The .0003% Potemkin WFP Party
There is no doubt that the WFP is the most powerful party in New York politics today, after taking over City Hall making the govern of the empire state gravel on video to gain their support. What is at question is who does the Working Families Party represent and how do they operate. In a city that has 8,337,000 residents, the WFP has 2529 active members that voted in the 2013 election, just .0003% of NYC voting population. Political parties in NYC were designed by district to give a voice to each neighborhood in the city. At the height of the Tammany Hall Democratic Party, there were over 400 clubs representing the neighborhood in the city. Many in the same neighborhood competing against each other. There’s was more to the Tammany Hall story than corruption. Tammany Hall’s leaders delivered social services and took care of the residents of their district problems. They massaged justice at a time when the poor did not have access to public defenders. They gave food and jobs to the poor. In short Tammany Hall power came from delivering services to the voters. Political parties today like the WFP gain their power by controlling ballot access, campaign workers and money. Bloomberg paid millions for the GOP and Independent party line when he was mayor. Malcolm Smith tried to buy the GOP line from two party leaders who are under indictment. Not only are registered voter in the Independence Party not receiving the services that Tammany Hall democratic were provided at the turn of the century, but as the Daily News proves over and over again those IP registered voters have no idea they belong to a real party.
WFP Making the Progressive Movement into A Cult or Fad That Cuts Out Its Traditional Reform Services Roots to A Narrow Union Protection Racket
Yesterday lifelong progressive wrote that the WFP was exploited by the union interests that bankroll it. "With de Blasio and the UFT-financed Working Families Party as allies, the union is hijacking the very language of progressive movement politics, annexing left journalism to defend its narrowest interests and even recruiting progressives to join its war against charter schools that work for kids." Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labour began her reform of America's labor laws working side by side with Tammany Hall to reform the city's building code after the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Perkins came to Roosevelt's cabinet from a career championing workers' rights. An outspoken graduate from Mount Holyoke, she began work as a social reformer in New York well before women won the right to vote. A defining moment was the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911: 146 garment workers, most of them young immigrant women, died as an overcrowded factory burned down in Greenwich Village. Perkins, who had been having tea with friends nearby, witnessed the tragedy from the pavement, watching young women leap to their deaths from the upper floors. She vowed to redouble her efforts and became an adept political operator, working with the famously corrupt Democrats in Tammany Hall.
The WFP Took Over Politics Because the Other Parties in the City Are Not Real Also
The Independence Party has no power to win votes. It candidate the only Latino in the race in the 2013 mayoral campaign got less than 1% of the vote in the general election. The GOP is down to just 6 elected officials in a city with over 130 elected positions. Most importantly the leadership of the city's dominant Democratic Party has lost the ability to work together and elect citywide candidates. Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg, the loss of the council speaker position by Queens Boss Crowley and the fact that not democratic county leader supported de Blasio for mayor in the primary. Show you just how out of touch the democrats aging party leadership has become.
The WFP took advantage of the weakness of the city's other parties and low voter participation, by putting together a smart and sharp coalition with the unions that knows how to run campaigns and has no fear about breaking election laws to elect their candidates or threatening primaries against candidates that don't follow their orders. The WFP campaigns against the IDC candidates this year show how aggressive and coordinated their quest for power has become. The Data and Field scandal in 2009 and the NYCLASS scandal show how their coalition willingness to violated election laws to gain power. The buzz in political circles has been that anyone of these two scandals could take down the WFP, even the mayor. But the Buzz today is that the Yoda governor can accomplish the begin of the destruction of the WFP with one move.
Competition On the Left is the Way to Stop or Slow Down the WFP Invasion of New York's Government
Listening to an interview on Cassimatis’ round table today with Exec. Dir. of the Liberal Party Martin Hassner, one get the feeling that it would be OK with the party if Cuomo also ran on his its line this year. By agreeing to run on the Liberal line Cuomo not only gives the party back a permanent ballot line, but set up competition to a party and coalition that has pushed him or tried to push him around, on issues like charter schools, the IDC-GOP Senate coalition and increasing taxes. It would also make some of Cuomo's GOP money people very happy. Some say that Zephyr Teachout run as a democrat, with a WFP operative as her campaign manager, is an insurance policy by the WFP leadership to keep Cuomo from taking the Liberal Line. Stay Tuned. What is clear is that when comparing the role of political parties today with the Tammany Hall era, the corruption is the same, but instead of serving the voters like Boss Tweed or Boss de Sapio did, modern day party leaders are all about deceiving the voters.
Power Struggle Inside WFP
Also: Liveries react as Schneiderman wades into taxi fight; NYC vs. London: airport edition. Michael McGuire, director of the Mason Tenders' District Council PAC, has been exploring the idea of creating a “labor caucus” within the Working Families Party. The idea would be for deep-pocketed unions that fund much of the WFP's operations to have a more unified voice in party endorsement decisions and other matters.
True News Wags the NYP On WFP's 50,000 Vote Problem
True News Wrote Yesterday That WFP Might Have Jumped the Shark By Backing Cuomo, Today the NYP Copied the 50,000 Vote Problem
Cuomo’s creation of the Women’s Equality Party could potentially put at risk the Working Families Party’s 50,000 votes needed to stay on the ballot another four years despite the fact that they endorsed Cuomo, which only highlights the corruption of cross-endorsement ballot systems,
the Post writes:
Did WFP Jump the Shark By Backing Cuomo?
“Women are actually the vast majority of voters in New York state, and I don’t think we should be pigeonholed in a separate party,” Scharff said on “Capitol Tonight,” an upstate cable-TV news show. “Women should be voting on the WFP line.” Said another WFP insider: “The Women’s Equality Party is Cuomo’s F U to the WFP.” The WFP awarded Cuomo its line after much wrangling, hoping to run up its vote totals Nov. 4 — an election that determines ballot position over the next four years. With disaffected leftists upset at Cuomo, WFP officials are conceding privately that the Green Party will likely surpass the WFP’s vote totals with little-known UPS worker Howie Hawkins as its gubernatorial candidate. Hawkins received about 60,000 votes — or 1 percent — as the Green candidate in 2010. Cuomo received 155,000 votes on the WFP line and 146,000 on the Independence Party line four years ago. Most of his 2.9 million votes, of course, came on the Democratic line.
Bertha Lewis A Founder of WFP In the Battle to Save It
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The Real WFP Starts to Be Exposed
Cuomo Used WFP Willingness to Make Deals With Power Players Who Do Not Agree With Them To Out and Destroy Them
Cuomo Accepts WFP Endorsement
(You didn’t think it was an accident that the Cuomo-created Women’s Equality Party [WEP] might be mistaken for the WFP on Tuesday, now did you?) Which is not setting well with true-believing, leftward-tilting Democrats like Teachout and activist Bill Samuels, who flirted with a primary run of his own last spring. Teachout, still an enrolled Democrat, is refusing to endorse the party ticket while Samuels complains bitterly about the governor to anybody who’ll listen: “[Cuomo’s] politically reckless behavior is endangering Senate Democrats” — which, in the end, seems rather to be the point.
After de Blasio Got Cuomo His WFP Endorsement the Gov Went to War Against A Democratic Take Over the Senate
Glowing endorsement from Zuckerman (just 6 words onMoreland) MT @melissadderosa: "@NYDailyNews endorses Cuomo..." (NYDN Ed) * Marist Poll shows Gov. Cuomo maintaining wide lead overRepublican Rob Astorino(NYDN) * Cuomo: Women's Equality line isn't about punishing Working Families Party * An NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll findsCuomo leading Republican challenger Rob Astorino by almost two to one among likely voters, despite a lukewarm 44 percent job approval rating: * Cuomo dismissed as a “really tortured analysis” criticism that he is urging people to vote for him on his Women’s Equality Party ballot line in order to destroy the Working Families Party, the Daily News reports * State Sen. Liz Krueger stepped up her criticism of Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Party push, calling an email from the governor urging voters to support him on the new party’s ballot line “disturbing,” State of Politicsreports: * The Working Families Party got a boost from Whoopi Goldberg, who in a video touted the “progressive party” that’s helped elect officials who passed measures like paid sick leave and living wages, State of Politics reports: * Cuomo pointed to a poll showing broad popular support for his controversial decision to quarantine health workers returning from Ebola-ravaged African nations as justification for the policy, the Observerreports: * Cuomo’s teacher fight linked to non-help for Senate Dems (Capital) Dovetails with legislative alliances * Weingarten: Gov’s ‘monopoly’ comments campaign rhetoric (Capital)* Whoopi Goldberg cut a video for the Working Families Party,which is struggling to survive Cuomo *
The hometown newspaper of both Gov. Cuomo and his GOPopponent Rob Astorino has endorsed...Cuomo. * "Anything can happen, but I believe the Democrats are going to win the State Senate," Cuomo tells reporters after a rally in
Rockland County* Cuomo's minor-party setup: Heads he wins, tails WFP loses (Newsday)* Randy Credico @Credico2016 The @WorkingFamilies party's pimp Cuomo snubs them for WEP, another virtual party *
A new set of polls indicate Republicans are likely to winthe Senate majority on Tuesday.(NYDN)
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Is the NYT Trying to Mislead New Yorkers on the WFP?
Does the Staten Island WFP Investigation Have Anything to Do With Wolfe Taking Time Off From City Hall?
2009 WFP . . . Data and Field . . . Wolfe . . .
Connecting to 2013 Spending Limits
Prosecutor investigating Working Families Party sought interview with de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe
A special prosecutor investigating the Working Families Party’s relationship with get-out-the-vote corporation Data & Field Services wants to interview Emma Wolfe, an aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Wall Street Journal reports: Since 2012, the prosecutor, Roger Bennett Adler, has been investigating the Working Families Party's relationship with Data & Field Services, a corporation formed by the left-leaning party to provide its candidates with get-out-the-vote staffing and expertise. Investigators are looking at whether the for-profit firm charged significantly lower fees than is typical for such service, potentially providing an unfair advantage to favored candidates.
WFP Lawyering Up To Stop An Investigation
According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Adler last fall sought an interview with Ms. Wolfe, who was then deputy manager and political director of Mr. de Blasio's mayoral campaign and is now his director of intergovernmental affairs. There were discussions with an attorney representing Ms. Wolfe to arrange the interview, but the interview has yet to take place, these people said. Ms. Wolfe was a key player in Mr. de Blasio's 2009 campaign for public advocate and served as his chief of staff when he was in that position. She previously worked as an organizing and field director for the Working Families Party. The party has said its support for candidates in 2009 was legal and is seeking to have Mr. Adler removed from the investigation, arguing in court papers that the process used to select him was unlawful. The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, is slated to hear arguments in the case on Tuesday. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office probed the party's ties to Data & Field Services in 2010, but that probe has ended. Dan Donovan, the district attorney in Staten Island, also began investigating and later recused himself from the probe. Mr. Donovan's request for a special prosecutor, which was granted, is under seal. Joe Dinkin, a spokesman for the party, said the legal requirements for appointing the special prosecutor weren't followed."The appointment should be voided and the matter returned to the DA," he said.
The Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine
The Old Tammany Hall Machine was corrupt as corrupt as the lobbyists who have run today's New York's political system. But the machine of the Boss Tweed era was far more responsive to voters and the communities that it served. Terry Golway recent book explained how Tammany Hall depended on voter turnout for power. To get votes the old machine offered services, provided jobs and protected the neighborhood where their votes came from. Tammany Hall governing style was responsible for creating New York's strong Neighborhoods of old. Tammany leader George Washington Plunkitt — the man who coined the phrase “honest graft” — met with constituents and lesser Tammany officials in his district several times a week to find out who was happy with Tammany’s services and who required some special attention. Today's lobbyist's controlled private machine gain power by getting electing candidates and feeding them with campaign contributions from their clients who are looking for city contracts or zoning changes, they never meet the voters.
Lobbyists Political Consultants Have At First Worked Side by Side With Party Bosses to Cut Themselves Into Election System . . . They Are Now in the Process of Cutting Out Those Party Machines Who Brought Them In
Today's Lobbyist Private Political Machine did not replace the old Tammany Hall. It replaced political parties machine running on fumes, using the election low and decreasing voter's turnout to stay in power. The dumbing down of the press and the voting public and the end of organized political competition after the Eleanor Roosevelt who pushed out Tammany's de Sapio and the anti-Viet Nam reform movement, have left party bosses in power unchallenged.
