Winners & Losers 12/23/16

New York state was a loser this week, when it came to overall population. We saw the first dip in the overall number of people in decades. Granted it was only a few thousand folks, but it was enough to start a political fight between state GOP chairman Ed Cox and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. So, did either make our final list? Read on and find out.  

WINNERS

Steven Choi - The New York Immigration Coalition director had little-to-no reason to relish the coming Donald Trump presidency. Anticipating this, New York’s Electoral College members gathered their electoral salaries together and sent a $435 donation to the coalition. The money may not have been much, but the press was surely welcome.

Fred Dixon - It’s tempting to hate on the CEO of NYC & Company – after all, nobody enjoys complicating their morning commute by maneuvering around people standing on sidewalks and gawking and every other street sign. But Dixon’s team helped lure a record of more than 60 million visitors to the city last year.

Carl Marcellino - Many people in 2016 are excited to see the election year is behind us – and that certainly be true for Marcellino. The Republican state senator had a longer election cycle than most. After weeks of recounting votes, the incumbent was officially declared the winner this week by 1,534 votes. Happy holidays to him!

Stephanie Miner - The Syracuse mayor got an early Christmas gift this week when reports that longtime foe Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick’s investigation into allegations of wrongdoing surrounding her spat with a development company failed to produce anything of substance. This is the second time in a decade that Fitzpatrick has swung and missed in trying to pin misdeeds to Miner and her allies. He’ll probably think twice before taking another hack.

Michael Mulgrew - For years the UFT has been in all-out war with school officials over proposed changes to teacher evaluations, but that era is clearly over. Mulgrew praised the changes rolled out by NYC Schools Commissioner Carmen Fariña this week – changes he helped develop. A clear win for the powerful union boss.

LOSERS 

Bill De Blasio -  The escalation of the feud between the mayor and the governor reached a fever pitch this week, and at the center of their adolescent sniping was an unfortunate deer, who died in captivity. You can’t make this stuff up.

Andrew Cuomo - The governor didn’t look much better in the “Deer Debacle,” which was just one of the moves he made to clearly needle the mayor. Cuomo floated the idea of increasing the state trooper presence in the city, creating another spat between the two power brokers. We’ll let voters decide who was the worse offender.

Jeffrey Immelt - The CEO of General Electric probably thought his company wouldn’t have to talk about dredging the Hudson River for PCBs ever again. But, it seems like they may not have factored in DEC threatening to go to war with the EPA, and challenging the federal agency to hold GE accountable. Interestingly this all happens after the company moved their offices to Massachusetts. What a coincidence.

Navnoor Kang - Cocaine, swanky event tickets and fancy watches are not the first things that come to mind when you hear the words “comptroller” and “pension fund.” But, Kang managed to bring draw the association this week, after being brought up on bribery charges. Prosecutors say he accepted gifts to drive money from the state’s sizable pension dollars to two brokers. Surely the comptroller doesn’t want this kind of attention drawn to his office.

Joseph Ponte -  The New York City Correction commissioner has plenty of problems, but this recent one just sounds ridiculous. Reports out this week detailed how some people held at Rikers Island center with winter coats, hats and other gear, but are often released in nothing but the flimsy jail uniform. Not the type of bad press Ponte wants to deal with around Christmas.