Showing posts with label Kathleen Rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kathleen Rice. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2014

Former Moreland Commission co-Chair William Fitzpatrick Issues Statement to Press

Former co-chair of the now-defunct Moreland Commission, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, issued a press release Monday morning, addressing various issues over the premature closing of the troubled anti-corruption investigation panel. Federal authorities are investigating allegations that officials with the Cuomo administration steered investigators away from the questionable fundraising and other activities of some of the governor's big money campaign contributors.

For Immediate Release From Da Fitzpatrick 7-28-14 by Nick Reisman

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Voters have more choices than to just vote Gov. Cuomo out of office after he corrupted the Moreland Commission [UPDATED]

PUBLISHED : THURS, 24 JUL 2014, 11:31 PM
UPDATED : SAT, 26 JUL 2014, 08:30 PM

The demise of the Moreland Commission : The high price of avoiding a fundamental overhaul of the broken political system

Andrew Cuomo - Moreland Commission Scandal - Commission Accomplished photo AndrewCuomo-CommissionAccomplished_zps2cbda66d.jpg

In the lengthy The New York Times report about the Cuomo administration's relentless obstruction of the independent investigations once being conducted by the now-defunct Moreland Commission, the newspaper of record finally named names : that Gov. Andrew Cuomo was apparently serving the best interests of large campaign contributors -- amongst them, the Real Estate Board of New York ; the Extell Development Company, developer of the $2 billion luxury condominium tower on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan ; and the donors to the Committee to Save New York, a controversial 501(c)(4) charity group that acted as Gov. Cuomo's political arm -- instead of the best interests of voters.

As federal prosecutors piece together the pattern of activities over a period of time that may have broken state or federal laws, which form the corrupt political machinations that thwarted subpoenas, concealed political activities, and altered reports -- leading to the politically-motivated, premature closure of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, voters are left having to examine the high price society pays to keep corrupt politicians, like Gov. Cuomo, in office. What keeps the broken political system so corrupt and corruptible ?

With the media fallout from the lengthy article in The New York Times and a possible federal investigation threatening to end Gov. Cuomo's political career, voters will probably not be shocked, once they learn the answer.

Intimidating, retaliating, and controlling officials or witnesses

Gov. Cuomo's power, it is now being revealed, stems from his control-freak nature, his need to badger his opponents into submission, his need to stack the political deck in his favor from the outset. One way he does that is by relying on help from powerful lobbying groups, like the Real Estate Board of New York, or REBNY as it is known for short. REBNY is a powerful lobbying group of extremely wealthy real estate developers. They are also a source of large campaign contributions at both the city and state levels. The lengthy article in The New York Times was perhaps the second time over the course of a decade when REBNY got singled out for scrutiny for its role in packaging large campaign contributions to political candidates in apparent exchange for special, insider access to government officials, who determine government policy or shape laws that impact the real estate industry. The last noteworthy time when The New York Times came close to outing REBNY was when reporters identified real estate developers as amongst the largest campaign contributors to the early-identified New York City mayoral candidates in the 2009 election cycle. Real estate developers were rushing to donate maximum amounts of campaign contributions before new restrictions were set to take place, which would limit the amount of money that business interests seeking business before the city could donate to candidates for public office. That previous article was a reflection of the realities in New York City politics, namely, that when real estate developers seek municipal approval for zone-busting real estate projects -- from the controversial, tax-payer assisted Hundson Yards project, to the $1 billion luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital -- the city's politicians always acquiesce to developers' demands. Money not only buys insider access, but it apparently buys approvals of the city's development permitting process, a fact that The New York Times doesn't always make clear.

Obfuscation is the trick that keeps voters in the dark to the pattern in political corruption. Some of the same corrupt developers, who donate to Gov. Cuomo, also make campaign contributions to municipal politicians, all in an effort to game the broken political system. Two members of the Rudin family, owners of Rudin Management Company, made campaign contributions to Gov. Cuomo's campaign committee in the sum of $35,000. Other contributions, totaling $50,000, originated from a limited partnership in the name of the address of a Rudin office building on Park Avenue. The leader of the Rudin family is William Rudin, a board of director of both REBNY and a powerful Chamber of Commerce-like group known as the Partnership for New York City, or PFNYC for short.

In the 2009 New York City mayoral election cycle alone, owners of Rudin Management Company made contributions nearly totaling $30,000 to the campaign committee of former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. These campaign contributions were made in the lead-up to Rudin's application for what eventually became a $1 billion luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital. The hospital, in Speaker Quinn's Council district, needed her approval in order for the rest of the City Council to act in nearly unanimous lockset to rubber-stamp Rudin's zone-busting permit application. Tens and tens of thousand dollars in campaign contributions explains why healthcare activists heard, "We'll see you after the election," from the Cuomo camp in 2010, and heard nothing from former Speaker Quinn after her troubled reelection in 2009.

A decade ago, when the wealthy landlords of several of the city's Mitchell-Lama buildings were contemplating exiting the affordable housing program, REBNY lobbied the New York City Council -- and won -- a package of low-cost loans for the wealthy landlords that did nothing to expand affordable housing to New Yorkers. Instead, the financial benefit of such packages, on top of existing Mitchell-Lama subsidies and tax breaks, was to pad the bottom line of the city's wealthy Mitchell-Lama landlords, and that decade-old, low-cost loan package was spun as a way to incentivize wealthy Mitchell-Lama landlords to voluntarily remain in the affordable housing program without any newly-won guaranteed rent caps, much less rent reductions, for low- and moderate-income tenants. Whatever REBNY wants, REBNY gets.

To the corrupt enablers of the broken political system, reforms, of any kind, need to be blocked

Overseeing REBNY for almost three decades now has been Steven Spinola. In the lengthy report in The New York Times, Mr. Spinola was singled out for having written a controversial memo to REBNY members, asking the membership to make campaign contributions to Democrats in the State Assembly, a move that the Moreland Commission's chief of investigations, E. Danya Perry, found to be indicative that large campaign contributors believed that making political donations could determine legislative outcomes. The wealthy landlords and developers, who comprise REBNY, invest tens of thousands of dollars in political candidates over the course of their careers, amounts that can sometimes reach six figures for a single politician. Like all bean counters, real estate interests expect a return for this investment. That's why no major zone-busting real estate development has ever been turned down in New York City over the last decade or so, with the possible exception of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan for a West Side stadium. That project was doomed from the start, because it would have competed with the wealthy Dolan family's interests in Madison Square Garden. In New York real estate circles, wealthy interests rarely want to create conflict between competing interests, because any conflict would draw scrutiny to the unseemly lobbying process that developers would rather keep below the public's radar. Fixing the outcome of zone-busting real estate permit applications depends on keeping the broken political system in place, where large campaign contributions can have an influence in legislative or zoning application processes -- outcomes upon which big business interests can rely.

