City & State NY 10 years anniversary issue 09262016

THE CRUSADING PROSECUTOR, MEDIA DARLING AND SPRINGSTEEN FAN IS ON ALMOST EVERYONE’S SHORT LIST FOR MAYOR/GOVERNOR/SENATOR. BUT DOES HE WANT IT?

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September 26, 2016

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Congratulations to Tom Allon and the entire City & State Team!

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DREAMS DO COME TRUE Orubba Almansouri PHOTO BY ANDRÉ N. BECKLES /CUNY

City College of New York Salutatorian 2016 B.A., English and History

HER STORY Almansouri, in a graduation speech that moved Michelle Obama to invite her to a White House summit on women, told how she broke barriers that kept traditional Yemeni girls out of school.

AWARDS Winner, Mellon Mays Fellowship Winner, Colin Powell Fellowship

GOAL Master’s in Near Eastern Studies, then a Ph.D.

cuny.edu/welcome

CUNY★AMERICANDREAMMACHINE

THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK-1847 HUNTER COLLEGE-1870 BROOKLYN COLLEGE-1930 QUEENS COLLEGE-1937 NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY-1946 COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLAND-1956 BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1957 QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1959 CUNY GRADUATE CENTER-1961 BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1963 KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1963 JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE-1964 YORK COLLEGE-1966 BARUCH COLLEGE-1968 LAGUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1968 LEHMAN COLLEGE-1968 HOSTOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE-1970 MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE-1970 CUNY SCHOOL OF LAW-1983 MACAULAY HONORS COLLEGE AT CUNY-2001 CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM-2006 CUNY SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES-2006 GUTTMAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE-2011 CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY-2016 CUNY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE-2016

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The Council of School Supervisors and Administrators Congratulates CITY&STATE for Ten Years of Journalistic Excellence!

Great Schools Begin With Great Leaders!

Council of School Supervisors & Administrators LOCAL 1: AMERICAN FEDERATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, AFL-CIO 40 RECTOR ST., 12TH FL., NEW YORK, NY 10006 | TEL: 212 823 2020 | FAX: 212 962-6130 | www.csa-nyc.org ERNEST A. LOGAN PRESIDENT | MARK CANNIZZARO EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT | RANDI HERMAN FIRST VICE PRESIDENT

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City & State New York

September 26, 2016

THE

MAKING OF A

MUST-READ TOM ALLON President/CEO

THE THIRD ISSUE OF City Hall newspaper came out in the summer of 2006, a short decade ago, featuring a story about Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s chances of being elected president if he decided to run in 2008.

Founding Editor Edward-Isaac Dovere foreshadowed his keen political instincts in writing that piece, well before the “will-he-or-won’t-he” game began in New York about the presidential prospects of our billionaire mayor.

The week after that issue came out I was having breakfast with Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, whom I later dubbed the “Deputy Mayor for Presidential Aspirations.” Kevin said he had a funny anecdote to share with me.

“When that issue was delivered to City Hall, someone put a copy on everyone’s desk in the bullpen,” Kevin said. “When I saw the story about the mayor’s presidential chances I took my copy, folded it to the page of the story and put it on the mayor’s desk. About a half an hour later, Mike walked over to me with the copy of City Hall newspaper in his hands. “‘Thanks for showing me that story in City Hall,’ Bloomberg said. He then flipped over the paper and pointed to the page opposite the story. ‘But how come you didn’t show me this anti-Bloomberg ad from the PBA?’” The ad blasted Bloomberg for his inability to reach a contract with the police officers union. “Bloomberg for President?

First learn to speak Bloombergese” was printed in large type.

I couldn’t wait to call the communications director at the PBA who placed the ad.

“Al, you cared about only one person seeing your message, correct?” I asked. I then conveyed Sheekey’s anecdote.

He replied: “Wow! That’s the best placement I ever made. Sign me up for three more ads!”

I’ve told that story at least 1,000 times in the past decade. It was the moment I realized that we actually had a successful business model.

While it was clear that through smart, innovative coverage of “politics, policy and personalities” we could build a powerful audience of elected leaders around the city, it wasn’t clear who our sponsors or advertisers would be.

But since spending for lobbying continued to increase each year, I figured there must be a marketplace for business, advocacy groups, good government groups, unions and others who wanted to reach the mayor, the council speaker, the city comptroller, council members, borough presidents and others in power, like deputy mayors, commissioners and agency heads who make decisions on running the city and spending its more than $70 billion budget.

A few months later, in October of 2006, Andrew Cuomo, then an attorney general candidate, was in my office for

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his endorsement interview at the weekly newspapers I ran in Manhattan. He eyed City Hall newspaper on my desk. “Tom, it’s nice that you have a paper covering city politics, but all the money and power is up in Albany.” Not long after that, we started The Capitol newspaper.

A few years later we decided to combine both of those newspapers into one: City & State.

But like any media company looking to survive and thrive in a challenging time for newspapers, we dove into digital journalism with First Read, our daily email that now drives the conversation in New York’s political world every morning before 7 a.m.

“It’s like a legal drug,” one City Hall insider said to me recently. “I can’t live without it every single morning.”

In March of 2013, I partnered with Steve Farbman, an old friend and publishing colleague, and we acquired City & State from Manhattan Media. Immediately, we quickened the pace of what we did: adding a second daily email, increasing our print frequency, increasing events from 12 to 40 per year, adding City & State TV video.

But underlying all of the evolution of the last decade has been our incredibly talented and hardworking journalists who now produce a weekly magazine, two digital dailies, a dynamic website, a weekly podcast, an average of four events per month and much more.

On this celebratory occasion, I’d like to thank my great colleagues – present and past – for helping to make City & State such a valuable resource and also such an exciting place to work each day. I’d also like to thank our tens of thousands of loyal readers and our thousands of sponsors and advertisers for your crucial support of the award-winning journalism we produce each day.

We’ve come a long way in a decade – we now employ more than 40 people in our lower Manhattan and Philadelphia offices (where we started City & State Pennsylvania earlier this year). We also now cover the state’s large nonprofit sector through City & State’s sister company, NYN Media. And we focus on corporate and political ethics and corporate social responsibility through our third division, City & State Reports.

City & State has carved out an important niche in the media capital of the world this past decade. Stay tuned for more expansion and innovations (a weekly gossip column?) in the coming months and years.

The best is yet to come.

■

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

EDITOR’S NOTE

MICHAEL GARETH JOHNSON Editorial director

CONTENTS

IN THE HISTORY of New York politics, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more compelling 10-year period than 2006 to 2016. There’s been corruption. Prostitution scandals. Social media blunders – and not just Anthony Weiner. The rise and fall and rise of Wall Street. More corruption. The election of the first African-American president. The first African-American governor of the state. Still more corruption. A coup! (Though that was more like a play for leadership that just created temporary headaches for all involved, but I digress.)

The amount of negative news has kept political reporters and tabloid headline writers busy. But in that time we have also seen strong leaders who have had a dramatic impact on New York City and New York state. We have seen the reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, fights for more equitable funding of schools, changes to New York City zoning laws, the implementation of a state property tax cap, massive changes to health care, new stricter gun laws, and the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York and later across the country.

As a publication, City & State and its predecessors grew up during this roller coaster of events and changing shape of the state. The look of the publication and the approaches we take to reach our audience have evolved over the years, but the underlying goal has stayed the same. We strive to bring interesting and thoughtful pieces to our readers, knowing that they are not the average consumers of news but a class of people who have dedicated their lives to understanding and working in and around government.

This has been a unifying ideology for all of the editors of the publication, and one I am proud to continue and advance in my role as editorial director. I think you can see this ideology throughout the work we have done over the years, highlighted in this issue. You can also see it in the comments from our former employees, which we have included throughout the special issue.

From the entire City & State staff to all of our readers, thank you for your support over the last 10 years. We hope you enjoy this special issue.

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The story behind City Hall, The Capitol and City & State.

Hizzoner undeniably put his stamp on the Big Apple. Here’s why it’s still Bloomberg’s New York.

OUR HISTORY

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10 YEARS OF NEWS

A look at the biggest stories and top newsmakers of the last decade.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

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OUR DISTINGUISHED READERS

Some of New York’s most influential officials sound off on City & State and its predecessors.

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An in-depth look at our newsmaker of the decade who isn’t done making waves.

Our former editors and reporters reminisce about their time at City Hall, The Capitol and City & State.

PREET BHARARA

LOOKING BACK

CONGRATULATIONS ON 10 YEARS OF JOURNALISTIC EXCELLENCE Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, UFCW

Metroplus salutes City & State on its 10th Anniversary

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Congratulations to

City and State

on its 10th anniversary! ยกFelicidades por el buen trabajo!

Michael D. Nieves President & CEO, HITN HITN-TV provides educational and cultural programming in Spanish in the United States, reaching more than 40 million households in key Hispanic markets across the country. HITN-TV is distributed on DIRECTV, DISH Network, AT&T U-verse TV, Verizon FiOS TV, Comcast, Charter, Cablevision and Mediacom, and on Time Warner Cable.

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Richelle’s family has lived in their Brooklyn home for three generations. Sharing their home has helped them stay there.

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

BIGGEST MOVIE: “PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2: DEAD MAN’S CHEST” The second movie in the based-ona-theme-park-ride series was the highest-grossing film, but Bill Bratton’s top pick, “The Departed,” won the Oscar.

BIGGEST MUSICAL: “JERSEY BOYS” The jukebox musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons won the Tony that year. It’s still playing, but is set to close in January.

WHAT THE WORLD WAS LIKE IN 2006 2006, THE YEAR OF OUR FOUNDING, MAY NOT FEEL SO LONG AGO, BUT JUST THINK – THE IPHONE DIDN’T EXIST, BLOOMBERG WASN’T YET CONSIDERED A “NANNY” AND QUINOA ON THE MENU WOULD HAVE CONFUSED ALL BUT THE MOST SERIOUS FOODIES. HERE’S WHAT WAS HAPPENING.– JEFF COLTIN TOP TV SHOW: “AMERICAN IDOL” The show’s fifth season was also its best-rated. Greyhaired Taylor Hicks was the winner.

NO. 1 SONG: “BAD DAY,” DANIEL POWTER This one-hit wonder got a huge boost from “American Idol” using his song every time a contestant got booted off the show.

WHERE WERE THEY? ANDREW CUOMO: working at Island Capital, running for attorney general

BILL DE BLASIO: Brooklyn city councilman

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: lawyer, running for Congress against incumbent Rep. John Sweeney

CHARLES SCHUMER: U.S. senator back then, too

YOUR AUTHOR: Editorial Assistant Jeff Coltin was starting 8th grade TOP NEW YORK SPORTS TEAM: THE METS The Amazins just missed the World Series, falling to St. Louis in the seventh game of the NLCS.

TOP HOLIDAY TOY: NINTENDO WII We all wanted a Wii, and all ages got into the active-gaming craze. Other hits were the Sony PS3 TOP FASHION for more serious TREND: gamers and Tickle SKINNY JEANS So declared The Times: Me Elmo X for the kids.

“A New Size for Denim: Extra Tight.” Other hits were Crocs, ballet flats BEST-SELLING CELL PHONE: and black nail polish.

NOKIA 1600 It may not have looked like much, but way back in 2006, you didn’t need a phone to do much more than get in touch with people.

OTHER LAUNCHES City & State wasn’t the only great company founded in ’06. Buffalo Billion recipient SolarCity was born. So was the home of the Mets and Jets, SNY. “30 Rock” debuted in October, and Twitter was born – though our first tweet wouldn’t come till 2009.

Our job platform specializes in: • • • •

NY Government Policy Communications Campaigns

• Lobbying • Nonprofit • Labor

http://careers.cityandstateny.com Learn more by contacting Careers@CityandStateNY.com

2000 ATTORNEYS | 38 LOCATIONS WORLDWIDE°

ON THE PULSE OF

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS Celebrating a Decade of City & State Greenberg Traurig congratulates City & State for delivering news coverage of the politics, policies and influential leaders that impact New York.

We look forward to the next 10 years of friendship and collaboration!

GT – NYC MetLife Building | 200 Park Avenue New York, NY 10166 | 212.801.9200 GR E E NB E RG

T R AU R I G ,

GT – Albany 54 State Street | 6th Floor Albany, NY 12207 | 518.689.1400 L LP

|

AT TO RNE YS

AT

L AW

|

W W W.GTL AW.COM

Greenberg Traurig is a service mark and trade name of Greenberg Traurig, LLP and Greenberg Traurig, P.A. ©2016 Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Attorneys at Law. All rights reserved.

Contact: Ed Wallace in New York at 212.801.9200. °These numbers are subject to fluctuation.

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We’re proud to partner with City and State and offer sincere congratulations on 10 years of excellence in media coverage.

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

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A who’s who of NEW YORK POLITICS City & State events have long attracted the biggest names in the Empire State

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

CITY & STATE’S TOM ALLON, THEN-NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC ADVOCATE BILL DE BLASIO, THEN-NEW YORK CITY COMPTROLLER JOHN LIU, THEN-NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER CHRISTINE QUINN, FORMER CITY COMPTROLLER BILL THOMPSON AND THEN-MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT SCOTT STRINGER ALL PARTICIPATED IN THE FIRST MAYORAL FORUM OF THE 2013 MAYORAL CAMPAIGN AT CITY & STATE’S THE NEW AGENDA EVENT IN 2012.

While City & State may be known for its newsletters and magazine, our conferences and events have become must-attend affairs across the state.

With specific themes for each event, City & State brings New York political figures together for panel discussions and debates concerning the most important topics in each policy field. From top officials in Albany to New York City leaders, these are some of the biggest names to attend City & State events.

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

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(1) Then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at City & State’s The New Agenda event in 2012. (2) Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer attends the release party of last year’s Manhattan issue. The keynotes from New York City’s borough presidents at City & State’s borough series launch events have become an annual tradition. (3) State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and Assemblyman Marcos Crespo posed at City & State’s Somos Albany event. (4) U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx keynoted the 2015 New York Moves transportation forum, sharing his insights on the important New York transit projects the federal government has its eyes on. (5) Then-NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton made waves at City & State’s Newsmakers discussion with him when he said he was planning on retiring after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first term. Bratton eventually decided to retire a year earlier than expected. (6) New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito spoke about the need for more female legislators in the New York City Council at City &

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

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State’s Newsmakers discussion with her. (7) MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast discussed the the biggest projects the MTA is constructing at City & State’s On Transportation event in 2014. (8) Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie celebrates the beginning of Caucus Weekend in 2015 at City & State’s kickoff event. (9) Merryl Tisch, then the Chancellor of the state Board of Regents, talked about her efforts to install education reforms at City & State’s On Education event in 2014.

(10) New York City Public Advocate Letitia James discussed her office’s efforts on MWBEs and more at City & State’s On Diversity panel. (11) Rep. Hakeem Jeffries sat down for a one-on-one interview with Slant Editor Nick Powell at City & State’s On Diversity panel. (12) U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk discussed New York’s sustainability goals at the 2015 On Energy forum. (13) San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz accepted an award from Rep. Nydia Velázquez at City & State’s 2014 Somos el Futuro event in San Juan.

www.NYBCF.org

212.269.4800

Ira J. Goldstein, Executive Director Berj Haroutunian, Chairman CS0016_FP.indd 1

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September 26, 2016

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? CATCH UP WITH SOME OF CITY & STATE’S MOST ILLUSTRIOUS ALUMNI Over the years many recognizable names have served on the staffs of City Hall, The Capitol and City & State. Take a look at what they’re up to now.

Edward-Isaac Dovere

Founding editor at City Hall and The Capitol, 2006-2011

Andrew Hawkins

Intern, reporter and managing editor at City & State, 2007 to 2012

David Freedlander

Worked as a freelancer before becoming the managing editor at City & State, 2008-2010

Now senior White House writer for Politico

Went on to report for Crain’s New York Business before landing as the transportation reporter for The Verge

Sal Gentile

Adam Lisberg

Chris Bragg

Laura Nahmias

Now a comedy writer on “Late Night with Seth Meyers”

Went on to be the director of external communications for the MTA and is now the corporate communications director in North America for DJI, a company that makes drones.

Went on to work for Crain’s New York and then the Times Union

Went on to freelance for the Wall Street Journal, worked at Columbia University’s The New York World and now works for Politico New York

Aaron Short

Wilder Fleming

Matt Hamilton

Morgan Pehme

Now a reporter at the Times Union

Now works at EffectiveNY and as a freelance documentarian

Reporter for City Hall, 2008-2010

Reporter, 2012-2013

Now a reporter for the New York Post

Editor at City & State, 2011 to 2012

Intern and reporter, 2014-2015

Now a freelance reporter

Reporter at City & State, 2009-2012

Albany reporter, 2013-2014

Later became a reporter for the Observer and the Daily Beast before returning to freelancing

Reporter, 2010-2012

Editor, 2012-2014

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The United Federation of Teachers Salutes

City & State on its 10th Anniversary Celebration We join in celebrating the work of “The Newsmakers of the Decade.”

Michael Mulgrew, President 52 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 www.uft.org

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Congratulations to City & State on your 10th ANNIVERSARY!

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

POLITICS. POLICY. PERSONALITIES. A BRIEF HISTORY OF CITY & STATE

By JON LENTZ

JULY 2008

www.nycapitolnews.com

★ THE STATE SENATE★

Vol. 5, No. 13

www.cityhallnews.com

July 18, 2011

and RICHARD BUERY, above, has big plans for the Children's Aid Society (Page 23).

Springfield produced a presidential candidate— could Albany?

Tribal leaders vow to fight back against attempts to collect taxes.

Blair Horner hangs up the leash on his watchdog job.

Page 6

Page 8

Page 15

www.nycapitolnews.com

VOL. 4, NO. 8

New leader Brian Kolb tries to find his own way amid the Albany chaos.

Page 10 FIRST-CLASS MAIL PRESORTED U.S. POSTAGE PAID BELLMAWR, NJ PERMIT NO.1239

APRIL 25, 2011

Page 20

VOL. 2, NO. 6

Passing an on-time budget was easy.

Now comes the hard part.

Special Section: How New York is falling behind at getting around pg. 13

Jockeying to replace Mondello as GOP chair intensifies.

Page 11

THE MORNING AFTER

Experts rate the top contenders.

Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

Cuomo confronts his father’s legacy on prison reform.

www.nycapitolnews.com

The Assembly’s new members take their own seats as the Senate explodes.

Page 24

JUNE 2009

ILLUSTRATION BY J. ALEX STAMOS/ JALEXSTAMOS.COM

Page 8

pgs. 2-8

Manhattan Media xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

VOL. 1, NO. 7

VINCENT ALVAREZ, below, wants to revive the Central Labor Council (Page 8), colleges vie for a NEW YORK CITY TECH CAMPUS (Page 4)

Joseph Addabbo gets ready to run for Senate.

Page 7

Page 4

Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

Marc Molinaro, Jack Quinn and Rob Walker hit the road.

Thomas DiNapoli keeps his eye on the economy.

JERRY MILLER

Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

Andrew Schwartz/Joey Carolino

www.cityandstateny.com

Vol. 2, No. 12 - JULY 8, 2013

www.cityandstateny.com

Vol. 2, No. 15 | AUGUST 5, 2013

The SLUSH FUND Legacy

www.cityandstateny.com

Vol. 2, No. 16 - AUGUST 19, 2013

I NY

WILL WOMEN ACTUALLY VOTE FOR WEINER? SPOTLIGHT: ORGANIZED LABOR

Q&A WITH SALSA LEGEND WILLIE COLÓN

HOW ANTI-SPITZER ATTACKS PATRONIZE PROSTITUTES

THE

COALITION

The past, present and future of the historic state Senate alliance between the IDC’s Jeff Klein and the GOP’s Dean Skelos

POLITICAL DOPPELGÄNGERS

TAWKIN’ THE TAWK

By Aaron Short

www.cityandstateny.com

Vol. 2, No. 24 - DECEMBER 16, 2013

PAGE 20

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SPOTLIGHT ON MASS TRANSPORTATION PAGE 26

CAN VITO LOPEZ SURVIVE WITHOUT RIDGEWOOD BUSHWICK? PAGE 16

SKYLER LOESER

January 1, 2014

BENEPE WALSH OLIVER FEINBLATT DOCTOROFF MORGENTHAU

On Bloomberg

INAUGURATION

2014

City & State NY LLC 61 Broadway, Suite 2825 New York, NY 10006

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SPOTLIGHT on Construction and Development

Wine and Roses: Choice Lines From Past Addresses

Cuomo and de Blasio: Allies or Adversaries?

Meet the City Council’s New Members

ROBERT CARTER

SPOTLIGHT ON ACTRESS AND MODEL TECHNOLOGY AND BROOKE SHIELDS ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS CHRISTINE QUINN

De Blasio and Cuomo: Allies or Adversaries?

KLEIN

Are the mayoral candidates speaking New Yorkese for votes?

City & State NY LLC 61 Broadway, Suite 2825 New York, NY 10006

The Top Ten Mayors in New York City History

Q&A With the New Mayor of Rome

SPECIAL EDITION

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT Graduate Programs

Legislative Dossiers: The Members’ 2014 Priorities Revealed

August 10, 2015

February 9, 2015

January 8, 2014

Does

NEW YORK

S t i l l L E A D t h e W AY ?

By JON LENTZ

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INSIDE: SPOTLIGHT ON

INSURANCE

Who’s to blame for New York’s newest scandals?

BRATTON

BOWS OUT Also inside

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STATEN ISLAND’S MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE

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City & State New York

September 26, 2016

IN THE LEAD-UP to the 2009 elections, Edward-Isaac Dovere was hearing curious things about the Working Families Party.

The party had taken the unusual step of creating a for-profit campaign services firm in 2007. The firm, Data and Field Services, had helped elect several Democrats to the state Senate in 2008, and in 2009 its clients included a group of WFP-backed New York City Council candidates as well as then-City Councilman Bill de Blasio, who was running for public advocate.

Dovere, the editor of City Hall, an upstart Manhattan political newspaper, wasn’t sure the WFP and Data and Field Services were playing by the rules.

Campaign staffers confided that they didn’t know whether an influx of field workers was coming from the party or its little-known for-profit arm. Republican lawmakers grumbled that the WFP, a growing force in New York politics that frequently cross-endorsed Democrats, was using the firm to “game the system.”

One Thursday in early August of 2009, Dovere put in a call to Bill Lipton, the party’s deputy director. Lipton told Dovere he was free to chat. But when Dovere brought up Data and Field Services, Lipton suddenly was too busy. “Fuck!” Lipton responded, with a nervous laugh. Lipton told Dovere to call Dan Cantor, the WFP’s executive director, adding, “It’s not that complicated, but I’ve got an appointment.”

Over the course of several phone calls with Cantor, as the conversation shifted from the WFP’s efforts to elect progressive candidates to the blurred lines with its

“

That was a defining story for me … seven years later still a defining story of my career, even though I’m sitting here in Washington covering the president of the United States.

