Politics on the Hudson

The state Senate and Assembly is moving toward passing a bill sought by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that would allow local governments to more easily consolidate local governments.

This morning, the state Senate Local Government Committee, headed by Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, passed the measure and expects to bring it to the Senate floor next week for a vote.

“For many years, in spite of a myriad of proposals introduced,  the State Legislature has failed to enact measures that would provide New Yorkers with the ability to choose the size, scope and cost of their own Government,” Stewart-Cousins said.  “The introduction and passage of this measure will finally change that.”

The bill has bi-partisan support in both chambers. It’s sponsored by Stewart-Cousins and Republican Sen. Betty Little in the Senate, and by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, in the Assembly.

The Assembly Local Governments Committee passed the measure yesterday and moved it to the Ways and Means Committee for review.

   The Senate Health Committee approved legislation today that would legalize marijuana for medical use. But the bill still has to go through the Senate Codes Committee before getting to the floor for a vote. If passed, seriously ill patients would be able to have up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and 12 mature plants. It has been used to relieve nausea, increase appetite, reduce muscle spasms and reduce chronic pain in patients with debilitating illnesses.

   This is the first year the legislation has a chance of passing the Assembly and Senate. The Assembly has passed bills before, but this is the first time identical bills have the support of the political party in control in both houses. Democrats have long controlled the Assembly, but the last time Democrats were in charge of the Senate before this year was 1965.  

   Senate Health Committee Chairman Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan, said the committee received a memorandum in support of the legislation from the Medical Society of the State of New York. It has received memos in opposition from the state Conservative Party, the Drug-Free Schools Coalition in New York and the New York Society of Addiction Medicine.

   The medical marijuana legislation in the Assembly was reported by the Health Committee and now sits in the Codes Committee. It is not on the latter committee’s meeting agenda for tomorrow.

Gov. Paterson and minority lawmakers today reveled in President Obama’s  nomination  of Bronx native Sonia Sotomayor to be a Supreme Court justice. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Latina and only the third woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.  Sotomayor, 54, whose parents moved to New York City from Puerto Rico during World War II, now sits on a federal appeals court in Manhattan.

“This is a great day. We are proud of her and look forward to working with her,’’ Paterson said in apparently passable Spanish (later translated for a mono-lingual reporter by an aide), as lawmakers cheered.

Paterson also recalled that when he was 12,  his father shouted to his mother that President Johnson had nominated “somebody that sounded like Theodore Marshall’’ to the Supreme Court.

It was actually Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the high court.

“I hadn’t seen them so happy since the day my brother was born,’’ he said.

The nomination of Sotomayor shows “any child in this country can grow up to be whatever they want,’’ said New York’s first African American governor, and also the first legally bind person to be the chief executive of any state.

   Lawmakers have been sending out statements in response to the California Supreme Court decision today to uphold Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. The New York Assembly passed same-sex marriage legislation a few weeks ago. The Senate has not voted on the measure yet this session:

From Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan:
   “I am extremely disappointed and saddened by the California Supreme Court decision to uphold Proposition 8, which bans same sex marriage.  The New York State Senate must take this opportunity to affirm its belief that all people are equal by acting quickly and decisively and passing marriage equality legislation.  All citizens are entitled to equal rights and that will not be the case until same sex marriage is recognized.”

From Sen. Thomas Duane, D-Manhattan:
   “Today’s 6-1 decision by the California Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8 is an outrage. To allow discrimination under a state’s constitution is morally wrong. The Court’s recognition of pre-Proposition 8 marriages proves just how arbitrary courts and lawmakers can be in deciding who has the right to be married.”

“I sympathize with the thousands of same-sex couples in California who have been told by their high court, the very same court that previously granted them the right to marriage, that their love and commitment will not be recognized. I understand their pain because the New York Court of Appeals also issued a dubious and shameful opinion denying same-sex civil marriage in New York State.”

   Duane, who is openly gay, said he is confident the Senate will pass same-sex civil marriage legislation “in the near future.” The regular legislative session is scheduled to end in four weeks.

   New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms issued a statement congratulating ProtectMarriage.com, the National Organization for Marriage and other groups that worked on getting Proposition 8 passed last year. The Rev. Duane Motley, executive director of the New York group, said he is disappointed that the California court’s decision to recognize same-sex marriage licenses granted before Proposition 8 was passed. (more…)

The big showdown between contestants hoping to carry the Republican banner in the City Council President’s race in November comes tomorrow night. That race, between Councilman Liam McLaughlin and fellow lawyer and first-time candidate Jim Castro-Blanco, tops the list of three party council nominations up for grabs.
In the race to fill McLaughlin’s 4th District seat, there are now four contestants after John Rubbo, an aide to Mayor Phil Amicone, resigned from that post and announced his candidacy last week. Also in that contest are Dennis Shepherd, Gerri Esposito and Ronald Volino. In the 6th District, long-time community activist John Larkin is facing Anthony Merante
The Republican nominee in the council president’s race will face Democratic incumbent Chuck Lesnick.
The Democrats filled out their ticket in late April, picking Wilson Terrero in the 2nd District, where there is no Republican opponent; Mario DeGeorgio in the 4th; and Ted Winnicki in he 6th. Though a Democrat, Terrero supported Amicone for mayor two years ago.
Tomorrow night’s convention at the Asbury United Methodist Church on Scarsdale Road may not be the fi8nal word, however. Republican chairman John Jacono said there was a good chance that at least one of the 4th District candidates run a primary contest against the convention winner and would not rule that possiblity out in the City Council President’s contest.

