Perdido Street School:
Perdido Street School Week
Cuomo Pushes Back Hard Against Bharara From Behind The Scenes
US Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara warned Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to stop tampering with potential witnesses in his Moreland Commission investigation a couple of weeks ago, but that hasn't stopped Cuomo from meddling in the matter.After the Bharara warning, Cuomo said the U.S. Attorney had made it clear that “on going public dialogue is not helpful to his investigation,” and the
Another Bloomberg NYCDOE Contractor Fraud Story
Mayor Bloomberg was a self-described financial genius who saved the city from financial ruin numerous times - and yet, the contractors his administration hired robbed the city blind.Here's the latest: A contractor for the city Department of Education was busted for allegedly scamming the city for more than $1 million with massive overcharges — including billing the city $572 for circuit breakers t
Will Governor Cuomo Skate Free From Moreland Mess?
The Wall Street Journal this morning:Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's prosecutors are now conducting a three-tiered investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.First, they are exploring whether they can take up cases the Moreland Commission was investigating. Second, they are investigating whether the Cuomo administration interfered in the commission's work, and why the comm
AUG 07
Can Zephyr Teachout Survive Cuomo's Ballot Challenge?
Not a good day in court for Zephyr Teachout:By law, Teachout needs to have lived here in New York for the last five years in order to run for governor. Connor called Teachhout as his first witness and proceeded to ask about her various addresses over the time period. Fairly quickly it was established that Teachout obtained a Vermont Driver’s license in 2009 – the first year she would have had to b
The Heat On Bharara
Chris Smith in New York:What’s interesting is how aggressively public Bharara has been in his pursuit of the Moreland Commission’s intrigues. Certainly other U.S. Attorneys have used the spotlight to enhance their leverage, but that’s usually been after arrests were made (see: Guiliani, Rudolph). Bharara has been out front early on this one, chatting up Brian Lehrer and Charlie Rose about the need
Is Bharara Investigating Moreland To Advance HIs Political Ambitions?
Buried at the bottom of a Bloomberg News piece exploring the relationship between Governor Cuomo and US Attorney Bharara is this:Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan and now a professor at Columbia Law School, said Bharara isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary by raising the question of tampering. “When the feds have expressed an interest in a matter, circling back and tryin
Bridgegate Pulsl Down Christie's Poll Numbers
From Politico:New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s net approval rating is at its lowest point in three years, a new poll says.According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, 49 percent of New Jersey voters approve of the Republican governor’s job performance, compared with 47 percent who disapprove. That net approval rating is Christie’s lowest since August 2011.The poll shows that Christ
AUG 06
Will New Yorkers Ever Realize What A Thug Andrew Cuomo Is?
Jason Riley at the WSJ:Why hasn't Mr. Astorino been able to capitalize? My sources tell me that the Republican is running a good campaign but that the governor's huge money advantage—as of mid-July the Cuomo campaign had $35 million on hand, versus $2.4 million for Mr. Astorino—has made it difficult for the lesser-known county executive to gain traction. The governor is using that war chest to at
AUG 05
The "Air Of Inevitability" Around Cuomo's Re-Election
Laura Nahmias at Capital NY:ALBANY—More than half the 50 top donors to the state’s Republican party between 2003 and 2006 have given more to Cuomo and the Democrats this campaign cycle than they have to the G.O.P. and Rob Astorino, an analysis by NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney shows. Of the 50 donors who gave the most to the G.O.P. in the runup to the 2006 gubernatorial election—when Democrat Eliot Spitze
AUG 04
Cuomo's Poll Numbers Fall In New Marist Poll
I'm on vacation, so I'm missing some news and definitely not getting stuff up onto the blog in a timely fashion, but here's one story I didn't want to skip:Republican Rob Astorino is struggling to capitalize with voters on the political difficulties faced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo followings reports the governor's staff interfered with a state anticorruption commission, according to a Wall Street Journ