”

– EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE ON THE ORIGIN OF CITY HALL Some of the local coverage has waned, and some of it has come back. The Daily News’ Daily Politics blog was started

by Ben Smith, and then manned by Liz Benjamin and then by Celeste Katz, all of whom brought a lot to it. That being gone now, a lot of other things have stepped in. It does feel like there’s more interest in covering things locally than there was for a moment there, on the one hand. On the other hand, it’s like, what kind of coverage do you do? How deep is it? How intense is it? How much are you making the people in power uncomfortable? I think those are big measures that need to be there for any kind of coverage.

CITY & STATE: What was the media landscape when you launched City Hall in 2006?

Edward-Isaac Dovere: There was obviously a need for something there.

We were benefitting from the fact that right around that time you started to see the hollowing out of local journalism, especially in New York.

It was this moment when that was happening but there was still a desire for it, and we moved into that slot pretty well. We were also helped by the fact that there was a lot of news going on.

By the time that we were up to speed and what we wanted to be and staffed up in 2008, we had a combination of Spitzer’s resignation, all the stuff that happened with Paterson afterwards, and everything that happened with the term limits extension and the run-up to the 2009 races. So the golden years, I would say, were 2008 and 2009. That’s when we were doing our best stuff.

C&S: You moved to Washington, D.C., and joined Politico, which has since expanded to New York.

As an outsider now, how has the competitive landscape changed for City & State?

EID: There seems to have been a snap back in certain ways, right? There’s Politico New York, there’s DNAinfo.

C&S: Our Winners & Losers list remains one of our most popular stories online each week. How did that start?

EID: I wonder if he’d be OK with me giving him credit. Well, whatever. Jay Kriegel and I were talking about things one time, and he has obviously been around city politics forever and I think has a good sensibility of what connects with people and what doesn’t. And he said something to me like, “You guys should do some kind of list of who’s up and who’s down in politics. People really want to read that.” And I started thinking about it, and that became the Winners & Losers feature. From the beginning, as with other things, the idea was to do it in a spunky way, to really make people read it. I’ve seen some of the ones that you guys have done since, and it seems like that’s carried through. It’s very much the way my brain works, but something I’ve carried through professionally is you make people need to read and want to read and want to be involved with it. Very quickly people were jockeying for that, like, “Oh, make me a winner!” or “Make that guy a loser!” I think the first one or the second one we figured out how to do a very rudimentary online poll for it, and all of a sudden 600 people were voting for it. And then it became a thing, a hook that pulled people in. It’s all from that same spirit.

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“

Cuomo noticed a copy of City Hall on the desk and said to him, ‘It’s nice you did a paper in the city, but all the money’s up in Albany. Why don’t you have one up there?’

” for-profit arm, Cantor seemed to grow agitated. While Data and Field Services was registered as a separate company, Cantor confirmed that it shared office space and employees with the WFP. He wasn’t sure which employees worked for which entity.

“You should think of them like a department of ours,” said Cantor, who denied anything was amiss. “We don’t run this thing, but everybody knows this was created by us toward the goal of fighting toward a more decent society.”

At that moment, Dovere knew he had a story. “But when it was clear that the person in charge of this operation himself didn’t know where the lines were that they had supposedly set up, and thought that it seemed like they should be given a pass because of the ends they were working towards, I knew I could write something pretty strong.”

By the end of the weekend, Dovere posted a 10,868-word exposé. It laid out compelling evidence suggesting that the WFP was using DFS to circumvent spending and contribution limits while bypassing the disclosure requirements of official party spending. One of the firm’s biggest client was de Blasio, whose campaign appeared to be the most egregious in violating city rules against coordination and sharing of resources between campaigns and political parties. (The de Blasio campaign denied any wrongdoing.) “Upwards of a million dollars, and possibly more, are involved, with over $1.7 million in matching funds comprised of taxpayer dollars already

September 26, 2016

disbursed and more are potentially at stake,” Dovere wrote.

The reaction was immediate. The Atlantic, the Daily News, the Observer and other outlets followed up as the WFP scrambled to respond. The party hired Judith Kaye, New York’s former chief judge, to conduct a “thorough review” of its operations. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York launched an investigation. Although the federal probe was closed in 2010 without any charges filed, a lawsuit and an investigation by a special prosecutor kept the controversy alive. In 2011, the party shut down Data and Field Services.

As Dovere’s reporting rippled through the New York political world, it also shook up City Hall, which had never before published such an explosive story.

Some WFP-affiliated labor unions cut off advertising. Calls were made to Dovere’s boss, Tom Allon, to try to get Dovere fired. But while the episode put the news operation under intense pressure, it put the newspaper on the map.

Dovere, who went on to join Politico, where he is now senior White House reporter, said he and the City Hall team had produced a lot of strong journalism up to that point. “But that was a defining story for me, the defining story in my time as a New York reporter,” he said, and “so far seven years later still a defining story of my career, even though I’m sitting here in Washington covering the president of the United States and potentially the next president of the United States.”

CITY HALL WAS IN many ways Dovere’s creation, but it was the brainchild of Tom Allon. The idea came to Allon in the late 1990s, when he was running several Manhattan weekly community newspapers owned by News Communications Inc. The parent company also owned The Hill, a political publication covering the nation’s capital, and its success inspired Allon to try to replicate the model in New York.

In 2001, when Allon and several investors acquired the Manhattan weeklies from News Communications, he drew up a business plan for a new company, Manhattan Media, that included a proposal for a New York political newspaper called City Hall. That summer, Allon reached out to a professional acquaintance, Sydney Schanberg, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his war reporting in Cambodia, and the two began preparing for an October launch.

But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Allon shelved the plans.

Ernest Logan leads a CSA restructuring

(Page 13), Assembly Member James Brennan, right, does the math on his bid for city comptroller (Page 27)

Vol. 2, No. 2

TOP TEN

THE CITY’S Lobbying is big business in New York City and State, and getting bigger.

Almost half of the $44 million spent in the city in 2006 passed through just 10 firms, earning them spots on the city clerk’s list of Top 10 Lobbyists for 2006 and profiles in City Hall new annual section, the City’s Top 10.

Page 15

INDEX: Amanda Burden discusses the future of city development Page 2

The July Poll: Which Council Member Would Make the Best TV Judge?

Page 11

In the Chair: Vincent Gentile Page 14

Where Are They Now? finds former Koch press secretary Bill Rauch in South Carolina Page 29

Taxi Owners Fret Over Bloomberg’s Hybrid Plan Page 32

Vol. 1, No. 8

and State Sen. Eric Adams, left, explains how his police background helps him Back in the

July 2007

www.cityhallnews.com

Can Save the New York GOP

?

District (Page 28).

BY EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

“ A

nybody here a Republican?”

Greg Lehman is standing on 79th Street and First Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan. He rocks back and forth in his tan New Balance sneakers.

One woman in her early thirties smiles at him.

www.cityandstateny.com

“Anybody a Republican here?” he asks as she approaches.

“No, not really,” she says.

Lehman’s question, though, is not academic or existential. He is on the sidewalk this hot Saturday afternoon in early July gathering ballot petition signatures for district leaders, members of the county committee and delegates to judicial CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

March 19, 2012

AP/JOEY CAROLINO

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Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the king of coalitions. Page 4

What’s next after pension reform? Page 16

School districts are feeling the budget pinch worse than most. Page 10

David Jones wonders why nothing is being done for the poor. Page 23

“

The mayor asked Sheekey why he hadn’t showed him the anti-Bloomberg ad, too. ‘That was when I realized there might be a business here,’ Allon recalled.

”

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Finally, Allon brought the idea to Dovere, then a reporter at Manhattan Media. Dovere, who had interned at The Hill, had been hired by Allon in 2005, and his coverage of the elections that year impressed Allon. Dovere, who continued reporting for two of the company’s weeklies, recruited interns and freelancers and teamed with Mitch Hoffman, the company’s art director, to put out the first edition of City Hall in June 2006. That first issue had no ads and was published as an insert in one of the weeklies – Our Town Downtown – to cover printing costs.

From the start, the newspaper was a mix of in-depth reporting on big-name politicians like Michael Bloomberg and Eliot Spitzer, interviews with local elected officials, opinion columns and analyses of policy issues, legislation and elections.

Dovere’s sense of humor came through in lighthearted features, including an annual April Fool’s Day issue. Another recurring feature was a “Power Lunch” column, in which a politician joined a reporter at a favorite restaurant to talk food and politics.

Before long, the newspaper was compiling lists of young rising stars, the most eligible elected officials and the most beautiful people in politics. Hoffman generated a mix of whimsical and provocative covers.

Despite the bare-bones staffing, Dovere, Hoffman and Jim Katocin, an advertising executive, worked tenaciously to keep the young publication afloat. Hired by Manhattan Media’s advertising team that summer, Katocin built a clientele of unions, lobbyists and advocacy groups.

For the third issue in August 2006, he sold The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association a print advertisement that ran opposite a piece assessing Bloomberg’s presidential prospects. “Bloomberg for president?” asked the PBA ad, which offered a sarcastic interpretation of the mayor’s comments about union contract talks. “First learn to speak Bloombergese.”

Kevin Sheekey, a top Bloomberg aide, later told Allon that he had put the article on the mayor’s desk, but folded it over to keep Bloomberg from seeing the ad. After seeing both, the mayor asked Sheekey why he hadn’t showed him the anti-Bloomberg ad, too.

“That was when I realized there might be a business here,” Allon recalled. He relayed what had happened to the PBA representative who placed the ad, who was so thrilled Bloomberg had seen the ad that he bought three more ads on the spot.

That fall, Cuomo, then an attorney general candidate, was in Allon’s office

ADAM LISBERG ON THE ORIGINS OF FIRST READ

CITY & STATE: How did First Read begin?

Adam Lisberg: There was this gaping hole in the New York media market that nobody was delivering everything you needed first thing – and the key is delivering it. Liz Benjamin always had this roundup of links in the morning, but you had to go to the website and they were all these real quick descriptions.

And there were other places that had the pieces, but nobody had brought it all together. Darren (Bloch) and Tom (Allon) had been thinking along these lines, and I started thinking about it, too. I thought, you know what I want?

I thought, for one of those mornings I have to be someplace at 8 a.m., at an ABNY breakfast or a Crain’s breakfast or meeting someone, I want to be able to read something quick on my commute that will make me feel like I know what’s going on – that even if I don’t click on the links to today’s Times politics story or Ken Lovett’s latest scoop or whatever, even if I don’t read the link, I’ll seem like I know what I’m talking about and everyone in the room won’t know something I don’t.

So that was the genesis. That’s why we made it with links to everything, that’s why I organized it in a real bulletpoint kind of way with things grouped together.

C&S: What was the thinking behind the various elements included in First Read?

AL: We tried to make it something top to bottom that would give you what you need – you have the day’s sked, have a kicker at the bottom. We started out just doing highlights of the day’s sked, figuring nobody is going to want to know about every little time where a City Council member dedicates a street corner somewhere, but every time we realized we’ve got to throw everything in there. People wanted it, people wanted to be in it, and having that in there became a resource.

C&S: How did it go in the first few weeks?

AL: A ton of work went into that morning email, but I think it paid off. I figured out what the template would be, and then we started doing live, internal tests. If the goal was to put it out by 7 a.m., what time in the morning would you have to get up to start pulling it together? And it became clear you needed to do a certain amount of legwork at night, and how to push things through, and we started sending out those first links to some trusted outsider folks to see what they’d want, what they thought of it, and we got some good suggestions. It was just a ton of work, and the response was immediate. It’s a ton of work, but the basic concepts were so easy and so compelling.

The New York political, government, nonprofit world needs this, and why hasn’t somebody else started this first?

We better hurry and get this out there before somebody does, because being first to market with this thing was so key. So that became the franchise: get a quick-hit, comprehensive roundup, put it in people’s hands first thing in the morning, and it was working.

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to interview for an endorsement by Manhattan Media’s weeklies. As Allon remembers it, Cuomo noticed a copy of City Hall on the desk and said to him, “It’s nice you did a paper in the city, but all the money’s up in Albany. Why don’t you have one up there?”

Allon wanted to start a state version immediately, but it wasn’t until January 2008 that the staff launched The Capitol, a sister publication covering Albany politics.

The growing readership brought in more advertising, and more advertising paid for more staff. Dovere hired Andrew Hawkins as his first reporter in 2007, and the next year he brought on another former intern, Sal Gentile, and freelancer David Freedlander as managing editor. Chris Bragg joined the reporting team in 2009, and Laura Nahmias came on in 2010.

The team’s increasingly sophisticated coverage gained attention. State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno told Dovere after Spitzer’s first legislative session that the governor lacked the “temperament to govern.” After he was elected attorney general, Cuomo sat for a rare interview.

In 2009, City Hall had an exclusive on Rep. Anthony Weiner choosing not to run for mayor. Then came Dovere’s groundbreaking investigation of the Working Families Party. In 2010, Freedlander penned a definitive profile of Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the boss of the declining Brooklyn Democratic machine, while Dovere’s piece on U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara raised an early warning from the hard-charging federal prosecutor who would go on to shake up city and state politics.

I WAS THE LAST PERSON that Dovere hired. I started as a reporter in January 2011, and that month I tagged along with him to Bloomberg’s State of the City speech on Staten Island. Dovere was in his element, chatting up staffers on the ferry ride and schmoozing with elected officials on site at the St. George Theatre. A few weeks later, he suddenly was packing up his things and heading to Washington, D.C. Veteran journalist Phil Lentz filled in as interim editor, offering a steady hand through the transition (while forcing both of us to explain repeatedly that we were not related to each other).

In April, Allon announced Adam Lisberg, the Daily News’ City Hall bureau chief, as Dovere’s successor. The hiring of Lisberg, a smart, genial reporter who had cut his teeth covering crime and politics in

September 26, 2016

“

Our work on the Moreland Commission was a testament to patience.

”

– MORGAN PEHME Chicago before making a name for himself at the Daily News, ensured that City Hall and The Capitol would maintain their hard-earned credibility. Under Lisberg, Bragg and Nahmias won awards for investigative reporting, while Art Director Joey Carolino revamped the newspaper with a more professional style.

In a little over a year Lisberg was off to another job as communications director at the MTA, but in his short tenure he transformed the publications. In December of 2011 he combined City Hall and The Capitol into a single newspaper called City & State.

Equally significant was Lisberg’s development of a morning news email called First Read. Under Dovere, City Hall had sent out a weekday email with one original story, and Allon wanted to expand on it. Phil Lentz, who created Crain’s New York Business’ Insider newsletter, helped with the initial planning while serving as interim editor. But it was Lisberg, with an assist from Publisher Darren Bloch, who came up with the final prototype. Lisberg almost single-handedly put together the email for the first few weeks in 2011 to make sure it met his standards. First Read caught on rapidly. Many subscribers remained only vaguely aware that City & State had a print product, too.

As publisher between 2010 and 2011, Bloch worked with Lisberg to plan more ambitious editorial events. Dovere had conducted live one-on-one interviews with prominent government figures, the first half on the record and the second half off the record. But they were held at TD Bank, and the conversation invariably would be interrupted by the jangling of a customer depositing change into the bank’s coin machines. A turning point was a “State of Our City” policy conference, with a slate of three panel discussions that has served

A

DECADE OF CHANGES

June 2006 – The first edition of City Hall is published

March 2012 – Lisberg leaves City & State

July 2006 – Jim Katocin is hired to the sales team of City Hall’s parent company

April 2012 – Morgan Pehme is hired as editor-in-chief

October 2007 – Andrew Hawkins, a former intern, is hired as the first staff reporter January 2008 – The first edition of The Capitol is published October 2008 – David Freedlander is hired as the first managing editor January 2009 – City Hall begins publishing twice a month October 2010 – Darren Bloch is hired as publisher of City Hall and The Capitol

March 2013 – Tom Allon and Steve Farbman buy out City & State from Manhattan Media June 2013 – The first Last Read email goes out December 2013 – Andrew Holt is promoted to publisher January 2014 – Jon Lentz launches City & State’s Albany bureau September 2014 – City & State launches its Buffalo bureau December 2014 – Pehme leaves City & State

March 2011 – Edward-Isaac Dovere, the founding editor, departs

January 2015 – Michael Gareth Johnson is promoted to executive editor

April 2011 – Adam Lisberg is hired as editor

January 2016 – City & State Insider begins

July 2011 – The first First Read email goes out

January 2016 – Nick Powell starts NY Slant, an opinion platform

December 2011 – The first edition of City & State is published January 2012 – Chris Bragg launches The Notebook blog

January 2016 – City & State begins publishing weekly April 2016 – City & State Pennsylvania launches

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

as a template for City & State events ever since.

When Bloch left, he handed the events business to a new employee, Andrew Holt.

With a growing number of events on topics like education, transportation and minority contracting, an expanding audience and new sponsors, the company eventually quadrupled the revenue from the events business. Holt’s success expanding events positioned him to take over as publisher in 2014, a post he held until earlier this year.

One event Holt organized was the first gathering of the 2013 New York City mayoral contenders in June 2012 – but that wasn’t City & State’s only involvement in the election. Allon had jumped into the race, positioning himself as an education reformer and generating some early buzz from the press, if not in the polls. But his longshot candidacy put the reporting team in an awkward position. Any story questioning a top candidate like Council Speaker Christine Quinn was vulnerable to criticism, however unwarranted, that it was biased.

Manhattan Media was preparing to sell off a number of its products, including City & State, and Allon wanted to keep it. He approached a former News Communications colleague, Steve Farbman, who agreed to partner with Allon on a buyout. One of the stipulations was that Allon drop his run for mayor, and he announced his exit from the race as the sale closed.

IN EARLY 2014, City & State Editor-inChief Morgan Pehme called me and a few other staffers into his office to discuss how to cover Cuomo’s Moreland Commission on Public Corruption. Pehme, who replaced Lisberg in mid-2012, had cultivated a source in the Moreland Commission, a supposedly independent investigative body formed in 2013 after lawmakers refused to pass the governor’s ethics reform package. As legislative leaders battled the commission’s subpoenas, word leaked that the governor’s office had interfered when investigators got too close to Cuomo’s donors. In March of 2014, Cuomo shut down the commission. Bharara blasted the governor, and his office seized the commission’s records.

Pehme had already acquired commission documents showing that the probes into state lawmakers, while unfinished, had generated some promising leads. Pehme was also told in detail how the Second Floor was meddling in the commission’s work. In April, after getting berated and

belittled by the governor’s press office, Pehme, along with Albany reporter Matt Hamilton and myself, published a report on Regina Calcaterra, the commission’s executive director who served as a conduit to the administration. Sources said that she had gone to such lengths to stymie the work of investigators that they tried to exclude her from their communications.

In a follow-up in May, I worked with Hamilton and Pehme on another report on potential campaign finance violations by a number of state lawmakers. The worst offenders, according to the commission’s partially finished probe, appeared to be state Sen. George Maziarz, a Western New York power broker, and state Sen. Greg Ball, a GOP lawmaker from the Hudson Valley. Within weeks, both men announced that they would not seek re-election. A number of news outlets followed up on City & State’s exclusives, relying heavily on the reports.

It was a high point for City & State – and for Pehme. “Our work on the Moreland Commission was a testament to patience,” said Pehme, who had built up his sources’ trust over several months.

“In the current 24/7 news cycle, there’s a tendency to want to spin out day-of stories and to rush out scooplets. Once we sunk our teeth into the story and appreciated the magnitude, rather than racing out the gate with something that was half-baked, we made sure that we took the time to compile the pieces that were necessary to produce really groundbreaking, long-form insightful pieces.”

When Hawkins, Bragg and Nahmias moved on, Pehme hired Nick Powell, a freelancer for the Greenpoint Gazette, and The Brooklyn Paper’s Aaron Short, who had made a name for himself with investigations into Assemblyman Lopez.

I was promoted to managing editor, then headed up to the state Capitol to launch the Albany bureau along with Hamilton.

Guillaume Federighi was hired as art director, and his artistic talent and design skills paved the way for the transition from a newspaper to a sleek, sophisticated magazine. Another pivotal move was the creation of a multimedia department headed by Michael Gareth Johnson, the former producer of Albany’s popular “Capital Tonight” TV show.

PEHME DEPARTED AT THE end of 2014, and Johnson took over as executive editor and later as editorial director.

In addition to video production skills, Johnson had management experience that

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

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July 18, 2016

he relied on to implement new procedures that imposed a structure on a rapidly expanding company.

Since Allon and Farbman acquired City & State, it has added one new product or division after another: New York Nonprofit Media; a City & State Buffalo bureau; editorial partnerships with City Limits in New York City and Investigative Post and the Daily Public in Western New York; and City & State Reports, a research arm-turned-awards series. An afternoon version of First Read, called Last Read, was started and then revamped as part of an Insider package, which also added Saturday and Sunday emails.

More recently, the company launched New York Slant to handle opinion pieces, started recording podcasts and introduced smaller, glossier pages for the magazine, which became a weekly. Most ambitiously, the company made its first foray into another state: City & State Pennsylvania began publishing earlier this year.

The company, which had fewer than a dozen employees when it spun off from Manhattan Media in 2013, today has a staff of more than 30 in its Lower Manhattan headquarters. Despite all the changes, Allon said it all comes back to the original tagline of City Hall: “Politics.

Policy. Personalities.”

“If you’re covering government and politics, politics is the fun, horse-racey, interesting part of government,” Allon said. “Policy is the real meat of it, it’s what people go into public service to do and to change. And then personalities are the people that drive that every day, and to be able to get the right mixture of those three things I think is what we’re going for.”

■

We Congratulate

CITY & STATE NEW YORK

as they celebrate 10 years of Award-Winning Political Journalism under the outstanding leadership of TOM ALLON

RED APPLE GROUP UNITED METRO ENERGY The Largest Supplier of Heating Oil & Motor Fuels in the NYC Area

GRISTEDES SUPERMARKETS

JOHN A. CATSIMATIDIS Chairman & CEO

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CityAndStateNY.com

July 18, 2016

DECADE’S WORTH Of

NEWS

S

July 18, 2016

City & State New York

THERE’S BEEN A RUNNING joke in the New York press corps for years, with various iterations. It goes something like: “there’s been a decade’s worth of news in the last few years.”

That joke has been making the rounds since shortly after City Hall first published in June of 2006. Now, 10 years later, I think we could revise that joke to: “there’s been a century’s worth of news in the last decade!”

Cramming all of the stories in the state and New York City over the last 10 years into a short section in this magazine was tough, but we feel we did justice to what was one of the busiest periods in politics. In the next few pages, the City & State editorial board also picked our top newsmakers for each of the years we have been publishing. As you will notice, not all of our picks made the list for positive reasons, but it’s hard to deny that some people dominated the news for their unsavory actions in this past decade.

City & State also named our newsmaker of the decade – Preet Bharara – and picked Michael Bloomberg as the runner-up. We have an extended profile of Bharara starting on page 82.

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Year

September 26, 2016

2006

I

IN REVIEW

Darren Bloch, right, is, “In The Trenches”

(page 12) moving from Council candidate to the public advocate’s office.

David Weprin is “In the Chair”

(page 7) talking about the 2009 comptroller’s race and his time heading the Finance Committee. And Cynthia Nixon takes on public school funding in the June Cause Vol. 1, No. 1

June 2006

www.cityhallnews.com

The New Paradigm

Célèbre (page 12).

