The Capitol Connection Show 1324, 2013 June 14

Welcome to the Capital Connection, a weekly program questioning New York State leaders
on a variety of issues.
Your host is Dr. Alan Shartock, political scientist and professor emeritus at the University
at Albany.
Distributions for the Capital Connection is made possible with the help of New York
State United Teachers, representing professionals in education and healthcare, online at nysut.org.
This is the Capital Connection High, I'm Alan Shartock joining us this week as columnist
and Albany Bureau Chief for the New York Daily News can love it.
Welcome, can.
It's always great to have you here.
You're my favorite Monday columnist of all.
Good to be back.
Thank you.
So, let me start by asking you about the famous LCA show.
This is a sort of journalistic ethics issue.
The Legislative Carrespondence Association, which has been around for a long, long time
here in Albany.
113 years.
The show's been around.
The show's been around for a long time.
And they get together with the politicians once a year and they allegedly make fun of
each other.
But one of the things that the Capital watches, watches, who comes and who doesn't was Andrew
Cuomo at this year's show.
He showed up for the cocktail hour, but he has yet to stay for the show and his three
years as governor.
But there has been, there was one time when they showed a film.
That was that last year.
Tell us about that very infamous film.
He had a film that was introduced by a staff in which they poked fun at themselves.
It was cute, a little strange at times, but definitely it got good reviews.
And in recent years, because it used to be completely off the record, these dinners.
But in recent years, really since Hillary Clinton did the show in 2000, they've been more
or less on the record.
And they have refused to release the video.
I guess a couple of news outlets, not me, but others had requested it through the Freedom
of Information Acting, yet the video was never found.
But there was a little bit of a controversy because there had been a brujaha, a flap between
Liz Benjamin, she wrote for the Daily News, and now has a wonderful blog, which was sort
of must read for a lot of people.
And she got into a flap with the Cuomo administration.
And shortly thereafter, out comes this film, which has some sexual innuendo in it.
It was good natured, but it was basically the film was they couldn't find the governor.
And part of it poked fun at a lot of LCA's, including myself.
And that part was kind of fun.
And they were looking, they were going in different rooms.
At one point, there were shredding dossiers because at that time, there was a report that
they had a dossier and Liz Benjamin.
And then that was the big controversy.
And when it was broken, they were keeping dossiers on some of us.
Right.
So that was like, you know, they went into one room, looking for the governor and, you know,
Rich Bamberger was the communications director at the time, shredding all the reporter dossiers.
But then at the end of the video, they go to the governor's mansion.
And you hear, I think the song was Marvin Gays, let's get it on.
And they zoom up to the room.
And there's Andrew Cuomo sitting on a couch, nothing inappropriate with Liz Benjamin.
You know, the joke was because they had been warring that here they were, you know, the
innuend always who is a little creepy.
And so they don't want that film being shown that they had prepared showing that.
So it's probably not in their presidential interests or something like that.
No, I would assume that's it.
Although it was recorded by others, you know, I won't say, you know, with cell phones
or with a camera.
So there was a bootleg copy of it circulating.
Oh, is that right?
Oh, that's so they have not given it out, but there are, if you search the web, the interweb,
there are copies of it circulating.
That's very funny.
Okay.
So I wanted to ask you about the LCA show.
I have been somewhat critical because you guys, the people in the press who put the show
on, where does that money go?
It goes toward the show, the operating costs.
And then if there's left over, it has gone to charities over the years when we were in
some of the, some of the housekeeping function of the LCA.
Not so much really, but no.
Well, it mostly, we pay dues that goes to the, there's not a ton of costs for the LCA.
But no, the money, whatever profit there is either goes back toward the show, the next
year, covering that year's costs or it goes to charity.
Yeah, it can love it.
I hear that the New York Times doesn't send people to the grid iron show in Washington.
Is that true here too?
Yeah, they've actually, so it was a couple of years ago, they stopped going on the grid
iron, they stopped going to the inner circle in the city and this one.
And why do you think that is?
They feel, you know, that it's, I don't know if they're inappropriate, but they just don't
want to do appearance, I guess.
