THE NEW YORK POST

"CURSE HURTS: BRUNO - RIPS SPITZ HISS"

By FREDRIC U. DICKER State Editor

July 8, 2007 -- ALBANY - Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said yesterday that he believes Gov. Spitzer did call him "an old, senile piece of s- - -," and claimed the self-described "f- - -ing steamroller" governor may have called him even worse.

"Yes, I believe he said it," Republican Bruno told The Post, which broke the story of the alleged slur against the 78-year-old lawmaker yesterday.

"I hear from other members of my [Republican] Conference that the governor has been extremely nasty about me and my leadership when he talks to them, and I think it's unfortunate that the governor of this state stoops as low as he does with personal attacks and threats against people with whom he disagrees," Bruno continued.

"I didn't ask them for details of what he said, but they said it was very nasty, very uncomplimentary," said Bruno, of upstate Rensselaer County.

"He will truly say anything and have tantrums, literally, when he gets upset."

"He's just too temperamental and he really needs to learn how to be a chief executive," Bruno continued.

The Post report quoted a Long Island Republican senator saying that Spitzer called him late Thursday - after Bruno demanded a grand jury investigation of allegations the governor used the State Police to spy on him - and denounced Bruno as "an old, senile piece of s- - - who is under federal investigation."

The latter was a reference to a federal probe of Bruno's private business relationship with individuals and companies that have done business with the state.

Bruno has insisted he did nothing wrong.

The Long Island senator, who spoke directly with The Post but requested anonymity for fear of retaliation by the governor, called the alleged remarks "offensive."

Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp denied the governor ever made any remarks critical of Bruno, contending he only speaks well of him.

Spitzer, the former attorney general serving his first year as governor, and Bruno, a 31-year Senate veteran, have been locked in a bitter battle for weeks.

Spitzer has accused Bruno of being controlled by special interest lobbyists who want to keep the status quo, while Bruno has accused the governor of pushing campaign "reform" efforts that are really aimed at destroying the GOP.

Earlier this year Spitzer described himself as a "f- - -ing steamroller" who would roll over lawmakers in an angry conversation with Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R-Schenectady.)

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07082007/news/...tate_editor.htm

THE NEW YORK POST

"GOV'S 'OLD' LINE A JOE BLOW - POL TELLS OF DISS"

By FREDRIC U. DICKER State Editor

July 7, 2007 -- ALBANY - After his peace overture was shunned, Gov. Spitzer referred to 78-year-old Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno as "an old, senile piece of s-," a well-known state senator told The Post yesterday.

In the latest round of the Statehouse Smackdown, the potty-mouthed governor stunned the Republican lawmaker by using the harsh and inflammatory language in a phone call while also adding a reminder that Bruno "is under federal investigation."

"I found the comment offensive, and it certainly doesn't do anything to engender good will or an ability to translate issues into results," the senator, who demanded anonymity for fear of retaliation by Spitzer and his allies, told The Post.

"I let the governor know quite clearly that I found the comments offensive and not suitable for a chief executive to be talking to anybody like that," the senator added.

Bruno's chief spokesman, John McArdle, said the Long Island senator recounted his Thursday conversation with the governor directly to Bruno after Bruno had just gotten off the phone with Spitzer, 47, who had called in a failed attempt to reconcile their differences.

"Senator Bruno was shocked and stunned when he was told this, and he couldn't believe how desperate the governor has gotten," McArdle said.

"He found it unbelievable because he had just had a conversation with the governor, and he was not aware of these comments until after the governor had called him."

Bruno acknowledged in December that he is the subject of an FBI investigation into his dealings as a private business consultant to individuals and firms that have done business with the state.

He has insisted he did nothing wrong.

McArdle, meanwhile, said other GOP senators had told Bruno that Spitzer used insulting and "aggressive" language as he sought to undermine their support for their leader in a series of one-on-one phone calls.

Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp, told that a senator and McArdle contended the governor had made the insulting remark, said the claims were "not true."

"All of his [Spitzer's] calls to senators were affirmative."

"In fact, he specifically told them that he had not and would not make personal attacks on Senator Bruno, no matter what the senator was saying about him," Dopp said.

Spitzer's call to the senator would have come just a few hours after a furious Bruno denounced the governor for a "dangerous abuse of power" and urged that grand-jury investigations be launched into the alleged use of the State Police to monitor his activities.

Bruno was responding to The Post's report that he had been targeted by Spitzer for an unprecedented State Police surveillance program that led to allegations that Bruno had improperly used a state helicopter for political purposes.

Spitzer strongly denied the report, but Dopp offered three contradictory explanations for why the State Police prepared special stop-by-stop travel reports on three trips to New York City made by Bruno.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07072007/news/...tate_editor.htm

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Spitzer is the king of gridlock - Long Island GOP big"

BY NICOLE BODE and JOE MAHONEY

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Monday, July 9th 2007, 3:23 PM

A high-ranking GOP state senator from Long Island ripped into Gov. Spitzer yesterday for presiding over a "totally dysfunctional" administration that he claimed has tied the Legislature up in knots, producing some of the worst gridlock New York has ever seen.

"His aggressive name-calling style is not conducive to getting positive results for the people of this state," Senate Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) told the Daily News.

"What he has done is make the office of the governor totally dysfunctional."

If Skelos was looking to ignite another donnybrook like the one that steamed up the Capitol last week, he wasn't getting any such result.

All Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp would say was, "The governor has made repeated calls for cooperation and will continue to do so."

Skelos, often described by Republicans as the heir apparent to current Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer), said he was not among the lawmakers contacted directly by Spitzer in recent days and thus had no firsthand knowledge of allegations the governor has been describing Bruno as "senile."

The Spitzer camp has denied claims by Bruno allies he made any such remark.

Spitzer told The News over the weekend that he always refrains from engaging in personal attacks and insisted he considers Bruno his "friend."

Two other Long Island Republican senators who did field Spitzer phone calls in recent days, Charles Fuschillo of Nassau and Suffolk counties and Carl Marcellino, also of Nassau and Suffolk counties, said the governor never personally attacked Bruno when he spoke to them.

"We had a very friendly and amicable conversation," Marcellino recalled.

"There was no negative invectives or anything."

"The only thing he did was ask me to call Sen. Bruno and ask him to get back to work, and I suggested he contact the senator himself to try to patch up whatever differences they may have."

A fourth Long Island Republican, Sen. Kemp Hannon of Nassau County, said Spitzer did not reach out to him.

One Republican senator who asked not to be named claimed Spitzer's actions suggest he has a "divide-and-conquer" strategy because he had been cordial with the upstate senators he contacted, but was antagonistic toward Bruno when he spoke to the Long Island delegation.

"My sense is the governor has no real end game in this," the senator said.

jmahoney@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/07/09...k__long_is.html

THE NEW YORK POST

"GOV AIDES FISHED FOR BRUNO BUSTERS"

July 9, 2007 -- TOP aides to Gov. Spitzer went shopping for probers in their quest to dig up dirt on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, their boss' top political rival, The Post has learned.

Spitzer's aides sought, unsuccessfully, to persuade investigators at the office of at least one New York City district attorney to investigate Bruno for possible criminal conduct, a source close to the situation said.

In addition, an investigative agency was contacted by Spitzer's office about a possible probe of Bruno before the accusations of the misuse of state aircraft became public nine days ago - suggesting a conspiracy aimed at Bruno was already under way, a source said.

Sources said the staffers then "ginned up" two investigations of Bruno's use of state aircraft, even though they knew the officials who headed them didn't believe the inquests were justified.

"This started weeks ago," the source insisted.

Through a spokeswoman, Spitzer, a former assistant district attorney in the office of Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau, declined to comment.

The spokeswoman, Christine Anderson, cited an ongoing inspector general's investigation ordered by the governor Thursday after The Post disclosed Bruno was the subject of a special State Police surveillance effort.

Morgenthau spokeswoman Barbara Thompson also refused comment, citing "ongoing investigations by other agencies."

Richard Baum, Spitzer's chief-of-staff, and Darren Dopp, his communications director, secretly "reached out" to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Albany DA David Soares early last week to get them to declare they would investigate claims that Bruno used a state helicopter to attend political events, sources said.

Spitzer's aides said they contacted Cuomo's and Soare's offices, offering to provide copies of specially maintained State Police travel records showing that Bruno improperly, and possibly illegally, used a state helicopter to fly to Manhattan on three occasions for political, and not governmental, business, a source said.

But officials in both offices were skeptical about the validity of the information, according to the source.

"Calls were made to Soares and Cuomo by the governor's people, Baum and Dopp, telling them they wanted them to request Bruno's travel records and to say they're going to 'look into' them on their own," the source told The Post.

"It was ginned up because [Soares and Cuomo] were initially reluctant to get involved."

Another source said, "Soares' office was called . . . and told to 'request' the information," but initially refused to do so.

Dopp insisted in an interview with The Post last week that Cuomo and Soares acted on their own.

Spokesmen for Cuomo and Soares have publicly said Bruno's travel records would be reviewed.

Bruno has accused Spitzer of leaking false, specially prepared information to the Albany Times-Union about his travels, which he insists were proper.

Bruno, citing The Post's revelation that the State Police conducted an unprecedented surveillance program of his automobile travel in Manhattan, has also called on Cuomo and Soares to begin separate investigations into the governor's conduct.

Meanwhile, insiders expect Cuomo and Soares to examine Lt. Gov. David Paterson's claim on an Albany radio station early last week that the State Police were indeed keeping travel records on senior state officials.

Paterson's statements appeared to directly contradict the State Police contention that no such records exist.

Paterson told WROW-AM that "police records" were kept on air and auto travel for top state officials like himself, with the expectation that the records would be available for public inspection.

Dopp initially claimed on the same day that Paterson made his statement that the State Police regularly kept special travel records on Bruno, in part because of a supposed complaint from state Conservative Party boss Michael Long.

Long, however, said he never made such a complaint.

Dopp then changed his story and claimed that the same travel records that were being kept on Bruno were also kept on all top state officials, including Bruno, Spitzer and Paterson.

He then pledged to make the records public.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07092007/news/...cker.htm?page=0

THE NEW YORK POST

"SPITZER'S SPITE"

July 9, 2007 -- New Yorkers who view the ugly confrontation between Gov. Spitzer and state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno as just another political mud-slinging match are wrong.

Similarly, those who see the struggle as an unpleasant but necessary crockery-smashup on the road to real reform in Albany are also mistaken.

Sad to say.

Indeed, if there were any coherence to Spitzer's efforts to break Bruno's grip on the levers of power, as part of a larger plan to bring true participatory democracy to the capital city, this page would be cheering him on.

Loudly.

As it is, Spitzer's campaign seems wholly ad hoc, a mixture of verbal vulgarity and abuse of police power aimed at one individual alone - as Bruno's co-conspirator in dysfunction, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, is getting a total pass.

And that's just wrong.

Spitzer's apparent inability to deal with frustration - there is little reasonable doubt that he in fact called Bruno "an old, senile piece of sh--" last Friday - is shocking enough.

Worse is the effort - exposed last week by Post State Editor Fredric U. Dicker - to have State Police collect "incriminating" evidence about Bruno.

None of this is the mark of a mature, trustworthy leader - which is what Albany needs now more than ever before.

Once upon a time, we saw Spitzer as just that sort of leader.

This led us to endorse the liberal Democrat's candidacy over that of a principled, conservative Republican, John Faso.

But it soon became clear that Spitzer had no strategy for "fixing Albany" - nor any concept of what constitutes decent behavior in prosecuting such a fight.

Spitzer also seems to lack the will to address core issues: Standing up to the special interests, controlling government spending, ensuring a sufficient energy supply for New York's future . . .

Instead he's gone to the mattresses over a silly "campaign-finance reform" that would reform little while disenfranchising voters.

(Even though most New Yorkers couldn't care less about the issue - and even though Spitzer swiftly surrendered the moral high ground by personally undertaking many of the practices he's trying to outlaw.)

Now all that remains of the governor's ambitious agenda is a spiteful vendetta against Bruno - and Bruno alone.

Yet if Spitzer thinks his problems will be over should he make the majority leader disappear, he's badly mistaken.

The odds against Speaker Silver embracing any of the initiatives Spitzer says he considers essential - e.g., campaign-finance reform and Mayor Bloomberg's congestion-pricing plan - are beyond prohibitive.

And that's just for starters.

The fact is, Silver won't ever be interested in real reform of any sort.

The masters he serves - labor leaders, tort lawyers, deal-makers, advocates of dependent lifestyles, pro-criminal sensibilities - like things just as they are.

Bringing Albany to heel will require effective strategic planning and mature, confident tactical leadership.

But these are the very qualities the Spitzer administration has lacked from the beginning - maturity most of all.

Is it too late to turn things around?

Perhaps not.

But Spitzer has squandered the reform mandate that swept him into office.

He always needed more than that, which seemed altogether to have eluded him at the beginning.

Now he knows better - or he should.

Time to start over.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07092007/posto...editorials_.htm

"Spitzer's top aide Baum chats about Eliot's empire - TH-R interviews former Orange lawmaker who heads governor's staff"

By Brendan Scott

Times Herald-Record

July 09, 2007

Albany – Rich Baum is a long way from Orange County now.

As secretary to the governor, this Town of Wallkill farmboy-turned-political whiz sits at the right hand of the state’s most powerful leader, Eliot Spitzer.

This is no glamor gig.

It’s Baum’s job to carry Spitzer’s ambitious and controversial agenda through Albany.

In other words, he’s the guy who has to sit down and cut deals with the same people his boss has vowed, alternately, to take out, reform or whip into action.

And, as Spitzer has struggled to enact his agenda these past months, some have laid the blame at Baum’s feet.

Not surprisingly, the former face of Orange County’s Democratic Party tries to keep out of the press these days.

But he made an exception for his hometown paper.

One recent morning, Baum sat down in the Capitol office suite he shares with Spitzer to share his thoughts on Albany, “the steamroller” and his not-so-intimidating job title.

Times Herald-Record: What’s it mean to be secretary to the governor?

No offense, it sounds like kind of a wimpy title.

Rich Baum: Laughs.

Everyone once a while, I’ll call some place and they’ll say, “Well, who are you?”

And I’ll say, “I’m secretary to the governor.”

They’ll put me on the phone with the secretary, which is fine, but, you know, not the person I was looking to talk to.

TH-R: It’s easier to be the attorney general politically.

You kind of swoop in, take out the bad guys.

Crowds cheer.

You don’t have to deal with a legislature, a check.

You don’t have to deal with everything being viewed through the prism of Republican and Democrat.

How did you adjust to that?

Baum: Here, we’re part of a political debate, where all sides have a valid point and are treated as valid participants.

Here, it’s a real debate.

There, it ended up, not always, but often, being more one-sided.

Even then, when you go after Merrill Lynch or other big New York employers, there is an enormous push back.

But, you’re right.

There’s a lot of valid debate and discussion here that you don’t have as much when you’re a prosecutor.

TH-R: As things have gotten messier, as people have tried to analyze what they see as missteps in the administration, they sometimes blamed you for it.

They say, “Well, this must be Rich Baum and that team of novices.”

What’s your response to that?

Baum: In this kind of role, there’s going to be a lot of second-guessing.

On balance, I feel we’ve done well.

He promised a lot of change and a lot of change as happened.

Some people don’t like the direction of it.

I think largely the people of the state do and I think the governor likes the direction of it.

TH-R: Why have you picked the people that you have?

It seems like a lot of great lawyers, some well-respected, well-known activists, some industry types.

There’s not a whole lot of veteran Albany people in the group.

Baum: You want people who are ready to go into action and also people who don’t do it with arrogance and self-importance and don’t do it at people’s expense.

Whether or not those people are old Albany hands, I don’t know.

Some have a lot of Albany experience.

Some don’t.

I feel we have a good enough mix and get enough advice from legislators, activists, people who are old Albany hands.

So, we’re not lacking really for advice.

TH-R: Is Spitzer really a steamroller?

Baum: I don’t think that people do want or should want a government that’s a club, where it’s fun to be a member and, at all costs, nobody wants to offend anybody else.

On the flip side, they don’t want someone to go in looking to offend people.

But he is willing to call somebody out when he thinks they’re not doing the public’s business.

That, to me, is the good part.

When people call him a steamroller, they’re saying they don’t like that.

TH-R: From the outside, it sometimes looks like the governor’s picking too many fights and burning too many bridges.

What’s he trying to accomplish with all this?

Baum: It’s not like people are unhappy with the state parks.

They’re unhappy with their health care, their education, their jobs and the performance of government.

I feel – he feels – there’s an enormous public desire right now for change and it would just be a lost opportunity not to take advantage of it, try and harness that to put pressure on the system.

I don’t just mean pressure on the Legislature, but also pressure our own bureaucracy and ourselves to create that change.

TH-R: That being said, a lot of people thought that the governor was ready to go further and throw down harder than he did at the end of budget negotiations.

Why did you choose to close when you did?

Baum: Every time he looked at it, he was like, “Does this budget get to where I want to get in people’s lives?"

"Is a kid going to learn better?"

"Is somebody going to get better health care?"

"Are people going to get more property tax relief?”

At that point, the answer was, “Yes.”

Sure, there are things we would’ve tweaked differently.

But he said it was going to be transformative budget and it was.

The fact that other people got a little bit of shaving around the edges, that’s OK.

That’s the legislative system.

TH-R: Explain how the governor makes his decisions.

Baum: He likes real debate internally and doesn’t want to hear that there was a dissenting voice after a decision is made.

He wants the dissent in the room and wants to hear about it around the table and make a decision from that.

TH-R: Compare your former nemesis, Orange County Legislature Chairman Roberta Murphy, and current rival state Sen. Majority Leader Joe Bruno.

Baum: They were both perceived as top-down organizations, the Orange County Legislature and the state Senate.

But there is the reality that I don’t think the public and the press doesn’t always gets, that even the strongest leader is responsive to the members.

The second that the members smell distance between themselves and the leader, the leader is in enormous trouble.

Working with the Legislature from our perspective, I think it’s incredibly important to understand that.

TH-R: There’s been some pretty wild exchanges between Spitzer and legislative leaders over the past few months.

After these exchanges you actually have to sit down with his surrogates and deal with the real matters that are underlying the rhetoric.

How do you do that?

Baum: It’s a tough situation, because he came in promising enormous change and saying there was a lot wrong with the way the state has gone over the last decade.

And there are a lot of people here who have given their lives to the Legislature.

It’s hard for them to see his arrival as anything other than a reproach to them.

TH-R: Is this where the idea that this is an arrogant administration comes from?

Baum: Yeah, it’s hard for people not to see that as arrogant.

But from the governor’s perspective, from my perspective, the people voted for change.

We’re delivering on change.

That’s not to take away from the service people have given to the state.

TH-R: Any changes to your perception to Albany since you’ve come up here?

Baum: It brought me back to the Orange County Legislature.

The politics are more personal than you might expect.

Legislators care about the issues, but they also care about their treatment, and the way they’re viewed by the public and their treatment by the executive branch.

I remember that vividly as a county legislator.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...NEWS%2F70706008

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

Say, downstate maven …

Did you happen to catch that TU article over the weekend entitled “Lawyers criticize workers’ comp streamlining - State efforts to quicken hearing process leave too little time to prepare cases, attorneys say” by ALAN WECHSLER, Business writer, first published Saturday, July 7, 2007?