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WFP Tries to Duck Subpoenas to Delay Case Which is Close to Statue of Limitations
Are WFP Case Subpoenas Legal?(YNN) A key union affiliate of the Working Families Party is questioning the legality of the latest round of subpoenas issued by a special prosecutor investigating the labor-backed organization’s 2009 campaign activities. In an Aug. 5 letter to the special prosecutor, Roger Adler, the attorney for political action committee of the Communications Workers of America noted that by sending a July 1 subpoena to the union’s political arm, Adler was “proceeding as if that were a valid grand jury subpoena.” But in an Aug. 4
interview with Capital New York, Adler said “Grand Jury Number Two” in this long-standing case would not be impaneled until Friday, Sept. 5. That was consistent with a claim made in an email to the CWA PAC attorney, James Reif, of Gladstein Reif and Meginniss, in which, Reif wrote to Adler, “you stated that the Richmond County Grand Jury will begin taking testimony on September 5, 2014.” An attorney for Staten Island Councilwoman Debi Rose
confirmed to The Staten Island Advance Aug. 5 that Rose had also received a subpoena, is not a target of Adler’s investigation and would also be “cooperating fully” with the special prosecutor.According to the Advance, Adler had also issued subpoenas to the WFP itself, the NYC Campaign Finance Board, 32 BJ SEIU, and District Council 37.
How the WFP is Trying to Stop the Special Prosecutor
The Working Families Party is trying to stop an investigation of a city council election launched by Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, the prosecutor's ex parte application to be relieved of the case, and a judge's decision to grant the motion and appoint a special prosecutor without revealing why. Working Families Party v. Fisher, 59, centers on a probe Donovan launched into a 2009 City Council campaign and apparently involves the party's use of a not-for-profit arm to promote liberal Democrats. The WFP has challenged Donovan's authority to recuse himself and Fisher's authority to relieve the district attorney without "a showing of actual prejudice based on a demonstrated conflict of interest," as mandated by County Law §701. The Appellate Division, Second Department, last August rejected the party's petition and affirmed the appointment of Adler. It held that a writ of prohibition is suitable to challenge the appointment of a special district attorney only if the special D.A. is performing a quasi-judicial function, as opposed to conducting an investigation. In another case in the past WFP lawyer Avi Schick has been trying to quash subpoenas from a special prosecutor that involve a 2009 council race on Staten Island. *
Boot special prosecutor in S.I. election probe, Working Families Party tells court(SI Advance)
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Winds of A Major WFP Investigation
New York City’s Campaign Finance Board is employing high-powered law firm Debevoise and Plimpton in connection with a special prosecutor's probe into the labor-backed Working Families Party, Crain’s reports Special prosecutor, Roger Adler, was set to empanel a grand jury Sept. 5 and had issued subpoenas. Campaign Finance Board officials may be called to testify. The criminal probe centers on whether a consulting firm set up by the Working Families Party, Data & Field Services, undercharged favored candidates for campaign services in 2009. The Campaign Finance Board has recently been using the law firm, Debevoise and Plimpton, in dealing with Mr. Adler’s probe, sources said.
New York City’s Campaign Finance Board is employing high-powered law firm Debevoise and Plimpton in connection with a special prosecutor's probe into the labor-backed Working Families Party
Will de Blasio be Subpoenaed?
The Campaign Finance Board audits all campaigns for City Council, borough president and citywide offices, and is known for scrupulously going through candidates' expenditure reports. Staten Island Councilwoman Deborah Rose, one of the WFP-backed candidates in 2009, won a Democratic primary for her seat nearly five years ago—but the Campaign Finance Board still hasn’t released an audit of the campaign, which attracted special scrutiny because of a related lawsuit filed against it.he hiring of outside counsel also demonstrates the potential conflicts within city government that could arise out of the investigation. Mayor Bill de Blasio helped found the Working Families Party back in 1998, and one of his top aides Emma Wolfe has reportedly been sought for questioning by Mr. Adler. Mr. de Blasio was also a client of Data & Field Services during his successful 2009 run for public advocate. Those potentials conflicts would make it more difficult for the CFB to use the city’s corporation counsel, Zachary Carter, who was appointed by Mr. de Blasio. The chairwoman of the Campaign Finance Board, Rose Gill Hearn, was appointed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg on his second to last day in office last year. She had been running the Department of Investigation.
Will the WFP's Data and Field Cover Up Be Exposed By These Two Men?
A 5-year-old investigation of the Working Families Party is back on track with a special prosecutor issuing subpoenas in his probe for alleged campaign abuses. “This is not meant to be a fishing expedition,” said Roger Adler, who was appointed when Staten Island DA Dan Donovan recused himself from the case. “It’s meant to be targeted to people who have relevant information.” Adler is looking into allegations that City Council member Debi Rose, who was backed by the WFP, received improper support from the party’s for-profit campaign arm, Data and Field Services, during the 2009 election that made her the council’s first black lawmaker from Staten Island. According to a lawsuit filed by voters against the party, the WFP’s campaign arm provided discounted consulting and get-out-the-vote services to Rose’s campaign that were never disclosed, a violation of campaign-finance laws. Adler said he has issued subpoenas to the WFP, the Campaign Finance Board, SEIU Local 1199 and the Communications Workers of America.* Albany County DA David Soares
says he’s cooperating fully with the federal probe into the Moreland Commission’s demise.
Rose Campaign Paid $100,000 + to Berlin Rosen the Spokesman for de Blasio One NY Fund
Here Comes the WFP Investigation Melt Down
A special prosecutor has begun issuing subpoenas in the long-stalled investigation into the 2009 campaign activities of the Working Families Party, with a grand jury scheduled to be impaneled next month. (Capital)
The NYT Reports on the Ending of the WFP Investigation in 2010 But Not the Opening of It Again in 2014
Bharara Talks Corruption
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said that the culture of corruption in Albany will only change when the public says enough is enough, Gannett Albany reports:
WFP's Lawyers and Political Operatives Have Worked Hard to Stop the Data and Field Investigation
According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Adler last fall sought an interview with Ms. Wolfe, who was then deputy manager and political director of Mr. de Blasio's mayoral campaign and is now his director of intergovernmental affairs. There were discussions with an attorney representing Ms. Wolfe to arrange the interview, but the interview has yet to take place, these people said. Ms. Wolfe was a key player in Mr. de Blasio's 2009 campaign for public advocate and served as his chief of staff when he was in that position. She previously worked as an organizing and field director for the Working Families Party. The party has said its support for candidates in 2009 was legal and is seeking to have Mr. Adler removed from the investigation, arguing in court papers that the process used to select him was unlawful. The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, is slated to hear arguments in the case on Tuesday. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office probed the party's ties to Data & Field Services in 2010, but that probe has ended. Dan Donovan, the district attorney in Staten Island, also began investigating and later recused himself from the probe. Mr. Donovan's request for a special prosecutor, which was granted, is under seal. Joe Dinkin, a spokesman for the party, said the legal requirements for appointing the special prosecutor weren't followed."The appointment should be voided and the matter returned to the DA," he said.* Attorneys for the Working Families Party had argued in court that Donovan failed to demonstrate a conflict of interest that would warrant his recusal and had challenged subpoenas issues by Adler seeking party documents and communications dating back to 2008.
Only Staten Island Prosecutors Are Willing to Cross the WFP
Since 2009 Lawyer for WFP Have Been Trying With Much Success Stopping Investigations into Data and Field
Like its ACORN partner, the WFP has responded to allegations by announcing an investigation of itself. With all respect to former Chief Judge Judith Kaye, whom the WFP tapped to lead the internal review, no one but an outside prosecutor will be able to hold the party accountable. On the local level, the best hope rests with Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, a Republican. Spurred by an election lawsuit filed by Randy Mastro, a top aide in the Giuliani administration, Donovan’s office has “begun a preliminary review” of Debi Rose’s WFP-boosted campaign for City Council, say sources.Rose’s lawyer refused to provide documents requested by the Mastro suit, citing his client’s Fifth Amendment right to not implicate herself in a crime. The councilwoman-elect later insisted that the Fifth wasn’t her actual grounds for refusing to cooperate with the demand for records — but failed to give another reason.Among the local prosecutors, incoming Manhattan DA Cy Vance has the most resources and largest staff. But is he willing to provoke the outrage of organized labor? A case emerging with the other Democratic DAs isn’t promising. “I need a complaint,” says Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes, who was endorsed by the WFP. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has been silent on the WFP matter, could open a civil case against the party’s shell corporation. And, under a statute that has been used in rare circumstances, the attorney general may ask the governor for the power to criminally prosecute abuses of election law. Aspiring to be a more radical version of Boss Tweed, the WFP is an election or two away from becoming too powerful to stop. The choice facing Democrats and prosecutors is reminiscent of that line from “The Untouchables”: “Mr. Ness, everybody knows where the booze is. The problem isn’t finding it; the problem is who wants to cross Capone.”
WFP Caused the Walmartization of NY's Politics . . . Using the Wal-Mart Business Model to Win Campaigns and Drive Out the Competition
NYC
does not have a single Walmart because of the WFP and their friends in
the progressive movement protesting the company unfair business
practices. The protesters accuse Wal-mart of bulk purchasing and
corporate financing to sell merchandise at low costs in order to drive
competitors out of the market. WFP says the Wal-Mart's business model
pushes mom and pop business out of the market creating an economic
monopoly. It is now clear that the WFP has use the Wal-Mart unfair
business model to take over NY's politics by using unfair economic
advantages. In 2009 the WFP created Data and Field as a for profit company to give them competitive advantages in campaigns.
Centralization of Money And Campaign Consultants Taking the Power Out of the Local Communities to Choose Who Represent Them
WFP, Unions and Developers Sucking the Life Out of NYC Neighborhoods
Date
and Field was a complicated web of coordinated campaign services at
reduced prices, shared resources and staff, and quiet money transfers
between six 2009 Council campaigns, as well as Bill de Blasio’s campaign
for public advocate. Upwards of a million dollars, and possibly more,
was involved, with over $1.7 million in matching funds comprised of
taxpayer dollars already disbursed and more are potentially was at
stake. Data and Field was forced to shut down as part of a lawsuit
settlement against Councilwoman Debi Rose, filed by five Staten Island
voters. The voters alleged that Rose was under billed for a services
provided by Data and Field Services (DFS), a political company created
by the WFP. Rose should have paid DFS $100,000, but the lawsuit alleged
that her campaign was under billed because she was endorsed by the
Working Families Party, which violates election laws. After years
fighting in court the Staten Island DA has just won the right to use a special prosecutor to investigate Data and Field. Special
prosecutor Roger Adler will be looking at all the campaigns run by
Berlin Rosen, which is now the house lobbyists for City Hall that
received funding and services from Data and Field, including Bill de
Blasio, Brad Lander, Debi Rose, Daniel Dromm, Jumaane Williams and
Melissa Mark-Viverito.
NYCLASS, United for the Future PACs in 2013, Like Data and Field in 2009 Also Gave Unfair Advantage to WFP Candidates
It
is clear that the WFP completed the Wal-Martization of NYC politics in
the 2013 municipal election. Data and Field was not longer available to
the WFP so they developed a close working relationship with two PACs,
NYCLASS and United for the Future. A PAC funded by the UFT. We know that
the Advance Group is under FBI and CFB investigation for their role in
running NYCLASS. We also know that two council members have been fined
for their campaigns being run by Advance and receiving mailings by the
Advance run PAC NYCLASS. The CFB said the campaigns of Laurie Cumbo and
Mark Levine (both WFP endorsed) were illegally coordinated and received
unfair economic advantage. Melissa Mark-Viverito another WFP candidate
also was funded by NYCLASS. What is unclear is if the CFB or the FBI
is looking at the unfair advantage other WFP endorsed
candidates received by PACs connected to their campaign consultants. The
same political consultant that benefited from Data and Field Berlin
Rosen were side by side with Advance in the 2013 WFP campaigns of fine
candidates Mark Levine, Laurie Cumbo. Berlin Rosen also worked in the
campaigns of WFP candidates funded by the UFT Advance run United for the
Future PAC: Corey Johnson, Kirsten J Foy, Rory Lancman and Ydanis A
Rodriguez. The Advance Group involvement in the UFT PAC United for
the Future was covered up by the UFT who paid the consultant though a
fake company. The following additional WFP candidate received funding
by the United for the Future PAC: Rosie Mendez, Vanessa L Gibson and
Alan Maisel. Red Horse another consultant that worked for United for the
Future PAC also got funding for two of their WFP back candidates
Ritchie Torres, Paul Vallone.r
A special prosecutor has begun issuing subpoenas in the long-stalled
investigation into the 2009 campaign activities of the Working Families
Party, with a grand jury scheduled to be impaneled next month. “Having
met with the people who operate—or should I say conduct—grand jury
operations in Staten Island, what will now be called Grand Jury Number
Two will be impaneled on Friday, September 5,” said Roger Adler, the
special prosecutor, during a phone interview. Adler declined to
provide specifics on who was being subpoenaed, but did mention the
political action committees of the member unions that make up the
Working Families Party, as well as officials with the city’s Campaign
Finance Board. At least one of those unions, 1199 SEIU,
acknowledged through its political director, Kevin Finnegan, that it is
cooperating with subpoenas and has retained counsel.