According to the lengthy report in The New York Times about the demise of the Moreland Commission, Gov. Cuomo was trying to avoid any scrutiny of his real estate supporters, for example, the REBNY lobbying group or Extell, the real estate developer. Like Rudin, Extell is another wealthy real estate development company that has made sizable campaign contributions on both the municipal and state levels. A partial listing of campaign contributions by individuals with connections to Extell shows that over $16,000 in campaign contributions were made to former Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign committee and that a partial listing of still yet other donations were made to Mayor de Blasio's winning mayoral campaign committee of at least $6,000. More on the role of Extell on influencing building policy under the de Blasio administration later.

On top of trying to avoid scrutiny of developers, Gov. Cuomo and his enablers, including Regina Calcaterra, manipulated the workings or censored the work product of the Moreland Commission. Even though the Moreland Commission has been shut for several months, some media reports indicate that Gov. Cuomo continues to pay Ms. Calcaterra her full executive director salary, even though the commission is now disbanded, raising questions amongst political bloggers as to what exactly Gov. Cuomo is paying Ms. Calcaterra to do, i.e., remain quiet about the background political machinations that drove the Moreland Commission into the ground ?

But the corruptive influence that appears to drive the political machinations for the Cuomo administration is not limited to the real estate industry. Another group, the PFNYC, has also exerted great influence in the Cuomo administration, according to government reform activists. The PFNYC is a powerful group of business executives from some of the nation's largest corporations, which operate out of New York City. Together, REBNY and the PFNYC were heavily involved in the Committee to Save New York, or CSNY for short, a pro-Cuomo charity group that raised over $16 million in contributions to advocate in support of several political issues. CSNY disbanded before the group was required to disclose the sources of its contributions.

The PFNYC, a member group of CSNY, is headed by Kathryn Wylde, the media's go-to-person for pro-business talking points. Ms. Wylde was a chief advisor to former Speaker Quinn, according to one political blogger, and her influence can be felt across the political spectrum in New York government. Although Gov. Cuomo vehemently denied that he was a shill for the PFNYC, there's no realistic way possible that pro-business groups would raise over $16 million and spend most of it on TV commercials supporting the Cuomo administration's agenda if the pro-business groups weren't expecting something in return. When Gov. Cuomo denies a quid pro quo on a scale of this magnitude, he is not being fully forthcoming with voters. That Mr. Spinola at REBNY and Ms. Wylde at the PFNYC can raise these amounts of contributions without public scrutiny is tantamount to government, but yet nobody calls for an end to the loopholes that allow lobbying groups to game the political system in their favour. No elected official, not even those whose campaign planks purportedly represent "progressive" values, dare to close the loopholes and champion for campaign finance reforms. No politician on the take from wealthy landlords or real estate developers dares to overhaul the corrupt municipal process that reviews billion-dollar zone-busting real estate development deals known as the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP for short. Here's why.

Millions of dollars in 501(c)(4) money and hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions are meant to block reforms

The only way that big business interests can keep fixing the outcome of permit applications and legislative processes is keep in place a system where only big money campaign contributors get insider access to elected officials. This is the roadblock to a complete overhaul of the broken political system, and it is this roadblock that very few media outlets fully expose. The lengthy article about Gov. Cuomo's backroom machinations to sabotage the Moreland Commission named a few names, like Mr. Spinola, REBNY, Extell, and the CSNY. But notice how Ms. Wylde and the PFNYC were left out. Also left out were the possible corrupting influence of $17,500 in campaign contributions made to Gov. Cuomo's campaign committee from the wealthy Kestenbaum family, founders of the Fortis Property Group, which eventually won the zone-busting development rights to convert Long Island College Hospital, or LICH, into what could amount to a billion dollar luxury condo complex in the fancy Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. Official government policy outcomes always match the relentless pattern of campaign donations. The fix is in.

For years, thousands of healthcare activist from across New York City have been frustrated by newspaper articles by the hospital beat reporter, Anemona Hartocollis, who has never -- not even once -- mentioned how big real estate developers are corruptive influences that secretly cheer for the early closure of community hospitals across the city in order to bid pennies on the dollar for redevelopment rights to real estate sites that can gross revenues of several hundred millions to perhaps into the billions. Behind the media bias in articles like these, many healthcare activists and political bloggers believe, are the powerful business interests of REBNY and the PFNYC. It isn't just big business interests, which try to influence the media to disconnect the dots back to big business interests ; elected officials don't want that kind of scrutiny, either, because of the paper trail that large campaign donations link elected officials back to big business interests. If in respect of the Moreland Commission, the governor was able to successfully steer the Moreland Commission members away from troublesome links to the CSNY, then it wouldn't be that much more difficult for big business interests and elected officials to team up to steer the media away from troublesome links between former Speaker Quinn and Rudin Management Company in respect of the $1 billion luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's.

Behind why voters can be deceived is the unshakeable public perception that the media does not fully report the whole truth about political corruption. The voter anger at former Speaker Quinn in her own Council district in 2011 was a harbinger that her political career was over. This voter anger was never fully reflected in media reports at the time. A close parallel to today is the growing political anger in Brooklyn, which is now directed at Mayor Bill de Blasio, over the closure of LICH in his very own borough. After the lessons learned from the spectacular failure of former Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign, some media outlets have woken up to the voter dissatisfaction that hospital closures create amongst voters, meaning the sense of Mayor de Blasio's betrayal of the LICH community is slowly emanating from Brooklyn to the rest of the city, but still no thanks to key reporters at The New York Times, like Ms. Hartocollis. The larger story about hospital closings, which the media fails to report, is that Gov. Cuomo exacerbated these hospital closings under his controversial Medicaid Redesign Team, a panel that was steered to recommend draconian cuts to Medicaid, so much so that some of the Medicaid cuts are now being challenged in court. The hospital closings made under the Medicaid Redesign Team were spearheaded by Gov. Cuomo's hatchet man and Wall Street banker, Stephen Berger, but this fact is not widely reported by the media, misleading voters into thinking that hospitals are failing for business or commercial reasons, instead of the fact that hospital closures are actually central to Gov. Cuomo's austerity program. It's not that former Speaker Quinn or Mayor de Blasio are excused for their failed efforts to save St. Vincent's or LICH, for example, but that former Speaker Quinn and Mayor de Blasio have refused to fully educate voters about the power play dynamics playing out in political back rooms, decisions they make no doubt under the influence of big money contributions by real estate interests vying for lucrative luxury condo conversions of the real estate assets of failed hospitals.