I was thinking of you and our prior conversation in here about how Eliot Spitzer and the NYS Business Council and that AFL-CIO dude sold out the workers of the State of NY with that alleged “reform” of Worker’s Compensation in NYS that you correctly stated was nothing more than a sop to business and the insurance companies to lower business costs and to increase insurance company profits at the expense of the workers, who were not represented in that compromise …

And that is not surprising, actually …

In the NYS Business Council press release “Spitzer taps Council president, staff, board members to serve on transition committees” by
Claire Hazzard, Business Council staff (November 16, 2006) at:

http://www.bcnys.org/whatsnew/2006/1116transition.htm

It was stated as follows with respect to this AFL-CIO dude and his own relationship with “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer and the NYS Business Council:

Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer has selected Business Council president and CEO Kenneth Adams to serve as a co-chair on one of several policy transition committees.

“The policy advisory committees are composed of a diverse group of leading experts and thought leaders from throughout the state,” a release from the Governor-elects transition office said.

“The committees will advise the Governor-Elect, Lieutenant Governor-Elect and the transition team on the major challenges facing the state.”

Adams was selected to serve as co-chair on the labor and workforce development advisory committee.

Adams, who met with Governor-elect Spitzer after last week’s election, said he was honored.

“This shows how serious Governor-elect Spitzer is when he says he will help to make New York a better place to do business,” Adams said.

Adams will serve on the advisory panel with Denis M. Hughes, the president of the New York chapter of the AFL-CIO.

end quotes

I think the key statement there, of course, is Adam’s statement that putting him and the AFL-CIO dude in charge of “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s labor and workforce development advisory committee “shows how serious Governor-elect Spitzer is when he says he will help to make New York a better place to do business” ….

As you yourself so cogently noted, in order to make NYS a better place to do business, it needs to become a worse place with respect to such things as public health protection and environmental protection and worker protection …

And so …

And it is interesting to also note from that same NYS Business Council press release that instead of having the NYS Health Department provide input on public health in NYS, as it is supposed to do pursuant to our Constitution and our laws, that instead, “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer turned that task over to this James R. Tallon, Jr. dude, who is president of the United Hospital Fund of New York and chairman of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the uninsured ....

Going back to the weakening of worker protection in NYS, the language that I found interesting in that TU article is as follows:

ALBANY — Some lawyers who handle workers’ compensation cases oppose a plan to speed up the often-lengthy process of paying for the medical care of injured workers.

Lawyers from both sides of the hearing room — those who represent injured workers and those who represent employers or insurance companies — say the new regulations could be detrimental to all parties.

They are worried they may not be able to prepare cases in the shorter time allotted and say they are concerned patients could be in a weaker legal position under the new rules.

end quotes

And all I can say is “of course, they are” ….

The patients, I mean ….

In a weaker legal position as a result of “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s COMPROMISE with the AFL-CIO dude ….

Because that is what you do when you compromise, as the AFL-CIO dude has done …

You sell somebody out ….

COMPROMISE: a concession to something derogatory or prejudicial; to make a shameful or disreputable concession ….

- Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary

And so …

Comment by John Galt — July 9, 2007 @ 8:20 am

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=4985#comments

"Spitzer, Bruno take tiff up a notch - War of words continues between Senate majority leader and governor over use of state services"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, July 10, 2007

ALBANY -- The chasm between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno widened Monday as Bruno demanded another investigation of the governor by the attorney general, and Spitzer called the senator a "superb public servant" who is causing distractions.

In a public appearance at a school, Spitzer said a July 1 story in the Times Union reporting Bruno's use of state helicopters to get to GOP fund-raisers in Manhattan had nothing to do with him.

He said Bruno's subsequent attacks on him and his staff, including repeated calls for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to look into the governor's actions, have "unfortunately been a distraction."

On Monday, Bruno's office released a letter dated July 5 from his Senate lawyer formally demanding that Cuomo investigate Spitzer's alleged use of State Police to tail Bruno during the Manhattan trips.

The assertion is based on police memos Spitzer's staff said were routine reports filed by investigators assigned to transport the senator, at the senator's request.

Bruno was not being spied on, Spitzer's office says.

Bruno, R-Brunswick, said he will make a new demand to Cuomo based on a report Monday in the New York Post, which cited unnamed sources who said staffers of the governor reached out to prosecutors weeks ago to spark interest in investigating Bruno.

Bruno said Spitzer was trying to get him indicted and that the alleged actions were "outrageous."

He said he told Spitzer in a conversation last week:

"With friends like you ,I don't know who needs enemies."

Meanwhile, Spitzer, in an interview Monday with The New York Times, defended his aggressive approach in Albany but also said the battling was taking a toll on his family.

He said his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, wondered whether the job was worth the public attacks that come with it.

"You know what she's been telling me?" Spitzer told the Times.

"She looks at me and says, 'Do you really want this stuff?'"

"And do you want this for your kids and do you want them to see this stuff?'"

"That's the hard part."

Despite the friction between the two men in recent weeks, they have made a few deals and say they can deliver more.

Both share a goal of passing a law to authorize hundreds of millions of dollars for capital projects they say will create jobs.

The Senate is scheduled to return Monday after a break of more than three weeks, but the Assembly has been unwilling to commit to a return to the Capitol.

The governor and Bruno said they can still work together despite differences.

But their trust in one another seems more than shaken.

"I have, from my perspective, a fine relationship with Joe," Spitzer said.

"I do not view any of these issues as personal."

"Where Joe and I disagree, it has always been at a substantive level."

He said that despite Bruno's belief that State Police were involved in some sort of political surveillance, it isn't true.

The Times Union report about helicopter use, Spitzer said, was the result of a Freedom of Information Law request.

The story reported that Bruno and his top aides also received State Police drivers to ferry them around Manhattan.

State Police were involved in standard operating procedures, he said.

"There's been a lot said and a lot printed," Spitzer said.

"We responded to a FOIL request and have done nothing more."

"We have acted in a way that is not only proper but is critically appropriate."

He said the State Police investigators were with Bruno at his own request, to render transportation services.

Bruno's office has said he has received threats and needed protection, although the usual threat assessment by police in such cases was not done.

Spitzer's office has now asked for one on Bruno.

Told of Spitzer's comments, Bruno said: "I don't believe that for a second."

Cuomo spokesman Jeffrey Lerner said the attorney general's Public Integrity Bureau is gathering information from Spitzer on Bruno's alleged improper use of state aircraft.

It also is honoring Bruno's request to probe Spitzer's potential misuse of state resources.

The Inspector General's Office also is looking into the matter, based on Bruno's public complaints.

Christine Anderson, a Spitzer spokeswoman, said comments must be limited because of the IG investigation.

However, she said it is untrue that the Spitzer administration is trying to get Bruno indicted.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Spitzer, Defending Battling Style, Talks of Its Toll"

By DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Published: July 10, 2007

ALBANY, July 9 — Gov. Eliot Spitzer, sounding by turns defiant and chastened, defended his aggressive approach in Albany on Monday, but also said the battling was taking a toll on his family.

In an interview, Mr. Spitzer said he believed that voters wanted his passion and hard-charging style when they elected him last November.

But he allowed that the fight with the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, Joseph L. Bruno, had become “ugly” and that Mr. Spitzer’s wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, wondered whether the job was worth the public attacks that came with it.

“You know what she’s been telling me?” Mr. Spitzer said.

“She looks at me and says: ‘Do you really want this stuff?'"

"'And do you want this for your kids and do you want them to see this stuff?’"

"That’s the hard part.”

He added, “She says, you know: ‘What was wrong with going into the family business?'"

"'That wouldn’t have been so bad.’ ”

(As a young man, Mr. Spitzer has said, he expected he would one day join his father’s lucrative real estate business.)

Even members of Mr. Spitzer’s own party have questioned his belligerent approach to the Legislature, privately suggesting that he is struggling to make the transition from zealous prosecutor to governor.

The feud has largely halted action in Albany, with veteran legislators saying it is among the most vitriolic they have seen in the Capitol.

Mr. Spitzer’s comments follow a tense week in which aides to the governor’s office sought an investigation into Mr. Bruno’s use of state helicopters and state police escorts, while Mr. Bruno called for investigations of whether the administration had the state police improperly keep tabs on his whereabouts.

Altogether, the two sides have demanded a half-dozen investigations into the matter.

Some Democrats worry that Mr. Spitzer, after being elected with a huge mandate, has unnecessarily alienated lawmakers and given ammunition to the state’s embattled Republican Party.

Mr. Spitzer expressed surprise that the traits he became known for nationally as attorney general — relentlessness and eagerness to take on high-profile opponents — could be viewed as problems in his new job.

He and his staff appear not to have anticipated that his battle with Mr. Bruno would eclipse all discussion of policy and legislation.

He said during the interview that he had no regrets about how he had gone about the job, recalling his campaign promise to “bring passion back to Albany.”

“I’ve not denied that in order to take apart an entrenched political status quo that had defied movement for decades, you need to come at it hard and persistently, and that is part of my persona,” Mr. Spitzer said.

“Maybe it’s good, maybe it’s bad, I won’t pass judgment, but that’s what the public saw and that’s what the public’s getting.”

At a press conference earlier in the day, he sounded a similar note:

“Everybody pointed out, ‘Gee, you used to be attorney general, are you still playing attorney general?’ ”

Mr. Spitzer said. “No."

"Let somebody else pursue that if they think it’s appropriate."

"That’s not for me to judge.”

A Republican senator on Saturday also accused the governor, 48, of using a vulgarity to describe Mr. Bruno, 78, and of calling him “senile.”

Mr. Spitzer’s aides later denied that he had used those words.

But, Mr. Spitzer, who was asked several times on Monday whether he had made the remarks, would say only that he would remain positive in his interactions with the Republican leader in the future.

The tensions have not entirely shocked people who have followed Mr. Spitzer’s career and heard of the many tense arguments and exchanges he has had with a variety of people.

In March, the governor was criticized in some quarters for cutting a deal with Senate Republicans during budget negotiations that many saw as overly generous.

After that, he began a more aggressive strategy, demanding that Senate Republicans pass his plan to overhaul state campaign finance laws and visiting Senate districts to personally chide senators for failing to act on a number of issues at the end of the Legislative session last month.

But some lawmakers say that he has overplayed his hand and that his staff was too involved in seeking an investigation of Mr. Bruno.

“He’s been very, very wrong, in terms of his style, if he wants to get things done,” said Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright of Harlem, who has had personal differences with Mr. Spitzer in the past.

“It’s crazy."

"In 15 years, I have not seen the Legislature like this."

"Eliot treats the whole Legislature with disdain.”

United States Representative Charles B. Rangel, the Harlem Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the governor and Mr. Bruno needed to end their fight.

“They both would receive so many accolades if they said they were burying the hatchet,” the congressman said.

“They’ve got serious things to think about.”

And no one really cares what the two men think about each other, Mr. Rangel said.

The charges and countercharges between the men continued on Monday.

Mr. Bruno, who was asked during a press conference on Monday afternoon how well he was getting along with the governor, responded with evident sarcasm.

“He’s my friend."

"He’s my best buddy,” Mr. Bruno said.

“What I said to him, I believe, last week was, ‘With friends like you, I don’t know who needs enemies.’ ”

It remains to be seen whether the governor and Mr. Bruno will even be on speaking terms when the Senate returns to Albany next Monday.

Asked on Monday when he had last spoken to Mr. Bruno, the governor paused and had to be reminded by an aide that it was last Thursday.

The governor said he had achieved a substantial amount in his first legislative term, including winning passage of huge increases in education aid and forging agreements on the civil confinement of sexual offenders and an overhaul of the state workers’ compensation system.

“We got all that done, not without some pushing, pulling and a few bumps,” he sad.

“Fine, I’ll take those bumps.”

But he paused at length when asked what his wife thought of the fights.

“This is harder,” he conceded, adding that his personal highs, like running in a public road race with one of his teenage daughters over the weekend, were tempered when “you pick up the papers and you see this stuff.”

“I’m happy with the choice, but that’s what makes it hard,” he said.

“Trust me, I’m not complaining."

"You get the downside risk that you become a target."

"Fine by me, you’re a grown-up, you know this going in, but it’s the collateral effect on other people that you worry about: Is it worth it for them?”

“Look, I don’t challenge my judgment about getting in, but that’s Silda’s view.”

Diane Cardwell contributed reporting from New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

"Key Republican official flew with Bruno - Senate leader's staff won't say why Edward Lurie made April trip"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, July 11, 2007

ALBANY -- The Senate Republicans' political director accompanied Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno on a state taxpayer-paid helicopter trip to Manhattan, state records show, but Bruno's staff won't say why.

Bruno's itinerary for days he used state helicopters remained a mystery Tuesday as Gov. Eliot Spitzer said his office approved the flights based on new procedures meant to provide some checks.

Bruno's nearly weekly trips to Manhattan on Thursdays during 2007 aboard a State Police helicopter typically included three top aides.

On at least one of the trips, on April 8, Bruno's foursome included Edward Lurie, executive director of the Senate Republican's campaign committee, according to flight records.

Lurie also had been scheduled to travel by helicopter on March 1, but was replaced on the day of the flight by another top aide to Bruno, flight manifests show.

Lurie also is director of legislative services, a senior majority central staff post.

Bruno's office would not discuss the reason for Lurie's attendance on trips to New York City aboard the state aircraft.

On three other trips in May, Bruno and three aides traveled aboard the State Police helicopters for major GOP fundraisers, two of which featured Bruno.

The trips are being examined by prosecutors, including Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

The senator has said his trips involved state business and were legal and appropriate.

He certified that the trips, including the one with Lurie, were for legislative meetings.

But for the third week in a row, his press office has refused to release details of his events and meetings.

Spitzer, whose itineraries on the days he took flights were released to the Times Union under a Freedom of Information Law request, said Tuesday that Bruno mentioned to him of his interest in using state planes last year.

"I said: 'Wonderful, it's not ... the governor's private plane,' " Spitzer said.

He said his staff set up the new forms that require Bruno, and any other legislative leaders, to state that the use of the aircraft has a "public purpose."

Bruno is the only lawmaker who requested the aircraft.

Bruno's use of state aircraft to New York City has been the center of contention in recent weeks.

Bruno has accused Spitzer's administration of leaking flight records, and said the trips were made for official state business as well as fundraisers.

"Every time he has requested access to a plane, he has been given it," Spitzer said.

"We tried to create some rules, some guidelines to permit people to make some judgment calls."

Although Bruno has refused to publicly discuss details of any government business he had on the trips, The Associated Press earlier identified several people with business before the state who said they met with Bruno on days he attended political fundraisers in New York City.

Spitzer also stated that the Conservative Party several months ago complained about Bruno showing up at its political events with State Police in tow.

The Times Union reported July 1 that the senator gets driven to events in New York City by State Police investigators.

Bruno's staff has said the drivers are needed because of death threats against the senator.

State Police officials declined to discuss the arrangement, but noted that the governor, his family, the lieutenant governor and visiting governors are typically assigned security units.

Both Michael Long, Conservative Party chairman, and Shaun Marie Levine, party executive director, said they were unaware of any complaints.

According to a person familiar with the matter, complaints arose in 2005 and 2006.

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

And speaking of those "ugly public attacks" on the credibility of NYS governor Eliot "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer, we have ....

THE NEW YORK POST

"KIDS MEET GOV. CLOWN"

By KENNETH LOVETT

July 10, 2007 -- Like the late Rodney Dangerfield, Gov. Spitzer can't get no respect.

Spitzer, who was at an Albany child-care center yesterday to read to preschoolers, told the kids they should call him "Eliot."

When one kid said no, the governor asked what he wanted to call him.

"I want to call you 'clown,'" the small-fry said, before three of his classmates chimed in agreement.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07102007/news/...neth_lovett.htm

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"A Mellower Spitzer Emerges, Playing Down Bruno Feud"

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Published: July 11, 2007

ALBANY, July 10 — It was not quite the display of a kinder, gentler governor.

But Eliot Spitzer continued to show something faintly resembling a softer side on Tuesday.

In what appeared to be an effort to lower the temperature of his feud with Senator Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader, Mr. Spitzer radiated sunniness and optimism at his public appearances, sounding a note of deference to his partners in government.

Even Dean G. Skelos — the occasionally acerbic Long Island senator who is Mr. Bruno’s deputy — seemed half-convinced after listening to complimentary words from the governor during an appearance at Jones Beach early Tuesday morning.

“This is truly Kumbaya today,” Mr. Skelos boomed.

As on Monday, when Mr. Spitzer showed up to read “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” to a classroom of Albany preschoolers, he put on a sunny mien during his travels.

He played down his dispute with Mr. Bruno over the senator’s use of state trooper escorts.

He also soft-pedaled a comment he had made about the dispute — and news media coverage of it — being a drain on his family.

“It was meant to suggest only that there are moments when this type of business is not as easy as other lines of business might be,” he said at one news conference.

“And that’s fine.”

He also spoke of how he wanted to “invite” the legislators to pursue an agenda, and stepped gingerly around the question of ordering lawmakers to return to Albany for a special session, saying he did not want to do so “unnecessarily.”

And when he listed his legislative priorities, he led with those items most likely to find favor with the Senate: his initiative for healthful school food, new capital projects, and a bill to expand the state’s DNA registry.

Tucked in toward the bottom of the list was campaign finance reform, which was the focus of disputes that dragged the end of the legislative session into gridlock back in June.

“I’m encouraged that we will get there in a bipartisan spirit and in a bipartisan way,” Mr. Spitzer said during a noon appearance at an Albany summer program, where he chatted lightheartedly and played kickball with a group of children.

Mr. Bruno spent the day in Washington, meeting with federal officials regarding financing for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan.

But a spokesman for Mr. Bruno, John E. McArdle, noted that the Senate had already made plans to convene in Albany next Monday, suggesting that Mr. Spitzer should focus his pleas on the Assembly, which has no return scheduled.

“We are going to deal with priorities of this state, which is the upstate economy, which is needed capital investments, the senior rebates,” Mr. McArdle said, referring to a Senate proposal to give property tax rebates to the elderly.

But Mr. Spitzer continued to be pressed on questions related to Mr. Bruno’s travels with state troopers, which the governor’s aides last week asked the state attorney general and Albany district attorney to investigate.

Mr. Bruno has accused the governor of having the state police monitor his travel schedule in an effort to uncover politically damaging information, and has called for a counterinvestigation of the Spitzer administration.

In a morning appearance, Mr. Spitzer was asked about an article that appeared in The New York Times on Tuesday suggesting that concerns about Mr. Bruno’s use of a state police escort had first been raised during the Pataki administration.

Mr. Spitzer said he did not want to comment on whether or not he had been personally aware of those concerns, but added, “The facts as alleged in that story are absolutely, unquestionably, beyond anybody’s ability to not only disprove, but they are the case.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

THE NEW YORK POST

"AG EYES COP FILES IN 'SPY'TZER PROBE"

By FREDRIC U. DICKER and KENNETH LOVETT

July 10, 2007 -- ALBANY - Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will seek access to a wide range of State Police records, including e-mails and other correspondence with Gov. Spitzer's top advisers, as he investigates whether political espionage was committed against Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, sources told The Post.

