Spin Cycle

Sen. Dean Skelos’ ascent will make him the sole suburbanite and the only Republican among the three men who run New York government.

In this way, the 60-year-old majority leader from Rockville Centre instantly becomes the odd man out at a table with two Manhattan Democrats, Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Be warned, however: This three-way dynamic can prove surprising by sparking personal dramas that defy party and geography.

As governor, Democrat Mario Cuomo sometimes seemed to get along better with the GOP-run Senate than with the Democratic-run Assembly. Retiring Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) repeatedly sided with Silver against Republican George Pataki. And during the short tenure of Eliot Spitzer, the ruling troika split clearly and bitterly along party lines — but only after Silver and Bruno bucked Spitzer in tandem to install Nassau’s Thomas DiNapoli as comptroller.

Former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, who’s known Skelos for decades, predicted yesterday that Skelos “will be a strong constructive opposition to the governor. He’s not going to oppose him just to oppose him, and he will be a strong partner when he can be.”

First, Skelos’ majority — now at 32-30 — needs to survive the next election. This year’s budget and most other legislative business already have concluded.

Skelos comes to power as nominations are being locked in for state legislative seats, in a year many believe looks bleak for the state GOP.

Joseph Mondello, the state and Nassau party chairman, praised colleague Skelos but sounded less than certain of victory ...

Dan Janison

After returning from the Tim Russert funeral in Washington D.C. this afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to address a gathering on the environment in Manhattan hosted by Chadbourne & Parke, LLP.

At that firm, former Gov. George Pataki, who once counted Bloomberg as a fellow Republican elected official, heads up the "Climate Change" team with his former top state aide John Cahill.

Hey -- maybe this can be milked for more heedless speculation about Bloomberg and the governorship, for which, he reiterated this week, he is NOT running -- regardless of the comic opera involving Gov. David Paterson's "private" statements blasting the lame-duck mayor.

Dan Janison

The ouster of the New York Power Authority’s chief executive appears related in part to an uproar over the agency’s former inspector general, who’s the focus of a widely-publicized state-police probe headedby Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Insiders expect Roger Kelley’s Aug. 1 departure as the authority’s president to clear the way for Gov. David Paterson to tap Richard Kessel (left), the former Long Island Power Authority chairman, for the post which paid Kelley (right), an appointee of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, $235,000 a year. Mark Harrington's full story is here.

Cuomo’s office has been inquiring about NYPA’s ex-inspector general, Daniel Wiese, a former top state police official once close to both Spitzer and Gov. George Pataki, and his handling of an authority security contract. Sources believe this was the last in a series of issues that battered the CEO.

Dan Janison

News items in recent days about a purported effort to unseat Joseph Mondello as state Republican leader seem shrouded, at best, by a political version of “Rashomon effect” in which recollections of the same matter differ by what a person is pre-disposed to believe.

Late last week, published reports -- all attributed to unidentified sources – had it that Tony Carbonetti, the right-hand man of former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, would make a move to become state chairman, and that current NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg met with departing upstate Congressman Tom Reynolds in a move to make him new party leader.

Parts of the puzzle were that Giuliani is in debt from his failed presidential effort, Bloomberg’s team was trying to keep him politically relevant and maybe prod him to run for governor, and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno recently hired a Giuliani man, Matthew Mahoney, to direct GOP state Senate campaigns.

But Giuliani and Carbonetti have assured Mondello that no such intrigue is afoot – and this denial actually sounds very plausible. Though Mondello and Giuliani weren’t exactly buds in the past, they did work closely last year when Mondello lined up the state organization to endorse Giuliani for president, a fact not lost on the ex-mayor. Giuliani had high praise for Mondello at the recent state GOP dinner.

For various reasons it also seems less than 50-50 that either former-Republican Bloomberg or more-than-ever-Republican Giuliani will run for governor in 2010 -- though of course you can never prove a negative, especially when someone's ambitions might change. Meanwhile, some Mondello-ites believe this is all mischief inspired by those around the chairman's old nemesis, the disappeared ex-Gov. George Pataki.

