Cuomo's Independence Party Shenanigans

Two NY Post reports that make you wonder what deals Governor Cuomo made for the Independence Party ballot line.

First:

ALBANY — Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino refused to give a top Independence Party leader a patronage job in exchange for the party’s ballot line, he claimed Friday.

Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption panel had conducted a preliminary probe of accusations that Westchester Independence Party chairman Giulio Cavallo was trading jobs for endorsements.
Astorino, a Republican now running for governor, says he was told in 2009 that he’d have to find a job for Cavallo if he wanted his party’s endorsement.

“Chairman Cavallo demanded that I give him a job with benefits after the 2009 election,” Astorino told The Post. “I had been told by multiple sources that Mr. Cavallo has a history of shaking down public officials for no-show jobs. I refused to hire him, and the Independence Party dropped its support of me right there and then.”

And:

A political dissident who asked Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption panel to look into a top Independence Party official thinks the way things turned out just stinks.

Two months after Tom Reddy’s last interview with an investigator, the commission closed for business — and soon after Cuomo won the Independence Party ballot line.

“They were looking into it. The next thing you know, the Moreland Commission was disbanded and Cuomo gets the Independence Party endorsement,” said Reddy, a former West­ches­ter detective.

In a letter to the panel and Cuomo last August, Reddy pleaded for an investigation of Westchester Independence Party leader Giulio Cavallo.

“Mr. Cavallo has been boasting for years about his ability to squeeze elected officials for patronage jobs in exchange for the IP party line,” Reddy wrote.

He also claimed Cavallo personally benefited by holding down a number of government jobs “for which he has done no work.”

Initially, Reddy said the Moreland Commission panel took his charges seriously.

He said he was contacted by chief investigator Robert Addolorado in December 2013 and again in January 2014.

In March, the commission was disbanded.

In May, the Independence Party endorsed Cuomo for re-election.

“It was amazing, we didn’t hear anything [back]. Now the commission is defunct,” Reddy said.

A commission source confirmed it was looking into no-show patronage scams to determine if people got phony full-time or part-time jobs to qualify for state pension and health benefits.

“There were multiple targets,” the source said.

Records show Cavallo has held several state jobs. From 1999 to 2005 he was a “project coordinator” for the state Health Department with a salary of $87,366. From 2005 to 2009, he served as a “community aide” on the payroll of the state Senate making about $50,000 a year. From 2009 to the present, Cavallo was a “special health adviser” to the state Senate, making about $57,000 a year.

His workplace in Manhattan is at 250 Broadway, across from City Hall.

But a former employee in that same office said she has never seen him and doesn’t know who he is.

“I have never heard of this fellow. This fellow’s name does not ring a bell with me at all,” said Judith Stupp, former downstate coordinator for Senate Republicans.

Cavallo claims the second story was planted by the Astorino campaign to make both the Independence Party and Cuomo look bad.

I have no doubt that's true.

Nonetheless that doesn't take away the impact of both stories - Astorino says he was shaken down for the Independence Party ballot line in the past and Cuomo received the Independence Party ballot line this time around after the Moreland Commission, which was looking into possible corruption of Independence Party officials, was disbanded.

As Arsenio Hall used to say back in the day - "Things that make you go 'Hmmmm...'"

Will The Working Families Party Endorse Cuomo?

Cuomo is the official nominee of the Democratic Party, even garnering support from "progressives" like Bill de Blasio and John Liu.

The criminals at the Independence Party are also looking for Cuomo to be on their ballot line, though Cuomo said he hasn't made up his mind about that (the paperwork he filled out says otherwise.)

Now it's the Working Families Party's turn to decide what to do with Cuomo.

There seems to be a split between the leadership of the party, which looks to back Cuomo, and the rank-and-file, which seems less inclined to back him:

“The people I've spoken with, there isn't anybody supporting Cuomo,” Dorothy Siegel, the party treasurer and chair of the W.F.P.'s South Brooklyn chapter, told Capital. "Something could happen, but I don't know what it would be."

...

