Gov. Cuomo‘s commission to investigate state government corruption threatens to torpedo his 2014 election-year agenda, legislative insiders warn.
“There’s a lot of anger among the lawmakers and they’re ready to push back,” said one legislative official.
“The governor through this commission is threatening to throw away the functionality, the collegiality, that he’s had with the Legislature the last three years,” the source said.
A string of three consecutive on-time budgets and bipartisan accomplishments are now in “jeopardy,” the official said.
Perhaps the last straw was a recent round of letters asking individual lawmakers making more than $20,000 in outside income to provide info on their work, including a list of clients if they are lawyers.
The letter raises serious questions regarding the separation of powers, legislative sources said.
“It’s almost as if they are assuming everyone is guilty and ask questions later,” the first official said of the panel.
Insiders say the commission sent the letters because it feared a judge would rule it was overstepping boundaries if it issued subpoenas. The letters make it easier for the commission to publicly shame the Legislature if lawmakers don’t comply.
The Senate and Assembly have each hired outside lawyers to coordinate their pushback.
Cuomo created the commission in July to root out government corruption after the Legislature rejected his calls for ethics reform following a spate of lawmaker arrests.
“Resisting the investigation and creating an environment of gridlock and dysfunction in the Legislature doesn’t really sound like a winning election-year strategy,” a Cuomo administration source said.
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Days after Eliot Spitzer lost the Democratic primary for city controller, many close to him hope he suppresses his massive ego and ends his political career.
“Hopefully, he got it out of his system,” said a longtime ally who supported Spitzer’s failed comeback run for controller.
The source and other backers of Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 as governor amid a hooker scandal, now say if he couldn’t beat little-known Scott Stringer for a “second-tier position,” he’s likely unelectable no matter how much wants to serve and how rich he is.
“The worst possible situation is that he looks at the race and tells himself that he did well; that he got in late, got 48% of the vote, and dealt with questions about his personal life,” the Spitzer ally said. “If he asked me, I would tell him to avoid the temptation and not run again.”
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Merryl Tisch, who served as chairwoman of Bill Thompson‘s mayoral campaign, stunned Democrats when she handed the race to Bill de Blasio in her post-election analysis.
Tisch, chairwoman of the state Board of Regents, was among the first to say on Wednesday that de Blasio had won a decisive victory — just stopping short of telling Thompson not to seek a runoff.
“It was disgusting what she did,” said one high-level Dem. “She didn’t even give Thompson a day before sucking up to de Blasio.”
“Merryl has been an incredible supporter of this campaign and hasn’t wavered in her support for Bill Thompson,” retorted chief Thompson strategist Jonathan Prince.