Well, and that's them.
Well, no, no, I would.
If they talk to me, I would.
But I do have a question about that.
Is they or not the appearance though that when the journalists get together and they sell
tickets for this kind of show that there may be something that is either coercive or not
healthy for these two groups to be getting there?
I understand the argument in full candor.
I made that argument when I first came to the LCA in a column with auto-way news service
at the time, then now to funk auto-way news service.
It didn't win me any friends at the time, but I don't think anyone is bought off by it.
I don't think, you know, if someone comes or doesn't come to the show, that affects
any type of coverage.
But I understand the argument that, you know, it could look chummy or clubhouse atmosphere.
And honestly, you know, it's a tradition, I think, in retrospect, when I came back to
Albany, I had left.
I was here four and a half years and I left and I came back at the time with the post.
And I started doing this show.
I think I appreciated the tradition more.
I understand the other side.
I've argued the other side.
I think it's a good thing in the sense that it shows something good about this country
where you can get up there in front of people of power and make fun of them.
And they of you.
And they of us.
But I don't think it affects anything.
And I think it all took a nice tradition that carries on from the past days.
Okay.
So it's not to beat the horse that much more.
But one of the...
Oh, we will.
But one of the little observations and that is that the press is always critical.
For example, of lobbyists who eat lunch with politicians and say, you know, and when
you ask the lobbyist to say, or the legislator, they'll say, what do you think people get
bought off or a lunch?
There's an old tradition of doing that.
But the argument on that side is a lobbyist is looking for something out of a politician.
Well, you guys are too.
You want to make friends.
You want to make friends or the top audience.
Usually the way to make friends is not to mock them publicly.
Well, within a clubby soda way.
And okay, enough on this.
I understand your position perfectly well.
And because I want you to keep coming back here, that's enough.
Okay.
So now let me talk to you about the governor's programs.
He's got public financing of campaigns.
The women's equality agenda, the casinos upstate, the tax free zones near SUNY schools and
all like that.
As we sit here and by the time people hear the show in some cities, we'll know the answer
to these questions.
Okay.
Want to give me some odds on these programs.
I'll take them one at a time.
No, one at a time.
Okay.
Public financing of campaigns.
No, I don't see that happening.
I don't think the governor sees that happening.
He says he wants it.
Do you think he really wants it?
Good question.
He certainly made it a key issue.
He made it a key issue, but the reality is in the state senate, the way it's set up now
with this unprecedented coalition between the Republicans and the foreign dependent Democrats.
Renegade Democrats.
Renegade Democrats.
The Dean Scales, the leader of the Republicans or Jeff Klein, the leader of the Renegade Democrats.
Each one can veto what comes to the floor.
And Dean Scales has said, I am not going to let that come to the floor.
Mainly because there are two really big issues.
One is that and one is the women's agenda that the governor wants to close.
I want to go to the women's agenda, but I want to stay on this.
But what I was going to say is mainly the reason is a big reason is the gun law that
was passed in January.
There was a lot of backlash from conservatives, the Republican base on that law.
And I think that they are wary of taking on additional progressive liberal issues for
fear of alienating their base further.
This is a Republican conference and not only helped push the gun law through, but also
allowed the same sex marriage bill to come to the floor and pass.
And we saw what happened to those four Republicans who voted in favor of sex.
They got primary three of them are gone.
I think they recognize the, and even more than same sex marriage, this gun law has really
come back to bite them.
It's been, the governor's been highly criticized.
And I think the Republicans are pardoned upon gun shy.
And I don't think they're going to give the governor any more liberal victories.
OK, Ken Lovett.
I love having you here.
And I love contesting with you.
So let me, let me just try to give you the Chartac Beltund showing worldview about how
this works.
OK, you have, as you perceptively pointed out, just a minute ago, you have these guys.
The four rogue Democrats used to be five, but he's on his way to jail.
The fifth is on his way to jail.
And the issue here is that those guys are there.
I believe, and you can contest with me on this on Andrew Cuomo's sufferance, because I
think if Andrew Cuomo brings every one of those Democrats into a big room and says,
cut it out.