INDEX:

The Council chamber renovation that never came page 2

Where Are They Now? checks in with Harrison Goldin

interpolated into government.

In brick and mortar—or, rather, the lack of it—this was to be the symbol of Bloomberg’s approach to his new job. He was a businessman and a technophile, a man focused on communication and transparency, eager to bring change. That is who he was and is, and he planned to refashion city government to reflect it.

Along the way, he has created a style entirely his own, and one which observers agree is

BY COURTNEY MCLEOD

page 2

T

page 4

page 4

The June Poll: Who is the funniest Council member? page 6

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral style may inspire private sector leaders to leap into politics.

STATE OF THE UNIONS

A Prescription for Political Power With deep ranks and deep pockets, health care union is potent force

Hank Sheinkopf on the ups and downs of a political consultant’s life Do the outer boroughs get shortchanged by the Landmarks Commission?

unlike that of any New York mayor to come before. It is a style that has four main elements, said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University: not personalizing conflict, having a government that “gets things done,” having a non-political set of productive appointees and making a concerted effort to maintain harmonious race relations.

Their synthesis, Moss said, is

Is Dennis Rivera the most powerful player in New York politics?

o win, any candidate for any office needs two things: votes and the money to get more votes. With some 300,000 members and its often-remarked on sophisticated approach to politics, 1199, the health-care workers union, provides both in huge amounts, making it one of the city’s and the state’s most potent political forces.

“They are a consistent major player in New York state politics,” said Blair Horner, legisla-

tive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

At the city level, said Democratic consultant Jerry Skurnick, “they’re probably the most influential union. When they endorse a candidate, they usually bring more resources to that campaign than any other labor organization.”

What has become the largest local union in the world got its start in 1932 with a group of pharmacists and clerks in New York City. In 1998, the union

THE

BY EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

W

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Has Bloomberg changed the mayoral model forever? hen Michael Bloomberg first arrived at City Hall, he moved his administration’s main offices into the old Board of Estimate chamber on the second floor. Rather than walls or offices, he and his top aides had work stations in the bullpen, the stock market floor

COURTESY OF 1199

N 2006, A LONG-SERVING Republican governor wrapped up his third and final term and a promising young Democrat ascended to the state’s highest elected office.

Gov. George Pataki, battered by skirmishes with state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a fellow Republican, and Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, had announced in 2005 that he would not run for re-election. While the moderate governor was rumored to be considering a presidential bid, he was bogged down by low approval ratings and critics continued to complain about his burgeoning budgets, rising debt and a lack of transparency during his final legislative session in 2006. To make matters worse, he was sidelined for several days in February by an appendectomy and a follow-up surgery to deal with complications of

MONEY TRAIL

Spitzer Prospers from Real Estate Contributions

BY SAL GENTILE Gubernatorial frontrunner Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (D) has been a frequent recipient of much influential New York real estate industry money since he first ran for attorney general in 1994.

His campaigns in that failed race and his successful 1998 run were funded in part by his own real estate family CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

OUR COVERAGE City Hall, the predecessor of City & State, launched in June 2006. The first edition included a cover story on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and how he instituted a new governing model driven by his background in business.

City & State New York

SEAN PAVONE

September 26, 2016

37

the initial operation.

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the hard-charging “Sheriff of Wall Street” who had won enthusiastic support for his investigations into white-collar and corporate crime, had announced his bid for governor in late 2004.

Polls showed Spitzer with commanding leads, first against Pataki and later against Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, his Democratic primary rival, and John Faso, the former Republican Assembly minority leader, his general election foe.

Spitzer, with state Senate Minority Leader David Paterson as his running mate, went on to beat Suozzi with a whopping 81 percent of the Democratic vote. On the Republican side, businessman Tom Golisano and former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld had both dropped out of contention, leaving Faso as the GOP’s standard-bearer.

Spitzer, who ran as a reformer pledging to clean up Albany, trounced Faso by 40 points.

A similar shift from red to blue occurred in Congress in the November midterm elections as voters punished President George W. Bush by electing Democratic majorities in both houses. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who ran the Democrats’ Senate campaign committee, propelled the party to a narrow majority in the upper house, with Hillary Clinton, the state’s junior senator, coasting to reelection.

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi also won re-election, despite a local investigation into his use of a state employee to chauffeur his wife. By December, however, he had submitted his resignation as part of a plea deal in an Albany County court.

Voters that autumn also elected Andrew Cuomo, the son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, to replace Spitzer as New York attorney general. Cuomo, who dropped out of the race for governor four years earlier, beat out several fellow Democrats: former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green, former Manhattan Democratic Party Chairman Charlie King and Sean Patrick Maloney, a former aide in the Clinton administration. Cuomo then completed his comeback by easily defeating Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro in the general election, winning an office that would eventually serve as a springboard to the second floor in Albany, as it had for Spitzer.

In New York City, meanwhile, the popular Mayor Michael Bloomberg began his second term fresh off a landslide victory in 2005 against Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president. A moderate Republican, Bloomberg continued to build a record as a pragmatic centrist, creating the Commission on Economic Opportunity to fight poverty, launching a national Mayors Against Illegal Guns group and breaking with the Bush administration over immigration policy.

B

CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

2006 Newsmaker

ELIOT SPITZER

Y THE TIME Eliot L. Spitzer was elected the 54th governor of New York on Nov. 7, 2006, the 47-year-old Bronx-born politician was being bandied about as potentially the first Jewish president of the United States.

The praise may seem out of touch now, but at the time it was on point. Few politicians in New York have been able to instill as much hope in the future of the state as Spitzer – and his slick TV ads – did in 2006.

Spitzer’s two terms as state attorney general had gained him the respect and admiration of those who felt that Wall Street was untouchable. His investigations and prosecution of the too-big-to-go-to-jail crowd earned him the moniker “The Sheriff of Wall Street.”

White collar crime had an enemy. Spitzer went after securities and internet fraud but didn’t neglect environmental protection. He pursued cases against investment bank stock pricing inflation, predatory lending practices by greedy mortgage lenders and computer chip price-fixing – to just name some.

In short, he had positioned himself as a champion for the less fortunate and sold voters that he would be the same in the executive mansion.

His progressive campaign was more than just the usual parlance of promises of change. Spitzer picked Harlem state Senator David A. Paterson as his running mate. The historical significance of choosing the first African-American as part of the top ticket in New York was embraced by communities of color throughout the state and made national news.

As the 2006 gubernatorial campaign progressed, it was clear that Spitzer wouldn’t be elected as much as annointed in November.

And he was, defeating Republican John Faso 69 percent to 29.2 percent.

For everything stated and so much more left in the inkwell, Eliot Spitzer is City & State’s 2006 Newsmaker.

EVERETT COLLECTION

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City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Andrew Cuomo

STOCKLIGHT

RUNNER-UP For the handful of people who know Andrew Cuomo well, it was just a matter of time before the promising son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo would rise from his embarrassing 2002 Democratic primary meltdown, when he commented on the leadership of then-Gov. George Pataki in the aftermath of 9/11: “Pataki stood behind the leader. He held the leader’s coat … he was not a leader. Cream rises to the top, and Rudy Giuliani rose to the top.”

The backlash put a temporary end to Cuomo’s political aspirations. But in 2006, there was an open seat for Attorney General, and Cuomo saw that his path to get back in the game. Cuomo won a three-way primary race that included Mark Green and Charlie King – with King eventually bowing out and endorsing Cuomo. He easily defeated Republican candidate Jeanine Pirro in the November general election, with 58 percent of the vote.

And, all of a sudden, he was back on track for the executive mansion – a lot sooner than he probably expected.

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CityAndStateNY.com

Year

September 26, 2016

2007

W IN REVIEW

prosecutor at the time led an investigation into Spitzer’s use of state police to monitor Bruno. While Cuomo would eventually rule that there was nothing improper in the governor’s use of police to follow his foe as he used state resources to

In State of the

Unions, Ed Ott

(right) looks to the future of the CLC and organized labor

(Page 3),

SUNY reform gets underway (Page 22) and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum (left) talks turkey sandwiches

Vol. 2, No. 3

August 2007

www.cityhallnews.com

THE

Bloomberg

KI*DS

Former Bloomberg staffers Silvia Alvarez, Jordan Barowitz, Patrick Brennan, Joe Chan, Jennifer Falk, Jonathan Greenspun and Marc Ricks check in from their new positions and reflect on their time in the Bloomberg administration.

Page 28

INDEX:

Issue Forum: Organized Labor/ Unions Page 4

SIBRO looks to link Staten Island and Brooklyn Page 12

Race for New York City Clerk takes shape Page 21

Pundit Poll: The Congestion Pricing Fallout Page 24

Worries Over Changes to New York’s no-fault divorce law Page 26

The August Poll: Which Council Member Would Make the Best Lifeguard?

Page 33

at her Power Lunch (Page 32)

STEAMROLLER

JOE

Bruno’s inside track on the big three: he is riding high, Silver is a disappointment, Spitzer should get out of politics

J

BY EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

oe Bruno bets the exacta box.

That makes for a harder gamble—instead of just putting his money on one horse, he needs to guess which two will come out on top. As long as one places first and the other second, he wins, and collects a bigger payout for the double bet at the window downstairs.

He has $4 on the fifth race, hinging on horses 4 and 8. From a distance, the horses seem to be gliding, tearing around the oval track as the baritone announcer narrates their progress.

Bruno watches intently. They start down the stretch. He tenses slightly. One of his picks is ahead, the other one back in third.

“Come on, baby,” he says. “Come on.”

They whip past. Split seconds before they hit the finish line, he can see that 4 has slipped behind.

He shrugs slightly, raises his eyebrows. And then he continues the conversation.

“You go on to the next,” he explains. “You play hard, CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

EMILY ROSENBERG

HAT A WAY TO start the year! A new firebrand governor, a new state comptroller (picked by his Assembly colleagues despite the recently elected state executive’s best-laid plans), a new attorney general with a familiar name – and incredible tension between the executive and legislative branches.

The rise of Tom DiNapoli to state comptroller was the least of the new, exceedingly popular governor’s worries. Gov. Eliot Spitzer had enemies to keep an eye on, and watch them he did. The governor quickly made foes of the other members of the “three men in a room,” with then-Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver conspiring against the governor.

Adding to the intrigue was an ambitious young attorney general: Andrew Cuomo. The state’s top

CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

OUR COVERAGE Edward-Isaac Dovere in City Hall cover stories explored then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s potential run for president. In an interview with Dovere at the Saratoga Race Course, then-state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno said Spitzer doesn’t have “the temperament to govern” and should be in real estate, not politics.

City & State New York

STUART MONK

September 26, 2016

traverse the state raising campaign funds, the investigation itself – dubbed “Troopergate” – became the focus of reporters across the state. The revelations that Spitzer had used the police to track his enemy was decried

by Bruno and others as a use of state resources to carry out a political attack, ironic given the nature of the police investigation.

Further complicating an already rocky start for Spitzer were the politics behind DiNapoli’s appointment to comptroller following the resignation of his predecessor, Alan Hevesi.

Despite a tentative agreement between Assembly leadership and the governor, the Assembly voted

in DiNapoli after a panel assembled

by Spitzer failed to produce any candidates from the Legislature.

That was just the beginning of his troubles with the legislative leadership, as Bruno and Silver both worked to thwart budget plans, policy initiatives and just about anything the governor, who once described himself as a “fucking steamroller,” tried to accomplish. While Bruno was entirely open about his disdain for Spitzer, Silver was more civil in public. Still, behind closed doors the two worked together to make sure the brash state executive understood that he wasn’t going anywhere without their help.

And Spitzer had a major blunder of

41

his own. He drew national attention with a plan to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, sparking a debate that was picked up by news outlets around the country. The proposal sent his approval numbers into a nosedive and he eventually backed off of the idea, but the damage had been done.

It seemed as though things could not have gone much worse for the governor, who had stepped into office with such great promise and expectations. But the next year would host a series of events that would have him wishing for the good old days, when his biggest problems were the leaders of the Assembly and state Senate.

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CityAndStateNY.com

A

September 26, 2016

2007 Newsmaker

FTER SOME TWO DECADES representing the 16th Assembly District in northwestern Nassau County, Thomas DiNapoli made a quick and improbable jump to the position of state comptroller. And improbable is probably too generous a word.

It was more like a one-in-100 shot, where the only realistic path for this to happen presented itself.

That path started with then-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi turning out to be a criminal.

THOMAS DINAPOLI

Shortly after being reelected in 2006, he pleaded guilty to defrauding the state and resigned.

That opened the door for the state Legislature, dominated by the Assembly Democratic conference, to pick his replacement. And luckily for DiNapoli, he was affable and well-respected by those colleagues, even if he was a virtual unknown throughout the rest of the state.

But there was one obstacle to DiNapoli’s ascent: newly elected Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was trying to flex his muscles by arguing that an outside panel of experts in finance should vet all potential comptroller candidates. That panel came back with three recommendations, and DiNapoli was not among them.

The power play by Spitzer left a sour taste in the mouths of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Republican Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assemblyman Vito Lopez, chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. The three of them twisted arms, and ultimately DiNapoli landed the job. Their machinations flagrantly disregarded the selection process Spitzer had outlined, which was not legally binding.

No matter why DiNapoli was the pick – some say it was less because of his qualifications and more because he possessed a squeaky clean image – he soon became both the holder of the keys to the state’s multibillion-dollar pension fund and the fiscal watchdog for the second-largest state budget in the nation.

DiNapoli also handed Spitzer one of his earliest defeats as governor, and earned himself a spot as newsmaker of the year for 2007.

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Sheldon Silver RUNNER-UP The Eliot Spitzer steamroller hit a bumpy path early in 2007 when Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver quickly derailed many of his plans. Spitzer wanted to replace state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who had just resigned in disgrace, with one of three people picked by a commission he set up to vet candidates*. Trouble was, the commission didn’t pick any Assembly members in that final three**. Silver, whose Assembly Democratic conference held enough votes to determine the outcome, revolted. And Silver, in his first showdown with the newly elected governor, basically told him to bug off. The Assembly installed Tom DiNapoli, and Spitzer quickly realized that he wasn’t going to be able to reform the way Albany works through sheer force of personality. Emboldened by his power play, Silver then teamed up with Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno to stare down Spitzer in budget negotiations, adding tens of millions in spending, as the governor panicked and relented so he could get an on-time budget – one that increased spending roughly 7 percent and made a lot of lawmakers happy.

NOTES: * Eighteen people applied for the job, including several Assembly members. ** The commission’s three recommendations were William Mulrow, Martha Stark and Howard Weitzman.

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City & State New York

September 26, 2016

2008

Year

45

IN REVIEW James Tedisco explores his 2010 statewide prospects.

Page 8

VOL. 1, NO. 4

A Tall Glass of David Paterson: mixing up a new classic to honor the new governor.

Norman Adler on semi-retirement and the new regime in Albany.

Page 28

Page 31

APRIL 2008

www.nycapitolnews.com

I Pages 14-23

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OUR COVERAGE The Capitol launched in 2008, just in time to run a retrospective on Eliot Spitzer’s truncated tenure.

Andrew Cuomo’s first major interview after being elected attorney general was with City Hall/The Capitol, which focused on constituents’ wavering trust in government. City Hall also broke the news that Anthony Weiner had decided not to run for mayor, and published an interview with thenPublic Advocate Betsy Gotbaum about her considering retiring from politics.

T WAS A YEAR of dramatic ups and downs, with the international financial crisis seizing Wall Street, a prostitution scandal shaking up who resided in the governor’s mansion and New York City Hall revamping its term-limit rules.

News of banks collapsing and filing for bankruptcy dominated the headlines – and the limits of the state and city’s budgets. Bear Stearns nearly imploded in March, but JPMorgan agreed to buy shares of it for a fraction of the firm’s recent market prices and to guarantee its obligations with help from the Federal Reserve. Six months later, after failing to find a buyer, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. On the same day, Merrill Lynch announced it was selling itself to Bank of America.

All that volatility did not bode while for local budgets, and the governor called multiple sessions and opted to raise taxes on smokers, hair salon customers and others in dealing with a growing deficit. In New York

City, negotiations were so tense that the City Council’s budget negotiating team temporarily broke off talks to highlight their frustration with proposed cuts. And during the budget agreement announcement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn forgot to perform the ritual handshake and kiss, until a reporter asked about the tradition.

Meanwhile, Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned following revelations that he’d been involved with prostitutes, making him the first New York governor to leave office amid scandal in nearly a century. When then-Lt. Gov. David Paterson replaced him, Paterson became the state’s first black executive – and its first blind one, too.

Longtime GOP Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno announced he would not seek another term – and, at the time, Bruno said his decision was not related to the fact that he was under a federal investigation, which eventually led to his conviction on corruption charges. (He was later acquitted.)

That fall, bolstered by a surge of new voters headed to the polls to elect Barack Obama president, Democrats won a majority in the state Senate, putting the party in charge of both state legislative chambers and the governor’s office for the first time in decades. Four Democratic senators, however, immediately waffled on whether they would support a Democratic majority leader, foreshadowing a later coup.

In the lower chamber, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver killed a congestion pricing plan Bloomberg had thrown his weight behind. Bloomberg envisioned the proposal discouraging driving in the downtown Manhattan core, and therefore alleviating traffic and pollution.

But Bloomberg did score a big win on his home turf: The City Council voted to extend term limits so that Bloomberg could seek a third stint in office, overturning two voter referendums that had resulted in the two-term limit. Given New Yorkers had demonstrated their distaste for extending term limits, Bloomberg had to overcome lawmakers’ opposition at City Hall.

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

2008 Newsmaker

D

AVID PATERSON HAD a fairly brief and unmemorable stint in the governor’s mansion, but he earns the newsmaker designation as part of the ripple effect from Eliot Spitzer’s prostitution scandal and for making history as New York’s first black (and disabled – Paterson is legally blind) governor.

While Paterson was not considered the ascendant star that Spitzer was, he managed to make plenty of headlines during his first year in office, both good and bad.

One day after his inauguration, he acknowledged that both he and his wife had extramarital affairs, and, in a separate interview days later, revealed his drug use as a young man. He also made the controversial decision to sharply reduce government spending in the wake of the financial crisis.

Paterson also deserves credit for laying the groundwork for New York legalizing same-sex marriage. In May 2008, Paterson directed state agencies to recognize same-sex marriage licenses from other ju-

DERRICK SALTERS

DAVID PATERSON

risdictions for the purpose of employee benefits, which led to a flood of public criticism that would, more than a year later, lead to a same-sex marriage bill Paterson championed being soundly defeated in the state Senate. The failure did help lay the groundwork for the successful passage of a similar bill in 2011.

Paterson’s legacy will also be marked by the reforms of the widely unpopular Rockefeller Drug Laws.

Of course, Paterson’s most impactful decision that year had little to do with state government or policy. Hillary Clinton’s appointment as secretary of state in 2009 left a vacancy in the U.S. Senate that Paterson was tasked with filling. Seemingly every politician in New York threw their hat in the ring for the seat, and Paterson drew criticism for dilly-dallying on the pick. He ultimately settled on Kirsten Gillibrand, at the time a relatively unknown congresswoman from upstate.

DERRICK SALTERS

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

47

Michael Bloomberg RUNNER-UP

360B

When New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani lobbied Albany for a 90day extension of his term in the wake of 9/11, then-Republican mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg gave his blessing. Seven years later, Bloomberg cited a different crisis – the city’s dire economic situation in the wake of the financial sector collapse – as reason enough to give him another four years at City Hall.

Opponents of allowing the mayor to seek a third term consistently argued that Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn flouted the will of the electorate by not making the decision via a ballot referendum. But the Council narrowly approved the measure, paving the way for Bloomberg to become the first mayor since Ed Koch to serve 12 years in office.

Prior to the third-term vote, Bloomberg’s steady hand shepherding the city through the financial crisis also led to increased speculation that he could run for president in 2008 as an independent, though the mayor consistently denied any interest, and ultimately declined to endorse a candidate in either party.

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

Year

2009

IN REVIEW

I

N 2009, NEW YORK experienced unexpected – or unexpectedly close – battles for power at the federal, state and local level.

At the start of 2009, when President Barack Obama moved into the White House, Hillary Clinton, the runner-up in the Democratic primary, left her position as New York’s junior senator and became Obama’s secretary of state. To fill the vacancy, Gov. David Paterson appointed Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand in January, but Gillibrand would immediately begin to gear up for a primary race the next year while several high-profile Democrats, including U.S. Reps. Carolyn McCarthy, Steve Israel and Carolyn Maloney, considered a challenge. McCarthy and others saw Gillibrand, who was backed by the National Rifle Association, as vulnerable due to her support of gun rights. Ultimately, only little-known New York City attorney Gail Goode ran against Gillibrand in the 2010 primary.

In the state Senate, Democrats started the year in power after wresting control of the chamber for the first time in decades, but their majority would soon be called into question. On June 8,

right before the state Senate was about to adjourn for the day, 30 Republicans stood for a roll-call vote for a change of leadership – with two Democrats, Pedro Espada Jr. and Hiram Monserrate, joining the Republicans, giving them a numerical majority. Chaos erupted on the floor as Democrats argued the vote was illegal and violated parliamentary procedure. Days later, Monserrate returned to the Democratic conference, but that left the chamber split at 31-31. The tie forced Gov. David Paterson to call for a special session, which started on June 23. Paterson had not yet appointed a lieutenant governor after former Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal, and so there was no lieutenant governor to break the tie. Starting at dawn, both Democrats and Republicans camped out in the chamber and tried to convene session – which ultimately disintegrated into a shouting match on the floor. The special session lasted a total of 25 days, many of them short gavel-in-gavel-out sessions without any business conducted while negotiators met with state Senate leaders behind closed doors. Paterson eventually appointed Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor in July. The following day, Espada rejoined the Democrats, giving them a majority once again. Republicans soon filed a lawsuit against Paterson’s appointment of Ravitch to break the stalemate in the chamber, arguing the appointment was unconstitutional, though an appellate court ultimately ruled in Paterson’s favor. State Senate Democrats would maintain control of the chamber until the November 2010 elections.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg won re-election against Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, garnering only 51 percent of the vote in an unexpectedly close race. Many civil rights groups were angered

by Bloomberg’s third mayoral bid since he had extended the city’s term limits law to allow for his third run. Additionally, a New York City Council member named Bill de Blasio was elected public advocate, beating former Public Advocate Mark Green in a runoff, and used the position as a springboard for his successful mayoral campaign in 2013. Another city councilman, John Liu, was elected city comptroller.

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Tony Avella, right, ponders life after losing (Page 13), Primary Diaries (Page 16)

Council hopeful Ydanis Rodriguez, below, is having a good week (Page 8), Coney Island is getting a makeover (page 14)

www.cityhallnews.com

July 20, 2009

and Randi Weingarten, above, stakes out her New York legacy (page 22).

Vol. 4, No. 5

September 21, 2009

www.cityhallnews.com

and Denny Farrell, left, passes the torch of the Manhattan Democrats (Page 18).

ONCOMING

TRAFFIC Carolyn Maloney swerves into the Senate race

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STEPS UP

OUR COVERAGE In 2009, Editor Edward-Isaac Dovere published a groundbreaking investigative series about the Working Families Party that put City Hall News on the map. The online series scrutinized the WFP’s relationship with Data and Field Services, a private research firm with close ties to the third party.

