Results tagged “andrewcuomo”

Music to Governor Paterson's ears? According to Bloomberg News, "New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s campaign fund took tens of thousands of dollars from law firms representing clients his office investigated or accused of wrongdoing, state records show. Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, a New York law firm led by David Boies, gave Cuomo $35,000 this year, records show. The firm represents former American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Maurice 'Hank' Greenberg in a civil fraud case the attorney general is pursuing. Lawyers defending Dell Inc.,Deutsche Bank AG and a former state political party chief in Cuomo cases also contributed to him, records show." Apparently there's a loophole in the donation form that allows lawyers "representing persons or entities with matters before the NYS Attorney General’s office" to donate to his campaign.

From the Post: "Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has opened up a staggering 59-point lead over Gov. Paterson after the embattled governor spent $500,000 on personal TV ads aimed at trying to fix his image... Cuomo extended his already massive lead over Paterson in a potential primary next year for the state's top job. The poll found Cuomo would beat his fellow Democrat 75-16 in a hypothetical 2010 match-up, according to the statewide Siena Research Institute."

While Attorney General Andrew Cuomo won't publicly discuss a potential run for governor next year, the NY Times reports that he's been thinking about the gubernatorial ticket for next year: He "and his advisers have been discussing potential candidates to run alongside him, to present the most appealing Democratic ticket to the electorate, people with knowledge of those discussions said." And one of those potential candidates is...City Comptroller Bill Thompson.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo now has his eyes set on the city's top two hotel developers who have ties with a contractor recently accused of paying construction workers based on their race. Developers Sam Chang and John Lam— who've created thousands of hotel rooms—used contractor Michael Mahoney, who allegedly paid white carpenters $25/hr, blacks $18/hr and Latinos and Brazilians $15/hr, for a number of their projects. A District Council of Carpenters supervisor said: “Sheetrock, lumber, nails, cost pretty much the same for any contractor. But for these greedy people, labor is the difference and success comes off workers' backs."

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo endorsed Comptroller Bill Thompson for mayor today, citing his "years of dedicated public service, his vision for a better future for our City, and his commitment to improving the lives of working families." Of course, reporters were more interested in knowing about Cuomo's own election plans next year, to which the AG said, "Let’s do one race at a time if we can, if that’s possible. Let’s support Bill for the mayor’s race. That’s what we’re here to talk about. Next year we’ll talk about next year.”

What's this? Governor Paterson, who has repeatedly said he will run for governor next year, is reportedly going to "reassess" his chances of winning the race, if his approval ratings continue to suck. A Democratic source told the Daily News, "He's in it, he's planning to put the team together, but he's said if his numbers don't improve by the beginning of the year, he would have to reassess his campaign."

Andrew Cuomo, the frontrunner in all the gubernatorial matchups even though he won't say whether he's running, is having a fundraiser next Tuesday. PolitickerNY has the invite, which says, "Andrew Cuomo is having extraordinary success as Attorney General, and his insights into this year’s elections (and next year's) will be very interesting," and notes that since it takes place during voting hours, it's "Not exactly a shot in the arm for Democrat Bill Thompson's effort that day."

A new Siena poll reveals that voters are still unhappy with Governor Paterson: His job performance is 19% positive, 79% negative and only 15% of respondents want to re-elect him (72% say there should be someone else). Here's something to think about: Rudy Giuliani is gaining on Andrew Cuomo in a hypothetical 2010 gubernatorial matchup: last month, Cuomo got 52% and Giuilani 39% while this month, it's Cuomo 50% and Giuliani 43%. Giuliani beats Paterson 56% to 33%.

In an exclusive interview with NY1, Governor Paterson discussed his 2010 prospects and revealed that he wouldn't mind appearing on Saturday Night Live, which has skewered him repeatedly. In fact, Paterson also dissed the show, "I've offered to come on 'Saturday Night Live' because I thought I would help them get the ratings. Because clearly that humor that they had when they first had Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi... has gone [with] this [current] cast of characters. I thought I would show some benevolence as governor and help them out a little bit."

Some people really heart Andrew Cuomo! From PolitickerNY: "Here's a button that Manhattan resident Robert Eckel, a member of Community Free Democrats, just showed me at the Columbus Day parade. He also showed it to an Cuomo aide, who politely declined to pass it on to Cuomo." And apparently these babies are selling for $2.