Voters don't fully see the truth about the corrupt decisions government makes, and one lengthy article in The New York Times about Gov. Cuomo's corrupt machinations to undermine the Moreland Commission isn't enough and doesn't repeat facts enough times, for the necessary messages to permeate throughout the electorate. Indeed, voters found out too late how Gov. Cuomo's office had managed to intimidate the former Albany Bureau Chief and the former political editor of The New York Times, a political machination, which may explain why some government reform activists rightly perceived a bias from former metropolitan editor Carolyn Ryan, who espoused a bias in support of the political marionettes of the PFNYC, like former Speaker Quinn.

Meet some of the victims targeted by the broken political system enabled by Gov. Cuomo and his supporters : Whistleblowers, activists, voters, and even some government officials

On the same day when Seema Kalia was set to testify before the Moreland Commission in 2013, at the invitation of Ms. Calcaterra, Ms. Kalia says, she was arrested and hauled to Rikers Island, where she was locked up for almost six months. Ms. Kalia's arrest prevented her from testifying before the Moreland Commission about financial improprieties, which, she says, involved institutions, such as Trinity School and the law firm Wachtel Lipton Rosen & Katz, with political ties that could be traced back to Gov. Cuomo. Prior to her arrest and incarceration, Ms. Kalia provided a summary of her expected testimony to Ms. Calcaterra during a telephone conversation that they had shared. The issues of corruption, which Ms. Kalia expected to bring before the Moreland Commission involved potential tax improprieties, amongst other issues. Ms. Kalia had attempted to reach out to the Moreland Commission with her information after the district attorney for Manhattan, Cyrus Vance, refused to investigate, Ms. Kalia said. Like with other whistleblowers, who had separately tried to directly contact Moreland Commission members about corruption after local authorities refused to investigate, the Moreland Commission never formally promised to investigate Ms. Kalia's referral. Part of the retribution Ms. Kalia has had to endure since blowing the whistle on corruption has been the loss of custody of her children, some political activists believe. Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult to believe that the Cuomo administration or the institutions implicated in Ms. Kalia's testimony would go to great lengths to retaliate against a witness, but the Cuomo administration has a definite pattern of hostility toward whistleblowers.

In 2013, Gov. Cuomo's director of state operations, Howard Glaser, publicly excoriated a state engineer, Mike Fayette, in an act of public retaliation for Mr. Fayette's unauthorized communication with the press. The year before, the Cuomo administration objected to a critic of the state’s Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, Jeffrey Monsour, being appointed to serve on a panel discussion on developmental disabilities. The Cuomo administration reversed its objection after criticisms of the administration's backlack were published by The New York Times. Also in 2012, Gov. Cuomo himself publicly retaliated against Ravi Batra, a founding member of the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE for short, creating a hostile environment for Mr. Batra, who resigned in protest over allegations that Gov. Cuomo attempted to steer control over JCOPE. From compromising the investigations of the Moreland Commission or JCOPE to retaliating against whistleblowers, these are examples of a pattern of corrupting political activities relating to Gov. Cuomo's obsession with keeping his official acts in alignment with the expectations of big business donors to his campaign committee.

The unmistakable pattern of political activities points to how the Cuomo administration seeks to manipulate or restrict the communication by whistleblowers or state employees set to speak before panels or with the media. Retaliation is commonplace. Like each of Mr. Monsour, Mr. Fayette, and Mr. Batra, Ms. Kalia has been excoriated in the media. As federal prosecutors reportedly investigate the political machinations of the Cuomo administration to thwart the investigations of the Moreland Commission, left unreported is how are each of these whistleblowers going to receive justice. Will Ms. Kalia see her charges investigated and her children returned ? Will Mr. Monsour and Mr. Fayette be guaranteed workplaces that are free of hostility and retaliation ? Can the other commissioners serving on JCOPE be assured of independence from the Cuomo administration ? And can the Cuomo administration amend its public statements about Mr. Batra, to restore public confidence in the integrity of whistleblowers like him ?

The Cuomo administration's apparent political backlash directed at critics isn't isolated to a few, vocal activists. The broken political system overseen by Gov. Cuomo and enabled by his generous campaign contributors also runs rough shod over large sections of the general public. Residents of low income housing, for example, become ensnared, too. Extell, the real estate developer, was founded and is headed by Gary Barnett, a member of REBNY's executive committee and board of governors. Mr. Barnett through his company, Extell, is represented in the media by the lobbyist and campaign consultant, George Arzt. Mr. Arzt is a controversial figure in New York politics, because, over the last several years, he has made over $90,000 in campaign contributions to various politicians, knowing that money is the corrupt grease the spins the squeaky wheels of government.

Recently, Extell won approval from the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development to segregate tenants of affordable housing units to through separate entrances of apartment buildings. The separate entrances approved for low- and moderate-income tenants is colloquially referred to as the "poor door." How could the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration, one which likes to advertise its "progressive" aspirations, approve such a regressive and discriminatory practise ? It all comes down to the influence that large campaign contributions by donors, like Extell, and the corrupting influence of lobbyists, such as Mr. Arzt, exert over the political process. Since Gov. Cuomo is owned by Extell, the Democratic governor is in no position to check the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito's new "poor door" policy, effectively leaving unchallenged Extell's discriminatory new entrance policy. The announcement of Extell's controversial new policy came as Mayor de Blasio was departing for a 10-day vacation that includes stops along the Italian Riviera. Real estate developers get exactly what they want.

Left unchecked, the broken political system that allows even corruption-fighting investigation panels, like the Moreland Commission and JCOPE, to become corrupted, works to further undermine the public's faith in the democratic process and in the judicial system. Who will volunteer to serve on future Moreland Commissions if high-ranking state officials can obstruct the commissioners' independent investigations ? Ms. Perry, the Moreland Commission's former chief of investigations, fought back against the meddling by the Cuomo administration. Now, Ms. Perry, as well as other Moreland Commission members, such as Kathleen Rice and William Fitzpatrick, may very well have to account for their actions before federal prosecutors, a task that will no doubt clear the names of some, based on the reporting of the Cuomo administration's serial acts of obstruction. However, this is an undue burden that should not have to accompany public service, and it will act to deter future public servants from coming forward to accept similar government appointments.