The sharing of staff and campaign services provided for a number of local Democratic candidates prompted federal and local investigations and put the labor-backed WFP on the defensive for years.

City Hall also published definitive profiles o several Democrats who considered running against newly appointed U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. One subject was Rep. Carolyn Maloney, whose nascent challenge to Gillibrand was undercut when she used the N-word in her interview with Dovere, and her apology made national headlines. Dovere also got the inside story on Rep. Steve Israel’s decision to forgo a run after the White House asked him to step aside, while David Freedlander profiled Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who criticized the high marks Gillibrand received from the NRA.

BELOW: THE JUNE 2009 COVER OF THE CAPITOL

J. ALEX STAMOS

Vol. 4, No. 2

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September 26, 2016

2009 Newsmaker

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND

I

AARON CLAMAGE

50

N JANUARY 2009, there was a huge sense of hope and optimism over the election of Barack Obama. His decision to pick Hillary Clinton as secretary of state created a ton of buzz in New York, where Gov. David Paterson was tasked with appointing her replacement. New York Democrats in Congress were jumping over themselves trying to get Paterson to pick them. However, high-profile Obama supporter Caroline Kennedy seemed to have pole position, with the national media already anointing her as the replacement to the seat once held by her uncle Robert F. Kennedy.

And then things got crazy. Kennedy’s upstate listening tour was a failure. Elected officials throughout the state started to make plays for the seat. Paterson vetted a few candidates, including then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

On Jan. 22, a day after Clinton took over as secretary of state, the media and political class still wasn’t sure what Paterson would do. The next day, he surprised many by appointing one-term Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, a 42-year-old representative of one of the most moderate districts in the state. Progressives lost their minds. At the time, Gillibrand had a 100 percent positive rating from the National Rifle Association. She boasted of shooting her own turkey on Thanksgiving. Veteran Democrats who had toiled in Congress for decades were openly talking of challenging her in a primary the following year.

But Gillibrand outfoxed her opponents, shifting her positions to quell anger on the left while securing her support among moderates. She has hardly been challenged in elections since.

The elevation of Gillibrand to the U.S. Senate, just years after she was simply a lawyer who state Senate Democrats were trying to recruit to run for office, was one of the most impressive political leaps the state has ever seen. That is why she is our newsmaker of the year for 2009.

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Pedro Espada Jr.

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

RUNNER-UP

It was a beautiful day on June 8, 2009, the second-to-last Monday of the legislative session. The state Senate was going about its business as usual when Republican state Sen. Tom Libous stood up and called for a motion of no confidence. And that started a monthlong tragedy where state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. was the lead character (with plenty of intriguing supporting cast members – see below).

Espada was upset that Senate President Malcolm Smith, a fellow Democrat, hadn’t given him funds he wanted in the budget earlier in the year. So he plotted this maneuver with several GOP state senators, including Dean Skelos, George Maziarz and Libous, as well as upstate billionaire Tom Golisano and Western New York political operative Steve Pigeon.

Espada, along with fellow Democrat Hiram Monserrate, announced that they would caucus with the Republicans, giving the GOP the majority. The Democrats, unsure of what to do, gaveled out of session, walked out of the chamber and turned the lights off on their way out the door.

Over the next month, government came to a standstill. Monserrate rejoined the Democrats, but that left a 31-31 split in the chamber. At the time, there was no lieutenant governor who could break the tie because David Paterson had become governor the year before and there was no process in place for him to name a replacement. And so the chamber became a parliamentary minefield for weeks. Any THE COUP: WHERE ARE THEY business lobbyists and NOW? lawmakers had hoped to get * Pedro Espada Jr. – in prison done in the final days was * Hiram Monserrate – expelled from scrapped. state Senate in 2009 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault of his Finally, in early July, girlfriend Democrats cut a deal with * Tom Libous – convicted of lying to Espada that made him the the FBI; passed away earlier this year state Senate majority leader * Dean Skelos – convicted of – as part of a power play that corruption, awaiting sentencing left Smith as Senate president * George Maziarz – didn’t seek rebut with no power, and election in 2014 after City & State John Sampson as the leader story detailing his suspicious campaign spending of the Senate Democratic * Steve Pigeon – recently arrested conference. by the FBI Espada’s bold move made * John Sampson – convicted of him one of the most hated embezzlement and obstruction of people in state politics, a title justice; awaiting sentencing pending he still holds to this day, but review of his case in light of recent U.S. there is no doubt he was one Supreme Court ruling of the biggest newsmakers * Malcolm Smith – in prison in 2009.

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Year

September 26, 2016

2010

T IN REVIEW

MARC ANDERSON

Democrats fear that

A broke

may stick around awhile

2010 strategy

Hiram Monserrate Page 3

VOL. 2, NO. 13

SRCC plots

Page 9

www.nycapitolnews.com

IL O

Greg Meeks finds himself suddenly in the middle of a political storm

Page 18

JANUARY 2010

OUT OF THE DARKNESS PATRICK DODSON

John Sampson’s plan to lead the Democrats to a better 2010

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HE HIGHLY POLARIZING presidential race in 2016 might be reminding New Yorkers of their state’s gubernatorial election in 2010, when a controversial Republican outsider faced off against an establishment Democrat.

Despite pledging to run for re-election when he became governor in 2008 after former Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned due to a prostitution scandal, Gov. David Paterson in February 2010 ultimately decided not to run again. Support for Paterson had waned amid an uproar over his administration’s intervention in a domestic violence case involving one of his close aides. As state attorney general, Andrew Cuomo was also leading an investigation about allegations that Paterson violated the state’s ethics laws when he solicited free tickets to a Yankees World Series game for his son and a friend. Some state Democrats and Cuomo had already begun to quietly prepare for Cuomo’s gubernatorial bid. In May, Cuomo officially announced his candidacy. He promised to reform the scandal-scarred state Legislature and fix the state’s budget process. The year’s legislative session ended without dramatic policy changes or spending reductions that Paterson had sought to put the state on a more sound fiscal footing before he left office, leaving the task to his successor.

Cuomo had tried to run for governor once before in 2002, but ultimately dropped out of the race when it became obvious he would not defeat H. Carl McCall in the Democratic primary.

Originally it was believed the Republican primary winner would be either former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio or former Suffolk County Executive

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

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Steve Levy, but Carl Paladino, a Buffalo real estate developer with tea party backing, ultimately won the nomination. The primary race would come down to Lazio, who had establishment support, and Paladino, whose blunt style of speaking and rhetoric gained him popularity. But Paladino’s controversial nature would work against him in the general election – he lost to Cuomo by more than 20 percentage points.

While Republicans failed to win the governor’s mansion, they had more success in their effort to retake the state Senate. During the Democrats’ brief hold on the chamber, state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. became embroiled in scandal. Republicans sought to present Democrats as corrupt, and with the help of typically GOPfriendly midterm election winds they won a 32-30 majority in the chamber.

Meanwhile, after winning re-election the previous year, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was embroiled in the “Ground Zero mosque” controversy. Bloomberg was strongly against critics who fought against establishing an Islamic community center and mosque near the site of the World Trade Center.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand faced a special election following her appointment by Gov. David Paterson the previous year. Her Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Joseph DioGuardi, was underfunded and largely unknown.

Gillibrand defeated DioGuardi, while U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer easily won re-election against Republican Jay Townsend. With his re-election, Schumer rose to the third most-powerful position in the U.S. Senate.

ILLUSTRATION OF CARL PALADINO, ANDREW CUOMO AND RICK LAZIO FROM THE COVER OF THE JULY 2010 ISSUE OF THE CAPITOL.

Liz Holtzman

steps back from her comeback.

Page 4

VOL. 3, NO. 10

Lynn Nunes gives Shirley Huntley a

Carl Paladino

drinks in Tea Party support.

challenge from the left.

Page 16

The Assembly

Republicans

push ahead to November.

Page 23

www.nycapitolnews.com

Page 2

MAY 31, 2010 VOL. 3, NO. 11

Merryl Tisch’s

Roger Stone on

reform plans get threatened.

Kristin Davis, Spitzer, Lazio and Cuomo.

Page 10

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www.nycapitolnews.com

JUNE 29, 2010

Avoiding Oblivion Inside the Senate Republicans’ weary war room

Status Cuomo Andrew Cuomo applies his AG strategy to the gubernatorial race Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016 CHRIS DUFFY/ WWW.DUFFYDOTCOM

OUR COVERAGE The Capitol profiled John Sampson at the start of the 2010 legislative session and his efforts to lead his conference, which held the majority, after the 2009 Senate coup and the arrest of former state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. on corruption charges. The Capitol also took a look at state Senate Republicans’ operations to regain control of the chamber ahead of a redistricting year, and traced incoming governor Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial ambitions back through his political career.

City Hall published in-depth profiles of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who had started to make a name for himself, and Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the leader of the declining Brooklyn Democratic machine.

Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

2010 Newsmaker

U

.S. SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER was in the running for newsmaker of the year in several years since our publication’s launch in 2006. From 2005-2009 he served as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. In that role he oversaw a total of 14 Democratic gains in the Senate during the 2006 and 2008 elections.

In both those years he could have earned our recognition, but we picked 2010 for several reasons.

First, he played a key role in the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in the spring of that year.

Second, he won reelection with 67 percent of the vote.

Third, he was named chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. Schumer was already technically the No. 3 ranking senator at the time, but this promotion gave him more influence and even took some responsibilities away from the No. 2 senator, Dick Durbin.

It finally had became clear that Schumer had cemented himself within the D.C. Democratic Party power structure. The Brooklyn-born lifelong politician clearly lined himself up to succeed Harry Reid as the chamber’s top Democrat, and the media could no longer avoid speculating about it. It seemed inevitable.

Next year will likely be Schumer’s best. Assuming the polls are accurate and the Democrats take back control of the Senate, he will be the majority leader – one of the most powerful positions in federal government. While his rise to power was through a slow, methodical process, 2010 was the year it became clear that this could be his destiny.

That’s why Schumer is our 2010 newsmaker of the year.

STOCKLIGHT

CHARLES SCHUMER

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

September 26, 2016

Eric Schneiderman RUNNER-UP When Andrew Cuomo vacated his position as attorney general to run for governor, a heated primary ensued to find his potential replacement and keep the position in the hands of Democrats. Eric Schneiderman, who had represented the 31st Senate District since 2003, distinguished himself by forming a coalition of unions and African-American leaders, and in arguably the most competitive statewide race of the year he was able to hold of now-Rep. Kathleen Rice by 16,500 votes in the five-way election.

Despite Schneiderman being a clear favorite in November, his victory over Staten Island district attorney Daniel Donovan Jr. was much closer than expected, likely thanks to that year’s conservative wave driven by anger over the nation’s poor economic recovery from the 2008 financial meltdown.

Ethics reform was at the top of Schneiderman’s priorities as a candidate. Upon election, however, his efforts to reform Wall Street by investigating the big banks whose shenanigans helped orchestrate the great recession quickly became his signature fight. None of that would have been possible if he wasn’t elected, which is why he is our runner-up for newsmaker of the year in 2010.

City & State New York

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City & State New York

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2011

Year

IN REVIEW

Page 8

VOL. 4, NO. 11

Ben Lawsky explains his new agency, and his new responsibilities.

Indian tribes gain influence as political fights intensify.

Page 27

Page 15

www.nycapitolnews.com

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JUNE 13, 2011

With a week left in the session, three uneasy adversaries play their final hands pg. 14

VOL. 4, NO. 12

Bruce Gyory says upstate is losing electoral clout.

The new power plant law could hasten Indian Point’s closure.

Steve Acquario is still waiting for mandate relief.

Page 12

Page 15

Page 23

www.nycapitolnews.com

JUNE 27, 2011

How same-sex marriage puts the State Senate up for grabs pg. 6 Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16t 6

Two congressional districts are on the chopping block. Who is most vulnerable?

Andrew Schwartz/iStockphoto/Joey Carolino

Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

ANUARY 2011 BEGAN with all eyes on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s first legislative session and the lofty goals he had promised to achieve before session ended in June.

While campaigning, Cuomo had vowed to place the first-ever cap on local property taxes, legalize same-sex marriage in the state and oversee on-time state budgets (he had criticized former Gov. David Paterson for his habit of passing budget extensions). To much praise, Cuomo delivered on all those promises before session ended that year.

After Cuomo’s successes, many political observers hailed him as a governor that had long been needed to restore credibility to Albany and reign in the state’s spending.

Cuomo additionally closed a $9 billion deficit with caps on education and health care spending.

In 2011, Cuomo would have to have his first round of negotiations on the future of rent regulation laws with state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Skelos had also begun his first year as majority leader

OUR COVERAGE Nearing the end of Cuomo’s first successful session, Adam Lisberg in The Capitol profiled the “three men in the room” and their end-ofsession negotiations. Andrew Hawkins and Chris Bragg forecasted the effect gay marriage would have on the makeup of the state Senate; Laura Nahmias exposed Assemblyman William Boyland’s abuse of the Legislature’s per diem system by tracking his online game-playing on Facebook; and Bragg dug into Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s efforts to curb corporate influence in politics even as he accepted the support of billionaire benefactor George Soros.

In City & State’s first issue in December, Andrew Hawkins publishes “After Zuccotti,” analyzing the Occupy Wall Street movement’s would impact on New York City politics.

after Republicans regained control of the chamber.

Both Skelos and Silver would be arrested and convicted of corruption charges four years later – and Silver’s bribery case prosecutors would allege that a luxury developer implicated in his bribery scheme requested changes to the law. However, at the time, the changes to the rent control laws were heralded by some as a victory for tenants.

Arguably Cuomo’s biggest fight that year was the effort to legalize same-sex marriage in New York.

Cuomo and other Democratic lawmakers needed to sway some Republican members to vote in favor of the bill for it to pass in the state Senate. Ultimately Democrats were successful in luring four Republicans to vote in favor while one Democrat, state Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., an evangelical preacher, voted against it and the bill ultimately passed.

Starting in late May, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner became embroiled in a three-week-long sexting scandal. The Democratic congressman ultimately resigned in disgrace after it became public that he had sent explicit pictures of himself to women online.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg faced political pressure to deal with the new Occupy Wall Street protesters, who spent two months living in tents and tarps in the financial district in Lower Manhattan in an effort to bring attention to income inequality. Citing public health and safety, he ultimately ordered New York City police to raid and evict the protesters from Zuccotti Park in November, a move he was both praised and criticized for.

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

T

ANDREW CUOMO

HE DAY HE HAD been arduously working for finally arrived on Jan. 1, 2011: Andrew Mark Cuomo took center stage on inauguration day as the new governor of New York state. The eldest son of the 52nd was now officially embarking on his own stewardship of the Empire State.

However, the questions persisted: Would he be a carbon copy of his father, Mario?

Objective observers would probably say Andrew outdid his father in his first year in office. He took little time forcing through much of his campaign agenda. He balanced the budget, kept spending lower, invested in a handful of pet projects, passed a property tax cap and was able to get an ethics bill passed (the Clean Up Albany Act of 2011) which may not have done much to discourage bad apples in the state Legislature, but did force them to disclose their outside income for the first time, leading to many future prosecutions for one crusading U.S. Attorney.

Cuomo capped off his stellar first year in office with arguably the greatest political accomplishment of his career, the passage of the Marriage Equality Act. To get same-sex marriage legalized he had to convince four Republicans in the state Senate to back the bill. He only needed three votes, but it was agreed in backroom discussions that they had to pass the bill by two votes in order to give the GOP senators political cover, so they wouldn’t be labeled as the person who flipped the balance of power. All four were no longer in office a few years after casting their votes.

Cuomo would go on to have more successes and failures in his time in office, but it is hard to argue that he didn’t have an incredible first year, which is why he is our 2011 newsmaker.

JUDY SANDERS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

2011 Newsmaker

JUDY SANDERS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Anthony Weiner

SEAN MCGING/SUNDANCE

RUNNER-UP It might be hard to believe that a politician with a reputation for salacious text messages was once a legitimate favorite to become mayor of New York City, but that’s where Anthony Weiner was sitting in 2011 before the first of several sexting scandals derailed his career.

In May 2011, a photo of Weiner’s crotch was posted on his Twitter page, which he later claimed was the result of someone hacking his account. It wasn’t until a conservative news outlet published a second explicit photo of Weiner that the Queens congressman copped to his indiscretions at a press conference. Weiner’s actions led many of his Washington colleagues to call for his resignation, including President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and fellow New York Congressman Steve Israel. Weiner resigned in disgrace shortly after, and would not resurface in public life until his ill-fated mayoral run in 2013, which tanked as a result of – you guessed it – another sexting scandal.

Bravo AT&T salutes City & State’s 10th Anniversary.

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City & State New York

September 26, 2016

2012

B

Year

IN REVIEW

EGINNING HIS SECOND YEAR in office, Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a bold promise. With all the state’s politicians, lobbyists, members of the press and other civic leaders watching, he used his State of the State address to pledge $1 billion for economic development in the Buffalo area, drawing praise from Western New York and sending shockwaves throughout the state.

Cuomo, who had lost Western New York to Buffalo native Carl Paladino in the 2010 election, said the state’s second-biggest city had for too long been

Vol. 1, No. 4

January 23, 2012

www.cityandstateny.com

They may not like each other, but they need each other to take on education.

Page 10

ANDREW SCHWARTZ

Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

Why are so many political battles breaking out in Brooklyn? Page 5

Errol Louis’ path to NY1’s “Inside City Hall.” Page 4

Three successful programs that have reduced health care costs. Page 14

Joe Lhota talks about his plans for the MTA. Page 23

OUR COVERAGE In its first full year after the merger between City Hall and The Capitol, City & State started off with a cover story on Cuomo’s blueprint for his second crack at negotiations with legislators. The staff followed that with cover stories on the tension between Cuomo and Michael Bloomberg, as the two executives tried to navigate the difficult world of public education, and an in-depth look at the legal saga of former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.

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ignored by Albany, and that he intended to change its fortunes. The promised money, almost all of it now committed to projects, has played a role in the narrative picked up by many publications from around the nation that the long-struggling city has turned a corner and is on a path to renewed splendor, with many new buildings and civic projects beginning to spring up shortly after the money started flowing.

The surprises didn’t end there, though the other unexpected event was brought on by Mother Nature. Superstorm Sandy ripped through New York City, killing more than 40 people and causing tens of billions of dollars worth of damage. The fall storm became the focus of the nation, as communities like Breezy Point and Long Beach were devastated, the images of homes burning even as they were half filled with water flashing on television screens throughout the country. Cuomo and dozens of other leaders pushed extensive clean-up efforts, soliciting billions of dollars from the federal government to help put things back together, a task that continues in some communities to this day.

It was the year of a figurative storm as well, as U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara kicked his campaign to clean up Albany into high gear. Former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate took a guilty plea on fraud charges. Carl Kruger, the once-powerful Brooklyn state senator, was sentenced to seven years in prison on bribery charges. Former state Sen. Nick Spano took a guilty plea on a tax fraud charge. All fell at the hands of Bharara, whose dogged policing of a state capital often described as a cesspool has earned him an almost mythical status as “The Sheriff of Albany.”

And in the Legislature, another storm of sorts was brewing. Democrats were able to seize control of the Senate – or so they thought. While the party held an outright majority in the chamber after the votes were counted, a breakaway group of five Democrats formed an alliance with Republicans, then under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

Led by state Sen. Jeff Klein, the Independent Democratic Caucus established a power sharing agreement with Republicans, denying Democrats the right to rule the Senate, which would have given them control of the executive office and both chambers of the Legislature.

In a year full of surprises, both good and bad, the events of 2012 set the stage for things to come, but rough waters were ahead for Cuomo and others.

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

2012 Newsmaker

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG

LEVEN YEARS INTO HIS time as mayor of New York City, you might have thought that Michael Bloomberg would be slowing down. He had once again flirted with running for president, but ultimately decided against it. However, it turned out that 2012 would be one of the more defining years of his administration.

In New York state politics, the most significant event of 2012 was inarguably Superstorm Sandy. For a mayor who has endured many obstacles, responding to Sandy and keeping the city’s residents safe during the storm and its aftermath was easily one of Bloomberg’s biggest tests.

Supporters of the mayor will say he rose to the occasion. The city’s emergency services were very well prepared for the storm, with hourly advisories to the public days before it made landfall. In the aftermath, Bloomberg continued to be a reassuring presence with updates on power outages, emergency supplies and transit closures. The city was, for the most part, back up and running in just a few days. But some clear missteps cannot be glossed over. Most notable was Bloomberg’s decision to cancel the New York City marathon a few days before the race, and just days after he reassured runners it was going to happen.

Superstorm Sandy wasn’t the only tragedy that Bloomberg was in the center of at the end of 2012. Just weeks after the storm, the country was gripped by the terrible school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Bloomberg, a longtime advocate for better gun control laws, was once again thrust into the middle of this national debate.

For his actions in relation to these two defining moments, Michael Bloomberg is our newsmaker of the year for 2012.

STOCKLIGHT

E

September 26, 2016

City & State New York

JUDY SANDERS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies congratulates City & State New York on its 10th anniversary.

Stuart A. Shorenstein sshorenstein@cozen.com | (212) 883-4923 Kenneth K. Fisher kfisher@cozen.com | (212) 883-4962 William Y. Crowell wcrowell@cozen.com | (212) 883-4944 Jenny Fernandez jennyfernandez@cozen.com | (212) 883-4943 Albany, Harrisburg, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Wilmington copublicstrategies.com

Jeff Klein RUNNER-UP After the 2010 elections, Jeff Klein formed the Independent Democratic Conference – a small breakaway group of Democrats who were not happy that their conference had stumbled through its two years in power and ultimately lost control of the state Senate to Republicans. At the time, Klein’s group of four senators looked like nothing more than a protest caucus – possibly a stunt to provide distance from the tarnished Democratic conference for a few people who could be vulnerable in general elections down the road. But that small conference turned into a bona fide power player when the results of the 2012 elections came in: With one race too close to call, and unlikely to be sorted out until mid-January, the balance of the power in the chamber between Democrats and Republicans basically stood at 31-31. (It was a lot more complicated than that, but for the sake of brevity we’ll simplify it.) A door was open for Klein to make a power play, and he cut a deal between the IDC and Republicans that elevated himself to co-leader of the chamber, announcing the agreement on Dec. 4. Much of politics is making the best of your circumstances. In this case, a rank-and-file state senator convinced a few colleagues to form a small caucus and positioned that group in a place where he could elevate himself to co-leader of the entire chamber. That’s pretty impressive political gamesmanship, and worthy of the honorable mention in 2012.

© 2016 Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies

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C CO ON NG GR RA AT TU UL LA AT T II O ON NS S T TO OM M A AL LL LO ON N C O N G RA U LC N SS OT AAN NTD D CAII T TIY YO& & ST TA A TME EALLON AND CITY & STATE

FOR TEN YEARS OF FOR TEN YEARS OF OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM, OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM, FOR TEN FORUMS, YEARS OFAND IMPORTANT IMPORTANT FORUMS, AND OUTSTANDING JOURNALISM, FOR BEING A LEADING VOICE FOR BEING A LEADING VOICE IMPORTANT AND IN OUR CITY FORUMS, AND STATE'S IN OUR CITY AND STATE'S FOR BEING A LEADING VOICE POLITICAL CULTURE CULTURE IN POLITICAL OUR CITY AND STATE'S POLITICAL CULTURE From your friends F r oamt yCoounrnferl li eyn d s oug nrh nlfeirlnli ey& Mam ct LyC aou Fro nds Mact LW a u g h l i n & o l o z Connelly olzi n & M c LW a uoglh Woloz

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Year

65

2013

IN REVIEW

T

HE YEAR WAS FULL of talk, with Albany focused on how to root out corruption after several politicians were arrested and with mayoral candidates campaigning up and down New York City.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, however, wasted little time debating legislative details and signed the SAFE Act, making New York the first state to pass gun regulation legislation in response to a shooting that killed dozens at a Connecticut elementary school. The law proved controversial with gun rights activists and Republican lawmakers, who griped that they did not have enough time to properly vet the measures.

When the Legislature failed to pass an ethics measure, Cuomo convened the Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. From beginning, Cuomo faced questions about how independent the body would be. Reporting by the Daily News, City & State and The New York Times on how Cuomo’s inner circle influenced the commission led to its demise a year later – and that would lead federal investigators to examine what transpired.

Meanwhile, the arrests continued: Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith and Republican New York

www.cityandstateny.com

Vol. 2, No. 2 I JANUARY 28, 2013

?

WHO WANTS TO BE THE MAYOR?

U? YO

Manhattan Media 79 Madison Avenue, 16th Floor New York, NY 10016

SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT ON ENERGY PAGE 14

GEORGE PATAKI ON OUR TOP 10 GOVS LIST PAGE 23

OUR COVERAGE City & State opened the year wondering who could possibly beat Christine Quinn for mayor.

In May, the publication ran a feature looking at who the next first lady of New York City could be, which included interviews with the spouses of every major candidate in the race.

The magazine also compiled its first Power 100 list, focusing on the major players in Albany.

City Councilman Daniel Halloran were cuffed and charged in an elaborate bribery scheme to land Smith on the GOP line in the mayoral election. State Sen. John Sampson and Assemblyman Eric Stevenson were also arrested and charged in corruption scandals.

Downstate, much of the year centered around the mayoral primaries. Public Advocate Bill de Blasio seized on New Yorkers’ fatigue after a dozen years under Bloomberg and promised change from policies he argued contributed to income inequality and led to heavy-handed, biased policing. This message helped de Blasio defeat City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who was close to Bloomberg, and narrowly avoid a runoff with former Comptroller Bill Thompson for the Democratic line. De Blasio also benefited from former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandals and the indictment of Comptroller John Liu’s campaign aides. After former MTA chief Joe Lhota bested supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis and nonprofit executive George McDonald in the Republican primary, he lost soundly to de Blasio. One mayoral contender, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, dropped out of the race to run for city comptroller. Stringer won the spot after beating Eliot Spitzer, who was plotting a political comeback after he resigned as governor amid a prostitution scandal in 2008.

News reports questioned why three of four lanes leading from Fort Lee, New Jersey, were closed without warning due to a Port Authority traffic study, which flummoxed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie but largely left New York officials unscathed.

66

CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

MICHAEL GARETH JOHNSON

2013 Newsmaker

BILL DE BLASIO

N

O MATTER HOW MUCH New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tries to distance himself from his predecessor, without Michael Bloomberg there is almost no chance that the former public advocate and city councilman would have won the 2013 election in a landslide.

After all, it was the persistent narrative of Bloomberg as the billionaire elitist whose policies increased New York City’s income inequality gap that de Blasio seized on during his “Tale of Two Cities” campaign.

Bloomberg’s 12-year mayoralty was the perfect foil for de Blasio as he carved out a lane as the true “progressive” in a crowded 2013 Democratic primary race.

But de Blasio was still a relatively unknown quantity late in the campaign, struggling to make headway with voters, and trailing perceived favorite Christine Quinn and the previously disgraced Anthony Weiner – who briefly seized the lefty candidate mantle in the race before imploding in the wake of a second sexting scandal.

Weiner’s exit from the race was the best thing to happen to de Blasio, who consistently stayed on message – denouncing the

proliferation of stop-and-frisk policing under Bloomberg and the lack of affordable housing, while pushing a tax hike proposal to pay for universal pre-K – and delivered a poignant campaign ad featuring his son, Dante, that helped catapult him into the lead late in the game.

After de Blasio succeeded in avoiding a runoff in the September primary, the public sector labor unions that were once cool to his campaign quickly joined the bandwagon, coalescing around a candidate they saw as a fierce advocate for working men and women – a sharp departure from three terms of contentious negotiations with the Bloomberg administration.

Indeed, the stage was set for the kind of “revolution” that de Blasio had referenced many times during his campaign. His coattails proved long enough to help usher in a new wave of liberal City Council members that would help set a more progressive legislative agenda for the city, and after easily defeating Republican Joe Lhota in the general election, he would begin laying the groundwork for his preferred City Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito.

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Andrew Cuomo

JUDY SANDERS/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

RUNNER-UP After legalizing same-sex marriage, there is one other accomplishment that has gone a long way toward defining Andrew Cuomo’s time in office: the NY SAFE Act. After the horrific killing of 20 children at an elementary school in Connecticut in December 2012, Cuomo forced a new gun control bill through the state Legislature. The measure was criticized for being hastily assembled, but it was by most objective standards the toughest gun control law in the country at a time when many voters were dejected by the seemingly routine mass shootings and lack of action by lawmakers to prevent them.

At the time, Cuomo was hugely popular – a Dec. 5 Siena poll put his favorability rating at 72 percent. Cuomo chose to cash in that political capital, and in doing so he took a hit with upstate voters. His poll numbers slowly dropped through the year, seemingly reaching new lows for his administration each month. The controversial and politically courageous move deserves an honorable mention for the governor in 2013.

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Homeless Students?

SY 2014–15

SY 2014–15

Number and Percent of Students Homeless by School District

All Homeless

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31

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1 Year

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Note: Data are by school district and do not include schools in non-geographic districts. Percentage groupings for the map of homeless students by district and the map of homeless pre-K students by district are matched for the purpose of comparison. For comparison and readability, number breaks are manually Contacts: classified to match the 2015 Atlas of Student Homelessness. Source: New York City Department of Education, unpublished data tabulated by the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness, SY 2014–15.

John Dreisbach at Ext.201 or email

jdreisbach@egpp.com Darrin Forchic at Ext. 226 or email dforchic@egpp.com

learn about our n 5 Years 17% Two-Year J.D. Honors, Source: New York City Department of Education, unpublished data Three-Year Full-Time, tabulated by the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness, SY 2010–11 to SY 2014–15. and Four-Year Part-Time (Evening) J.D. Programs, visit www.nyls.edu. n 4 Years

25

tabulated by the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness, SY 2010–11 to SY 2014–15.

n 1.9%–5.5% n 5.6%–8.3% n 8.4%–12.9% n 13.0%–18.0% our 125th

Access the full report at www.icphusa.org.

For hard copies, please contact klinek@icphusa.org.

Congratulations City & State on your 10-year Anniversary!

2 Percent Homeless Source: New York City Department of Education, unpublished data

On We are anniversary, NeW we salute York’s City & State LaW of Homelessness Duration schooL on its 10th.

SY 2014–15 1 Transfer

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Complete Printing & For hard copies, please Mailing Services contact klinek@icphusa.org.

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City & State New York

September 26, 2016

2014

W Year

69

IN REVIEW

May 12, 2014

SPOTLIGHT:

Technology and Telecommunications

A Q & A with

Rangers Great Turned Environmentalist Mike Richter

The Top Ten Mayors in New York City History

De Blasio and Cuomo: Allies or Adversaries?

Meet the City Council’s New Members

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

January 1, 2014

INAUGURATION

2014

SPECIAL EDITION

OUR COVERAGE After Cuomo shuttered the Moreland Commission, City & State was one of the first to report on what the commission had been working on. An April story by Morgan Pehme and two colleagues chronicled, in detail, the meddling in the commission’s work by the Cuomo administration. And a May 11 story documented questionable campaign spending by a number of state lawmakers, including state Sens. George Maziarz and Greg Ball.

Both legislators declined to run again that fall.

HILE GOV. ANDREW CUOMO spent the year making his case for – and winning – a second term, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took office and jumped right into working on his big campaign promises with mixed success, setting the stage for many of the issues that would plague him as his mayoralty went on.

From the start, de Blasio, the first Democratic mayor of New York City in 20 years, would have an ally in Melissa Mark-Viverito, the city’s first Latina City Council speaker, who was elected by her colleagues with a behind-the-scenes lobbying assist from the de Blasio administration.

De Blasio was elected on a number of promises, including universal prekindergarten funded by a tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers and ending the NYPD’s rampant use of stop-and-frisk policing tactics.

Come the first day of school in September, some 51,000 four-year-olds were attending pre-K free of charge. It was funded, however, by an allocation from Albany, and not a new tax on the wealthy, which Cuomo refused to go along with – an early battle in what would become a long and drawn-out war.

It was also a fraught year for the NYPD. De Blasio and his new police commissioner, Bill Bratton, reduced stop-and-frisks by about 75 percent from 2013 to 2014. But on July 17, Eric Garner died on Staten Island after being put in a chokehold by NYPD officers during an arrest. Garner’s last words – “I can’t breathe” – became a rallying cry for activists calling for police reform. Protests picked up in December after a grand jury declined to indict one of the officers involved, Daniel Pantaleo. Then, on Dec. 20, a Baltimore man traveled to Brooklyn and murdered NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. At Ramos’ funeral, hundreds of NYPD officers turned their backs on de Blasio, who had made statements they interpreted as anti-police.

Cuomo won re-election in November, with former U.S. Rep. Kathy Hochul as lieutenant governor. He had to overcome a surprisingly strong challenge in the Democratic primary from Zephyr Teachout, a law professor and anti-corruption scholar. In the general election, Cuomo defeated Rob Astorino, the Republican Westchester county executive. Teachout and Astorino found ammunition to use against the governor in the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, which Cuomo abruptly disbanded in March 2014. Following several scoops in the Daily News, City & State exposed more details about the Cuomo administration’s involvement with the supposedly independent commission and wrote about the promising leads it uncovered before its early end. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara criticized the Cuomo administration’s involvement, and further reporting by The New York Times turned it into a major political liability for the governor.

In Albany, the Legislature also legalized medical marijuana, although only in the form of liquids, oils and capsules. And in December, Cuomo announced a ban on hydrofracking in New York after months of speculation over the contentious topic.

CityAndStateNY.com

2014 Newsmaker

BILL de BLASIO

September 26, 2016

I

F 2013 MARKED THE ascent and promise of Bill de Blasio’s progressive mayoral campaign, 2014 was the year de Blasio put his official stamp on the city from a legislative perspective.

De Blasio began the year with some shrewd political maneuvering behind the scenes, inserting himself into the largely backroom-driven City Council speaker’s race by using his newfound power to pressure Council members to back his preferred candidate, Melissa Mark-Viverito, over Dan Garodnick. De Blasio’s gambit succeeded, as Mark-Viverito cruised to victory, and her leadership paid immediate dividends for the mayor when she passed an expansion of the city’s paid sick leave law to cover 530,000 more workers.

On the state level, de Blasio also scored a major victory when Gov. Andrew Cuomo provided funding in the state budget for a

ED REED/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE

70

citywide universal pre-K program, which would become the mayor’s signature policy achievement. This despite the fact that de Blasio continued to lobby the governor and Legislature (in a statewide election year, no less) to raise taxes on the wealthiest in New York City in order to pay for the program.

The mayor’s persistence in pushing the tax hike would eventually be seen as the impetus for the long-running feud with Cuomo and a primary reason de Blasio’s subsequent policy requests in Albany were largely dead on arrival.

Later that summer, de Blasio and Mark-Viverito announced IDNYC – a municipal identification card designed to give undocumented immigrants a means of accessing city services. The bill was signed into law in July and went into effect the following year.

The mayor also rolled out two of his more ambitious policy proposals: a 10-year plan to build and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing and Vision Zero, an initiative designed to reduce traffic-related fatalities in the city. While the jury is still out on the overall efficacy of both programs, they will largely define de Blasio’s legacy as mayor.

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Melissa Mark-Viverito

Celebrating

10 Years of Excellence

RUNNER-UP

WILLIAM ALATRISTE/NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL

Bill de Blasio’s election as mayor of New York City ushered in a push for income equality to change the “Tale of Two Cities” narrative. Stop-and-frisk had been sharply reduced and community engagement efforts were gaining traction.

Then, from the streets of East Harlem, a former Local 1199 organizer and co-founder of Mujeres del Barrio rode the wave of progressive politics from her 8th City Council District seat straight to the second-highest position of power in New York City politics. Melissa Mark-Viverito became the first Puerto Rican woman and Latina to serve as speaker of the New York City Council.

Her friendship with de Blasio (she was the first City Council member to endorse him in the mayoral race) certainly played a role in her ability to get the better of the backroom negotiations that usually anoint new speakers, but so did a grassroots campaign designed to show the City Council that the public’s will was behind the progressive caucus and their choice for speaker – Mark-Viverito. Her victory represented a historic first for the chamber, and that’s why she is our runner-up for newsmaker of the year for 2014.

With

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CityAndStateNY.com

Year

September 26, 2016

2015

IN REVIEW

T

HIS WAS THE YEAR that saw seemingly indestructible power players in New York politics come tumbling down and the corrupt nature of Albany politics brought into the spotlight.

On the first day of the year, the death of legendary former Gov. Mario Cuomo caused an upheaval in Albany. His son, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, postponed his State of the State address and combined it with his annual budget address, ending the speech with language that was nearly identical to his father’s first inaugural address in 1983.

By the end of January, though, most of those departing Albany were doing so in handcuffs.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested on

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

December 7, 2015

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

JULIET KAYE

OUR COVERAGE City & State’s Jon Lentz published an in-depth preview of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s trip to Cuba, undercutting some of his claims and casting doubt on whether the trip would spur new trade. Lentz’s report on New York City’s convoluted and unfair property tax code also caught the attention of elected officials, as did a partnership with City Limits asking whether the violenceplagued Rikers Island should simply be shut down. And the year ended with a piece

by Wayne Barrett recapping Sheldon Silver’s long career, writing, “his biography reads like a prelude to an indictment.”

73

federal corruption charges on Jan. 22, and four months later state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam were arrested as well. The high-profile trials and convictions of the leaders of the state Legislature later that year, along with the guilty verdicts against state Sen. Malcolm Smith, Assemblyman William Scarborough and state Sen. John Sampson, all helped to bolster the image of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara as a white knight who was willing to go after those at the very top of New York’s political power hierarchy. Bharara’s signature “stay tuned” comment, which he made after the arrests, has left many in Albany and elsewhere on their toes.

The sudden departure of Silver and Skelos also left two massive holes to be filled in the Capitol.

Their replacements, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, both moved quickly to restore order as the end of the legislative session approached, but with a number of bills still left to be voted on and brand new partners at the negotiating table, the end of the session saw multiple extensions until nearly the end of June. The two chambers eventually compromised on a “Big Ugly” omnibus bill, which included rent regulation extensions, a temporary extension of the 421-a real estate tax break (which later expired), a one-year extension of mayoral control of New York City schools and $1.3 billion in property tax rebates, along with several other measures.

While the “Big Ugly” did bring New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio some victories, the lack of long-term extensions for 421-a and mayoral control ended what was left of the mayor and Cuomo’s honeymoon phase. In an interview with NY1, de Blasio slammed Cuomo for his “lack of leadership,” making public the feud between the two.

Since then, their conflict has only gotten worse, with each side accusing the other of putting politics before the people.

Cuomo, who has downplayed the fight, used his executive authority to make two historic decisions.

First he gave the state attorney general the power to investigate all cases statewide in which a police officer is responsible for the a civilian’s death, a first for the nation. Then he convened a minimum wage board that increased wages for fast food workers to $15 an hour, which quickly became a major debate among the numerous candidates for president (which happened to include four current and former New Yorkers this time around – Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and George Pataki).

CityAndStateNY.com

2015 Newsmaker

PREET BHARARA

T

September 26, 2016

HIS IS QUITE SIMPLE. Anyone who indicts and convicts the speaker of the New York Assembly, a man who has wielded tremendous power over the course of two decades, is the newsmaker of the year. Indicting and convicting the majority leader of the New York state Senate, a man who also wields great power over the state’s more than $80 billion budget and many policies that impact the lives of millions, is also more than sufficient to be designated the newsmaker of the year.

Do both these things in the same year, and there’s no room for debate.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s investigations and convictions of state lawmakers since taking office in 2009 has made him by far the most feared person in the state Legislature. His actions have made lawmakers think twice about everything they do, even if they aren’t intentionally trying to circumvent laws. His focus on public corruption has had a clear slowing effect on how government operates. And all that was true before last year, when he busted two of the biggest politicos in New York state just months apart.

In its case against Sheldon Silver, Bharara’s team argued that he made way too much money (more than $4 million) in the private sector to be an honest broker (although the intricacies were far more complicated), and jurors agreed. Silver’s attorneys are still convinced that the conviction will be thrown out on appeal, claiming he didn’t do anything that was technically illegal, but even if that long-shot result occurs, the court of public opinion has already handed down its sentence.

The case of Dean Skelos and his wayward son was much more personal. Bharara’s team outlined damaging evidence of steering state funds to a company where his son Adam worked.

But more fascinating were the phone taps, with gems like this quote from Adam Skelos: “You can’t talk normally because it’s like fucking Preet Bharara is listening to every fucking phone call. It’s just fucking frustrating.”

Dean Skelos responded: “It is.”

It is also why Preet Bharara is the newsmaker of 2015.

ANDREW KIST

74

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

75

Carl Heastie

SHANNON DECELLE

RUNNER-UP

In hindsight, it’s easy to say that Carl Heastie was always the favorite to succeed Sheldon Silver as Assembly speaker when the longtime leader unceremoniously fell from power at the start of 2015. But in the thick of it, it wasn’t so clear that the Bronx power broker would rise above his competitors to take over the wounded conference. After contenders like Keith Wright, Joe Morelle, Joe Lentol and others were all considered, the conference quickly landed on Heastie, who promised reform of the Silverled “three men in a room” power vice that had controlled the state Legislature for so long. And by all accounts, he has at least been more inclusive in his conference than his predecessor was, earning him much internal praise in his first year as leader.

Heastie’s election also brought a historic first to the chamber: He’s the first African-American speaker of the Assembly. Taken together, it is clear that he is the runner-up newsmaker of 2015.

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September 26, 2016

2016–So Far

T

Another couple of titans seemed to be under constant attack – and not just from each other. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration faced multiple investigations into the very way business was being conducted at City Hall, particularly its fundraising methods. De Blasio has also lost a number of key figures in his administration, with NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, Counsel Maya Wiley and Press Secretary Karen Hinton all moving on to other jobs.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, too, was under the microscope. Two of his former aides, Joe Percoco and Todd Howe, were targets of a federal criminal complaint after a wide-ranging probe into state contracts and improper benefits. (Read more on page 92.)

Cuomo, though, was extremely proud of the accomplishments in the legislative session. The state passed a $15 minimum wage, to be phased in over several years, virtually tying the state of California as the first state to implement the new progressive battle cry of a $15 minimum wage. The state also passed what is perhaps nation’s most comprehensive paid family leave law.

Those laws were all passed under a Republican majority Senate, though in a special election to fill Skelos’ Senate seat, Democrat Todd Kaminsky won, inching the chamber closer to Democratic control and setting up an important battle for control of the Legislature in the November elections.

HE YEAR ISN’T EVEN over yet, but it feels like we’ve had enough news for two or three of them. The leaders of the two state legislative bodies at the beginning of last year, Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos, were convicted this year on federal corruption charges. While they both hold a glimmer of hope for a successful appeal, the two former titans of New York have hit their low points.

At the same time, two other New York titans have spent the year ascending in the presidential campaign. The Democrats nominated Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. senator from New York and a Westchester County resident, while the Republicans chose real estate developer and TV star Donald Trump, a lifelong New Yorker. Philadelphia beat out Brooklyn to host the Democratic National Convention, but New York held center stage for a week or two. With both parties having uncharacteristically long nomination fights, the New York primary mattered, and candidates descended upon the Empire State in April for good old-fashioned rallies, speeches and knish factory visits.

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September 26, 2016

“

People in my office see human beings at their worst. They see people who kill children, who maim witnesses, who steal from old people, who leave people penniless, who cheat the voters.

When you see all those things happen and you see the energy with which people approach their jobs, there’s nothing more inspiring to me than that.

”

ANDREW KIST

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September 26, 2016

City & State New York

ANDREW KIST

THE CRUSADING PROSECUTOR, MEDIA DARLING AND SPRINGSTEEN FAN IS ON ALMOST EVERYONE’S SHORT LIST FOR MAYOR/GOVERNOR/SENATOR. BUT DOES HE WANT IT?

By TOM ALLON

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CityAndStateNY.com

T HERE’S AN OLD JOKE that goes something like this: One day, G-d woke up and decided he wasn’t powerful enough … so he appointed himself U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

I ask Preet Bharara whether that joke holds a grain of truth in a recent interview at his stately office at 1 St. Andrews Plaza.

The 47-year-old prosecutor’s eyes light up and a wide grin spreads across his face.

“I’ve never heard that one. I’m going to use that!”

It’s a good time to be a federal litigator chasing corrupt politicians in Albany – kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. Bharara’s recent takedown of two of the three most powerful men in Albany has cemented his reputation as a big-game hunter in the wilds of the New York state Legislature.

But what is most striking about Bharara is his easy ability to laugh, to appreciate a good joke, to banter about the idiosyncratic characters in New York’s political world.

His intense focus and quick thinking are readily apparent when you first meet him, but it’s his playfulness and refreshing sense of humor that are surprising. Especially from someone whose day job is deadly serious, whose very name evokes fear and dread in certain political circles.

As City & State’s “Newsmaker of the Decade” and the keynote speaker at the media company’s 10th Anniversary Gala, Bharara is an interesting mix of popular and pariah – when inviting guests to the event I encountered some polar opposite reactions.

“Wow! That’s quite a get,” said one consultant late last month.

Another Albany insider said: “Preet is your

September 26, 2016

“

What differentiates Bharara from Giuliani and so many other ambitious people who have distinguished themselves at the highest levels of law enforcement is that Bharara has not winked at the press while insisting he’s not using his position as a springboard for higher office.

”

– Bill Samuels, director of EffectiveNY

keynote? Do you want no one to attend?”

Such is the reaction that the crusading U.S. attorney elicits these days. When spotted at last year’s Inner Circle gala, it was fascinating to witness how many New York power brokers intentionally walked the other way when they spotted Preet coming in their direction.

“When you announce that I will keynote your event, I’m curious to see if attendance drops or rises,” he mused during our late August interview.

Two weeks later, tickets were sold out.

IF ELIOT SPITZER was “The Sheriff of Wall Street” and Rudy Giuliani was “The Sheriff of Little Italy,” then Preet Bharara could be called “The Sheriff of Albany.”

Many observers say that unlike Giuliani, Bharara has not politicized the U.S. attorney’s office for personal political gain.

“Bharara has been far more circumspect than Giuliani,” said Bruce Gyory, a consultant and senior adviser at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. “Giuliani was focused on building his name recognition and poll ratings heading into his first run for mayor in 1989. Bharara has been focused on winning his cases with almost no photo ops.”

This sentiment was echoed by other prominent political observers. “What differentiates Bharara from Giuliani and so many other ambitious people who have distinguished themselves at the highest levels of law enforcement,” said Bill Samuels, the director of EffectiveNY, “is that Bharara has not winked at the press while insisting he’s not using his position as a springboard for higher office.”

Although the state capital is more than an hour north of the Southern District’s jurisdiction, Bharara is casting a very ominous shadow on the sketchy dealings of a growing legion of New York legislators – to date, he has a dozen politicos on his wall of shame.

The U.S. attorney has a perfect prosecution record when it comes to hunting down legislators, from the convictions of Pedro Espada in 2012, to Malcolm Smith, Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos in 2015.

Bharara says part of the solution is quite simple: If New York’s Legislature self-policed as well as the U.S. Senate, he wouldn’t need to be “The Sheriff of Albany.”

“I have not seen any evidence that there’s any serious kind of self-policing going on in the New York state Legislature,” Bharara said in a recent interview with City & State.

“The level of self-policing in the United States Senate is many, many cuts above what you have been seeing in the local Legislature. A lot of institutions, whether you’re talking about the U.S. Congress or banks or prosecutor’s offices, or for that matter colleges, you have

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

PREET’S FAVORITE THINGS

FAVORITE MOVIE “Goodfellas”

FAVORITE LEGAL HERO Clarence Darrow

HONORABLE MENTIONS “Fargo” and “Glengarry Glen Ross”

HONORABLE MENTION Atticus Finch (from “To Kill a Mockingbird”)

FAVORITE POLITICAL LEADER IN U.S. HISTORY Theodore Roosevelt

FAVORITE NOVELIST Kurt Vonnegut

FAVORITE VACATION SPOT Italy FAVORITE TYPE OF CUISINE Indian food

FAVORITE BOOK READ IN THE LAST YEAR “Lush Life”

HONORABLE MENTION Italian food

HONORABLE MENTION: “The Martian”

HONORABLE MENTION Bobby Kennedy

FAVORITE BROADWAY SHOW SEEN IN PAST YEAR “Hamilton”

HONORABLE MENTION Bono of U2

FAVORITE MUSICIAN Bruce Springsteen

FAVORITE BASEBALL TEAM The Yankees

FAVORITE BASKETBALL TEAM The Knicks

FAVORITE RADIO STATION Classic rock on FM 104.3

FAVORITE CONTEMPORARY DIRECTOR The Coen brothers

FAVORITE HOBBY Watching movies

FAVORITE SOFT DRINK Diet Coke FAVORITE TENNIS PLAYER John McEnroe

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September 26, 2016

PREET

RUDY

COMPARING CRUSADING U.S. ATTORNEYS We asked some notable New Yorkers to compare current U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to his 1980s predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani.

ARTHUR BROWNE, Daily News editorial page editor: They were each products of their times.

Long familiar with organized crime, Giuliani made a big breakthrough in conceiving of prosecuting the Five Families as a single racketeering enterprise. He also attacked major New York City corruption, leading to the convictions of a borough president, congressman and the Brooklyn and Bronx Democratic bosses. Deeply implicated, the Queens borough president committed suicide. At the same time, Giuliani staged high-profile public Wall Street arrests that proved ill-founded. He leaked for PR advantage.

In making his reputation on corruption, Bharara used the brilliant strategy of arresting Speaker Sheldon Silver and Majority Leader Dean Skelos on complaints rather than indictments. The procedure allowed Bharara to describe their conduct in powerful narrative detail, forcing the Legislature to dump the officials pre-trial and educating the public about Albany's workings. His office has maintained a no-leak standard.

KEN FISHER, partner at Cozen O’Connor: Giuliani had a flashier presence and was more media hungry and savvy. He took on a broader pallet of mobsters

and Wall Street traders as well as politicians. Bharara may have prosecuted them as well, and terrorists, but his own style as well as the evisceration of local newsrooms lessened the impact on the public's consciousness. Also, 20 years of intervening financial and political scandals have made New Yorkers jaded.

BETSY GOTBAUM, former New York City public advocate: I believe Bharara has been a much better U.S. Attorney than Giuliani because he does not jump to arrest people in an attention-grabbing way. I believe he is a tough but measured person.

SID DAVIDOFF, partner at Davidoff, Hutcher & Citron LLP: The era of the 1980s when Rudy headed the Southern District of New York was very different than it is today in regard to crime. The Mafia was much more prevalent. I think that his tenure there will be remembered most for his investigation and prosecution of mob figures. In contrast, Preet’s legacy will be his concentration on corruption committed by elected and government officials, and his vigorous pursuit and prosecution of insider trading.

City & State New York

DARREN MCGEE/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

September 26, 2016

Bharara’s recent takedown of two of the three most powerful men in Albany – Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos – has cemented his reputation as a big-game hunter in the wilds of the New York state Legislature.

to have a robust internal culture of watching yourself and policing yourself.”

But until Albany – or City Hall – decides to undergo significant reforms to ensure self-policing, Bharara will need to bring cases that thwart financial malfeasance among elected officials.

Some believe that Bharara has reframed the discussion about ethics in government.

“The office’s fight against corruption – not just (in) Albany but throughout the city and state – is something that has changed the image of New York politics,” said Richard Zabel, a former deputy to Bharara who is now working in the private sector. “It has permanently redefined the discussion about what kind of government the citizens of New York want and deserve. But as Preet has said, you can’t prosecute your way to honest, transparent government – that has to be brought about by the people demanding it and finding the few representatives who have the courage to change the system they made their bed in.”

Bharara says he hopes his office’s work has shown that no one in power is above the law.

Taking down Silver and Skelos, two longtime power brokers, sent shockwaves through the political system. “It sends a message to everyone in the public that this kind of conduct is not tolerated,” said Bharara. “Now people are paying attention and taking it seriously.

Eventually, that has an effect on the people and the institutions we’re looking at. Over time that causes the situation to get better.”

One pundit said that Bharara’s unique legal approach has been responsible for his success. “Bharara used the brilliant strategy of arresting Speaker Sheldon Silver and Majority Leader Dean Skelos on complaints rather than indictments,” said Daily News

In high school, he foreshadowed his courageous temperament by giving a powerful speech in defense of a teacher who was fired from the school because of a dispute about overtime pay. editorial page editor Arthur Browne. “The procedure allowed Bharara to describe their conduct in powerful narrative detail, forcing the legislature to dump the officials pre-trial and educating the public about Albany’s workings.”

But Bharara also understands the limitations of law enforcement in fixing corruption in government. “We can’t do it alone and nobody here pretends that simply bringing a series of prosecutions is enough,” Bharara said. “I often say, putting corrupt politicians in jail may be necessary, but it’s not sufficient.”

TO UNDERSTAND BHARARA’S drive to achieve justice of all kinds – his office has also been active in prison reform at Rikers, prosecuting cyberterrorism and championing the underdog in securities cases as well – it’s important to look at his family background.

Bharara’s grandparents fled Pakistan after the

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partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 – and like many refugees, they had to abandon all their assets and start over again.

His parents, Jagdish and Desh, settled in New Jersey but had very few resources when they were starting a family. Preet’s father was a doctor, and he hoped his two sons would follow the family tradition in medicine. Preet’s father often had to work more than one job in order to send his sons to private school – he worked multiple shifts at New Jersey hospitals and clinics and even moonlighted treating jockeys at Monmouth Park Racetrack.

Despite his father’s interest in directing his son to medicine (they dissected frogs together in the family backyard), Bharara became interested in law as a seventh grader when he read “Inherit the Wind.” Bharara was inspired by Clarence Darrow’s speech to the jury in the 1926 case People v. Henry Sweet: “Make yourselves colored for a little while. It won’t hurt you, you can wash it off.

They can’t, but you can.”

“When I was in a high school speech competition I was asked to present a speech that had been delivered by someone else and I chose Darrow’s summation in People v.

Henry Sweet,” said Bharara. “He was fighting for a young African-American man who was helping to defend his home against an angry white mob because he had the temerity to move into a neighborhood in Detroit where black people weren’t welcome.

“Some of the things Darrow says about the nature of justice and the nature of the law and the human role in enforcing the law and in causing justice to be done in that summation are the finest I’ve ever heard and I quote from it often.”

In high school in New Jersey, he distinguished himself by winning many debating awards and was selected to give the valedictory address at graduation. He foreshadowed his courageous temperament by giving a powerful speech in defense of a teacher who was fired from the school because of a dispute about overtime pay.

Standing just a few feet from the school’s headmaster, Preet bravely spoke truth to power.

“We can never forget to question, to doubt, to challenge,” Barhara said. “The target of our questioning may be an individual, an idea, a government, or a school. And that target may be more powerful and more experienced and more knowledgeable than we are. But should that stop us from questioning?”

Bharara continued his speech even after the headmaster walked out in a huff.

AT HARVARD, Bharara met Viet Dinh in an introductory government seminar, and the two

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“

When you announce that I will keynote your event, I’m curious to see if attendance drops or rises.

”

September 26, 2016

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September 26, 2016

became close friends. “Our first assignment was to determine whether the framers set up the American government based on the idea that man was essentially bad or that man was essentially good,” Dinh said in a recent New Yorker article. “We left class and wound up talking all night. I argued ‘bad’ and Preet argued ‘good.’ I am more skeptical. Preet is more optimistic.”

I asked Bharara how, given his current line of work, he can believe in the goodness of people. “I take inspiration from the people around this office who I think are among the best people that I know anywhere. They are public servants who have given up a lot of money – virtually all of them – to do something that requires long hours, most of it not done in front of cameras, to make the world a little better, to make their communities a little better.

“I look at them and see how they conduct themselves with such joy in their work, which is interesting, because the people in my office see human beings at their worst. They see people who kill children, who maim witnesses, who steal from old people, who leave people penniless, who cheat the voters. Really, really bad conduct and bad human behavior. When you see all those things happen and you see the energy with which people approach their jobs – like the prosecutors in this office, and the NYPD, and the FBI and other agencies we work with – there’s nothing more inspiring to me than that.”

Bharara is said to inspire those who work with him, and colleagues have called him a great manager and leader. “He is fearless but fair,” said Zabel, his former deputy. “He can operate at a big-picture level, as a U.S. attorney should, but he can and will get deeply into the nuances and details of matters when it is called for. He can process a lot of information quickly and has a great sense of strategy.

“Everyone who has worked under Preet has felt the office has been a place of great achievement, professionalism, camaraderie and fun.”

When Zabel left the office last year for the private sector, he was subject to the usual roast of departing colleagues. Showing his lighter side (and a surprisingly good singing voice, Zabel said), Preet sang a farewell song to the tune of Don McLean’s “American Pie.” Zabel got a chance to respond. “Since I left the office, everyone has been asking me the same question. Have I seen ‘Billions’?”

Many people believe that the main character in that cable series, a hard-charging U.S. attorney who vigorously cracks down on a hedge fund billionaire, is based on Preet’s pursuit of Wall Street billionaire Steve Cohen.

On the fictional series, the U.S. attorney is

“

The office’s fight against corruption – not just (in) Albany but throughout the city and state – is something that has changed the image of New York politics.

It has permanently redefined the discussion about what kind of government the citizens of New York want and deserve. But as Preet has said, you can’t prosecute your way to honest, transparent government – that has to be brought about by the people demanding it and finding the few representatives who have the courage to change the system they made their bed in.

”

– RICHARD ZABEL, former deputy U.S. attorney

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also married to a woman who likes to dress up as a dominatrix.

“The truth is, I haven’t seen it,” Zabel said at the roast. “But I did see a clip, where a woman in a dominatrix outfit stands astride our shirtless U.S. attorney, burning him with a cigarette and then urinating on him,” Zabel mused.

“I am surprised how since I left they have lost control of (Preet’s) image.”

In addition to his camaraderie with his colleagues, Bharara is said to have a close but rivalrous relationship with his younger brother, Vinit. Like Preet, Vinit went to Columbia Law School, but he decided not to pursue a career in law – he is a very successful entrepreneur.

Vinit created a company, Diapers.com, that was sold to Amazon in 2011 for more than half a billion dollars.

Preet told the New Yorker: “That’s my brother’s way of saying, ‘Hey bro, I see your whole U.S. attorney thing, and I raise you $545 million.’”

A FAVORITE PARLOR GAME in the political world is predicting what’s next for the U.S. attorney from the Southern District.

I pose this to him directly: How do you respond to those people who ask what you’re going to do next?

Bharara swats away this question with wit.

“Depending on what time of day it is I talk about the next meal I’m going to have,” Bharara says with an impish grin. “I think right now the next meal I’m going to have is dinner.”

OK. Let’s try a different approach.

Usually when a new president comes into office, the U.S. attorneys resign, and then they may be reappointed. Is that what you plan to do with a new president coming in?

“We’re really busy for the next few months and you’ll be seeing the kinds of things the men and women in this office have been working on,” said Bharara. “My view has always been that this is seven years and counting now, which is a fairly long tenure in this job. I think it’s one of the longest in the last hundred years or so. I love the job more than anything else I’ve done. I’m not tired of it. I’m enjoying it.

“We’ll see if people let me do the job.”

Would you rule out ever running for elected office?

“It seems really, really, really unlikely.”

But like Rudy Giuliani was able to leverage his high profile stint as U.S. attorney into the mayoralty in 1993, many on the political scene see a bright future in elected office for Bharara.

If he wants it.

■

Research assistance by JONAH ALLON

CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

PREET’S NEXT CHAPTER? WE ASKED A NUMBER OF PROMINENT NEW YORKERS TO PREDICT WHAT’S IN STORE FOR THE CRUSADING U.S. ATTORNEY. The question posed to each of them: “Do you think U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara will run for office one day? If yes, what office and when?”

Here are their candid replies. attractions of upstate appeal to him.

I believe he has been a much better U.S. attorney than Giuliani because he does not jump to arrest people in an attention-grabbing way. I believe he is a tough but measured person.

KEN FISHER, partner at Cozen O’Connor No. I can’t see him dialing for dollars and making political deals. He’ll stay on as U.S. attorney but only through 2017. If he wants to stay on to finish some investigations next year, Schumer will let him, especially since it will take some time to confirm a replacement.

He may move up in the Department of Justice (but I don’t see President Clinton wanting Schumer’s person as Attorney General).

Bharara could make a compelling candidate – clear vision, great communicator, selfdeprecating and personally engaging.

But to take a serious run for office, he would have to cultivate a constituency and define himself in terms of the issues of immediate importance to voters. He seems more inclined to follow his principles where they lead him, regardless of who gets gored in the process.

I would guess his next move is to the private sector, where he will be the hottest commodity in the legal world. Seems like a longshot that he would be reappointed, given the powerful interests of all political stripes that he has challenged during his tenure.

ALAN CHARTOCK, president and CEO of WAMC radio in Albany I’d love to see him run for office. He’s fearless and unlike other politicians I’ve been following for over 50 years. The next president may not keep him on as U.S. attorney for the Southern District because apparently he’s been looking at the Clinton Foundation.

BRADLEY TUSK, CEO of Tusk Strategies I don’t think he’ll run for anything in the next few years. Can’t imagine him running for office before 2021 or 2022. I think he will stay on as U.S. attorney as long as he wants.

SURI KASIRER, founder and president of Kasirer Consulting There is a tradition that supports the idea of former U.S. attorneys making a run for public office. Preet has an admirable record and very high name recognition here in the NYC metro area, so it makes sense.

The only two offices he would consider are governor and mayor, which are currently occupied by two people who have strong records and are likely to seek re-election. The longer he waits after he leaves makes it harder, so he needs to make a decision and pull the trigger sooner than later.

BRUCE GYORY, senior advisor, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips I have never thought Preet Bharara would run for office. I always saw him as the consummate legal professional, who loved the law and its SID DAVIDOFF, partner at Davidoff, processes, with no love and little respect for Hutcher & Citron LLP the traditional political processes. Instead, I I think it very likely that he will run for office see him as someday, perhaps soon, being the one day. He has made it clear that he believes attorney general of the United States or down that elected officials need greater oversight and the road on the U.S. Supreme Court. that requires a change in the way business is CASEY SEILER, state editor and columnist But those who know him, as I do not, tell done by government and elected officials. To me he would never want to be a judge. do this means legislative changes and executive for the Albany Times Union He would lose a considerable amount of the Temperamentally they say Preet is a man orders. That desire and the exceptional media glow that currently surrounds him the second of action. So if I am wrong that he is not attention he gets would most likely convince he announces any run for office. Right now interested in elective office, I have an idea him that he has the responsibility to achieve he’s akin to a unicorn; put him on the ballot on how he might test the waters of elective that goal through elected office. and he looks like just another show pony. politics to see if he likes it enough to get into My guess would be that he would run for the electoral arena. If the Con Con referendum governor, and that if he won, he would attempt KATHY WYLDE, president and CEO of the passes in 2017, I could see Preet Bharara to push through the necessary changes.

Partnership for New York City running to be a delegate to that Constitutional The U.S. attorney’s post is not a great stepping Convention in 2018 and a de facto leader of the BETSY GOTBAUM, former New York City stone to elective office. Mayor Giuliani used reform movement when the convention sits in public advocate it effectively to launch his political career, but 2019. That could be a telling segue for him to I think he will run for governor because that was a moment in NYC history when law see if he actually enjoys both running for office he would deem it a more powerful position and order was the top concern of voters. Preet and the process of legislating. than mayor, but I do not know if the bucolic

ANDREW KIST

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“

We can’t do it alone and nobody here pretends that simply bringing a series of prosecutions is enough. I often say, putting corrupt politicians in jail may be necessary, but it’s not sufficient.

ANDREW KIST

”

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September 26, 2016

BHARARA

STRIKES AGAIN The U.S. attorney releases complaint alleging extortion, bid rigging at the highest level of Cuomo’s administration

By MICHAEL GARETH JOHNSON EDITOR’S NOTE: As this issue was going to press, Preet Bharara’s office unsealed a criminal complaint against several people connected to the Cuomo administration, most notably Cuomo’s longtime confidant and aide Joseph Percoco. Because of the timing, we were not able to ask Bharara about this most recent case or include the details of it in our profile of him.

THE PROMINENT DEVELOPER LOUIS P. CIMINELLI IS ONE OF BUFFALO’S MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE. HE HAS BEEN A TOP CONTRIBUTOR TO GOV. ANDREW CUOMO’S CAMPAIGNS FOR GOVERNOR. HIS COMPANY HAS RECEIVED $750 MILLION IN STATE FUNDS TO DEVELOP THE SOLARCITY PROJECT IN BUFFALO.

JOSEPH PERCOCO IS THE FORMER EXECUTIVE DEPUTY SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNOR. HE HAS BEEN ARGUABLY THE CLOSEST AIDE TO CUOMO FOR MORE THAN A DECADE. AT MARIO CUOMO’S FUNERAL, ANDREW CUOMO REFERRED TO PERCOCO AS “MY FATHER’S THIRD SON.”

ALAIN KALOYEROS IS THE PRESIDENT AND CEO OF SUNY POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. HE WAS THE HIGHEST PAID STATE EMPLOYEE AT ROUGHLY $1 MILLION ANNUALLY IN 2015, BEFORE HIS SALARY WAS CUT IN HALF FOLLOWING INTENSE MEDIA PRESSURE.

ON THURSDAY, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara unsealed a criminal complaint alleging public corruption, extortion, bribery, wire fraud and other crimes against nine defendants. The most prominent person implicated was Joseph Percoco, a former executive deputy secretary to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The criminal complaint alleges he used lobbyist Todd Howe, also implicated, to funnel money to his wife, who worked at Competitive Power Ventures, an energy company that was getting state approval to build a power plant in Westchester County.

Howe faces six charges, including extortion, bribery and wire fraud. It was reported last month that Howe signed a cooperation agreement with Bharara’s office in exchange for leniency.

The complaint says Howe helped Syracuse-based COR Development Co. receive state contracts in exchange for bribes from executives at the company. COR President Steven Aiello and COR executive Joseph Gerardi were also implicated in the complaint.

Another high-profile administration official implicated was SUNY Polytechnic

Institute President Alain Kaloyeros, who was in charge of administering state funds to Western New York through the Buffalo Billion. The complaint alleges that Kalayeros hired Howe to represent his office. Howe then accepted bribes from Buffalo-based developer LPCiminelli, and in exchange arranged for the request for proposal process to be rigged so the company would be guaranteed to receive the state contract.

The complaint alleges bribery against LPCiminelli founder Louis Ciminelli and two other executives at LPCiminelli, Michael Laipple and Kevin Schuler.

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Perhaps the most impactful aspect of Bloomberg’s legacy is an issue that, by definition, requires vision beyond four-year election cycles.

”

September 26, 2016

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

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runner-up

Still

MICHAEL

BLOOMBERG’S

New York

HREE YEARS AGO, City & State did a feature on the top 10 mayors in New York City history. An independent panel of historians and political scientists ranked Michael Bloomberg No. 2 on that list (behind Fiorello La Guardia), and several panelists gave him first-place votes, a notable achievement given that Bloomberg was still finishing out his third term at the time. I bring this up because three years later, for better or worse, the biggest city in the United States still looks like Bloomberg’s New York.

New York City has a tendency to frustrate even the nimblest and sharpest of politicians. The sheer magnitude of managing a city of 8.5 million people requires a leader with thick skin, big ideas and a sizable ego. When Bloomberg entered office in 2001, an unlikely victor as a billionaire Democrat-turned-Republican, it was clear he had the latter quality, but

was largely a mystery when it came to dealing with an overbearing press corps or projecting a policy-driven mayoralty.

But arguably it was Bloomberg’s elitist hubris and wealth that helped inoculate him from the brush fires and political squabbles that have bogged down his successor, Bill de Blasio. After all, when you are willing to spend $100 million of your personal wealth to get re-elected, it removes the need to set a legislative agenda out of political expediency.

Consider that perhaps the most impactful aspect of Bloomberg’s legacy – a commitment to the environment and lowering the city’s carbon footprint – is an issue that, by definition, requires vision beyond four-year election cycles.

Banning smoking in public spaces was a fairly unpopular battle for a first-term mayor to take on, as was making the tough but necessary decision to raise taxes by $3 billion in the wake of 9/11, with the city’s economy struggling to rebound from the attacks. These measures made it immediately clear that ideology would not drive the Bloomberg administration as much as making public service more efficient.

To the latter point, Bloomberg’s fingerprints are all over city government, even if they did not make for the sexiest of headlines, from wresting control of the public school system from Albany to modernizing the 311 system to revamping the board of health to tougher choices like his Program to Eliminate the Gap, trimming government spending after the Great Recession. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, the fact that de Blasio, very much to the left of Bloomberg politically,

By NICK POWELL has built off of his predecessor’s successes on the environment and affordable housing development (an unprecedented 160,000plus units were created or preserved from 2003 to 2013) is a testament to Bloomberg’s ingenuity.