Other W.F.P.-affiliated unions thought to be of interest, such as the
Hotel Trades Council and 32BJ, declined to comment on whether they too
had received subpoenas.Adler had previously
served subpoenas to party officials in 2013, and previously this year
requested a meeting
with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s director of intergovernmental affairs Emma
Wolfe, who served as a W.F.P. operative in 2009.The new round of
activity from Adler’s office comes nearly two months after the state
Court of Appeals
denied the W.F.P.’s request to invalidate Adler’s appointment
as special prosecutor. Adler was appointed by chief administrative
judge Fern Fisher in 2012, after Staten Island district attorney Dan
Donovan, a Republican, recused himself from the investigation into the
labor-backed party.
The W.F.P. reshuffled its legal counsel after losing its case in the
state’s highest court. Gone is Avi Schick, who served as counsel in
Eliot Spitzer’s attorney general office. The party has now retained
Jonathan Bach of Cooley LLP to represent it in its latest dealings with
the special prosecutor.
Adler’s investigation focuses on the 2009
City Council campaign activities of the Working Families Party, and
whether the party provided discounted services to Staten Island-based
city councilwoman Debi Rose’s campaign. The party settled a civil
lawsuit in 2010 brought by former Rudy Giuliani aide Randy Mastro, who
alleged that the party violated campaign finance laws. The agreement led
to the separation of Data and Field Services from the W.F.P.
The .0003% Potemkin WFP Party
There
is no doubt that the WFP is the most powerful party in New York
politics today, after taking over City Hall and making the govern of the
empire state gravel on video to gain their support. What is at question
is who does the Working Families Party represent and how do they
operate. In a city that has 8,337,000 residents, the WFP has 2529
active members that voted in the 2013 election, just .0003% of NYC
voting population. Political parties in NYC were designed by district
to give a voice to each neighborhood in the city. At the height of the
Tammany Hall Democratic Party, there were over 400 clubs representing
the neighborhood in the city. Many in the same neighborhood competing against each other. There’s
was more to the Tammany Hall story than corruption. Tammany Hall’s
leaders delivered social services and took care of the residents of
their district problems. They massaged justice at a time when the poor
did not have access to public defenders. They gave food and jobs to
those who need them. In short Tammany Hall power came from delivering
services to the
voters. Political parties today like the WFP gain their power by
controlling ballot access, campaign consultants, lobbyist and money.
Bloomberg paid
millions for the GOP and Independent party line when he was mayor.
Malcolm Smith tried to buy
the GOP line from two party leaders who are under indictment. Not only
are registered voter in the Independence Party not receiving the
services that Tammany Hall democratic were provided at the turn of the
century, but as the Daily News proves over and over again those IP
registered voters have no idea they belong to a real party, they think they are just independent.
WFP
Making the Progressive Movement into A Cult That Cuts Out Its
Traditional Reform Services Roots to A Narrow Union Protection Racket
Yesterday lifelong
progressive wrote that the WFP was exploited by the union interests
that bankroll it. "With de Blasio and the UFT-financed Working Families
Party
as allies, the union is hijacking the very language of progressive
movement politics,
annexing left journalism to defend its narrowest interests and even
recruiting
progressives to join its war against charter schools that work for
kids." Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labour
began her reform of America's labor laws working side by side with
Tammany Hall to reform the city's building code after the 1911 Triangle
Shirtwaist fire. Perkins came to Roosevelt's cabinet from a career
championing workers'
rights. An outspoken graduate from Mount Holyoke, she began work as a
social reformer as part of Tammany Hall well before women won the right to vote. A
defining moment for her was the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911: 146 garment
workers, most of them young immigrant women, died as an overcrowded
factory burned down in Greenwich Village. Perkins, who had been having
tea with friends nearby, witnessed the tragedy from the pavement,
watching young women leap to their deaths from the upper floors. She
vowed to redouble her efforts and became an adept political operator,
working with the famously corrupt Democrats in Tammany Hall.
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.
The WFP Took Over Politics Because the Other Parties in the City Are Not Real Also
All the parties have let the voters of NYC down. The middle class who they were supposed to serve are fleeing the city fueled by political leaders who fund tax breaks for real estate developers that gentrify (increase rents) in neighborhoods they live in . The poor who the parties were designed to help in exchange for their vote have increased in numbers. It is no surprise that the WFP was able to march in with a slick PR campaign and take over. The Independence Party has no power to win votes. It candidate the only Latino in the race in the 2013 mayoral campaign got
less than 1% of the vote in the general election. The GOP is down to just 6 elected officials
in a city with over 130 elected positions.
Most importantly the leadership of the city's dominant Democratic
Party
has lost the ability to work together and elect citywide candidates. Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg, the loss of
the council speaker position by Queens Boss Crowley and the fact that not one
democratic county leader supported de Blasio for mayor in the primary, show you just
how out of touch the democrats aging party leadership has become.
At the Least the WFP Has Played Fast and Lose With the Election Laws
The
WFP took advantage of the weakness of
the city's other parties and low voter participation, by putting
together a smart and sharp coalition with the unions that knows how to
run campaigns and has no fear
about breaking election laws to elect their candidates or threatening
primaries against candidates that don't follow their orders. The WFP
campaigns against the IDC candidates this year show how aggressive and
coordinated their quest for power has become. Many of today's elected
officials come from the political class (working for other elected
officials) and have no strong political support from the district they
were elected from. In other words they do not have the power to stand up
to the special interests. The Data and Field
scandal in 2009 and the NYCLASS scandal shows their coalition
willingness to violated election laws to gain power. The buzz in
political circles has been that anyone of these two scandals could take
down the WFP, even the mayor. But the Buzz today is that the Yoda
governor can accomplish the begin of the destruction of the WFP with one
move.
.
.
.
.
Competition On the Left is the Way to Stop or Slow Down the WFP Invasion of New York's Government
Listening
to an interview on Cassimatis’ round table today with Exec. Dir.
of the Liberal Party Martin Hassner, one get the feeling that it would
be OK
with the party if Cuomo also ran on his its line this year. By agreeing
to run on the Liberal line Cuomo not only gives the party back a
permanent
ballot line, but set up competition on the progressive side for a party and coalition that has
pushed
him or tried to push him around, on issues like charter schools, the
IDC-GOP
Senate coalition and increasing taxes. It would also make some of
Cuomo's GOP money people very happy. Some say that Zephyr Teachout run
as a
democrat, with a WFP operative as her campaign manager, is an insurance
policy
by the WFP leadership to keep Cuomo from taking the Liberal Line. Stay
Tuned.
What is clear is that when comparing the role of political parties today
with
the Tammany Hall era, the corruption is the same, but instead of serving
the
voters like Boss Tweed or Boss de Sapio did, modern day party leaders
are all
about deceiving the voters and only helping their friends.The campaign year's third petition period looms on L.I.(Newsday)
More About WFP, Acorn 2.0 and the New Progressive Machine
WFP, Cuomo, IDC and Koppell Klien Race
2009 WFP . . . Data and Field . . . Wolfe . . .
Connecting to 2013 Spending Limits
Prosecutor investigating Working Families Party sought interview with de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe
A special prosecutor investigating the Working Families Party’s relationship with get-out-the-vote corporation Data & Field Services wants to interview Emma Wolfe, an aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Wall Street Journal reports: Since 2012, the prosecutor, Roger Bennett Adler, has been investigating the Working Families Party's relationship with Data & Field Services, a corporation formed by the left-leaning party to provide its candidates with get-out-the-vote staffing and expertise. Investigators are looking at whether the for-profit firm charged significantly lower fees than is typical for such service, potentially providing an unfair advantage to favored candidates.
WFP Lawyering Up To Stop An Investigation
According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Adler last fall sought an interview with Ms. Wolfe, who was then deputy manager and political director of Mr. de Blasio's mayoral campaign and is now his director of intergovernmental affairs. There were discussions with an attorney representing Ms. Wolfe to arrange the interview, but the interview has yet to take place, these people said. Ms. Wolfe was a key player in Mr. de Blasio's 2009 campaign for public advocate and served as his chief of staff when he was in that position. She previously worked as an organizing and field director for the Working Families Party. The party has said its support for candidates in 2009 was legal and is seeking to have Mr. Adler removed from the investigation, arguing in court papers that the process used to select him was unlawful. The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, is slated to hear arguments in the case on Tuesday. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office probed the party's ties to Data & Field Services in 2010, but that probe has ended. Dan Donovan, the district attorney in Staten Island, also began investigating and later recused himself from the probe. Mr. Donovan's request for a special prosecutor, which was granted, is under seal. Joe Dinkin, a spokesman for the party, said the legal requirements for appointing the special prosecutor weren't followed."The appointment should be voided and the matter returned to the DA," he said.
oblem is A Secret
WFP Winning in the Street, Blocking In Court
A political investigation shrouded in mystery reached the Court of Appeals Tuesday in a case that could determine if the judiciary will stop an investigation of charges of illegal in-kind help by the WFP to defraud the city's public financing system. This court hearing came months at the WFP and their partners in the progressive unions used the Citizens Unions PAC and the city's public campaign finance system to take over City Hall, and at the time the party is pressuring Cuomo to adopt a public campaign finance system statewide.
WFP's Lawyers Attacking the Prosecutors
The Statan Island special prosecutor is looking into if the WFP skirted campaign finance rules by providing services to endorsed candidates at discounted rates, thus defrauded the city's public financing program. Special prosecutor Adler said the underlying campaign finance issues transcend the Working Families Party matter. "The public needs to know that people gaming the system will be held accountable," he said. "Accountability is important to ensure that … people will not be able to game the system and take unfair advantage and unlawfully affect elections. The investigation deals with the fairness of the council campaign and whether or not the campaign finance system was gamed during the 2009 election. That is what the grand jury needs to resolve."
How the WFP is Trying to Stop the Special Prosecutor
The Working Families Party is trying to stop an investigation of a city council election launched by Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, the prosecutor's ex parte application to be relieved of the case, and a judge's decision to grant the motion and appoint a special prosecutor without revealing why.
Working Families Party v. Fisher, 59, centers on a probe Donovan launched into a 2009 City Council campaign and apparently involves the party's use of a not-for-profit arm to promote liberal Democrats. The WFP has challenged Donovan's authority to recuse himself and Fisher's authority to relieve the district attorney without "a showing of actual prejudice based on a demonstrated conflict of interest," as mandated by County Law §701. The Appellate Division, Second Department, last August rejected the party's petition and affirmed the appointment of Adler. It held that a writ of prohibition is suitable to challenge the appointment of a special district attorney only if the special D.A. is performing a quasi-judicial function, as opposed to conducting an investigation. In another case in the past
WFP lawyer Avi Schick has been trying to quash subpoenas from a special prosecutor that involve a 2009 council race on Staten Island. *
Boot special prosecutor in S.I. election probe, Working Families Party tells court(SI Advance)
What Was Argued At the Appeals Court Hearing
Last Tuesday, WFP's lawyer Avi Schick, counsel for the WFP, stressed that the party is not questioning Adler's investigation. Rather, he said it is challenging Fisher's authority to replace the district attorney. During oral arguments, Judge Victoria Graffeo questioned why the WFP cares if Donovan or Adler investigates. Judge Eugene Pigott seemed troubled by the secrecy of the matter. Judge Robert Smith hinted more than once that Schick might want to move to unseal the record to find out just why Donovan recused himself. Judges also questioned whether the target of an investigation should be permitted to choose its own prosecutor, and whether the WFP, if it gets Donovan restored and then finds he had a legitimate reason for stepping aside, could then seek to have him removed. The District Attorneys Association of the State of New York appeared amicus curiae in support of Donovan. In
its brief, the group said that "justice is not served when a district attorney is put in a position where he or she believes there is a conflict of interest but recusal is not permitted." Interestingly, none of the issues before the Court of Appeals would stop the investigation from going forward. Rather, the most the Working Families Party can hope for is an order shifting the case back to Donovan. A six-judge panel will hear arguments late Tuesday afternoon. Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman has recused himself for unstated reasons.* Judge Fern A. Fisher
appointed Roger Bennet Adler special prosecutor in January 2012. * A decision in the appeal is not expected for weeks.
The Media Ignores Efforts to Block An Investigation Into the Most Powerful and Successful Party in New York
The News Blog
City and State under their former name
City Hall did a 5 part investigation of Data and Field. That investigation for unknown reasons have been taken off the internet. But the following are some of what was in the
City and State investigation:
The NYC Working Families Party Scam UPDATED - Daily Kos *
The incestuous relationship between Working Families Party & Data & Field Services *
ACORN, the Working Families Party and Political Corruption, Part I (Brightbart) *
The Working Families Party Scam - Huffington Post *
Breaking: WFP/ACORN Takes The Fifth On Corruption Suit. *
Alleged Corruption In Obama's Working Families Party: 'Inside The DFS Experience' *
Meet Avi Schick, New York’s New Steamroller (NYO) * Manhattan federal prosecutors previously launched a criminal probe into the matter but closed the case in 2010 with no charges being filed, according to published reports.