Also left unexamined is why Gov. Cuomo chose the vehicle of a Moreland Commission to conduct his investigation into corruption in Albany. Why a Moreland Commission, and why not task the state's attorney general's office with this task ?

Again, the public is left in the dark about the political machinations that touch upon the state's judicial system. The state attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, holds an elected office. To run for office, Mr. Schneiderman seeks the endorsement of the same corrupt political operatives that are responsible for enabling government and campaign corruption. Mr. Schneiderman seeks endorsements from the county chairs of the Democratic Party, political clubs, and other politically-active nonprofit groups. Mr. Schneiderman relies up campaign consultants and political lobbyists for electioneering work, and Mr. Schneiderman must raise campaign contributions to fund an expensive state-wide election campaign. Two readily-identifiable limited liability companies related to the real estate developer Tishman Speyer bundled at least $70,000 in campaign contributions to Mr. Schniederman's 2014 campaign committee. Rob Speyer is Co-Chief Executive Officer of Tishman Speyer, and he also serves as Chairman of REBNY. Anytime an office holder must rely upon contributions to a campaign committee, that generally opens the door to that elected official being potentially owned by his or her campaign contributors or other political operatives. Indeed, as the political scandal of the demise of the Moreland Commission has befallen upon the Cuomo administration, Mr. Schneiderman, who himself appointed some of the commissioners, has made the politically-calculated move to remain silent, to the detriment of voters' interests.

The same criticisms apply to the various local district attorneys around New York State. Any of these local district attorneys could have opened up investigations into the various examples of government or campaign corruption across New York state, but the district attorneys don't, for the very same reasons that the state's attorney general is conflicted about investigating and prosecuting cases of government or campaign corruption : cases consisting of violations of local or state law that involve the potential for the prosecution of significant political or government individuals pose special problems for local and state prosecutors, precisely because local and state prosecutors belong to the same corrupt political system that breeds government and campaign corruption, leaving only federal prosecutors relatively independent enough to mount such investigations and to bring such cases, if warranted. Given how the Obama administration has politicized the Department of Justice, government reform activists and political bloggers are gambling that Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District, has the fortitude to see through a massive investigation into government and campaign corruption that could potentially yield a once-in-a-century renewal in government integrity.

The false choice proposed by The New York Times

On the day the lengthy report was published in The New York Times, the media worked itself into a stampede, hopping on the bandwagon to report about the Cuomo administration's apparent obstruction of justice in the proceedings of the Moreland Commission. The day after, the editorial board of The New York Times published an editorial, presenting voters with a choice : keeping their elected representatives in office, or voting them out.

This is a false choice.

Voters don't just have a choice to vote out corrupt elected officials. They also have a choice to demand an overhaul of this broken political system. The continued short-sightedness by The New York Times points to how voters are not fully informed about the true depths of corruption in government.

In last year's mayoral election, the voter backlash against the perceptions of community betrayal and public corruption during the 15 years of former Speaker Quinn's political career became co-opted by a Super PAC, NYC Is Not For Sale. The voter backlash and the Super PAC's co-opting measures played out for the public and the media to see. However, the media was limited in its ability to fully scrutinize the behind-the-scenese political activities and finances of the Super PAC, which were apparently being coordinated with official campaign committees and which involved controversial sources of funding and the sharing of other resources that cast questions about impropriety and possible illegality over the activities of the Super PAC. But these questions were largely raised after it was too late -- either after Mayor de Blasio had taken the lead in opinion polls or after he had won the Democratic mayoral primary. The deliberate lack of media scrutiny of Mayor de Blasio's campaign resulted in voters getting another neoliberal hack Democrat for mayor, who espouses the racist broken windows theory of policing and whose administration approves separate-but-equal poor doors for residents of affordable housing units.

Similarly, just voting Gov. Cuomo out of office based on voter backlash to his record of corruption and neoliberalism isn't enough. Voters must elect a change agent outside of the corrupt two-party system. Leftists need to leave the Democratic Party. As advocated by this blog, voters are encouraged to look at the record of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins. Mr. Hawkins' campaign platform calls for ideas that would overhaul the broken political system by ending opportunities for corruption. His proposals for reform include a Clean Money bill that would fund full public campaign financing, meaning, a ban would have to be instituted on all private campaign donations. This radical step is the only way to cut out the undue influence of Mr. Spinola, REBNY, 501(c)(4) charity groups like the CSNY and the mayor's corrupt Campaign for One New York, Ms. Wylde, the PFNYC, Extell, Rudin Management Company, and other big money campaign contributors that enable corrupt politicians, like Gov. Cuomo, therefore keeping the political system broken and corruptible to big money donors. Even in the face of one week's worth of intense media scrutiny and even a possible federal investigation, big money real estate interests have cavalierly denounced any intention to stop funding big money donations to politicians, like Mr. Cuomo. REBNY is unapologetic for apparently fixing the legislative outcomes based on their large campaign contributions.

While you check out Mr. Hawkins' platform, look up other issues you care about. You might find his untethered approach to overhauling the corrupt political system refreshing. If Mr. Hawkins campaign is not for you, then please support a campaign with idea that match his for boldness.

Voters have more options than just voting Gov. Cuomo out of office.

RELATED


Cuomo’s Office Hobbled Ethics Inquiries by Moreland Commission (The New York Times)

Gov. Cuomo’s Broken Promises (The New York Times)

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Failed Moreland Commission Leadership Haunting Kathleen Rice's Congressional Race


SPECIAL NEWS UPDATE: FRI, 25 APR 2014, 09:50 AM
Scott Levenson NY-CLASS Christine Quinn Bill de Blasio FBI Investigation into Campaign Corruption photo 2014-04-25TheNewYorkDailyNewsFBIReport_zps189d95ac.png

In the past few weeks, FBI agents have been asking questions about the campaign by the animal rights group NY-CLASS to strong arm former Council Speaker Christine Quinn (center) to support a ban on the iconic horse-drawn carriages, two sources familiar with the matter told The New York Daily News. The horse lobbyists in question include Scott Levenson, and they are linked to Mayor Bill de Blasio (inset). (FBI investigating claim that Christine Quinn was threatened by Scott Levenson for refusing to support carriage horse ban during the mayoral race * The New York Daily News)


PUBLISHED : SAT, 19 APR 2014, 11:37 AM
UPDATED : FRI, 25 APR 2014, 12:02 PM

Has Long Island Prosecutor Kathleen Rice's Reputation Taken a Hit Because of the Controversial Politicisation of the Failed Moreland Commission ?

