News : POLITICO New York Playbook: Getting past the Benjamin blues

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

POLITICO New York Playbook: Getting past the Benjamin blues

May 03, 2022

By Erin Durkin, Anna Gronewold and Deanna Garcia

Presented by Compassion & Choices

Thanks to some perilously close vote counts in the Legislature yesterday, former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin can remove himself from the primary ballot, and Gov. Kathy Hochul can choose a new No. 2 who can also be her running mate.

Officially, the process to replace Benjamin will go through a Committee to Fill Vacancies that was chosen by the state Democratic Committee in February. Unofficially, that committee's members — people like party chair Jay Jacobs and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes — are likely to base their candidate selection off Hochul's pick.

This slightly tweaks the calculation for candidates Team Hochul can court because her pitch to them now includes the possibility for reelection. But nothing changes about the broad agreement from observers that a Black or Latino candidate from downstate would be a welcome boost to both her administration and her campaign.

When asked at an event in the Bronx Monday about the upcoming choice (second time's the charm!), Hochul offered a sly "not going to tell you." But tongues are wagging and the theoretical candidates floating through political circles have included (but are hardly limited to):

Assemblymember Karines Reyes (D-Bronx)
Assemblymember Phil Ramos (D-Suffolk)
Assemblymember Catalina Cruz (D-Queens)
state Sen. Jamaal Bailey (D-Bronx)
Westchester County Executive George Latimer
former Nassau County Executive Laura Curran
Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez
Director of State Operations Kathryn Garcia
former Bronx borough president Rubén Díaz Jr.

Whatever the case, we'll find out soon. After Benjamin drops his name from the ballot — something Benjamin has committed to doing — the committee has four days to name a replacement. He released a video statement saying he's ready to sign the proper paperwork as soon as law allows.

But he made sure to add that he is innocent, and you know what? He might try his hand at public service again. "After I am cleared of these unsubstantiated accusations, I look forward to continuing to serve in some capacity this great community and state, which I so deeply love," he said.

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? In Albany with no public events scheduled.

WHERE'S ERIC? Traveling to Los Angeles to attend the 25th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference.

ABOVE THE FOLD — "New York City Enters Higher Coronavirus Risk Level as Case Numbers Rise," by The New York Times' Sharon Otterman and Emma G. Fitzsimmons : "As coronavirus cases continue to rise in New York City, the city entered a higher risk level for the virus on Monday, a troubling reminder that the pandemic is not over and that the virus still has the power to harm New Yorkers. The city moved into the medium, or yellow, risk category for virus transmission, a development that could trigger the return of public health restrictions, although they are not required to be reinstated at this point. Mayor Eric Adams, who last month contracted his first known case of the virus, will face difficult decisions over whether to bring back mask and vaccine mandates at a time when he is focused on the city's economic recovery and workers are returning to offices."

— USA Today Network's David Robinson, Jeff Murray and Edward Harris: "Upstate NY's COVID-19 surge is spreading. When will it stop? What we know (and don't)"

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "For anyone who needs access to care, our state will welcome you with open arms. New York will always be a place where abortion rights are protected and where abortion is safe and accessible." — Hochul, reacting to POLITICO's report of a draft opinion that indicates the Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

A message from Compassion & Choices:

Lawmakers have the power to give New Yorkers autonomy at the end of life and stop needless suffering by passing the Medical Aid in Dying Act. 1 in 5 Americans now has access to the compassionate option of medical aid in dying, including our neighbors in NJ and VT. Stacey Gibson, whose husband died an agonizing death, is raising her voice so no one else's loved one has to suffer at the end of life.