After the GOP dinner on May 29, Bruno was asked about the prospects of Rep. Peter King running for governor. Bruno, who has been a consistent backer of Mondello, said: ““We’ve got some great candidates in Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Rudy Giuliani, Peter King, you name it.”

The season of strange speculation begins. Stories so far were published here , here, here and here.

Dan Janison

The upcoming retirement of Judith Kaye, after 15 years as top judge on the state’s highest court, has sparked intense speculation over a successor. And a back-chamber battle for the prized appointment may be brewing.

When David Paterson became governor last month, Jonathan Lippman, at right, had widely been considered the favorite. He’s served since 1996 as the chief administrative judge running the massive court system — the longest tenure to date in the post. A Kaye appointee, he’s credited with many initiatives, including the introduction of specialty courts and rule reforms.

But state sources say Theodore T. Jones, Jr., at left, is emerging as a leading contender to succeed Kaye in leading the 7-member Court of Appeals. Jones joined the court in February of last year, an Eliot Spitzer nominee. Before that he served for many years as a state Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn.

If tapped, Jones would be the court’s first African-American chief judge.

Some suggest another name in play may be Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, an appointee of Gov. Mario Cuomo, who’s served on the court since January 1994. She’d be its first Latina chief judge.

Kaye reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 this year. A Cuomo nominee, she became the court’s first female judge in 1983. Today, four of the judges are women, two chosen by Republican Gov. George Pataki.

Court watchers note that Paterson’s counsel is James Yates, who’s served as a state Supreme Court justice — and has himself been on lists of envied eligibles for the high court.

Dan Janison

The six-member State Investigation Commission, probing earlier probes of the disgraced Eliot Spitzer’s Choppergate farce, is supposed to include no more than three members of the same political party. But ex-Gov. George Pataki was able to appoint his longtime aide, Republican John Cahill, to the panel because Alfred Lerner, a longtime Republican, re-registered as an unaffiliated voter. So the real mix is 4-2 Republican.

Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s report on Choppergate last summer didn’t make the SIC’s publicized critique list. But the SIC would seem likely to chat with the Cuomo team once it hears outgoing Spitzer Inspector General Kristine Hamann’s story about how her probe was supposed to link up with his. Stay tuned.

Dan Janison

Homeowners, especially those caught in today's mortgage crisis, know that big borrowing can prove as burdensome as big spending.

Government leaders can draw the same lesson from the upcoming fare and toll hikes. These were set in motion, for the most part, under Gov. George Pataki, as his administration relied more on borrowing and less on tax funds to maintain the region's mass transit system.

The various fare jumps on the Long Island Rail Road and regional bus and subways take effect in March, along with toll hikes on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's bridges and tunnels. Despite some hue and cry last week as the authority voted for the increases, nobody should have been surprised. In 2005, the authority's then-director Katherine Lapp was quoted in Newsday as saying fare hikes would occur every couple of years to cover jumps in operating costs. Today $1.5 billion of the authority's $10 billion budget goes to debt service, a cost that will approach $2 billion by 2010.

Dan Janison

Former Gov. George Pataki dropped by Fred Thompson's Monday night Conservative Party shindig for about 10 minutes, but it was long enough to say he’s not yet decided whom he’ll back in the presidential race he once toyed with joining.

“I expect at some point to become active in the race,” said Pataki, who is serving as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly -- about which he made sure tell assembled reporters. “Right now I’m concentrating on doing my best for the entire country.”

Reid J. Epstein

Liz Benjamin reports Assemblly Speaker Sheldon Silver's remarks on the failure to have dismantled the former Deutsche Bank building in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks -- thus, perhaps, taking a bit of pressure off the current, Democratic governor whose office seems to be thrashing around on this crisis....

Before the recent "Choppergate" storm, state official William Howard reported to the deputy secretary for homeland security, Nassau's Michael Balboni. Howard, who gained deep knowledge of state operations as a top-rung aide to Gov. George Pataki, told Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigators that he purposely kept Balboni, a former GOP senator, unaware (as did suspended spokesman Darren Dopp, apparently) of plans to tarnish Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

Balboni's fans say he does believe in delegating. But a skeptic in law enforcement asks, "With two Republicans in the place, one works for the other, and you mean to say they never discussed this?" Presuming they didn't, Howard's role fell outside the formal chain of command - an awkward turn for Balboni.

