Spitzer says reform battle far from over
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- February
- 12
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, during a visit to Mamaroneck this morning to promote his state budget, did not back down in his battle with the state Legislature. In fact, he seemed to escalate matters, comparing this battle with his pursuit of corrupt Wall Street execs.
“It’s the same thing in Albany in the sense that what you have there is a status quo mentality that’s designed to entrench elected officials, whether it is through gerrymandering, whether its through member items, whether its through the failure of oversight,” Spitzer said. “The analogy to what was wrong in the corporate governance structure is identical.”
Spitzer singled out Assemblyman George Latimer  whose district he was visiting  for criticism and even hinted that he may support a primary challenge against the Rye Democrat. Latimer had released a letter last week chastising Spitzer’s behavior.
“I had supported George for the Assembly because I thought he supported reform and I’‘m terribly disappointed to see both what he did, how he voted and what he has said,” Spitzer said. “So we’ll see what happens down the road. I’m sure there are candidates out there who do support reform.”
Spitzer conceded that the state legislature won the first skirmish in their battle by electing Tom DiNapoli but he vowed to keep up the pressure and take his case to the public.
“There are some who want to say ‘oh, well last week was last week and we can ignore it,’” Spitzer said. “Let me be really clear: I wont ignore it.”
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 1:07 pm by Glenn Blain.
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Our new Governor will face many problems from the Democratic crontrolled Assembly if he continues to try strong arm tactics. The Governor’s attack on the NYS Assembly will bring them closer together and create a major stumbling block for him. One would think that because they are all in the same party they would play nice together, wrong. Could you imagine if the Democrats ever got control of the NYS Senate, they would not work together, it would create a situation where you would have a disfunctional family. To much power in the hands of one party creates big problems, you need checks and balances.
As far as our state legislature is concerned, is there really a Democratic or Republican way of governing? Not in New York—it’s all about who can bring what to whom. That’s what needs to change—it has nothing at all to do with party rule.
Cronyism and hypocrisy. Go after Queens County Dems and Brooklyn, Eliot. They instructed their conference to vote against your choice. Last year, you could have captured Senate majority. That race against Maltese was a shame for all democrats. Al Baldeo almost beat him without any endorsements-thanks to Queens County Dems, nor money from the Democratic State senate Committee. Assemblywoman Pheffer, Anthony Seminerio, Titus, Councilman Joe Addabbo were all in Maltese’s pockets. They all came out for Maltese, instead of Baldeo! Baldeo bankrolled his own campaign, and had we Democrats given Baldeo just 1% of what we are giving to Craig Johnson, that seat would have been ours today! What a low down, rotten shame!