What the WFP's Data and Field Case is About
In 2012, Brooklyn attorney Roger Adler, a Democrat, was appointed as a special prosecutor to probe allegations that Working Families had been manipulating state and city election law. Critics of WFP have charged for years that Data & Field Services (DFS) has provided heavily discounted consulting work for Working Families candidates, essentially giving them in-kind contributions without publicly disclosing it. The NYT editorial in 2009
Questions for Data and Field, wrote: "For example, the company charged City Councilman Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn $5,000 for lists of voters. Officials from other campaigns have complained that sophisticated voter files like those often used by the Working Families Party could cost $25,000 to $40,000. If there is such a differential — and lists can vary considerably — the extra should be counted as a campaign contribution and as part of the cap on allowed spending." In 2010, Working Families agreed to settle a civil lawsuit on the issue but didn’t admit wrongdoing, paying $100,000 for legal bills to Randy Mastro, a former Giuliani deputy mayor who brought the suit. It also signed a court agreement that DFS would end its association with the party. In 2011 Supreme Court Judge Anthony Giacobbe found Data and Field Services in contempt of court for not complying with the court's February, 2010 order, which we explain in some detail
here.
Data And Field Services Held In Contempt(NYDN) The upshot is that DFS was required to do a number of things the court felt it didn't do. Instead, it changed its status from for-profit to non-profit, decided the costs of its own services rather than getting an estimate of fair market value, didn't make sure board members had the required degree of independence from the WFP and failed to get an independent evaluation of the software it uses for its clients. *
In Feud, Working Families Party Turns Tables on Prosecutor(NYT, 2013) *
Working Families Party back under investigation | Crains (2012) *
NY Political Parties for Sale: Ballot Corruption 2009 Election Probe Emerges Again(WSJ)*
The Death Of DFS (Updated)(YNN) * WFP Concedes Admits No Wrongdoing (Capital) * Kaye Report - Working Families Party * No Charges Against Working Families Party - NYTimes.com *
For Working Families Party, Inquiries Without End (NYP) * Dan Cantor's Machine - The American Prospect
Team WFP Pressure On Cuomo Worked
Samuels Back Down Will Not Run for Lt. Gov
Bill Samuels, who threatened to run against former US Rep. Kathy Hochul,
Cuomo’s choice for lieutenant governor, said Sunday he won’t enter the
race because of the WFP’s decision to back the Cuomo/Hochul ticket.*
U.S. Ambassador to South Africa
Patrick Gaspard has been cleared of allegations that he violated a
federal law banning certain partisan political activity by government
workers when he helped the de Blasio campaign last year, the Daily News writes: * Mayor Bill de Blasio played a key
role in a deal brokered to get Gov. Andrew Cuomo the Working Families
Party’s nomination for governor, which, among other things, includes
publicly committing to push for a Democratic takeover of the state
Senate, the Daily News’ Ken Lovett reports: * Cuomo sidestepped questions about why
he didn’t attend the Working Families Party convention, instead
insisting that the important outcome was the nomination he secured, Newsday writes: * Bill Samuels Says The WFP Stood Up To Cuomo(TNN) * Liz
Benjamin in Capital New York notes that although Cuomo pledged to the
Working Families Party to help flip the Senate to Democratic control in exchange for the party’s
endorsement, he began backpedaling once the party’s convention was over: * Cuomo’s WFP Filing Yet To Make It To The WFP * State Sen. Diane Savino and
Assemblyman Michael Cusick, both of Staten Island, have chosen not to
seek the Working Families Party endorsement this year, with Savino, a
former executive committee member of the party, saying there are issues
they don’t see eye-to-eye on, the Staten Island Advance reports:
* For the first time in more than a
decade, the State Senate Republicans won’t be getting any money from
1199 SEIU—the state’s powerful healthcare workers union—at election
time, Capital New York reports: http://goo.gl/VpXYGU
* State Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a
mainline Democrat, said it is unlikely that measures like the public
financing of political campaigns and the 10-point women’s agenda will be
approved in her chamber this session, State of Politics reports: http://goo.gl/MuWzCM
Teachout to Decide In the Next Week On A WFP Primary Against Cuomo
Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University
law professor who lost to Cuomo for the Working Families Party
endorsement, said she’ll decide in the next week whether to challenge
him in the Democratic primary, Gannett Albany reports:
Zephyr Teachout, Cuomo irritant, vows to press on(Capital) Teachout, an enrolled Democrat, says she is weighing a primary challenge to Cuomo. She
would not win. But she could succeed by making a point, calling
attention to the ideals she believes in and believes have been ignored
by Cuomo, and maybe even creating a lingering infrastructure when the
dust settles. “I plan to be a watchdog on that deal and hold him accountable,”
Teachout said. “I hope to be around not just this year for the deal, but
for the future, because we've had a problem with promises before from
Cuomo. I hope this promise sticks. I want it to stick.”“I'd love
to run against Cuomo,” Teachout continued. “I care so much about the
Working Families Party and it was so important to bring people together
tonight. But if I were free to really talk about, tell the truth about
Cuomo's record in a Democratic primary, I think some pretty exciting
things could happen.”*After losing the WFP endorsement to Cuomo, Fordham Law Prof. Zephyr Teachout is
still holding out the possibility that she might challenge him in the Democratic primary. *
Zephyr's Teach-able moment? "I still don't trust Gov. Cuomo"(NYDN) * Cuomo spent much of the legislative session complicating life for NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, but
now owes the mayor for brokering a peace deal between himself and the WFP.* WFP state committee member Susan Weber
summed up
the WFP’s dilemma thusly: “If we endorse him, we run the risk of losing
our base. If we don’t support him, he will do his best to kill us.” * The regular Democrats
are actively seeking
candidates to primary IDC members who so far don’t have challengers:
Sens. Diane Savino, David Valesky and David Carlucci, who doesn’t have
the support of his home county Democratic committee.* AG
Eric Schneiderman called
the messy WFP convention and its outcome an example of the “gut check”
for Democrats that’s taking place all across the nation.*
Cuomo Promises Progressive Agenda To Secure Working Families ...
Gothamist * Cuomo's Volatile Alliance With the Working Families Party New York Magazine* Teachout Vows, Albeit Vaguely, To Move Forward(YNN) *
Mayor says Gov has lost patience w/ sen coalition *
Teachout threatens Democratic primary challenge against Cuomo(NYP) *
Anti-Cuomo activists fight for Working Families Party to nominate Zephyr Teachout(NYDN)The WFP state committee also backed challengers to Tony Avella, Malcolm Smith, and Martin Dilan *
Astorino: ‘Bipartisanship Died’ With WFP Endorsement(YNN) *
Senate Democrats Confident Cuomo Will Campaign For Them(YNN) *
Source: De Blasio plans outreach to I.D.C. challengers* Capital New York explores the background of Zephyr Teachout—Cuomo’s possible primary
challenger—including her time as a top aide to Howard Dean’s 2004
presidential campaign and her academic work on political corruption:* Diane Ravitch, who was floated as a potential WFP gubernatorial alternative, is
confused as to why the party went with Cuomo. (She’s promoting the Green Party sla *
NY1 Online: Zephyr Teachout Discusses Failed Working Families Gubernatorial Bid * On Day One back in Albany for the
state Senate since Gov. Andrew Cuomo took the Working Families Party
line, Democrats were publicly supportive of the deal brokered for the
endorsement, while Republicans were publicly dismissive, The Buffalo News reports: *Teachout: Cuomo Won’t Be President(YNN) * Richard Kirsch of the progressive Roosevelt Institute writes that it is a mistake to think the Working
Families Party's endorsement of Cuomo is a defeat for the progressive
wing of the Democratic Party:
Diane Ravitch, citing knee surgery, says she's not running for office(NYDN)
de Blasio Lets It Be Known That He is Pushing WFP Activists to Back Cuomo
Andrew Cuomo has spent at least $755,000 so far to air his post-convention ad in NYC, reports * New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is
asking the Working Families Party to back Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
reelection bid after the two held a high-stakes meeting with WFP leaders
in Manhattan, the Daily News writes Working Families Party State Director Bill Lipton and Executive
Director Dan Cantor - both of whom are believed to be unenthusiastic
about Cuomo - took part. A who's who of labor titans also attended,
including the leader of the health care workers union, 1199 SEIU
President George Gresham; Hotel Trades Council President Peter Ward;
building services workers union 32BJ President Hector Figueroa; and
Communication Workers of America District 1 Vice President Chris
Shelton. They are believed to be supportive of Cuomo’s candidacy.* WFP Convention Keynote To Focus On Income Inequality(Capital) * Working Families Party reaches out to Diane Ravitch for governor run(NYP) * Astorino Expects Senate GOP To Not Back Broader Public Financing Deal(YNN)
*
Astorino: ‘We All Know The Rent Is Too Damn High’(YNN) *
Astorino: California Rampage Shows ‘Government Failed’(YNN) *
Cuomo airs ad touting bipartisanship(Capital) Governor Andrew Cuomo spent $755,100 on four New York City buys *
Less than 1% of the $33 million Andrew Cuomo has raised has come from donations of $250 or less. *
Cuomo’s rose-colored glasses(NYDN) The governor keeps on the sunny side* * Republican gubernatorial candidate
Rob Astorino wants to debate Cuomo one-on-one, saying that including
third party candidates would allow the governor to avoid answering
questions,
State of Politics reports: * Astorino renewed his push for term
limits, saying it would be the first bill he pushes upon taking office
and that eight years is enough for anyone to serve in state government
, State of Politics reports: *
Hawkins: Ravitch Would Be A ‘Wonderful Addition’ To Race(YNN)
WFP squeezing Cuomo from the left, with cameo from
Andrew Cuomo Has A Real Problem On His Left Flank. Good(New Republic) The drama is in New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing a
serious insurrection on his left flank
as he heads into what was supposed to be a blissfully uneventful
reelection campaign. An increasingly influential third-party in the
state is threatening to withhold its support from the governor this
fall, which has set off a remarkable flurry of negotiations this week as
Cuomo scrambles to keep the group in the fold.
Is the WFP Now Running the State Also?
CUOMO’S NEXT MOVES: The governor suddenly has several urgent political reasons to address public financing of elections. It’s a potentially useful change of topic, after the
Times reported that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara issued a subpoena to a top aide to the governor’s Moreland Commission—evidence, it said, that the federal prosecutor “may be examining allegations of interference with the commission. And as Blake Zeff writes for Capital, there’s the matter of the Working Families Party and its upcoming endorsement. The state committee, made up largely of activist types who back public campaign financing, is set to meet on May 31 to determine the party’s gubernatorial nomination—essentially deciding whether to go to war with
Cuomo by backing a margin-damaging challenge from the left
--ON CUE Pandering to the WFP: Cuomo vowed in a late Tuesday essay to keep fighting for a broader system of public campaign finance —this year.
Writing in The Huffington Post, the governor tried to walk the line between defending deal he struck with lawmakers to disband the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption and vowing to press on. *
Source: Cuomo Backs Phase-In Of Public Financing Starting Next Year(YNN) * Gov. Andrew Cuomo supports a plan to phase in public campaign financing starting in the 2015 election cycle, initially only for open seats or elections where no incumbent is running, State of Politics reports:
The WFP Endorsement May Hinge On Who Has the Power to Fill Vacant State Committee Seats
Daily News Tells Cuomo to Just Say Not to WFP and IP
The Daily News writes that with both the Working Families and Independence
parties courting Cuomo to be on their ballot lines, Cuomo should just
say no to both parties
2009 WFP . . . Data and Field . . . Wolfe . . .
Connecting to 2013 Spending Limits
Prosecutor investigating Working Families Party sought interview with de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe
A special prosecutor investigating the Working Families Party’s relationship with get-out-the-vote corporation Data & Field Services wants to interview Emma Wolfe, an aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Wall Street Journal reports: Since 2012, the prosecutor, Roger Bennett Adler, has been investigating the Working Families Party's relationship with Data & Field Services, a corporation formed by the left-leaning party to provide its candidates with get-out-the-vote staffing and expertise. Investigators are looking at whether the for-profit firm charged significantly lower fees than is typical for such service, potentially providing an unfair advantage to favored candidates.
WFP Lawyering Up To Stop An Investigation
According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Adler last fall sought an interview with Ms. Wolfe, who was then deputy manager and political director of Mr. de Blasio's mayoral campaign and is now his director of intergovernmental affairs. There were discussions with an attorney representing Ms. Wolfe to arrange the interview, but the interview has yet to take place, these people said. Ms. Wolfe was a key player in Mr. de Blasio's 2009 campaign for public advocate and served as his chief of staff when he was in that position. She previously worked as an organizing and field director for the Working Families Party. The party has said its support for candidates in 2009 was legal and is seeking to have Mr. Adler removed from the investigation, arguing in court papers that the process used to select him was unlawful. The Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, is slated to hear arguments in the case on Tuesday. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office probed the party's ties to Data & Field Services in 2010, but that probe has ended. Dan Donovan, the district attorney in Staten Island, also began investigating and later recused himself from the probe. Mr. Donovan's request for a special prosecutor, which was granted, is under seal. Joe Dinkin, a spokesman for the party, said the legal requirements for appointing the special prosecutor weren't followed."The appointment should be voided and the matter returned to the DA," he said.