"The state committee members can't endorse Cuomo, because he goes against what we stand for," she said. "Whoever is endorsed will be articulating our views. They won't be Republican views, or Democratic views. We believe now, more than four years ago, that our views are mainstream; they're popular. But you can't win at the state level with a third-party candidate. Our interest is not in teaching him a lesson, or denying him the endorsement—this is what we believe in.”

I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to politics, so I suspect the WFP leadership will prevail and give Cuomo his coveted WFP ballot line.

What do you think?

Does WFP endorse Cuomo?

Cuomo Caught In Lie Over Independence Party Nomination

Governor Cuomo is famous for avoiding on the record interviews and Q&A's with reporters because this is the kind of thing that can happen with a shifty politician like Sheriff Andy - they can catch him in a lie:

Gov. Cuomo appears to have misled reporters Thursday when he said a decision on whether to seek the Independence Party nomination would be made “down the road.”

Documents submitted by the party to the State Board of Elections indicate that Cuomo signed an official acceptance form Thursday in Suffolk County – site of the state Democratic Party nomination. Cuomo traveled from Suffolk to Cooperstown, where he spoke to reporters at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

“Clearly, the governor lied to reporters when he was asked about it last night, which is extremely troubling” charged Jessica Proud, a spokeswoman for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino.

“Sadly this is what we have come to expect from him, protecting his political allies over every day New Yorkers,” Proud continued. “He’s got to come clean about why he lied about it.”

Requests for comment sent to Cuomo’s press office, his campaign and state Democratic Party officials have so far not been returned.

During his Q&A in Cooperstown, Cuomo was asked whether he would seek the Independence Party’s line.

“Those are decisions that we’re going to be making down the road,” Cuomo replied before moving on to talk about the state Democratic Party’s nomination earlier that day.

The Independence Party is a bogus party with a lot of controversy surrounding it, so Cuomo didn't want to go on record saying he was going to take the Independence Party ballot line.

But given that the Independence Party line helped Bloomberg win City hall three times (people often vote on the line thinking it means "Independent") and given that there is an outside chance the Working Families Party doesn't nominate Cuomo and puts somebody else on their ballot line, I think it makes sense politically that Cuomo would seek the ballot line of the bogus (and kinda criminal) Independence Party.

Too bad he didn't have the guts to admit it to the press when he was asked about it.

Now they have caught him in a lie.

Will they pursue it and get him on record explaining why he lied directly to their faces?

Or will he go back into hiding now that the Democratic Party convention is done and only surface for non-Q & A events and motorcycle rides with Billy Joel?

Media Plutocrats Aim Daily At De Blasio, James

The Post has more negative stories about Bill de Blasio out today.

The Daily News has a negative editorial out about Tish James today.

Every day in the papers, the media plutocrats who own the Post, Daily News and Times - Bloomberg's fellow newspaper buddies and friends from his social circle - take aim at these two candidates for mayor and public advocate respectively with story after story meant to drive down their support and their approval ratings.

Even if the media plutocrats are not successful at helping their guys, Joe Lhota and Dan Squadron, win their respective races, the media plutocrats have another strategy in mind:

To undermine de Blasio and James with b.s. story after b.s. story so that, in the end, de Blasio won't be able to govern effectively as mayor and James won't be able to serve effectively as public advocate if they are each elected.

It's a cynical games these men play (and they are all men - rich, white, arrogant men, just like their pal, Bloomberg), a game they are playing for keeps.

We'll see in a few days when the next round of polls comes out in the mayor's race if their game is working against de Blasio.

I suspect that his numbers will be down a bit after the barrage he has taken in the press - particularly the Post.

And we'll see on Tuesday if it worked against James.

She has a lot of union support and the runoff for public advocate is expected to be a low turnout affair.

That may help her win despite the attacks.

Nonetheless, I predict that the media, along with the establishment in this city, will do to James what they did to John Liu this last cycle.

There will be some "scandal" that will effectively silence her, marginalize her, or worse, and put her out of commission.