One of the former co-chairs of the Moreland Commission, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, ditched her responsibilities on the Moreland Commission once she had gained enough fame to run for Congress. Now, one of Ms. Rice's challengers for the Congressional seat has laid political blame for the failed Moreland Commission on Ms. Rice. Legislative Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams told Newsday, “I believe the Moreland Commission failed because of Kathleen Rice’s lack of leadership.” It's unknown, yet, how voters will judge each of her term on the Moreland Commission and how quickly she appeared to abandon her public corruption investigation duties as soon as Rep. Carolyn McCarthy announced her retirement.

Gov. Cuomo's disbanding of the Moreland Commission has triggered a huge political and prosecutorial backlash from good government groups to the top federal prosecutor in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Andrew Cuomo Kathleen Rice Maitre Karlsson photo andrew-cuomo-kathleen-rice-maitre-karlsson_zpsf2dca878.jpg

Critics question how deeply corruption panel co-chair Kathleen Rice would probe Sheldon Silver after campaign contributions.

Before its disbanding, state officials and government reform activists questioned how aggressively Gov. Cuomo's corruption panel would investigate Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, after the law firm that employed Mr. Silver gave nearly $300,000 in campaign donations to Ms. Rice. (The New York Daily News)* Governor’s Crusade Against Corruption Comes With Too Many Asterisks (NYTimes) * To Gut Independence of Moreland Commission, Gov. Cuomo appointed Kathleen Rice as co-chair. Ms. Rice had been Cuomo's favourite for Attorney General before Eric Schneiderman won the AG race. (Capital New York) * Gov. Cuomo's naming of Ms. Rice to co-chair of Moreland Commission was a way to cut out Mr. Schneiderman from Moreland investigation of political and campaign corruption.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has said that a "show me the money" culture pervades all of New York government, and many bloggers and government reform activists agree. Last year, the political blogger and YouTube producer Suzannah B. Troy confronted New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and she asked him, "Are you part of the corruption ?"

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The Moreland Commission Were Supposed to Be 'Super Cops' -- April Fool !!!

To scuttle possibly devastating investigations into public corruption, Gov. Cuomo announced that he was closing his ethics commission

Was the Moreland Commission some kind of sick and twisted, do-nothing joke that is finally getting exposed on April Fool's Day ?

Some state legislators and good government groups speculated that Gov. Andrew Cuomo was embarrassed to have to endure the unwelcome distraction of multiple public corruption investigations during an election year, The New York Times is reporting.

One of the co-chairs of the Moreland Commission, a Long Island district attorney, Kathleen Rice, is mounting a fun for Congress. It's unknown, yet, how voters will react to her abdication of her public corruption investigation duties.

Is Long Island Prosecutor Kathleen Rice's Reputation Going Down The Toilet ?

Andrew Cuomo Kathleen Rice Maitre Karlsson photo andrew-cuomo-kathleen-rice-maitre-karlsson_zpsf2dca878.jpg

Critics question how deeply corruption panel co-chair Kathleen Rice would probe Sheldon Silver after campaign contributions.

State government officials are questioning how aggressively Gov. Cuomo's corruption panel would investigate Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, after the law firm that employed Silver gave nearly $300,000 in campaign donations to co-chair and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. (The New York Daily News)* Governor’s Crusade Against Corruption Comes With Too Many Asterisks (NYTimes) * To Gut Independence of Moreland Commission, Cuomo appointed Kathleen Rice as co-chair. Rice had been Cuomo's favourite for Attorney General before Eric Schneiderman won the AG race. (Capital New York) * Cuomo's naming of Rice to co-chair of Moreland Commission was a way to cut out Schneiderman from Moreland investigation of political corruption.

Another district attorney co-chair of the Moreland Commission, Bill Fitzpatrick, said that the public was deluded into thinking that the members of the Moreland Commission were "super cops," even though that's exactly the role that the state laws provide that gave rise to the commission in the first place. Already, a backlash appears to be growing amongst good government groups and government reform activists, who claim that members of the Moreland Commission appeared to do nothing more than Gov. Cuomo's political bidding. For example, when the Moreland Commission threatened to issue subpoenas to political supporters of the governor, the governor was said by some to have obstructed their efforts.

Eleanor Randolph was disappointed that the Moreland Commission didn't do more to report on the pay-to-play corruption in New York politics.

Eleanor Randolph, appearing on The New York Times Close-Up on NY1 photo Eleanor-Randolph-The-New-York-Times-IMG_5319_zps42b52e22.jpg

Last December, Eleanor Randolph appeared in the roundtable segment of The New York Times Close-up on NY1, and she expressed annoyance that one of the Moreland Commission's reports skipped over so many details of public corruption.

It's a good thing that federal prosecutors, who are presently engaged in a crackdown on public corruption, don't agree to be disbanded during election years. Otherwise, voters would really be in trouble.

2014-04-01 Moreland Commission - Follow-Up E-Mail Re Pitta Bishop USAO

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Scott Levenson, NY-CLASS, Citizens United Super PAC Investigation (Updated)


SPECIAL NEWS UPDATE: FRI, 25 APR 2014, 09:50 AM
Scott Levenson NY-CLASS Christine Quinn Bill de Blasio FBI Investigation into Campaign Corruption photo 2014-04-25TheNewYorkDailyNewsFBIReport_zps189d95ac.png

In the past few weeks, FBI agents have been asking questions about the campaign by the animal rights group NY-CLASS to strong arm former Council Speaker Christine Quinn (center) to support a ban on the iconic horse-drawn carriages, two sources familiar with the matter told The New York Daily News. The horse lobbyists in question include Scott Levenson, and they are linked to Mayor Bill de Blasio (inset). (FBI investigating claim that Christine Quinn was threatened by Scott Levenson for refusing to support carriage horse ban during the mayoral race * The New York Daily News)


PUBLISHED : SAT, 08 MAR 2014, 02:06 AM
UPDATED : FRI, 25 APR 2014, 12:17 PM

The mayor and his Council speaker, who both reject checks-and-balances, oversee city campaign regulators nominally tasked to investigate campaign corruption of groups with close ties to the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration.