Apparently after last week's awkward embrace with President Obama, Governor Paterson has made it policy to keep his friends close and his potential political enemies closer. The two leading state Democrats crossed paths at a ballroom in Buffalo, where they were both giving speeches to a room full of their party mates. Cuomo was leaving as Paterson arrived. Reporters say after the two hugged, the attorney general slapped the governor on the back and said, “OK, buddy, go get ’em.”

Andrew Cuomo came within a hair of missing out on President Obama's now famous public nod the attorney general in Troy on Monday because he was insistent on taking his daughters to school that morning. Good thing Cuomo made it to his unofficial canonization by Obama or else his assistant may have had no use for the anecdote. Instead, it was shared with both local tabloids in their respective Cuomo coming of age bios in this Sunday's papers. When Cuomo learned they were running late for the big Obama greeting, apparently the state's most popular Democrat said, "Oh no. I’m dropping the kids off at school. It’s what I do. And if we miss the president, we miss the president."

Governor Paterson's insistence on running to stay in the governor's mansion next year may have less to do with his concern for the Democrats and more to do with his love of the party. Yesterday the governor explained why he is so headstrong in sticking around despite suggestions to the contrary from some pretty heavy hitters. Paterson said, "It has been the most exciting time in my life. It has been the most challenging time in my life. ... I'm gonna keep doing it until the public tells me it's time to stop."

In yet another bit of bizarrerie coming from the NY Governor's office, Paterson now appears to be denying the story that President Obama requested that he not run for governor next year. In an interview with NY1 Noticias Paterson said, "I never got an authorized invitation from the White House not to run for governor. There was a New York Times article about Congressman Meeks telling me to get out of the race. It never happened. And Congressman Meeks confirmed it on the record."

The statements and actions of President Obama and Governor Paterson in the past few days have made it clear that the de facto Democratic Party leader has given the patriarchal blessing to Andrew Cuomo. Obama began his speech yesterday in Troy thus: "We have special guests here that I want to acknowledge. First of all, a wonderful man, the governor of the great state of New York, David Paterson. Next, your shy and retiring attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, is in the house. Andy is doing great work that has to be done."

On the heels of news that Governor Paterson is one (giant leap of a) step not closer to running for reelection, Rick Lazio is finally ready to give us the craved announcement of the 2010 campaign season—throwing his hat into the govenor's race Tuesday even though he basically all but said it months ago. That will likely soon be followed by Rudy "I'll only beat myself" Giuliani once again making Lazio the sacrificial lamb, this time to Andrew Cuomo. [Newsday]

The only thing falling faster than the acorns on the trees these days is government funding for the embattled community organizing group of the same name. After lopsided votes in both the Senate and the House earlier in the week to cut off federal money from ACORN, yesterday Governor Paterson ordered state agencies not to move forward on contracts with the group.

Real estate developer and free EZ Pass fan David Mack resigned from the MTA Board and Port Authority Board after it was revealed he didn't cooperate with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation of the state police's possible political interference. In fact, Mack pleaded the Fifth Amendment 37 times. According to Cuomo's report, a previous state police superintendent "had been pressured to appoint...Mack, a real estate developer and Pataki fund-raiser, to the uniformed post of deputy superintendent, though Mr. Mack had no law enforcement experience. Mr. Mack went on to appear at official functions in a full dress uniform, angering rank-and-file troopers." (Apparently he's a police buff!) Governor Paterson rescinded his re-nomination of Mack to the Port Authority board and called on him to resign, but Mack refused until yesterday. In his statement, Mack said he was honored to serve the state agencies (and said he did so "diligently and faithfully"), "As I write this note during observances of 9/11, I can’t help but remember eight years ago when both the Port Authority and M.T.A. confronted extraordinarily difficult times.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is continuing to investigate Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch—and he's not very happy with BoA's uncooperative, client-lawyer confidentiality stance! His office sent a letter (PDF) saying that they found four instances where the company failed to disclose "material non-public information to shareholders" (such as Merrill's $9 billion 4th quarter losses, $3.6 billion accelerated bonus payments), "The facts of the cascading losses and bonus payments -- and the facts of Bank of America's senior executives' knowledge of these events -- are straightforward. However ... the decision-making process by which Bank of America and its executives decided not to disclose these material facts to Bank of America's shareholders has been hidden from our investigation by Bank of America's repeated invocation of the attorney-client privilege." Additionally, there are questions surrounding the dismissal of BoA's general counsel: "[Timothy] Mayopoulos was let go the day the bank informed its board that Merrill was bleeding money at an unexpected pace," just days after he discussed the "mounting losses at Merrill Lynch, which were not disclosed to shareholders before the deal closed" with BoA's CFO. Yeah, that's not fishy at all!

