as leverage in upcoming budget negotiations. Over the weekend, the governor's fellow Democrats, who control both houses in the Legislature, continued to hold discussions about scaling back Cuomo's sweeping pandemic powers after a top aide admitted the state paused the release of nursing home death data over concerns it would be politicized by the Trump administration. Senate Dems met virtually Sunday to consider rescinding the governor's executive authority or potentially creating a commission that could outright reject executive orders, similar to a 10-member panel used in Connecticut, sources said." Daily News' Denis Slattery — CUOMO RESPONSE: "You can't use ... an investigation to leverage a person in another matter," the governor said during his briefing Monday. "You can't use the subpoena or the threat of a subpoena or the threat of an investigation to leverage a person to do something else. That's illegal." — Council Member Robert Holden of Queens wants Cuomo's Emmy to be rescinded. "NEW YORK state's vaccine sign-up website opened up to millions more people across the state with an underlying condition putting them at risk of severe COVID-19 on Sunday morning. But just like a month ago, the sign-up website struggled to keep up with the crush of people vying for a time-slot to get vaccinated. At 8 a.m. the state's eligibility site opened up for those with underlying conditions, a list that includes people with cancer, moderate-to-severe asthma, diabetes, and other conditions. At first, the webpage showed blank fields for what was presumably supposed to be questions about someone's underlying conditions. For those who managed to get past the initial eligibility questions, the site's server blocked anyone from accessing appointments at various sites showing availability, like the Javits Center. Jerry Quartley, a 56-year-old Brooklyn Heights resident with rheumatoid arthritis was among New Yorkers who got an error message on the state website on Sunday. 'I'm really not surprised that it is massively overbooked,' Quartley told Gothamist." Gothamist's Sydney Pereira — Many seniors are struggling with the need to book appointments online. #UpstateAmerica: "I love it there. Everything that people might find boring, I love." — Alec Baldwin, in a backhanded compliment to Syracuse, where he knows "in my heart" he would have moved in a different life. | | | |   | | |
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | THE *VERY PUBLIC* CUOMO — STEFANIK STAFF FEUD: "For Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and DeRosa, a longtime confidante of Cuomo's, the politically charged discourse is a dramatic departure from the friendly rapport the pair had enjoyed as classmates at the esteemed Albany Academy for Girls. 'We may not agree on everything, but I will never stop being in awe of my little sister and middle school student council running-mate,' DeRosa said in January 2019 of Stefanik. She has also frequently told a story of how the two worked together as kids to bring a vending machine to their school. But the view of them from others was not always as adoring; or as one former classmate described them both, 'overly ambitious and ruthless ... not well-liked.' Now, the language used by the political adversaries is spiked with insults, including: 'toxic and rightfully despised throughout the North Country,' 'emperor with no clothes,' 'QAnon Trump puppet,' and member of the 'treason caucus.' The Times Union interviewed more than a dozen individuals — Republicans and Democrats — all familiar with Cuomo, Stefanik and New York politics." Times Union's Emilie Munson, Edward McKinley and Pete DeMola "KA-CHING! New York's on track to get $50 billion in a variety of federal relief from the next coronavirus stimulus package — enough money to likely avert the steep state budget cuts threatened by Gov. Cuomo last month, the Daily News has learned. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) broke down the specifics of the cash coming to New York in a letter to Democratic members of the Empire State's House delegation. The letter, which was obtained by The News and dated Feb. 11, says New York will receive $12.6 billion in budgetary bailouts for state governments. Another $10.6 billion is earmarked for local governments, according to the letter. Pelosi also said $8.8 billion is carved out for 'New York Area Transit' — most of which is bound for the city's cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority, according to a source close to the stimulus talks." New York Daily News' Chris Sommerfeldt and Denis Slattery "HE'S IN FAVOR of wealth distribution — to himself. Freshman Bronx/Westchester Congressman Jamaal Bowman took a generous salary from his own campaign coffers while running for office, just weeks after saying he would go salary-free during his congressional race. Between March and November of 2020, Democrat Bowman pocketed $27,500 from his campaign committee, FEC records show. That translates to roughly $687 per week...Bowman told The Intercept in January that he would forego a salary in order to ensure that 100% of donations went to staff and campaign expenses during his race." New York Post's Jon Levine | | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | "NEW YORK PROSECUTORS are investigating financial dealings around some of Donald Trump's signature Manhattan properties, extending the known range of the criminal probe of the former president and his company, according to people familiar with the matter. The people said Manhattan prosecutors are examining loans Mr. Trump took out on his flagship Fifth Avenue building, Trump Tower; 40 Wall St., an art deco skyscraper in New York City's Financial District; Trump International Hotel and Tower, a hotel and condominium building at Columbus Circle; and Trump Plaza, an apartment building on Manhattan's East Side. All of the loans under scrutiny were made to Mr. Trump by subsidiaries of Ladder Capital Corp. LADR 1.76% , a New York City-based real-estate investment trust, the people said. Since 2012, Ladder Capital has lent Mr. Trump more than $280 million for the four Manhattan buildings, according to property records." Wall Street Journal's Corinne Ramey and Emily Glazer | | | | JOIN TODAY - PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW WITH ASSISTANT HOUSE SPEAKER KATHERINE CLARK: How are House Democrats helping move the Biden administration agenda forward, including a Covid-19 vaccine rollout economic recovery plan? Join Playbook co-author Rachael Bade for a live conversation with Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) on the most pressing legislative priorities and her approach to getting things done. REGISTER HERE. | | | | |
