This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

And just like that, the governor of New York and the one-time gubernatorial candidate were friends. Cynthia Nixon was on the receiving end of a friendly phone call from Gov. Kathy Hochul, letting her know that the state had finally, officially settled the decades old Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit regarding school funding. Quite a change from the phone calls one had come to expect from the Second Floor under the old administration. Hochul also gave state Sen. Robert Jackson a call to give him the good news – after all, this was HIS lawsuit from well before he took office. His multiple walks from New York City to Albany seem to have finally paid off.

New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates may be working, but that isn’t stopping New Yorkers from finding loopholes. A judge this week sided with Stephen Crampton of the Thomas More Society – and the 17 hospital and nursing home workers the group represents – who sued over the state’s vaccine mandate for their right to seek a religious exemption to the rule. This is America after all, and in America, religious liberty is always a winning argument. 

The Queens Democrat has been one of many critics of the “dumb” pet project of ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The apparent cancellation of the “wrong way” La Guardia AirTrain by his predecessor now means Ramos will be spared the sight of watching the proposed $2.1 billion boondoggle actually go through her state Senate district. It ain’t dead quite yet, but it is increasingly looking like the 13th District might be lucky after all.

After a review of the Federal Election Commission records by The Daily Beast, it was revealed that Rep. Claudia Tenney, spent thousands of campaign dollars on businesses the Trumpist claimed ownership of. Many of the payments went to rent, utilities, printing and postage. Through Tenney’s campaigns for state and federal offices, the GOP lawmaker earned her family’s companies more than $100,000. Despite the multiple requests for comment, Tenney’s team has yet to respond.

The Nassau County Executive was caught breaking her own law this week, after it was discovered that she was sending taxpayers government-funded mailers with her name on them, along with information about early voting locations. Earlier this month Curran signed a law that prevents county-wide mailers from being sent out within the 45 days prior to an election. Curran, who is up for reelection, is being condemned for violating her own law by her Republican challenger Hempstead Councilman Bruce Blakeman, who wants her to pay the county $80,000 for the estimated cost of sending out her mailers. Looks like he’s not going to letter get away with this.

All men are created equal, but not all statues are. At least that’s the case for some New York City officials, who have recently pushed to have the Founding Father’s statue booted from City Hall after 187 years. Thomas Jefferson’s possible exit comes after several New York City Council members argued that a man that enslaved more than 600 people during his lifetime – at odds with his famous quote – ought not be honored in New York’s seat of government. Some other elected officials have decried this as cancel culture coming for the country’s third president, who's got some other statue removals under his belt. But there’s still some time before the city makes a decision for its future. And it’s not like it’ll be demolished or shoved off into Boston Harbor if removed – instead, old Jefferson would likely find a new home at the New-York Historical Society.