Politics on the Hudson

Here’s the ruling from federal Judge Gary Sharpe, setting the primaries for congressional election this year for June 26.

The presidential primary in New York is set for April 24. The ruling doesn’t affect the primaries for state legislative elections this year, but it could complicate matters as Senate Republicans in particular have preferred an Aug. 18 primary for state elections.

Even Gov. Andrew Cuomo would get a new senator under legislative lines proposed yesterday by a state task force—and he’d go from the liberal Democratic Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer to the conservative Republican Sen. Greg Ball.

Ball’s 40th Senate District would shift south under the new lines, giving him the governor’s hometown of New Castle, Westchester County. Cuomo shares a home there with Food Network star Sandra Lee.

Oppenheimer, who is retiring at year’s end, had long represented the upscale town.

But now if the maps hold up and Ball is re-elected—and he plans to run in November—Cuomo would be represented by one of the more controversial and outspoken members of the Senate.

The two have some history. Ball was among those who were contemplating whether to support legalizing same-sex marriage last year. Ball ultimately said the measure didn’t have enough religious protections and voted no.

Also, in a surprise move early last year, Ball was tapped by Cuomo to serve on his SAGE Commission that is looking at government consolidations. Ball had been critical of the panel.

Ball is also the most vocal Senate Republican in opposition to hydrofracking —something Cuomo is contemplating to allow in New York.

In 2010, Cuomo endorsed Ball’s Democratic opponent Michael Kaplowitz. Ball won.

Ball didn’t directly address representing the state’s top official in a news release yesterday, but he did heap praise on the Democratic governor—something Ball has done regularly since Cuomo took office.

“For me nothing will change,” Ball said. “My focus before and after redistricting will continue to be on job creation, lowering taxes and working with Governor Cuomo to get New York State back on track.”

In the Assembly, Cuomo’s representative would stay the same: Assemblyman Robert Castelli, R-Goldens Bridge.

Asked this morning if he knew if his own representatives would change, Cuomo said, “I have not looked.”

Perhaps he’ll wait until Ball shows up at his door in the fall asking for his vote in the November elections.

Westchester residents may see more of Hillary Clinton now that she’s planning on stepping off the “high wire of American politics.”

The Associated Press today reported that the Secretary of State who lives in Chappaqua plans on stepping down from her role with President Barack Obama’s administration but will stay on until a replacement is found.

“I have made it clear that I will certainly stay on until the president nominates someone and that transition can occur” if Obama wins re-election, she told a town hall meeting. “But I think after 20 years, and it will be 20 years, of being on the high wire of American politics and all of the challenges that come with that, it would be probably a good idea to just find out how tired I am.”

The AP also reported that she left the door open for a possible return to politics.

Republican state Sen. Greg Ball picks up swaths of Westchester County and another hotly anticipated race along the Sound shore gains GOP enclaves while shedding neighborhoods that historically have backed Democrats.

And in Rockland, Sen. David Carlucci’s district loses Haverstraw, Stony Point and part of Orange County but crosses the Hudson River by picking up Ossining under proposed districts released yesterday.

A state task force released proposed district maps for the state Legislature that were quickly criticized by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Democrats and good-government groups as being gerrymandered to benefit the parties in power.

Read the full story here and check out our maps:

http://data.lohud.com/dist_web/address_stateredist.php

 

The following press release was issued by the office of Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, following a press conference Friday morning.

With a major voter fraud case currently unfolding in the state, Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, was joined today by Putnam County Executive Mary Ellen Odell and board of elections commissioners from throughout the 99th Assembly District at a press conference on the steps of the Historical Putnam County Courthouse to announce new statewide legislation that targets the high incidences of voter fraud in our state.

“This legislation is a simple, commonsense measure that will go a long way toward ensuring elections in New York State are more secure, and represent the actual residents of a community,” said Assemblyman Katz. “Government-issued photo identification is already required in every other facet of life; there is no reason why our democratic-process should be excluded from this basic safeguard.”

A strong advocate for reforming the democratic process, Assemblyman Katz was prompted to author and introduce this original legislation after the highly-publicized case of widespread voter fraud in Troy, New York went to trial earlier this year. The opening arguments for the case began Monday after more than a year of investigations led to the indictments of a city council member, two county officials and a board of elections commissioner on more than 116 counts of alleged forgery or possession of forged ballots during the 2009 Working Families Party primary. Four others have already pleaded guilty in the case.

The ongoing Troy case is not the only time the Working Families Party has been associated with voter fraud. Following the 2008 Presidential elections, the national media attention was focused on exposing the widespread cases of voter fraud contributed to ACORN, the community-action organization that works in close partnership with the Working Families Party throughout the country. In fact, the media attention led to a series of investigations on ACORN including in Washington State, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Nevada where the Las Vegas registrar of voters publicly commented that he believed as much as 48 percent of ACORN’s voter forms are “clearly fraudulent.”

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Missed among all the news yesterday over redistricting was the grilling that state DOT Commissioner Joan McDonald received at a transportation budget hearing yesterday.

She was accused of offering vague answers to how the state will fund a $1.2 billion infrastructure plan for 2012-13 fiscal year. She didn’t say what projects would be funded and was accused by a Queens lawmaker of not even knowing that a road project was already underway in his district.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, was miffed by some of McDonald’s vague answers.

Check out this exchange:

“In order to make our informed judgment, would you agree that we need some facts and some information about the areas you are in charge of in the Transportation Department?” asked DeFrancisco, a lawyer and the Senate GOP’s lead floor debater.

“I believe that’s a fair assessment,” she responded.