In an article posted on The Daily Beast, NY1 political reporter Josh Robin reported that "city campaign regulators have begun investigating" Scott Levenson, the lobbyist-advisor to NY-CLASS, the animal rights group that organized Super PAC's to defeat Mayor Bill de Blasio's chief mayoral challenger, former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Information about this investigation was first reported by Michael Powell in The New York Times back in November 2013.

When questions were first brought to the city's Campaign Finance Board about the role of Mr. Levenson and his lobbying firm, The Advance Group, doing unpaid lobbying work in the New York City Council speaker race, city campaign regulators looked the other way as Mr. Levenson provided a valuable gift to Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito to possibly influence her performance as Council speaker in respect of official acts that could benefit The Advance Group and its lobbying clients.

But the board members of the Campaign Finance Board are selected by both the mayor and the Council speaker, thereby preventing it from rendering an independent review of the controversies that surrounding Mr. Levenson, who likes to accept responsibly for each of Mayor de Blasio's primary win and for Ms. Mark-Viverito's selection as Council speaker. As a reward for Mr. Levenson's NY-CLASS's crucial support, the mayor attended a fundraiser for NY-CLASS, which was closed to the press. Meanwhile, Speaker Mark-Viverito, who benefitted from free lobbying work provided to her by The Advance Group, has expressed support for enacting legislation sought by NY-CLASS. This cross-support has all the appearance of a quid pro quo.

An undeniable perception exists that the Campaign Finance Board is a political organ of the occupants of City Hall. As was noted in a comment to The New York Times story, "The real scandal is the Campaign Finance Board, which spent most of its resources tracking down addresses of donors to John Liu rather than paying attention to the big money controlled by the likes of Scott Levenson." This is among the many reasons why the Campaign Finance Board cannot be trusted to lead an investigation into the co-electioneering activities of Mr. Levenson and the NY-CLASS Super PAC's.

If the Campaign Finance Board answers to the mayor and to the Council speaker and if the mayor and the Council speaker have close ties to Mr. Levenson and to NY-CLASS, then can city campaign regulations exert enough independence to fully investigate whether possible coordination of independent political campaign expenditures and free gifts of lobbying services were violations of federal laws that ban, respectively, Super PAC coordination and bribery ?

Separate from violating campaign finance laws, the role of each of Mr. Levenson and the NY-CLASS Super PAC's had damaging effects on the opportunity for reform in a post-Quinn municipal government. Because of the independent campaign expenditures that nearly totaled $2 million, the influence of NY-CLASS perverted the ability of other issue reformers from being taken seriously by the media. Witness how the media accepted the controversial appointment of William Bratton as police commissioner, even though he still supports unconstitutional tactics, such as stop-and-frisk and the broken windows theory of policing, which unfairly targets low-income communities and people of color -- but does nothing to combat the white collar crimes by political operatives or by Wall Street. Further, the NY-CLASS Super PAC's misappropriated the grassroots work by reform activists, including tenants' rights activists like John Fisher, police reform activists, QUILTBAG civil rights activists, and St. Vincent's Hospital activists, who each had separately and collectively spent years organizing to vote the former Council Speaker Quinn out of office. There was even a serialized book, recounting former Council Speaker Quinn's long record of community and political betrayals.

Using the distorting influence of Super PAC money to control media attention, political operatives loyal to Mayor de Blasio, chief amongst them, Mr. Levenson, usurped activists' abilities to continue pressing the new administration to roll out a truly progressive reform agenda, not one that has been noted to be slipshod in its attempts at "reform," like the education advocates pushing for universal pre-kinder only for New York City at the same time when those same education advocates are neglecting to call for an expansion of kindergarten to become a full-day program in its own right for the rest of New York State. While NY-CLASS awaits the enactment of its noble-minded ban on horse drawn carriages, other reform activists are left scratching their heads, wondering what happened at real attempts at government reform, like ending the Council speaker's slush fund, reforming the corrupt ULURP zone-busting approval process that continues to favor large real estate developers, the need to finally allocate all the resources that can provide shelter to the homeless, and pursuing other humane policies that would use the gains of our economy to help the people most in need.

The issue of reforming the process of zone-busting real estate development projects becomes all the more impossible with Mr. Levenson and NY-CLASS, since one of the group's founders is Steve Nislick, a real estate developer, who, in a shady confluence of events, is said to be trying to develop a zone-busting project on land currently used as horse stables for the horse-drawn carriage industry that he is coincidentally trying to outlaw. Add to that the fact that Mayor de Blasio has appeared to be courting large real estate developers and their lobbyists, such as James Capalino.

As Mr. Levenson and NY-CLASS continue to advance the narrative that the sole actions of the NY-CLASS Super PAC's defeated Speaker Quinn and helped to elect Mayor de Blasio, that should help federal prosecutors seal their investigation into coordinated campaign corruption, a karmically-doomed trap that Mr. Levenson and NY-CLASS operatives have documented in a series of press reports that they were too blind to see. But the still larger question for Democrats, who are said to largely favor campaign finance reform, is why do they accept that the Democratic mayor and his Council speaker have yet to call for campaign finance reform to end the corruptive role of lobbyists and big business and special interest money in the election system. As was noted in the comments below, if Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito lack the political will to enact real campaign finance reforms on the municipal level, then they also have the option of pressing on Washington or Albany to enact federal- or state-level reforms. But all voters seem to get is nothing.

The Advance Group, which provided unpaid consultants to Mark-Viverito, worked for the City Action Coalition PAC, which lists 'traditional marriage' as its platform and supported opponents of gay City Council candidates.
(The New York Daily News)
Did Scott Levenson sabotage LGBT civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland's political campaign ?
(Scott Levenson : Biggest Loser Of The Week * NY Pop Culture & Politics)

Thursday, January 23, 2014

The Advance Group Federal Complaint Referred To Moreland Commission


SPECIAL NEWS UPDATE: FRI, 25 APR 2014, 09:50 AM
Scott Levenson NY-CLASS Christine Quinn Bill de Blasio FBI Investigation into Campaign Corruption photo 2014-04-25TheNewYorkDailyNewsFBIReport_zps189d95ac.png

In the past few weeks, FBI agents have been asking questions about the campaign by the animal rights group NY-CLASS to strong arm former Council Speaker Christine Quinn (center) to support a ban on the iconic horse-drawn carriages, two sources familiar with the matter told The New York Daily News. The horse lobbyists in question include Scott Levenson, and they are linked to Mayor Bill de Blasio (inset). (FBI investigating claim that Christine Quinn was threatened by Scott Levenson for refusing to support carriage horse ban during the mayoral race * The New York Daily News)


Were Possible Coordination of Independent Expenditures and Free Gifts of Lobbying Services Violations of Federal Laws ? Will the Moreland Commission Investigate Possible Campaign Corruption ?