What City Hall's reading

Growing budget clouds Adams' promises of fiscal restraint, by POLITICO's Sally Goldenberg and Joe Anuta: Mayor Eric Adams promised to tighten the fiscal reins of the nation's largest municipal budget, following steep growth under an executive who believed bigger government would solve society's woes. But the spending plan Adams released last week takes a different approach. The fiscal year 2023 budget — New Yorkers' first window into how their new mayor will manage one of his largest responsibilities — expands agency spending and relies more on re-estimated tax revenue than cutting government bloat, even as City Hall's own analysts predict a slow recovery from the pandemic.

In fact, as Adams unveiled a $99.7 billion spending plan that tops former Mayor Bill de Blasio's last budget by $1 billion, the stock market was plummeting. Two days after he released his budget, the S&P reported its worst month since the pandemic started in March 2020. "He does identify risks in the economy. We have a rocky recovery; we have global instability; we have inflation. The thing is, I don't think this budget accounts for that at all," Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein said in an interview. "They add all this new spending without the savings."

"NYPD's Stonewalling Attorney Called Out for Lying and Forging Emails," by Hell Gate's Nick Pinto: "Delay and obstruction have been the primary weapons that the NYPD's taxpayer-funded attorneys have used to fight the package of civil rights lawsuits filed in the aftermath of the 2020 protests against racist police violence. City lawyers have blown deadlines to turn over evidence, and even resisted efforts to make them specify what they will ever turn over. The City's approach has largely been successful to date, but the court's tolerance is now being freshly tested: Last week, in an effort to avoid sanctions for failing to turn over evidence, Dara Weiss, the NYPD's lead lawyer in the cases, was found to have lied to the federal judge and to have forged multiple documents, mocking up fake copies of an email that she had claimed to send, but never had."

"Amazon Workers Fall Short on Second Staten Island Union Vote," by The City's Josefa Velasquez: "Amazon workers at a Staten Island distribution center who sought to join a union fell short of the needed votes — failing to repeat the history-making win of colleagues at a facility across the street, in a setback for labor organizing efforts against the e-commerce behemoth. The National Labor Relations Board on Monday tallied 380 votes in favor of joining the upstart Amazon Labor Union at the LDJ5 facility, versus 618 who voted against. The vote came amid what employees and their attorneys described as intensified efforts by Amazon management to discourage 'yes' votes after last month's victory at the neighboring JFK8 facility, including requiring attendance at anti-union meetings and following organizers around."

"With a million ballots cast in the 2021 mayoral primary, nearly 75,000 different opinions from ranked-choice voters," by WNYC's Brigid Bergin: "New Yorkers are an opinionated lot. As proof, in last year's crowded Democratic mayoral primary — where, for the first time, voters could rank up to five candidates on their ballot in order of preference — voters collectively cast 74,996 different combinations. That was out of a possible half million different potential match-ups. The analysis was conducted by the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) as part of an annual report to be released Monday that includes the agency's deep-dive into the cast-vote record, an anonymized archive of how voters made their ballot selections across all races."

"Nearly one in four Asian adults in NYC lived in poverty in 2020: Report," by Gothamist Chau Lam: "About one in four Asian adults in New York City lived in poverty in 2020 — a rate that is significantly higher than the citywide average, according to a report released today by Robin Hood, a local non-profit, in collaboration with Columbia University. It's the first time that the foundation has expanded its data collection on income and material hardship to include a sufficiently large sample of Asian New Yorkers, allowing researchers to analyze the economic well-being of what it calls the most understudied racial and ethnic groups in the United States."

HAPPENING NOW - MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: Go inside the 25th annual Milken Institute Global Conference with our special edition Global Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive coverage and insights from one of the world's most influential gatherings. Stay up to speed with the latest from #MIGlobal, which brings together 3,000 of the world's most powerful leaders and features 700+ speakers representing more than 80 countries. Don't miss out, subscribe today.