We got more Democrats than Republicans in the legislature right now.
You're going to do what I have to say and you, Skellos, because you won't go along
with me are out, out, out, out, like an umpire saying out of the game.
But I have another feeling about campaign financing.
Andrew Cuomo has unlimited amounts of money to run with.
Skellos, $22 million.
Skellos Silver has unlimited amounts of money to run with.
These guys don't want Joe the Barber running for political office with state funds where
they can screw everything up for them.
But the argument too is that I'm not even sure how good it would be because it's an opt-in
situation.
So really, the governor who has all this money wouldn't have to opt.
And first of all, his bill wouldn't take effect until 2015, a year after his reelection,
assuming he is real after his reelection effort.
No, after his reelection.
And then you don't have to, uh, and then you don't have to opt in anyway.
Yeah, but see, he doesn't have to opt in.
His problem is that Joe the Barber may want to run, take the state funds, even though
they're less than what he's got.
He won't have an opt-in question, but he'll run and it'll be a pain in the rear end.
Well, he didn't make it a top priority until this year.
And he's mentioned it since the campaign.
The reality is he had a very big progressive issue this year.
The liberal wing of the party, especially nationally, were really getting on him for
not helping the Democrats capture the Senate.
All of a sudden, I would argue that his first two state of the state addresses were really
conservative with a few bones to the liberal side.
This year in January, it flipped.
It was a very liberal agenda with a few bones to the conservatives.
That's when he lost your rival in New York Post, and he went south.
Right.
They used to be supportive.
So there's no doubt that was looking at 2016.
It was looking at the progressives.
2016 has been running for president.
At the time, he was still at 70 plus percent in the polls.
And I think he realized that he had a shore up his left side of the party.
I think that's why you saw proposals being strongly pushed this year like campaign finance.
Also, he had a hammer over the Republicans for the first two years in redistricting.
And he doesn't have that hammer anymore.
He gave the money.
As I said, Puzzolos, Democrats in it says, you're going to take the Senate and have a revolution
right now.
And Jeff Klein, the leader of the who seems somewhat prostitutional in the way that he's
looking at things.
You're all going to be in the Democratic conference, or I'm going to go out and campaign
and find out somebody to run against.
He could do that.
He hasn't done that because he doesn't want to.
I'm not sure how you could.
I'll tell you something, especially with Klein.
I'm not sure how you put it back together because Klein hates them.
And they hate him.
The Democrats hate him.
Klein is not going to go back unless he had a leadership position.
They're not going to take him back and give him a leadership position.
That's a good point.
So I don't know how I get to put together.
Nevertheless, nevertheless, Andrew Cuomo, when he goes to that convention, when he wants
to be president, let's assume Hillary, for some reason, doesn't run.
And Andrew sees himself as a viable candidate and goes in there.
They're going to say to him, how come you've been helping the Republicans stay in power
in New York State?
Well, that's what he got hammered on last year.
Again, MSNBC, all these liberal bloggers.
He's got union problems, public union worker union problems.
So certainly that's what this year was about.
He's no favorite of the teachers.
That's for sure.
The city teachers he is though.
Yeah.
You mean he's he cut a deal.
He was very smart in that front.
He cut a deal early with the mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, had been pushing a last in first
out.
Basically, he wanted to do away with last in first out.
So basically, you know, the only teachers.
The governor really blocked that.
And the thinking is and the insiders say that he cut a deal with the UFT, the United
Federation teachers in the city that he would block that and they would go easy on him.
And certainly that year that he did that, or he blocked that proposal, he put out a budget
that really cut education spending and UFT blamed the mayor.
They didn't go after the governor.
And they've been very close with this governor.
If you notice, they did not attack him over the teacher evaluation push.
He gave in all though the state people did.
They did and they did not.
He also gave them a big role in putting this thing together.
He basically gave them veto power by saying that it had to be, you know, collectively
bargain.
You mean you mean the evaluation?
Yeah.
So the UFT, you know, the teachers there, they're there.
Okay.
With them.
CSCA hates them.
That's the civil service union.
And that's the largest state worker union.
And they are going after him constantly on pretty much everything.
