| | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin, Anna Gronewold and Deanna Garcia | Presented by Healthcare Education Project | We have the answer to the burning question that woke you this March morning: How many and what kinds of voters are we looking at as we dive into 2022 campaigns? Get ready for some numbers. New Board of Elections data show that there are 11.9 million registered voters in the state. That's down from 12.4 million a year ago at this time, but all good — it's a longstanding tradition to see a slight decrease after a presidential year, Bill Mahoney reports this morning. Current figures are up from the comparable point in the last four-year election cycle: 11.3 million registered voters in spring of 2018. Today, New York Democrats now outnumber Republicans 5.93 million to 2.65 million, 49.8 percent to 22.2 percent. In the past four years, Democratic forces have gotten big boosts in 16 counties, and most of them either border or neighbor the Hudson Valley. The all-stars were Columbia (26 percent), Greene (22.3 percent), Saratoga (21.8 percent) and Ulster (17.8 percent) counties. Republicans had less widespread luck since 2018, save for Staten Island, where enrolled members of the GOP increased 12 percent to 95,308. But here's a mystery for solving: Very blue Manhattan lost the most red of any region. The number of Republicans there decreased by 23.5 percent, from 86,776 to 66,394. Putting that in perspective, Bill reports there are now more Republicans in Orange County, which has a population of 401,310, than in the borough of nearly 1.7 million people that was the longtime home to the most recent Republican president, Donald Trump. 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 KATHY? Hosting an International Women's Day breakfast and making an economic development announcement. WHERE'S ERIC? Holding an education-related press conference and attending an International Women's Day event.
| | | | A message from Healthcare Education Project: When COVID-19 hit New York, frontline healthcare workers answered the call. But as the system was stretched to the limit and New Yorkers struggled to find care, greedy health insurers pocketed billions. Despite these record profits, insurers are back squeezing hospitals for more. Doctors and caregivers can no longer survive on razor thin margins. Join us and help stop for-profit insurers from getting between doctors and their patients. Learn more. | | | |  | What City Hall's reading | | NYC vaccine mandate ends to cheers from Adams, by POLITICO's Erin Durkin: New York City lifted its Covid-19 vaccination requirement for indoor dining and entertainment Monday, prompting celebration from Mayor Eric Adams who called it a necessary "symbolic" step to drive the city's economic recovery. Adams visited businesses in Manhattan's East Village on the day the rollback he ordered took effect, using a jubilant tone despite lingering concerns the move could make New Yorkers feel less safe or even leave the city unprepared for a new virus variant. "We are opening as a city," Adams said. "It was not only the physical structures opening. It was the feeling that we were closed. I keep saying this over and over again. Our prosperity is going to be tied to symbolism and substance." ... Adams argued that "many businesses were closed because they were not getting the clientele inside," and said some owners felt the vaccine mandate "impeded business," in part because tourists with unvaccinated family members could not enter their establishments. Adams said he is eager to welcome more tourists to the city — even if they haven't gotten inoculated against the virus. — Restaurant owners welcomed the change. — Adams also visited a bodega in Alphabet City that has been targeted by rowdy teens. " New York's Students Shed Their Masks, Warily, in Pandemic Milestone," by The New York Times' Lola Fadulu: "A kindergartner in Queens wasn't quite ready to part with his Mickey Mouse masks. On Staten Island, another kindergartner had lost one of his bottom teeth and couldn't wait to show off his new smile. And one high school student, Ella Chan, 17, a junior at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, said she was keeping her mask on. 'There really is no cure for Covid at this point,' she said. 'There's just too much uncertainty for me.' Two years after the coronavirus pandemic gripped New York, Monday marked the city's most aggressive move yet to return to normalcy. Officials on Monday eliminated a school mask mandate that had been in place since the fall of 2020, a major milestone in the city's recovery from a public health crisis that upended the lives of nearly 1 million students in the nation's largest school district." — "Mayor Adams vows to eventually drop mask rule for youngest NYC school kids: 'We'll come back for the babies,'" by New York Daily News' Chris Sommerfeldt New York City is making a multibillion-dollar bet on Canadian hydropower. Some say the wager won't pay off, by POLITICO's Danielle Muoio Dunn and Marie J. French: New York's famed skyline sucks up about 52 million megawatt hours of power every year — nearly enough to light up the entire state of Massachusetts. But most of it comes from polluting power plants, including some in Queens. Faced with a worsening climate crisis and ambitious mandates to slash emissions, New York City has decided to make an expensive bet on Canadian hydropower to clean up its government buildings. The city is poised to pay billions of dollars more for its renewable electricity over the next 25 years to finance the Champlain Hudson Power Express, a 339-mile hydropower transmission line that will deliver Canadian hydropower to New York City, according to regulatory files reviewed by POLITICO. "New York City Transit Chief Lieber Plans for a Future With Fewer Subway Riders," by Bloomberg's Michelle Kaske: "New York subways are still only a little more than half full two years after the pandemic rocked the finances of the city's all-important transit system. The head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who took the helm of the largest U.S. transportation network in July, says he's preparing for a future where millions of riders just don't return. Instead of financing 40% of the agency's budget with fare revenue, Chief Executive Officer Janno Lieber said he wants to appeal to city and state government to start funding trains and buses more like essential public services — like trash collection or policing."