Bloomberg’s legacy was hardly perfect.

He was rightfully hammered in the press for the proliferation of stop-and-frisk policing under his watch, a policy that set the stage for a series of legislative police reforms during his third term. And his ending of the Advantage program, which provided rental subsidies for homeless individuals, arguably precipitated the massive number of men and women living on the street that persists to this day.

But it’s nearly impossible for a mayor to survive 12 years in a city as unforgiving as New York without taking a few wellearned punches. It was that ability to endure through criticism and knack for rebounding with bold ideas that allowed Bloomberg to thrive as the larger-than-life mayor the city deserved.

■

It was Bloomberg’s elitist hubris and wealth that helped inoculate him from the brush fires and political squabbles that have bogged down his successor, Bill de Blasio.

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We salute all of the 2006-2016 Newsmakers honored at the 10th Anniversary Gala

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City & State New York

September 26, 2016

To: City & State From: The city and state Congratulatory notes from the governor and the mayor

September 19, 2016

September 22, 2016 Over the past decade, City & State has established itself as a leading news source for New Yorkers. Founded to cover City Hall and expanding to cover the Capitol and then the entire state, the progress of City & State is truly worth celebrating.

City & State’s daily updates provide a roundup of the most important New York news, keeping readers updated on the latest ins and outs of government. From breaking news to policy analysis, New Yorkers rely on City & State to stay informed every day. Congratulations on ten successful years of becoming a premier destination for political news across New York State.

Sincerely,

ANDREW CUOMO Governor

Dear Friends: It is a great pleasure to welcome everyone to City & State’s 10th Anniversary Gala Dinner.

In order to build a better future for all, it is imperative that we encourage every New Yorker to participate in their government. In doing so, it is also critical that our residents have access to valuable information that will keep them up-to-date on current events, influential people, and leading organizations that are making an impact on the region they call home.

For the past decade, City & State has not only been keeping people wellinformed with its detailed coverage of local government, politics, and breaking news stories, but has also stimulated conversation and raised the standards of journalism.

From its First Read newsletter that reaches thousands of subscribers each morning, to its weekly magazine and networking events, this publication is vital to the fabric of New York. In honor of its milestone 10th anniversary, I am proud to join in applauding all of City & State’s talented reporters, editors, staff, and readers who are helping to shape one of the most vibrant and diverse places in the world. On behalf of the City of New York, I offer my best wishes for a wonderful anniversary celebration and continued success.

Sincerely,

BILL DE BLASIO Mayor

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OUR BIGGEST FANS HERE’S WHAT SOME OF NEW YORK’S MOST INFLUENTIAL OFFICIALS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT CITY & STATE AND ITS PREDECESSORS:

Since 2006, when it was City Hall newspaper, City & State has been the go-to place for news and information about what is happening in politics and government. And for the past five years, the first thing I read in the morning – along with so many others – is First Read. No place else can you get a more up-to-date and thorough glance about what’s happening in New York and beyond.

- LETITIA JAMES, New York City public advocate

The borough of Manhattan appreciates the many services you perform for New Yorkers – accurate reporting, contextual analysis and holding our elected representatives accountable for their actions. Thank you for all you do to encourage more enlightened citizens.

- GALE BREWER, Manhattan borough president

Through City & State’s magazine, website, First Read and organized events, your reporters and staff have produced quality journalism worthy of multiple New York Press Association awards and provided opportunities for networking in a bipartisan environment. My Senate majority colleagues and I look forward to continuing to work together to inform and educate the public and to improve the lives of all New Yorkers for another 10 years and beyond.

- state Senate Majority Leader JOHN J. FLANAGAN

Since its inception, City & State has provided deeply insightful and captivating coverage to tens of thousands of readers, who look forward to and rely on its online and print features.

The ability to document and assess New York’s most pivotal moments in politics is a great service to the public interest. I know that New Yorkers, like myself, have cherished your work throughout the past decade and look forward to your success well into the future.

- U.S. Sen. CHARLES E. SCHUMER

For a decade, City & State has been an invaluable resource, providing comprehensive and objective coverage for New York politics and policy.

From its award-winning magazine to its informative First Read newsletter, City & State ensures policymakers, academics and business leaders stay informed and connected. Its focus on upholding the highest journalistic standards has made a positive impact across the state.

The weekly Winners & Losers column is another key scorecard elected officials check regularly.

What did we do before 2006 when City & State launched in New York?

- New York City Councilman ANDREW COHEN, 11th District

- SCOTT M. STRINGER, New York City comptroller

Whether it’s through their First Read newsletter arriving in the morning as we sip our coffee, their weekly magazine, or the many events throughout the year that bring the most influential individuals together in one room, City & State New York delivers what we need to know when we need to know it.

- Rep. JOSEPH CROWLEY, 14th District

City & State has enjoyed tremendous success since its inception and has become the go-to source for coverage of city and state government. I have enjoyed seeing your publication grow and prosper over the years, and I thank you for all the hard work everyone involved with City & State has put into making it what it is today. I’m sure your next 10 years will be even greater!

- state Sen. KEMP HANNON, 6th District

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

Every morning, I join the throng of supporters who read City & State’s First Read to start my day.

Not only is City & State informative, it also provides a platform for policy makers to take issues and concerns on the Federal, state and city level straight to the readers through oped pieces in Slant and panel discussions.

As I am sure my colleagues can attest, no morning is complete without your First Read. A great thanks to your hardworking and talented staff for making sure that every New York political angle or Slant is covered with such integrity and honesty in reporting.

- Assemblywoman SANDY GALEF, 95th District

- Assemblywoman DEBORAH J. GLICK, 66th District

City & State’s daily First Read and Insider emails are eagerly awaited and avidly consumed by people who need to know the latest governmental news coming out of Albany and New York City, as well as breaking stories, issues and debates across the state. City & State also helps sustain a substantive conversation about the issues of the day through public policy forums.

The dedicated reporters, management and staff at City & State are shining a light on the people’s business in New York state, and keeping us all informed about the common challenges we face as New Yorkers.

- THOMAS P. DINAPOLI, state comptroller

City & State is more than just another publication.

I was lucky enough to be part of your On Diversity forum earlier this year, on a panel on gender and women’s issues in politics.

Through timely events such as this, and now your Slant podcast, too, you provide a multitude of platforms for us to consider some of the most important issues of the day.

- New York City Councilman DAN GARODNICK, 4th District

With a reputation for honesty and integrity, City & State is a unique news source in New York. In its decade in operation, City & State has provided insightful in-depth and breaking news coverage of government, politics, policies and people of New York City and New York state. As a source of both original content and aggregation, its First Read is an indispensable part of all politicians’ and governmental officials’ morning routines.

- Assemblywoman SHELLEY MAYER, 90th District

Congratulations to the intrepid reporters and staff at City & Stat e for making it through 10 years of New York politics! Sunlight is the best disinfectant (and we all know Albany could use a healthy dose), and good reporting is one of the most important ways to let the light in. So thank you for continuing to find new avenues for covering, explaining, and contributing to the vital work of government.

- state Sen. LIZ KRUEGER, 28th District

From Buffalo to New York City and Long Island to Albany, your print and online publications tackle topics that might otherwise go unreported.

The award winning stories, analysis and interviews have become must-reads for everyone affected by government, business and policies.

- state Sen. PATRICK M. GALLIVAN, 59th District

Over the last 10 years New York has been through quite a roller coaster. From major policy milestones to resignations, scandals and corruption, City & State has been there through it all and your continuing commitment to in-depth, unbiased journalism has been critical in keeping New York informed.

- Assemblyman MICHAEL MONTESANO, 15th District

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City & State more than any other news source communicates all of the state political news and issues vital to everyone.

On numerous occasions I have been asked by my colleagues did you read City & State, the underlying assumption is that this is the new source which deals with those issues with the largest consequences to our constituents.

- Assemblyman MICHAEL P. KEARNS, 142nd District

Media companies like yours, with an awardwinning news team, deserve accolades for your work and achievement.

Your commitment to providing New Yorkers with detailed and insightful coverage of politics, policies, and influential individuals/organizations has earned you this muchdeserved recognition. The community has gained a great deal from your services such as the magazine, website, First Read emails and premier events.

- New York City Councilwoman ANNABEL PALMA, 18th District

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CityAndStateNY.com

September 26, 2016

Building a big-time publication out of thin air (before the crack of dawn) FORMER REPORTERS AND EDITORS ON THEIR BIGGEST SCOOPS, GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAVORITE MEMORIES

DARREN BLOCH

Former City & State publisher and executive director, 2010-2011 I think it’s fair to say that I’ve had a unique relationship with City & State (formerly known as City Hall and The Capitol) over the past 10 years. I’ve been a reader and subscriber; a target of coverage (both friendly and hostile); the paper’s publisher and executive director during a particularly transitional period; and back again to a reader and occasional target.

Looking back at 10 years of work, it’s hard not to be a little in awe: of the caliber of reporting and reporters it’s produced, of the reach and influence it’s created … of the fact that it’s even survived to see a 10th year!

A good year before City Hall newspapers ever launched, and well before subsequent successes with Rising Stars listicles, Newsmaker breakfasts, Winners & Losers, The Capitol in Albany, and First Read, I had a few chance encounters with Tom Allon and Isaac Dovere, and got to hear their early ideas – and enthusiasm – for a publication focused on New York City government and the “people, policies, and politics” that drive it all.

The idea was certainly not novel, other outlets were already bringing some focused attention to the mechanics of city government; and there wasn’t a more saturated daily news market in the country. But for those of us working in government and politics – and the countless industries orbiting government – there was still something missing from the media landscape, and Tom and Isaac sensed it and jumped in.

Those early issues had the look and feel of a community paper, which it essentially was. But Isaac saw the treasure trove of compelling (and entertaining) content to

harvest; and Tom (a political nerd himself) understood the basic business reality of publishing – if you can get the right readers, the right advertisers will follow.

The entire enterprise was a New York media startup before the idea became more trendy and commonplace.

The papers benefited from a slew of good people putting heart, soul and sweat into making the little miracle work; and it was a particular privilege to watch two amazingly talented writers and editors bring life to the work – first Isaac (who launched it all) and later Adam Lisberg (who led “version 2.0”). Just during my own short time as publisher, which spanned both Isaac and Adam’s tenure, I got to watch a team of dedicated editors, reporters and production staff hone their talents and craft: refining the look and tone of coverage; testing new video content and event programming; expanding coverage in Albany; launching an iconic news round-up with First Read; and merging City Hall and The Capitol into one unified brand – City & State.

But at its core, the secret to City & State hasn’t been complicated: For 10 straight years, it has produced the kind of journalism that people in politics and government want to read.

Since those early years, the papers have continued to get more polished and sophisticated, though never quite losing a bit of that homegrown feel. I’m proud to have had a little role in some of that evolution. And I’m thankful that at a time when most publishers are pulling away from covering local government, City & State lives on – covering the personalities, policies and politics behind it all. Proving that smart journalists, who pursue intelligent stories about what government is doing and why, can be the core of a successful business as well as a compelling news organization.

“The secret to City & State hasn’t been complicated: For 10 straight years, it has produced the kind of journalism that people in politics and government want to read.” – DARREN BLOCH

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

Former City Hall and The Capitol editor 2006-2011 Many of the stories for City Hall started like this: “WTF is going on with _?”

Often, that was what went down on the internal story list we kept, and sometimes stayed that way until the final conversations before we sat down to write the stories.

City Hall, and a year and a half later, The Capitol, were testing a theory: Could we find a way of covering New York politics that people wanted to read and that we wanted to produce, and do it in a way that made an impact? That was a high bar to clear when the editorial staff was all of... just me (and a few intrepid interns, and the devoted Mitch Hoffman laying out every page of every issue), and it was a high bar to clear as we grew, and attracted more talent than we should have justifiably been able to.

The audience responded, and thankfully the news provided, too: Eliot Spitzer’s rise and downfall, Mike Bloomberg’s term limits extension, the state Senate coup, the 2009 city elections, that 2010 governor’s race where David Paterson’s six-day campaign wasn’t near the craziest thing that happened.

Making an impact meant digging deep on stories that weren’t being told, even when they were right under everyone’s noses. Andy Hawkins, our first full-time hire, did his first big story – and final J-school paper – on detailing how Dan Doctoroff revamped reshaping of the Far West Side. Sal Gentile, our first intern who thankfully accepted a job offer we

made before he graduated college, pushed for more details on the city comptroller race than the candidates seemed to have ever considered themselves. David Freedlander’s December 2009 article on why Mike McMahon was probably going to lose re-election to Congress was one of the first real pieces in the country to anticipate the tea party wave.

And yes, for me, it was unraveling the complicated, overlapping, confused structure that the Working Families Party used to run a political party, a for-profit consulting company, a 501(c)(3) and 501(c) (4) with much of the same money, staff and desks. The reporting was intense. The pushback from the WFP was vicious.

But the investigation by Preet Bharara’s office, the internal investigation led by the late and amazing Judith Kaye and the lawsuit filed in Staten Island bore out the facts. The reporting was correct. The party was changed, and with it, the larger political situation in New York. Every other outlet in town followed what we were doing.

The list quickly grew, from the inside story of how the Obama White House killed Steve Israel’s campaign for Senate to breaking that Anthony Weiner was dropping out of the New York City mayor’s race to Carolyn Maloney scrambling her chances for a Senate campaign by dropping a certain word that begins with N in an interview.

We had accomplished our mission from the start: People all over New York and beyond were asking “WTF is going on with City Hall and The Capitol?”

“The fact that our bare-bones staff is now scattered to the winds and raising hell elsewhere … attests to their grit, and to their talent.”

– DAVID FREEDLANDER

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DAVID FREEDLANDER

Former managing editor, 2008-2010 Perhaps it is always thus, but sticks out the most for me from my time at City & State was just how much news there was in local politics. Looking back, it is hard to believe there were enough hours in the day to cover it all.

On my first day, Michael Bloomberg announced that he was looking to overturn the twice-ratified will of the voters and would run for a third term. A few weeks later the state Senate became Democratic for the first time in 70 years – only to switch again a few months later when a group of four rogue Democrats decided they weren’t really Democrats any more and shut down state government in the process. (Three of those four ended up in prison, but this of course was and is par for the course around these parts.) A few weeks after that Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, setting off a mad scramble to replace her, which is when we learned that Caroline Kennedy had a taste for politics (and an inartful way with words). After she departed the scene, our governor David Paterson pretty much decided to do the same while still occupying the governor’s mansion. The market crash had left the local economy in shambles. Pension bills were mounting, affordable housing disappearing, and while schools were improving, the debate over how they should improve had turned into a war zone.

And never mind that just before I started our steamrolling governor had been found to have a prostitution problem, the City Council was mired in slush fund scandal, one congressman was discovered to have a second family, another to have a string of rent-stabilized apartments and a Dominican villa he wasn’t paying taxes on – and just after I left, a third was caught with his pants down. (He provided the photographic evidence himself.)

But even as the news piled up at a heart-stopping pace, the journalist-power devoted to covering it was falling off. The Times had just ceased printing a standalone Metro section. The tabs were dealing with layoffs. We all warmed our hands by the fires of Azi Paybarah’s Politicker blog and Liz Benjamin’s blog at the Daily News, but the sheer volume required by the two of them meant that there were very few places in New York City and state for the kind of long-form, deeply reported, ideadriven journalism that brought us to this dying artform in the first place.

Congratulations to City and State On Your

10 YEAR

Anniversary

Happy anniversary from the 75,000 New York members of 32BJ who are the cleaners, doormen and doorwomen, security officers, handypersons, building supers, airport workers and school cleaners who help keep New York City running smoothly and safely. City and State is an important source of news and information on the issues that matter to working New Yorkers.

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32BJ SEIU

32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country.

25 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011 â&#x20AC;˘ www.seiu32bj.org

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City & State New York

September 26, 2016

So we decided to create one.

We were oddly just barely on the internet back in those days, and the universe of people who would pick up a free copy of a newspaper devoted to local politics was decidedly small, but I don’t think I ever knew a crew of journalists as dedicated to their beat as we were in those days, and I don’t think I have suffered under storyselection or editing as eagle-eyed as what I went through there. The fact that our barebones staff is now scattered to the winds and raising hell elsewhere – Isaac Dovere at Politico, Andy Hawkins at The Verge, Chris Bragg at the Albany Times-Union, and Sal Gentile at “Late Night With Seth Meyers” – attests to their grit, and to their talent.

I hope the folks manning the deck at City & State world headquarters are having as much fun as we did. I assume news cycle has slowed down a bit by now, right?

Right?

MATT HAMILTON

Former Albany reporter, 2013-2014 At the Capitol, 10 years is a milestone for state lawmakers.

A decade has made them senior members adept at winning re-election, though while they’ve begun to amass power and respect, most after that period of time are not kingmakers.

For political journalism in New York, 10 years denotes not just staying power but influence.

City & State’s decade-long run is, like five election wins, proof that the people not only find the staff’s work interesting, they find it important enough to support through the growing pains of the early years.

In City & State, I found an organization that allowed me to experience my own journalistic growing pains, an experience that was seminal for my development not only as a Capitol reporter but also as a journalist in general.

Here I was, a green college graduate with six months of local general assignment reporting under his belt and nothing in the way of political chops, being given a chance to cover one of the country’s most important state governments along with some of the country’s best reporters (some of whose bylines I had been reading since I was a kid).

My first cover story – an analysis of the effect the SAFE Act had had a year after it became law – was rough. I’m thankful the

editors made me reorganize and rewrite.

My 4 a.m. wake-up to put together First Read was even rougher.

But I learned quickly that reporting on the Capitol will never be a tidy 9-to-5 gig that allows you to switch off when you aren’t in the LCA room. More importantly, I learned that not only am I fine with that, I thrive on it.

City & State has not only made it to 10 years, it has flourished because it has served as a proving ground for young reporters like me eager to learn and just as eager to produce the product that has helped establish the magazine as a known entity among the insider crowd.

The addition of NY Slant after my time marked what I believe is a future that can keep City & State on an upward path for another 10 years: Lawmakers, insiders and journalists providing the kind of analysis that complements a spotlight on policy or offers a thought-provoking take on the political fare du jour.

I wish everyone at City & State continued success and owe them a debt for setting me on the path that I hope will keep me reporting on the beat I love come the next milestone anniversary.

ANDREW J. HAWKINS

Former City & State managing editor, 2007-2012 It was 2010. I was sitting in the backseat of a beaten-up Ford SUV next to a sleeping Carl Paladino, and I thought to myself, “What the hell am I doing here?” I guess the answer was obvious: My editor, Isaac Dovere, had assigned me to write a feature story examining the Paladino phenomenon. But as I watched Paladino slumber while his cronies cracked crude jokes about their opponents in the front seat, I couldn’t help but think that I had somehow conned my way into this position.

I was 30 years old, and I had been working at City Hall and The Capitol for almost three years. Isaac had hired me before I even finished graduate school, so my journalism expertise was, shall we say, rather thin. Nonetheless, I was excited to dive head-first into the world of political reporting. And what better place than New York, with its unending supply of colorful characters with skyscraper-tall ambitions. And in 2010, no one was more colorful than Carl Paladino.

The Buffalo billionaire had upended the race for governor that year, out-

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maneuvering Rick Lazio to capture the Republican nomination. In many ways, Paladino’s candidacy foreshadowed Donald Trump’s unprecedented run for president this year. Both are brassy, conspiracyminded outsiders prone to jamming both feet in their mouths. It should come as no surprise that Paladino is one of Trump’s most vocal New York supporters.

The couple days I spent shadowing Paladino stood out in my tenure at City Hall and The Capitol, if only because there was no one like him. While other politicians were guarded and on-script, Paladino would say and do things completely off the cuff. One minute, he would be slamming Andrew Cuomo as an out-of-touch Albany politician while eggs and bacon flew out of his mouth. The next, he would be tearing up at the memory of his son who died in an auto accident. Sure, there were the racist and sexist emails and the physical altercations with reporters. But it was hard to dislike Carl Paladino.

Even though I covered politics, I had – and continue to have – a great many political opinions, many of which could be characterized as radically left of the spectrum. (Abolish the police?) That said, I never let those opinions seep into my coverage. And I had amazing editors like Isaac and Adam Lisberg who made sure of that. Still, working at this paper helped me see the human side of politicians I had almost no interest in ever seeing elected to office. And as a result, it helped me better understand why some people held values and beliefs radically different from my own.

Riding with Paladino was an eye opener.

The story I wrote about it was fun and weird and illuminating. I’m glad he didn’t

“As I watched Paladino slumber while his cronies cracked crude jokes about their opponents in the front seat, I couldn’t help but think that I had somehow conned my way into this position.”

– ANDREW J. HAWKINS

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CityAndStateNY.com

win, but I’ll always cherish the experience.

ANDREW HOLT

Former City & State publisher, 20112016 Politics, Policy and Personalities. A tagline accurately describes the area of coverage for the storied publication, as well as many of the folks that punched their timecard with City & State, City Hall and The Capitol over the past 10 years.

I joined the City Hall News and The Capitol in August of 2011 as their first-ever events director under publisher Darren Bloch. It was a month on from the relaunch of the First Read daily email, and a handful of months prior to City Hall and The Capitol merging to become City & State.

Under Darren’s leadership, we hit the ground running on the events side scrambling our first-ever On Education forum in less than three weeks. Boasting a panel of Merryl Tisch, Shael PolakowSuransky, Eva Moskowitz and others, this event brought out hundreds of leaders in media, business, education and government and was widely covered across the print dailies, radio and TV. City & State’s On Education event has surpassed five years and is now the premier annual education event in New York. This is a good micro of what became the macro at City & State on both the news and the business-side.

After spending five years at City & State as events director, director of marketing and publisher, there are too many anecdotes, events and special issues and just not enough space on this page. I am just so proud of all the players in this game over the years, and the growth we were able to manage in an incredibly competitive and rapidly evolving media environment. Here are some highlights: Growing from 10 employees to over 30 full-time staff. Expanding events from a half dozen per year to over 50 in 2015.

Expanding First Read into the afternoon through Last Read and now First Read Insider. Expanding into Buffalo. The Moreland Commission coverage. The Closing Rikers editorial series. The formation of the premier opinion outlet in New York politics and government via NY Slant under editor Nick Powell. Launching a weekly podcast. Expanding from a biweekly to a weekly print magazine.

Acquiring New York Nonprofit Press and expanding our coverage of the nonprofit sector. Publishing over 150 news pieces on issues and opportunities facing Latinos in New York and Puerto Rico, and producing

September 26, 2016

an annual three-day event in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And there is so much more.

Congrats to the whole team and all alums of City & State on reaching 10 years.

Here’s to 10 more.

PHILIP LENTZ

Former interim editor for City Hall and The Capitol, 2011 I was on vacation in Florida when I got a call from Darren Bloch. Darren had become the publisher of Manhattan Media’s weekly political publications – then called City Hall and The Capitol – and he and Tom Allon were interested in raising the magazines’ visibility with a daily political email. I had pioneered the Crain’s Insider when I was the political reporter at Crain’s New York Business and Darren asked if I could help them craft a prototype for Manhattan Media.