“Now tell me, how we can do that function when your answers have almost been uniformly to all questions, ‘We’re studying it’?”

She responded, “This is the start of the dialogue.”

The DOT is also being knocked for planning to close some regional offices.

Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, Broome County, a member of the Transportation Committee in the Assembly, is raising concerns about the potential loss of the area’s DOT regional office.

“I understand the governor wants government to be more efficient, but we need make sure the Southern Tier isn’t negatively affected,” she said in a statement today.

Updated: Here’s the hits by DeFrancisco on McDonald. It starts at the 56:00 mark.

The boundaries of his 40th Senate District may be in a state of flux, but state Sen. Greg Ball, R-Patterson, essentially sent out a save the date notice yesterday, announcing he will seek a second term in the Senate. And, he will officially announce that in March.

 “By working with Governor Cuomo, in a bipartisan and effective fashion, we have accomplished many of my top goals including the MTA Payroll Tax Repeal and the Property Tax Cap. This Senate seat literally decided the balance of power in the previous election, it will certainly remain a critical seat and I’m totally focused on finishing the good things I have started to help seniors,small business owners, veterans, taxpayers and deliver for the district at large by maintaining this important seat,” Ball said in a statement. “Moving forward I will use my voice to continue to fight for real tax relief, a freeze of school taxes for seniors, a balanced budget that smartly cuts government spending and roots out waste and expand upon my important work as Chair of the Senate’s Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security Committee.”

His (pre?) announcement may finally put an end to speculation he would take on fellow Republican Congresswoman Nan Hayworth and run for the 19th Congressional District. That’s a topic that has swirled around in recent months as Ball has criticized her actions on several occasions.

Yesterday’s declaration he will seek another Senate term also sharpens things for Democrat Justin Wagner, who announced several months ago he wanted to unseat Ball. Wagner was also waiting to see how the redrawn districts affected the race. His hometown of Cortlandt is still in the 40th.

“This partisan power grab demonstrates everything that is wrong with Albany.  When he ran for election, Greg Ball promised to support independent redistricting.  But now that’s he’s been elected, Senator Ball is turning his back on government reform.  These district lines are a partisan farce and are proof that Senator Ball is now part of the Republican Albany establishment,” Wagner said in a statement. “Whether these gerrymandered district lines end up constituting the 40th District or whether a court intervenes to stop this partisan power grab, I look forward to offering a positive alternative to the voters of the Hudson Valley and contrasting that to the failed record of Greg Ball.”

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Joan McDonald told lawmakers this week that the agency plans to consolidate its 11 regions of the state into six in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins April 1. Each region has a central office and multiple residencies for operations staff and equipment. The residencies would not be affected by the consolidation, she said.

“We can consolidate how we do engineering and planning, right of way acquisition, environmental review to maximize those resources,” she said after speaking at a public hearing on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget.

McDonald, pictured here, said the administration hasn’t decided yet what the six new regions will be and where they will be headquartered.

Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, Broome County, said in a statement today that she is concerned the Binghamton area could lose its regional office.

“I understand the governor wants government to be more efficient, but we need make sure the Southern Tier isn’t negatively affected,” said Lupardo, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

The DOT’s Region 9 is headquartered at the Binghamton State Office Building and covers seven counties: Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan and Tioga.

“The DOT regional office is critical to our ongoing flood recovery,” Lupardo said, referring to Tropical Storm Lee last September. “They are also managing vital infrastructure projects, such as the I-86 conversion. I want to make sure that DOT consolidation plans do not delay repairs to roads, bridges and other critical work. I’m also concerned about our workforce. We can’t afford to lose jobs at this point in our local economic recovery.”

Counties that have six senators. Eight Democratic incumbents battling for four seats in New York City. A Buffalo Senate seat that runs across a shoreline.

Those are some of the outcomes of the gerrymandered district lines that were released yesterday. It’s certainly confusing: some seats aren’t changing much, but their district numbers are.

If you want to know where you stand in all of this, check our wonderful database.

Type in your address and you’ll find your new districts in the state Senate and Assembly. You’ll also be able to pull up your new and old district maps.

Enjoy.

Rockland County Democratic Party Chairwoman Kristen Stavisky isn’t happy with the new state Legislature districts released today, namely because one her brightest stars, state Senator David Carlucci, had a good portion of the county yanked out of his district.

At the same time, Rockland has been split into two state Senate districts for the first time in two decades.

Here’s her news release:

Failing to heed Governor Andrew Cuomo’s call for an independent, non-partisan redistricting process that prioritizes communities before politics, Albany insiders released preliminary Assembly and State Senate maps – a full 13 months since 2010 census data was made public.

“It’s clear to anyone, not just followers of politics, that these districts weren’t drawn with the best interests of the people in mind,” said Rockland County Democratic Chair Kristen Stavisky. “Albany Insiders, like Republican Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, have made clear redistricting is about protecting incumbents more than reflecting communities. Why else would Rockland County, after more than 20 years as single district, be split in two? Apparently Senator Skelos doesn’t mind forcing constituents to cross the Hudson River to visit their representative.”

The 38th State Senate District previously encompassed all of Rockland County, plus areas of southern Orange County. The proposed new lines would remove the Orange County sections, along with the towns of Haverstraw and Stony Point, while adding new areas in Westchester County.
“Splitting communities, drawing districts without regard to municipal or geographic borders, and putting politicians before people is the very kind of partisanship that Governor Cuomo said has no place in redistricting,” added Chairwoman Stavisky. “I call on Governor Cuomo to make good on his veto threat and give New Yorkers the non-partisan map they deserve.”