WHAT ALBANY'S READING

Lawmakers begrudgingly OK Hochul's plan to remove former Lt. Gov. from ballot, by POLITICO's Anna Gronewold and Bill Mahoney: Getting the measure over the finish line in the Democratic-led Legislature was not easy. The bill passed the Senate 33-29, one of the slimmest margins since Democrats took the majority at the beginning of 2019. The Assembly passed the bill 82-57 after a lengthy roll call vote that included several pauses and an appearance on the chamber floor from a visibly incensed Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) having some words with Assemblymember Andy Goodell (R-Jamestown). Members of both parties complained the bill was merely a quick fix for Hochul's botched pick for lieutenant governor last August when she succeeded then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in scandal.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and GOP Assemblymember Andy Goodell have a chat during an extended roll call vote on Monday in the state Capitol.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and GOP Assemblymember Andy Goodell have a chat during an extended roll call vote on Monday, May 2, 2022 in the state Capitol. | POLITICO's Bill Mahoney

"National Democrats Make Last-Gasp Push to Keep N.Y. District Maps," by The New York Times' Nicholas Fandos: "With the balance of the House of Representatives at stake, national Democrats made an 11th-hour appeal to a federal court on Monday to intervene in New York's heated redistricting dispute, hoping to reinstate House maps thrown out by the state's highest court last week. In a 17-page complaint, they argued that there simply was not enough time to implement the order from the State Court of Appeals for new district lines and still comply with a longstanding federal court order meant to protect the rights of Americans casting ballots from overseas."

" New York good-government advocates: Move all primaries to August," by Spectrum's Nick Reisman: "Two good-government organizations in New York on Monday urged state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul to move all of New York's primaries to Aug. 23 amid the likelihood intraparty contests will be split over eight weeks this summer. New York voters may be required to vote in two separate primaries this year due to the still-ongoing challenges to New York's redistricting maps approved by Democratic lawmakers earlier this year. It's a potentially costly and confusing development for voters, elections officials have said."

— Folks are also concerned that if the primaries all get moved, it opens yet another opportunity for Andrew Cuomo to jump in somewhere.

"Billions at Stake as NY Climate Law's 'Disadvantaged Communities' Label Directs Flood of Funds ," by THE CITY's Samantha Maldonado: New Yorkers' knowledge of their neighborhoods' environmental history could help the state decide where it targets billions of dollars in green investments in the coming decades. As state officials and agencies gear up to spend serious cash on the clean-energy economy to achieve mandates under a sweeping climate law passed in 2019, certain localities are set to get extra attention and money. The goal is to right past environmental wrongs and to protect future populations more vulnerable to either nature or injustice. The law specifies that 'disadvantaged communities' must receive at least 35% of the total statewide spending on clean and energy efficiency programs."

#UpstateAmerica: Relatable? "Central New York man caught at airport with loaded gun not arrested because he forgot he had it"

A message from Compassion & Choices:

TRUMP'S NEW YORK

"Former NYPD cop convicted of assault in Jan. 6 riot," by Gothamist's Jake Offenhartz : "A retired New York City cop has been convicted of assaulting a D.C. officer during the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol. Thomas Webster, a veteran of the NYPD for two decades who served on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's security detail, was convicted of six counts on Monday by a federal jury, including a felony assault charge that carries up to 20 years in prison. He is the first of roughly 150 defendants charged with assaulting an officer to make his case before a jury. Webster, a 56-year-old resident of Goshen, New York, claimed he was acting in self-defense during footage of the beating of a D.C. police officer that earned him the social media moniker 'eye-gouger.'"

"Trump asks judge to 'punish' lawyers who released fruit fears testimony," by New York Post's Priscilla DeGregory: "Donald Trump has asked a judge to punish the lawyers who released parts of a deposition that revealed his fears about being hit with 'dangerous' fruit by protesters. The ex-president's testimony — given in a lawsuit that alleges his security guards assaulted demonstrators outside Trump Tower in 2015 — was made public last week by the attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case."

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AROUND NEW YORK

— The NYPD's new anti-gun teams are mainly conducting car stops to find illegal weapons.