"All the relevant records will be sought, and the expectation is that all the records will be provided," said a source familiar with the situation.

Cuomo will be looking to see whether there were any improper orders from Spitzer or his aides to the State Police to spy on Bruno by compiling detailed records of his travel and meetings that could later be used in an attempt to embarrass the Senate leader or pressure him.

Cuomo named his top public-integrity prosecutor, Ellen Biben, a 10-year veteran of the office of District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, to head the investigation into whether the governor and his aides were improperly spying on Bruno.

Cuomo's announcement came just hours after a furious Bruno, reacting to a string of disclosures in The Post, demanded that the attorney general probe Spitzer and his staff to determine whether they "engaged in a conspiracy in an effort to damage me."

He also released a copy of a letter to Democrat Cuomo requesting that he begin a probe.

Bruno, a Rensselaer County Republican, issued the call in response to The Post's latest disclosure that top aides to Democrat Spitzer "ginned up," or aggressively solicited, two investigations of Bruno, including Cuomo's, in an effort to embarrass Bruno.

Spitzer said he regretted Bruno's action "because I think it's going to be a distraction, a waste of time."

The Post disclosed last week that the State Police, which are under the governor's direct control, engaged in an unprecedented surveillance program aimed at Bruno, which included the preparation - at the request of Spitzer's office - of special documents on his travel activities.

Spitzer, in his first extended discussion of what has become a major political controversy, insisted nothing improper had occurred.

"Let me be very, very clear," Spitzer said.

"State Police have done what they have done on their own, done it pursuant to procedure."

"This has nothing to do with us."

"I leave it to the State Police to do what they do."

Cuomo issued a brief statement saying he would add Bruno's requested probe to an inquiry already begun, at the governor's request, into Bruno's possible misuse of a state helicopter to fly to Manhattan.

"Our public-integrity bureau is gathering info on all these issues and will proceed accordingly," said Jeffrey Lerner, Cuomo's communications director.

Meanwhile, Spitzer, who a Long Island Republican senator claimed last week had called the 78-year-old Bruno an "old, senile, piece of s- - -," insisted yesterday that he does "like" and "respect" Bruno, calling him "a superb public servant."

Bruno was having none of it.

"He's my friend, he's my best buddy," Bruno sneered.

"What I said to him . . . was, 'With friends like you, I don't know who needs enemies.'

"It's almost humorous when the governor says he likes me and he's my best friend."

"When you talk to some of my [Republican] members, he says some of the nastiest things."

"It's not very nice."

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07102007/news/...neth_lovett.htm

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Bruno slugs on - Spitzer makes nice, but Joe still hot on 'conspiracy' claim"

BY JOE MAHONEY

DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

Tuesday, July 10th 2007, 4:00 AM

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer said he doesn't want to fight anymore, but Senate GOP leader Joe Bruno kept punching yesterday, accusing the governor of "conspiring" to get him indicted for using a state helicopter.

"They were trying to get some law enforcement agency to indict me in some way [because] they thought, erroneously, we were using the state helicopter, the state police, to get us from one place to another inappropriately," Bruno told reporters.

Spitzer told the Daily News later that Bruno's assertions that he plotted to get the senator indicted are "entirely, totally false."

"I don't even want to respond to comments like that, which are really beyond the pale," he said in a telephone interview.

Spitzer said he wasn't going to counterattack.

"He can have a fight without another party," the governor said.

While Spitzer sought to cool things down, Bruno sent his chief counsel, Michael Avella, to complain to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo about the governor's "alleged misuse of state resources in connection with state police surveillance of Sen. Bruno's activities."

A Cuomo spokesman said the attorney general's public integrity unit was gathering information both from the Spitzer administration and Bruno about the crossfire of charges.

Those began last week with questions on whether Bruno used helicopter trips for political rather than official purposes.

Spitzer said he didn't ask state police to spy on Bruno.

Bruno scoffed at Spitzer's statements to the Daily News over the weekend that he considers the senator "a friend."

"It's almost humorous for the governor to say he likes me, that he's my best friend," Bruno said.

"When you talk to some of my members, he says some of the nastiest things."

Bruno added: "What I said to him last week was: 'With friends like you, I don't know who needs enemies.'"

"And I'm sorry to say that."

"I have no personal animosity with the governor."

jmahoney@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/07/10...slugs_on-1.html

And by way of some further background into this childish fighting between NYS governor Eliot "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer and "BIG JOE" Bruno of the NYS Senate, we have ....

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Air we go: Spitz seeking probes of Bruno flights"

BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, July 3rd 2007, 4:00 AM

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer raised the stakes in his war with Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno yesterday, seeking two formal investigations into whether the Republican misused taxpayer-funded state helicopters for political purposes.

Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp said the case was referred to state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

The administration also planned to involve the Legislative Ethics Commission, but held out little hope the lawmaker-controlled body would take action.

The Spitzer administration also asked the state police for a formal assessment on threats against Bruno (R-Rensselaer) after discovering that one had never been done.

Bruno aides said the senator needed to use state aircraft and be provided state police transportation while in Manhattan because he has received numerous death threats.

They have not provided supporting documentation.

"I was told by the state police there were so many threats on my life they could not cover me," said Bruno.

A state police spokesman said the agency does not discuss lawmakers' security.

Bruno remained defiant, insisting he has done "nothing wrong" and accusing Democrat Spitzer of leaking the story.

"By the time these people get done throwing mud, they're going to find their hands are dirty, their faces are dirty; it's going to splash back on them," said Bruno, noting that state Republican Party Chairman Joseph Mondello is seeking Spitzer's travel records for 14 different days.

The Albany Times Union reported Sunday that Bruno stated in writing at least three times that he was flying to Manhattan for "legislative business meetings," but then appeared to attend only fund-raisers and other political events.

Bruno repeated previous claims by his spokesman John McArdle that he had numerous government-related meetings on the days in question - including a meeting with Mayor Bloomberg - but then refused to release his schedule.

He said he would do so to the "appropriate people" and at the "appropriate time."

Misusing state resources can result in a fine, removal from office and criminal charges.

That is what forced state Controller Alan Hevesi from office.

ebenjamin@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/07/03...f_bruno_-1.html

"Plane-ty of trouble for Bruno - But GOP says Spitzer's also guilty of using state aircraft for political biz"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN
DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST

Monday, July 2nd 2007, 4:00 AM

The Spitzer administration is poised to sic investigators on state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno for allegedly misusing taxpayer-funded state aircraft on three different occasions, a spokesman for the governor confirmed yesterday.

Darren Dopp, Gov. Spitzer's communications director, said the case could be referred to the state inspector general, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo or Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

Or all three.

Soares is best known for taking down former state Controller Alan Hevesi, who bilked the state by using a public employee as a chauffeur for his wife.

Generally speaking, the district attorney has jurisdiction over criminal investigations in Albany; the attorney general handles civil cases.

Bruno is already the subject of an FBI investigation into his outside business interests.

Dopp said Spitzer aides are researching whether Bruno violated the Public Officers Law, which could bring suspension or removal from office or a civil penalty, and if he even committed a crime by requesting - in writing - the use of the state planes for "legislative business" when he was really attending fund-raisers and other political meetings.

The Albany Times Union, which first reported Bruno's plane use yesterday, also revealed the senator was driven around New York City by state police, even when going to fund-raisers.

Dopp said the administration is required by law to refer cases for investigation "when any information of possible wrongdoing is made known," adding: "We're obliged to take action."

Bruno aides insisted the senator's use of the state fleet has always been on the up and up, noting that Spitzer himself at least once attended a Democratic county fund-raiser after traveling on the state plane to several government-related events upstate.

The governor also used state aircraft for his "Unfinished Business" tour last week, during which he railed at Republican senators for leaving Albany after the session ended with big issues unresolved.

Spitzer has made it clear he plans to help Senate Democrats take control of the chamber from the GOP in 2008 - or earlier, if possible.

"If they pursue this, they are going to find themselves subject to an inquiry based on the exact same things that they're alleging," said Bruno spokesman John McArdle.

State Republican Chairman Joe Mondello called yesterday for just such a probe.

McArdle also maintained that the senator needs protection from state troopers while in New York City because his life has repeatedly been threatened.

McArdle said he believed the state police have conducted several threat assessments to determine the degree of danger the senator faces, but conceded that hasn't been done recently.

State police won't discuss threats against public officials, a spokesman said.

One episode McArdle recalled occurred a decade ago, during a 1997 rent control battle.

Bruno, who wanted to abolish the regulations, was advised by law enforcement officials to either avoid the city altogether or wear a bulletproof vest on visits (he refused).

Bruno even considered exercising his license to carry a concealed weapon, McArdle said, but ultimately didn't.

ebenjamin@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/07/02..._for_bruno.html

And while we are on the subject of the genesis of this on-going childishness down in Albany in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York, we have ....

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"Spitz: I'm gonna blitz the GOP"

BY JOE MAHONEY, DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

Saturday, June 23rd 2007, 4:00 AM

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer declared yesterday he will barnstorm the state to put a squeeze on Republican senators who have held up his campaign finance proposals.

"We're going to play hardball when it comes to getting bills passed and doing the people's business," said Spitzer.

Not the type to mince words of his own, Senate GOP leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer) parried that the legislative session "ended with a whimper" and "the blame for that lies squarely on the governor's shoulders due to the fact that he still hasn't figured out how to govern."

Spitzer, insisting his beef with Bruno's crew was "not personal," vowed he will crisscross the state, asking "everyone who cares about good government to call their state senator and urge him or her to get back to work."

At the heart of the disagreement, at least from Spitzer's view, is the senators' "totally unacceptable" decision to pack their bags Thursday night and get out of town without completing work on many major issues.

Along with campaign finance reform, the unfinished business list includes proposed state investments in projects designed to spur economic growth, a measure aimed at countering growing childhood obesity and another that would streamline the siting of power plants.

State leaders have also taken only baby steps on what to do with the state thoroughbred racing franchise held by the New York Racing Association.

It expires at the end of the year.

Though the Bruno-Spitzer fight suggests more gridlock lies ahead, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) tried to accentuate the positive, noting lawmakers have improved the workers' compensation system and agreed to keep dangerous sex offenders confined and combat violent video games.

With the Senate slated to return to the Capitol July 16 and the Assembly to come back on a date to be determined, Silver said he was hoping "cooler heads will prevail" so stalled legislation can be advanced.

jmahoney@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/06/23..._the_gop-1.html

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

And speaking of removing blemishes from others without thinking evil of them, in the THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS story : I’m gonna blitz the GOP” by JOE MAHONEY, Saturday, June 23rd 2007, 4:00 AM, the following was attributed to Sheldon Silver concerning the “STEAMROLLER’S” alleged “reform” of Worker’s Compensation in NYS:

“Though the Bruno-Spitzer fight suggests more gridlock lies ahead, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) tried to accentuate the positive, noting lawmakers have improved the workers’ compensation system ….”

end quotes

Now, there is a statement pregnant with meaning, alright - “LAWMAKERS HAVE IMPROVED THE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION SYSTEM” ....

WHAT A CROCK, SHELDON ….

YOU’RE TALKING THROUGH YOUR HAT, BUB!

And in support of that statement, I simply make reference to the recent TU article entitled “Lawyers criticize workers’ comp streamlining - State efforts to quicken hearing process leave too little time to prepare cases, attorneys say” by ALAN WECHSLER, Business writer, first published Saturday, July 7, 2007 …

That article reminded me of a lengthy conversation in here between Downstate Maven and myself about how Eliot Spitzer and the NYS Business Council and that AFL-CIO dude AND THE NYS LEGISLATURE AND SHELDON “CAN-DO-NO-WRONG-NO-NOT-ME” SILVER actually sold out the workers of the State of NY with that alleged “reform” of Worker’s Compensation in NYS that was nothing more than a sop to business and the insurance companies in NYS to lower business costs and to increase insurance company profits at the expense of the workers, who were not represented in that compromise …

And that is not surprising, actually …

In the NYS Business Council press release “Spitzer taps Council president, staff, board members to serve on transition committees” by
Claire Hazzard, Business Council staff (November 16, 2006) at:

http://www.bcnys.org/whatsnew/2006/1116transition.htm

It was stated as follows with respect to this AFL-CIO dude and his own relationship with “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer and the NYS Business Council:

Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer has selected Business Council president and CEO Kenneth Adams to serve as a co-chair on one of several policy transition committees.

“The policy advisory committees are composed of a diverse group of leading experts and thought leaders from throughout the state,” a release from the Governor-elects transition office said.

“The committees will advise the Governor-Elect, Lieutenant Governor-Elect and the transition team on the major challenges facing the state.”

Adams was selected to serve as co-chair on the labor and workforce development advisory committee.

Adams, who met with Governor-elect Spitzer after last week’s election, said he was honored.

“This shows how serious Governor-elect Spitzer is when he says he will help to make New York a better place to do business,” Adams said.

Adams will serve on the advisory panel with Denis M. Hughes, the president of the New York chapter of the AFL-CIO.

end quotes

In reply to Sheldon’s statements in the NY Daily News, the key statement there is Adam’s statement that putting him and the AFL-CIO dude in charge of “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s labor and workforce development advisory committee “shows how serious Governor-elect Spitzer is when he says he will help to make New York a better place to do business” ….

As Downstate Maven so cogently noted, in order to make NYS a better place to do business, it needs to become a worse place with respect to such things as public health protection and environmental protection and worker protection …

To make NYS the best place to do BID-NESS in the world, a real CAPITALIST’S PARADISE, Eliot “STEAMROLLER” Spyzer and Sheldon Silver are going to make it into a THIRD-WORLD COUNTRY when it comes to public health protection and environmental protection and worker protection ….

And so …

With respect to the weakening of worker protection in NYS, the language that I found interesting in that TU article is as follows:

ALBANY — Some lawyers who handle workers’ compensation cases oppose a plan to speed up the often-lengthy process of paying for the medical care of injured workers.

Lawyers from both sides of the hearing room — those who represent injured workers and those who represent employers or insurance companies — say the new regulations could be detrimental to all parties.

They are worried they may not be able to prepare cases in the shorter time allotted and say they are concerned patients could be in a weaker legal position under the new rules.

end quotes

And all I can say in response to Sheldon Silver is “of course, they are” ….

The patients, I mean, which is to say, the injured workers of NYS …

Thanks to people like Sheldon Silver, who knows where his own pocket is when it comes to taking care of yourself first in politics, the workers in NYS are now in a weaker legal position as a result of “STEAMROLLER” Spitzer’s COMPROMISE with the AFL-CIO dude ….

Because that is what you do when you compromise, as the AFL-CIO dude and Sheldon Silver have done …

You sell somebody out ….

COMPROMISE: a concession to something derogatory or prejudicial; to make a shameful or disreputable concession ….

- Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary

And so …

Comment by John Galt — July 13, 2007 @ 9:13 am

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5028#comments

THE NEW YORK POST

"BRUNO IS GIVING UP HIS 'SPIES'"

By FREDRIC U. DICKER State Editor

July 13, 2007 -- ALBANY - Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, fearful State Police have spied on him, will notify Gov. Spitzer's administration today that he no longer wants their protection - despite threats against his life, The Post learned last night.

Bruno, in a letter to acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton, will say that he will use Senate personnel and possibly a private security firm to assure his safety.

"Given what went on, we no longer want State Police protection," said a Bruno aide, referring to the ongoing controversy over claims that the Spitzer administration engaged in what Bruno (R-Rensselaer) has called "political espionage."

"The troopers were being asked to do things that haven't been done before, keeping records on Sen. Bruno, and that's not fair to them or the senator."

"So we're not going to be in a position where that is done any more, not now, not ever," the aide said.

Bruno - who says he's been the target of several death threats in recent years - will rely on Senate employees, several of whom are retired state troopers, for his security or perhaps use campaign funds to hire the security firm headed by Bo Dietl, the famed former New York City detective, the aide said.

Dietl told The Post he had already spoken to Bruno about providing protection, noting, "I told him, whatever he wants we will provide for him."

Spitzer's office late last month provided the Albany Times Union with State Police travel records suggesting that Bruno flew to Manhattan on a state-owned helicopter and then received a State Police automobile escort on trips for political, not governmental, purposes.

A few days later The Post disclosed that the records were part of an unprecedented State Police surveillance program of Bruno, with documents being kept or "reconstructed" for his travels but not for the travels of Spitzer or other senior state officials.

The Post also disclosed that aides to Spitzer plotted to generate investigations of Bruno by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Albany County District Attorney David Soares before the State Police records became public.

Spitzer's office has offered three conflicting explanations for the record-keeping, including claims that state Conservative Party leader Michael Long or his daughter, Ilene Long Chelales, had complained about Bruno traveling with a State Police escort.

Both Long and his daughter strongly denied making a complaint.

fredrick.dicker@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07132007/news/...tate_editor.htm

NEW YORK MAGAZINE

"The Steamroller in the Swamp - Is Eliot Spitzer changing Albany? Or is Albany changing him?"

By Steve Fishman

A few months ago, I asked Governor Eliot Spitzer about his temper, the most popular subject in Albany.

This was before Spitzer got into an all-out war with State Senate majority leader Joe Bruno, before Bruno called Spitzer “a rich spoiled brat” and his staff “thugs” and “hoodlums,” before Spitzer may or may not have called Bruno “senile,” before the machinery of government seemed to skid to a halt.

The day we met, Spitzer was dressed in his usual snowy-white shirt, firmly knotted rep tie, dark prosecutor’s suit, and black dress shoes.

“You have a talent for confrontation,” I ventured.

“Your signature tactic has been to confront people and show your temper.”

“The full Spitzer,” aides call his angry outbursts, which, in one form or another, were often on display in the early days of his term.

In the first weeks, Spitzer singled out one Democratic legislator who defied him.

“Bill Magnarelli is one of those unfortunate Assembly members who just raises his hand when he’s told to do so,” he told Magnarelli’s hometown newspaper.

Not long after, he famously shouted at Republican minority leader James Tedisco, “I’m a ****ing steamroller, and I’ll roll over you.”

“It’s a fair question,” Spitzer told me amiably, flashing one of his awkward horizontal smiles.

Spitzer described confrontation as a kind of sport.

“When you’re on the playing field, you fight as hard as you possibly can."

"You don’t give an inch because you’re both playing by those hard rules."

"Afterwards, you shake hands and you say, ‘That was great! Onto the next.’”

A good public pummeling.

How invigorating!

Spitzer is narrow and wiry; his forehead, framed by lettuce-leaf ears, slants back, and his chin pushes forward, as if, physically, he represents aggressive energy.

As we sat talking in his large bland office, it was clear that Spitzer reveled in the effects of his anger.

“Outrage helps both create a conversation to frame the issues and generate an understanding of the issues,” he told me.

Others view his temper as a liability, but as Spitzer sees it, it’s almost a political innovation, bringing clarity to an argument.

For Spitzer, a public drubbing of Billy Magnarelli was good sport and had the added benefit of demonstrating his high-minded principles.

“It fits into a larger rationale, which is that we believe in accountability,” he told me.

Anger, as Spitzer explained it, was linked to the best, most optimistic side of him.

It also marked him as different, part of the solution.

“The cliché is, ‘You went to Albany as one of us, you came back as one of them,’” said Spitzer.

“I’m not coming back as one of them.”

As attorney general, Spitzer had tackled Wall Street corruption; he’d tamed illegal practices in the country’s largest corporations, threatening to shut them down unless they cleaned up.

Now he intended to use the same “force of will,” as admirers call it, against Albany, and take no prisoners.

“Eliot is the reality they deny,” one aide says, and which he intended to impose.

For the Republicans, he reserved a special fate.

He was going to “take them out,” as his target, majority leader Bruno, put it.

That is, unless they take him out first.

On inauguration day, January 1, 48-year-old Eliot Spitzer, Princeton class of ’81, Harvard Law class of ’84, heir to a real-estate fortune, and the most famous state attorney general in America, stood on the steps of the state capital and declared that everything in Albany must change, as he’d repeatedly vowed during his campaign.

“Day One is now,” he told the crowd.

On that winter day, the new governor—coatless, JFK-style—tilted his jaw at his audience.

His breath turned steamy in the air.

A torch was being passed.

Albany’s sleepy days were over.

“Like Rip Van Winkle,” it slept, he said.

He said state government was dysfunctional.

(Privately, his people prefer a more colloquial term: a “cesspool.”)

“The light of a new day shines down on the Empire State,” he said, inviting the assembled to join him on his journey of reform.

In the audience, longtime legislators smiled tightly through the insults.

They’d lived in and run the dark place for decades, and many bridled at his professed monopoly on good intentions.

“People don’t realize,” says Democrat Sheldon Silver, 63, Speaker of the State Assembly for thirteen years, “my role was to stop bad things from happening [under Republican governor George Pataki].”

Silver professed to like Spitzer’s passion and to share his priorities.

As Silver sees it, they’re cut from similar cloth.

Like Spitzer, Silver is a lawyer (although of the public-school variety, Brooklyn Law class of 1968) and a liberal-leaning New York Jew.

Spitzer, though, is the assimilated Jew with the Fifth Avenue spread, Silver the religious relation in a modest apartment on the Lower East Side.

Silver looks the part: Dour, rabbinical, he disappears in a crowd.

Few know what he’s thinking—“an enigma,” Spitzer once called him.

Early on, Silver warned his enthusiastic landsman, “There’s no legislation by fiat,” as if to say, “Don’t ignore the Legislature.”

Then, he wondered, “Is he patient?”

As if to deliver an early lesson, shortly after the inauguration Silver broke a deal to replace comptroller Alan Hevesi, rejecting Spitzer’s candidates and selecting one of his own.

If Silver is an ally, albeit a tricky one, Joe Bruno, 78, seems a central-casting nemesis.

Not everyone is so “blessed” as to be born with a rich father, Bruno likes to say, and then describes his “miserably unhappy childhood”—no central heat, one toilet for eight kids.

Bruno, Skidmore class of 1952, is a Rensselaer County businessman, and breeds horses.

He’s a former boxer with a twice-broken nose, a real tough guy to Spitzer’s tough talker; a self-made man to Spitzer’s modesty-in-the-face-of-inherited-wealth act.

And he has, as he likes to say, “the common touch”—he’s never joked about overcoming “the disadvantage” of Yale Law school, a crack Spitzer makes about friends.

Bruno winks across the room at a press conference or merrily cups his hands to mime mud balls, which he accuses Spitzer of slinging.

An ongoing FBI investigation into corruption is said to focus on whether a business Bruno consulted for got favorable governmental treatment, but even a federal probe can’t dampen his high spirits.

Bruno always has a quick return.

Albany dysfunctional?

“Pure nonsense,” he retorts.

From the start, Bruno resented Spitzer’s condescension and barely concealed it.

“Spitzer has an attitude about him, he really does, like he’s kind of above it all."

"He thinks I’m a street kid that doesn’t know night from day,” Bruno told me.

“I’ve survived 31 years."

"I don’t pretend to be a genius."

"I have common sense, a lot of intuition.”

Even though Spitzer was elected by 69 percent of voters, to drain the swamp he’d have to work with Silver and go through Bruno, daunting challenges for a new executive.

As Silver put it, “How difficult it’s going to be to deal with the Senate will be the governor’s biggest surprise.”

The looming question was whether the same hyperaggression that had been successful in the attorney general’s office would work in Albany, where he must appease complicated constituencies, while not having subpoena power.

When I first talked with the governor several months ago, he had no doubts as to his tactics.

He relished the fight.

Taunting, as he saw it, was a part of the game.

I asked about the threat to kill the Republican majority.

The governor has a habit of sitting perfectly still, like Lincoln on the National Mall.

“There is some virtue in my saying to them, ‘Fellows, your hold is tenuous,’” Spitzer answered, and shot me one of his quick horizontal smiles.

Spitzer’s appetite for confrontation was nurtured early.

Perhaps every dinner table is theater; Spitzer’s childhood table was, as one friend puts it, a “Darwinian” drama.

Spitzer’s father, Bernard, now 83, presided over what another friend called “an ongoing argument that never stops."

"It was like intellectual professional wrestling, except it wasn’t staged.”

Bernard is the brilliant immigrant (he graduated college at 18) who built a real-estate fortune worth an estimated $500 million, supervising every detail.

One benefit of success was that the three bright Spitzer children didn’t have to waste their time in pursuit of financial gain.

Instead, as one friend observed, they were to compete, achieve, and serve.

At dinner, Bernard and Anne, his wife of 63 years, discouraged small talk—“Dull and redundant,” Bernard tells me one day.

“My dad didn’t want to get to dinner and gossip, though it probably would have been more fun,” Spitzer says.

“My dad is not a frivolous person."

"I don’t think I’ve heard him have a conversation about the weather."

"He has always been a rigorous intellectual who pushes himself and others to think with clarity.”

Bernard sometimes assigned the kids to bring a topic to dinner and lead a discussion, one topic per dinner, no wandering—“a rotating obligation,” Bernard calls it, in a characteristically formal locution.

Daniel, the middle child, the scientist, liked to discuss Antarctica and deserts—he became a neurosurgeon.

Emily, the oldest, was the family feminist—she later worked as a lawyer for the National Organization for Women Legal Defense Fund.

Eliot, the youngest, was a bookish teenager.

He loved sports and was good at them, and also carried a large Samsonite briefcase around junior high; in his free time, he leafed through foreign-policy magazines.

Whatever the subject, explains Daniel, “you needed to have something thought out and with gravitas and preferably with a couple of statistics thrown in."

"You couldn’t fake it.”

Bernard saw his role as challenging whatever argument was advanced.

“I tried to elicit the principle,” he says from his Fifth Avenue office.

His motto was “Challenge the premise.”

No one got a pass, including visitors.

William Taylor, Eliot’s Princeton roommate who later co-founded the magazine Fast Company, says, “I was never more relieved than when dinner was over and I’d survived.”

It was pretty good fun to beat up on Eliot’s soft-minded schoolmates, usually liberals if not lefties, which the Spitzers were not.

“Ideology is anathema to Bernard as it is to Eliot,” says Carl Mayer, a college friend who later worked for Spitzer in the attorney general’s office.

“It’s too imprecise.”

Eliot, like most of the family, was for the death penalty and against rent control, a subject he seems to have debated endlessly.

Once he and Mayer tackled it at Princeton, where Eliot was student-government president, a moderate counterweight to the college leftists.

(“He was more likely to be playing squash with the president of the university than on a picket line,” as one lefty friend puts it.)

The night Eliot and Mayer talked rent control, Mayer says, “people were stunned by the level of intensity, as most humans would be.”

For Spitzer, of course, the intensity was familiar from home.

At one afternoon barbecue in Rye—the family had moved there from Riverdale—the day had begun with tennis.

As Mayer was coming off the court, Eliot’s mother told him, “I hope you kicked Eliot’s ass.”

Then it was on to the meal and the main event.

Emily started the conversation, protesting that women didn’t get equal pay for equal work.

Bernard quickly ticked off four or five reasons why women should be paid less.

The battle was joined; that day, Eliot was on his sister’s side.

“There was shouting nonstop from all quarters, and this was just a casual lunch,” says Mayer.

For Spitzer the combat “bred rigor” and a belief in logic and reason.

As law-school friend Cliff Sloan, now publisher of the Website Slate, puts it, “Eliot had a feeling that no problem was too complex or too big to be solved by human ingenuity.”

Eliot enjoyed the debates, which were “fun in their own sadistic way.”

You could take the measure of yourself, your intelligence, your powers of persuasion.

“He may have been the youngest, but he wasn’t the least,” says Jason Brown, a friend and now a lawyer.

“The debates gave him an opportunity to show that he too was an intellectual force."

As governor, Spitzer quickly re-created the dynamics of the dinner table.

At his first meeting with his top aides, he told them, “It is absolutely your duty to disagree with me."

"You will not be doing your job unless you disagree.”

As governor, he’s the one challenging the premise.

“I think I almost finished my first couple of sentences before his first question,” says one aide.

“He’s pretty intense.”

Spitzer made a point of recruiting bright people; he’s a student of résumés.

“The reality is Spitzer does have the smartest people in the room working with him,” says one aide.

Of course, this ostentatious (and self-congratulatory) intelligence rubs some the wrong way.

Congressman Charlie Rangel, the powerful New York City Democrat, called Spitzer “the world’s smartest man,” which he didn’t mean as a compliment.

(Rangel also suggested he had an anger-management problem.)

In private, aides say, Spitzer is deeply respectful of others; he’s also long struck people as preternaturally assured of his own abilities.

When I asked Lieutenant Governor David Paterson “Who’s more self-confident than Spitzer?,” he paused.

“Muhammad Ali,” he half-joked.

Yet for a certain kind of person—male, smart, fiercely competitive—Spitzer is a magnet.

“There is a little lovefest some of us here have with him,” says Paterson.

Lloyd Constantine met Spitzer a couple of decades ago when the then-law-school student interned at Attorney General Robert Abrams’s office.

Constantine ran Abrams’s antitrust division.

“I told my wife the first day I met him,” Constantine recalls, “‘He’s already challenged me to tennis."

"He’s already challenged me to squash."

"He thinks he’s smarter than me.’”

In Spitzer, Constantine felt he’d found a kindred spirit, his “competitive other,” as he calls it.

“To some extent, we’re always in the process of trying to show who’s tougher,” he says.

With Constantine onboard as a senior adviser to the governor, Spitzer and his band of superachievers re-created another aspect of Bernard’s dinner table.

Governing shouldn’t merely be a clash of ideologies.

It requires that a series of problems be solved.

“We don’t have much ideological baggage,” says budget director Paul Francis.

They make “evidence-based” decisions, he says, like proud scientists of government.

As a first experiment, Spitzer assigned them workers’ compensation.

Everyone knew that the insurance program for injured workers paid too much to too few.

“A decade of screaming and shouting on either side, and no resolution,” says Spitzer.

Spitzer’s people examined every case for the past two years.

“When you get beneath the surface, the difference [with past approaches] is really in the depth of understanding of the problem, the depth of the diagnosis,” says one participant.

Spitzer brought labor and business together, opened the state’s books, a bold move.

But, as Spitzer tells me, “the data is what drove it.”

The Legislature quickly passed the reform; it was a fast and early victory—others rapidly followed: ethics reform and civil confinement of sex predators, both of which had also been stalled for years.

Spitzer drew key lessons from these early triumphs.

One was that belligerence worked—his people believed that the humiliation of Magnarelli, who’d gone against Spitzer on the Hevesi replacement, encouraged a hesitant Legislature.

Another was that there’s nothing wrong with Albany that Spitzer and his brainy staff couldn’t fix.

And then, of course, there was an implicit taunt—See, fellas, it’s not really that difficult.

“Spitzer wants to crush the other with his arguments,” says one upstate political hand.

“I’d never met anyone like that.”

But Bruno was happy to claim some credit for the early wins.

Spitzer, he said, was pushing Bruno’s own causes, particularly on law and order.

“Those are Republican things,” he said.

He complimented Spitzer for, as he put it, “rolling Shelly.”

By Albany standards, it was a warm and fuzzy moment.

“He knows how to compromise,” Bruno said.

“We like Joe,” Spitzer told me at one point.

Republican minority leader Tedisco even added, “Maybe you need a steamroller.”

Those were the good old days.

For all the dinner-table policy debates, a career in politics was almost an afterthought for Spitzer.

“People don’t realize what a U-turn politics was for me,” Spitzer says.

“I planned almost certainly to go into the family business.”

And yet when he thought about real estate, he hesitated.

“I’ve always had this deep-down hesitation about being viewed as, if not a caretaker, a recipient of something that was handed easily to one to embrace,” he says.

“My father began with nothing."

"I would have been given something wonderful with a great opportunity to screw it up."

"If I’d succeeded, I would have been, rightly, viewed as, ‘Well, look what you started with.’”

The family business was a game he could only lose.

His moment of revelation came in 1994.

Spitzer was then 35 years old.

He’d spent six years at the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and a few years at the prestigious law firms of Paul, Weiss and later Skadden, Arps, when he was struck by a brazen thought.

One week before the birth of their third child, Spitzer had a brief conversation with his wife, Silda, in which he mentioned he might like to run for attorney general.

It seemed crazy.

Few in the public knew him, and those who did remarked that he didn’t have the typical political skill set.

“He was fierce and talented, very smart, hardworking, idealistic,” says his boss at the D.A.’s office, Michael Cherkasky.

“But he wasn’t smooth."

"He wasn’t sure of himself as a speaker."

"He wasn’t particularly funny."

"Now he has a self-deprecating humor."

"He didn’t learn that technique of being entertaining for ten years.”

Silda, a North Carolina Baptist who met Spitzer at Harvard Law, was stunned.

The notion upended Silda’s expectations for their life together.

“This wasn’t part of the bargain,” she later told him.

But Silda, who seems to view her husband as a fragile creature, decided it was important to be supportive, though she knew it meant abandoning her career.

“The decision was very difficult for me."

"It really was,” she told me.

Her mother was a homemaker who felt belittled by the term.

“It was difficult at a personal level and also I felt at some level I was letting down this bigger responsibility to womankind.”

But Silda eventually left her job.

“For me, with my family, and my children, and where we were as a family unit, this was the right choice for us,” she says.

If Spitzer lacked a natural politician’s ease, he did have one giant advantage: family money.

For the September 1994 primary, he poured more than $4 million into his campaign, much of it for TV ads, an astounding figure.

And, though he finished last, he won the endorsements of the Post and the News.

The defeat seemed to stir his ambition.

He jumped into the next attorney general’s race early, driving the family’s Plymouth minivan 70,000 miles around the state to meet people who were almost entirely dismissive then driving back.

“That was essentially purgatory,” says Spitzer.

“A rational person would say, ‘What am I doing this for?’”

The effort and the new strategy, though, paid off.

Spitzer easily won the 1998 primary.

In the general election, against incumbent Dennis Vacco, he spent more than $8 million, almost all of which he said he personally lent to the campaign.

Vacco suspected that the money from his first campaign and now this one really came from Spitzer’s father, which seemed to violate campaign-finance laws—a family member can’t contribute more than $260,000.

Spitzer claimed he’d mortgaged eight apartments his father had given him at 200 Central Park South, a building Bernard developed, and raised $5 million.

“No one else has guaranteed the loan,” Spitzer said in an affidavit.

And then, days before the election, Spitzer came clean to the Times.

His father had, in effect, financed the campaign.

Bernard was really paying off the co-op loans; Spitzer was supposedly repaying his father, which permitted Spitzer to claim the money was technically his.

Spitzer said the scheme was legal.

If so, he had lawyered election and tax codes close to the line.

Perhaps Spitzer’s clearer infraction, though, was that he misled—some said lied to—not only the public but also his closest campaign aides.

“People were disappointed and shocked,” says one aide.

Spitzer was remorseful—“He felt bad,” says the aide.

He won the election, but barely.

Later, I asked Spitzer, now the state’s ethical crusader, whether he regretted this deception.

“I just would have been completely transparent about it,” he tells me.

“I didn’t realize how necessary it was to be transparent about every personal financial transaction.”

It’s difficult to hear the word transparent and not think that the more precise word is honest.

Spitzer once told me that he’d learned at the D.A.’s office there are some fights in which, as he put it, “you can never concede errors because you just can’t do it.”

Maybe this is one of those.

Joe Bruno’s spirited jibes conceal a truth—power has been slipping away from him.

In the past four years, the Republicans have lost four Senate seats.

When Spitzer became governor, they held a bare three-seat majority.

Spitzer was determined to shrink it further.

He dangled jobs in his administration in front of a number of Republican senators, and one of them, Michael Balboni, from Nassau County, took him up on it, becoming Spitzer’s Homeland Security chief.

That put his Republican seat up for grabs in a largely Democratic district.

(Spitzer campaigned for the Democrat, who took the seat, a victory that made both Democrats and Republicans appreciate Spitzer’s electoral muscle.)

For Spitzer, as for every governor, the most important policy tool is the budget.

Spitzer had ambitious goals: Lower taxes, redistribute school aid, insure uninsured kids, among others.

As a top priority, he was also determined to rein in health-care spending, especially Medicaid, a program on which New York spends far more than any other state.

To do this, Spitzer took aim at perhaps Bruno’s most important patron: the powerful health-workers union Local 1199 SEIU, headed by Dennis Rivera.

The Republican organization statewide is very thin, and in the absence of effective field operations, the party has often counted on 1199’s manpower and wealth.

Every year 1199, with Bruno’s support, fiercely opposes any health-care cuts.

Spitzer’s interests—killing Republicans and cutting health-care spending—aligned nicely.

“It’ll be a tough fight, but it’s the right fight,” Spitzer told his staff.

Predictably, Spitzer got the fight going.

During the campaign, he had refused the union’s endorsement.

Then, at a March breakfast talk to the Association for a Better New York, Spitzer stood onstage at the New York Hilton with a favorite weapon, his PowerPoint presentation.

A slide appeared on a large screen.

GUARDIANS OF THE STATUS QUO, it said in giant letters.

To illustrate the concept, the logos of 1199 and its ally, the Greater New York Hospital Association, were shown.

“Now, my good friends at 1199 and Greater New York, I want to put your logos up here just so everybody will know who you are,” he said, introducing them to the crowd.

(It got worse; soon he was, in effect, calling them liars.)

It was a stunning personal assault.

He rubbed their noses in it, and his staff loved every minute.

“I have never in my professional life seen anything like that,” Kenneth E. Raske, the president of the hospital association, said.

At 1199, they were “horrified.”

“We’re true believers,” as one union official put it.

“We represent 200,000 health-care workers, a lot of whom make $7.15 an hour.”

Privately, Bruno had been telling Rivera’s team to go on the attack.

“If you don’t defend yourselves, we can’t,” he said.

Spitzer had already scheduled a meeting with Rivera, and even had a compromise in mind.

But two days before the summit, the union put up a series of powerful ads, part of a campaign that cost $4.5 million.

Hospital workers, many of them minorities, looked into the camera and said things like “I don’t know why Governor Spitzer is attacking me and my hospital.”