That Liu's "scandal" - campaign finance fraud allegations over $7,000 donations - was small compared to, say, Bloomberg's campaign finance fraud bribing Independence Party officials three election cycles running with millions of dollars to put him on their ballot line, made no difference to the plutocrats and their functionaries.

Do what the rich, white men want or they will destroy you.

That is the message we learned from the Liu case.

The corollary to that:

Rich white men get to do whatever they want and nothing happens to them.

That's what we learned from watching Bloomberg bribe Independence Party officials with millions of dollars three election cycles running and manipulate term limits so that he could have his third (illegal) term.

The press will undermine de Blasio too, if he is elected and magnify every little issue, every little flaw.

They will seek to destroy him as soon as they can so that, even if he wanted to, he will not be able to undo Bloomberg's policies.

Meanwhile Bloomberg should be in jail with John Haggerty for what he pulled with his Independence Party bribes.

But he is feted in the media as a hero and a genius - the genius that saved New York.

Again, the message is - rich white men can do whatever they want but you had better do what the rich white men want or they will destroy you.

I Really Like John Liu

Liu campaigning today.

They destroyed him with the campaign finance fraud investigation even as Michael Bloomberg, who handed over millions in bribes to the Independence Party for three straight election cycles, remains free and unsullied.

Liu's a labor-friendly guy and he wasn't cowed by Bloomberg.

It wasn't a mistake they destroyed him.

They can work with any of the other candidates in the race.

They weren't so sure about Liu.

So they stuck a shiv in him.

I ask again, how did Bloomberg get away with the bribery that put him on the Independence Party ballot for three straight cycles while Liu has been destroyed over the penny ante charges brought against his campaign people?

Bloomberg Claims Halloran, Smith Indictments Are Call For More Politicians Like Himself

Our unindicted criminal mayor, the man who finagled three elections via unethical and/or potentially criminal activity with the Independence Party, told reporters today that the criminal indictments of State Senator Malcolm Smith, City Councilman Dan Halloran and others on bribery and fraud charges are an example of why the country needs more "non-partisan" elections that elect politicians like, well, himself:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg today argued that the U.S. attorney's complaints against State Senator Malcolm Smith and Queens Councilman Dan Halloran present as strong an argument as any for nonpartisan elections in New York City.

"All of this comes out of the fact that we have partisan elections when cities aren't partisan," said Bloomberg today, during a press conference about education in Queens.
...

"If you go back to 2005, I think it was, I think I spent $7 million of my own money trying to convince everybody that we should have nonpartisan elections," said Bloomberg (who has very much played the partisan game when he's needed to, and contributed millions of dollars to the controversial Independence Party, which provided him a crucial non-major-party line to run on). "We are the only big city in the country that has partisan elections. The only one. ... But I could not get any newspaper or any good government group or any union or anybody to back it."

"Generally speaking, partisan elections deprive the public of the right to pick their own leaders because the only people that vote and the only elections that matter are the fringe group of whether it's one party or another party," he continued. "And maybe they make good choices, maybe they don't. But it's very hard to argue that it is democratic. It is not. And that's where all this craziness comes from."

Bloomberg is of course full of it on multiple accounts here.

First, as Capital NY points out, Bloomberg has gamed the election system more than once by changing party affiliation the way he changes tuxedos.

First he was a Democrat, then a Republican, then an "independent," then he was a Republican again.

If anybody has made a sham out of "partisan elections," it's our "non-partisan" mayor whose only allegiance is to himself and the corporate state of affairs.

Next, he's corrupted elections all over the country by using his billions as a bludgeon against anybody or anything he doesn't like.

The Bloomberg M.O. goes like this:

Agree with the mayor, receive Bloomberg largess.

Go against the mayor's wishes and the mayor's PAC drops a bunch of money into your opponent's campaign bank account and runs commercials against you.

The mayor's PAC has threatened politicians all across the country on a multitude of issues, most specifically gun control and education reform.

A billionaire soon-to-be ex-mayor with billions to toss into politics to influence elections for years to come is much more corrosive and damaging to the political system then two bit crooks like Smith and Halloran taking and/or receiving $50,000 in small cash bribes.