The NYT Looks Only At the WFP Estrangement From Cuomo
Public financing emerging as the price of a Cuomo-WFP bid
"I obviously will be supporting Cuomo for re-election," says when asked about WFP considering another candidate
De Blasio Mum on Whether WFP Should Endorse Cuomo(NYO)
Worried that a liberal challenger could
take votes away from him, Cuomo is working to repair his relationship
with the Working Families Party, which needs a candidate who can garner
50,000 votes in order to keep the party on the ballot.
Cuomo Works to Mend Fences With Liberals(NYT) leader Dan Cantor says party leaders honestly don't know how rift with will work out. Leaders of the Working Families Party say Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has
drifted too far to the right, and are privately talking about nominating
their own candidate to run for governor this year. Cuomo has won significant support from traditionally Republican
constituencies, including business executives who like his tax cuts and
Wall Street financiers delighted with his support of charter schools.
But this courtship has come at a price: As he begins his bid for a
second term, he is struggling to hold on to support from the left wing
of his own party. According to the paper, Mr. Cuomo “
has expressed resentment at being issued an ultimatum over public financing by party leaders.” But he has nonetheless been
working behind-the-scenes “to convince the party’s leaders and other
activists that he shares their goal. In a private meeting with advocates
of campaign finance reform, Mr. Cuomo said that when he is eulogized,
he wants to be remembered for three accomplishments: legalizing same-sex
marriage, tightening gun laws and passing a public-financing system,
according to people with firsthand knowledge of the meeting.” *
"If it's close, everything matters -- including running mates." Cuomo and Astorino LG Picks. (Newsday) * Westchester County Executive and
gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino plans to invite President Barack
Obama and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to take time Wednesday to visit Westchester
communities “in search of any evidence of racial discrimination,” the Post’s Fred Dicker writes:
*Your Not Talking to Me Cuomo has shown that his campaign
strategy is to refuse to engage Astorino while Democratic operatives
engage him instead, the Wall Street Journal writes *Cuomo lets a running-mate question linger(Capital) What LG pick will do the governor the least harm?* The
Wall Street Journal chronicled
Mr. Cuomo’s refusal to says the name of his Republican challenger,
Rob Astorino.
“In public, Mr. Cuomo avoids even oblique references to Mr. Astorino;
the governor has never said his challenger’s name in public, an aide
confirmed. And he declines to answer reporters’ questions on the
subject. Asked in early April to respond to Mr. Astorino’s criticism of
the state budget deal, Mr. Cuomo listened—stone-faced—to the question
while squeezing a baseball (a news conference prop) between his
hands. His curt response: ‘Yeah, that’s nice.’”* In the
Wall Street Journal, Jessica Proud, a spokeswoman for Mr. Astorino, “
questioned why
a government official intervened on Ms. Lee’s behalf.” “If the average
person has to go through this then the governor should as well,” she
said. Mr. Cuomo’s campaign in response: “This is just Rob Astorino
playing his little Westchester political games about a gazebo when he
should be doing his job.”*
"lieutenant governor is arguably the least important of all of NY's many elected posts, until the moment it’s not" (Capital) * .
likes working with Republicans, but he won't take their ballot line. via
* Republicans pounce on renovation *DiNapoli On The ‘Ironies’ Of Public Financing (Updated)(YNN) * Assemblyman Keith Wright, the
co-chair of the state Democratic Party, filed a complaint accusing state
GOP Chairman Ed Cox of fraud for living in Manhattan and voting on Long
Island, the Daily News reports:* GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob
Astorino blasted Cuomo for not seeking a permit to renovate the home
owned by his partner, Sandra Lee, although a local official dismissed
concerns about it, Gannett Albany writes:
Daily News Tells Cuomo to Just Say Not to WFP and IP
The Daily News writes that with both the Working Families and Independence
parties courting Cuomo to be on their ballot lines, Cuomo should just
say no to both parties
Corrupt Lobbyist Sheinkopf Says the WFP is Corrupt . . . Rebuild the Liberal Party
Dems adviser urging Cuomo to forget Working Families Party(NYP)
A long time Democratic political strategist and current member of the
state party is urging Gov. Cuomo to forget about the Working Families
Party and focus on creating his own liberal third party. Hank Sheinkopf
told The Post it would look bad if Cuomo sought and accepted the line
given the party’s current state. “The guy who put Hevesi in jail could
be part of a party under
investigation,” Sheinkopf said speaking about a 2009 federal probe into
the party regarding campaign related services. Sheinkopf, a well know
Democratic strategist, said he was speaking not
on behalf of the state party–where he was hired to do consulting
work—but rather on his own. Accepting the WFP line, in its current
state, would give Cuomo’s
challenger, republican Rob Astorino, real ammo in the campaign,
Sheinkopf said. Instead Sheinkopf believes Cuomo should form his own
liberal party
minority line “a party that doesn’t put pressure on the middle class”.
“He has the popularity and resources,” Sheinkopf said of Cuomo’s
potential to garner the necessary 50,000 votes to keep a smaller liberal
party line in future elections.
Team Cuomo Believes Teachout Was Put Into the Primary to Weaken the Governor By the WFP
The WFP Already Throws Mud Back At the Liberal Party
NY's Corrupt Parties Good@Throwing Mud
“The idea that reviving the corrupt Liberal Party that endorsed [Rudy]
Giuliani as a progressive alternative to the Working Families Party
won’t fool a single person,” said Khan Shoieb, New York Communications
Director for the Working Families Party. Gov. Cuomo and the WFP have been at odds in recent months over
Cuomo’s agenda.
Is Sheinkopf Hit On the WFP Intended to Lower the Reform Demands on Cuomo to Get the Party's Ballot Line?
Or is Sheinkopf Warning the WFP to Play Ball?
The
party says Cuomo is not acting progressive enough,
pointing to what they call his watered-down version of a public
financing bill, and to his creating a rift between himself and Mayor de
Blasio over charter schools. A chess match between Cuomo and the WFP has
been going on since the
spat began. Shortly after the tension started to mount between the two
Cuomo let on he was trying to revive the Liberal Party. But of late
reports have surfaced that the Governor’s people are quietly talking
with WFP heads behind closed doors. The party, who will nominate a
gubernatorial candidate at a May
31convention, has not ruled out picking someone other than Cuomo
WFP Campaign Finance Push But the Real Fight is About Control of the State Senate Gov. Andrew Cuomo met with
good-government advocates and a top Working Families Party official to
gauge support for a possible compromise on public campaign financing, Capital New York reports: * Members of the Democratic Senate
conference and advocates who have pushed for public campaign financing
over the years say they won’t support any agreement they deem
watered-down, State of Politics reports:* Sources: Negotiations Underway for State Campaign Finance Reform Agreement(NY1)
Sheinkopf Up to His Balls In the FBI AEG Corruption Scandal is Somehow Working for the Democratic Party
Sheinkopf took the 5th when asked questions by the NY former state Inspector General Joseph Fisch about the AEG scandal which
is still being investigated by the feds as part of the AEG
investigation. The Feds are also investigating a Board Of Election
(the cesspool of political corruption) contract for new machines that
Sheinkopf was a lobbyist for. Feds investigate switch by Board of Elections ... - New York Post "Sheinkopf copped a memo, (Barrett, Village Voice, 2010) too, obtaining it from an aide to the top Senate staffer, Angelo Aponte,
who Sheinkopf personally installed in the key spot. He had the power
to do that because the skillful Sheinkopf doubles as a lobbyist and as
a political consultant, and had advised Senate Democrats in the
elections that led to the 2008 majority, helping to make Malcolm Smith
majority leader. Sheinkopf collected $356,741 in consulting fees from
the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee at the same time that he was representing AEG and its precursor with Senate Democrats. Having worked for Bill Thompson and Mike Bloomberg most recently, Sheinkopf makes kings so he can then make deals with the kings he’s made." More on Hank Sheinkopf
More About Corrupt Hank Sheinkopf
. believes WFP should endorse
Our multi-tasking members are at City Hall 2 demand quality housing + local power 2
The WFP Nexus . . .
2009 WFP . . . Data and Field . . . Wolfe . . .
Connecting to 2013 Spending Limits
Prosecutor investigating Working Families Party sought interview with de Blasio aide Emma Wolfe
A special prosecutor investigating the
Working Families Party’s relationship with get-out-the-vote corporation
Data & Field Services wants to interview Emma Wolfe, an aide to
Mayor Bill de Blasio, The Wall Street Journal reports: Since 2012, the prosecutor,
Roger Bennett Adler,
has been investigating the Working Families Party's relationship
with Data & Field Services, a corporation formed by the left-leaning
party to provide its candidates with get-out-the-vote staffing and
expertise. Investigators are looking at whether the for-profit firm
charged significantly lower fees than is typical for such service,
potentially providing an unfair advantage to favored candidates.
WFP Lawyering Up To Stop An Investigation
According
to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Adler last fall sought
an interview with Ms. Wolfe, who was then deputy manager and political
director of Mr. de Blasio's mayoral campaign and is now his director of
intergovernmental affairs. There were discussions with an attorney
representing Ms. Wolfe to arrange the interview, but the interview has
yet to take place, these people said. Ms. Wolfe was a key player in Mr.
de Blasio's 2009 campaign for public
advocate and served as his chief of staff when he was in that position.
She previously worked as an organizing and field director for the
Working Families Party. The party has said its support for candidates in
2009 was legal and is
seeking to have Mr. Adler removed from the investigation, arguing in
court papers that the process used to select him was unlawful. The Court
of Appeals, the state's highest court, is slated to hear arguments in
the case on Tuesday. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office probed the
party's ties to Data
& Field Services in 2010, but that probe has ended.
Dan Donovan,
the district attorney in Staten Island, also began investigating
and later recused himself from the probe. Mr. Donovan's request for a
special prosecutor, which was granted, is under seal. Joe Dinkin,
a spokesman for the party, said the legal requirements for
appointing the special prosecutor weren't followed."The appointment
should be voided and the matter returned to the DA," he said.
2009 : Bill de Blasio's campaign used political consulting firm Data
& Field Services, which operated out of the same office of the
labor-backed Working Families Party. (
City & State) * 2011 : Scott Levenson has close ties to the Working Families Party (
City & State) *
No firewalls: Working Families Party straddles thin line between party, nonprofit (NYDN 2009) *
ACORN sowed seeds for de Blasio - The Advance Group* Data and Field Services - New York Daily News *
The NYC Working Families Party Scam UPDATED(Daily Kos, 2009)
More About WFP Data and Field
WFP, Acorn 2.0 and the New Progressive Machine
Will the WFP Put Cuomo on the Ballot Line?
WSJ
Says It is About Says It is About Closed Moreland and Cuomo's Public
Financed Failure BS, The WFP Wants Power Control of the State Senate in
Albany
Sharknado WFP Ballot Line
Cuomo Braces for Re-Election Challenge From the Left(WSJ) Cuomo, a Democrat, entered the second half of the legislative
session having riled the liberal establishment on fiscal issues in the
budget as well as with related actions, including his decision to
shutter a commission investigating public corruption. In the weeks since, the Working Families
Party and other liberal-leaning parties have threatened to abandon the
governor at the polls and on the ballot, where the appearance of a
third-party candidate could siphon votes from Mr. Cuomo.
A
Siena College poll in late April found that a candidate perceived to be
more liberal than the governor, running on the Working Families Party
line, would win up to 24% of the vote, knocking Mr. Cuomo's lead over
Republican challenger Rob Astorino to 15 points. Without a third-party
candidate, Mr. Cuomo's lead over Mr.Astorino would be 30 points, the
poll showed. With the WFP scheduled to
decide by the end of May on whether to give Mr. Cuomo its ballot line,
the governor has focused his public rhetoric on a liberal wish-list of
agenda items, most prominently a more comprehensive system of public
financing for state political campaigns.
Cuomo Running Against Himself
The Post writes that the proposed limits on union funding of independent-expenditure
committees that would come with the governor’s campaign finance proposal
would infringe on First Amendment speech rights * Cuomo Pushing Re-Election Pork's
administration approved $2.66 million in pork payments in the last fiscal year No Show Charters ‘Honorary chair’ Cuomo won’t attend pro-charter retreat(Capital) Large protests were threatened. Scripted Cuomo MTA Deal Prase*
Donohue: Gov. Cuomo 'saves' MTA-Transport Workers Union contract deal *
"Cuomo can show leadership by getting the people who pay the bills to work." MTA could learn from London's lessons(NYP) Cuomo's Attack Race Card Ads to Regain Black Support A
GOP strategist says
Cuomo played the “Sharpton race card” against his opponent, Westchester
County Executive Rob Astorino, which makes him look “weak and scared”
and will backfire.