The union had used a similar tactic against Pataki to devastating effect.

In 2002, 1199 had previewed its ads for Pataki—“punched them into the VCR,” says one Spitzer aide.

That year, Pataki and Rivera came to a historic compromise, as it would later be known, earning Rivera’s workers millions and Pataki the union’s endorsement.

Spitzer’s people had deep contempt for the compromise.

“Pataki buckled,” said one.

Spitzer reacted to the ads by canceling the Rivera summit.

“Now that they have us under the gun, they want to come in."

"That’s not the way I do business."

"That’s not who I am,” Spitzer told me, as if it were a question of character.

To compromise on the heels of the ads would be a disaster.

“If they roll us, everyone rolls us,” one aide explained.

Spitzer launched his own ad campaign, paying with campaign funds, and when campaign money ran out, he wrote a $500,000 check from his own account.

(“I don’t like the appearance,” he says, “but it was an essential fight that we needed to win.”)

As part of this battle, Spitzer opened up another front, going directly at Bruno this time.

He targeted ten upstate Republicans in vulnerable districts.

One by one, Spitzer sat them down in his office and said, “Either make a deal, or I’m coming to your district.”

The tactic infuriated Bruno.

Soon, Bruno challenged Spitzer in his office, shouting that one senator “is so far up your ass he can’t even see.”

At this, Spitzer exploded.

“I won’t tolerate profanity or attacks on other elected officials in my office,” he yelled, to the delight of his staffers—who can tell when the boss is really mad.

On March 27, both men swallowed hard and, with Silver, announced a framework for a budget deal.

“Spitzer got a lot of what he wanted, we got enough,” said one union observer; the union let Bruno know he could close the deal.

The eventual agreement restored, depending on how it was counted, $300 million in cuts, but Spitzer got a historic $1 billion reduction in Medicaid spending, pretty close to his compromise number.

Spitzer seemed to be gliding toward an on-time budget.

Details remained to be finalized, but there were four days before the April 1 budget deadline.

Bruno, though, hadn’t played his final card.

Silver, happy to recede into the background as “conciliator,” as he liked to call himself, knew the game.

“The governor is dealing in a different league, a different climate, a different dynamic now,” Silver said.

“He’s used to dealing with assistant attorneys general who he appointed.”

Bruno stalled.

He knew Spitzer wanted to complete an on-time budget by the deadline; he didn’t want to eat up the legislative session.

“Bruno’s feeling is, if Bruno keeps dragging him out on the details, Spitzer will have to capitulate on more of the details,” explains one frustrated Spitzer aide.

The day before the budget deadline, the staffs negotiated all night.

At 4:45 in the morning, budget director Francis e-mailed Spitzer: “We better start lowering expectations.”

“Outrage,” Spitzer insisted, “helps both create a conversation to frame the issues and generate an understanding.”

When I next spoke to Spitzer, I asked him about that early-morning e-mail.

Spitzer wants you to know that he masters every detail.

He brings to the job a frightening energy.

He rises at five, reads four newspapers, runs a few miles (with a state trooper trailing on a bike), has three quick breakfast meetings.

One aide tells me that Spitzer has never taken more than seven minutes to return his e-mails.

I mention the story about his budget director’s 4:45 a.m. e-mail.

“He left out an important fact,” Spitzer says.

“I sent him one back at 4:46.”

That e-mail told the governor that negotiations with Bruno’s staff had collapsed.

The governor knew by that time that one crucial issue for Bruno was school aid.

Spitzer proposed a formula to distribute aid by need rather than political power; Bruno wanted a separate distribution for Long Island, which has eight Republican senators.

To satisfy Bruno would cost $200 million.

“We shouldn’t spend this much on school aid,” Francis told Spitzer, urging a showdown.

Spitzer likes to say that his unacknowledged strength is his pragmatism.

Spitzer picked up the phone and called Bruno, Silver, and the two other legislative leaders, Malcolm Smith, Democratic leader of the Senate, and James Tedisco, Republican leader of the Assembly, to a meeting that morning at 11 a.m.

“It’s now that people will put their hearts on the table or not."

"This is our last shot,” he told his staff.

Spitzer decided that it had to be a secret meeting.

“We’ll lock the doors,” said Spitzer.

Secret meetings, of course, are the disappointing way business has always been done in the swamp.

By all accounts, Spitzer’s performance in the meeting was a masterful exercise of mediation.

Even Bruno says, “It didn’t get done his way."

"He learned to compromise."

"And we got it done.”

Spitzer emerged after almost seven hours with a budget printed so hastily legislators didn’t have a chance to read it before raising their hands when their leaders told them to.

Bruno got his $200 million for Long Island schools.

Bruno also got Spitzer’s tax cut delivered as a rebate, he restored some health-care cuts, and bragged about his gains as if he’d wrestled Goliath to the mat.

Spitzer, on the other hand, seemed to have been dunked in the cesspool.

Good-government groups, Spitzer’s Day One cheerleaders, pilloried him.

Spitzer was frustrated that the press didn’t appreciate his statesmanship.

“The formula for education is of unbelievable importance,” he tried to argue.

He’d poured record amounts into schools, and got 400,000 kids insured, while lowering taxes.

But Spitzer sounded defensive, at pains to explain complicated formulas.

And the public—and the press, kept outside locked doors—focused on the process.

Spitzer had raised expectations.

He was the politician who’d promised to say no to Albany’s secrecy and made us believe he could.

“It was an incredible budget for us."

"We did one thing wrong, the secret meeting,” says an aide.

It was no excuse—Spitzer was supposed to impose his idealistic, intolerant personality on Albany.

In June, as the legislative session came to a close, Spitzer drew a line in the muck.

Usually, as one Democratic legislator says, “Spitzer’s people are so convinced they’re right that nothing they do is wrong,” but suddenly Spitzer appeared to feel he’d transgressed.

He seemed to hate being taken for a secretive compromiser.

He insisted that he’d get a campaign-finance-reform bill; he knew—from personal experience—the laws needed overhauling.

This put him, yet again, on a collision course with Bruno, this time mano a mano.

“I thought he learned as chief executive you negotiate in good faith and compromise and get results,” says Bruno.

“Then he locks up and goes on a tear over campaign-finance reform."

"I can’t for the life of me understand why.”

“There’s an unbelievable opportunity now to govern through the agencies,” says Spitzer, weary of the battle.

This time, Spitzer decided to do much of the fighting in public.

He dragged Silver and Bruno “kicking and screaming,” says Spitzer, to open meetings in Teddy Roosevelt’s old office.

He assigned them seats at a rectangular table with a handsome blue tablecloth, the whole dysfunctional family.

At the head of the table, Spitzer pushed campaign-finance reform as well as plenty of other issues.

And he made nice.

“We hold deep differences of opinion based on principle,” said Spitzer.

He courted Bruno.

“I was trying to keep him engaged,” he tells me later.

It didn’t work.

Silver didn’t care much for the meetings; all the fuss over “process” is naïve, he thinks.

And Bruno resented the meetings as if they were detention.

“It was simply Spitzer acting in charge,” says Bruno, who showed his displeasure by twisting in his chair, one leg pretzeled over the other, and railing against Spitzer’s positions.

People don’t care about campaign-finance reform, he said.

“When you get up in the morning, do your children ask you the status of campaign-finance reform?”

“Money does not buy elections; that is bull,” Bruno shouted, waving a hand.

His big white head shook.

He added, “If somebody wants to give me a million dollars because they like what we do, fine.”

Bruno had other reasons for not wanting to fix some of the laxest campaign-finance laws in the country.

(Currently, anyone can form as many corporations as he wants and give money through each.)

“It would be suicide,” he says.

Disarm when a rich governor is trying to destroy us?

Are you crazy?

Plus Bruno had to show strength.

He didn’t have the command over his colleagues he once enjoyed.

An investigation hung over his head, his majority was slipping.

Albany used to be a place where no one disagreed with a leader for fear of reprisals.

But no more.

On June 21, the final day of the legislative session, the two sides were at an impasse.

Spitzer had threatened to hold up a spending bill, filled with projects dear to Bruno’s senators as well as pay hikes for legislators, if he didn’t get campaign-finance reform.

So Bruno made a brash political calculation.

What was the upside of handing this self-righteous governor (whose staff, as one close to Spitzer acknowledges, considers legislators “hacks”) an end-of-session gift box?

A few weeks earlier, Bruno had come to Spitzer with a deal for a nonaggression pact.

Spitzer wouldn’t campaign against Republican senators, and the Senate would pass campaign-finance reform.

Spitzer refused to stand on the sidelines, though he offered to praise Republican reformers.

“That’s not good enough,” Bruno said.

Bruno didn’t return to meet with Spitzer.

His senators were in no mood for a compromise—they felt “jammed up,” said one.

So Bruno called a press conference and started a war.

“The legislative session that began with promise and achievement ended with a whimper,” Bruno told the press.

(The word whimper seemed chosen with care.)

He adjourned the Senate and with it the governor’s agenda.

Spitzer convened his own press conference to express disappointment.

Then he ticked off unresolved legislation—Mayor Bloomberg’s plan on congestion pricing, healthy meals for schoolchildren, DNA testing of criminals—listing their merits as a way, perhaps, of emphasizing his disappointment.

When Spitzer was attorney general, I’d asked him, “So the last thing someone should say to Eliot Spitzer is ‘**** off’?”

“Basically, yeah,” he said.

After Bruno told him to **** off, Spitzer seemed liberated.

He hadn’t liked being an accommodator; now he didn’t have to be.

He ran off to Republican districts delivering his beloved PowerPoint sermon.

“Where’s Waldo?” he mocked, referring to Bruno.

He claimed this fight wasn’t personal—just sports, you know.

“I’ll pat Joe on the back next time I see him,” he said.

“Not too hard.”

Bruno, liberated as well, threw a tantrum of his own.

Where Spitzer gave his valedictorian address—“fiduciary responsibility” are his two favorite words—Bruno called Spitzer a “thug,” a “bully,” and, for good measure, a “hypocrite”; as he was pushing campaign reform, Spitzer was raising money and offering special access to donors.

Bruno worked himself up as he spoke, his tone arguing that he was the real victim.

“The governor is proving he’s inexperienced in negotiating as a chief executive."

"He’s used to dictating as attorney general with subpoena power.”

Then Bruno called Spitzer a “rich spoiled brat”—a barb that particularly annoyed the governor.

For good measure, Bruno mocked Spitzer on his own terms.

“So Spitzer got no result on anything by being stubborn,” Bruno says.

“By thinking he’s the f-ing steamroller to roll over us."

"He had no steam.”

In the weeks following, Bruno kept scoring points.

A press story reported that Bruno misused state aircraft to attend fund-raisers, an apparent gift to Spitzer that Bruno turned on its head.

Bruno accused Spitzer of “political espionage,” saying the information came out of the executive branch.

Everyone started calling for investigations—Spitzer three; Bruno two, and Bruno added that he might hold Senate hearings and use its subpoena power to put Spitzer under oath.

Even some top Democrats were lately heard to join in the joke: “Maybe he’s not a steam roller, maybe a steam iron,” said one.

Indeed, some of the political class seemed delighted that, with his righteousness and his pride and oh, yes, his vast intellect, Spitzer had been taken to the woodshed by the likes of Joe Bruno.

When Spitzer was attorney general, he had always been, he once assured me, “right on the facts,” which was why he always won, he believed.

And yet Albany has never worked that way—and perhaps never will.

“The governor cannot just make the best case and always expect to win,” says Silver, as if explaining a harsh world to a younger sibling.

Silver said Spitzer had gotten more done in six months than other governors in four years.

Still, the news stories were mostly about the fight, which everyone agreed was Albany’s worst ever.

Bruno seemed giddy.

He’d made this governor of supposedly pure motives look like one of them.

It was sweet revenge.

“He has an attitude about him,” Bruno told me.

“Really, he does."

"He’s kind of above it all, aloof."

"He handles himself like some kid who’s used to getting his own way."

"I don’t believe he ever could understand me, one of eight kids, father shoveled coal,” Bruno continued.

“Let’s face it, we come from different worlds.”

I meet with Spitzer a week or so after Bruno shut down the Legislature.

We’re at Three Guys, a diner on Madison Avenue around the corner from Spitzer’s apartment.

Spitzer’s state troopers are nowhere to be seen.

He’s not an entourage guy.

Ordinarily, Spitzer seems unrehearsed and refreshingly upbeat.

He’s not conflicted, not introspective, “not deep,” as a friend says.

But today, he’s different.

Spitzer seems deflated. “You learn an awful lot,” he tells me.

In the long term, Bruno probably can’t win.

He’s on the wrong side of history.

Spitzer wants control, and the state is increasingly Democratic.

Bruno will be 79 the next time he’s reelected.

When asked if the Democrats will take the Senate next election, a Spitzer aide says simply, “Yes.”

Which also frightens some Democrats who wonder whether Spitzer’s next target will be Silver.

Yet in the short term, Bruno is schooling Spitzer, and pleasing the Republican base.

Suddenly, improbably, Bruno, king of the swamp, seems the victim, an impression that drives Spitzer wild.

“This fight has nothing to do with culture or class."

"Bruno’s answers are simplistic pablum,” he says with scorn.

But Spitzer is weary of the struggle on these terms.

“There’s a lot about politics I don’t recommend to people,” he says.

“You’ve got to deal with folks like you.”

I don’t take this personally.

It’s a grab bag of disappointment today.

Spitzer’s already run five miles and had one meeting.

“Dealing with Joe and Shelly, that’s a fun chess game,” he tells me.

“You scream, you shout, you battle.”

But what does it amount to?

Spitzer lets me know that he’s over it.

He’s going to go run the government.

“The legislative piece, you need the budget, but the rest of it … eh?” he says.

“Whatever they do … I don’t shrug."

"But … it gets more ink than it deserves.”

Spitzer has commissions going for improving everything from schools to public authorities to local governments.

He just engineered tens of millions of dollars for legal-aid lawyers—the Times editorial page caught that, he proudly tells me.

And he excitedly recalls staying up all night to nail down a settlement of World Trade Center insurance claims that had tied up construction for years.

There’s development deals to do.

Midtown, upstate.

He can push his environmental agenda without Bruno.

The list goes on.

“Governing for me now is more about the authority we’ve got to change policy administratively,” he says.

Spitzer is eager to get back to being idealistic and intolerant—back to being the smartest guy in the room, back to running the government without Bruno and Silver.

“There is an unbelievable opportunity now to govern through the agencies, and that’s frankly what I’m really looking forward to,” he says.

“At end of the day, that gives me a lot of comfort,” he says, though it sounds to me like he might mean consolation.

Lately, Spitzer has been steeping himself in biographies of great New York governors, Teddy Roosevelt and Al Smith.

They, he tells me, were initially scorned in the press—Roosevelt was “excoriated” for having compromised on reform.

History judged them differently.

Spitzer says he’s taking the long view.

“I can be patient,” he says.

To change everything Day One is no longer the imperative—he’s learned that much.

“I’ll build coalitions, I’ll get it done,” he says.

“I’ve got four years, I’m in no hurry.”

Spitzer checks the BlackBerry on his waist, pays the bill, and rushes out the door.

http://nymag.com/news/features/34730/

And catching up on some back news in here, we have ...

"Bruno calls for leaders' meeting - Senate majority leader wants public discussion of priorities Monday; aide says Spitzer staff willing to talk"

By JAY JOCHNOWITZ, State editor, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, July 14, 2007

ALBANY -- After weeks of bitter words between them, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno on Friday asked Gov. Eliot Spitzer to hold a public leaders' meeting Monday to talk about priorities.

Bruno and Spitzer have been sparring for the last two weeks over Bruno's use of state planes and what Bruno says was Spitzer's use of State Police to spy on him.

Both have asked for investigations.

Even before that flap, the two were in an escalating confrontation, with Spitzer blaming the Senate for leaving town with unfinished business, and Bruno saying it was Spitzer's fault for insisting on a campaign finance reform plan designed to weaken the Senate Republican majority.

Bruno had also criticized the leaders' meetings convened by the governor this year as unproductive.

But Bruno, saying he wants to move on such issues as senior citizen tax relief, economic development, the death penalty for cop killers, power plant siting regulations, violent video games and healthy schools, said it's time to get "the people's business" done.

"The governor and other legislative leaders must meet at the negotiation table for a public discussion," he said in a news release.

"We need negotiations and leadership to turn unfinished business into real results on the issues that matter to all New Yorkers."

Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for Spitzer, said, "We've always been willing to meet" and that staffs continued to talk about pending issues, but there was no plan yet for a leaders' meeting.

The most pressing issue Monday is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, which would charge cars $8 and trucks $21 to drive in Manhattan below 86th Street on weekdays.

The city stands to lose up to $500 million in federal funds without state action Monday, officials say.

With some complaints that Bloomberg's proposal gave too much power to the mayor, Bruno unveiled a bill authorizing the city to develop and implement a congestion pricing plan, but putting off submission of a plan until Aug. 1.

It would require legislative approval before the year's end, and the program would come up for renewal after three years.

A 12-member commission, with equal representation from the governor, Assembly, Senate and mayor, would recommend ways to spend the new fees and address traffic problems.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, however, still plans to be downstate Monday, talking to New York City and suburban Democrats about the issue, which still faces resistance in his chamber.

As for other issues, "The Assembly's concerned about what's not on the Senate's agenda," said Silver spokesman Dan Weiller.

He listed such issues as reform of public contracting regulations, paid family leave, a pay equity bill and Empire Zone reform.

Jay Jochnowitz can be reached at 454-5424 or by e-mail at jjochnowitz@timesunion.com.

And catching up on what is going on in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York today, we have ....

"Comptroller's office says papers missing - Prosecutors investigate disappearance of pension documents"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, July 17, 2007

ALBANY -- A 2-inch-thick pile of pension documents was discovered missing after the resignation of the state comptroller's top investment executive, and prosecutors for the state and Albany County are investigating the matter, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Monday.

The missing material apparently was the responsibility of David Loglisci, a lawyer and investment banker hired by former Comptroller Alan Hevesi in 2002.

Loglisci, 37, was the $201,135-per-year deputy comptroller and chief investment officer in charge of the roughly $150 billion state pension fund.

The former Salomon Smith Barney vice president resigned in May amid investigations into the scandal-tainted administration of Hevesi by the Albany County district attorney's office and the Attorney General.

Dennis Tompkins, a spokesman for DiNapoli, said the office staff discovered 100 to 150 pages of material missing after Loglisci cleared out.

Most of the records have been recreated, and the few pages still missing will be replaced soon and delivered to the Albany DA, he said.

DiNapoli on Monday said the documents were sought by investigators.

"Since I took office following the Hevesi scandal, I have been cooperating with the Albany County District Attorney's Office and the Office of the Attorney General," DiNapoli said.

"It is apparent that former Comptroller Hevesi and others on his staff engaged in unethical, irresponsible and possibly criminal activity."

DiNapoli is a former Long Island Democratic assemblyman appointed by the Legislature in January to fill Hevesi's slot after Hevesi resigned amid an investigation into his abuse of office by having state employees serve as chauffeurs for his wife.