The Civilian Crime Report filed yesterday with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York was forwarded today to certain members of the Moreland Commission. As the Moreland Commission continues its work to investigate public corruption, will it examine The Advance Group's role in the recent past New York City municipal elections ?

2014-01-22 Gmail - Referral to Moreland Commission : The Advance Group

2014-01-20 the Advance Group USAO SDNY Civilian Crime Report

Prior to the backroom deals that selected Melisa Mark-Viverito as the new Council speaker, she had accepted unpaid assistance from The Advance Group, a prominent lobbying firm headed by Scott Levenson, the news Web site Politicker reported. (The Advance Group Helping Melissa Mark-Viverito in Speaker’s Race * Politicker) After controversy erupted over Ms. Mark-Viverito's receipt of unpaid assistance from The Advance Group (City Council Speaker candidate Melissa Mark-Viverito may have violated city ethics rules * The New York Daily News), Ms. Mark-Viverito deceptively announced that she fired the The Advance Group. (Melissa Mark-Viverito Drops Advance Group for Speaker Bid * Politicker) However, Jonathan Yedin, an operative with The Advance Group, has been working in Brooklyn Democratic Party politics for more than a decade and belongs to Frank Seddio’s political club. Mr. Yedin was a crucial player in brokering the backroom deal with Mr. Seddio to give Ms. Mark-Viverito the win in her bid to become the next Council speaker, sources said. (Inside Melissa Mark-Viverito’s Road to Victory * Politicker) But The Advance Group was never paid for their work, according to New York State Board of Elections campaign finance disclosure records, raising the specter anew that Ms. Mark-Viverito was in violation of prohibitions on publicly-elected officials from accepting a “valuable gift” from a firm that intends to do business with the city, according to an analysis by The New York Daily News of the City Charter regulations, which include prohibitions on lobbyists from giving valuable gifts to publicly-elected officials.

The Advance Group, which is providing unpaid consultants to Mark-Viverito, worked for the City Action Coalition PAC, which lists 'traditional marriage' as its platform and supported opponents of gay City Council candidates.
(The New York Daily News)
Did Scott Levenson sabotage LGBT civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland's political campaign ?
(Scott Levenson : Biggest Loser Of The Week * NY Pop Culture & Politics)

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Corrupt Campaign Finance and Lobbyist Influence in de Blasio and Cuomo administrations

"Bags of Cash"

Real estate developers, gambling interests, and lobbyists corrupt New York City and New York State politics. In this YouTube video, questions are raised about why the super-majority of liberal and progressive politicians in New York are unable to propose and enact real campaign finance and lobbyist reforms. Are Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Prosecutor Kathleen Rice more interested in milking big business interests and lobbyists of campaign donations to dare to reform the broken political system ?

Stay tuned ....

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Good Government Group Lashes Out At Cuomo Over Interfering With Moreland Commission

Can't Anyone Investigate Corruption Anymore ?

The Moreland Commissioners Should Stop Making Noise and Instead Build A Case, Like the Senator Sam Ervin Hearings Did, Forcing Nixon to Resign After They Exposed the Watergate Scandal, According To True News From Change.

The editorial board of The New York Daily News has some advice to the members serving on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's anti-corruption Moreland Commission, which is headed by three different co-chairs : William Fitzpatrick, Kathleen Rice, and Milton Williams :


  • First, their job description does not include bluster, even delicious bluster. While his thrust was right, Fitzpatrick was off the dial in explaining why the Legislature must be the commission’s central target as follows: “Thirty members of the governor’s staff haven’t been walked out in handcuffs in the last five years.”


  • Second, they should stick to facts. Fitzpatrick justified subpoenaing legislators’ law firms with speculative innuendo: “We’re talking about six-figure retainers from people that as far as we know never go to court. I suspect the real problem is going to be for those who have to answer it and say, ‘You know what, in all honesty, I don’t do anything for this massive amount of money I get.’ "

  • They need to become far more transparent. As a first step in that direction, they should drop any notion that the commission is a law enforcement authority. It’s a fact-finding operation, not a prosecutor’s office, and must be subject to full public scrutiny. As such, the panel should disclose every subpoena.


  • They must shut the door to negotiating potential reform laws with the Legislature. The panel’s primary mission is to present specific case histories and information that can inform a debate among elected officials about legislative fixes.

From : Reform the reformers : Cuomo's anticorruption commission must get its act together (The New York Daily News)

Meanwhile, The New York Times is concerned that after a promising start, Cuomo’s Commission to Investigate Public Corruption is becoming little more than a branch of the governor’s political network: (Will New York’s Political Watchdog Pass the Test ?)

Susan Lerner Common Cause New York photo common-cause-susan-lerner-628x471_zps698c24c2.jpg

Common Cause New York sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman saying that any interference in the Moreland Commission would be a “shocking waste of momentum for meaningful change,” according to Capital New York.

Looks Like Cuomo's Inept Fake Poser Moreland Commission Is About To Get Fucked

Constant Updates From True News From Change NYC :

Cuomo's Plan B : Cuomo Seeks to Resurrect an Ethics Deal (WSJ). Members of a state panel investigating New York political corruption are involved in talks between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders to craft a new package of ethics laws, said people familiar with the discussions.

Moreland Abortion : New York's Fake Press Will Give Cuomo A Pass For Aborting Moreland, But Not The National Press Based In Washington

Andrew Cuomo : Cuomo chickens out on corruption photo andrew-cuomo_zps36133674.jpg

Cuomo denied that he personally ordered his anti-corruption Moreland Commission to quash subpoenas bound for his allies. Spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa says the ‘governor did not advise’ the commission on subpoenas — didn’t say if any of his aides did. (NY Daily News) * NYC housing advocates are losing hope that the Moreland Commission will dig deeply into the state’s politically-corrupt real estate industry. (The Gotham Gazette) * Cuomo chickens out on corruption. Never mind. That’s the message Gov. Cuomo just sent about his vow to clean up Albany. (The New York Post) * (Gov. Cuomo Denies Ordering Subpoenas Be Killed, But More Vague On If He Advised It : The New York Daily News)

Is Gov. Cuomo in a situation that may sink his political ship ?