It's always wonderful to have Ken.
Love it with us.
The bureau chief of the New York Daily News in Albany and the guy who everybody looks
to for analysis.
And it's wonderful to hear about that.
But I want to talk to you, as we said before, about the women's equality agenda.
Now the governor comes out with another liberal plank.
Tell us what's in that abortion part of that.
What he says it is, he says all it does is codify federal, rovers his weight.
That the state law passed in 1970 before Roe v. Wade and, you know, the state abortion
was in the criminal code, you know, it only allows for an abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
If the mother's life is in jeopardy, the federal standard is if the mother's life or health
is in jeopardy.
It's a little lesser standard.
So the Catholic conference, you know, Cardinal Dolan, the conservative party, the evangelicals,
the Republicans all say that this is a way to expand abortion rights in New York.
They say, you know, Dean Scosa says this will not make it to the floor either that he's
okay with some changes to nine of the ten planks of this women's agenda.
But the abortion is a non-starter.
So what are some of the other planks that that scallows the Republican leader might
sign up?
There's pay equity, which we'll see exactly what changes there because that's something
the Republicans have always opposed.
Basically, that women have to be paid the same as men for the same job.
There is human trafficking, crackdown, tougher penalties on those who basically enslave
women, kids for prostitution.
You know, there's a whole slew of things that's going to happen.
Anti-sexual harassment policy.
Well, the big question is, will the governor accept a deal that breaks off the abortion
plank?
Either put it up separately, you know, take it out and say, all right, they wouldn't
pass, but we can get these other nine.
Or will he want the issue and the Democrats want the issue for the election next year and
say, no, we won't accept nine unless we get that 10.
So the Republicans didn't Republicans look at the election returns and the Obama went
and see that the Republicans had lost women, a lot of women, and don't they think that this
is a signature issue, the subortion thing?
They feel two things.
They've on the abortion issue, they feel it's a conjured up issue.
They feel that these are Republicans.
Yeah, that they feel that New York already has the most abortions, you know, in the country.
The law is not in jeopardy of being repealed.
Other states are toughening their abortion laws.
They're making it more difficult.
New York is nowhere near and jeopardy of that happening.
And they argue that Roe v. Wade at this point is not in jeopardy of being, you know, they're
saying at worst, this is a, they're saying it's an expansion of abortion rights.
But best, it's an unnecessary bill because we already follow what's the problem.
That's their argument.
That's their argument.
But doesn't it play negatively with women who see this as a very important plan?
It certainly could, but it doesn't play negatively with their base and really with the Republican
base and the conservative base.
And we saw what happened with same sex marriage.
Yeah.
People lost their seats in front of them.
People lost their seats and they are terrified of that.
They already, you know, they don't have a numeric majority in the Senate and the only way
to hold onto power is when race is if they are primary, if Michael alone, the conservative
party chair says, you know what, you, you pass this abortion thing we, we warned you, we're
going to put up primaries.
You know, a lot of these guys only won.
A lot of people look at the races that were lost by the Republicans, you know, almost
two years or last year, saying that well, they were, they faced conservative challenges.
What people also forget is the Republicans won a bunch of races, especially on Long Island
because of conservative backing.
So if the conservatives pull that backing, then the Republicans are in real jeopardy.
Mm-hmm.
Very interesting.
Tax-free zones.
Now that's very interesting.
The governor wants to, to, to, to expand all the Sunni campuses around so that they bring
in businesses with them and help upstate, which he knows is a critical part of his electoral
issues when he runs for governor again.
What are you doing for upstate?
Now there are people who are saying you got to do that for the downstate schools, the New
York City schools, to, you know, the CUNYs or the Sunnis in New York City.
Does he like that?
Well, he actually, in the bill, he finally introduced the bill.
So we got to see the specifics this year.
And CUNY is involved.
It's not a huge thing, but every borough in the city, all five boroughs, and then also
in Westchester, Long Island, but every borough in New York City, a CUNY that is in the highest
poverty area, a CUNY campus and the highest poverty area of that borough will be eligible
for this program.
But there's still an issue for a lot of people.