The comptroller said more cases of wrongdoing by the Hevesi administration may be uncovered and prosecuted.

"The people of New York deserve better than what they got under Alan Hevesi," DiNapoli said.

Efforts to reach Loglisci were unsuccessful.

Investigators are looking into a number of activities and individuals who worked for Hevesi.

"Mr. DiNapoli continues to fully cooperate" by providing information sought for the public integrity investigation that targets, among others, former Hevesi Chief of Staff Jack Chartier, said Heather Orth, a spokeswoman for DA David Soares.

Chartier, who resigned after Hevesi's guilty plea to defrauding taxpayers, is also suspected of abusing his office.

Cuomo has declined to publicly discuss his inquiries, but he said around the time of Loglisci's May resignation that it seemed to him that Hevesi's administration was fraught with "very troubling, serious, systemic conflicts of interest."

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Hevesi’s Sons and Aides Face Pension Fund Investigation"

By DANNY HAKIM and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Published: July 15, 2007

ALBANY, July 13 — State and Albany County investigators are examining whether the sons and top aides of former State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi improperly reaped benefits from his control of the state’s $154 billion pension fund, according to people involved in the investigation.

The inquiry comes amid growing questions about whether New York State’s pension fund, the second largest in the nation, should continue to be overseen almost single-handedly by the comptroller.

Mr. Hevesi, who pleaded guilty in December to defrauding the government by having state workers act as chauffeurs for his ailing wife, oversaw the fund for four years and had broad discretion in the selection of money managers and investments.

Investigators want to know if financial services companies provided favors to those close to him in exchange for pension business.

They are scrutinizing the relationship between Mr. Hevesi’s office and several companies, including Third Point Capital, a hedge fund.

In 2005, the comptroller’s office decided to invest a portion of the pension’s money in a fund that invests in hedge funds, including Third Point.

Several months later, Third Point hired Mr. Hevesi’s elder son, Daniel.

It is not clear what role, if any, the elder Mr. Hevesi played in the Third Point investment.

Daniel Hevesi markets Third Point to institutional investors, according to securities filings.

He also owns a brokerage firm, Praetorian Securities, that does business out of Third Point’s office.

It is not clear who Praetorian’s clients are or if Daniel Hevesi profited from any relationship with the pension fund.

A person with knowledge of the investigations said a top official within the comptroller’s office knew about the relationship between Third Point and Daniel Hevesi and circumvented internal guidelines requiring that it be disclosed.

Investigators are also examining the relationship between the elder Mr. Hevesi’s office when he was comptroller and eSpeed, a Manhattan-based company that has processed trades for the pension fund.

Mr. Hevesi’s longtime political consultant, Hank Morris, has served on the board of the company and collected millions of dollars in connection with his role there, a person involved in the investigation said.

The payments were said to be “placement fees,” but it was not clear what services Mr. Morris had provided to earn them.

Such fees are usually paid to marketing advisers who help investors win blocks of pension money to manage.

Mr. Morris could not be reached for comment, and a spokesman for Third Point Capital declined to comment.

In addition, investigators are reviewing records of political contributions from investment firms and their executives to Mr. Hevesi’s younger son, Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi, a Queens Democrat.

It is legal in New York State for investment managers to contribute to comptrollers (or any elected official), and they have long done so.

Money managers vie aggressively for the job of investing blocks of public pension money, and New York State’s fund is so large that even a tiny piece could generate substantial management fees.

It would be illegal for companies to make contributions with the understanding they would receive business or favorable treatment, but such a case would probably be difficult for investigators to prove.

The probe is being conducted jointly by the Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, and the state’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo.

It was set off by allegations that the comptroller’s former chief of staff, Jack Chartier, had obtained, among other things, a loan for his friend, the actress Peggy Lipton, from an executive at Markstone Capital, another firm that manages pension fund money.

Lawyers or representatives for Mr. Chartier, Ms. Lipton and Markstone Capital had no comment or did not return calls.

Spokesmen for Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Soares declined to comment.

Mr. Cuomo said in May that the investigation suggested there were “very troubling, serious, systemic conflicts of interest” in the comptroller’s office, but he declined to provide details.

Alan G. Hevesi’s lawyer, Joel Cohen, said he could not comment on the investigation.

Daniel Hevesi did not return a call to his office, and a spokesman for Andrew Hevesi said he would not comment.

State laws prohibit officials from engaging in activities that create or appear to create a conflict with their public duties, and they are barred from securing unwarranted privileges for themselves or others.

Andrew Hevesi won election two years ago to the Queens Assembly district that his father had represented for 22 years.

Donations from investment firms that manage state pension fund assets, or their executives, make up more than 10 percent of the campaign contributions that Andrew Hevesi has received.

Some of Andrew Hevesi’s contributors lived thousands of miles from his Assembly district, including Elliott Broidy, the Los Angeles-based chairman of Markstone.

He donated $3,400 in 2005.

Another company that contributed to campaigns by members of the Hevesi family is Mezzacappa Management LLC, a private investment firm based in Manhattan that manages a number of funds for wealthy individuals, pension funds and other institutions.

One of its funds, the Mezzacappa Maiden Lane Fund, received $198 million from the New York pension fund in January 2005.

Mezzacappa Management and people tied to it have made donations to Alan Hevesi since 2002 totaling $88,000, according to campaign filings.

In 2005, the firm and its chief executive, Damon Mezzacappa, also made contributions totaling $5,000 to Andrew Hevesi.

A Mezzacappa official declined to comment.

Alan Hevesi’s 35-year career in politics ended in December, when he pleaded guilty to a felony after admitting he had ordered state workers to serve as chauffeur for his ailing wife.

He paid a $5,000 fine and resigned from the comptroller’s job.

Thomas P. DiNapoli, who was chosen by the Legislature to fill Alan Hevesi’s post, has taken steps to shore up internal safeguards since taking over, including the creation of a new position, inspector general.

Surpassing the size of the state’s more than $120 billion budget, the pension fund makes payments to 334,000 retirees, and 648,000 other workers are due to receive benefits in the future.

New York’s pension fund structure, which relies on the comptroller as the fund’s sole trustee, is unusual.

Many states have boards that oversee their funds.

Comptrollers and other elected pension officials have often been accused of conflicts of interest because the office can expose them to an endless parade of finance professionals vying for blocks of pension money to manage and willing to do favors to win that business.

But as pension trustees, they have a legal duty to invest prudently.

“The issue of having a single person as the sole trustee is an issue worth taking a hard look at,” Gov. Eliot Spitzer said last week.

“It’s not an easy question, but it’s one that certainly we will look at in the context of all this.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/nyregion...nted=1&_r=1

And keeping up with the background in here, as I missed a few days worth of posting do to this or that occurring out there in the non-CYBER WORLD, we have ....

THE NEW YORK POST

"HEVESI PAPER$ IN MYSTERY VANISH - PENSION-FEE FILES STOLEN OR DESTROYED"

July 16, 2007 -- INVESTIGATORS probing possible illegal pension fund activities during disgraced state Comptroller Alan Hevesi's tenure are being hampered by the disappearance of "volumes" of sensitive documents, The Post has learned.

The documents - providing a paper trail on the investment of tens of millions of dollars in pension-fund assets - disappeared after former Democratic Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli was named by the Legislature in February to replace Hevesi, who pleaded guilty to misusing state resources and resigned in disgrace in December, a source close to DiNapoli's office said.

"This involves actions that occurred on DiNapoli's watch, not on Hevesi's," the source said, noting that internal tracking records confirm the time frame the documents went missing.

The papers, which identify who received fees for obtaining state pension-fund investments, were believed stolen or destroyed by a high-ranking Comptroller's Office employee, according to the source.

The disappearance of the documents - which could point the finger at politically connected individuals who received the investment fees - has hampered ongoing investigations of the Hevesi scandal being conducted by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who has convened a special grand jury.

"The investigation would have been wrapped up a week ago if it wasn't for the missing documents," the source said.

Investigators believe they know who stole or destroyed the documents, although it is unclear if the individual will be criminally charged.

Copies of some of the records are now being reacquired from firms that are still doing business with the state's huge pension fund, the source said.

The New York Times reported yesterday that investigators are seeking to determine if Hevesi's sons, Andrew and Daniel, illegally benefited from their father's connections.

DiNapoli has repeatedly refused to comment on the investigation.

*

Albany insiders doubt Inspector General Kristine Hamann's ability to fairly investigate the Spitzer administration's role in having the State Police monitor Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's activities - and a conflict of interest is the reason why.

Hamann, a former executive assistant district attorney in the office of Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau, was appointed to her job by Gov. Spitzer, whose reputation would be seriously damaged if Hamann finds that the governor or his aides directed a State Police surveillance program, as Bruno charges.

"Nobody expects the full story from Hamann," said a source close to Bruno.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07162007/news/...side_albany.htm

"A right or wrong in use of state's aircraft? - Bruno controversy gives rise to debate over long-standing practice, reimbursement of taxpayers"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, July 16, 2007

ALBANY -- John Faso, the fiscally conservative Republican who unsuccessfully challenged Gov. Eliot Spitzer last fall, supports use of state aircraft by legislative leaders like Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno for flights to political events.

But former GOP comptroller candidate Chris Callaghan thinks taxpayers should be reimbursed.

Even as Bruno, R-Brunswick, seems to be rethinking his practice of using state helicopters and State Police drivers for his fundraising and state business trips, Faso said Bruno did nothing wrong.

"As long as there is legitimate state business, I don't have a problem with it," Faso, a lobbyist, said.

"I don't think Sen. Bruno did anything wrong, nor do I think he did anything out of the ordinary."

"This has been the long-standing practice."

He said he has no opinion of Bruno using State Police as drivers when he gets to Manhattan.

Bruno's staff said troopers have been driving Bruno and his aides around Manhattan after they get off State Police helicopters because of threats to Bruno.

State Police have not explained why they've provided Bruno security and car rides since at least 2006.

Spitzer has directed the agency to conduct a threat assessment.

Faso said it's fair to expect Bruno to provide his itinerary in exchange for traveling aboard state aircraft.

Bruno has refused to publicly disclose his schedule of events on days he takes state flights.

He maintains his trips, including three in May for GOP fundraisers in Manhattan, involved state business.

A few lobbyists and a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said they met with Bruno about legislative business for portions of the three May days.

Bruno typically requests and receives flights worth at least $3,000 an hour from Albany to Manhattan on Thursdays.

He did not travel on State Police aircraft this Thursday, a State Police spokesman said.

Bruno declared earlier this week that he didn't think he'd ask for the helicopter in the near future.

His press office did not return calls Friday.

In an television interview on Capital News 9, Bruno said he is considering legislation to ban using state aircraft for political trips.

The New York Post and Channel 6 reported he is proposing to forgo State Police security details.

Callaghan said Bruno's idea of banning flights for political trips would be inefficient because legislative leaders and governors often schedule official and political events for their travels.

He said it would be better to require reimbursement for the political portion of such travel on a pro-rated basis.

In November, Callaghan lost to Alan Hevesi, the incumbent comptroller, after disclosing that Hevesi assigned staff as drivers for his wife.

The revelations led to Hevesi's guilty plea to fraud and his resignation.

Spitzer has furnished the attorney general's office and the Albany County district attorney's office with materials about Bruno's use of state aircraft.

Bruno has complained to the inspector general and attorney general that Spitzer abused his power because State Police investigators made reports about where they picked up and dropped off Bruno in Manhattan.

The fundraising trips by Bruno were first reported by the Times Union July 1 in a story about use of state aircraft.

Only Bruno, Spitzer and Lt. Gov. David Paterson flew on the state aircraft during the first five months of 2007.

Unlike the other two men, Bruno refused to release his itineraries.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he books commercial flights for his travel but made an exception when he flew with Spitzer on a state helicopter in mid-June from Albany to attend JPMorgan Chase and Co.'s announcement of a new skyscraper at lower Manhattan.

At least one of the Democratic governor's trips included a political event -- a Monroe County Democratic fundraiser.

An Ethics Commission opinion, written in 1995 when Spitzer's special counsel, Richard Rifkin, headed the commission, says that using state aircraft for travel that includes political functions is valid as long as the trip has "a bona fide public purpose."

James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

And while we are on the subject of "PAY TO PLAY" here in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York, we have ....

"Just call him an advocate"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, July 16, 2007

Jeff Gural, who spent a small fortune purchasing, fixing up and installing 1,500 video slot machines at Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs in the past two years, is scheduled to come to Albany today to try to explain why he isn't a lobbyist.

Gural acknowledges he's pushed for legislation to help harness track operators, including him.

He needs the help, he said, because his investment in the tracks is losing $1 million a month.

Two years ago, Gural pushed for a law that raised the percentages VLT operators get to keep, and he's backing another measure to get even more.

Passed the Senate, it's under negotiation in the Assembly.

In an interview, the Manhattan real estate executive said he was contacted by the Temporary State Commission on Lobbying about his activities.

"I can't imagine I would be considered a lobbyist," said Gural, who pays lobbyist James Crane $10,000 a month.

"I'm not getting paid by anybody."

Failure to register as a lobbyist could bring stiff penalties.

The law defines a lobbyist as someone working for passage or defeat of a bill and who spends or is paid at least $5,000.

Gural has helped write legislation and has e-mailed numerous gaming officials to tell of his success in killing a bill that would have increased purses for horse owners.

"I am a better lobbyist than anything else," he said during a panel discussion at the Harness Tracks of America and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations joint conference in Florida in March.

His advice, according to the transcript: "Do the lobbying yourself; get to know these people."

He also said lobbying involves donating to politicians.

Indeed, in 2006 alone, Gural gave about $181,500 to various candidates, including $22,000 to the Spitzer/Paterson campaign and $25,000 to Andrew Cuomo.

"They didn't seem bashful at all about taking money from people," he said of New York's politicians.

Contributor: Capitol bureau reporter James M. Odato. Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@timesunion.com.

And what would a CORRUPT EMPIRE be without royalty and privilege?

"Officials get new aircraft - Heavy state use spurs authority to pay $6.5M for replacement plane"

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Thursday, July 19, 2007

A plane owned by the New York Power Authority has been getting such a workout from state officials that it's been sold, and the agency is buying a new one for $6.5 million.

Records show the authority's B-350 King airplane was used last year, and through June 30 this year, by a bipartisan roster that included former Gov. George Pataki and his wife, Libby, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, state Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, former Lt. Gov. Mary O. Donohue and successor David Paterson, and more than three dozen other nonauthority employees, including press aides and Pataki's photographer.

The plane, purchased in 2000 for about $5.5 million, was sold during the past few weeks after Power Authority trustees determined that it had been logging 50 percent more mileage than the typical B-350, a popular twin-engine craft that can carry about 15 people.

The selling price couldn't be determined.

The authority concluded it would be more practical to replace the plane with a newer model from the supplier, Raytheon Aircraft Co.

It is similar model in many ways, including seating capacity.

The use of state aircraft has been in the news lately, triggered by a report in the Times Union that Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno used a State Police helicopter to fly to New York City this year on three days that he attended political fundraisers.

While he hasn't released his itineraries, Bruno insists he also did public business on the flights.

Use of state aircraft for strictly political or personal use would be a violation of Public Officers Law, but the state Ethics Commission has said that if any public business also is done during the trip, the use is acceptable.

The affair ignited a firestorm in the Capitol, with Bruno charging Spitzer was using State Police to keep track of him, and government reform groups calling for full, clearer rules about the use of state aircraft, including full reimbursement by if any political business takes place on the trips.

The Power Authority has long had its own airplane and uses it when employees need to reach remote power plants in Northern New York.

When the authority isn't using it, the aircraft can be used by politicians and their staff.

Power Authority spokesman Brian Vattimo said the plane is made available to other officials and the State Police under a long-standing arrangement with the governor's office.

It's kept at the Albany International Airport or Westchester County Airport, according to state documents.

Vattimo stressed that to his knowledge no investigating agencies have asked the Power Authority about use of the plane.

The flight records, which were obtained Wednesday, do not list the purpose of any of the trips, although the "NYPA Power Business Travel Passenger Usage Reports" include a column for "business purpose."

Authority officials don't ask riders why they need the plane, Vattimo said.

The riders are cleared by either the governor's office or State Police, he said.

"They would talk with the governor's scheduling office or travel desk," Vattimo said.

Spitzer's office said Wednesday that details on the purposes of the trips would require another Freedom of Information request.

Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson said the forms, which were revised this year, require plane users to provide a schedule of their government business on the trip.

Pataki spokesman David Catalfamo said the plane was used properly by his boss and the former first lady.

"The administration acted consistent with the authority expressed in the ethics opinion governing usage," said Catalfamo, who added: "As the first lady, Mrs. Pataki on rare occasions would accompany the governor on state business."

One of the dates that the Power Authority plane was used coincided with a Dec. 8 trip Pataki took to Lynchburg, Va., to tour a factory where columns for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center were being made.

Pataki chartered a luxury jet, however, at a cost of more than $10,700, and the state comptroller's office later refused to pay the bill.

Flight logs show that the Power Authority plane picked up the Patakis and others in Lynchburg that day, flying to Washington D.C. and then to Newburgh.

Robach, one of the few elected legislators to appear on any state plane manifests, could not be immediately reached for comment on the reasons for his March 6, 2006, flight from Rochester to Albany.

However, the flight coincided with the funeral of a slain state trooper, Trooper Andrew Sperr.

Donohue, the lieutenant governor at the time, also flew in the plane that day.

Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com.

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

July 13, 2007 at 5:19 pm by James M. Odato

Marc Violette, a press officer for Eliot Spitzer dating from his days as attorney general, has moved out of the governor’s press office to take a similar job with the Dormitory Authority.

The $110,000 authority job had been held by Claudia Hutton.

She recently moved to the Health Department for a $125,000 job as spokeswoman.

The governor’s press office is down two people now, as Brad Maione departed to become spokesman for the state Office of General Services, which pays $85,800.

COMMENTS

Comment by John Galt — July 14, 2007 @ 2:48 pm: What vital state function do these people fulfill that makes them worth so much state money here in NYS?

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by sdj — July 15, 2007 @ 10:54 am I’m certainly not one to defend public authorities or how they are used in New York - there are entirely too many and backdoor borrowing on behalf of the state has been abused severely over the years.

However, departments of communications also hold top policy and strategy advisors.

These people are typically in the inner circle of top management.

In the private sector, a director of communications for a company the size of DASNY would make significantly more than $110,000.

Similarly, the Department of Health has nearly 6,000 employees and they administer something like $50 billion in spending.

Again, a top policy and strategy advisor in an organization of this magnitude making $125,000 is not out of line at all.

Are they hacks?

Could be, but that’s totally dependent on who you ask.

I think “hack” is an incredibly overused term.

Our taxes aren’t ridiculously high because of them and their salaries in that there really aren’t that many of them.

Our taxes are ridiculously high because of the many layers of redundancy throughout state and local governments that drive billions in spending that could be lowered or streamlined in any number of ways.

Our taxes are so high because so many things that should be addressed probably never will be because of a lack of policital will or a strong case of stubbornness.

Finally, our taxes are so high because voters are largely complacent with the status quo and they keep voting in the same people with the same policies again and again and again.

Why was Pataki here for SOOOO long when even his own people and party thought he was largely ineffective for major part of 3 terms?

