Politics on the Hudson

The Air Transit Association of America filed an appeal against the state Friday, a day after a federal judge shot down the industry group’s challenge of New York’s airline passengers’ “bill of rights� law. The legislation, which takes effect Jan. 1, requires airlines to provide food, water, proper ventilation and functioning toilets when a plane has been sitting on an airport tarmac for more than three hours.

New York is the first state in the nation to adopt a passengers’ bill of rights. The impetus was a Feb. 14 ice storm that left JetBlue Airways passengers stranded on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy International Airport for more than nine hours. Toilets were clogged, there was poor ventilation, and the airline couldn’t accommodate hungry and thirsty passengers. A handful of other states and Congress are considering similar legislation.

The Air Transit Association, which represents the nation’s leading airlines, argued in court this week that the federal Airline Deregulation Act prohibits states from regulating air carriers’ prices, routes and services. The airlines said the law would be costly and require them to hire more staff, purchase additional equipment, burn more fuel and reduce cabin storage space. Violations carry fines of up to $1,000 per passenger.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Kahn dismissed the lawsuit Thursday, ruling that states have power to regulate matters of health and safety. The Airline Deregulation Act was set up to promote competition and foster lower costs and more efficiency among existing and new carriers, Kahn wrote in his ruling.

A day after the state Board of Elections received a tongue-lashing from U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe, the state Association of Counties is voicing its displeasure with the state agency’s tardiness in complying with the Help America Vote Act, a federal election-modernization law. New York was supposed to have new voting machines by Jan. 1, 2006. It received an extension until this fall, but it missed that one too, prompting a renewed call from the U.S. Justice Department for action.

Sharpe ordered the board to submit a new plan for compliance by Jan. 4 and to have machines that are accessible to the disabled at every polling place by the fall.

It’s possible that counties might have to scrap those machines and buy new ones that meet higher standards for the following election. Stephen Acquario, executive director of the Association of Counties, said he is concerned about how the state’s inaction will affect New York’s “already beleaguered taxpayers.� Property taxes are at an all-time high, and counties should not have to pay for the state’s inability to meet deadlines, he said.

“The state’s inability to implement the election reforms and Judge Sharpe’s decision are likely to put all of our county governments in the difficult position of having to purchase both temporary ballot-marking devices and then later buy the HAVA-compliant election machines,� he said. “The limited amount of federal funding (nearly $200 million) will not cover the costs of both of these actions.�

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe berated state elections officials this morning for failing to comply with a federal election-modernization law called the Help America Vote Act. Sixteen months have elapsed since the judge signed a court order requiring New York to implement the legislation. All states were supposed to have updated election systems in place by Jan. 1, 2006. The court order gave the state an extension until this fall, but elections officials missed that deadline too.

Sharpe said the situation makes him “embarrassed� to be a New Yorker. Every other state has put HAVA into effect, yet New York continues to come up with excuses, he said.

“Why is it that New York thinks that it can thumb its nose at the federal government?� he asked.

The judge gave state elections one more chance to submit a specific plan, but he warned any misstep this time would result in serious consequences, such as putting someone else in charge of the process. That could be Gov. Eliot Spitzer, he said. The Board of Elections has until Jan. 4 to submit its timeline. (Republican and Democratic commissioners have been unable to agree on a plan, but this will force them to.)

In a speech tinged with hyperbole, Sharpe asked if he needed to do what the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower did in 1957—call out the National Guard to force compliance with a federal court order. In that case, the military was sent to Little Rock, Ark., to enforce school desegregation. Black students were being blocked from entering a high school there. (more…)

Sen. Eric Adams, a freshman senator for Brooklyn, is all the talk today over his best Jerry Maguire impression during yesterday’s debate on the Senate floor over pay raises for judges.

e said not only do judges deserve a pay raise, but so do legislators, who make a base salary of $79,500.

“I don’t know how some of you are living to tell you the truth,” he said. “With $79,000 you qualify for public assistance…This is a joke. Our staff isn’t being paid enough, we’re not being paid enough and we’re allowing people to tell us that we should not look for a raise increase.”

Then he went into this:”I deserve a raise. I deserve to be paid more. Show me the money! Show me the money! That’s what it’s all about. We deserve more money. We deserve to be paid for the job we’re doing.”

Here’s the full clip, being circulated today by state Republicans. You think this clip will reappear next year as Republicans try to retain control of the Senate?

A lot’s been happening in the world while we’ve been away due to technical difficulties. And now that they’ve fixed one of the last glitches in the blog—hotlinks—we’d like to note some stories in our pages you might have missed.

No surprise here: New York donors are “giving big”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071015/NEWS05/710150404/1026/NEWS10 to Rudy Giuliani’s Republican presidential campaign.

The Mount Vernon City Council wants the mayor’s new “pro bono counsel,” Ravi Batra, to “cease and desist”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071016/NEWS02/710160387/1026/NEWS10/. Davis opened his “campaign headquarters”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071014/NEWS02/710140364/1026/NEWS10 over the weekend even as “news of a new subpoena”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071013/NEWS02/710130336/1026/NEWS10 of city government broke.

Clarkstown and Ramapo candidates seem to be “hitting the public-office supplies”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071016/NEWS03/710160390/1026/NEWS10 when campaigning.

A harassment charge against a Yonkers city council candidate “was dismissed”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/NEWS02/710120464/1026/NEWS10.

Judge Francis Nicolai is “suing three political parties”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071014/NEWS01/710140341/1026/NEWS10 that would not support him for state Supreme Court justice, saying they did not follow the rules when choosing whom to endorse in November.