It was an intriguing idea. While the Insider consisted of short tidbits of news and political gossip, Darren and Tom saw their proposed daily email as a quick morning update for political junkies on the go – one that could easily be read on a cell phone as well as a computer. I was certainly game to try my hand at turning their vision into a viable journalistic product.

The early versions included a lot of trial and error. Certainly, there was the news of that morning – but what should the mix be between city and state politics? What publications outside New York City should we check every morning? What other features should the email include?

We experimented. There was the editorial of the day, the tweet of the day, the quote of the day. Should we include the weather? What about calendar items – just the mayor and governor?

Legislative committee hearings? Or court dates (who knew how interesting that would become)?

Each day, after the prototype was completed, Darren and I – with Tom occasionally joining us – would go over the issue. Which item worked and which did not. Which items could realistically be put together on an early morning deadline.

Was it too long? Too short? What would be the patience – or impatience – of mobile phone readers?

Today, of course, those are decisions news publications are making the world over. How do they maintain their readers as news platforms rapidly change from paper to computer to mobile to … who knows what’s next?

The early work Darren, Tom and I put in on the prototype eventually emerged as First Read – a breezy compendium of the local political news of the day together with the weather, a little gossip, a calendar of political events of the day and even a few ads to pay the freight. I’m proud to say I was there at the beginning.

ADAM LISBERG

Former editor of City Hall, The Capitol and City & State 2011-2012 When I first showed up to work at City Hall – the building, not the newspaper – the piles of papers everywhere seemed overwhelming. I was a Daily News reporter who had been covering street crime, not politics, and suddenly I was confronted with heaps of the City Record, the local dailies, press releases, new reports, MMRs … and something called “City Hall” that seemed to have lots of pictures and not much else.

You don’t have to bother reading that one, my boss said.

It was 2007, and she was right. Yet over the next couple of years, Edward-Isaac Dovere and his tiny staff did something amazing – they built a real newsgathering operation and a serious political newspaper out of thin air. The more they interviewed politicians and covered issues, the sharper they got – developing deeper sources, filing tougher stories, writing more insightful profiles.

I don’t remember when I started making sure to read City Hall, but I vividly remember the night everyone else had to.

It was May 26, 2009, my wife and I were at dinner with two city officials, and my BlackBerry started buzzing with a scoop from cityhallnews.com – Anthony Weiner was abandoning his campaign for mayor.

I stepped away from the table and started frantically calling everyone I knew to try to match the story. A stunned Weiner aide finally answered the phone and asked in wonder: “Who is Edward-Isaac Dovere?”

The next day, The New York Times and the Daily News both credited City Hall with breaking the story. The little paper with the cute features had won the respect it deserved.

So when publisher Darren Bloch asked me two years later to leave New York’s biggest circulation paper for a scrappy upstart, I didn’t need much convincing.

City Hall and The Capitol were the only places in town that could devote dozens of pages in every issue to the subjects that

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New York’s political and government classes were obsessed with – and when they did it right, they could drive the conversation.

Off we went. Andy Hawkins tried to teach me the mysteries of turning computer files into a finished newspaper.

Chris Bragg headed out for drinks with random contacts and returned with scoops about union fights and warring Democrats.

Jon Lentz plunged into boring topics and emerged with interesting stories. Laura Nahmias spent hours stalking politicians on social media and eventually used it to put one of them in jail. And art director Joey Carolino, who knew nothing about politics but everything about grabbing eyeballs, knocked our socks off with covers that made clear this newspaper deserved to be read.

Within a few months, we erased the increasingly artificial distinction between City Hall and The Capitol and created City & State. (None of us liked the name; none of us could come up with anything better.) Producing one newspaper instead of two made the back-end burden much easier, so to complicate things again, we filled a yawning gap in New York politics by starting First Read – a comprehensive email roundup of everything you needed to know to sound informed if you hadn’t read the papers before talking to your boss. We promised delivery by 7 a.m., but my personal goal was 6 a.m., which meant getting up long before dawn every day.

I told the staff to buy coffeemakers with automatic timers and put them on their expense reports.

It was intense. We fed off each other’s energy and turned crazy ideas into great issues – like turning the year-end roundup into a high school yearbook, or drawing gerrymandered districts as missingpersons flyers. We pinned each new cover on the wall and immediately started crashing out the next one. We earned influence. We made a difference. We had a blast.

Before my first anniversary there, I was exhausted. There was only so long I could go with my foot always on the gas – staying past midnight to close issues, then waking up in terror that I had missed a First Read deadline. Out of nowhere, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I took it.

When I pull out those old issues, I’m still proud of what we did. We were underpaid, understaffed and overwhelmed – but we were never outmatched. That spirit clearly keeps driving the people who put out City

September 26, 2016

& State … way too early every morning.

LAURA NAHMIAS

Former reporter at City Hall, The Capitol and City & State, 2010-2012 2011 was already shaping up to be a signal year for politicians on social media when Anthony Weiner tweeted his famous, far-

that I was a reporter, but it certainly said so on my profile.

What did become clear, as I scrolled through his page, was that he’d spent an awful lot of time since being indicted playing CityVille, a Facebook sensation at the time. In the game, he was a well-liked mayor, racking up civic accomplishments and serving the public good. (This was

“So I did what any curious 26-year-old would do: I friended Boyland on Facebook.”

– LAURA NAHMIAS

out picture, triggering events that caused his resignation. I had been a reporter at City & State for about nine months by then, and as the details of his online offenses leaked out, I was pleasantly distracted by scandal reporting of my own: the first major political corruption case, really, that I had ever covered in my very brief time as a political reporter.

In March of 2011, former state Sen. Carl Kruger, along with Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., were indicted on federal charges related to a health care fraud scheme. There had been many such cases before, and would be more to come. Yet I pored over the pertinent court documents, which revealed a tangle of illicit payments and no-show jobs.

Kruger, who had been the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, was a powerful man in Albany, and his indictment got a lot of ink from the papers covering the Capitol.

But no one had much to say about Boyland, who represented one of the poorest and most downtrodden corners of Brooklyn.

He had accomplished little as a lawmaker; he had sponsored zero bills in that year’s legislative session. Oddly, too, he’d missed more than one-third of the mere 60 days he was required to be in Albany.

So I did what any curious 26-year-old would do: I friended Boyland on Facebook.

Social media, at that time, was a cabinet of curiosities in Albany. Any time a lawmaker joined Twitter, it was small news in the Capitol. Politicians, not to mention everyone else, were less openly concerned about privacy on these networks, or about the ways in which accepting friend requests could grant strangers access to one’s life online – photos, activities, affinities and friends. I don’t know whether Boyland noticed when he accepted my friend request

ironic.) Every time he played the game, or earned points playing it, he left a time stamp on his Facebook page. A comparison of his Albany voting record and scheduled session days with his Facebook timeline revealed that the indicted Assemblyman, who missed more session days than any other lawmaker in the lower Chamber that year, was playing games when he was supposed to be doing the people’s business, on a $79,000 salary. His colleagues, who sat near him, noticed that he was often busy on his phone while the Assembly was in session.

I reported that.

The story was amusing, but it led to others that were probably more important. I filed a Freedom of Information Law request for Boyland’s travel voucher receipts, and found that he had claimed per diem money for 22 session days when he was not where he was supposed to be – a fact his Facebook page proved. He’d claimed per diems on days when, as a second federal indictment showed, he was actually meeting with undercover federal officers he was trying to bribe. Astonishingly, he’d even claimed per diems on the day he was arraigned in Manhattan federal court on corruption charges.

Boyland was indicted in 2013 on charges that he’d stolen $67,000 worth of public money by filing more than 600 fraudulent travel vouchers. At some point before being convicted, he unfriended me on Facebook.

Boyland, sadly, was not the only person with a habit of per diem abuse. FOIL requests I later filed on other lawmakers’ travel expenses turned up more stories about lawmakers claiming extra funds to which they weren’t entitled. Another assemblyman was indicted when I wrote about him, and he pleaded guilty to

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charges of per diem payment theft. When Carl Heastie became speaker in 2015, he announced per diem reforms meant to prevent such abuses.

Who ever said messing around on Facebook was just a waste of time?

MORGAN PEHME

Former City & State editor-in-chief, 2012-2014 I have always enjoyed writing for City & State’s readers. So often the task of journalists is to reduce complicated, nuanced subjects to elementary bites crisp enough to be palatable for mass consumption.

Fortunately, City & State’s devotees are typically as well versed as its reporters in politics and policy – if not better – so there is no need to dumb down any topic. Quite to the contrary, the challenge City & State’s newsroom faces is to create content that is credible in the eyes of experts and useful to a class of insiders whose professional success on a quotidian basis depends upon remaining in the know.

However, as gratifying as it is to converse with such a sophisticated audience, doing so presents a unique trap it is important for journalist and reader alike to acknowledge: the bubble.

Writing for the cognoscenti in the cosmopolitan state of New York about the finer points of an agency’s bureaucracy or the intrigue underlying some election about which no regular voter cares a lick is pretty much the textbook definition of being in the bubble.

Of course, one can excel on this beat without succumbing to insider-itis, but the ease with which one becomes infected by this malady is such that one can develop a full-blown case before even becoming aware of an onset of its symptoms.

My two predecessors as editor-in-chief, Edward Isaac-Dovere and Adam Lisberg, both did an excellent job striking a balance of respecting the publication’s learned readers without respecting them so much as to lose sight of their blind side. I endeavored to follow Isaac and Adam’s example and guide my team to do the same.

Though theoretically politics is a populist art, in practice it tends to be a clubby realm resistant to introspection and dubious of outsiders. That is not to say that those who work in campaigns and government have objectionable intentions; most I have met got into the arena to do good and remained true to that aim. But being in proximity to power or

September 26, 2016

wielding it oneself often shapes a view of the public that is paternalistic: the common folk will likely muck up any attempt to improve their lot, so the less they’re involved in the decisions that affect their lives the better.

As unpopular as it is to admit, at times this approach is the best way to help the masses.

However, far more often the failings of those in power are rooted in their resistance or inability to listen to the powerless.

For most politicos, this deafness is not deliberate. Few people in any area of the profession come to mind who don’t believe in their hearts that they either embody the everyman or have a superior understanding of what she wants. Their certainty is affirmed by their like-minded colleagues floating around them in the bubble and hardens into the groupthink that crowds city halls and capitols.

Though the public has always been wise to how the political class as a whole regards it, in recent years it has become openly defiant of its misrepresentation. The last several election cycles have vividly demonstrated how out of touch the authorities are; a lesson that should chasten America’s politicians and political reporters, but hasn’t yet.

Given how consistently wrong those in the bubble have been, bursting out of it is not just glaringly sensible and self-servingly astute for those who work in a business that, like it or not, is predicated upon the mastery of public opinion. It’s also the way for us to achieve the type of government most of us participate in politics to be a part of, but that feels right now so unattainable. That’s because to free oneself from the bubble is to cast off the cynicism that limits government to the stale conventions of what the powersthat-be insist is possible.

A government outside of the bubble has the boundless and beautiful potential to be one that is truly of, by and for the people.

Over its first decade City & State has skillfully covered the bubble without being swallowed up by it. May it continue to perform this great public service in its second.

AARON SHORT

Former City & State reporter, 2012-2013 The following is Aaron Short’s recollection of the day he spent covering a whitewater rafting challenge between Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Cuomo: Three years ago the mayor of New York City fell into a shallow river in the Adirondack mountains. The facts of that hot July

“Bloomberg was very diplomatic about the whole experience – but you could tell he was a little pissed about losing.”

– AARON SHORT

afternoon are not in dispute.

Bloomberg and a team of City Hall advisers made the six-hour trek north to Warren County only to lose to Gov. Cuomo and his crew of overly muscular state employees in a friendly whitewater rafting competition.

Cuomo called this team-building exercise, which was meant to promote tourism upstate, the Adirondack Challenge.

He held it about a month after the legislative session ended and invited everyone – state legislators, commissioners, state troopers, the mayor and his aides, and the Albany press corps.

It was weirdly intriguing, so much of the press showed showed up and formed their own team. Maybe that’s why Mayor Bloomberg decided he would come as well.

But the race didn’t go as planned for the billionaire, who finished seconds short of the governor.

As they steered their rafts back to shore, Bloomberg slipped out of the edge of the boat and splashed into the water.

He dunked himself into the river and emerged like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now before climbing back aboard with an assist from the aides.

Sopping wet in his bathing shorts, Bloomberg took a few questions while he sauntered through a woodsy trail off Indian Lake to his car.

Bloomberg was very diplomatic about the whole experience – but you could tell he was a little pissed about losing.

Sources who witnessed the scene described how Bloomberg had tumbled off the raft, so I included the detail in a post.

The next day Bloomberg’s office called and argued that he didn’t fall in by accident. He decided to jump in deliberately because the water was so warm, they said. That quote was included in an update.

The circumstances surrounding the race on that fateful day may never be fully known, but for one afternoon it brought the two most powerful men in the state together.

“My first read is Bloomberg View... my second is City & State’s First Read.”

-Michael Bloomberg

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Notice of formation of Drake Communications, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/2/2016.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 7014 13th Ave, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Principal business address: 113 Nassau St, New York, NY 10038. Purpose: any lawful act.

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Notice of Formation of Honeymix LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on May 25, 2016. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: 225 W 112th St NY NY 10026. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of Marisa Terol llc.

Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/12/2016.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy to principal business address: 189 west 89 Street 18L NY, NY 10024.

Purpose any lawful act.

Notice of formation of Grafted Hospitality Group LLC, Articles of organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 06/02/16.

Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: c/o Marzec Law Firm, 225 Broadway Suite 3000, New York, NY 10007. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of formation of 57Crickets60Elm, LLC, Arts of Org filed with Sec of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/01/16. Office location:NY County.

SSNY designated agency upon whom

City & State New York

September 26, 2016

process may be served against LLC. Principal business address is 3 Wash Square Village, 2-O, NY NY 10012.

Notice of formation of David R Head Jr LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State NY (SSNY) on 6/9/2016. Office location NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: 7014 13th Ave Set 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Principal business address: & E 14th St. #1219, NY, NY 10003. Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Trep Spirit, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 7/26/16. Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC to: Trep Spirit, LLC, PO BOX 325, New York, NY 10024. Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of Batelion, LLC Org filed with the Secy. Of State of NY (SSNY) on August 17th, 2016.

Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: United States Corporation Agents, Inc., 7014 13th Ave, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Business address: 412 E 116th Str, #2, New York, NY 10029. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of formation of Sara Byworth LLC. Art. Of Org. filed with SSNY on 31st May 2016. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to.

102 Saint Marks Place #2, Brooklyn 11217.

Principal address. 102 Saint Marks Place #2, Brooklyn 11217.

Purpose: Any lawful

activity.

Notice of formation of Somerset Regent LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 8/5/2016.

Office location: New York County. SSNY has been designated for service of process.

SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC to c/o Law Office of Z Tan PLLC, 110 E 59th St, Ste 3200, New York, NY 10022. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of formation of Katonah Yoga Bowery LLC. Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/2/2016.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: 41 Carmine St. NY, NY 10014. Principal business address: 302 Bowery, 2nd Fl, NY NY 10012. Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of HAWKING LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/08/16.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/10/16. NYS fictitious name: HAWKING DE LLC. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the LLC, 125 Cambridgepark Dr., Ste. 301, Cambridge, MA 02140. DE addr. of LLC: Incorporating Services, Ltd., 3500 S. Dupont Hwy., Dover, DE 19901.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of Galeon Navigation Management (USA) LLC, Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 7/29/16.

Off. loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 6/24/16.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom

proc. against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to CSC, 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. DE off. addr.: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of BitsyBoho, LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on June 6, 2016.

Office location: New York County.

SSNY has been designated for service of process.

SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC at: 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF ORESTE DRAPACA ARCHITECT, PLLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Sec’y. of State of NY (SSNY) on 27 JUN 2016.

Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against PLLC to principal business address: 419 PARK AVE SOUTH 7 FLR NEW YORK NY 10016.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of MATTHEW BERNSTEIN, M.D., PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/07/16.

Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of PLLC: 406 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington, MA 02474.

SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Abrams Fensterman, et. al., LLP, 1111 Marcus Ave., Ste. 107, Lake Success, NY 11042.

Purpose: Medical purpose.

Notice of Formation of SkyFloat LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/14/16. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Gonen Productions & Talent, Inc., 105 E. 34th St., Ste. 240, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: Mobile device accessory manufacture, sales and distribution.

Notice of Formation of T/S 221 EAST 17, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/15/16.

Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 221 E. 17th St., NY, NY 10003. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Brad M. Kaplan, Esq., The Kaplan Law Group, PC, 51 John F. Kennedy Pkwy., Ste. 1E/RXR, Short Hills, NJ 07078.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of 500 Seventh Mezz Funding LLC, Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 8/5/16.

Off. loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 8/3/16.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom proc. against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to NRAI, 111 Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10011, the Reg. Agt. upon whom proc. may be served. DE off. addr.: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover, DE 19904.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of 500 Seventh Funding LLC, Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 8/5/16.

Off. loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 8/3/16.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom proc. against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to NRAI, 111 Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10011, the Reg. Agt. upon whom proc. may be served. DE off. addr.: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover, DE 19904.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qual. of 333 East 22 Lessee LLC, Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 7/19/16.

Off. loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 7/15/16.

SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom proc. against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to NRAI, 111 Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10011, the Reg. Agt. upon whom proc. may be served. DE off. addr.: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover, DE 19904.

Cert. of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purp: any lawful activities.ver Notice of Formation of 55 HAUS LLC. Art. of Org. filed with the SSNY on July 14, 2016.

Office: New York County.

SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to the LLC, 220 E. 25th St 4A, NY, NY 10010.

Purpose: any lawful act.

Notice of Qualification of OBBP PARKING OWNER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/18/16. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/10/16. Princ. office of LLC: Vanke Holdings USA LLC, Attn: General Counsel, 130 W. 42nd St., 16th Fl., NY, NY 10036. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Corps.

Div., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RPA RIVINGTON, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/03/16. Office

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location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207. Purpose: To hold real and personal property and any other lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of RatetheBiz, LLC. Arts of Organization filed with the SSNY on June 13,2016. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served against LLC to: 7014 13th Ave Ste. 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228.

Principal business address: 121 W 36th St. NY, NY 10018. Purpose: Any lawful act.

Notice of Formation of 7A MADISON SQUARE LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on August 08, 2016. Office location: New York County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of any process served against the LLC, 262 WEST 38TH STREET ROOM 1701, and NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10018.

Purpose: For any lawful purpose.

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September 26, 2016

CITY & STATE NEW YORK MANAGEMENT & PUBLISHING Chairman Steve Farbman, President/CEO Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com, Vice President of Strategy Jasmin Freeman, Comptroller David Pirozzi dpirozzi@cityandstateny.com, Business & Sales Coordinator Patrea Patterson, Junior Sales Associate Cydney McQuillan-Grace cydney@cityandstateny.com

LOSERS PREET BHARARA – Once upon a time in the Capitol, power and influence were paramount and shady dealings and dysfunction were the norm. But when the “Sheriff of Albany” rode into town, he tracked down one lawbreaker after another and even brought Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos to justice. With Preet’s investigations showing no signs of slowing, the only question is when he’ll ride off into the sunset.

YOUR PICK

YOUR PICK

WINNERS

OF THE DECADE Everyone in politics has ups and downs, but sometimes a rough patch can be so devastating or defining that being designated loser of the week is not enough. Similarly, some New York politicians achieved so much or rose to such prominence between 2006 and 2016 that their lofty status seems unshakable. (Don’t look for a presidential pick here – those two New Yorkers belong to the whole country now.) So without further ado, here are our readers’ picks for Winners & Losers of the Decade!

EDITORIAL - editor@cityandstateny.com Editorial Director Michael Johnson mjohnson@ cityandstateny.com, Senior Editor Jon Lentz jlentz@ cityandstateny.com, Albany Reporter Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@ cityandstateny.com, Buffalo Reporter Justin Sondel jsondel@cityandstateny.com, City Hall Reporter Sarina Trangle strangle@cityandstateny.com, Managing Editor Ryan Somers, Associate Copy Editor Sam Edsill, Web/ Engagement Editor Jeremy Unger, Editorial Assistant Jeff Coltin SLANT Slant Editor Nick Powell npowell@cityandstateny.com, Editor-at-Large Gerson Borrero gborrero@cityandstateny. com, Slant Columnists Nicole Gelinas, Bruce Fisher, Richard Brodsky, Karen Hinton CREATIVE - creativedepartment@cityandstateny.com Creative Director Guillaume Federighi, Senior Graphic Designer Alex Law, Marketing Designer Charles Flores, Junior Graphic Designer Kewen Chen DIGITAL - digital@cityandstateny.com Digital Manager Chanelle Grannum, Digital Content Coordinator Michael Filippi

SHELDON SILVER – Two years ago, Silver could have been on a list of the decade’s biggest winners for maintaining control of the Assembly since 1994. Before Andrew Cuomo was elected governor, the gnomic Silver had arguably been the most powerful Democrat in the state. Then Preet Bharara shocked the New York political world by exposing Silver as corrupt – not to mention a philanderer – who may very well spend his last years in a federal prison.

THE BEST OF THE REST MICHAEL BLOOMBERG –

THE REST OF THE WORST PEDRO ESPADA JR. – after glorious

shepherded NYC through the Great

coup, lost his re-election bid and con-

Recession and reshaped the cityscape

victed of embezzling from own nonprofit

ANDREW CUOMO – balanced

VITO LOPEZ – long-serving Brook-

budget, property tax cap, same-sex

lyn Democratic boss’ career collapsed

marriage, $15 minimum wage

amid allegations of sexual harassment

GEORGE GRESHAM – 1199 SEIU’s

ELIOT SPITZER – lost the governor-

MULTIMEDIA Multimedia Director Bryan Terry ADVERTISING Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@ cityandstateny.com, Account/Business Development Executive Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com, Event Sponsorship Strategist Danielle Koza dkoza@ cityandstateny.com EVENTS - events@cityandstateny.com Events Manager Lissa Blake, Senior Events Coordinator Alexis Arsenault, Events and Marketing Coordinator Jenny Wu

Vol. 5 Issue 37 September 26, 2016

THE CRUSADING PROSECUTOR, MEDIA DARLING AND SPRINGSTEEN FAN IS ON ALMOST EVERYONE’S SHORT LIST FOR MAYOR/GOVERNOR/SENATOR. BUT DOES HE WANT IT?

CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

powerful president has the ear of all

ship, but at least he kept his socks on

the state’s biggest players

ANTHONY WEINER – took Huma

CHARLES SCHUMER – rose

three strikes to kick this onetime rising

through the ranks to become one of

star to the curb – and the sordid reve-

the most powerful Dems in Congress

lations still haven’t stopped

WINNERS & LOSERS is published every Friday morning in City & State’s First Read email. Sign up for the email, cast your vote and see who won at cityandstateny.com.

@CIT YANDSTATENY

September 26, 2016

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