Cuomo was the same story.

While people like Hutton and Violette may contribute more than others because of their “advisor” role, they are not the driving force.

They are spin doctors and that’s not helping the bigger picture, but there are much bigger problems out there.

We have an opportunity to change things.

On the other hand, we always have.

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by sdj: In the private sector, a director of communications for a company the size of DASNY would make significantly more than $110,000.

JOHN GALT REPLIES: sdj, in all truth, what someone makes in the private sector is totally irrelevant to this discussion here ….

STATE GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE PRIVATE SECTOR!

It’s not, so please, don’t feed us this crap mantra of “the state must be like business to compete” …

And that is not a difficult concept to grasp, actually ….

And your argument that these SPINMEISTERS are “top policy and strategy advisors” really serves to put some light on this subject where it belongs ….

These people are political hacks in the sense that they are PARTY OPERATIVES …

They are not working for us, the people of the State of NY ….

They are working for the good of the PARTY ….

Like Communist cadres in a communist government ….

Except ….

We here in NYS do not have nor want a communist-style government …

If these political hacks want to make private-sector money, the private sector beckons to them to go join it ….

And so …

Comment by John Galt — July 16, 2007 @ 7:24 am

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by Mike — July 16, 2007 @ 10:13 am: I agree with John Galt.

“Public service” has been redefined as “servicing the public”; i.e., fleecing the flock, and too many people are ok with that.

Any of these folks would do just fine in the private sector, so have at it.

Take less money from the people for doing the people’s business, or chase your dream of riches by being the mouthpiece and spinmeister for United Widgets, Inc. or whatever.

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by John Galt — July 16, 2007 @ 5:25 pm: The point that is being missed here and the question that is not being answered is what do these people DO FOR US?

The state is not private industry ….

Private industry might need “spokespersons”, and having worked in private industry, I have some familarity with what purpose they serve in that field of endeavor ….

But why do we need spokespersons for OUR government?

What service are they providing to us, the taxpayers out here?

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by sdj — July 16, 2007 @ 8:46 pm: Mr. Galt…..

I think you have very much missed my point.

If you had actually finished reading, you would have had a better picture of what I was trying to say.

I would never say that the government should be run as private industry.

It shouldn’t.

It can’t.

That’s the point of government.

Anyone that’s ever read words “public good” understands the difference.

However, when you say that these people work for the party you aren’t entirely off.

They work “at the pleasure of” their bosses.

Generally speaking, their bosses are elected officials (or a step down from them).

So yes, as these people and their bosses need to be re-elected, the ideals of the party and the agenda that party’s platform provided at the last election is definitely a priority.

The MAJORITY of voters asked for it, at least the majority of those that actually took the time to vote with an informed decision did!

Don’t ever think that re-election or the continuation of the party in power isn’t right up there.

It’s called democracy and that’s how it works, like it or not.

These people, along with many others, drive that agenda and make sure the word gets out.

Yes, many of the people in question move around with various bosses.

They’re good at what they do, and they’re paid marginally well to do a good job (many have been in the private sector).

They are in demand.

If you think this doesn’t happen in every level of government across the country, you are sadly mistaken.

However, as I said before, your angst is misplaced.

If you really think these guys are the problem, consider the fact that there are literally thousands of taxing entities across the state, from the state itself, to counties, towns, villages, cities, water districts, library districts, school districts, water districts etc etc etc etc etc.

Do you think there is some duplication happening there?

Maybe?

When do you think it will change?

The people that run every one of them has something to lose.

Do you know how many public authorities the state has?

It’s something pushing 800.

How many do you think North Carolina has?

I’ll bet a handful at most.

Thank you Robert Moses.

Think about the fact that there is at least a 98% incumbancy rate in this state.

That’s one of the BIG reasons you see the same names again and again and again.

SO MANY people don’t even think in the voter booth, they pull the name they know.

Hence the need for serious campaign finance reform.

Yes.

These people that you so informally name “hack” work at the pleasure of whoever they happen to work for.

They are not unionized and they can get canned at any time (that pleasure stops in a heartbeat and often does).

But of the 240,000 state employees, they are a handful.

My comment revolved around the fact that there are MUCH BIGGER problems out there.

What service do they provide you ask?

They tell you what your elected officials are doing.

Of course it’s spun.

Don’t be stupid, it has to be.

But they also have very much of a hand in deciding what policies to pursue and what to avoid.

You don’t have to like it, but that’s what happens.

And it’s not always a bad thing as many of our elected officials are actually decent people trying to do good things for YOU.

How will you know if they don’t tell you????

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by Mike — July 17, 2007 @ 10:46 am: sdj: an otherwise well-written post flawed by the inclusion of this canard:

“What service do they provide you ask?"

"They tell you what your elected officials are doing."

"Of course it’s spun."

"Don’t be stupid, it has to be."

"But they also have very much of a hand in deciding what policies to pursue and what to avoid."

"You don’t have to like it, but that’s what happens…”

This is simply not accurate.

I have lots of experience in State government and I am, quite honestly, relieved to be out of it.

I’ve had decades of dealings with “public information” people who do, indeed, provide an essential service in their own way in terms of getting the message out and, at their best, educating the people of the State about the resources the agency in question can provide for them.

However, not in any case do they actually “have very much of a hand in deciding what policies to pursue and what to avoid”.

Sorry, but NO WAY.

They are part of the audience in policy discussions among executive and legal staff and do, in fact, provide input, especially regarding what may or not “play in Peoria”, to be sure.

But they do what they are told.

They attempt to defend barely defensible policy decisions if it comes to that.

As such, they are mouthpieces and spinmeisters, but most assuredly not “deciders”.

Their service is worth what the market will bear.

But with so many professionals who are instrumental in doing work that may mean life or death to people (nurses immediately come to mind) who are grossly underpaid by the State (despite those great benefits), must we, the taxpayers, pay GE-level salaries to “public information officers” and “spokespersons”?

If someone wants to get rich, don’t do it on the people’s dime.

Go work in the private sector.

That’s John Galt’s message and I support it.

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by John Galt — July 17, 2007 @ 5:58 pm: Thanks, Mike, for making that point for me ….

And to me, this excuse that I should just overlook this issue because “there are MUCH BIGGER problems out there” really doesn’t cut it, either ….

Every single dime of OUR tax dollars that are being wasted by the State of New York on political hacks is a waste of OUR time and resources, because we are the ones who have to either work a bit harder or longer to pay those dimes for these hacks who provide no tangible services to us, or if we are on a fixed income, then we have to do without to pay for these people who do not provide any real services to us, as Mike makes clear above here with his example of nurses, who we do need a lot more than we need these three spokespersons above here, plus the ones at the NYSDEC …..

And these agency spokespersons that we are talking about in this particular thread don’t tell us what our elected officials are doing ….

Specifically, we are talking about Marc Violette, a press officer for Eliot Spitzer dating from his days as attorney general, who has moved out of the governor’s press office to take a similar job with the Dormitory Authority, which $110,000 authority job had been held by Claudia Hutton who recently moved to the Health Department for a $125,000 job as spokeswoman, and Brad Maione, who departed to become spokesman for the state Office of General Services, which pays $85,800 …..

There are three people we citizens don’t need in OUR government and there is about $300,000 that we could save right there ….

And it is as good a place to start as any ….

Especially since this is such an obvious waste of our tax dollars ….

And so ….

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by sdj — July 17, 2007 @ 8:38 pm: Clearly I am not getting my point across.

I absolutely agree with you Mr. Galt when you say every one of our wasted dimes is important.

100%

I don’t completely agree with Mike’s statement that press and communications gurus are not part of the policy process, but I think we are more in agreement than either of us may realize.

Will it “play in Peoria” goes very far and has significant influence.

If it’s not going to get press (or even worse, if it’s going to get bad press), then something needs to change or whatever policy option in question needs to go away until a better time.

This sort of decisionmaking goes on throughout the campaign process and is a daily part of the life of any management team - I don’t care where they are in bureaucratic chain.

However, to both of you, I truly understand and even agree with your concept.

But what I’ve been trying to say is that one of the biggest problems we have in this state is that there are SO many problems.

Prioritizing is next to impossible because of all the competing interests.

You’re right, Mr. Galt.

Take the nurses.

It’s a crime how they are treated.

Better yet (at least in my view), school teachers.

It is truly pathetic how we treat the very people that take care of us and our children.

So fine.

Let’s dispose of these so-called hacks.

There are probably about 100-150 of them, out of 240,000 state workers and another god knows how many locals.

I’ll even go as far as 500.

500 at $100,000K each is $50 million, out of a $125 BILLION budget (and that’s only the State).

That is hardly worth rounding error.

Is it wrong that these people make what they do?

You seem to think that they are not worth their salaries.

I, personally, think some are worth every penny and more.

Mike, maybe you have a better understanding.

I don’t mean to be insulting here, but Mr. Galt, I don’t think you understand as I’m not sure you have the same experience.

Mike, I too have spent many years in government, both in and out of the Legislature.

I’ve also spent a number of years in the private sector in the not-for-profit world and a couple of family owned businesses.

I spent a good portion of my youth on a farm.

Out of all of this, I’ve learned that New York state has a incredible problem with prioritizing public policy.

The voters do not help the situation at all in that they are often lemmings.

Do you have any idea how many thousands it cost all of us to pay for the Senate’s show yesterday?

They got nothing done.

They did nothing and they showed knowing that they would do nothing, but yet we will all pay for them to show up.

So we save $50 million getting rid of the hacks.

There are 19 million people in the State.

Everybody gets $2.63?

Maybe we should give the teachers a raise, or the nurses.

$50 million would go a long way for them.

But wait, what about the snow plow drivers?

And the vets.

We can’t forget the vets.

How about day care workers?

Or police?

Or firemen?

The list goes on and on and on.

Better yet, let’s figure out a way to save those of you on fixed incomes some real money.

Let’s consolidate some of the layers of bureaucracy and elimate some taxing districts.

Let’s eliminate 3 quarters of the public authorities and bring the real government back into the light so that people can see what is actually being spent and where (how much did “the joe” cost anyway???).

Let’s quit paying companies to maybe show up and create a couple of jobs.

Let’s make it worth their while to be here.

There are so many issues and you’re concentrating on something so very small in the big picture.

I’m afraid we are doomed to disagree here.

With the utmost respect for both of you, I’m sorry, but I really think we have significantly bigger problems out there.

and so…………….

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

"Spitzer Press Officer Packs Up For The Dorms"

Comment by Mike — July 18, 2007 @ 11:14 am: sdj:

Best thing you said in a generally thoughtful reply:

“Better yet, let’s figure out a way to save those of you on fixed incomes some real money."

"Let’s consolidate some of the layers of bureaucracy and elimate some taxing districts."

"Let’s eliminate 3 quarters of the public authorities and bring the real government back into the light so that people can see what is actually being spent and where (how much did “the joe” cost anyway???)."

"Let’s quit paying companies to maybe show up and create a couple of jobs."

"Let’s make it worth their while to be here.”

I couldn’t agree with you more.

Two things: the spokespeople earn their keep mostly in providing damage control.

I don’t want to tell tales out of school, but I’ve served under Commissioners who have made unpopular policy decisions for both the right and the wrong reasons.

Ultimately they call the tune after advice from all quarters.

Typically, legal and public relations carry the most weight, I agree.

Secondly, “everyday people” (to borrow from the name of one of our bloggers) have a very difficult time wrapping themselves around the concept of a $125 billion budget and the comparative “insignificance” of $50 million.

A mere hundred thousand would make an enormous difference in the lives of 99.999% of the citizens of New York State, at least.

The structural reforms you suggested in the quote I cited above are excellent ideas.

Seems to me that the first step is to clear the incumbents out of positions of power and bring in lots of “Young Turk” legislators from both parties who are not afraid to change everything.

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5034

NEWSDAY

AP New York

"DiNapoli says records were missing from deputy's desk"

July 16, 2007, 6:08 PM EDT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said his staff discovered that records were missing following the resignation of a deputy comptroller involved with the state's massive pension fund this past spring.

The discovery that items were missing from the desk of David Loglisci was reported to Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who is investigating the behavior of past employees under former Comptroller Alan Hevesi, DiNapoli said Monday.

"Within a short time, we compiled copies of nearly all the missing documents and delivered them to the district attorney," DiNapoli said in a statement following a published report that missing material has hampered investigators.

DiNapoli did not identify the records.

Loglisci was Hevesi's deputy comptroller for pension investment and cash management.

"We will continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement officials to ensure that any wrongdoing by the Hevesi administration is uncovered and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," DiNapoli's statement said.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced in May that his office is working with Soares to investigate whether investment funds and companies took advantage of conflicts of interest within the state Comptroller's Office that may have affected the $150 billion pension fund.

Hevesi resigned in December and pleaded guilty to a felony for using state employees as drivers and companions for his wife.

The plea resulted in no jail time.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/new...egion-apnewyork

THE NEW YORK SUN

"Silver, Bruno Edging Out Governor"

By JACOB GERSHMAN, Staff Reporter of the Sun

July 17, 2007

Since becoming governor, Governor Spitzer has spent more than $4 million in campaign funds, amassing expenses that outmatched his intake of contributions during the same period.

He has less money in the bank than his main Albany adversary, the state Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, and half that of the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver.

According to Board of Elections filings for the past six months, Mr. Spitzer's rate of spending was unusually high for a governor who is not up for re-election for more than three years, a reflection of his tumultuous first months in office marked by a fierce public battle with a major interest group and conflicts with lawmakers over the budget.

At the current pace, Mr. Spitzer will spend more than $30 million by the end of his first term in 2010.

The governor's failure to raise more money than he exhausted — he picked up $3.7 million in the period — suggests he will likely have to find a new strategy for dealing with resistance to his budget priorities if he is to remain solvent.

The campaign deficit also raises questions about his ability to raise enough money while sticking to his self-imposed pledge to refuse to accept individual contributions of more than $10,000, less than a fifth of the legal limit.

Hundreds of Mr. Spitzer's donations totaled $10,000, suggesting that contributors would have given the governor more money had he not imposed the cap.

Mr. Spitzer has tried to make up for the cash cap by encouraging donors to bundle contributions, a practice that has drawn criticism from Mr. Bruno and other lawmakers who have accused the governor of hypocrisy.

The filings also showed multiple cases of donations coming from the same household that collectively exceed $10,000, pointing to another way the governor has sought to overcome his self-created handicap.

Many of the big contributors to Mr. Spitzer came from the fields of finance and law.

Corporate executives, hedge fund managers, real estate developers, and investment bankers were well represented on the list, which also included partners at several lucrative Manhattan law firms.

Between February and April, Mr. Spitzer paid Global Strategy Group, a Manhattan-based consulting firm that advised his gubernatorial campaign, more than $3 million, much of it for a string of television ads defending his budget from a well-financed attack campaign waged by the state's largest health care employees' union, 1199 SEIU, and a major hospital association.

The amount also includes $500,000 Mr. Spitzer spent from his personal fortune.

It's not clear how much Mr. Spitzer benefited from the ad buy.

The final budget passed by the Legislature restored a large chunk of the cuts to hospitals and nursing homes that Mr. Spitzer sought.

Mr. Spitzer also paid $100,000 to the New York Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the local chapter of a national organization that represents low-income residents, which also backed the governor during his budget battle.

Among the governor's contributors were publicist Howard Rubenstein; Albany lobbyist Patricia Lynch and her husband; Donald Trump; a supermarket magnate who is a possible mayoral hopeful, John Catsimatidis, and designer Kenneth Cole, all of whom gave $10,000.

At least $60,000 in contributions came from people connected to the real estate giant Tishman Speyer, which is expected to place a bid to develop the Hudson Rail Yards.

President and CEO Jerry Speyer gave $10,000.

Three members of the Tishman family gave donations totaling $25,000.

A partnership listed to Chairman Robert Tishman's address, Fulbright and Jaworski LLP, gave $25,000.

Mr. Spitzer also returned $10,000 checks from developer Steven Roth and his wife, as well as a $10,000 check from an Albany lobbying firm, Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman and Dicker.

An employee of the governor's campaign committee said the money was returned because the donors were "involved in a significant way" with state business.

Mr. Roth is part of Excelsior Racing, a group bidding to manage the state's horseracing tracks.

Mr. Bruno, the Senate majority leader and the most vocal critic of the governor's leadership, has $1.6 million in his re-election account, having raised more than $200,000 and spent more than $500,000.

Mr. Bruno spent close to $5,000 on more than 20 visits to Jack's Oyster House, an upscale Albany restaurant close to the Capital building.

The Senate leader, whose business interests are being probed by federal investigators, paid about $100,000 in legal fees to Dreyer Boyajian, a law firm in Albany.

Mr. Silver has $2.9 million in his re-election account.

The Republican state party, which endorsed Mayor Giuliani for president, has more than $500,000 in its operating account, having received a $60,000 donation from Paul Singer, a hedge fund executive and major fund-raiser for Mr. Giuliani.

http://www.nysun.com/article/58510?page_no=1

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Spitzer Raises Millions in First 6 Months; Donations to Bruno Pay His Legal Bills"

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Published: July 17, 2007

ALBANY, July 16 — Gov. Eliot Spitzer raised about $3.7 million during the first six months of his first term, despite limiting himself to contributions of $10,000 or less, according to campaign finance filings released on Monday by the State Board of Elections.

But little of that money will go toward any future campaign for re-election.

During the same period, Mr. Spitzer paid more than $3 million to the Global Strategy Group, a political and corporate consulting firm that does work for Mr. Spitzer and where his former campaign manager, Ryan Toohey, is a principal.

The bulk of that amount, according to the filings, was spent on television advertisements during February and March, when Mr. Spitzer was locked in a battle over cuts to state health care spending with Senate Republicans and their allies in the health care industry.

An alliance of New York hospitals and health care workers spent roughly $10 million on television and radio advertisements and mailings to pressure Mr. Spitzer into restoring some of his cuts.

During the same period, Mr. Spitzer’s chief antagonist in Albany, Senator Joseph L. Bruno, received contributions of nearly $222,000, most of which he spent on legal bills.

Mr. Bruno, who is the subject of a federal investigation into his outside business activities, paid more than $148,000 to the Albany law firm of Dreyer Boyajian.

Mr. Bruno’s counterpart in the state Assembly, Speaker Sheldon Silver, had $7,000 in contributions.

Filings were not yet available for the Senate Republican Campaign Committee and the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, the main fund-raising arms of the Senate Republicans and Assembly Democrats, respectively.

According to Monday’s filings, Mr. Spitzer also transferred about $2 million left over from his 2006 campaign for governor into an account established for a potential re-election campaign in 2010.

Between the governor’s fund-raising, the transfers, and his spending on advertising this winter, his re-election account now has roughly $1.5 million.

Many of the governor’s new contributions came from individual donors who gave the $10,000 maximum donation Mr. Spitzer said he would accept, about one-fifth of what state law allows.

And in a sign of governor’s drawing power among New York’s rich and famous — and his frequent trips inside and outside the state to raise money — Mr. Spitzer’s contributors include more than a few well-known names from the worlds of high society, real estate, and Hollywood.