— For the second time in less than a week, the city canceled plans for a homeless shelter in Chinatown in response to local opposition.

— Adams wore an "End Gun Violence" tux to the Met Gala.

— The famed Waldorf Astoria hotel is struggling to complete its plan for converting hundreds of guest rooms into luxury residences.

— New York City launched a $4 million public service campaign to educate drivers about the dangers of speeding. This comes as a new study suggests traffic safety billboards may cause more crashes than they prevent.

— Environmental and safe streets advocates are pushing the city to avoid further delays to commercial waste reform.

— A teacher in Rochester was placed on leave after parents said he told students to pick cotton during a lesson on slavery.

— "Thermal inversion" explains the intense thunder that jolted people awake yesterday.

— The new owners of Connolly's in Rockaway Beach promise to "literally change nothing" (except making the bathrooms nicer).

— A Queens landlord accused of overcharging dozens of tenants in rent-stabilized apartments will pay $1 million in a settlement.

SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: NBC/MSNBC's Willie Geist … Irene Rosenfeld … Mikhail Prokhorov … Ben Ginsberg … SKDKnickerbocker's Stephen Krupin .... Chris Bodenner … Charter's Catherine Bohigian … Andy Miga … Josh Irwin … (was Monday): Alon Ben-Meir … David Weprin (h/ts Jewish Insider) … (was Friday): Grace Safarik, the DCCC NY-11 organizing director and a Brad Hoylman campaign alum (h/t Annabel Lassally)

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Gov. Kathy Hochul welcomed her first grandchild, Sofia, the new daughter of Hochul's son Billy and daughter-in-law Christina.

MEDIAWATCH — Hell Gate, a new publication covering the city and owned by the journalists who work there, has launched its site. The team includes Christopher Robbins, Esther Wang, Max Rivlin-Nadler, Nick Pinto, and Sydney Pereira.

A message from Compassion & Choices:

A river, a mountain, a zip code -- these things prevent New Yorkers from access to compassionate care at the end of life. That's why Stacey Gibson is asking lawmakers to give New Yorkers the same access to comprehensive end-of-life care that our neighbors in New Jersey and Vermont (and 8 other states) already have. Stacey Gibson's beloved husband Sid was diagnosed with a rare degenerative motor neuron disease. When his treatment options ran out and he began to suffer, Sid decided to stop eating and drinking. It took twelve days for him to die. His slow, agonizing death was exactly what he feared and haunts Stacey to this day. Access to the compassionate option of medical aid in dying would ensure that no one's loved one is forced to suffer the way Sid did. It's time our lawmakers stop needless suffering and PASS the Medical Aid in Dying Act.

Real Estate

"After a Two-Year Dip, Evictions Accelerate in New York," by The New York Times' Mihir Zaveri: "In New York, where landlords typically move to evict more people than in any other city in the nation, the housing courts sat in an unusual stupor for some two years. But as pandemic restrictions ease, they are beginning to hum anew. The roughly 2,000 eviction cases filed by landlords every week since March are roughly 40 percent more than the number filed in mid-January, after the state's eviction moratorium expired. Tenants have been thrown out of homes in more than 500 cases since February, according to city data, about double the number in all of the 20 months prior."

"Civil Rights Museum pulls out from controversial Harlem development project," by NY1's Juan Manuel Benitez: "It was one of the big selling points of this massive development project in the heart of Harlem: a new Civil Rights Museum led by the Rev. Al Sharpton. But in a letter to developers on Monday, Sharpton, who leads the foundation behind the museum, said the space was inadequate and asked for it to be dedicated to affordable and senior housing instead. 'We do not see how this can be done in the confines of the available space,' Sharpton said in the letter. 'We strongly urge you to use the space that we are releasing to provide more affordable housing and senior housing, which has been the express desires of many in the Harlem community.' The One45 project in Harlem needs the City Council rezoning approval to build two residential towers with 900 apartments."

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