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano released his new “proposed capital budget”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071016/NEWS02/710160363/1026/NEWS10. Meanwhile, county legislators have “quietly sidelined”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071015/NEWS02/710150344/1026/NEWS10 Spano’s hope to bring a lawsuit over Indian Point relicensing.

And the state GOP continues its unhappiness with Governor Eliot Spitzer’s proposal to give “licenses”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071016/NEWS05/710160344/1026/NEWS10 to illegal immigrants. Candidates around the state are hoping “to make election day hay”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071013/NEWS05/710130338/1026/NEWS10 out of the issue.

On Monday night, there will be another election in Greenburgh, this time to nominate a replacement former Town Justice James Hubert, now a County Court judge.

The 166-member Greenburgh Democratic Committee will meet at Town Hall to choose one of three candiidates vying for the part-time position.

Attorneys Arlene Gordon-Oliver from Harrison and Frank Apicella from Greenburgh’s Poets Corner neighborhood have already met with the party’s executive committee and are official candidates.

But Ardsley Village Justice Walter Schwartz, who narrowly lost Tuesday’s Democratic Primary for Greenburgh Town Justice, is asking for another chance. For Schwartz to become a candidate, a district leader will have to nominate him from the floor and another district leader else will have to second the nomination.

Whoever is chosen will run on the Democratic line unopposed in November and serve with judges Doris Friedman and Sandra Forster, both of whom won the Democratic primary on Tuesday.

Yonkers election update: A state appeals court today upheld a lower-court decision to knock Nader Sayegh off the Independence Party line in the mayoral race (and out of the race altogether).

Sayegh said at the time of the earlier court decision that he planned to file as an independent candidate under the “Integrity” party line. However, Yonkers reporter Ernie Garcia checked with the county Board of Elections and said Sayegh did not follow through on that pledge.

Also today, the same appeals court knocked a candidate for Yonkers judge, Mary Anne Scattaretico-Naber, off the Conservative Party line.

You can find both decisions “here”:http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/slipidx/aidxtable_2.shtml.

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore made the rumors official today: She has changed her party affiliation, registering as a Democrat.

DiFiore joins Assemblyman Mike Spano of Yonkers as the second major Republican in the county lately to abandon the GOP.

Asked by my colleague Glenn Blain if he expected DiFiore to be the Democratic nominee for District Attorney in the next campaign cycle, Reginald LaFayette, chairman of the county Democratic Party, said: “Of course I do.”

Her statement, after the jump.

September party primaries and the November general election are the voters’ chance to chose elected officials. Right now, though, seems to be the candidates’ turn, with many attempting to knock their opponents off the ballot. Nader Sayegh, who is seeking the Independence Party nomination for Yonkers mayor, is the latest candidate in court defending his candidacy.

Sayegh is due in state Supreme Court tomorrow to face charges of election fraud related to his nominating petitions. Yonkers Republican City Councilman John Murtagh faced a similar charge from his challenger Jodi Mosiello before her attorney dropped the case during a trial Wednesday. The charges against Sayegh were filed by Independence Party chairman Giulio Cavallo, with whom Sayegh has been battling for control of the party. Cavallo is represented by John Ciampoli who represented Mosiello in Wednesday’s court case.

The Independence Party had thrown its support to Mayor Phil Amicone, but that came after Sayegh and his supporters went to court and got an order calling for the party to hold a new reorganization meeting last year. That decision is on hold, however, while Cavallo appeals that decision. Tomorrow’s ruling should decide whether Amicone and Sayegh will face each other in an Independence Party primary in September. Amicone already faces a Republican Party challenge from former City Council President Vincenza Restiano and a November election against Democratic City Councilman Dennis Robertson.

Lots of stories with political elements have hit the paper in the last couple of days, starting with the fireworks show Stony Point town board member Stephen Cole-Hatchard apparently “held in his backyard last night”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070705/NEWS03/707050374/1019/NEWS03. Asked by a reporter if he had a permit, he offered this defense: “I didn’t light any fireworks,” Cole-Hatchard said. “I handed them out.”

County officials who happily announced a senior housing project for land at the corner of Quarropas and Court street have “run into a snag”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070703/NEWS02/707030354/1026/NEWS10 with a longstanding deed restriction on land in the area.

That housing project has been a point of controversy with White Plains Mayor Joseph Delfino; so has the county’s homeless shelter in the heart of downtown. Now, in what appears to be a bit of political bluff-calling, the county says it will “just close the shelter”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070703/NEWS02/707030388/1026/NEWS10 without setting up a full-service replacement. The 50 to 80 homeless men who stay there will be offered chairs at warming sites during the cold months.

In other city news, the White Plains council “seems to be having trouble”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070705/NEWS02/707050338/1026/NEWS10 filling a city judgeship.

The state comptroller “issued some warnings”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070704/NEWS02/707040351/1026/NEWS10 about the latest Yonkers city budget. Meanwhile, Yonkers officials say a delayed 311-information line project is “still a year away”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070705/NEWS02/707050340/1026/NEWS10.

Jay Hood Jr. “became the newest member”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070704/NEWS03/707040386/1026/NEWS10 of the Rockland County legislature.

GOP candidates in Patterson have a groovy “campaign van”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070705/NEWS04/707050352/1026/NEWS10.

In Southeast, the clerk’s race has ties to a now-finished “libel suit.”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070705/NEWS04/707050346/1026/NEWS10 Meanwhile, here’s more on the Southeast town supervisor candidate “arrested for DWI”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070704/NEWS04/707040358/1026/NEWS10.