Should Kathy Hochul Be Subpoenaed In Moreland Investigation Too
From the Capital Playbook email this morning:--GREGG BIRNBAUM, on NY1: “Is the U.S. Attorney going to subpoena the lieutenant governor candidate to find out whether Governor Cuomo’s office gave her those taking points? Because she was right on message with that and if that could be witness tampering.” http://goo.gl/8Qj9UQWhen you see stuff like this, that's when you know the shit's gotten real for
Former Moreland Co-Chair Kathleen Rice "Assisting" With Federal Prosecutors Looking Into Cuomo's Commission Meddling
So much Moreland news this morning, hard to get it all on the blog.Here's another piece of news via Ken Lovett of the Daily News: Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, one of three former co-chairs of Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission, is “assisting” a federal probe into the governor’s handling of the panel, the Daily News has learned. Rice has met multiple times with U.S. Attorney
Fred Dicker: Cuomo "Crazed With Anger" Over Moreland Scandal Fall-Out
So much to like in this Fred Dicker column this morning:Gov. Cuomo, “crazed with anger” and increasingly abusive to those around him, fears the first round of public polling since the “Morelandgate” scandal will take a major toll on his — until-now — sky-high popularity, administration insiders say.He won’t have long to wait.A poll designed to gauge the scandal’s impact will be released this week
Cuomo Aide Agreed To "Voluntarily" Meet With Ferderal Prosecutors To Avoid Subpoena
Last night's Wall Street Journal "scoop" that former Cuomo aide, Larry Schwartz, agreed to "voluntarily" meet with prosecutors investigating the Moreland mess seemed like a leak from the Cuomo camp putting a positive spin on Schwartz's being interviewed by prosecutors.This morning, Fred Dicker of the NY Post confirms that:The top aide to Gov. Cuomo has agreed to meet with feder
AUG 03
Cuomo's Former Aide, Larry Schwartz, To "Voluntarily" Meet With Federal Prosecutors
Another day, another Moreland leak:Larry Schwartz, the highest-ranking aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has agreed to voluntarily meet with federal prosecutors this month as their investigation into the disbanding of an anticorruption commission intensifies, a person familiar with the matter said.Mr. Schwartz agreed to meet with prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office last week, t
Common Core Proponents Change Bar For Success
Remember when Common Core proponents used to brag about having 45 states and D.C. on the Common Core bandwagon?Now they say they'd be happy with far fewer states using CCSS and the CCSS tests:“The politics have reached the point where they’re getting in the way of actually implementing” the standards, says Andrew Rotherham, cofounder of Bellwether Education Partners, an education research and poli
It Is Time To Revisit Cuomo's Charter School Budget Giveaway
Last legislative session, Governor Cuomo engineered a budget giveaway to his charter school campaign donors, forcing New York City to either co-locate future charter schools in public school buildings or pick up the tab for future charter schools on private property.The charter school giveaway is expected to cost the city as much as $40 million dollars.But Gotham Schools reports that a loophole in
AUG 02
Andrew Cuomo As Richard Nixon
The Nixon parallels for Andrew Cuomo were present well before the Moreland mess - both are known as famously controlling politicians with a penchant for ruling both friends and enemies through fear and intimidation, both had their "time in the wilderness" (Nixon from 1962-1968 after his famous "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore..." concession speech when he lost
More Details On The "Lawyering Up" In The Cuomo Administration
Ken Lovett, Daily News journalist who has reported so much of the Moreland mess before anybody else (including the NY Times expose, much of which Lovett reported in the spring), has some interesting details on how members of the Cuomo administration are getting legal representation: ALBANY - In an unusual move, Gov. Cuomo’s $35 million campaign account, not taxpayers, will pay for a lawyer to repr
Why Andrew Cuomo Has No Friends
Alex Seitz-Wald explaining why everybody hates Cuomo at MSNBC.comThe most obvious culprit of Cuomo’s troubles is his aggressive style. “Everyone here is afraid of him,” said one Democratic strategist, explaining why he (like several others who spoke to msnbc) asked that his name not be used. What looked to voters like ruthlessly pragmatic problem-solving in better times now takes on the darker cas