InsideAlbany:Cuomo’s racial-discrimination claims will hurt him in election: GOP sources(NYP) Cuomo Switching From IDC to Dems?* Cuomo
has “privately” pledged
to campaign against the IDC-GOP Senate coalition if the DREAM Act,
Women’s Equality (with an abortion plank) or campaign finance reform
doesn’t pass by the end of the session.
Tuesday's True News Wags NYP
A civil war for working families(NYP Ed)
Monday True News Declares A State of Civil War Existed Inside the WFP
WFP Civil War Over Cuomo/Union Vs Activists
Wednesday Update
Cuomo’s Allies Reach Out To WFP(YNN) Allies of Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke extensively to about 100 members of
the labor-backed Working Families Party in a conference call last night,
insisting to them that the Democratic incumbent supports a liberal
platform in the upcoming campaign and would support ending Republican
control of the state Senate.
Uncertainty regarding who the Working
Families Party will back for governor is said to be causing tension
between the party and unions affiliated with it that plan to endorse
Cuomo individually Cuomo may not get backing of Working Families Party(NYP)The uncertainty of who will be on the Working Families Party line for
governor this fall is causing “real tension” between the party and the
unions affiliated with it, a source with knowledge of the union’s
concerns told The Post. The unions — who plan to endorse Gov. Cuomo individually — are
worried that if the party doesn’t follow their lead they may not garner
the 50,000 necessary votes to keep the line in future elections.
“A
bunch of the biggest affiliates (unions) going in a different direction
than the party could lead to bad blood” said the source. A handful of
strong labor unions are the main backers of the WFP. In response WFP
officials pointed to a recent Siena Poll that showed
the smaller party would get enough votes from a candidate, other than
Cuomo, to keep its line in future elections.
While the party
weighs its options Gov. Cuomo is not waiting around. Seeking smaller
party endorsements, and as many voting lines as
possible, a source close to Cuomo says allies of the Governor have been
exploring remaking the existing Liberal Party. The new Liberal Party
would “pursue a progressive agenda on social
and economic issues that is far broader than the WFP’s,” the source
stated. *
WFP: ‘We Disagree’ With Cuomo On Public Financing Comments(YNN)
John F. Kennedy Accepting the Liberal Party Nomination (Video)
Left Strengthening Their Machine
A new podcast called “Hall Pass” is being launched today by a group of progressive New York City political activists and advocates, including Maria Fernandez of the Urban Youth Collaborative, community organizers Steve McFarland and Stephanie Yazgi and independent consultant Theo Moore.
The audio show, which can be downloaded through iTunes, bills itself as
“sharp elbows, sharp wit—your podcast at the intersection of City Hall
& the progressive movement.” Today’s show includes an interview with
Councilman Carlos Menchaca on municipal identification cards in
New York City and another Hall Pass founder, Arab American Association
of New York Executive Director Linda Sarsour, on the NYPD’s
recently shuttered Muslim surveillance unit. “Hall Pass NY is a long
overdue online platform to spread the good work of the progressive
movement in New York City,” Menchaca said in a statement. “As a recent
guest, I felt right at home amongst diverse progressive organizers
discussing pertinent issues that impact all New Yorkers." (City and State)
Cuomo's Working Family Problem
His Plan Divide WFP and Win Line
Cuomo’s plan to undercut the W.F.P.(Capital)
The WFP’s largest union affiliates, such as 32BJ, 1199, and the Hotel
Trades Council (1199), are helping him. Behind the scenes, the Working
Familes Party is basically composed of
two separate factions at this point: the activists and many of the large
unions.For the most part, the activists deplore the governor, who has
made a
mockery of their progressive ideological vision, opposing them on
everything from tax policy to charter schools to campaign finance
reform. These are groups like Citizen Action, and individuals who have
been active in the party for years and spend their time petitioning
on weekends. So realistically, if the governor is to have a chance at
winning the WFP
ballot line, it may have to be driven by the union side of the party.
Cuomo "has..decisively reversed course in recent months, delivering key
unions several items on their wish-lists.."
Will
Cuomo make a deal with the WFP and give the democrats control of the
state senate or will team Cuomo try to revive the Liberal Party?
A Siena poll shows that Gov. Andrew
Cuomo still holds a 30-point lead over challenger Rob Astorino, though
that margin drops to 15 points with a Working Families Party candidate
on the ballot * Cuomo holds huge lead over GOP challenger – for now(NYP) *
Siena Poll: WFP challenge would damage Cuomo’s margin in November(Capital)
Poll: Blue New Yorkers like Senate GOP(CrainsNY) Though Democrats hold a more than two-to-one registration advantage in
New York, 58% of voters would like to see the state Senate continue to
be run by a coalition of Republicans and Democrats, a Siena College poll
released Tuesday morning found.*
Capital New York‘s
Blake Zeff explored the possibility of Gov.
Andrew Cuomo
pushing unions to defund the Working Families Party if the lefty group
opposes his reelection: “Several Albany insiders I spoke to suggested
that the governor could even conceivably seek to revive the Liberal
Party … as a new home for some of those large unions.” *
Experts say organized labor fared pretty well in this year’s state
budget, could this year's election be the reason?(City and State) * Cuomo also defended his liberal
credentials, saying, “I don’t know if there’s a lot of space to my left”
and cited the passage of the SAFE Act and the legalization of same-sex
marriage, State of Politics reports: Cuomo has two choices when it comes
to heading off the increasing threat posed by the Working Families
Party—get them to give him its ballot line, or render the party impotent*
Cuomo Defends His Liberal Credentials(YNN) *
Astorino’s challenge(NYP Ed)
More on the WFP
The Working Families Party has not
ruled out endorsing a candidate other than Cuomo this fall despite
praising his support a measure that would add New York to the national
popular vote compact, State of Politics reports:
A Tale of Two Cities Divide Growing
Manhattan real-estate prices rise above 2008 pre-recession record(NYP)
2 Weeks Ago True New Wrote
Jeff
Klein is Trying to Stop the WFP and de Blasio Machine From Helping
Senate Democrats and Blowing Up his IDC-GOP Ruling Coalition
Will de Blasio's WFP's and Progressive's New Machine Go After the IDC's Triangulation? Today Capital NY Confirmed We Were Right * In an email to supporters, a Working
Families Party official said the big picture of the state budget was
that the wealthy and banks got tax breaks while New Yorkers got
shortchanged, State of Politics writes
WFP's Dan Cantor on endorsing Cuomo: "There's a lot of debate internally on that. You have to trust the process."
Hawkins' Green Party Manager Slams Nation's Vander Heuvel's Magazine and WFP
Katrina vanden Heuvel WFP Campaign Flyer
In New York State, the best way to end corruption, reform politics and counter inequality is to keep the WFP strong.
Ursula Rozum Green Party's Hawkins Campaign Manager Answers Vanden Heuvel Attemps to Save the WFP With Her Magazine
This was predictable since the Nation urged Zephyr Teachout to endorse Cuomo on the WFP line if she were to lose the primary. I worked for WFP for a short period. While there are good people in the WFP, it's little more than a staffing and marketing agency for Democrats willing to pay for it's line and field services. It's far from immune from the "money drenched politics" since most of it's funding comes from the campaign coffers of corporate Democrats. In addition to bring up good issues, Howie Hawkins has also won endorsements from teachers unions, NYC Democratic clubs and education activist Diane Ravitch. Grassroots activists should join the Hawkins campaign and help build a real electoral alternative to the two parties and independent political power - www.howiehawkins.org :) *
Teachout Contributes $28K To Senate Democrats (YNN)* As the Working Families Party released a statement criticizing Cuomo for calling public education a “monopoly”, the labor-aligned party finds itself in the unusual position of trying to get voters to in essence rebuke the governor by supporting him on their ballot line,
State of Politics reports: * WFP on public ed “monopoly,” or: A party criticizes itscandidate 6 days before an election: * Zephyr Teachout’s Campaign Manager Backs Cuomo on WFP Line (NYO)
Katrina vanden Heuvel's $100,000
"Mr. de Blasio is also helping the Working Families Party, the left-leaning group he helped found. As are some of his supporters: Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, donated $102,300 to the party’s campaign committee this month. Ms. vanden Heuvel did not elaborate on what she and the mayor had discussed. But she said she shared the mayor’s eagerness to bring more liberal voices into the Legislature."
(NYT)
The Working Families Party’s Cuomo dilemma(Capital) “Can a party whose rationale for existing is to grow progressive economic movements throughout the country “
where politicians are held accountable to working people, instead of big-money backers” really work for, endorse, and host on its line one of the greatest threats to its agenda within the Democratic Party
Cuomo Dances With the Liberal Party to
Pressure WFP! Could Have Killed Party in 2010
Why For Cuomo the Liberal Bell Tolls
Liberal Party buries the hatchet, eyes Cuomo re-election(NYP)
WFP Treating to Work With the Mayor to Elect A Democratic State Senate If the Gov Does Not Support the Tax Increase
WFP Needs Cuomo to Get 50,000 Vote to Keep Its Ballot Line. Cuomo Could
Boycott the Party Which Only Has .03% of the registered voters in NYC
less in the state
Cuomo Gave the WFP Life in 2010, Second Thoughs? Given the
resistance the Working Families Party and its allies are mounting
against Governor Cuomo and his agenda, should the governor regret not
having killed the party when he had the chance? City State’s Morgan Pehme
Catsimatidis the Liberal Meanwhile, Republican businessman John Catsimatidis is thinking about bankrolling an effort
to revive the defunct Liberal Party and boost Mr. Cuomo’s re-election
bid. “Catsimatidis will help us. We are on the same page,” Liberal Party
Executive Director Martin Hassner told the Post.* WFP to honor Mark-Viverito and Ben Jealous(Capital)
Cuomo
met privately Monday
with several influential labor unions that have ties to the Working
Families Party, amid signs that some progressives are frustrated with
the governor.*
* In an email to supporters, a Working
Families Party official said the big picture of the state budget was
that the wealthy and banks got tax breaks while New Yorkers got
shortchanged, State of Politics writes
WFP Needs Cuomo Trying to Save Face?
Charter Dividends
Game Over
Looks like no WTF Progressive war against Skelos and Klein's Coalition Leadership
De Blasio to offer truce with Cuomo over charter schools(NYP)After weeks of warring with Gov. Cuomo and education advocates over
the contentious topic of charter schools, Mayor de Blasio plans to
extend an olive branch in a speech Sunday morning, sources have told The
Post. “It’s an effort to stop the bleeding,” one source said of the ongoing
war, in which the mayor took a severe public relations beating after
blocking the opening of three charters this fall. The mayor also got heat for eliminating $210 million construction
funds for the popular privately-managed, publicly-funded schools. “He hopes to re-establish a dialogue” another source said. *
State Senator Jeff Klein isn’t sure what to make of Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s recent comments about ex-Councilman Oliver Koppell‘s potential primary challenge. “I have a master’s degree and a law degree,” Mr. Klein told the Times. “And sometimes I can’t always figure out Cuomo-speak.”* Gubernatorial candidate and
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino continued to hammer the
governor for the millions of dollars spent on START-UP NY television
*George Marlin says Astorino should not be counted out in the governor’s race, despite his lack of resources and low name recognition.ads, Gannett Albany reports: * Interesting if WFP leverages Cuomo endorse for public financing, but feels like Cuomo holds most of the cards here. *Astorino: Where Did The Businesses Go? (YNN)* Westchester County Executive and
gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino may face a tough test in
Republican-heavy Nassau County because of party leaders’ and lawmakers’
close ties with Cuomo, Newsday reports:
More on the War: de Blasio vs Cuomo
More on the IDC GOP Senate Coalition
More on the WFP, New Progressives
Another CW Follow the $ Tweet: Former US senator turned lobbyist, Alfonse D’Amato backs Cuomo's
re-election campaign(NYP) *
Mayor de Blasio First 3 Months
Acorn 2.0, Inc (NY Communities for Change)
]
New Tammany Hall GOTV Field 2013
NYCC, Reincarnated Acorn, Rises in de Blasio’s New York(NYO)One
of the country’s best known community organizing groups, it crumbled
rapidly four years ago, after right-wing activists, posing as a pimp
and prostitute, secretly filmed Acorn workers providing them tax advice.
But it turns out that Acorn’s exile was only temporary. The very same
agitators are now whispering into the open ear of the new mayor, under
the name New York Communities for Change. NYCC, which is battling to
raise the wages of low-income workers and
eventually unionize them, increase affordable housing and beat back the
charter school movement, is also entwined with the influential Working
Families Party. n the early stages of the mayor’s race.*
Housing Activists Rally At City Hall(NYDN) The "Real Affordability For All" launch includes leading progressive
groups like Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change,
and is billing itself as the "largest affordable housing campaign in the
city." The Black Institute was also paid $23,000 for polling last October by
then-state Sen. Eric Adams' campaign for Brooklyn borough president. Mr.
