Spin Cycle
News, views and commentary on Long Island, state and national politics
Robert Brodsky
Robert Brodsky has been a reporter at Newsday since April 2011, covering Nassau County government and politics. Prior to that, he spent four years in Washington, D.C. at Government Executive, a magazine and Web site focused on the business side of the federal government. Brodsky has also worked for the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C. investigative Web site.
Hennessey crosses party lines on campaign-finance vote
Photo credit: Joseph D. Sullivan
Largely along party lines, the state Assembly approved a bill, 88-50, Tuesday that would provide public money to finance political campaigns.
Supporters said the bill would reduce the influence of big-money donors in elections, revamp the state Board of Elections and limit how campaign money can be used. Opponents said public financing won’t root out corruption and that the state shouldn’t...
Read more »Suozzi lays out campaign strategy, six months out
This week marks six months until the highly anticipated Nassau County executive election and Democratic candidate Thomas Suozzi has outlined six tasks that his campaign must accomplish before it can turn out the vote.
To win in November, according to a news release issued by the campaign on Tuesday, Suozzi must:
* Open field offices across Nassau County
*Build up his volunteer...
Read more »Rep. King boosts Lhota for NYC mayor; Catsimatidis has Liberal backing
Photo credit: Getty Images
For what it may mean to GOP primary voters, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) has endorsed former MTA chairman and ex-deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota for New York City mayor.
The backing was announced today by the Lhota camp following Lhota’s endorsement last night by the Staten Island Republican organization.
While King, from Nassau, supports Lhota, Sen. Dean Skelos, the state legislature’s top...
Read more »New Hyde Park pasta company raises funds for Sandy relief
Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, still pushing for aid to some of the hardest hit by superstorm Sandy, got his first retail establishment fundraiser Tuesday: The New York Ravioli & Pasta Company in New Hyde Park.
The company, which makes 35 different kinds of stuffed pasta, is celebrating its 20th anniversary by kicking in 20 percent of their retail store sales, Monday through...
Read more »In Nassau, Suozzi hails Rep. King on Sandy $$ spat
A lot of after-the-fact political noise over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Superstorm Sandy funding seems to have offered former Nassau executive -- and current Nassau executive candidate -- Thomas Suozzi, a Democrat, a relatively risk-free way to reach across the partisan divide.
Suozzi hailed Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) for slamming Cruz’s status as upcoming featured guest at the state Republicans’...
Read more »Invite-only Senate hearing and the realpolitik of public financing
Watch for worlds to collide Tuesday when the State Senate Elections Committee -- controlled by a Republican conference that opposes public campaign financing -- questions Amy Loprest, executive director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, which has run such a system for 25 years.
The panel, chaired by Sen. Thomas F. O'Mara (R-Elmira), will hear testimony in Albany -- by invitation...
Read more »Next case! Now comes Sen. John Sampson's turn to answer feds' charges
Photo credit: AP
Not that anyone was surprised. Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), former leader of his party's conference in the upper house, has become the latest corruption defendant in a state Legislature with a higher per capita crime rate than your average rough neighborhood. The move follows quickly on the heels of the revelation late last week that ex-Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) recorded conversations with...
Read more »Cuomo explores terms of revenues from Indian casinos
Two decades ago, then-Gov. Mario Cuomo signed a pact that allowed the Oneida Nation to open New York’s first casino. The agreement didn’t entitle the state to share any of the revenues – unlike every other Indian-run casino and any video slot parlor/race track that’s opened since.
Now, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration is exploring whether the Oneidas would be open to revenue sharing....
Read more »Schumer gets a 'Hi, Chuck!' from passing anglers
Something flukish happened at Sen. Charles Schumer’s Wednesday morning news conference in Freeport.
Schumer, who assembled a school of media on the Nautical Mile for his presser about Sandy aid, was interrupted by a passing fishing boat in nearby Woodcleft Canal. The fishermen on board called out, “Hi, Chuck!” in unison, drawing chuckles from the crowd.
Schumer, speaking into a microphone,...
Read more »D'Amato takes shot at national GOP on guns
Before Al D’Amato endorsed Dina De Giorgio, the sophomore GOP councilwoman running for North Hempstead Town supervisor, the former three-term U.S. senator from New York took a moment to criticize national Republicans.
He did not mince words.
“I think you’ve got to be a jackass to be voting against background checks for people,” he said, a day after a gun control drive in the Senate was...
Read more »