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, a prominent philanthropist and Democratic fund-raiser, gave Mr. Spitzer $10,000, as did her husband, Carl Spielvogel, a former advertising executive and a former ambassador to Slovakia.

The real estate developer Donald J. Trump donated $10,000, and so did the movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

Mr. Spitzer also received $10,000 checks from two people widely said to be weighing a New York City mayoral bid on the Republican ticket in 2009: Richard D. Parsons, the chief executive of Time Warner, and John A. Catsimatidis, who owns Gristedes and other supermarket and convenience-store chains.

According to the filings, Mr. Bruno wrote Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg a $1,708 check from his campaign account last week to reimburse him for a private plane ride to Washington, where the two met with federal officials to discuss the mayor’s congestion pricing plan.

Why the reimbursement?

This month, Spitzer administration officials asked state investigators to review Mr. Bruno’s use of state helicopters, leading Mr. Bruno to call for an investigation of the governor for having the state police keep tabs on his whereabouts.

But Mr. Bruno apparently did not want any questions to be raised about his latest flight.

John E. McArdle, a spokesman for Mr. Bruno, said of the Bloomberg check: “We cut a check and paid it so nobody says we accepted an illegal plane ride or something.”

Danny Hakim contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/nyregion...amp;oref=slogin

"State avoids steamroller in plan for congestion price study"

Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, July 20, 2007

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg got action on his congestion pricing from the Legislature after all, although it is a far cry from what he wanted.

A good deal less than half a loaf, but the truth is Bloomberg got more than he deserved, given how he hashed up the politics involved.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer and the Legislature deserve credit for staying the course under trying circumstances.

They were unfairly pilloried by Bloomberg and the majority of the media for doing their jobs, which was to look hard at the statewide implications of the city's traffic congestion plan and not just roll over and do the mayor's bidding.

As it turns out, despite the rancorous rhetoric from the mayor after he didn't get his way on Monday, Spitzer and legislative leaders continued trying to hammer out something in good faith, and they were successful.

What came out of Thursday's negotiations is really where we should have started, with a 17-member commission looking at Bloomberg's London-based plan and at alternatives in an even-handed way.

Not just from the city's perspective.

Because there were, and remain, some serious questions about the Bloomberg plan, no matter how green and terrific that plan appears on paper for reducing traffic and carbon emissions below 86th St. during work days.

Is this just another form of commuter tax that unfairly targets workers who have to drive to work from Long Island, Westchester and Rockland counties, and north Jersey?

Is it true the the more economically disadvantaged would be affected disproportionately?

What happens to traffic patterns, parking and residential life in the rest of Manhattan and the outlying areas beyond the pay-to-drive zone?

Is there a better way, or a combination of better ways, than congestion pricing?

Curiously, the drop-dead deadline this past Monday, to qualify for $500 million in federal aid supposedly assured by passing congestion pricing -- the stick Bloomberg tried unsuccessfully to use to bludgeon his opponents -- is indeed more flexible than we were told.

Just as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky -- the latter an ardent critic of the Bloomberg plan -- told us.

The federal deadline has been stretched, and so, it turns out, is what the feds will approve for the grant money.

Contrary to what Bloomberg led us to believe, the U.S. Department of Transportation will accept as qualifying for the $500 million grant a study commission leading toward some form of traffic abatement for downtown Manhattan.

It doesn't have to be congestion pricing approval itself.

So, despite all the criticism of Albany being yet again dysfunctional, yadda, yadda, not kissing Bloomberg's feet, the fact is the issue was dealt with properly.

In the process, we were made much warier of Mike Bloomberg.

No matter how high-toned his motives, he tried to pull a fast one and got caught at it.

Not that congestion pricing is off the table, or should be.

There's certainly no question the traffic weekdays in downtown Manhattan is absurd and the resulting air quality scary.

The status quo has to be attacked aggressively because to do nothing will guarantee the situation will continue to deteriorate.

And maybe congestion pricing is really the only answer.

We just don't know that yet.

New York is not unique in terms of the problem, or alone in trying to follow London's four-year-old example of charging vehicles to drive in designated areas during high congestion times, usually work days.

Singapore and Stockholm are in it already.

Paris is about to try a goofy but appealing plan utilizing 20,000 bicycles.

New York needs a plan too, but a plan created by the city and state of New York, not just the city.

At the end of the day, a familiar dynamic is highlighted by the congestion pricing issue.

That is, who owns a city?

Who are its stakeholders?

We've seen that question play out here in Albany over residential parking rules, and the tension between city dwellers and those commuting in to work.

The state has taken an active hand in preventing the city from imposing rules that would pose a hardship for commuters, commuters who are after all part and parcel of the reason Albany is the capital city.

New York City casts a far greater net of influence than Mayor Bloomberg and his government.

So again, it's state business we're looking at here.

This is where it should have started.

LeBrun can be reached at 454-5453 or by e-mail at flebrun@timesunion.com.

"Ex-comptroller accuses DiNapoli of smear campaign"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:22 p.m., Friday, July 20, 2007

ALBANY -- Former state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who resigned in disgrace after a scandal last year, has accused his successor, Thomas DiNapoli, of participating in a smear campaign against him that included leaks from the state Attorney General's office.

"While Mr. Hevesi has admitted that he acted improperly in using a state employee to drive his ailing wife and accepted responsibility for that, the implication that he improperly benefited from control over the state's pension fund is false," Hevesi attorney Bradley Simon said in a statement released Friday.

The statement was a response to what Simon called "a smear campaign and innuendoes that have been leveled against Alan Hevesi over the past week."

Simon criticized DiNapoli by name and the office of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

"There has been systematic leaking of information to create the false impression of wrongdoing by Mr. Hevesi," Simon said.

"These leaks apparently emanated from the Office of the State Attorney General."

Cuomo's director of communications, Jeffrey Lerner, replied that "the only statement this office has made ... is that we are concerned about troubling and systemic conflicts of interest in the comptroller's office."

Earlier this month, DiNapoli said his staff discovered that records were missing after the resignation of a deputy comptroller who served under Hevesi.

The records involve the state's massive pension fund.

Simon said no records were lost because of Hevesi.

Dennis Tompkins, a spokesman for DiNapoli, said the comptroller is "not interested in smearing anybody" and is intent on "restoring a reputation for integrity and ethics" to the office.

He repeated an earlier promise to cooperate with law enforcement authorities probing any wrongdoing during Hevesi's tenure.

Cuomo announced in May that his office is working with Albany District Attorney David Soares to investigate whether investment funds and other companies took advantage of conflicts of interest within the comptroller's office to profit from management of the $150 billion pension fund.

Hevesi resigned in December and pleaded guilty to a felony for using state employees as drivers and companions for his wife.

The plea resulted in no jail time.

"AMD insists chip fab is a go - CEO affirms intention to build in Saratoga County despite year's continued losses"

By LARRY RULISON, Business writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, July 20, 2007

MALTA -- Despite financial woes that have led to more than $1.2 billion in losses this year, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said Thursday that plans for a $3.2 billion computer chip factory to be built in Saratoga County are still on.

JPMorgan analyst Chris Donnelly asked AMD executives point blank during a conference call Thursday if its chip fab planned for the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta would be "scrapped" because of poor financial results.

"Not at all," said Hector Ruiz, AMD's chief executive officer.

"Our manufacturing strategy has not changed."

"We're looking forward to benefiting from our plans in New York."

The conference call was held Thursday night after AMD announced a $600 million loss for the second quarter on $1.38 billion in sales.

Ruiz reiterated that AMD has until July 2009 to make a decision about Luther Forest.

That is when $650 million in cash grants offered by New York state expire.

That money is part of a $1.2 billion incentive package that state leaders offered the company last year to come to the Empire State and build a state-of-the-art factory that would employ 1,200 people and could help ignite the Capital Region's growing technology economy.

But doubts about AMD's ability to build the factory even with that rich offer have crept up over the past several months.

After announcing a $650 million loss during the first quarter of the year, AMD said it was moving toward an "asset light" model that would mean more outsourcing and getting more assets off the company's books.

AMD has continually declined to say how asset light might specifically impact Luther Forest, although a spokesman had said that AMD could possibly partner with another company on the project.

During the Thursday conference call, Ruiz declined once more to elaborate on what the company's asset light strategy will entail.

"It is not in my best interest or in the best interests of AMD" to disclose those details, Ruiz said.

AMD is slowing down capital expenditures this year, the kind of money it would have to spend on a chip fab in Malta.

Last quarter the company announced it would slash capital expenditures by $500 million.

Much of that would be achieved by slowing down the conversion of one of its two factories in Dresden, Germany, to new technology.

On Thursday, AMD said it had decided to further slow down the conversion of that fab, which would save the company an additional $200 million this year.

The company is able to do that and keep production running smoothly by outsourcing some manufacturing to Singapore-based Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing.

Some analysts have suggested that AMD's asset light strategy will rely more on companies like Chartered to outsource manufacturing.

Larry Rulison can be reached at 454-5504 or by e-mail at lrulison@timesunion.com.

"Spitzer wins campaign finance reform, sort of - Governor bends on soft money but changes viewed as good first step"

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, July 21, 2007

ALBANY -- After an extended and frequently testy legislative session, Gov. Eliot Spitzer emerged this week to declare victory with the top item on his agenda: campaign finance reform.

But as with anything at the state Capitol, the deal represented a series of compromises, and it didn't look quite the same as what the governor had initially proposed.

The deal would trim the amount of money people can give to campaigns and political parties, close or at least tighten some loopholes, and put new enforcement provisions in place.

But it wasn't everything his supporters had hoped for as evidenced by the comments of government reform groups who, after considering details of the plan, said there was still more work to do.

Common Cause/NY, for example, applauded the plan as a "significant first step toward meaningful campaign finance reform."

But they also said the plan's limitations are "self-evident.''

"Earlier incarnations of the Campaign Finance plan included a complete ban on LLC contributions, and a ban on soft money -- which then moved to a $50,000 per year limit."

"Pieces of this obviously got lost in the compromise,'' said Christina Bottego of Common Cause.

LLCs, or Limited Liability Corporations, can be -- and have been -- set up by wealthy individuals, and each one is treated as an individual contributor.

Through them, rich donors can get around the individual limits.

And some parts of the campaign finance system were untouched, such as controls on political action committees or PACs, which are frequently used by unions and other special interest groups.

While the Republican-controlled Senate was protective of LLCs, which have become major donors, the Democratic-dominated Assembly was adamant about keeping PACs intact, said Barbara Bartoletti, legislative director for the NY League of Women Voters.

"The Assembly wouldn't come to the table on PACs,'' she said.

The deal also calls for more disclosure by donors, including occupation and employer, and no donations from lobbyists.

The package still needs to be approved by the Legislature, which has yet to say when it will return to Albany.

The campaign finance provisions would take effect in 2009, after next year's statewide and Legislative elections.

Rick Karlin can be reached at 454-5758 or by e-mail at rkarlin@timesunion.com.

And as Eliot "STEAMROLLER" Spitzer continues with his major effort to "revitalize our state's economy -- especially the Upstate economy" by opening up the state to big-time gambling interests in order to make the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York the best place to do business in the world, we have ...

"2 bidders may split racing franchise - Spitzer says he's considering one operator for horse racing and another for VLTs"

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Saturday, July 21, 2007

ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer revealed Friday he is entertaining the notion of splitting the state horse racing franchise between two bidders.

He expects to decide by Sept. 4.

His post-Labor Day decision, which will come immediately after the Saratoga meet run by the New York Racing Association, would give the Legislature the rest of the year to make necessary changes.

The governor said because some of the bidders have seen significant changes in their structure, ownership and organization, each has a few weeks to update their bids.

Revised proposals are due by Aug. 7 from NYRA, Excelsior Racing Associates, Empire Racing Associates and Capital Play LLC.

His statement opened the possibility of bidders working together or merging.

"Each of the four may discuss with any of the others a joint venture operation and, in its submission, may present any joint arrangement that has been reached," the governor's statement says.

Spitzer may recommend to the Legislature one operator for both gaming and the racing at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga tracks. Or, he could break up the franchise and pick one operator for gaming and one for racing.

The bidders have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, getting to this point in the lengthy and first-ever competition for the franchise.

NYRA, which has held the exclusive rights to run racing at the three tracks since 1955, has a hold on the franchise until Dec. 31.

Spitzer's aides have floated the possibility of having NYRA run the tracks for 20 years in exchange for dropping its claim to ownership of the tracks, and putting video lottery terminal operations under Excelsior, the preferred bidder of a Pataki administration-led panel.

Excelsior, led by casino developer Richard Fields, has changed its makeup in recent months, losing the family of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and gaining Las Vegas operator Steve Wynn.

Capital Play has gained Mohegan Sun as a partner and Empire Racing lost the New York State Horsemen's Association.

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

–Edmund Burke

JOHN GALT REPLIES: Yes, it is, isn’t it ….

To make New York State the “best place in the world to do business", Eliot “STEAMBOAT” Spitzer is more than willing to compromise OUR public health, and he is willing to barter and compromise OUR state Bill of Rights until it means exactly nothing at all …

And so …

“Improving the Business Climate”

by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer

New York State Business Council, Bolton’s Landing, NY

[As Prepared for Delivery]

Spetember 21, 2006

I want to recognize Dan Walsh and thank him for his leadership over the past 18 years as President and CEO of the Business Council.

I also want to welcome Ken Adams as the Business Council’s new President.

Ken, I look forward to working with you to make New York the best place to do business in the world.

Revitalizing our state’s economy — especially the Upstate economy — demands a major effort.

But today, I want to speak about what I believe should be our first priority, and that is making New York companies more competitive by improving our business climate.

Well, I have a message for you: If I am elected Governor, on Day One of next year we are going to begin to implement an aggressive strategy to reduce the cost of doing business in New York and make New York the best place to do business in the world.

And we will streamline regulations to make them friendly to business.

We have much more to accomplish than what I discussed today if we are to restore our State to its historic position of economic strength.

But the starting point of any economic development strategy is creating a climate that is friendly to business instead of hostile to it.

It’s time that our State government becomes part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Thank you.

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/for...mp;#entry640897

Comment by John Galt — July 21, 2007 @ 8:34 am

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5083#comments

"To hold government accountable, citizens must, at a minimum, know enough so they can develop informed opinions about its performance."

- New York State Government, 2d Ed. by Robert B. Ward

"An understanding of the structure and process of government (in New York State) is based on the written law - which, in turn, starts with our state Constitution."

- New York State Government, 2d Ed. by Robert B. Ward

THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS DAILY POLITICS BLOG:

"Dem Or GOP, Still Down On Spitzer"

Assemblyman Keith Wright, a Harlem Democrat, and Sen. Frank Padavan, a Queens Republican, will appear together Sunday morning on News Forum with WNBC's Jay DeDapper, and while they don't see eye-to-eye on much, they appear to agree that Gov. Eliot Spitzer has struck the wrong tone when dealing with the state Legislature and the Senate should remain in GOP hands.

"I just think he's picked some of the wrong issues to start out of the gate," says Wright, who has not been shy in criticizing Spitzer, adding that he's more concerned with public housing and racial profiling by the police than a ban on violent video games.

Wright goes on to say that Democrats were in "the legislative governmental wilderness" for 12 years with former Republican Gov. George Pataki in the governor's mansion and felt "so very optimistic" about Spitzer's election.

lBut after close to seven months of battling with Spitzer, Assembly Democrats are disappointed.

"It's almost the tone he has set, and the combativeness and such," Wright explains.

Padavan adds:

"When you sit in your - in the Red Room and say, 'You can't say anything.'"

"'This is my room, I set the rules,' well, the Red Room belongs to the people."

"Not to any person."

"So when you say things like that on public TV, in full view of the public and the media, well, you're making a mistake."

Padavan, who is among the Senate Democrats' targets as they plot an effort to take the Senate chamber in 2008, said he has never been asked to switch sides, but was "indirectly offered a position" in Spitzer's administration in hopes that he would be the next Mike Balboni.

Asked whether he believes the Senate will remain in GOP hands next year, Padavan replies:

"I think we will."

"I think we will do so because number one, when it gets down to it, people realize that in government you have to have balance."

"To have both the Assembly, the Senate, the governor, everybody one party, I don't care what party it is, is a mistake."

To which Wright adds:

"Look what it's done for George Bush."

The lawmakers also discuss congestion pricing, legislative pay raises and campaign finance reform.

Posted by Elizabeth Benjamin on July 20, 2007 1:05 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypoli...z.html#comments

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK TIMES UNION CAPITAL CONFIDENTIAL BLOG:

Comment by devtob: When one person hijacks an open thread, no one else wants to participate.

JOHN GALT REPLIES: Where exactly is the hi-jacking here, eh, devtob?

JJ set the stage here for this discussion by juxtaposing Chinua Achebe and Edmund Burke, who are yin and yang, night and day ….

And by doing so, he spurred a train of thought …

Obviously not in yourself, of course ….

But in others, like ruralgeek, anyway …

And I think what has got devtob all upset and screaming out for censorship in here is that Monday, April 25, 1994 TIMES UNION editoral posted above here in #2 wherein is stated:

On Mr. Casale’s own account, he has been looking into the organizational arrangements of three do-gooder groups at the request, he says, of his constituents.

According to people who work for those groups, however, what Mr. Casale is doing is nothing short of harassment.

The organizations in question are the New York State Public Interest Research Group, the Concerned Citizens for the Environment, and New York Hunger Action Network.

Mr. Casale’s interest appears to stem from his Assembly race against Democrat Mark Dunlea.

Mr. Dunlea is the executive director of the Hunger Action Network, and his wife, Judith Enck, is a senior environmental associate with NYPIRG.

Concerned Citizens is closely aligned with both groups.

end quotes

Slowly, but inexorably, a wheel is turning in here, and as it turns, it dredges up an uncomfortable past for many people like Judith “SWEET JUDY BLUE-EYES” Enck who have finally, through their willingness to compromise their principles, reached the BIGGEST of the BIG TIME here in NYS, anyway ….

Yes, indeedy ….

The chair of an UNDER-CZAR in the administration of Eliot “STREETDAWG” Spitzer ….

And so ….

This Monday, April 25, 1994 TU editorial all of a sudden shines an uncomfortable and most unwelcome spotlight on the time when Judith Enck was the “QUEEN OF THE ENVIRONMENT” in the State of New York …

And the role of NYPIRG as well in NYS politics …

Which then raises questions of how exactly it was that Enck went from being the “QUEEN OF THE ENVIRONMENT” in the State of New York to being an an UNDER-CZAR in the administration of Eliot “STREETDAWG” Spitzer ….

An administration which has pledged itself to service to the New York State Business Council ….

And the gutting of environmental regulations intended to be protective of life, health and property in NYS …

And so ….

devtob calls me talking about these issues in here “HI-JACKING” this OPEN THREAD ….

And devtob wants JJ to censor me for it ….

Which is and remains his perogative ….

And truth be told, censoring sends as much as a message as letting the truth finally be told …

And so ..

As Mike said in another thread …

TO BE CONTINUED, ONE WAY OR THE OTHER …

And we shall all be the first to know …

And so …

Comment by John Galt — July 22, 2007 @ 1:57 pm

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=5083#comments