| | | | HAPPENING TODAY, INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION ON THE WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN: Join Women Rule editor Elizabeth Ralph for a panel discussion on the future for Afghan women. Guests include Hawa Haidari, a member of the Female Tactical Platoon; Cindy McCain, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture; Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the U.S.; and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). Learn how female Afghan veterans are planning their futures, what the women still in Afghanistan face, and what the U.S. can do to help. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "An omicron 'subvariant' is doubling in NY, just as mandates lift," by WNYC/Gothamist's Nsikan Akpan: "Some health experts think BA.2 won't cause much harm in New York because of the area's vaccination rate and because it is gaining ground so soon after the last surge. 'I don't think it means a lot because there's pretty good cross-immunity between BA.1 and BA.2 and because the omicron wave was so recent,' said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of public health and epidemiology at Northwell Health and the chief of infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center. 'People clearly have good immunity. It's very good immunity for 90 days. It's probably decent immunity for six months.' But other researchers worry BA.2 could prey upon unvaccinated groups such as children and people who have not been boosted." "Attorney says Cuomo adviser fired him for cooperating in probe," by Times Union's Brendan J. Lyons: "An attorney who worked for Andrew M. Cuomo's administration claims he was fired last year for his cooperation in a state attorney general's investigation that sustained multiple sexual harassment allegations against the former governor. The 40-year-old attorney, Craig Herskowitz, worked at the U.S. Department of Justice before joining Cuomo's office in December 2019 as an assistant counsel. In a notice of claim filed against the Executive Chamber in September, Herskowitz said that Beth Garvey, who had been Cuomo's top counsel and senior adviser, notified him on Aug. 12 that he was being terminated from his job after it was determined that remarks he had made nine days earlier to a 25-year-old female colleague constituted sexual harassment. But in his claim, Herskowitz alleges his firing was payback for testimony he gave last April, when he met with investigators from the attorney general's office and described a 'toxic environment' in the Executive Chamber." — NYT DIVES INSIDE CUOMO'S HEAD: "What Is Andrew Cuomo Up To?" "Their Time Served, Sex Offenders Are Kept in Prison in 'Cruel Catch-22,'" by The New York Times' Adam Liptak: "Indeed, some 250 people in New York are kept incarcerated each year after they have earned their release, according to court papers in Mr. Ortiz's case. This creates 'a cruel Catch-22' for people classified as sex offenders, Allison Frankel wrote in 2019 in The Yale Law Journal Forum, because corrections officials will 'not release them from prison until they obtained approved housing, but their poverty, disabilities and sex-offender registration status made finding housing impossible.' Even people with money, connections, time and mobility can find it hard to locate a place to live in New York City. Doing so from a prison cell is close to impossible, wrote Ms. Frankel, who has represented people who have tried." "Advocates: Immigrants should access to professional licenses in New York," by Spectrum News' Nick Reisman: "Immigration advocates as well as community organizations on Tuesday are set to call for the approval of a bill that would enable immigrant New Yorkers to obtain professional licenses regardless of their legal residency status. The push for the measure in a letter to be released later on Tuesday backed by Sen. Gustavo Rivera and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz is backed by dozens of organizations, who pointed to the unsettled employment environment created by the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two years and the need for a skilled workforce." PRE-BUDGET DECARBONIZATION PUSH: A campaign for Hochul's natural gas moratorium proposals to halt fossil fuel expansion in buildings statewide has kicked off in full as the Legislature gears up to release their own budget plans this week. The first ad of the campaign hit cable, digital and paid social on Monday. Lisa Dix, New York director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition said Hochul's proposals are "right on target" for the direction the state needs to take. "The Governor's package of reforms are a core part of New York's roadmap to Climate Justice, provide necessary market certainty to scale clean heating and cooling, create thousands of high quality jobs, and are essential to meet the state's climate and emissions targets in time," Dix said. Coming next: Clean energy coalition Renewable Heat Now is holding a briefing Wednesday about the building electrification legislation that they are hoping makes it through the budget process before April 1. #UpstateAmerica: "Yikes is all I can say," said a federal judge as he sentenced a Capital Region psychiatrist — who allegedly exchanged prescriptions for sex and other favors — to more than three years in prison.
| | | |   | | | | | TRUMP'S NEW YORK | | "Trump Still Runs a Public Bronx Golf Course More Than a Year After City Hall Cancellation," by The City's Claudia Irizarry Aponte: "More than a year after City Hall attempted to cancel Donald Trump by revoking contracts in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, his family business still runs a high-end golf course in a Bronx public park and is readying to open it for the spring season. While Manhattan State Supreme Court Judge Debra James weighs Trump Ferry Point's lawsuit claiming that it has a right to stay at the 18-hole links near the Whitestone Bridge — and that it's entitled to a $30 million cancellation fee if removed — the company is readying for business as usual. On Monday morning, a person who answered the number for The Waterfront, Trump Ferry Point's restaurant, said that it is scheduled to reopen on March 11, and the golf course a week later."
