Category: News and Opinion

After Judicial Conventions

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It now seems likely that that this year was the last where candidates for New York Sate Supreme Court Justices will be chosen by conventions. This is a result of 2 Federal Court decisions that ruled the present convention system illegal.

Despite talk of switching to an appointive system, the most likely change is that candidate for Supreme Court will, starting next year, be picked in Primary elections. That is because a change to an appointive system requires amending the State Constitution and that will take at least three years.

While many reformers and good government types who sincerely want to have a high quality court system have proposals to improve the way these judges will be elected (public financing, smaller districts, independent screening panels), these changes are so controversial that I doubt the State Legislature will agree to them.

The Difference Between a Cactus and a Caucus

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On September 19, I announced: “I’ll be going on modified High-Holy-hiatus until 9/25, although I reserve the right to come back and comment on anything that interests me and won’t keep until then.”

I kept fairly silent, not posting my own pieces, and minimally sticking my nose into the business of others. The one “Room 8” entry I chose not to ignore was this pissing match between EnWhySea Wonk and Rock Hackshaw in which, in keeping with the spirit of the holidays,  I tried to play peacemaker, to no avail, telling them that while a little towel snapping in the Room 8 Locker Room was to be expected (and if one couldn't  take it, they could always join the Chorus instead), if this sort of street brawling continued, I'd have to see to it that Coach benched the both of em. 

What Seymour Lachman Didn’t Say

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I paid a fairly substantial sum to read former State Senator Seymour P. Lachman’s Albany expose Three Men in a Room. The book is a good summary of what those of us who have been reading the newspapers for the past few years already know, with the added benefit of having a former insider confirm than the worst accusations of the outsiders are correct. For those who haven’t been following the descent of our state government into despotism, I recommended it; you in for a big surprise. Hopefully, after all the libraries have made their purchases, Mr. Lachman can convince his publisher to put out a cheap paperback edition, which his education contacts can substitute for existing textbooks in the New York City public schools, those that falsely assert that we live in a democracy. But before that happens, there are some things I’d like Mr. Lachman to add.

Dilemma of Discretion

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The Daily News recently ran a series of articles outing “no-bid” contracts at New York City’s Department of Education. As someone who spent nearly 20 years as a “provisional” public employee, I’m not surprised.

Whether the government is hiring public employees or companies, it faces what I call the “dilemma of discretion.” Allow public sector managers to hire and fire who they please, and the government runs the risk of having their brother-in-law – or the brother-in-law of a politico who is in a position to threaten them – hired. But bind that manager with all kinds of rules, such as a requirement to accept the lowest “responsible” bidder, to hire those who score highest on a civil service test, and to only fire an employee or contractor after a complicated series of steps, and you create a legalistic playground for those who seek to get paid to do a job without actually doing it. Thus the tendency of those trying to improve public services, as well as those trying to steal, to hire provisionals or “consultants,” which New York’s public agencies are stuffed with, and to enter into no-bid contracts.

Low Incomes or Poor Lives?

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As I mentioned here, the fact that there are many poor people in New York City is, in some ways, a phony issue.  According to 2005 data from the Census Bureau, the New York Metropolitan Area as a whole had a poverty rate of 12.6%, below the national average of 13.3%.  Poverty is high in New York City because it is the part of the metropolitan area where the poor are permitted to live; taking regional and national economic trends as a given, the more places for the poor to live a municipality provides, the more poverty it will have.  A better focus for public policy is how well the poor live in New York City, and to what extent the city provides an environment their families to advance out of poverty, if not in this generation than in the next.   In my view, the city is a worse place to be poor today than it was 50 years ago.  That is the real issue.

Who Won The Races Below The Radar

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While the newspapers and various websites have listed the Primary winners for public office, none that I’m aware of, has listed what happened in the contests for Party office. The fights in the Independence Party are too confusing for me to follow, so I will defer to Gatemouth who has previously commented on them and there were no contests in New York City in the Republican, Conservative & Working Families Parties for Party Office. So here are the winners and losers in Democratic Party races for State Committee and District Leader, with a little commentary in cases where I know something.

The Gatemouth Project

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I’ll be going on modified High-Holy-hiatus until 9/25, although I reserve the right to come back and comment on anything that interests me and won’t keep until then. When I come back, it is my intent to provide extremely nasty, unrelentingly partisan pro-Democratic commentary until the election.

Nuance and thoughtfulness will not go out the window, because, when deployed properly, they are extremely effective techniques. But the goals should be clear:

An Early Endorsement for Jeanine Pirro

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I know that there are fifty days left to the general election, and I know that many would say that it is way too early to make an endorsement; but here I go. I am going to endorse Jeanine Pirro for Attorney General. I am going to vote for her and I am also going to try to get everyone I know to vote for her.

Why endorse Pirro? The answer is simple: she is much better qualified for this job than Andrew Cuomo. Case closed. And yet it’s more than that. We have never had a woman as AG in New York’s history; and here we have a highly qualified, highly successful, and very articulate woman, so let’s make history. In this male-dominated world (state) we don’t know when next we will get this opportunity. So let’s do it now.

Daily News ON Judges

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While I think I know much more about politics than the average voter, I admit I’m as clueless as anyone as to who is qualified to be a judge. So I have never and never will say X is more qualified than Y.

The editorial writers at the Daily News are not as humble.

In Monday’s edition, they attacked Brooklyn County Leader Vito Lopez for supporting for Supreme Court “an attorney whose chief qualifications include being the brother of Lopez’s girlfriend”

Queens (13th Senatorial): Fasten Your Seatbelts Folks

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When I told everyone that Charles Barron will win the “black” vote from Ed Towns, most thought that I was on crack. Now many ask me how I made that call. It was a simple call to make really (maybe at another time I will get deeper). Observe that I never endorsed anyone in that race. Observe also, that I predicted Ed Towns as the winner. When I endorsed Hiram Monserratte for the 13th Senatorial, many called and said that I was really losing it here. I went a step further; I predicted that he would win. On election night Hiram was a couple hundred votes behind. I still predicted that he would win. Now they are counting. I am predicting that when it’s over Hiram will win.