Corruption Playoffs Start This Week

The Mets may have lost the World Series but the corruption playoffs in New York State are just getting started:

In separate federal courthouses in Lower Manhattan this month, two of the most powerful men in New York are about to go on trial, an extraordinary spectacle centering on allegations of corruption, bribery and nepotism in the state’s highest chambers of political power.

But even as the men, Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, the former speaker, and State Senator Dean G. Skelos, the former majority leader, fight the charges and try to restore their reputations, something else will also be on trial: the culture of Albany, the state capital.

Court papers in the two cases suggest that testimony in Federal District Court will expose in granular detail what watchdog groups say is a seamy world where big money and politics have long intersected with government.

There are accounts of kickbacks disguised as legitimate income; no-show jobs for a lawmaker’s son; and the use of state money to influence a doctor to refer clients to a favored law firm that, in turn, paid millions of dollars to a lawmaker.

The alleged acts are typical of a culture, according to the watchdog groups, that has made Albany practically synonymous with corruption and stubbornly resistant to reform, keeping citizens — and even most lawmakers — in the dark about much of the legislative work and spending done in their names.

Shelly Silver's trial starts this week.

Dean Skelos' trial starts in two weeks.

The NY Times is running a great update page called "Albany on Trial" which you can find here.

Silver plans on defending himself against corruption charges by showing the court that what he engaged in was not out of the ordinary in Albany but, quite the contrary, something that everybody does.

To that end, he plans on calling a host of Albany players, including some very big names:

Arthur Luxenberg: Partner at Weitz & Luxenberg, where Silver served as “of counsel.”

Perry Weitz: Partner at Weitz & Luxenberg.

“Lenny Litwin”: Head of Glenwood Management, which allegedly hired a small law firm, Goldberg & Iryami, from which Silver then got fees. The first time we’ve seen his name rendered as “Lenny.”

Brian Meara: Top Albany lobbyist close to Silver who is said to have cooperated with federal authorities.

Charlie Dorego: Top Glenwood Management official, cooperating witness in case against ex-Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Silver.

Dean Fuleihan: New York City budget director, former longtime top aide to Silver.

Dean Skelos: Long Island senator, federally indicted Republican former Senate Majority Leader.

Herman (Denny) Farrell: Manhattan assemblyman and chariman of the Ways & Means Committee.

Jack Rudin: may be the chairman Rudin Management Company, a major New York City developer.

Jonathan Lippman: Chief Judge of New York Court of Appeals, childhood friend of Silver. Retiring from bench at end of the year.

Joseph Strasberg: president, Rent Stabilization Association.

Judy Rapfogel: longtime top Silver aide, wife of William Rapfogel.

Keith Wright: Manhattan Assemblyman, chair of housing committee, candidate for Congress.

Larry Silverstein: Owner of major development firm Silverstein Properties.

Solly Assa: A person of this name is a New York City real estate developer.

Steven Spinola: The recently retired president of the Real Estate Board of New York.

Victor Franco: A person of this name has been deputy Budget Director for the Assembly.

Vito Lopez: Formerly powerful Brooklyn assemblyman. Silver faced criticism for a secret settlement regarding sexual harassment claims against Lopez.

Rubin (Ruby) Schron: New York City real estate investor and landlord.

Pat Lynch: Top Albany lobbyist known to be close to Silver.

Also on the list - Andrew Cuomo. 

At the center of both the Silver and Skelos cases is Glenwood Management, a real estate company that happens to be Governor Cuomo's biggest donor (and got some Cuomo love in return for the money.)

Should be quite a show.

Dean Skelos and son Adam don't go on trial for a couple of weeks and there's still the potential that Skelos takes a plea deal.

But not Shelly - the NY Post reported Silver's lawyers never even responded to a deal that was offered by the feds. 

So Albany's got to brace itself for what could be some eye-opening testimony that puts a lot of people - including the third man in the proverbial "Three Men In A Room" relationship, Andrew Cuomo - on the defensive.

Couple what could come out in the Silver trial to what could come out in a Skelos plea deal or trial, add in the feds' investigation into what appears to be bid rigging for Cuomo donors, and the potential is there for it to be quite a couple of months for that last man in the room.

Bharara Gets Closer To Cuomo, Subpoenas Empire State Development And Suny For Connection Between Contracts And Donations

Sunday night Cuomo corruption leak via the NY Times

Federal prosecutors investigating Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s marquee program to revitalize Buffalo’s economy have been examining how the government-funded projects were awarded, and whether state elected officials played a role in choosing who would benefit from the major infusion of funds.

Some of the contours of the inquiry were made clear in a federal grand jury subpoena served on the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, which has played a central role in administering the governor’s program, known as the Buffalo Billion. The subpoena was one of a number issued in recent months, according to people with knowledge of the matter. One of the other subpoenas went to Empire State Development, New York State’s economic development agency, which is providing funding for the program.

People with knowledge of the subpoena to SUNY Polytechnic described its contents in detail to The New York Times.

One area of interest, according to these people, who were not authorized to discuss the subpoena, was a 2013 request for proposals that was written in a way that would have disqualified many possible bidders, and favored a construction company whose chief executive had donated tens of thousands of dollars to Mr. Cuomo. The subpoena also sought information about the hiring of staff members who would develop requests for proposals and distribute funds for Buffalo Billion projects.

 
The subpoena, issued on June 26, provides the most detailed look yet at the investigation’s scope, and listed the possible crimes that are the subject of the inquiry: mail and wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

The feds mean business:

The subpoena to SUNY Polytechnic directed the institution to respond to a senior criminal investigator who has worked on some of Mr. Bharara’s highest-profile corruption cases, including the pending case against Mr. Silver, the former Assembly speaker.

And they're aiming directly at Cuomo donors:

The subpoena to SUNY Polytechnic indicated that at least three state-funded projects from the Buffalo Billion are of interest to federal authorities.

One is the governor’s flagship Buffalo project, a solar panel factory for SolarCity, whose chairman is Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Motors. Mr. Cuomo has pledged to invest $750 million on this, and claimed it would create 5,000 jobs, 3,000 of which would be in Western New York. Construction of this facility is underway and it could open in early 2016, officials have said.

Federal authorities have also asked for records related to a Buffalo pharmaceutical research center and an information technology facility for IBM.

And just in case you think this won't get near Cuomo, think again - the Times reports that Cuomo "exerts tremendous control" over ESDC:

Governor Cuomo has turned to Empire State Development, the state economic development agency, to provide funding for Buffalo Billion projects. The governor exerts tremendous control over the agency. SUNY Polytechnic has paired with the state on Buffalo Billion projects, and Alain E. Kaloyeros, the institution’s president, has provided the governor with strategic advice on various related issues. The institution, in turn, used a nonprofit corporation called Fort Schuyler Management Corp., which is affiliated with SUNY Polytechnic, to manage the bidding process for some Buffalo Billion projects.

I'll remind you once again, these leaks don't just happen  - they're part of the rollout plan Bharara has for getting the public ready for criminal charges against high level public officials.

I'd have to say, looking closely at this latest leak, that Cuomo's got trouble coming down the pike very, very soon.

Bharara appears to be closing in on people right around Cuomo.

Another Cuomo Moreland Mystery (UPDATED)

Fred Dicker in today's Post:

Where’s Joe?

It’s a question many Albany Democrats are asking regarding longtime Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco, who appears to have dropped from sight.

“There are a lot of questions about what’s going on with Joe and very few answers,’’ said a Democratic activist and Democratic Party insider.

“You can occasionally get him on the phone but he’s not around the way he once was and people are wondering why not.”

Percoco was up to his next in post-closure Moreland tampering:

Joseph Percoco, a longtime political aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, contacted several members of the state’s now-shuttered anti-corruption commission during the past week and encouraged them to make public statements supporting the governor and affirming the panel’s independence.

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Percoco allegedly offered to provide draft statements to those he contacted, and in some cases encouraged them to communicate with him through private emails rather than using their government email accounts.

Monday’s flurry of statements from Moreland members prompted a warning Wednesday from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who is looking into allegations that the administration interfered with the panel’s investigations.

Percoco, who previously served as the governor’s executive deputy secretary, has worked for Cuomo’s re-election campaign committee for several months. A quiet but formidable lawyer, he has been a behind-the-scenes fixture in Cuomo’s inner circle for many years, including during his four years as state attorney general and in his earlier role as U.S. housing secretary.

Attempts to reach Percoco were not successful. 

Percoco's dropped from sight?

Given his history with helping tamper with the Moreland Commission, that is interesting.

It remains a mystery for now.

Perhaps we'll get some clarification in the near future.

If the weirdness the governor is displaying is any indication, I bet we might.

UPDATE: And now we indeed get some clarification:

ALBANY—Longtime gubernatorial confidant Joe Percoco has returned to the office, more than a month after undergoing hip surgery, according to administration officials.
Percoco, whose title is executive deputy secretary, is a political counselor who doubles as Governor Andrew Cuomo's enforcer. Percoco managed both of Cuomo's gubernatorial campaigns, and the governor has likened him to a brother.

Cuomo's spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa said on Twitter and in an email that Percoco had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip. Another administration source said the April 29 procedure was in the works for months, and that Percoco is in Albany today using crutches.

The officials spoke in response to a New York Post column by Fred Dicker on Monday, which quoted a “Democratic activist and Democratic Party insider” as saying Percoco was “not around.”

Well, now we know they read Dicker's column.

Interesting that they responded to the part of the column that wondered where Percoco was but not the part of the column that reported the sucttlebutt from Albany that Cuomo is in the sights of the US attorney.

Waiting For The Skelos Indictment - And What Might Come After

Chris Smith in New York Magazine:

The chatter about Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Albany's plague of corruption investigations went on all day, everywhere. In the state capitol's corridors, in the restaurants where the pols and the lobbyists eat lunch.

I hear Dean might be indicted Thursday.

Is this one of Dean's last days as Senate majority leader?

Who's next?

... 

"We've seen a lot of strange things in Albany," a veteran government operative says. "But we've never seen the indictment of two leaders of the legislature."

It hasn't happened. And maybe it never will. But the talk of the town has already moved on:

Will Bharara go for a trifecta?

A Skelos indictment is an almost near certainty - there's no way Bharara's office leaked the story of the Skelos scandal, complete with tales of subpoenas to Skelos' fellow Long Island Republican Senators and the empaneled grand jury looking into the State Senate Majority Leader, to the NY Times without an indictment coming down.

What comes after that will be most interesting.

Tom Libous, Skelos' deputy, is currently under indictment for lying to the FBI and has said he is dying from cancer.

Who takes over afterward, what exactly gets done in the waning days of the legislative session and what future leaks come from US Attorney Preet Bharara's office will be most interesting.

I know many readers on the blog are skeptical that Bharara is going to go for the trifecta and take down Cuomo too.

It seems almost unfathomable that the feds would take out all three men in the room in the New York government.

And yet, there is just enough smoke around Cuomo, his donors, the "pulled back" subpoenas, the Moreland Commission tampering and the like that, well, you never know...

Cuomo Gives Rupert Murdoch's FOX $52 Million In Film And TV Tax Breaks Through Empire State Development

Gannett's Joseph Spector obtained the record of tax breaks handed out by New York State between 2011 and April 2013 for film and TV production via Empire State Development.

A whopping $472 million dollars has been handed to film and TV companies to make productions in New York, with HBO topping the list with more than $91 million in subsidies, NBC coming in second with more than $83 million in subsidies and Rupert Murdoch's FOX receiving more than $52 million in subsidies.

Spector reports that the tax breaks can add up to 30% of total production costs and come at a price:

Critics said the money for the shows should be used instead to repair the state's infrastructure and fund services.

"Our roads and bridges are crumbling, and yet we're subsidizing Hollywood millionaires to do television productions. It does not make any sense," said Assemblyman Bill Nojay, R-Pittsford.

Conklin Supervisor Jim Finch said his Southern Tier town received $3 million when 500 people were displaced and 200 homes were destroyed in tropical storms Irene and Lee in 2012.

"That's baloney," Finch said when told of the money for Orange is the New Black. "They already make all the millions on the movies, and we get nothing back from the profits."

Before 2013, the state was able to keep the tax subsidy information private, but that changed with a new law passed in 2013.


Governor Cuomo has done quite well with donations from Hollywood movie moguls and the like, as reported by Bloomberg News back in September 2014:

Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who added $2.1 billion to an incentive program for the movie and television industry, has collected almost $900,000 in campaign contributions from Hollywood since taking office in 2011.

Cuomo, who lured NBC’s “The Tonight Show” back to New York City from Los Angeles, collected $121,600 from Comcast Corp. and its NBCUniversal unit, campaign-finance records show. Paramount Pictures Corp. Chairman Brad Grey gave $35,000, while Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Chief Executive Officer Michael Lynton and nine other executives donated a combined $45,200. Paramount’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Sony’s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” are among productions that took advantage of New York’s tax-credit program, the most generous in the U.S.

“What makes this industry more special than any industry that would invest here if you paid them to do it?” said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center for New York State Policy in Albany, which opposes government subsidies. “The difference is, well, it’s high-profile and it’s really glamorous. And oh, incidentally, it’s run by people who are really savvy, generous political givers too.”

Cuomo, a 56-year-old Democrat, who ran for governor vowing to clean up Albany’s pay-to-play culture of corruption by limiting contributions, has instead reaped the benefits of a system that allows individuals to give as much as $150,000 per year -- and even more through limited-liability corporations. Federal prosecutors are also probing the Cuomo administration’s effort to stymie investigations by an anti-corruption committee he created and then disbanded before its term was finished. 

In addition, Cuomo got a book deal out of the Rupert Murdoch-owned HarperCollins that is worth somewhere between $700,000 and $880,000 dollars, with $188,000 already paid to Cuomo.

Cuomo refuses to reveal the book contract and won't say what the final total of compensation will be.

The book has sold fewer than 3,000 copies.

David Sirota at IBTimes reported that Murdoch's News Corp received millions in tax breaks out of the Cuomo administration after lobbying both before and after the book contract.

Add the film and TV production subsidies that Murdoch-owned FOX received to the tax breaks that Murdoch-owned News Corp received and there's enough money going from the Cuomo administration to Rupert Murdoch and then going from Rupert Murdoch back to Andrew Cuomo himself to make someone go "Hmmm...."

The Hollywood/Cuomo connections needs more scrutiny, that's for sure.

Legislation To Stop Cuomo Administration's Email Purge Policy Is Coming

Fred Dicker in the NY Post:

Manhattan Democratic Sen. Liz Krueger will soon submit legislation designed to block Cuomo’s controversial new “burn and shred’’ rule for official e-mail communications.

“With everything that is happening in Albany, it is crucial that we shine a light on the governor and increase transparency,’’ Krueger told The Post.

“To have a policy of deleting ­e-mails after 90 days sends the exact wrong message and is extremely tone deaf to the problems state government is facing.

“Government cannot adopt a ‘burn and shred’ policy,’’ she added.

This legislation cannot delay - it should be passed as soon as possible and sitting on the governor's desk waiting for him to sign - unless he tries shredding it first.

Cuomo, Legislature Fight Each Other On Multiple Fronts

It seems the legislature is not happy with Governor Cuomo.

Three bills were introduced last night that all take aim at Cuomo:

Senate GOP pushes back on ethics: New bill would require financial disclosure by members of Cuomo's economic councils http://t.co/Bdi1q8YtwW
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) February 27, 2015

Another new ethics bill from Senate GOP: State agencies would be required to post travel expenses online http://t.co/iHnX7WMWun
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) February 27, 2015

New ethics proposal by Senate GOP would require Cuomo's girlfriend, Sandra Lee, to disclose her finances: http://t.co/4mhbHuFWdD
— Thomas Kaplan (@thomaskaplan) February 27, 2015

These bills come on top of the beating Cuomo's IT shill took yesterday over the Cuomo policy of deleting all government email older than 90 days:

ALBANY—Maggie Miller, the state's chief information officer, faced a barrage of questions from lawmakers at a budget hearing Thursday afternoon about the Cuomo administration policy of automatically deleting emails of state workers that are more than 90 days old.

...

Asked again if she had any concerns that the email deletion policy would decrease transparency, Miller said, “I fully support the policy.”

“I think if the New York Assembly announced tomorrow they were going to pick up this policy, [U.S. Attorney] Preet Bharara would be at the court door making sure it did not,” Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell said, to nervous laugher from lawmakers and members of the crowd.

Also yesterday, Cuomo ratcheted up his efforts to privatize the public school system in New York State by releasing a report that ties "failing" schools to individual lawmakers:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo dropped a political bomb on state lawmakers Thursday — linking their names to chronically failing public schools in their districts in a provocative move to win support for his education reforms.

The governor issued a 200-page report outlining the performance of 178 low-performing schools around the state, including 91 in New York City.

The list includes the names of the state senator and Assembly member who represent each school in an implicit challenge: What are you going to do about it?

I'm not sure how effective this confrontational strategy Cuomo is pursuing on mutliple fronts is going to be.

He's shoved lots of policy proposals into 30 day budget amendments, forcing the legislature to either agree to the proposals or strip them from the budget, he's taking a "My Way Or The Highway" approach to ethics reforms that will only affect the legislature while leaving statewide pols like himself alone and now he's trying to publicly embarrass individual lawmakers by connecting them to his "failing" school list (a list that mirrors the one devised by Families For Excellent Schools, the hedge fund-backed pro-charter group, btw.)

He's pissing a lot of people off and he's got few friends to begin with - adding to his enemies list seems like a short-sighted strategy to me.

More and more Cuomo is coming to resemble Richard Nixon - nearly friendless, besieged on all sides, barricaded in his office and lashing out at everyone and everything.

It would be one thing if Cuomo was just taking on the teachers and the teachers union and cozying up to everybody else.

But that's not what he's doing.

He's made nice with a couple of private sector unions and of course he's very close with his hedge fundie/charter school friends, but other than that, can you think of any other groups that he isn't at war with?

I mean, can you think of another time when 15 different towns began pursuing a secession strategy for leaving New York and joining Pennsylvania?

No wonder Cuomo's going to Cuba.

They don't know him there yet.

Back here in New York, he may win some of these battles, so short-term, this strategy may work.

But there's four more years in his second term, barring something unforeseen, and I can't imagine things are going to get much better for him in the next couple of years after starting out the first year of the second term balls to the wall like this.

Gothamist: What's Cuomo Hiding?

The press coverage of Cuomo is brutal these days.

Here's Gothamist on The Great Cuomo Administration Email Enema:

It's a new dawn in the Empire State. Unemployment is below 6%. A $10 billion deficit is now a $5 billion surplus. Crime keeps falling. Pre-K for all. Lucrative book deals for some. Because every 90 days, Governor Cuomo deletes a shitload of his administration's internal emails.

Capital reports that while Cuomo's inbox enemas have been standard procedure since 2013, it's only now, after the governor disbanded his ethics commission and watched the federal government arrest his legislative partner and the second most-powerful Democrat in the state, that this mass-deletion policy is being strictly enforced.

...

Is Cuomo concerned that federal prosecutors might find some interesting emails in his administration's inbox? Exchanges with former Speaker Silver? Emojis to the real estate lobby? Hot rod .gifs to Comcast? Details about how he oversaw the passage of tax breaks that benefitted News Corporation, the parent company of the publishing house that gave him an $188,000 book deal for hagiographic trash that no one wants to read?

The International Business Times noticed that oh yeah, gosh, that special tax break for online-only publications, like the one that News Corp created, and additional tax breaks for movie shoots, they were passed with Cuomo's help right before Cuomo got that book deal with HarperCollins, a News Corp subsidiary.

In other news, the Cuomo administration has announced the ghost of Rose Mary Woods has been hired by the administration to handle all email archiving.

It's official: Cuomo's lost control of the narrative of his administration.

Let's keep the pressure on, folks - blog, tweet, post on Facebook and write letters to your newspapers:

What's Cuomo hiding with his mass email purge?

What evidence has he already had destroyed in the hopes of saving himself?

And when does he join Shelly Silver for a police car ride to central booking?

Why Is Cuomo Engaging In A Massive Email Purge Of His Administration?

If you haven't heard yet, Governor Andrew Cuomo - the man who promised "the most transparent and accountable government in history" - is engaging in some spring cleaning:

ALBANY—The Cuomo administration has now fully implemented a policy of automatically deleting emails of rank-and-file state workers that are more than three months old, resulting in an effective purge of thousands of messages in recent days.

According to memos obtained by Capital, mass deletions began Monday at several state agencies after officials finished consolidating 27 separate email platforms to a single, cloud-based system called Office 365. It lets I.T. administrators purge any older messages, and can be set up to do so each day.

The 90-day deletion policy was first adopted in June of 2013, but its enforcement to date has been haphazard at best, employees and officials say. News of its implementation has drawn fresh concern from good government groups in both New York and elsewhere, who say automatically deleting emails is unnecessary and could stymie access to public information.

The Cuomo administration claims there's no room to save emails older than 3 months, but that is not true:

New York's contract with Microsoft, which developed Office 365, allows for 50 gigabytes of e-mail storage per employee. Reinvent Albany estimated this would be enough to handle up to 30 years worth of messages.

Bob McManus in the NY Post wonders just what Cuomo's trying to hide with the email purge:

Gov. Cuomo is conducting an early spring cleaning of Albany’s e-mails — all of them, right down to cyber bedrock.

But is this a big deal? If you can’t trust Uncle Andrew, who can you trust?

Never mind that US Attorney Preet Bharara — fresh from taking down Sheldon Silver — seems to be breathing right down the gubernatorial neck. “Stay tuned,” the prosecutor warned — with both eyes fixed firmly on Andrew.

Never mind that Cuomo’s former chief of staff, Larry Schwartz, who left as the noose was tightening around Silver’s neck, now can’t find a job — reportedly because of Bharara’s continuing probe.

Never mind that state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman just opened an inquiry into Cuomo’s casino-siting commission.

And never mind that an administration that has cut as many ethical corners as this one — especially regarding campaign-finance regulations and related transgressions — long ago forfeited all presumption to the public’s trust.

What’s important is that Cuomo’s cyber scrubbers soon will have vaporized all e-mail generated by state government that’s more than three months old — eradicating evidence of, well, who knows what.

New Yorkers will never know.

Those who trusted Andrew Cuomo no longer have reason to. Those who didn’t have had their worst suspicions confirmed.

“We must use technology to bring more sunlight to the operation of government,” said Cuomo in 2010.

Two years later, the winds were shifting: “You can always have more transparency.” But “you can’t live your life in a goldfish bowl.”

Apparently not.

Now he says, essentially, all that ancient history is just clogging up government and nobody ever looks at it anyway. Which is sort of true — a critical exception being prosecutors tracking down prey.

Does Cuomo have any such concerns? Should he? A reasonable person might ask whether incriminating (or, at least, embarrassing) e-mails relating the administration’s policies, practices and politics are disappearing into the void.

The Daily Gazette also wonders just what Cuomo's trying to hide with the purge:

When someone hastily starts destroying documents for no good reason and with no good explanation, it raises questions.

So when a number of state agencies in the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo began automatically deleting thousands of email files this week after holding onto them only 90 days, those questions turned to suspicions.

What are they trying to hide?

There is no technical or legal reason state workers’ emails need to be destroyed so quickly. In approving this policy back in 2013, state officials said large email files are "difficult to manage and interferes with operations." But they didn't say how.

Keeping large numbers of emails in your own personal file might get cumbersome after a while. Anyone these days who routinely deals with emails has that problem. But how does cleaning out a personal email file and storing those emails in a cloud-based system interfere with the ability of people to do their jobs? It doesn't. So why the haste in destroying the records?

Under the state Freedom of Information Law, email files are treated the same as paper files. Certain ones must be kept for a certain period of time, while others can be regularly discarded.

The problem with the Cuomo administration's blanket policy to hold onto electronic documents for only three months is that the public doesn't know which ones were OK to destroy and which ones should have been kept longer.

And if the state government should ever pass ethics reform requiring more disclosure and transparency, it's likely we'll find out that many of the emails that had been destroyed should have been retained. By then, they'll be long gone and unavailable for public scrutiny.

Right now, the public doesn't even know which departments are following the deletion policy and which ones aren't.

Also, the decision over which emails to destroy and which to keep is being left to individual employees, who are following a cumbersome and complex set of guidelines with no independent oversight.

Leaving sole discretion to individual workers as to how and when to follow the Freedom of Information Law provides neither consistency nor comfort.

With the uncertainty over which emails should be kept and which can be deleted, the state should be erring on the side of keeping them. That's what other government agencies around the country do.

The federal government, for instance, requires that emails from rank-and-file employees be kept for seven years. Some states require that they be kept from two to five years. Even the Central Intelligence Agency has proposed that emails created by outgoing employees be held for three years. Imagine that. A spy agency is less secretive than New York state.

As noted earlier, there appears to be no legitimate technical reason for purging the files so quickly. The space for storage is apparently more than large enough to accommodate all employee emails for a very long time. According to a report in Capital New York, each state employee, under the state contract with Microsoft, is allocated 50 gigabytes of email storage. That's enough to hold tens of thousands of emails, perhaps 30 years worth.

So if it's not a burden on the state's computer system, why does the administration need a policy to get rid of email files after only 90 days? The short answer is: It doesn't.

This indiscriminate purging must be halted right away, before any vital records are destroyed. All the emails generated from now on should be retained until a more concise policy requiring appropriate retention times is put into place.

If the administration insists on continuing to automatically delete so many state documents at such a rapid pace, then the public won't ever be able to find out if it’s hiding something, and if so, what.

Come to think of it, that's probably exactly what they're hoping for.

Cuomo's already under fire for refusing to release his six figure book contract with HarperCollins, owned by News Corporation, after it was revealed that News Corporation has lobbied the Cuomo administration multiple times before and since the contract was given to Cuomo to write his book - a book that has sold less than 3,000 copies.

In addition, Cuomo has refused to add ethics reforms that would affect him to his ethics reform package in the budget - things like closing the LLC loophole that allows rich people to give money multiple times to candidates like the governor through shell companies created just for that purpose - while giving an ultimatum to the legislature over reforms that would affect only them, a move that has led some to call Cuomo a hypocrite over ethics reform.

Finally we have the whole Moreland mess story, which reared itself into the news again this week when Fred Dicker revealed that Larry Schwartz, Cuomo's former secretary, had not left the Cuomo administration in January as an administration statement had stated but was instead still on the state payroll collecting $181,000+ a  year in a new position created specifically for Schwartz.

Schwartz was the Cuomo admin official who decreed the Moreland Commission "pull back" subpoenas to Cuomo's donors during the heyday of the corruption commission Cuomo abruptly shut down in March of 2014 and Schwartz was invited to talk to the feds over just those kinds of matters last August, so the funkiness around the Schwartz departure had many wondering just what Cuomo was hiding.

Now comes the massive email purge, which sounds very much like a cover-up of some sort, since the emails don't actually have to be deleted and can simply be archived to the state's cloud account.

It's been reported in the past that Cuomo and the senior minions he has around him don't use any method of communication that has a paper trail - they communicate through Blackberry PIN messages that leaves no trail.

But now Cuomo's having state workers under the senior level purging emails, which smacks of hypocrisy at best, since Cuomo is on record saying this:

Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, is no stranger to the consequences of a paper trail. Before becoming governor, he spent four years as state attorney general, a perch from which he witnessed how long-forgotten e-mails could become pivotal during investigations. In 2008, he even accused a top official at the New York Power Authority of “extremely troubling conduct” for deleting e-mails from his BlackBerry as word leaked that he was likely to be investigated by the attorney general’s office.

I wonder what Cuomo, if he were still attorney general, would say about a gubernatorial administration engaged in a massive email purge under false pretenses even as that administration is under at least two investigations (Moreland, casino bids)?

Would he call it "extremely troubling conduct"?

No matter what Cuomo would call it, it certainly counts as "extremely troubling conduct" in my book and something that I hope federal prosecutors investigating Cuomo's administration were prepared for and know how to handle.

Cuomo Tells Observer-Dispatch: I Want Teachers Fired

From the Utica Observer-Dispatch:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed opponents of his plan to overhaul the state’s teacher evaluation system at a recent meeting with the Observer-Dispatch Editorial Board.

 Right now we have a 99 percent effective rate for teachers,” he said. “That can’t be when 30 percent of the students are effective.”

...

 “You would fire a teacher?” Cuomo asked rhetorically. “Yes I would, because education is about the student, and if you have data that shows the teacher is not effective and you can’t help the teacher become effective, yes I would.

The 30% "failure" rate for students comes from the Common Core tests the state rolled out before they rolled out a curriculum or teaching materials to go with it.

But that's not stopping Cuomo from using this jive point to try and drive his agenda home.

It's not working so far, however.

As the Siena polled showed yesterday, only 10% of New Yorkers blame teachers for the problems in public schools and the public backs teachers unions over Cuomo 48%-36% in the "war of words" between the two.

There are still some things NYSUT and the UFT ought to be doing to further drive down Cuomo's numbers on this.

One thing they should be doing is running ads explaining how incompetent and inept the Common Core roll-out from the Regents and NYSED was, use Cuomo's own words about that roll-out against him (he called it "flawed and mismanaged from the start" in a statement), then explain to the public that the 30% failure" number Cuomo's using to bash teachers is as a result of the Common Core tests the state rigged for high failure rates.

Cuomo's numbers are already pretty dismal around many education issues.

With a coordinated effort from NYSUT and the UFT, they could drive them down even more and make Cuomo regret he took on this battle.

Cuomo Administration Teetering On The Edge

From NT2 (a blog that has been Cuomo-friendly in the past):

It’s Cuomo. Ever since the day after his speech, he’s been acting weird. Remember? He gave his State of the State speech and did the dorky thing he always does – he made a totally lame attempt at humor. This time is was the Three Amigos — Cuomo, Silver and Skelos in sombreros. Hah, hah. But what happened? The very next day, PB exposed Silver for using his office to get rich.  As we’ve written, we still have our doubts about whether Silver’s actions constitute a federal crime or not, but we’re not disputing the fact that he’s now the all-time poster boy for personal gain in public office.

The Three Amigos is the picture worth a thousand words. It’s the punch line for PB.  It tied Cuomo to Silver and Skelos in a way that PB never could.

Cuomo knows it. He knows that everybody else knows it and now he’s desperate to change the perception.

...

The latest maneuvering has a different quality. It’s not hard pragmatism, which you can more or less respect if it’s driven by a desire to reach a policy goal that’s good for the realm.

What he’s doing has a totally different feel. He’s rushing to reposition himself and he doesn’t care who he upsets or alienates. It’s all about getting on the right side of PB and it has a frantic, scared quality to it.

There is no doubt there has been a frenetic quality to the second term.

Even before the Silver arrest, there was a frenetic pace to the pre-State of the State/budget address policy rollouts - there was one a day every day for about a week and a half.

Then came the Silver arrest the day after the State of the State/budget address and Cuomo's been even more frenetic since - threatening the legislature, insulting whole cities, pushing back on negative news stories with a sledgehammer, now taking on Long Island school districts over teacher evaluation systems that NYSED signed off on.

I was wondering why he would take on Long Island school districts in an evaluation fight - that made no sense to me because it's a fight he isn't going to win.

These are well-funded, well-heeled districts we're talking about, where people like their public schools and respect the teachers who teach there.

It's one thing for Cuomo to take on "failing" schools in NYC, Syracuse, Rochester or Buffalo - there's polling to indicate that could be a winning fight for him.)

But public schools and public school teachers are very popular in a lot of Long Island districts and the affluent people who live in those districts aren't going to sit still while he screws with their schools.

The attack on the Long Island districts struck me as ill-conceived - and I wasn't the only one.

Here was Michael Fiorillo:

Let's all hope that Long Island and Westchester turn into Cuomo's Eastern Front.

Indeed it might end up like that - especially now that we see some polling showing only 10% of New Yorkers blame "failing" schools on teachers.

Cuomo's getting increasingly shrill and personal in pushing his education reform agenda and, to borrow another WWII metaphor, this just might be a bridge too far for the governor.

And even if it doesn't quite end up that way, it surely is an indication of desperation on Cuomo's part that he's decided taking on affluent school districts in an evaluation fight is a winning gambit.

Here's NT2 again:

The way Cuomo and his people are acting now is really scaring us.

They are acting like they don’t need friends – which is a recipe for a downfall.

They are fighting with everyone. And some of these fights make no sense at all. They lashed out at Dicker yesterday for reporting what everyone knows – that Schwartz hasn’t left the administration. Why react that way? Is it going to influence Dicker? Is it going to scare him?  Fred is exultant right now. This moment goes into the FUD Pantheon – Norman Adler, Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer, David Paterson and now Andrew Cuomo.  He’s bested them all.

That Cuomo, who knows Dicker better than anyone, allowed himself to do this is a bad sign.  That Fred is back after an extended period of irrelevancy is scary too. What happens in situations like this is that everyone who’s fed up with Cuomo now starts to feed Dicker info. Few people were talking to Fred a while back, but now everyone will again.

It’s a bad dynamic. Nobody is afraid of Cuomo and his people anymore. There’s no fear, no respect, and thanks to the administration’s long record of churlishness — no friendship.

We hate to say it, but this has the mark of an administration that’s teetering.

Fred Dicker reported earlier this month that Cuomo was "rattled" by the fed investigations into Albany and was way off his game.

If anything, that "rattled" thing Cuomo's got going has gotten even worse since that Dicker column earlier this month.

Charter School Supporters Want Payback From Cuomo, Legislature

Not a surprise:

Charter school advocates are pushing for a bigger slice of the education pie after Republicans took a larger share of lawmaking power in Albany after last week’s election.

Pro-charter groups who spent millions on advertising, lobbying and campaigns in the fall want favorable treatment from the Legislature and Gov. Cuomo.

They seek to limit Mayor de Blasio’s control of charter schools, expand funding and lift the cap on charter schools in New York, allowing for the creation of more charter schools in the city and across the state.

...

There are currently 28 slots left for charter schools in New York City and an additional 133 upstate. Charter boosters seek to raise or eliminate those caps.

Charter advocates also want more money for charter schools set aside in the state budget. The state’s current budget leaves out facilities funding for many charter schools.

Pro-charter school groups pumped more than $4 million into a super PAC called New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany that helped the Republicans win the state Senate. Charter advocates also spent millions on lobbying.

Governor Cuomo has already told us he plans to "break" the public school system this term and dramatically expand charters acorss the state.

GOP leader Skelos has promised charters are going to get a major emphasis from his caucus this legislative session.

And IDC head Jeff Klein and his IDC betrayers - pro-charter, anti-public school pols all - have indicated they will try and share power with the GOP to push through the Republican agenda.

That means no matter what Assembly Leader Shelly Silver does, this is going through.

Barring something unforeseen, like a major scandal involving a major charter player like Eva Moskowitz or Cuomo getting hauled out in handcuffs by the US attorney investigating him over the Moreland mess, the charter people are going to get what they paid for this legislative session.

NY Times Should Look At Cuomo's Common Core Commission For Interference Too

The NY Times takes a look at Cuomo's first Moreland Commission - the post-Sandy panel that studied the failures of the electric companies during Hurricane Sandy and finds the following:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has faced intense scrutiny in recent months, including an investigation by federal prosecutors, over his management of a commission that he created to root out corruption in New York politics, but prevented from examining his administration’s conduct and then prematurely shut down.

 

An analysis of Mr. Cuomo’s handling of an earlier investigative commission, which highlighted the failures of electric companies in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, reveals some of the same hallmarks: interference, efforts to shield his administration’s role and a sense that the governor had a clear idea at the outset of what the commission should conclude.

Gee - what a surprise that Cuomo tampered with his LIPA commission, had a pre-determined outcome for what he wanted from the commission and worked to shield just what a sham the commission was.


These were also the hallmarks of Cuomo's Common Core Commission:

Todd Hathaway, a teacher at East Aurora High School and a member of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Common Core panel, ripped the process today after the panel released its report last night.

The recommendations include what Cuomo wanted: holding students harmless for the tougher exams, but not a three-year moratorium on using the tests to evaluate teachers.

The 11-member panel—which included two state lawmakers—said the state should keep Common Core-based tests in grades 3-8 from appearing on a student’s transcript, while capping the amount of instructional time that can be spent on standardized tests.

...

Hathaway said, “The report – and the process that produced it—is incomplete. the report was released suddenly, even as final comments were still being solicited. I had indicated the likelihood I would dissent and not allow the report to be spun as ‘consensus.’” Nevertheless, the report was issued with my name attached. I am very concerned that the report tries to make it seem like all the discussion had been completed.”

Here’s the rest of his statement:

“In fact, the Executive Office repeatedly ignored my concerns and the legitimate concerns of others about inappropriate state testing, the misuse of invalid tests for evaluations and the lack of transparency in state testing. The result is that some of the report’s conclusions and suggestions do not hold up to scrutiny. I wouldn’t accept this kind of work from my students and I don’t accept it here.”

“The failure to address testing and evaluation issues in a comprehensive way suggests the dynamics of the classroom will not change. The report seems to blame everybody else for the problems of the Common Core learning standards without adequately addressing the appropriateness of some of the standards and the testing that goes with it. This report should have addressed serious deficiencies in state testing. It should have discussed the lack of transparency in tests; the lack of diagnostic and prescriptive worth to teachers; the unacceptable delays in returning scores to school districts and the insanity of pretending there is validity to teacher ratings that are derived from student scores widely acknowledged to be invalid.”

“Finally, this panel should have recognized the need to pause in the use of assessments for high-stakes decisions for students and teachers. This would have allowed the State Education Department, as well as school districts, to refine the tests and testing materials; teachers to engage in the standards and develop a variety of lessons to meet them instead of just relying on modules; parents to understand the role and utility of data in education; and for teachers to receive the necessary professional development. Implementing massive curriculum changes do not just happen overnight. They take time. I fully support a delay in the use of tests in high-stakes decisions for students and teachers, but that issue was never fully explored. You can’t put students first if you put their teachers last.”

Cuomo knew what he wanted from the Common Core panel before it ever met.

It was a sham panel, just the way his first Moreland Commission was a sham commission, with the "findings" of the panel already pre-determined by Cuomo's needs and wants, just the way his second Moreland Commission was a sham commission.

I've covered this before, but it bears repeating:

The games Cuomo played with the Moreland Commission are the same games he played with the LIPA Commission and the Common Core panel.

Cuomo uses these commissions as political cover to get something he wants through, then rigs the panels and commissions so that it all ends up the way he wants.

The difference between the LIPA Commission and the CCSS panel and the Moreland Commission is, Cuomo was screwing around with potential criminality when he dealt away the Moreland Commission in order to get some minor league ethics reforms in the budget agreement.

With the other two panels, he was simply rigging a process and engaging in political gamesmanship, not dealing away criminal investigations in some quid pro quo budget deal.

That's why Preet Bharara wasn't going to look into the LIPA Commission or the CCSS panel process, but he is looking into just what Cuomo engineered in the Moreland mess.

Perhaps Cuomo, emboldened by four years of successfully manipulating these commissions and panels to get the outcomes he wanted, thought nobody would blink at his Moreland machinations either.

If so, Cuomo was wrong about that.

Too bad the Times Editorial Board doesn't read its own new section before it issues endorsements.

Maybe Cuomo wouldn't have gotten theirs.

Cuomo Lashes Out US Attorney Investigating Him For Witness Tampering And Obstructing Justice

Take heart teachers of New York State - you're not the only figures Governor Andrew M. Cuomo lashed out at this week:

ALBANY—Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a televised phone interview that criticism of his handling of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption is “a lot of political baloney,” and took a swipe at U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who inherited the commission's files and is investigating the circumstances of his demise.

“I don't know,” Cuomo told Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo, who has appeared as an M.C. at award ceremonies for state economic development funding, when asked about the ongoing probe.

After noting that he used to be a prosecutor, Cuomo said, “Prosecutors are a lot better at starting investigations. You don't very often hear about closed investigations. But whatever he thinks is right, is right.”

The insinuation from Cuomo here is that the investigation by Bharara into Cuomo's handling of the commission is also "political baloney," which is a nice way of Cuomo saying he thinks US Attorney Preet Bharara is full of shit.

Jimmy Vielkind, who wrote up the article for Capital NY, notes that Cuomo refuses to say whether he or any members of administration have been subpoenaed in the investigation.

Vielkind also notes that Cuomo, in the gentle, cradling hands of his friend Maria Bartiromo on Fox, offered a new rationale for why he shut down the Moreland Commission:

The governor repeated a new narrative of the commission, which was disbanded in April after legislators agreed to tighten campaign finance disclosure and enforcement, change the bribery statute and enact a pilot program of public campaign finance covering the state comptroller's election.

“It was shut down, Maria, because I said it was going to be shut down as soon as the Legislature passed the law that I was going to accept,” said Cuomo.

Vielkind dispenses with that narrative in his Capital NY piece:

While administration aides began quietly using the commission as a bargaining chip even before the December release of its preliminary report, Cuomo instead chose to emphasize the commission's independence in his public rhetoric. Cuomo introduced the idea that it was only a leverage-creating exercise only after reports that exposed his administration's management of the ostensibly independent entity.

A couple of things to say here:

First, Cuomo's lashing out more and more these days, at teachers, at federal prosecutors, that you have to think he's really feeling frustrated about the direction of his political career and life.

Second, while he can probably get away with lashing out at teachers (let's be honest - teacher bashing is a time-honored tradition for political demagogues and/or con men like Cuomo), I'm less convinced lashing out at the U.S. attorney is such a good idea.

Teachers can write nasty things about Cuomo on the Internet and perhaps put together a movement to try and oppose him in his coming assault on public schools.

But the U.S. attorney can indict him or those around him and make his next four years very, very uncomfortable.

What Preet Bharara Said

US Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara appeared on radio with Susan Arbetter today, made no specific announcements about the Moreland investigations or Andrew Cuomo but did say this:

Arbetter noted that Gov. Andrew Cuomo described the corruption panel as “transactional,” or a tool for achieving a deal on ethics legislation. Doesn’t that drive Bharara up the wall?

“I’m not going to go back … and talk about what certain people said or didn’t say and a number of contradictions there were in what someone may or may not have said about a particular commission,” Bharara said in a sentence that you should be glad you didn’t have to diagram back in fourth grade.

“What I stand by is, if you want to solve any problem — corruption problem or anything else — and you decide to employ an investigative body, the only way that that investigative body is to get to the root of the problem and be appreciated by the public as having gotten to the root of the problem is if it has independence,” he said.

Also important: “the longevity of a prosecutor’s office. … It takes a while. And so, generally speaking, when you’re trying to solve a problem you need some amount of longevity, and you certainly need to have — at the core of the institution — independence.”

If you're reading tea leaves, the individual who most played with the independence of an investigative body was Andrew Cuomo.

It was Cuomo's staffer who put the kibbosh on subpoenas to Cuomo's donors.

It was Cuomo's staffer who wrote up statements for former Moreland commissioners to issue in support of Andrew Cuomo after the Times published it's devastating Moreland article over the summer.

It was Cuomo who kept tabs on the commission via his commission director, Regina Calcaterra.

I saw somewhere a comment that by not mentioning the Moreland investigations specifically on the radio today, what Bharara was saying was that Andrew Cuomo was in the clear.

Bharara said nothing of the sort - not in either the statements he made or the subtext of those statements.

One thing I did hear here, however, was that Bharara will certainly not be making any moves pre-Election Day and maybe not for long afterwards either.

Dunno if he really is going to go after Cuomo or not for interfering with the Moreland Commission, but it does seem like if he does do it, it won't be any time soon.

What Will Preet Bharara Say Today?

It's debate day:

At 8 p.m., Cuomo, Astorino, Hawkins and Libertarian Michael McDermott will participate in the campaign’s lone televised debate hosted by WNED-TV, WBFO-FM and The Buffalo News, WNED Studios, 140 Lower Terrace, Buffalo. The debate will be broadcast live on PBS television stations and NPR radio affiliates across the state.

But before that happens, this happens:

At 11:05 a.m on @CapPressRoom: "U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara shares his thoughts on corruption in New York"
— Joseph Spector (@GannettAlbany) October 22, 2014

Bharara has been pretty quiet since the summer, when he warned Cuomo and his cohorts to stop meddling in his Moreland Commission investigation.

Odd that Bharara chose today to appear on the radio to talk corruption.

It will be interesting to see what he says.

He's used the radio before to send messages to Cuomo.

This could be another one of those things.

Or it could just be Bharara appearing on the radio.

We'll see soon.

Cuomo Accused Of Ethical, Criminal Violations In Book Promotion Tour

It seems Cuomo is using his goons to keep anybody who isn't a sychophant away from him on his book tour:

Gov. Cuomo may have violated state criminal and ethics laws by using his public position and employees to promote his newly published autobiography, “All Things Possible,’’ a sworn complaint charges.

The complaint, filed with two state agencies by a Republican foe late Friday, says members of Cuomo’s State Police detail allegedly “forcibly ejected individuals from book-tour events that asked questions not pertaining to his book.’’

The complaint was referring to at least one alleged incident involving an Iona College freshman, Bill Maloney.

Maloney told The Post that he was “pushed away’’ from the governor at Cuomo’s recent book-signing at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan when the student tried to question the governor about the Moreland Commission scandal.

Maloney said he didn’t know whether it was the governor’s aides or state troopers who pushed him away.

But the lawmaker who filed the complaint — Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin (R-Rensselaer), a strong backer of Cuomo’s GOP gubernatorial rival, Rob Astorino — says he wants the incident investigated to find out. He added that he has been told of similar complaints.

And then there's this Quid Pro Cuomo:

McLaughlin’s filing also questions whether Cuomo violated ethics laws by appearing on David Letterman’s “Late Show’’ on CBS last week to peddle his book, for which he is reportedly being paid about $750,000.

The appearance could be an “impermissible gift,’’ since “CBS recently negotiated with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office a tax break for the ‘Late Show’ of at least $16 million,’’ reads the complaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

“Does the opportunity of a coveted guest spot on the ‘Late Show’ constitute an impermissible gift from CBS to Gov. Cuomo pursuant to [the] Public Officers Law?” the complaint asks.

In addition to possible ethics violations, the governor’s actions raise “issues as to whether Gov. Cuomo violated penal law . . . which establishes an ‘E’ felony for state officials who obtain ‘services or other resources with a value in excess of $1,000 from the state’ for personal gain,’’ according to the complaints.

The complaints were filed with JCOPE,  the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, and the state Board of Elections.

McLaughlin is not expecting a pre-Election decision from either entity but wanted to get these complaints on record:

“We have a governor who is out shilling books for his own personal gain,” the lawmaker told The Post. “He’s using state resources, the State Police, state employees, for his own personal gain, and that’s wrong,”

Add the complaints McLaughlin has filed against Cuomo with JCOPE and the Board of Elections to the detailed list of campaign finance machinactions WNYC's Andrea Bernstein reported on Friday and to what we know about his tampering in the Moreland Commission matter and what we have here is a portrait of a very corrupt governor who belongs in prison, not the highest political office in the state.

Time For The Press To Put Andrew Cuomo On Notice

Jimmy Vielkind at Capital NY explains how Il Duce Cuomo hides his political fundraising records:

ALBANY—The administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo has refused to release details about the governor's political fund-raising, stating more than six months after Capital requested records under the Freedom of Information Law that it considers anything not posted on his pre-edited public schedule to be "exempt" from public disclosure.

Cuomo's prodigious fund-raising has netted nearly $45 million since he was elected in 2010, and has drawn scrutiny this electoral season from Republicans and Democrats alike. Capital requested schedule records that would have offered details on Cuomo's Hollywood junket in late January as well as another event in Albany last September.

The administration delayed for four months, before closing the request without stating a justification. Only when Capital's attorneys began contacting Cuomo's aides did the administration offer a reason for withholding the documents—that they are simply drafts meant for internal use. The aides then waited several more months before denying the request.

An independent arbiter, the state's Committee on Open Government, last week gave an opinion last week that the administration was beyond its rights in denying Capital's request. Now, a Cuomo spokesman says the records will be released "in the coming days."

Vielkind goes on to write that the Capital NY experience in trying to get the records of Cuomo's Hollywood junket is not an "isolated experience," that Cuomo "has repeatedly delayed or denied requests for information from journalists and advocates."

Cuomo's starting a press tour today as PR rollout for his book.

It would be nice if somebody in the press would ask him about his lack of transparency on camera while he tries to talk about his book.

Same goes for all the meddling he does in his supposedly independent commissions and panels.

Probably not going to happen, but if it does, I bet he won't react well - as seems to have happened at an off-the-record dinner with some Times journalists:

In February, Governor Andrew Cuomo and others from his office had dinner at a restaurant in Midtown with several New York Times journalists: Albany bureau chief Susanne Craig, Albany reporter Thomas Kaplan and deputy metro editor David Halbfinger.

It was meant to be the type of off-the-record bread-breaking that politicians are known to have with the people who cover them—except at some point things went sideways. Before the meal concluded, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting, Cuomo became visibly angry, raised his voice and stormed out of the restaurant.

Melissa DeRosa, a spokeswoman for Cuomo, disputed this characterization while confirming that the dinner took place.

"We cannot discuss this as we respect the rules of off the record conversations," she said.

...

While it's unclear why exactly the dinner went south, the governor has publicly acknowledged his rocky relationship with the Times, most recently in an interview with the Times itself, pegged to the release of his memoir, All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life, on shelves tomorrow via HarperCollins.

I suspect it will be all niceties on camera, but it sure would be nice to get Cuomo to have a ferret moment if somebody presses him on something he doesn't want to answer.

Last thing I would note here.

Does Andrew Cuomo really think he can run for president with this insane need for control he exhibits?

Siena Poll: Most NYers Don't Know Anything About Moreland Commission

Cuomo 54%, Astorino 33% in latest Siena poll.

Here's one reason why:

Most respondents — 69 percent — weren’t aware of the controversy about Cuomo’s shuttering of the so-called Moreland Commission, which he created to investigate corruption. The governor has been criticized for interference and a federal attorney has taken over the commission’s cases. Of those aware of the issue, just 29 percent believed the governor’s claim that the panel was an “overwhelming success.”

Asked if Moreland would impact their vote, 53 percent said it would have no effect, 32 percent said it would make them less likely to support Cuomo and 9 percent said more likely.

Can you imagine the level of intelligence enjoyed by the 29% who believed the governor's claim that the Moreland Commission was an "overwhelming success?"

Go back to watching Housewives of New Jersey, New York.

Your governor has it all under control.

Chris Christie's Hypocrisy

It seems a 17 point deficit is something Christie can get invested in but a 20 point deficit is a "lost cause":

With Republicans defending 22 of the 36 governors’ seats up for election next month, Gov. Christie faces competing demands as chairman of the Republican Governors Association in deciding where to spend his time and the group’s money.

So is it a wise investment for Christie to campaign for Gov. Corbett, who is running 17 points behind Democratic challenger Tom Wolf in a poll released this week?

“Tom Corbett’s never lost a race,” Christie said at a news conference today in Trenton, hours before he is due to appear at a Corbett rally outside Philadelphia in the Main Line suburb of Wayne. “Tom Corbett has never been ahead in the polls, except for his last race near the end. So no, I’m not ready to give up on Tom Corbett, by a long shot.”

He said Corbett has “a proven track record not only as governor, but also a proven track record as a campaigner and a vote-getter, having won three statewide races before when he was an underdog in at least two of them.” Corbett was elected to two terms as Pennsylvania’s attorney general before he became governor in 2011.

Christie previously stirred controversy for saying he wouldn’t devote resources to New York Republican Rob Astorino’s campaign challenging Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo because “we don’t invest in lost causes.” Astorino trailed Cuomo by 20 points in a poll released this week; Christie has not campaigned on the Republican’s behalf.

The New Jersey governor will make his third appearance on Corbett’s behalf today at a 4 p.m. rally at the Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne.

The reality here is, Christie has some unholy alliance with Andrew Cuomo that ensures he won't help out Cuomo's opponent, Rob Astorino, no matter what the deficit.

There is some conjecture that Cuomo has dirt on Christie over Bridgegate, so Christie wants to keep Cuomo happy in order to keep that dirt under the rug.

In any case, you can bet even if a poll showed Astorino down 15 points and Corbett down 20, Christie would still be stumping for Corbett and refusing to stump for Astorino.