Perhaps trying to tweak his rumored 2010 rival Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Governor Paterson said yesterday that maybe Wall Street bonuses aren't so bad. The Daily News reports that over the past few days, the governor has said things like "At the end of the day, when they shut those bonuses down, they were shutting New York State down... That's where we got our taxes," "I understand why the President is mad, but there are actually New York State officials screaming about the bonuses [and] they're killing our tax money...I'll bet if they knew that, they'd stop saying it," and "I'm not saying that anyone did or didn't deserve those bonuses, I'm saying New York State deserves its taxes." Of course, Cuomo has delivered blistering criticism of executive compensation over the past half year. Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf tells the News that if this is Paterson's way of winning support, it's a terrible idea: "If you said to the average New Yorker, 'Let's have pity for Wall Street guys,' they'd say: 'Are you kidding? Let's hang 'em.' Going after AIG and Wall Street is a lot more popular than worrying about state tax dollars."

After Governor Paterson has accused the media of racism as it details his political problems, more and more people are telling Paterson to stop. First it was President Obama—of course Paterson didn't pay any heed to that, later saying, "Part of what I feel is that one very successful minority is permissible, but when you see too many success stories, then some people get nervous,"—and other politicians and commentators. Now it's former NYC mayor David Dinkins, who says, "Definitely he should get off the racist thing. Right or wrong, it’s a fight you sure can’t win."

With the latest poll showing Governor Paterson now trailing Andrew Cuomo by a margin of over 4:1, state Democrats are continuing to quietly take one more step away from the governor and his election hopes while his attention is elsewhere. When asked if polls were giving him pause, Paterson said, “No, but where there is no pause is [in] the seemingly excessive printing of political polls. If there were one or two, I might have actually thought about it, but because there are 50, I’m finding it curiously odd." A new piece on the state of the campaign in the Observer quotes Democratic leaders saying that Paterson's time limit might be the end of the year before officials begin forcing him aside, possibly even sooner before labor leaders call for him not to run. The Paterson campaign seems to be counting on his continued hard-line stance against an unpopular legislature to give him a boost, but few seem to be giving Paterson good odds at gaining much traction against a headstrong state senate. One Democratic chair upstate says, “I’m going to see what Paterson decides. Things could happen. Maybe Obama will appoint him ambassador or something and he won’t run.”

Governor Paterson's prospects at getting elected next year continue to dwindle as the latest poll shows Andrew Cuomo running away with a head-to-head match-up in a landslide. The newest Quinnipiac poll shows Cuomo trouncing the governor by a margin of 61-15% among registered Democrats. Paterson may have hoped to see some gains after a month which he took a hard-line stance against the chaos in the state senate and appointed Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor despite objections to the move's legality. But his poll numbers continue to move the same direction they have throughout all of '09, with only 26% of New Yorkers saying they have a favorable view of the governor. As for Cuomo, he extended his lead in a hypothetical race against Rudy Giuliani to 48-39%—Giuliani has already began showing signs of shying away from a run, something that seems even less likely if Paterson is pushed aside. The governor continues to watch even the black vote slip away from him—with Cuomo now showing a 20 point lead among African-Americans. One prominent Democrat told the News, "I don't know how (Paterson) can run."

African-American groups continue to turn up the heat on officials to dig further into the friendly-fire shooting of NYPD Officer Omar Edwards in the wake of a grand jury's decision not to indict Officer Andrew Dunton. Now the group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care is taking their plea for justice to Governor Paterson, issuing the governor an ultimatum that he appoint a special investigator into the Edwards case or else lose their support in next year's election. A spokesman for the group said, "We're suspicious of the incestuous relationship of the DA's office and the NYPD when it comes to conducting fair and impartial investigations in cases like these...If he will not support us on this, then we will not support him." Paterson had assembled a panel to investigate the shooting soon after it took place in May. A spokesman said the governor is awaiting its findings before taking any further action. Paterson cannot afford to lose any support from important voting blocks going into his bid to stay in office; polls have already shown that he has lost major support from black voters who are becoming more likely to support Andrew Cuomo should he run.