Adams faced token opposition for the seat and won handily.
Were the PACS, NYCC and WFP Working Together in the Primary in Violation of the CFB Spending Caps?
NYCC
launched a valuable
vote-pulling operation in minority neighborhoods where a gawky white
candidate like Mr. de Blasio, even with a black wife, might not have
held supreme appeal. A 501(c)(4) nonprofit that can participate in
political activities without revealing its donors, NYCC has proven most
potent in predominantly black areas in central Brooklyn and southeast
Queens, where voter turnout is heavily Democratic and deceptively high.
Where the WFP begins and NYCC ends can be difficult to discern. The two
organizations are headquartered in the same Nevins Street building, one
floor apart. Jonathan Westin, the successor to Mr. Kest at NYCC, who
died in 2012, sits on the WFP’s executive board. And their political
aims, from unionizing fast food and car wash workers to combating the
power of the real estate and banking industries, are all but identical.
The New Machine, Progressives, WFP, NYCC, Lobbyist (Advance, Pitta Bishop Del Giorno, Berlin Rosen)
Machine Coup D'etat
“It
seems to me these folks are like the worker ants of the Working
Families Party,” said one right-leaning nonprofit executive. “They’re
kind of a nonprofit community front for the party.” Lending its ballot
line, organized labor troops and dogged
get-out-the-vote operation, many credit the WFP will helping to
spearheaded the victories of the public advocate, comptroller, council
speaker and various council members last year. NYCC’s own greatest coup
of 2013 may have been helping crown the
speaker of the City Council, ensuring that the group would have its
phone calls returned by the two most powerful elected officials in the
city. NYCC played a crucial, behind-the-scenes role. Rallying around her
speakership candidacy early on, NYCC dedicated a top staffer. After her
victory, Ms. Mark-Viverito would hire Ms. Adams as a senior adviser.
Meanwhile, Ms. Lewis hasn’t disappeared from the scene entirely. While
she has no official role with NYCC, she still uses the pronoun “we” when
discussing the organization and remains one of Mayor de Blasio’s closet
confidantes.
* The New York City Council Finance
Committee “lavished praise” on de Blasio’s budget proposal at a hearing,
which reflects the “progressive” values the mayor and many Council
members share, Crain’s writes: * Crain's analyzes Lewis's support for opponents of waste transfer station after period of neutrality(AYO) In
Mayor's ally being paid to fight him,
Crain's New York Business reports on the curious situation in which
Bertha Lewis, head of the Black Institute and longtime friend/supporter
of Mayor Bill de Blasio, is opposing mayoral efforts--which began under
Mike Bloomberg and which de Blasio supports--to build a waste transfer
station on the Upper East Side.*
Mayor's ally being paid to fight him (CrainsNY) Instead of opposing the heavily favored Mr. de Blasio in the general
election, however, Pledge 2 Protect hired the Advance Group, a
Manhattan-based Democratic consulting firm that had just run a $1
million campaign to sink de Blasio rival Christine Quinn. Pledge 2
Protect also hired Ms. Lewis, who shares an office with the Advance
Group and whose nonprofit is a client of it.
Progressive Member Item Power Grab Disguised As Reform
City and State Reports
COUNCIL MEMBER ITEM REFORM EASIER SAID THAN DONE: City
Council members have been clamoring for member items reform for years,
but an equitable, needs-based formula for discretionary funds remained
elusive at a Rules Committee hearing Monday for the $50 million dollar slush fund the council givers out each year.
Ambassador Gaspard Became Too Public
_____________________________________
WFP's Special DA Appeal
State's Top Court to Hear Working Families Party Case
Matter of Working Families Party v. Fisher,
2013-996, a case that could determine whether the "actual prejudice"
standard needed to disqualify a district attorney is applicable when the
prosecutor himself asks to be replaced. The appeal arose after
Richmond County District Attorney Daniel Donovan asked to be relieved
for reasons that have never been publicly disclosed. Justice Fern
Fisher, deputy chief administrative judge for New York City, appointed
Roger Bennett Adler as special district attorney. But the Working
Families Party challenged Donovan's request to be removed from the case
as well as Fisher's authority in granting the request. The Appellate
Division, Second Department, in August rejected the party's claims (
NYLJ, Aug. 8).
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals granted leave, without comment. A
long-running political/legal battle involving the Working Families
Party and the appointment of a special district attorney to probe a 2009
race is headed to the state's highest court. On Tuesday, the Court of
Appeals agreed to hear
Wow
A prosecutor investigating possible wrongdoing by the labor-backed
Working Families Party, which is close to Democratic NYC mayoral
frontrunner Bill de Blasio, says he expects to convene
a grand jury shortly after Veterans Day as part of his probe into
allegations the WFP illegally gave candidates below-cost
campaign-related services in 2009.
Progressivism’s great failure: The rise
and fall of the Working Families Party(Salon)
Despite its noble aims, WFP has never
coalesced as a legitimate advocate for the interests of the labor
movement
_____________________________________
The Victors WFP
Clever WFP Activists Filled the Disconnect Leadership Void
Working Families Party giddy at City Hall takeover(NYP)
After
two decades of fighting City Hall, the leaders of the Working
Family Party are giddy that their candidates will control the levers of
power at virtually all levels of Gotham’s government. “We expect real
change, real results,” declared WFP co-founder Bertha Lewis, a longtime
pal of Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio. In the City Council, at least a
dozen members lined up with the party and are prepared to push its
agenda. Communication Workers of American boss Bob Master — a co-founder
of the
WFP 15 years ago — marveled that the progressive agenda is on the new
mayor’s to-do-list after being resisted for a generation. Lewis, who is
the former ACORN chief, said she’s thrilled at having a seat at the
table. “We’ve been out in the wilderness for 20 years,” she said. “Our
ties in the government run deep,” Lewis boasted.
In New York City’s Sharp Left Turn, Questions of Just How Far(NYT) de Blasio message, of inequality and a government that might soften
capitalism’s hard edges, and he drove it with skill. Now he must govern
in a parlous time. Every municipal contract has expired. Democrats rule
the executive chambers in Washington and in Albany, but purses are
latched shut.*
De Blasio’s win has started the
transition to a borough-centric New York of workers, immigrants and
second chances, Denis Hamill writes for the Daily News: * Liberal Council Could Pose Test for de Blasio(WSJ) *
WFP Touts Upstate Victories(YNN)
_____________________________________
WFP's Special DA Appeal
State's Top Court to Hear Working Families Party Case
Matter of Working Families Party v. Fisher,
2013-996, a case that could determine whether the "actual prejudice"
standard needed to disqualify a district attorney is applicable when the
prosecutor himself asks to be replaced. The appeal arose after
Richmond County District Attorney Daniel Donovan asked to be relieved
for reasons that have never been publicly disclosed. Justice Fern
Fisher, deputy chief administrative judge for New York City, appointed
Roger Bennett Adler as special district attorney. But the Working
Families Party challenged Donovan's request to be removed from the case
as well as Fisher's authority in granting the request. The Appellate
Division, Second Department, in August rejected the party's claims (
NYLJ, Aug. 8).
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeals granted leave, without comment. A
long-running political/legal battle involving the Working Families
Party and the appointment of a special district attorney to probe a 2009
race is headed to the state's highest court. On Tuesday, the Court of
Appeals agreed to hear
_____________________________________
The Victors WFP
Clever WFP Activists Filled the Disconnect Leadership Void
Working Families Party giddy at City Hall takeover(NYP)
After
two decades of fighting City Hall, the leaders of the Working
Family Party are giddy that their candidates will control the levers of
power at virtually all levels of Gotham’s government. “We expect real
change, real results,” declared WFP co-founder Bertha Lewis, a longtime
pal of Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio. In the City Council, at least a
dozen members lined up with the party and are prepared to push its
agenda. Communication Workers of American boss Bob Master — a co-founder
of the
WFP 15 years ago — marveled that the progressive agenda is on the new
mayor’s to-do-list after being resisted for a generation. Lewis, who is
the former ACORN chief, said she’s thrilled at having a seat at the
table. “We’ve been out in the wilderness for 20 years,” she said. “Our
ties in the government run deep,” Lewis boasted.
__________________________________________________________________________
WFP Investigation
A Liberal Party Faces Inquiries Without End (NYT) Three years ago, the Staten Island district attorney,
Daniel M. Donovan Jr.,
submitted a secret application to state court requesting that it
appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Working Families Party
and that same Staten Island race.
* 2009 Election Probe Emerges Again(WSJ) Political opponents accused the Working Families Party of running Data
and Field Services as a cut-rate political consultancy for its 2009
candidates, essentially giving those contenders an in-kind campaign
contribution without disclosing it to the public. The party and the
consultancy have said the rates weren't artificially inexpensive.
After a lawsuit filed by former Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, a state
Supreme Court justice ruled that the WFP-DFS arrangement was illegal and
ordered the party to shut down the firm.
He also ordered the WFP to pay $100,000 in legal costs to settle the case, after finding the party in contempt of court.
WFP Winning in the Street, Blocking In Court
A Polar Vortex Investigation of the WFP is Being Delayed By Legal Maneuvering By the Party's Lawyers
A political investigation shrouded in mystery reached the Court of
Appeals Tuesday in a case that could determine if the judiciary will stop an investigation of charges of illegal in-kind help by the WFP to defraud the city's public financing system. This court hearing came months at the WFP and their partners in the progressive unions used the Citizens Unions PAC and the city's public campaign finance system to take over City Hall, and at the time the party is pressuring Cuomo to adopt a public campaign finance system statewide. The Statan Island special prosecutor is looking into if the WFP skirted campaign
finance rules by providing services to endorsed candidates at discounted
rates, thus defrauded the city's public financing program. Special prosecutor Adler said the underlying campaign finance issues transcend the Working Families Party matter. "The public needs to know that people gaming the system will be held
accountable," he said. "Accountability is important to ensure that …
people will not be able to game the system and take unfair advantage and
unlawfully affect elections. The investigation deals with the fairness
of the council campaign and whether or not the campaign finance system
was gamed during the 2009 election. That is what the grand jury needs to
resolve."
How the WFP is Trying to Stop the Special Prosecutor
The Working Families Party is trying to stop an investigation of a city
council election launched by Staten Island District Attorney Daniel
Donovan, the prosecutor's ex parte application to be relieved of the
case, and a judge's decision to grant the motion and appoint a special
prosecutor without revealing why.
Working Families Party v. Fisher, 59,
centers on a probe Donovan launched into a 2009 City Council campaign
and apparently involves the party's use of a not-for-profit arm to
promote liberal Democrats. The WFP has challenged Donovan's authority to recuse himself and
Fisher's authority to relieve the district attorney without "a showing
of actual prejudice based on a demonstrated conflict of interest," as
mandated by County Law §701. The Appellate Division, Second Department, last August rejected the
party's petition and affirmed the appointment of Adler. It held that a
writ of prohibition is suitable to challenge the appointment of a
special district attorney only if the special D.A. is performing a
quasi-judicial function, as opposed to conducting an investigation. In another case in the past
WFP lawyer Avi Schick has been trying to quash subpoenas from a special prosecutor that involve a 2009 council race on Staten Island.
What Was Argued At the Appeals Court Hearing
Last Tuesday, WFP's lawyer Avi Schick, counsel for the WFP, stressed
that the party is not questioning Adler's investigation. Rather, he said
it is challenging Fisher's authority to replace the district attorney. During oral arguments, Judge Victoria Graffeo questioned why the WFP
cares if Donovan or Adler investigates. Judge Eugene Pigott seemed
troubled by the secrecy of the matter. Judge Robert Smith hinted more
than once that Schick might want to move to unseal the record to find
out just why Donovan recused himself. Judges also questioned whether the target of an investigation should be
permitted to choose its own prosecutor, and whether the WFP, if it gets
Donovan restored and then finds he had a legitimate reason for stepping
aside, could then seek to have him removed. The District Attorneys Association of the State of New York appeared amicus curiae in support of Donovan. In
its brief,
the group said that "justice is not served when a district attorney is
put in a position where he or she believes there is a conflict of
interest but recusal is not permitted." Interestingly, none of the issues before the Court of Appeals would stop
the investigation from going forward. Rather, the most the Working
Families Party can hope for is an order shifting the case back to
Donovan. A six-judge panel will hear arguments late Tuesday afternoon. Chief
Judge Jonathan Lippman has recused himself for unstated reasons.