Joe Mondello, the Nassau and state GOP chairman, becomes the lightning rod for Republican complaints in this account -- just five months after he inherited a depleted party in the wake of Gov. George Pataki's departture.

One upstate Republican recently noted that governors always leave their state parties in shambles after multi-term incumbencies; witness the aftermath of both Nelson Rockefeller and Mario Cuomo. But someone is undoubtedly unhappy early on with Mondello. Could it have anything to do with the potential upstate-downstate rivalry within the Republican Senate conference?

Dan Janison

Former Gov. George Pataki appeared on Montel Williams’ daytime talk show today, called "The American Dream…Shattered?"

While he didn’t announce his presidential plans, Pataki did share his opinions of the current candidates.

"Take a look at Edwards or Obama. What is their experience? When have they truly been tested? When have they been called upon to lead in times of crisis?" he asked. "John McCain has served this country, and served in Washington very well as a bipartisan, nonpartisan leader. Rudy Guiliani. He was tested on September 11. The country saw that he was able to rise to the occasion and bring people together."

"What we need in Washington now are leaders who have a proven record of being able to deal with challenges and crises and who can work across party lines," he added.

Melissa Mansfield

Those jaded by having watched his years in Albany were unsurprised to hear that there is something former Gov. George Pataki is not doing.

But for those still interested, IowaPolitics.com offers the latest evidence that Pataki is stepping up his effort to not run for president. The Web site names one state pol who has announced his departure from the Pataki committee, to work for Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, and it reports that "more departures are likely in the days ahead."

Pataki this month signed on with a big New York City law firm.

Dan Janison

Gov. George Pataki has surfaced. He will be associated with the firm Chadbourne & Parke, as announced here.

His future beyond the immediate? Still tough to say... Nobody's out there predicting he'll surpass Giuliani and McCain in the GOP primary any time soon.

Dan Janison

Early in his inaugural address, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said:

"I want to thank Governor Pataki for joining in this time-honored tradition as the reins of state government pass from his careful stewardship... We are honored by the presence of... my colleagues in state government, Speaker Shelly Silver and Senator Joe Bruno and the members of their respective chambers."

Later in the address, Spitzer said:

"Like Rip Van Winkle... New York has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by... Some public officials may not want to face stricter ethics rules and more competitive elections, but all citizens will win when we finally get a government that puts the people’s interests, openness and integrity first."

They’re both Democratic congresswomen from New York State who happen to have the same first name.
But Gov. George Pataki this morning mistakenly identified the wrong one at a news conference at Grand Central terminal. It was Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, from Nassau’s 4th district, not Carolyn Maloney, from the 14th district of Manhattan and Queens, who attended.
McCarthy apparently noticed the gaffe but Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced her correctly later.
Afterwards, a McCarthy aide said Maloney had also been expected at the event, which probably accounted for the confusion.

Emi Endo

The hosts of “Inside Albany,” the public-television show that chronicles New York State government, told viewers today that it will end Dec. 31 after more than 30 years on the air.
Lise Bang-Jensen and David Hepp cited rising costs, a small staff and tight budgets for the weekly program’s demise. “While costs have increased, our budget and staff have not,” they said in a posting on the show’s Web site. “The frustration of not being able to cover more stories and the strain of running a business while running after news has caused us to decide to end Inside Albany’s long run.”


James T. Madore

For a political player, there is really no free boost like presidential speculation.
Think about it: In the short and shallow conversations that abound in the electoral world, the first association one makes within a half-second of hearing the player's name sets the tone of the chat. Mention the name George Pataki, for example, at a gathering of casually-interested government wags, campaign consultants or media types, and there's a good chance someone will ask just why he's running around Iowa and New Hampshire and does he really think he can win and oh, maybe he's making himself available for veep and blah blah blah.
Now imagine if Pataki spent his time on the chill in Garrison. The half-second semi-thought in the buzz-world might produce: What year did he really leave office and why did spending go up so much on his watch and look how the GOP ran down under him, an gee, hadn't he been sick -- thus spawning a more negative dose of blah-blah-blah. If you were the gov...

Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is expected to announce shortly that Jeffrey Lovell, one of Gov. George Pataki's closest advisers, will take over for Mary Louise Mallick as the Senate Finance Committee's secretary. In that role Lovell will be the chief fiscal adviser for the GOP side of the chamber.

Errol A. Cockfield Jr.

After claiming a record victory in last night's election, Governor-Elect Eliot Spitzer and Gov. George Pataki appeared together today and said their staffs are working together to ensure a smooth transition for leadership of the state.
"I have absolute confidence that the state of New York will be in very good hands for the next four years," Pataki said at a noon press conference where he also spoke favorably of Spitzer's record as attorney general.
Though both men were jovial in welcoming Spitzer to the club of New York governor's, Spitzer said, "The issues ahead are significant and serious." He said he will turn to Pataki for guidance because he trusts Pataki's judgment.
Errol A. Cockfield Jr.

Gov. George Pataki has canceled a presidential-campaign trip to Iowa to supervise recovery efforts in Buffalo, where a huge snowstorm crippled the region and knocked out many residents' electric power.
Pataki had been scheduled to campaign in Waterloo, Vinton and Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa.

Does anyone find the government’s position inconsistent on how it handles the deaths of U.S. service members in Iraq and Afghanistan?
The federal government does not allow the media to photograph the caskets as they are brought back to American soil.
Yet, Gov. George Pataki, who is running for president, is attending wakes in Queens and Brooklyn tonight for slain soldiers, and both are listed on his official public schecule that is distributed to the media.
And Pataki is not the only pol who does it.

Bill Murphy

Gov. George Pataki’s presidential campaign can count on the support of State Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).
During a bill signing ceremony Friday in Nassau County, Skelos recalled sitting next to Pataki in the Senate for one year and working together on crime prevention bills. “It’s a little bit emotional when I’m here with the governor because as you know he is not running again,” Skelos said outside the police headquarters in Rockville Centre.
“But certainly he has a wonderful record that he could show and people could model in other parts of the country - Iowa, New Hampshire,” Skelos said, referring to the critical early states in the presidential nominating process.
The spectators responded with polite laughter.
“And we will be following it very closely,” Skelos continued.
Pataki responded: “Suffolk County”
Skelos said: “Suffolk County”
More laughter from the guests.

James T. Madore

As the flooding in upstate New York cut off roads, swallowed homes and claimed the lives of two truck drivers, Gov. George Pataki was reminded he is governor for another six months.

Pataki had planned to make a swing through New Hampshire and Connecticut today as part of his fledgling presidential bid, but he abandoned those plans as storms worsened.

Pataki visited the affected areas this afternoon. “Homes have been lost,” he said during an appearance on CNN. “We have had to evacuate thousands of people.”

Errol A. Cockfield Jr.

Gov. George Pataki was in New Hampshire and Iowa over the weekend. Pataki’s critics say he’s been lukewarm in his support of statewide candidates in this year’s election, but the governor, who is eyeing a White House bid, has been especially vocal about helping political contenders in Iowa, site of the first presidential party caucuses.

Some might disagree with his assertion that he’s made it easier for a Republican to compete in New York given poll numbers that show Democrats far ahead of their Republican competitors.

In New Hampshire on Friday Pataki carefully threaded a needle, saying he supports tough measures against illegal immigration, but is against passport requirements on vehicles traveling from Canada into the U.S. because he believes that would slow commerce.

Later in the day, Pataki, who has put together a team of advisors in Iowa to help his White House pursuits, pressed the flesh with attendees at the Iowa state Republican convention. But the governor, a moderate who has been attacked by conservatives within his own party for spending increases in New York, faces an uphill battle in mobilizing support.

Errol A. Cockfield Jr.