| | AROUND NEW YORK | | — The curfew for bars and restaurants has been extended to 11 p.m. — The Civilian Complaint Review Board recommended disciplinary charges against the head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association for social media posts that include calling the health commissioner a "bitch" and a lawmaker a "first class whore." — Mayoral candidate Maya Wiley proposed a plan for a "caring economy" including grants for low-income New Yorkers to pay for the care of children and elder relatives. — Four homeless people were stabbed and two of them killed along the A train line, prompting the NYPD to deploy 500 more cops into the subway system. The MTA wants 1,000 additional officers on top of that. A homeless man was charged Sunday in the attacks. — Amazon sued state Attorney General Tish James in an attempt to stop her from bringing charges against the company over safety violations at two of its New York City warehouses. — Mayoral candidates are participating in a huge number of forums, and some are thinking about scaling back. — The city redesigned its vaccination website to streamline the scheduling process. — Fitness studio owners are pushing for permission to hold indoor exercise classes. — NXIVM leader Keith Raniere is recovering from Covid-19 in his Arizona prison and has new attorneys to protest his federal convictions and 120-year sentence. — Some Capital Region lawmakers want to criminalize violation of state's open government laws. — A Metro-North worker was caught having sex at a railyard while collecting overtime pay. — A vigorous debate is roiling the city's birding community over whether it's a good idea to tweet the locations of birds. | | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Carl Icahn is 85 … Ed O'Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum ... Adam Sharp ... Jennifer Steinhauer … Matt Chayes … CNN's Mike Warren … Cameron Joseph … Facebook's David Keating … Andrew Kirk … Meagan Murphy … Meredith Fineman … Paul Blake … Anna Cook ... ... (was Monday): Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) … retired Adm. Jim Stavridis … State's Francisco Bencosme … Mercury's Jen Wlach … Ben Purdy … Grace Lloyd … Art Spiegelman … TPM's Josh Marshall … Fox Business' David Asman … WSJ's Amanda Lilly … Jonathan Salant … Carrie Sheffield … First Deputy Public Advocate Nick Smith … … (was Sunday): Mike Bloomberg … Carl Bernstein … Martha Raddatz … Stephen A. Schwarzman … Rebecca Rosen … NYT's Alan Blinder … Sir Martin Sorrell … Karen Anderson … Amanda Litman … (was Saturday): Chip Smith … KPMG's Sven Erik Holmes … Cailin Kearns ... Reuters' Mike Spector turned 4-0 … Jerry Springer turned 77 … Nick Baer … Sheldon Silver … Peter Lettre ... Bloomberg's Stacie Sherman MAKING MOVES — Elizabeth Caputo's campaign for Manhattan borough president has hired AKPD to do its ad making and paid media, with John Del Cecato taking the lead on the account. IN MEMORIAM — "Albor Ruiz, a prominent Cuban-born journalist whose columns for The Daily News, El Diario and Al Dia News advocated for Latino immigrants and demanded that the United States lift its longstanding trade embargo against his homeland, died on Jan. 8 in Homestead, Fla. He was 80." MORE NY PLAYBOOK: Look for the new New York Playbook PM in your inbox starting Feb. 22. Just like you read our morning Playbook, Playbook PM by Anna Gronewold in Albany and our top-notch political team in the city will bring you the news you need to know from the Capitol and New York City Hall. It will publish at the height of the legislative session and the New York City mayoral race, telling you the latest political news from around the Empire State. | | | | A message from 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East: New York State is experiencing a nursing home crisis. The heroes who take care of our loved ones in New York's nursing homes are trying desperately to take care of their residents without sufficient resources and support, leaving residents without the hours of care they need. And the hours of care a nursing home resident receives is directly correlated with resident outcomes. As NY Attorney General found, the underlying poor conditions in nursing homes worsened the COVID-19 pandemic's toll. Instead of hiring enough staff and providing enough equipment and other resources, operators are cutting corners and hiding profits by using multiple corporations to operate the same home.
New York lawmakers can act now and join states like Massachusetts and New Jersey in making sure that the nursing home industry is spending taxpayer dollars on patient care, not profits. Learn more about how you can fight for nursing home reform at https://investinqualitycare.org/take-action/ | | |
| | REAL ESTATE | | "RADIATION UNDER a Staten Island park from a 1940s landfill — and a fight over who should clean it up — has again halted progress on the East Shore Seawall , a key climate resiliency project. The radiation in the planned 5.3-mile seawall's path comes from Great Kills Park, where radium-226 was first found during an anti-terror aerial survey conducted by the NYPD in 2005. The vast majority of the park has been shut since 2009. The seawall originally was supposed to be completed this year. But now more than eight years after Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of the borough and about six years after the project was announced, construction remains stalled as the feds, city and state differ on who's responsible for getting rid of the radiation. Now it could be 2026 before the work gets done, officials say." The City's Clifford Michel "AFTER GETTING 'derailed' by the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio is reviving one of his earliest and most delayed mayoral commitments: to reform an out-of-date and unequal property tax system . The city's Advisory Commission on Property Tax Reform will begin holding public hearings, originally scheduled for last March, on its preliminary recommendations and will produce a final report by the time de Blasio leaves office at the end of the year, he said Thursday morning. The mayor made the announcement in testimony before the State Legislature at a hearing on the governor's proposed state budget, two days after downplaying the possibility of more work being done on the issue in his final months in office." Gotham Gazette's Ethan Geringer-Sameth
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