Cuomo doing damage-control over anti-corruption commission — gets no favors from GOP (The New York Daily News) Cuomo may want to reignite talks with the Legislature on ethics reform, but Senate Republicans are letting him know, says an insider, ‘We may very well do it, but we’re not doing it on your time frame.' * The Moreland Commission has announced plans, amid mounting criticism from bloggers and reform activists to investigate the Democratic state party as "part of an inquiry into how political parties use loosely regulated fund-raising accounts, known as housekeeping committees. One area of interest is the use of housekeeping funds to pay for political advertising." Panel to Investigate State Democratic Party (NYTimes) * Cuomo’s Office Is Said to Rein In Ethics Board He Created (NYTimes) Some of the bloggers and reform activists that cheered the creation of the Moreland Commission are worrying that its investigative efforts are losing credibility.

Is Long Island Prosecutor Kathleen Rice's Reputation Going Down The Toilet ?

Andrew Cuomo Kathleen Rice Maitre Karlsson photo andrew-cuomo-kathleen-rice-maitre-karlsson_zpsf2dca878.jpg

Critics question how deeply corruption panel co-chair Kathleen Rice would probe Sheldon Silver after campaign contributions. State government officials are questioning how aggressively Gov. Cuomo's corruption panel would investigate Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, after the law firm that employed Silver gave nearly $300,000 in campaign donations to co-chair and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. (The New York Daily News)* Governor’s Crusade Against Corruption Comes With Too Many Asterisks (NYTimes) * To Gut Independence of Moreland Commission, Cuomo appointed Kathleen Rice as co-chair. Rice had been Cuomo's favourite for Attorney General before Eric Schneiderman won the AG race. (Capital New York) * Cuomo's naming of Rice to co-chair of Moreland Commission was a way to cut out Schneiderman from Moreland investigation of political corruption.

An agent with all the ethics of Maître Karlsson investigating corrupt Albany ethics ? Rice, ostensibly the “face” of the commission, has served as Nassau County district attorney since 2005, and is currently running for reelection. A prolific fundraiser who had over $2 million in her campaign coffers heading into the her reelection battle, she also received $300,000 in donations from the law firm that employs Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Rice is a staunch Cuomo ally who ran for Attorney General in 2010. She was seen by many as Cuomo’s choice in the race over the winner, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. In a 2009 debate, she was the only Democratic candidate for attorney general to refuse a pledge to seek higher office in the next eight years if elected to the position. Rice’s name has also been linked to aborted Congressional runs. (Gotham Gazette)

This is exactly the way Maître Karlsson does business. Rice is now being criticized by Democrats for disposing of politically-motivating corruption allegations against former Nassau Police Commissioner Thomas Dale. It is said that, at the order of a political donor, the police commish ordered the arrest of a witness in a corruption case. Rice's finding of no criminality in the witness tampering case was reported to have been carried out with the intention to "protect political cronies." (The New York Daily News)

Moreland Not News to Local TV News

Paid TV Ads Run By Local TV Stations Act To Block Any TV News On Moreland Commission. Local TV Makes Millions Off Of Pro Cuomo Ads and Does Not Cover the Moreland Commission Killing of Subpoenas to Investigate Where The Money to Pay for Those Misinforming NY Good For Business Ads Came From . . . . Sources said the subpoena sought to seek information on the party’s spending from its “housekeeping” account — which raised millions this year used to fund ads promoting Cuomo’s legislative agenda. Cuomo's anti-corruption panel stops at investigating his own Democratic party (The New York Daily News). A subpoena that sought to seek information on the New York Democratic party’s spending from its ‘housekeeping’ account was never sent, sources tell the Daily News. NY Democrats say they raised $7 million (UPDATED) (Albany Watch) * Pro-Cuomo lobbying group disbands (The New York Daily News) * Pro-Cuomo Group Repeats as Top Spender on Lobbying (The New York Times)

TV Makes $$$ Telling Us NY is Open For Business While in Truth It is Closed Shut. How can TV run ads saying NY good for business when The Tax Foundation said New York has the worst business climate in the nation New York is the unfriendliest state for business (The New York Daily News)

Gov. Cuomo will pay a political price for killing the Moreland Commission

Even worse, doing so would destroy the confidence of an already wary public that anything meaningful can be done to curb the way money corrupts politics in Albany.* “What gives, Mr. Cuomo?” The Albany Times Union writes on the Moreland Commission. “As dismal as this all is, it may not be too late for this commission to succeed — if Mr. Cuomo can keep his hands off it, regardless of whose feathers get ruffled, and if the commissioners haven’t lost their vision of the original goal and their will to do something about it. If not, Mr. Cuomo should be prepared to own a failure as embarrassing as the system he vowed to fix.”

Preet Bharara - The Only Policeman In New York State photo Preet-Bharara-dbpix-henning-tmagArticle-NYTimes_zpsaf6e1719.jpg
Preet Bharara : New Media Will End NYC's Journalism of Sheep. In testimony before the Moreland Commission, Mr. Bharara lamented the loss of investigative journalists, but he put high hopes on new outlets and revived old media. * U.S. Attorney To Commission : Political Corruption Is Out Of Hand In New York State (CBS New York) :

To repeat a longstanding lament, investigative journalists have become a dying breed, although there are still a few extraordinary practitioners, some of whom are here tonight. With each press outlet that closes or downsizes, opportunities to ferret out fraud and waste and abuse are lost.
And that is too bad because, as Edward R. Murrow once observed, 'A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.'
But maybe the thinning ranks of investigative journalists will be fortified :
Maybe Politico’s purchase of Capital New York and its planned infusion of staff and resources will mean more Albany muckraking.
Maybe Jeff Bezos’s purchase of the Washington Post and his reported interest in rejuvenating a storied history of eye-popping investigations will prove contagious.
And maybe fresh news outlets like BuzzFeed whose editors are said to be bent on doubling down on political investigations will provide grist for Commissions like this one.
We shall see.

Freed from the bondage of Cuomo (for now)

Andrew Cuomo and Kathleen Rice - Moreland Commission Political Ethics Corruption photo andrew-cuomo-kathleen-rice-crop_zps55d8a7f9.jpg

Off the leash : Gov. Cuomo's anti-corruption Moreland Commission shows some teeth. Not until Gov. Cuomo was at risk of losing what little bit of credibility he has with progressive Democrats did he finally bless Kathleen Rice's subpoenas of the state Democratic Party's housekeeping accounts. (The New York Daily News)