| | FROM THE DELEGATION | | "Socialists' Response to War in Ukraine Has Put Some Democrats on Edge," by The New York Times' Dana Rubinstein and Katie Glueck: "Not long after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Democratic Socialists of America released a statement that drew instant reproof. The group condemned the invasion, but also urged the United States "to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict." The position — a watered-down version of a prior, even more pointed statement from the group's international committee — drew rebukes from a White House spokesman and from a number of Democratic candidates and elected officials, from Long Island congressional contenders to officials in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But in the New York City area, where the D.S.A.'s largest chapter wields substantial influence, it has also created a challenging dynamic for politicians aligned with the organization." "New Bowman challenger says congressman is a no-show in the district," by Jewish Insider's Matthew Kassel: "Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) drew a third Democratic primary challenger last week when Michael Gerald, a senior pastor at Shiloh Church in Tuckahoe and a deputy commissioner at the Westchester County Department of Correction, officially entered the increasingly crowded race to represent New York's 16th Congressional District. In his first interview as a candidate, Gerald said he is running largely because he believes that Bowman, a freshman representative who is among the most high-profile progressive lawmakers in the House, has been absent from the district during his first term."
| | | | DON'T MISS POLITICO'S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — Delivery companies already get discounted parking tickets when they block a bus lane. Under new city rules, they will save even more. — Adams named seven appointees to a commission to redraw City Council district lines, including newspaper publisher Joshua Schneps and Queens Public Library head Dennis Walcott. — Cars registered outside of New York City account for nearly half of all drivers caught by city speed cameras. — GOP state Sen. Jim Tedisco says Inspector General Lucy Lang needs to give an update on the investigation of the Schoharie limousine crash that killed 20 people in 2018. — The IG's office isinvestigating a breach of confidentiality — or "hot mic" situation that happened during an August JCOPE meeting. — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he's pushing to allocate $3.2 million in federal funding to the Hempstead Village water plant. — Former Elise Stefanik challenger Tedra Cobb used her PAC money to pay for health insurance. — Public Advocate Jumaane Williams' nominee for the city's Conflicts of Interest Board got a grilling from members of the City Council over concerns that a business she founded had its own possible conflict. — Adams said a revamped NYPD anti-crime unit will hit the streets in the next week or so. — The Manhattan DA's office is investigating the NYPD's arrest of an advocate for homeless people. — Ain't I A Woman Campaign calls $30 million compensation decision for home health aides an insult to New York home care workers.
| | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: NBC's Lester Holt … World Bank President David Malpass … Robert Wolf is 6-0 … Nathaniel Sobel … Kristian Denny Todd … Alex Olsman MAKING MOVES — Devora Kaye is now director of communications at Mark43, a public safety technology company. She was formerly assistant commissioner of external affairs at the NYPD and before that communications director at the city Department of Education. MEDIAWATCH — NYT Book Review editor Pamela Paul is moving to the opinion desk to become a columnist. Announcement
| | | | A message from Healthcare Education Project: Whether it's increasing out-of-pocket expenses, denying claims, or excluding hospitals and caregivers from their networks, greedy, for-profit insurance companies have been profiting off of hardworking New Yorkers for too long. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, heroic frontline healthcare workers stepped up, saved lives, and kept families healthy. But the pandemic devastated our entire healthcare system and pushed it to the brink. Even as New Yorkers struggled to find care and healthcare workers made gut-wrenching sacrifices to fight the pandemic, insurers put profits ahead of patients - muscling the doctors and hospitals that saved lives during COVID-19. Last year the top 10 health insurers pocketed more than $40 billion. Join our movement to demand NYS lawmakers put patients before profits. Learn more. | | | | | Real Estate | | "After Massive Fire, Thieves Ransacked Apartments and Cops Won't Help, Queens Tenants Say," by The City's Gabriel Sandoval: "Dozens of tenants displaced by a massive fire in a Queens building nearly a year ago say their apartments were burglarized, but police refuse to allow them to report their belongings stolen, according to the building's tenant association. At least 50 apartments have been burglarized since an electrical fire erupted in the six-floor building on 34th Avenue and 89th Street in Jackson Heights last spring, according to Andrew Sokolof Diaz, the tenant association president. 'The police will not allow us to file stolen property reports,' Sokolof Diaz told THE CITY." "Midtown Office-to-Apartment Conversion Concept Gains Hochul and Adams Support," by The City's Greg David: "Worried that the pandemic has made too many Manhattan office buildings obsolete, real estate interests have convinced Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul to join an effort to ease conversions to residential use south of 60th Street. The push to convert office space into apartments has the potential to transform the nation's largest business district, and its older and less desirable office space, into a very different kind of Midtown." | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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