And that is this.
If you're going to say you don't do anybody who works in that area, you don't have to pay
state taxes.
Somebody's got to pay those taxes.
So if they're not paying them, Joe Cucupublic in the barrel is paying.
Well, I think there's two arguments against this program, two big ones.
One is exactly that.
That if you are bringing in more people, if this works, as you say, that we're going
to reach out, you're going to get companies that come in here from out of state that want
to take advantage of this tax-free credit tax-free zone, then they're going to demand more
services.
There's going to be demand for more schools, you know, more whatever, because you bring
more people into the area if it works.
But yet, they're not going to be paying the taxes.
On top of that, you have a 2% property tax cap.
So not only are you saying provide more services, but then you're limiting how much they can
raise from taxes and whatever taxes are raised are going to fall on those who are already
in the area.
And so what happens is you get it.
Well, and the second argument there is, what if you're a business that's already here
and you and your employees are all paying taxes?
And then a similar business relocates to this CUNY campus or SUNY campus, and they're
not paying taxes.
It immediately puts existing New York businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
Critics will say that all said, I think he gets something on this.
He has something in can I'm sorry, I've been in drug people's.
Empire zones?
Something called Empire zones and they didn't work.
No, they didn't, but I think he's been really criticized, especially on the fracking issue,
which is controversial, that for doing nothing about the upstate economy.
I think this is, you know, he's taking a lot of heat.
He's running for reelection next year.
I think it's something he wants to get done.
I think he did something like 11 press conferences around the state within a week on this.
So obviously it's a priority at the end of the legislative session.
He'll get something on this.
Man, I think exactly as he wrote it, but he will get something on this as my bet.
So the general feeling is that he'll get a good deal of what he wants because these people,
whether the Republicans or the Democrats sort of have to go along with him.
I don't think so as much.
No, like I said, I don't think he's going to get public financing.
I don't think he's going to.
But I'm not even sure what I'm talking about.
But it's a loss for him if he doesn't, because whether he wants it or not, he made it a
top priority in the state of the state.
He's pushed for it.
He's held press conferences on it.
So I think I think he doesn't get that.
I don't think he gets the abortion plank, another big issue for him.
And I don't think this, I think he'll get and I think he'll get gambling.
Okay.
And the gambling.
I think he'll get that.
He'll have to give some way there and give some gambling in New York City where he
said he only wanted it upstate, right?
Okay.
Maybe.
I don't know, because Shelby Silver isn't exactly the assembly speaker.
There's exactly a fan of casinos in the city.
I'm glad you raised, Shelby Silver.
We got a minute and 34 seconds.
You know, there's the veto Lopez thing who for those who were been on Mars, you know,
was accused of sexual indiscretions.
He's been, he's been fine.
A great deal of money by the state ethics commission.
So the Shelby Silver gets sucked into the undertow and lose his seat as speaker.
I think it's still up in the air.
I think this is the biggest challenge he's had since Mike Bragman tried to take him out.
I think this is even more serious.
I think if this lawsuit explodes and there's more allegations, if they end up paying out
a million dollars, I think that's a problem for him.
I think the lawmakers go home in their district to pay out a million dollars to pay off the
women who are accused.
Yeah, to settle this lawsuit.
I think if the marginal Democrats, especially from upstate, go home and they're pressed
by their editorial boards, the press, and let's not forget, too, a lot of these guys are
newer members.
He's lost a lot of senior members.
So that loyalty that had been built up isn't there anymore.
Okay.
If not him, who comes next?
That's the question.
Names that we've heard as people like Keith Wright, Carl Heasty out of the Bronx, Joe
Morelli from Rochester, though, that's unlikely just because he's upstate.
He's very talented.
If you're looking for a short term, someone just to fill until a long term person, you've
got Joe Vental from Brooklyn, the Codes Committee Chair.
But there's no one heir apparent and that's works in Shelley's favor and he's made it
that way.
Hey, it worked for Franklin Roosevelt.
I suppose it works for him.
Listen, Ken Loveett, we love having you on the show.
I absolutely insist on a promise you'll come back and be with us again.
Absolutely.
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