The Media Ignores Efforts to Block An Investigation Into the Most Powerful and Successful Party in New York
The News Blog
City and State under their former name
City Hall did a 5 part investigation of Data and Field. That investigation for unknown reasons have been taken off the internet. But the following are some of what was in the
City and State investigation:
The NYC Working Families Party Scam UPDATED - Daily Kos *
The incestuous relationship between Working Families Party & Data & Field Services *
ACORN, the Working Families Party and Political Corruption, Part I (Brightbart) *
The Working Families Party Scam - Huffington Post *
Breaking: WFP/ACORN Takes The Fifth On Corruption Suit.
What the WDP Case is About
In 2012, Brooklyn attorney Roger Adler, a Democrat, was appointed as a
special prosecutor to probe allegations that Working Families had been
manipulating state and city election law. Critics of WFP
have charged for years that Data & Field Services (DFS) has provided
heavily discounted consulting work for Working Families candidates,
essentially giving them in-kind contributions without publicly
disclosing it. The NYT editorial in 2009
Questions for Data and Field, wrote: "For example, the company charged City Councilman Bill de Blasio of
Brooklyn $5,000 for lists of voters. Officials from other campaigns have
complained that sophisticated voter files like those often used by the
Working Families Party could cost $25,000 to $40,000. If there is such a
differential — and lists can vary considerably — the extra should be
counted as a campaign contribution and as part of the cap on allowed
spending." In 2010, Working Families agreed to settle a civil lawsuit on the issue
but didn’t admit wrongdoing, paying $100,000 for legal bills to Randy
Mastro, a former Giuliani deputy mayor who brought the suit. It also
signed a court agreement that DFS would end its association with the
party. In 2011 Supreme Court Judge Anthony Giacobbe found Data and Field Services in
contempt of court for not complying with the court's February, 2010
order, which we explain in some detail
here.
Data And Field Services Held In Contempt(NYDN) The upshot is that DFS was required to do a number of things the court
felt it didn't do. Instead, it changed its status from for-profit to
non-profit, decided the costs of its own services rather than getting an
estimate of fair market value, didn't make sure board members had the
required degree of independence from the WFP and failed to get an
independent evaluation of the software it uses for its clients. *
In Feud, Working Families Party Turns Tables on Prosecutor(NYT, 2013) *
Working Families Party back under investigation | Crains (2012) *
NY Political Parties for Sale: Ballot Corruption 2009 Election Probe Emerges Again(WSJ)*
The Death Of DFS (Updated)(YNN) * WFP Concedes Admits No Wrongdoing (Capital)
A political investigation shrouded in mystery reached the Court of
Appeals Tuesday in a case that could determine if the judiciary can
second-guess a district attorney's decision to step aside from a
particular matter.
In 2011, a New York City
grand jury issued subpoenas as part of an ongoing probe of the party and
its tangled links with Data & Field Services, a company that
provides campaign workers and organizers to candidates.
But in 2011, DFS filed an appeal with the court, saying it had to
remain linked with Working Families — by far its largest client — or
suffer “extreme economic and logistical hardship.” In April 2011,
state-supreme-court justice Anthony Giacobbe held DFS in contempt for
failing to follow through on its agreement to separate from Working
Families. Mastro has said the party claims it “needs the DFS’s people there so
vitally, so close at hand that they need to be there operating in the
same office space with the same people.”
While legal investigations grind on, WFP is making progress
elsewhere. It continues to perfect its Alinskyite tactics in New York:
recruit activist leftists to run for office on the WFP line and the
Democrats’, help them raise money that can be generously supplemented by
city financing, and make certain they change election laws in the
party’s favor. In 2005, WFP allies on the city council were instrumental
in overturning a ruling by the city’s independent Campaign Finance
Board that restricted union political donations. Frederick A. O. Schwarz
Jr., then the chairman of the Campaign Finance Board, complained that
the changes “create a gaping loophole for union contributions,
undermining the contribution limits established by the Campaign Finance
Act.”
New York’s loophole-ridden campaign-finance laws have been a
happy hunting ground for Working Families for years. But now there’s a
new sheriff in town, unaffiliated with the de Blasio–WFP cadre. The day
before he left office as mayor, Mike Bloomberg announced a new head for
the city’s Campaign Finance Board: Rose Gill Hearn, a no-nonsense lawyer
who formerly headed the city’s watchdog, the Department of
Investigations. “She has been getting worms out of the Big Apple” for
years, the
New York Daily News reported last year in an article highlighting her dogged investigation procedures.
Federal prosecutors conducted an investigation and the New York City
Campaign Board commenced an audit. Neither inquiry turned up any
misconduct.
Other Scams to Rip Off the CFB
Sheldon Leffler, Former Councilman, Is Convicted in Campaign Fraud Scheme(NYT)
Sheldon Leffler Hit With $400G Fine
Queens pol Albert Baldeo busted for using straw campaign donors ...
Even With Allies Leading New York City, Unions Won’t Have It Easy(NYT)
Labor-backed candidates are on the verge of taking over the city, but
experts say unions will still probably not be able to get everything
they want.
WFP Takes Over the City
The
Establishment Does Not Even Know Who Alex Rose Is, Or What He Did to
Make NYC Great, While Protecting NYC's Poor and Middle Class
Letitia James pushes support for Working Families Party(NYP) James sent out a personal email urging backers on the WFP’s mailing list
to vote for her on Row D — the Working Families Party line — in the
Nov. 5 general election instead of the Democratic line.
*
Working Families Party – It’s been a gangbuster few weeks for the
WFP, with the party’s old friend Bill de Blasio looking like he will
cruise into office as mayor, big wins in City Council races, and then
topping off their success with Letitia James, the first council member
elected solely on the WFP line, winning the Democratic contest for
public advocate, making her a shoo-in to win the general election. In a
relatively short amount of time, the party has become a flagship for
progressive candidates and policies as well as organized labor’s
political voice. Now we will see what it does in power.*
The WFP Flexes(YNN) * The WFP
expressed opposition
to Cuomo’s new tax commission “headed by former Republican Governor
George Pataki,” making no mention of the other co-chair, former state
Comptroller Carl McCall.
As the NYP, Daily New and NYT Lost Power the Working Families Party Takes Over
WHAT TO LOOK FOR:
Bill de Blasio is expected to be
declared the winner of the mayor’s race shortly after the polls close
tonight at 9 p.m. Joining him in the winners' circle will also be the
leaders of the Working Families Party. In April of 2001, four months
after Michael Bloomberg was sworn in as mayor, the W.F.P. had only 2044
registered voters. In 2009, the first year the party formally backed a
mayoral
candidate, the W.F.P. got one-fifth the number of votes for its
candidate, Bill Thompson, that the Independence Party did with Michael
BloombergToday, with de Blasio’s victory, the W.F.P. is also
set to displace the Independence Party as New York City’s dominant
third-party
player.
If polls hold steady, de Blasio and the W.F.P. will have proven that
there can be political gold in talking about economic injustice.
Sick Pay Passes
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
signed a law to expand paid sick leave to companies with at least five
employees starting next month, expanding a recent but more limited law, the Staten Island Advance writes:
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the first bill
into law of his administration: a mandate to require all businesses in
New York with five or more employees to provide paid-time off to its
workers.* Without rules, sick-leave law leaves biz in dark(CrainsNY) *
City's small biz owners face rising costs(CrainsNY) Soaring city rents, rising labor costs and more mandates slow biz expansions. *
Closing in on No. 1(NYP Ed) The consequence of this law is likely to be . . .
fewer jobs.
Businesses that can’t afford to pay sick leave will hire fewer workers,
move or shut down. All of which will make New York job market even
tougher.The
New York Business Journal reports on the confusion around the city’s
new paid sick day law:
“[W]ith only 12 days before the law takes effect, the city’s Department
of Consumer Affairs has still not issued final regulations that
employers expect to spell out numerous details and clarify points not
explicitly addressed in the law.
WFP is essentially a money funnel which pays for an aggressive door
to door canvas. Largely funded by unions, the WFP is ACORN’s “political
arm” in New York State. Candidates supported by the Working Families
Party and issues supported by ACORN are both advocated on the door steps
of target voter homes as they share one major voter canvas. Gathering of Eagles: NY
Bill de Blasio's Other Party | National Review Online
Working Families Party Documents Subpoenaed(NYT) 2009
In October,
Randy M. Mastro,
a former deputy mayor who is now an election lawyer, filed a lawsuit in
State Supreme Court on behalf of private citizens on Staten Island
claiming that the Working Families Party had unfairly aided their
preferred candidate, Deborah Rose, who ended up winning her race. The
case is due to go to trial in January. Then, shortly after the election, the Working Families Party announced the hiring of
Judith S. Kaye,
former chief judge of the Court of Appeals, and her firm of Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to review their operations.
Die-hard supporters of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- better known as the infamous
ACORN -- are not going to like these developments. From
City Hall, Edward-Isaac Dovere reports that the embattled Lewis has quietly stepped aside as head of the
Working Families Party in New York State, which is currently under investigation by the feds:
The change in leadership comes as the Working Families Party and many of
its endorsed candidates are providing extensive email and other
documentation in response to December subpoenas from the United States
Attorney’s office in New York. Lawyers are also preparing to return to
Staten Island Supreme Court on Feb. 23 for the lawsuit being brought
against the WFP’s company,
Data & Field Services,
and the campaign of now-Council Member Debi Rose by Randy Mastro on
behalf of five Republican-connected residents of her Staten Island
district.
With national scrutiny on ACORN and local scrutiny on the
Working Families Party, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis quietly departed as state
co-chair of the Working Families Party.
The change in leadership comes as the Working Families Party
and many of its endorsed candidates are providing extensive email and other
documentation in response to December subpoenas from the United States
Attorney’s office in New York. Lawyers are also preparing to return to Staten
Island Supreme Court on Feb. 23 for the lawsuit being brought against the WFP’s
company, Data & Field Services, and the campaign of now-Council Member Debi
Rose by Randy Mastro on behalf of five Republican-connected residents of her
Staten Island district.
After being warned by a judge in mid-January about delays in
producing documents, Data & Field Services says that it met the Feb. 5
deadline to provide the remaining information with over 1,000 pages of information.
ACORN played pivotal role in 2001 City Council race
ACORN wasn't just a housing organization. In the late 1990s, it helped found the
Working Families Party,
to support pro-union, pro-grassroots candidates and confer on them a
sort of progressive seal of approval. In 2001, ACORN was supporting de
Blasio in his first run for City Council. But he was in a six-way race.
His leading rival was a well-liked champion of the poor, Steve Banks, a
lawyer at the Legal Aid Society.
“We liked both of them,” recalled Bertha Lewis, who was then
executive director of New York ACORN. “It’s always hard when you have
two folks you really, really liked, but I do have to say, Bill edged
out Steve.”
Many members of the South Brooklyn Club of the Working Families
Party, the district where the council race was taking place, felt the
opposite. When the club voted on which candidate to endorse, Steve Banks
got 50 votes, according to one tally. Bill de Blasio got none. But
then, the state-wide Working Families Party reviewed the endorsement.
“When this got to the executive committee, the executive committee
overturned that recommended endorsement,” said Dorothy Siegel, the club
chairwoman at the time.
Mayoral Candidates Get Around Spending Limits . . .De Blasio Leads In Creative Finance
De Blasio Donors Hit Maximum, but Keep Giving(NYT) About two dozen supporters who have contributed as much as allowed to
the mayoral campaign of the public advocate, Bill de Blasio, have
donated more to defray debts from his 2009 race. About two dozen individuals who have
donated to the campaign of Democratic New York City mayoral candidate
Bill de Blasio have also donated to his 2009 Public Advocate campaign to
pay off past debts
WAKE-UP SCOOP: OUTLINES OF A FIRST-LADY INITIATIVE -- ‘McCray’s
Mayor’s Fund goals begin to take shape’ -- Capital’s Sally Goldenberg: [First
lady Chirlane McCray] and four other board members and two-person staff
are sifting through the projects prioritized during the Bloomberg
administration, when the Mayor's Fund was chaired by first deputy mayor
Patti Harris, to assess which fit into their plans to use the
organization to bolster the mayor's efforts on income inequality.
So far, they have selected four priorities: assisting parents
in recruitment and enrollment for de Blasio's signature proposal of
expanded pre-kindergarten; increasing summer jobs for teens and young
adults; helping the surviving victims of the fatal East Harlem building
explosion in March; and applying to make the city a test case for
broadening eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit.
http://goo.gl/bgOY5W
The reform pols hate(NYP Ed)Gov. Cuomo is pulling out all the stops to promote his ideas for
campaign finance. That includes holding a “telephone town hall” tonight
on the issue with the folks from Fair Elections for New York. As
first articulated in his State of the State, the governor’s general idea
of state campaign finance seems to be to follow the lead of New York
City. That is, to impose stricter limits on what candidates can raise or
spend, and to use matching public funds to fund more campaigns. Here’s
our question: So long as the city is a model, why no mention of the one
big limit on city politicians that doesn’t exist at the state level —
term limits? 
Jimmy Vielkind
Jerry Skurnik
Nick Confessore
Liz Benjamin
Michael Caputo