Finally, as I pointed out earlier and as the Capital NY article points out as well, the mayor has bribed Independence Party officials through three election cycles to put him on their "non-partisan" ballot line and fool people into thinking it's some independent ballot line rather than a sham front for Bloomberg.

Is that fraud perpetrated by Bloomberg, a sham that twice won him the votes that meant the difference between winning and losing the election) any less corrupting that Halloran and Smith's shenanigans?

It would be nice if the journalists covering him would call him on his b.s. to his face and ask him how his PAC, his Independence Party shenanigans, and his party switching isn't crazy too?

Smith, Halloran Arrested For Pittance Compared To Bloomberg's Independence Party Bribes

When you look at the details of the alleged criminal wrongdoing by Dan Halloran, Malcolm Smith, the Republican Party operatives and the Westchester pols arrested on bribery and fraud charges this morning, you realize that there really wasn't a lot of money being thrown around.

The NY Times account has Halloran receiving $20,000 in bribes, negotiating $40,000 or $50,000 in bribes for GOP officials to finagle Smith's name onto the GOP ballot even though Smith was a Democrat, Smith complaining that the operatives were trying to shake him down for more.

Contrast those five figure bribes with the bribes Michael Bloomberg handed out to Independence Party figures through three election cycles, as chronicled by the Daily News back in December 2102:

Much ado about next to nothing, Mayor Bloomberg said of this series of editorials about the Independence Party. “What’s the big deal?” he asked.

To answer the question: The big deal is that a clique of political operatives with no claim to broad public support has played a powerful role in determining who runs New York — notably Bloomberg — while making dupes of voters.

By the thousands, New Yorkers have mistakenly joined the Independence Party when enrolling to vote. Intending to have no political affiliation, these voters instead checked the “Independence Party” box — empowering the group to exploit an illusion of popular strength.

Still more seriously, Independence leaders have exercised the authority to back candidates by stocking legally mandated governing panels with the names of unwitting people, many of whom have no idea they are listed as party members.

Bearing the earmarks of orchestrated fraud, the tactics represent a distortion of the democratic process as it has been established by state law and court rulings.

...

 

No New York official has built closer ties to Independence leaders or benefited more from their support than Bloomberg. He ran as their candidate in three mayoral campaigns, twice scoring votes on the Independence line that exceeded his margin of victory.

...

The history of how he secured the favor offers both a look at Independence Party power playing and an understanding of how determinedly the mayor courted the Newmanites. As you might expect, money played a key role.

Roll the clock back to 2001. Although Bloomberg opened what seemed the world’s largest checkbook, he was handicapped as a Republican running in a Democratic city.

Only three modern Republicans — Fiorello LaGuardia, John Lindsay and Rudy Giuliani — had made it into City Hall. All had succeeded by running as the GOP candidate and as the candidate of a second party. No dummy, Bloomberg reached out to Independence Party state Chairman Frank MacKay.

Word came back that Bloomberg needed Newman’s blessing. So the aspiring mayor made a pilgrimage to 60 Bank St., a West Village townhouse where Newman lived with his followers.

Among those in residence were Gabrielle Kurlander and Jackie Salit. The New York Times described the two women in Newman’s 2011 obituary as his life partners in an “unconventional family of choice.”

The Bloomberg-Newman meeting brought the Jewish businessman billionaire face to face with a man who was an avowed Marxist, plus a Jew with a record of making anti-Semitic pronouncements, plus an unaccredited psychological counselor who espoused patient-therapist sex known as “friendosexuality.”

Newman was in charge because he and his adherents had taken control of the Independence Party, an organization founded in the 1990s by breakaway Republicans. Now, he gave his stamp of approval — and the ballot line — to Bloomberg.

But trouble erupted when Newman’s firebrand ally Lenora Fulani declared four days after 9/11 that the attack was “all too much the result of how America has positioned itself in the world.” She added: “It is easy to forget that the attack . . . itself was an act of revenge.”