Congress voted yesterday to pass a bill curbing executive bonus pay, attempting to prevent what they call "perverse incentives" for execs in the face of a public outcry that came with news about big bonuses being handed out to bigwigs at some of the Bailout Babies of '08. The bill's passage came on the same day as a well-timed new report from Andrew Cuomo documenting how rampant big bonuses were at places like Citigroup and Goldman Sachs; AIG originally set off the bonus backlash earlier this year. The vote in Congress was primarily down party lines; Democrats tried to emphasize that shareholders would get a say in dictating just how much companies are warranted to dole out. It was also reported yesterday that CEOs have also lost out on another bonus—free lunch at the White House. In order to prevent any conflict of interest, the Obama administration has been billing executives who share a meal inside executive offices with the president. The News says there hasn't been a case of presidential penury since Jimmy Carter started charging Congressmen for coffee and danishes when they came to visit.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a report on bank bonuses, which he had previously sent to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Eldophus Towns, yesterday, and in it, Cuomo continued to criticize Wall Street's compensation methods. The Wall Street Journal says the report gives a "rare window into the pay culture" of Wall Street:

Nine banks that received government aid money paid out bonuses of nearly $33 billion last year -- including more than $1 million apiece to nearly 5,000 employees -- despite huge losses that plunged the U.S. into economic turmoil...

Continue reading "AG Cuomo's Report Blasts Wall Street Bonuses"

With the legal battle over the constitutionality of Richard Ravitch's appointment as lieutenant governor heading back into a Brookly court tomorrow, Governor Paterson has filed papers stating just how essential it is to have Ravitch around as all of this is being decided. Paterson says that Ravitch is "needed as a 'credible bridge' to business and labor." He also filed an affidavit from former governor Hugh Carey, who supported the choice of Ravitch as "a stellar and dedicated public servant." PolitickerNY sums up Paterson's position: "The crux of it is: You should uphold Richard Ravitch's appointment because Richard Ravitch is great." Senate Republicans have said that nothing Paterson has put forth addresses his constitutionality in making the appointment, something that has been criticized by everyone from Andrew Cuomo to Donald Trump. After getting secretly sworn in at Peter Luger's, state courts have gone back and forth as to whether Ravitch can stick around.

To man cave or not to man cave —that's the question Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will face. His office is investigating the use of a workspace off the State Capitol's parking garage as a lounge/drug den, complete with board games, rolling papers and drug scales—allegedly created by two state employees. Cuomo is reportedly showing evidence to a grand jury.

Besides his pitiful poll numbers, Democrats are concerned about another 2010 matter of Governor Paterson's—his campaign money. According to the NY Times, they "worry that Mr. Paterson has not shown discipline in managing his campaign spending or his overall strategy"; the governor has just $5.4 million while Attorney General Cuomo has basically double that. The Times lists many expenses, such as the consultants: Entertainment lawyer and friend "Lisa E. Davis...pulls in $5,000 a month. The governor paid $15,000 to Global Strategy, a consulting firm also used by Eliot Spitzer, before severing his ties with the company. He briefly turned to Judy Smith, a Washington consultant, whose firm was paid $30,000; they parted ways after Ms. Smith was linked to the Paterson administration’s smear campaign against Caroline Kennedy following her aborted Senate candidacy, an episode that damaged the governor’s image." Shouldn't Paterson get a refund on that? A recent hire, Tracy Sefl, "whose firm is paid $20,000 a month, said Mr. Paterson’s new team is committed to keeping expenses down." Expenses like "$1,600 for lodging two staff members on two nights at the Beach House Inn on Shelter Island"?

The latest round of campaign finance numbers do not look good for Governor Paterson. In the first half of this year, Paterson has raised $2.3 million—less than half of what has been banked by Andrew Cuomo, who denies that he even has any plans to run next year. Cuomo has raised $5.1 million over the same span and $10.1 million total to Paterson's $5.4M. Potential attorney general opponents must be shaking in their boots! In an attempt to spin the numbers as less embarrassing for the incumbent governor, a source connected to governor cited his being stuck in Albany during the Senate crisis as costing him over $1 million in events he could not attend while on Gang of Four babysitting duty. But Camp Paterson sees big things in his future—namely, hosting an event for Democratic governors in Saratoga next month. The source told Politicker, "It helps his street cred." Because nothing says street like a formal affair in Saratoga Springs, New York.