The good news for Gov. Paterson is that legislative leaders today didn’t dismiss out of his hand his proposal to establish a new independent ethics-watchdog panel that would also have authority over the Legislature.

“We are open to changes,’’ said Dean Weiller, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan.

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said he welcomed the plan – but pointed out the Senate was  already working on its own proposal. Historically, lawmakers have nixed any plan that would take oversight of their ethics out of their own hands.

Such is life for a governor who has record-low approval ratings. His plan would set up a five-member commission appointed by a 10-member nominating panel whose members would be selected by him and other top state officials.

Paterson wants to shuffle the deck in part because the existing Public Integrity Commission is in hot water because its executive director leaked confidential information to an aide to Eliot Spitzer when the commission was probing that gov., according to Inspector General Joseph Fisch.  Paterson called on them all to quit, but they said no.

On the heels of today’s poll, same-sex marriage advocates in New York released a second ad today, featuring a Warsaw, Wyoming County, family who has a gay son.

The ad is being broadcast on the Internet by the Empire State Pride Agenda, which is hoping to raise money to put the ad on television. The group is running a television ad already that started earlier this month.

The latest ad features Karen Schuster and two of her children: her 23-year old daughter Jessica, who is straight, and her 19-year old gay son Luke, who is gay.

“I believe that Luke has the goal of settling down with someone and I want him to be able to do that and to have same rights as other people,” Karen said.

Added Luke: “It makes me feel very upset that my sister is able to have this wonderful thing called marriage and I’m just as much of a citizen as she is, but I’m not allowed to have the same thing.”

Here’s some of the New York reactions to the nomination by President Obama of Sonia Sotomayor, a Bronx native and federal appeals court judge for New York, Vermont and Connecticut,  as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: “I spoke with President Obama this morning and told him that he had made a historic and fantastic decision. In Judge Sotomayor, we have a superbly qualified jurist, who understands, respects, and connects with the people whose lives will be affected by the court.”

Sen. Charles Schumer: “Judge Sotomayor meets three very important standards in filling this Supreme Court vacancy—excellence, moderation and diversity. First, she is a top-of-the-class legal mind who achieved the very highest honors at the nation’s foremost academic institutions. Second, she is a moderate who was selected for the District Court by the first President Bush and was confirmed with Republican votes. Unlike the last President Bush, who solely sought nominees from the extreme right for the High Court, President Obama has not reached to the far left end of the spectrum to fill this vacancy.”

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo: “Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s journey from the Bronx to Supreme Court nominee is a true New York success story. She is a distinguished and thoughtful voice whose years of judicial expertise will be pivotal as the Supreme Court tackles historic issues vital to all Americans.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “When I met with the President in the Oval Office earlier this month, I took the opportunity to tell him that Sonia Sotomayor would be an outstanding choice for the Supreme Court, and people whose legal opinions I greatly respect speak very highly of her.  She has been an incredibly good federal judge, and having risen from humble beginnings in the Bronx, she brings a perspective that will serve the Court – and our nation – very well.”

Gov. David Paterson’s favorability and job-performance ratings remain at record lows, a new poll today found, while voters are evenly split over whether New York should legalize same-sex marriage.

A Siena College poll found Paterson is viewed favorably by 27 percent of voters and unfavorably by 60 percent, similar to Siena’s findings last month. And the same as last month, Paterson has a job performance rating of 18 percent. Only 15 percent of voters would elect him next year, when he plans to seek election, the poll found.

“Voters are continuing to deliver bad news to the governor,” said Siena poll spokesman Steven Greenberg. “His popularity remains at record low levels, with more than twice as many voters having an unfavorable view of him as have a favorable view and fewer than one in five voters saying he’s doing an excellent or good job as Governor,”.

Meanwhile, voters are evenly divided, 46 percent to 46 percent, on whether the state Senate should pass legislation that would legalize same-sex marriages in New York. The state Assembly passed the measure earlier this month.

A Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month also found voters split 46 percent to 46 percent.

But last month, Siena reported that by 53 percent to 39 percent, voters supported the measure. Since then, Siena said that support has dropped by at least 10 percentage points among independent voters, New York City voters, young voters, women, and African Americans voters, Siena said.

“This is an issue that is getting a lot of public attention. And it is clearly an issue where voters’ opinions are shifting as they hear more and think more about it,” Greenberg said.

On potential gubernatorial match-ups next year, 47 percent of voters said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo should run for governor, while 33 percent said he should run for re-election to his current post.
In potential general election contests, Paterson would lose to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani 59 percent to 31 percent, while Cuomo would beat Giuliani 53 percent to 41 percent.

Seventy-two percent of voters support a property-tax cap, virtually the same as the 69 percent to 20 percent support in August 2008.

And by a 57 percent to 31 percent margin, voters would prefer to see the Senate remain in Democratic hands after the 2010 election. Democrats took control of the Senate in January for the first time since 1965.
The Siena poll was conducted May 18-21 to 622 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.