Results tagged “thegovernor”

Troopergate was initially about Gov. Spitzer or his aides using State Police to effectually spy on Spitzer's primary political foe in Albany, Joseph Bruno. (The two also don't appear to like each other on a personal level.) The Governor's communications director Darren Dopp was suspended in the course of the investigation and has since left state employ for a job with an Albany lobbying firm.

"With Spitzer, it seems like he’s walked into buzz saws of his own devising." - Richard Norton Smith, biographer of former Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, to the NY Times Today, Governor Spitzer dropped in on the State Assembly Democrats' annual meeting, which has been characterized as being "almost like a pre-game show to the session," held at the Marriott in downtown Brooklyn. According to video from Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily Politics, an almost warm-and-...

After heated debate and almost universal dislike from both parties and many NY residents for his controversial driver's license plan, Governor Spitzer has decided to shelve the idea. He is expected to announce the news today during a meeting with the Democratic congressional delegation, whose recently elected members have criticized the Governor for putting their positions in jeopardy with voters. The Governor spoke to the NY Times, "You have perhaps seen me struggle with it...

(denny farrell, eliot spitzer, andrew cuomo, adriano espaillat, by azipaybarah at flickr)

Earlier this month, the NY Times had an article about how Governor Spitzer seemed "defiant and chastened" about the battles he was having with State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. Now, after the Attorney General's office found that Spitzer's aides had been involved in a dirty-tricks attempt to smear Bruno by using State Police records, the NY Times reports the Spitzer is "at a loss for words" and that he will try to rebuild his image.

“This is going to be seen — and I understand it very clearly — it is going to be seen as more than a blemish,” Mr. Spitzer said in the interview, conducted in his Manhattan office. “My feeling is real loss, both substantively and from a perception perspective, about what we’re trying to do. The perception matters, not just because I’m worried about what’s the public perception of me, but because the perception about what we’re doing affects our capacity to do it.

Continue reading "Spitzer Rethinks the Whole Steamroller Thing"

The NY Times reports that Governor Eliot Spitzer is working on an "ambitious and potentially expensive push to expand health coverage to nearly three million more residents." With 15% of the state's residents uninsured, universal health care was one of Spitzer's campaign promises last year. He has also openly criticized the state's health system, saying billions of dollars are pumped into a "broken system with no deliverables and no accountability."

Talk about timing! Governor Eliot Spitzer visited an Albany child care center and got a photo op with some kids, which could only help take the attention off his bitter feud with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno. But we wonder if these tots have been paying attention to the news: The Post reports that when Spitzer told them to call him "Eliot," one kid declined and said, "I want to call you 'clown,'" a suggestion three of his classmates thought was swell.

MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow announced that he is stepping down from his position as chairman of the MTA. Kalikow, who was appointed by then Governor George Pataki back in 2001, was reappointed to a 6-year term last summer, which suggested there might be battles ahead between him and new governor Eliot Spitzer. But at the end of 2006, Kalikow said he would step down during the second quarter of this year, after finishing up some projects, like the Second Avenue Subway. Here are some quotes from the MTA press release:

“I am a firm believer in setting aggressive goals, accomplishing those goals and then giving others the opportunity to both expand upon those initiatives and create new ones with fresh vision and new energy,” said Kalikow. “As both a longtime public servant and an avid supporter of term limits as a means to maintain healthy and effective government leadership, I believe the public will be best served by my decision.”

Continue reading "MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow Announces Resignation"

Governor Elliot Spitzer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo are not ones to leave their tax filing to the last second. In an Albany tradition of making NY state politicians' returns public, the pair opened their books to the press Friday. 1010 WINS reported the details. While the pay for public servants is relatively low in comparison to what attorneys in private practice could make, neither Spitzer nor Cuomo are feeling the pinch. Spitzer made a little more than $145,000 as NY's Attorney General last year, but announced a 2006 income of $1.9 million. The Governor's father was a successful real estate developer, and Spitzer declared $1.4 million of his annual income was derived from rental properties. His wife, who's a practicing attorney for a non-profit agency, does not collect any salary.

Governor Eliot Spitzer announced a new plan to overhaul the state's workers' compensation program. Joined by smiling Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Leader Joseph Bruno, Spitzer called the deal "a remarkable win-win situation for both workers and employers."

- While being extorted, a contractor actually wrote "Extortion" on the check stub on one of his payments

Governor James McGreevey announced yesterday that he was stepping down as Governor of the Garden State yesterday in a press conference where he also announced that he was gay. With support from his ex-wife and current wife, McGreevey said he had his feelings since adolescence and that the truth was that he was "a gay American", that he "engaged in an adult consensual affair with another man", and that "given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign."