With Election Day rapidly approaching, the devastation from Hurricane Sandy could have residual consequences that may alter the outcome of local and federal elections. With many polling sites still without power and thousands of residents displaced due to flooding and damage to their homes, the New York City Board of Elections has been scrambling to come up with solutions that would allow voters to cast their ballot. With its Lower Manhattan offices incapacitated due to power outages and flooding, the… [More]

NYPIRG has released its annual legislative session analysis. There’s obviously a wealth of information here, but one perennial subject of interest is legislators’ bill proposal and passage rates, along with their rates of absence from voting. The most absent Senator, for example, is State Sen. Shirley Huntley, who appears to have missed 826 votes this session. The most absent Assembly members include Hakeem Jeffries, Grace Meng and Rory Lancman, all of whom were running for another public office. Jeffries missed… [More]

Conor Bambrick Age: 34 Legislative Director, Assemblyman Kevin Cahill As the Assembly’s go-to staffer on energy, Conor Bambrick is a key player during a critical transition period in New York. “It’s a huge opportunity right now,” says Bambrick, who has worked on issues like Article X, energy planning and solar power. “We need to act now and take extraordinary steps, like New York did more than a half century ago with the hydroelectric dams, to modernize our grid, make our… [More]

KATHERINE NADEAU Age: 32 Water & Natural Resources Program Director, Environmental Advocates of New York Katherine Nadeau is a leading advocate in the fight against hydraulic fracturing, the natural-gas drilling procedure under review in New York. But while she’s leading the fight, what inspires her is how many regular New Yorkers are fighting too. “Fracking has brought people together in a way that I don’t think any other issue really has in recent history,” Nadeau says. “People are just getting… [More]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature may be banking on legalized casinos to help buoy the state’s economy, but history suggests the industry attracts corruption and scandal just as much as jobs and development. “NYPIRG does not have a position on casino gambling, but we feel that the history of corruption on this issue in New York and other states indicates that if this amendment passes, a strong oversight body should be empowered,” said Bill Mahoney of the New York… [More]

Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. has officially proposed 100 percent more legislation than he proposed last year. (We know, the math doesn’t totally work that way, but cut us some slack.) The Brooklyn official, currently facing federal fraud charges, introduced a bill yesterday that would require schools to teach a “multicultural curriculum.” H/T NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney for tweeting about this earlier. The Assemblyman drew notice last year for, among other things, having the Assembly’s highest absentee rate (he missed 20 of… [More]

NYPIRG’s Bill “Numbers” Mahoney is out with his quick and dirty appraisal of the just-released Senate and Assembly maps — and it ain’t pretty. “While judging this set of proposed maps by this yardstick, the Senate’s maps are clearly the most gerrymandered lines in recent New York history,” Mahoney said in an email sent to reporters. “The Assembly’s are slightly better than 2002’s final maps, but fall far short of providing mathematically equal representation.” Mahoney finds that 67 of 150… [More]

Senecas, Genting top gambling campaign contributions to lawmakers As the battle over casino expansion heats up in New York, gambling interests are ratcheting up their spending on lobbyists—and their  campaign contributions. Over the last year and a half, two of the biggest spenders on the gambling front—the Seneca Nation of Indians and Genting New York—have dramatically boosted their efforts to influence the state’s lawmakers. And opponents of gambling said the casinos’ political dollars will make it hard for lawmakers to… [More]

In the looming showdown over redistricting, Senate Republicans have struggled to keep the upper hand.   The GOP conference has delayed an independent commission by a decade, challenged a law banning prison gerrymandering and made other moves designed to preserve their narrow majority.   But under the radar, Assembly Democrats are pushing to keep control over the process too.   Assemblyman John McEneny, Democratic co-chair of the legislative redistricting task force known as LATFOR, has openly quarreled with Gov. Andrew… [More]

Everyone expected the Committee to Save New York to spend millions of dollars to back Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget. But traditional foes of budget cutting like 1199/SEIU, the powerful health-care workers union, and the Greater New York Hospital Association? It turns out they were nearly as supportive of the governor’s budget, and they broke out their wallets to prove it. The Healthcare Education Project, a joint lobbying effort of GNYHA and 1199, spent more than $6.4 million through the first… [More]