Bloomberg called on Independence Party leaders to disavow Fulani’s statement, announcing: “I will not campaign on their line, and I will urge people not to vote for any candidate on that line, myself included.”

Newman refused a disavowal. Bloomberg backed down and kept the line rather than heighten his risk of defeat. The strategy worked. He scored 59,000 Independence votes, almost twice the slim margin of victory that put him into City Hall.

No politician forgets numbers like that. Bloomberg was soon solidifying bonds with Newman.

Over the years, he contributed $400,000 of his personal wealth to New York City Independence Party accounts. He also gave a total of $650,000 to two causes run by Newman followers: the All Stars Project, a nonprofit that works with underprivileged children, and a theater group that showcases propaganda plays written by, you guessed it, Newman.

Meanwhile, the city Industrial Development Agency enabled the All Stars Project to buy and renovate a W. 42nd St. building with the help of $12.75 million in triple-tax-free bonding. The city is not on the hook for the debt, and the administration says the financing program is open to all qualified nonprofit groups.

Bloomberg pushed the deal over opposition from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, then-Controller Bill Thompson, then-Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and then-Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion.

The opponents cited anti-Semitic remarks by Fulani. Bloomberg, who had called the statements “despicable,” said they were not legal grounds for spurning the All Stars.

Thanks to the financing assistance, the All Stars have a modern theater complex that will be home in the 2012-13 season to seven shows, three of them Newman-related — including a production called “Carmen’s Place,” book and music and lyrics by Newman. Photographs of Newman adorn the lobby and offices that are viewable from the street.

In 2005 and 2009, Newman again gave the Independence ballot line to Bloomberg — delivering him 75,000 votes in 2005, less than the mayor’s margin of victory, and 150,000 votes in 2009, more than his winning margin.

 Meanwhile, Bloomberg was also working with state chairman MacKay, a former nightclub owner and talent agent who has prospered by providing clandestine help to the mayor.

In 2008, Bloomberg poured $1.35 million into one of MacKay’s fund-raising accounts. MacKay spent most of the money on consultants in a hidden attempt by the mayor to support the reelection of three Republican state senators. After the election, MacKay paid himself a $60,000 “consulting fee.”

In 2009, as Bloomberg sought a third term, he sent an additional $1.2 million to MacKay for the purpose of hiring Republican operative John Haggerty to monitor poll sites for election fraud — a task that was likely to prompt charges of voter intimidation.

By routing the funds through MacKay, Bloomberg kept the activity under wraps — until the Manhattan district attorney charged Haggerty with stealing $1.1 million of the mayor’s money to buy a house. Haggerty was sent to prison.

Seriously, compared to Bloomberg's criminal legacy with the Independence Party, the Smith/Halloran/GOP operatives mess is penny ante.

Count up the bribes Bloomberg gave to people in the Independence Party as chronicled by the NY Daily News.

$400,000 to the personal accounts of Independence Party figures.

$650,000 in charitable contributions to charities run and/or affiliated with Independence Party figures.

$12.75 million in tax breaks to a charity run by an Independence Party figure.

$1.35 million laundered through the fundraising account of the Independence Party chairman, which the Independence Party used to re-elect three Republican state senators.  The Independence Party chairman paid himself $60,000 for enabling that money laundering scheme by the mayor.

$1.2 million to Independence Party operatives to intimidate voters at the polls - $1.1 million of which was "stolen" by John Haggerty.

And those are the bribes and money laundering events that we know about.

You can be sure there are more behind the scenes.

Bloomberg has used the Independence Party to engineer three terms in City Hall, to re-elect three Republican state senators so that his policies would be promoted in Albany and has paid Independence Party officials and affiliates handsomely in return.

If Smith and Halloran have been arrested on charges of trying to rig the 2013 mayoral race, why isn't Bloomberg sitting in a cell next to them for successively rigging three mayoral elections and three state senate elections?

Well, you know what they say:

Steal a little and they throw you in jail.

Steal a lot and they make you Mayor4Life.