Spin Cycle
News, views and commentary on Long Island, state and national politics
NYC: Underdog Dem Albanese blasts rivals' tax spending on politics
Photo credit: Handout
Former Councilman Sal Albanese, running as a reformer for New York City mayor in the Democratic primary, Monday issued a provocative and interesting piece on rivals' use of their incumbencies for campaign purposes. He adds this shot on disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner that he "has yet to apologize for the $350,000" that taxpayers doled out "for a special election to replace him the...
Read more »State Sen. Ball won't run for Congress
Conservative Sen. Greg Ball (R-Patterson) said Monday he won’t run for a Hudson Valley congressional seat next year. Some in the political world had speculated Ball might challenge freshman Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-Cold Spring).
Here’s the statement Ball issued Monday morning:
“I want to make it clear that I am focused on finishing this legislative session and delivering for...
Read more »Taking Weiner's word for anything a challenge
While he was a congressman -- accomplishing, well, who knows what -- Rep. Anthony Weiner did manage to help one career, that of the late Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger who exposed the Brooklyn pol's exposures. In the process, Weiner did himself in with lies like the one below, recorded on yet another video collected from the 2011 Lying Tour of the NYC mayoral candidate-to-be.
Voters...
Read more »Nassau: Suozzi's man Jacobs takes a shot at rival Haber
Nassau Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs is attacking county executive candidate Adam Haber for his use of a Suffolk County marketing firm run by a former Republican political consultant.
Haber, a Democrat, hired Patchogue-based Public Relations and Marketing Group to run his Nassau Suggestion Box, a Web site where residents can vote on a host of issues. John Zaher, a registered Independent...
Read more »No L.I. fallout, so far, as IRS scandal resounds elsewhere
No Long Island group has surfaced among the nonprofits the IRS admitted it targeted from 2010 to 2012 for having “tea party,” “patriot,” “9/12” or a political word in its name. “I honestly don’t know of anybody personally that was stonewalled like that,” said Frank Seabrook, the former editor of the local tea party website Liberty Report.
“A lot of the tea party groups were loosely knit groups...
Read more »New LIPA boss hands out cash -- his own
They may not qualify as cushy management bonuses, but new Long Island Power Authority boss John McMahon recently handed out $50 bills at a staff meeting to boost morale.
The former Con Ed executive, according to sources, took a wad of cash out of his pocket and began giving each staffer a $50 bill suggesting they go to dinner on him.
McMahon’s gesture came as the embattled public utility...
Read more »So far, Silver survives the fall, and further fall, of Vito Lopez
Photo credit: Yancey Roy
And so, the long political career of Assemb. Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), resigning effective Monday, has crashed and burned in stages since the middle of last year.
Some of the falling debris hit Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), of course. He’s admitted for months that when two female staffers claimed sex harassment in Lopez’s office, the house’s ethics committee should have been...
Read more »Gov. Cuomo lists personal assets worth $1.8M plus
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has assets worth at least $1.8 million, according to new documents published by the state’s ethics panel.
The governor’s 2012 financial statement was made public last week under new disclosure rules enacted since he took office. The rules require the value of assets to be set in dollar ranges, so exact totals can’t be determined. Filings showed Cuomo with a blind trust...
Read more »Suffolk Legis. Krupski to face ex-rival from Southold town race
Suffolk County’s newest lawmaker, Democrat Al Krupski, will be facing a rematch of sorts in November.
Republicans last week named as their candidate Albie De Kerillis, of East Marion, who ran and lost to Krupski in a 2009 four-way contest for two Southold town board seats.
Krupski lead the field with 28.9 percent of the vote along with Republican Christopher Talbot. De Kerillis came...
Read more »Romaine insists axing of Walsh ally was coincidence
The deal between Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone and Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine to share a veterans counselor will also ax a close ally of town board member Kathleen Walsh, who is running for re-election on the Democratic line.
The town-county deal will put a county veterans counselor in town hall and the town will pay $25,000 toward his salary. But that means John Rago, a town veterans...
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